The following program is produced by the Tech Talk Radio Network.
Hey Bill Ry, the science guy here whatever, I am listening to the radio, especially tech Talk Radio.
Welcome to another edition of tech Talk Radio. I'm Andy Taylor and I'm justin Leme and Sean is out because he's doing so is he on the board of an HOA?
Is he like he's on an HOA board? I've lost a lot of respect for him, honestly, I mean.
He might be popping in. Yeah. It was it until I moved out here to Tucson that we had hoas. We didn't have him in California, didn't have him in Coachella, didn't have the Nunning Beach.
It just depends on the neighborhood you live in. What's been happening, at least in my area is there's no longer hoa's. They're called metro districts really, and they're they're considered a special district, which is a form or a branch of the government.
So they never Oh wow, I remember driving in Honeyton Beach and I went down my street. Now you remember these homes in honey And Beach. Yeah, they go for almost a million bucks, right, and they're basic three bedroom homes, but it is California. I remember turning the corner once and seeing this house, and I saw this, and I'm not kidding. The grass was as tall as the car, like they hadn't mowed it in forever. And I remember that house. I remember the people that lived in there.
They obviously didn't live there anymore. And I remember thinking to myself, that's why we have hoas. But there's no HOA in that neighborhood.
I mean there there definitely is a case to be made for HS. Yes, it does keep the neighborhood somewhat standard across the board. But I think the problem is is just it's just they get too powerful, they get a little too zealous.
Yeah you will. I guess we've heard the stories, oh mine.
Oh yeah, I mean there are literally websites and subreddits. They just overset their bands. They come over and they look over your fence and they're like, oh, well, you'll watch something on your back you're already not supposed to. Well, that's the whole purpose of a fence, so that you don't see it.
We'll have to find out if if Sean is indeed on a board. He had to go to the meeting. So either that or he's going there to complain about something, which could always be the case. Matt has had a little issue with the heater giving him problems at home.
He just got his brand new HVAC system installed earlier this year and it's already failed on him twice. And literally, as of the time, as right now as we were recording, Denver is actually getting a massive snowstorm coming in.
Oh no, so it is not the night to lose your heat, right, you know, it's.
One thing to be cold whatever. Yeah, okay, fine, you got electric blankets and you know, heat up some hot water or whatever. But it's the freezing of the pipes, oh, because that leads to a world of hurt that I, for one, have been privy to in this house.
You've dealt with the pipes that have been busted and pipes that have leaked. As a matter of fact, sadly enough, as we have followed your journey twice, you're now going through it a third time as well.
Well.
Yeah, as of tonight, like literally I literally contacted Andy before the show and said, look, man, I'm not gonna do it. I can't do it. I'm just so stressed out right now, we just got another leak in our master bathroom that we just paid thirty five thousand dollars for back in June to get remodeled. And this is not the first leak again after that, it's the second leak. And I'm out for blood. I'm out of blood. I mean, I'm so livid right now. And these guys are.
Like, oh, yeah, well, we'll.
Come out on Wednesday or Thursday and take a wait a minute, I'm like, no, you will get your happy little butt out here tomorrow right and you will bling with you a plumber. You will bring with you a drywall expert because you are going to tear down my drywall and you are going to fix this right now. Oh man, so twice now, this is the twice after they've renovated it. Why said I've had to call him back out.
We're all going through I'm going through hard drive issues. You're going through that. That's going through no heat. This is I thought twenty twenty five was supposed to be a fresh start. It really hasn't started out that right at all.
No.
No, the reason that I got you to step in and I gave him the wrong time because I forgot that he was in Vegas. We've got a mutual friend of ours that I know you haven't talked to in decades that was going to be able to come on the show and talk about what he's doing in Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show.
I mean, I got a couple ideas, but I have Yeah, I don't know for sure, but I got a couple ideas who it might be.
Well, the Consumer Electronics Show, of course, is week in Vegas has been huge. They kicked off with all kinds of announcements. We interviewed Patrick Pennett, who is a senior director Industry and Policy Communications to the Consumer Technology Association. He'll be on the show a little later and it'll be talking about some of the things that we're expecting
this year. I had no idea that last year during CEES they had crews walking around the show floors doing videos, short form videos for YouTube, short form videos for you know, other social media, highlighting some of the stuff that they were showing. And one of them I had never never heard about, the Mobian, and I don't know if you've heard of Mobian. Mobian is a vehicle from I believe it was Hyundai and you say, you're You're sitting there in your car and you decide, oh, I need to
get closer to that curb. All four wheels will turn and allow you to go sideways. Yeah, or maybe you're at a You.
Ever done an aftermarket thing?
No, it's it's the this mobian vehicle that you got to see the video. It's available online but from CS and so Manton like, have you ever done this where you pull up somewhere and you gotta grab a ticket, you know, and the gate arm comes up. I'm an idiot. I always pull up so too far away. So imagine this, rather than having to back up and then get closer, get out of your car and grab the ticket, just move all the four tires and it slides over. And I mean it's it's innovation.
Cars are just getting they're getting way. They're not even cars anymore. You can't even call them a car. It's a mobile computer.
Jim Barry, who has been on the show many times, no longer with us, he passed away some years ago, would come to Tucson and do what they call the CES Tour. After the show ends, they would come in and bring gadgets and gear and Jim was phenomenal and would show things, and he talked about how the evolution of the cees had turned into a car show. He said, there's there's a I think it was the West wing of the show. Nothing but cars and the technology in
our vehicles. And we've talked a lot about your Tesla. We've talked a lot about the technologies of ev and now it's hybrid vehicles. It's entertainment inside your vehicles. It's illumination. This mobion. One thing it can do is say somebody wants to walk in front of your car, it can actually put a crosswalk down for them. It can project a crosslock.
That's kind of cool. I'll definitely check that out because I've not heard of that. But I got to say, you know, speaking of smart vehicles, I had something happened to me yesterday that was amazing. So you know, obviously we are Tesla owners, as I've talked about, and I have a Model Y twenty twenty three model Why you know, every once in a while, Tesla says, hey, man, refer your friends and earn up to one thousand dollars if they,
you know, buy a Tesla. Up to one thousand dollars which means they have to buy the top of the line to get the thousand dollars right. So I'm like, yeah, okay, you know coworker. My wife's is like, yeah, they want to buy a Tesla. I'm like, yeah, here, here, here you go. There's a referral code. We'll get probably like one hundred bucks whatever. I get a thousand dollars.
Nice.
And I'm like wait what and there Yeah, they bought a Model S, a twenty twenty four Model S, which is their top, well top of the line, but there there's one more model above that, and it's the top it's the Model S plaid. Yes, but he did not get the plaid.
He just got the models.
Anyway, they came over last night and and you know, just show off the car and he wanted to say thank you and it. But then he was sitting there and he was like, hey, do you want to do you want to take the Model S for a drive?
Oh?
Man?
Really, I was like, I've never actually driven a Model S. He's like, oh, you got to see this.
We get it.
I thought that I thought the Model Why was was advanced. The Model S has so many more features. It just blows my mind. First off, the center console screen actually tilts, so like if the passenger wants to see it or if the driver wants to see it, you know it'll do. I gotta say the model.
S is is is way now? Now do you want to upgrade?
Now?
Do you want upgrade? Is that the deal? Oh?
I do, but I can't afford it?
Yeah? All right. So we were able to bring in not only Sean to find out if he is a member of the HOA in his community, but also a buddy of ours that I know you have not seen justin in a long time. Who has Who is an Emmy Award winning videographer, producer, writer. We've worked together in radio over at Lotus Broadcasting here in Tucson. Paul Sanchez is with us on my Paul, how you doing that is god?
Paul?
Wow?
No, right, yes, yeah, I'm okay. I'm not seeing myself in the little monitor here. Man.
It's been it's been forever. It's great to see you and you are at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
I am at CS this year. I got media credentials, so I was starting early last night at ce S unveiled. Of course, my focus has been keyboards, mechanical keyboards specifically. I think that's it's something that I think we're on the verge of seeing a big, big and use. I mean a lot of people are in my office use them now. It's it's cut down on a lot of like Carpal Tunnel's syndrome.
So basically yeah, so, I mean our our other co host, Matt he just was raving about his mechanical keyboard he got for Christmas?
What kind did he gets?
What was that? What was that? Sean, you're the you're the Sewan? You remember that one?
I don't remember now what he said, put you.
On the spot? No, I don't remember.
It was something it was like it was only like a ninety nine.
It was.
Yeah, Yeah, they've got a booth here that they were not unveiled, but they've got a booth here that I'm going to be That's that's that's one of the primary booths. I definitely got to hit up tomorrow because that's when you show the floor opens for all the exhibits.
Now, did do you do showstoppers as well?
Uh?
That's a Steve Leon exhibit that that thing is really good as well.
I did not do showstoppers. I was more focused on getting to unveil than making sure that I covered the auto key, which of course I don't know if he's seen.
The that is amazing.
Oh, it's just an incredible thing where it really it really focuses on the health aspects of people that have like issues with you know, rotation and extension and stuff like that. Basically, for those who don't know, the story of this guy named what was his name? His real name is Christian, but he goes by Ryan, right, Ryan,
He was by Ryan. He's in the Philippines, I believe, and he basically had a shoulder injury from boxing, and what he wanted to do was to create a device that limited its range of motion where he could just keep his arms in one spot. So basically, with the health of AI, he created a keyboard. It's a full
one hundred and sixteen key layout. And then when you lift your palms up in a certain direction, it's very hard to it's very hard to learn, by the way, when you lift your palms up in a certain direction, the full keyboard slides back. You get your ten pad on your left side and you get a track pad on the right side. So basically, Wow, it's it's just an incredible piece of machinery and uh, you know Ryan knocked out of the park. It's it's just a no.
Is this part of the thoughkhouse brand, which is what th h O C K H A U s.
Yes, basically it's it's it's me myself and I starting this whole blog, this whole coverage of everything when it comes to mechanical keyboards from not just like the keyboards themselves, with the switches, the key caps, everything that goes into building a mechanical keyboard. That is, that is what we're here covering, and that's what we're doing for as of January. First.
Now, I've had some people who have asked me that to have Parkinson's that are dealing with that where you have the shakes, that sometimes operating a keyboard could be a little more difficult than maybe a standard user, especially with mice, and we've seen you know, mice on the market where the hand rest on the mouse instead so it's not moving all over. Can these keyboards have that same kind of health function geared to maybe helping somebody who is dealing with something like this.
I believe so you wouldn't want to go with the Hall effect magnetic switch because those kinds of keyboards. For example, I've got one right here. This is a mel Geek you made eighty four water. It's a very limited board now because they just did the elements they based off the based off the Fifth Element movie, so they made all the different elements.
Wow, it's nice.
And and it's a it's a Hall Effect. It's a magnetic switch. So basically you you hold it up higher.
Op.
Yeah, yeah, there got ye, I got a voice for I got a face for radio anyway, So basically, uh, these switches in this board are magnetic based, which means you barely push it and it's registering a keystroke. So someone with Parkinson's probably wouldn't want to have a magnetic switch hall effect keyboard. They would probably want to go with the standard you know, standard switch like this, drop this.
Drop there, you go, look at that. That's nice.
Yeah, this is great. It's got it's got ceramic key caps on it as well, which is very soft. It's very nice.
Touch.
It stays cool no matter what it's it's cool to the touch. You can do well in this thing for hours. It stays cool. I can't stay enough about serahc.
It is amazing. I gotta say how mechanical keyboards have made such a major comeback. I mean, we started with mechanical keyboards back in you know, the seventies and eighties, and then everybody went to you know, digital all the membrane stuff. Yeah, and then it's like and then mechanical keyboards kind of became that niche market for like video
gamers and people that wanted that tactile feedback. But now what you're helping to do, Paul, is just kind of help open up that space and say, look, there's there's so many more use cases for mechanical keyboards with great style.
Yes. And Epomaker the one of the brands of CS unveiled last night because they rolled out of new magneticsm new magnetic switch that's better than the standard halifect switch that you're seeing in like the Mad eighty four that I showed you. Their magnetic switch has a has a very low act like a like an actuation rate where it's like it's almost way sensitive. It's almost way sensitive.
It's perfect for gamers. But while I was there discussing, you know, their their new switches, they clearly see a need for these keyboards in the office workspace. They've been they that was one of their their selling points. View is like you could take this into the office. As a matter of fact, we encourage people to take this
in the office. They had a lot of they had a lot of the one hundred percent full key one hundred and six hundred and fourteen key layout keyboards there and they were really pushing the office aspect of mechanical keyboards. Take this to the office, your life will change. And again, I've got a lot of coworkers who are using these things now that I brought them into the workplace. They say these things are amazing and I can't I can't agree more.
Do you find that people will use some of these keyboards as a as a tie on to their mobile device? So somebody got a laptop. Okay, let's face it, laptops don't have the greatest keyboards. There are some that have, but so they're just you know, push that aside and use that instead.
I have I I have a laptop and I just use mechanical keyboard with it. I haven't seen anyone using like a mobile device like a man phone, but I have seen people using them with tablets too, Like there are tablet size mechanical keyboards that are out in the market. I have not you know, tested those yet, but I have seen people using like the sixty sixty keyboards that are just you know, like there's no function keys, there's no ten keys, it's just your quirity and then your
numbers at the top. Very small keyboards that I've seen people using with tablets.
Wow, now you're at CS. I mean it's the biggest tech gathering you know. Ever, let's face it, your heart, you're a great videographer, you know, like Sean has works in for the Notre Dame doing O their video stuff. Do you kind of still look at some of that stuff that's going on you want to you know, oh I want that camera system or I want this one. I know Red's got a brand new one too.
Oh easily. It's it's it's like I'm here on work, I'm here to cover the keyboards, but I find myself, you know, just glancing over and seeing there's any any kind of technology that catches my eye, whether it be a camera system or you know, PCs. I'm slowly making the transition out of Mac to PC.
Whoa oh, thank god.
Yeah, I've been a firm believer in MAC for years, but I've I've realized that when it comes to maintenance, it's just easier for me, someone who knows his way around PC to kind of fix things themselves, kind of do things and flop out cards. Whatever goes wrong on a PC, I can easily maintain.
Instead of taking it to the genius bar.
Yeah, that is that whole thing. And I just it's it's basically, you know, my better half, my partner, she kind of been all about PCs for a long time and has been talking to me like, hey, you should really.
Better put a ring on that right now?
Oh man? And then uh yeah, I mean I'll marry tomorrow. You know that I'll marry tomorrow. She's great.
Are you Are you still living in LA out in that area?
I am in Los Angeles, Yes, and I'm still working. I'm still working for KTLA. That's a job.
Wait, so, so how long have you even working for KTLA?
I'm working on ten years now, k dude.
I worked for the same company as you for a while. I was corporate staff for Next Star actually well Tribune as well, but I was corporate it t Yeah.
Yeah, it's definitely a changing landscape, the whole television media thing. And that's that, and that's and that's kind of like where why I'm I'm doing what I'm doing with podcast now, I'm kind of trying to branch out and promote this kind of thing where I definitely, you know, the video stuff is great, and I'm thankful to have such a such a long career, starting in two thousand and two behind a camera at the Olympics when I was working
in salt A, working in Greece for the Olympics. But it's it's starting to get to a point where things I'm starting to evolve and I'm thankful for my time. But at the same time, I'm really passionate about this keyboard thing, and that's that's amazing.
Now you're building the social media, you're building the website. Of course. Uh again it's thuck House, which is an interesting name. Can you tell us this is there a story behind that?
Basically, the scripture for one of these mechanical keyboards, one of the scriptors is Thoky. That's that's the sound they make is a thocky sound of creamy sound. I just you know, I just took the word thalk, and I was thinking about things to kind of add to the word thalk, and my sister was like, what don't you call it like thoughk house, Like it's kind of German thokhouse, you know, fancy German kind of Uh.
I totally pictured it.
Yeah, so it was like, yeah, that's okay. And I saw I saw someone on Twitter had used it once as a joke, and I was like, okay, well, if someone's using that, I think it's perfect.
That is perfect.
Yeah, that's what that's what we're using.
I gotta let you know. I just found your channel on YouTube and I subscribe yep, thank you on there. And I saw your thought house at Cees Sunday Night Unveiled.
It's a good video. Yeah. Yeah, you really get a good, good idea of that keyboard that you were talking about with the pad that comes out. I was like, wow, that's kind of cool.
I I and that's exactly, that's exactly the kind of thing.
These are some really cool ones.
That's the that's the thing that I think that that people. That's kind of like our mission statements just kind of really emphasize health benefits to these mechanical keyboards. Again, like carp specifically my my my better half.
I mean, I gotta say, Paul, watching this video, I mean I can just see like your experience as a videographer, like you just have perfect transitions, perfect framing, everything about it.
It's just it's just perfect.
Thank you. I did, and I too my own horn. I did did just win La Press Club. So total journalist of the year.
Again, Right, that's pretty good. According to our friend Zach Selwyn. If you know Zach, remember Zach from two yep, Uh, there is an EGS in Redondo I believe on the pier, uh somewhere down there, and hey, walk by, and I don't think they were selling the food, just selling the Egy drinks. So if you happen to be down in Redondo Beach, you might want to look for that one.
But uh, I've been I've been telling my better half for for for years now, like we need to go to Tucson. You need to try you need tod hot dog, you need to travel the Tucson food.
And she's, yeah, man, there you go.
I took it to a sonor and fooded place once and you know, she was like, this isn't kind of my this isn't really my Mexican food.
So well, it is great to great to connect with you. I know Justin uh put a big smile on his face as well, so again thought house. Uh you look them up on YouTube, check out social media on that and continue success with that and you know, maybe we could reconnect after CEES, after this whole week and uh see, you know what your thoughts are, what will kind of the standout products for you.
I've got twenty eight booths to cover tomorrow, twenty eight to go.
To Wow Wow in eight hours.
Well I expect a full report from me.
Yes, you definitely will have one. I'm going to be doing individual breakdowns of the keyboards, like more in depth. I interviewed all the people involved in those keyboard companies. I'll be doing more in depth two to three minute breakdowns at every single company coming up in the next week.
On we'll take a look. We've shared it on our social media as well at tech talk Radio. Paul. Great to connect with you, Matt, Thanks thanks for having me.
Good to see you, and we'll be.
Back with more of tech Talk Radio.
I'm Andy Taylor, I'm Sean Ard, and I'm Justin. Let me find us online at tech talk radio dot com. We'll be right.
Back and now back to tech talk Radio. And finally Sean is able to pop in after his HOA meeting, so now we can find out Sean. Oh, no, are you a board member for an HOA?
I sure am. Oh that's it.
I'm done man, Oh, Sean, how could you do that to us?
I'm over here. I'm over here putting leans on people house.
People's houses were having the wrong colored fence.
You better believe it.
No.
So the reason I joined the board for h WAY is because the former president said pretty much said I'm I'm done if nobody's taking it over or put it into a management company.
Oh yeah, yeah.
So a handful of us stepped up and said, look, I'll be on the board like a guy said he'd be president. So I'm doing it solely so we didn't get screwed and put to a management company, because who knows what it would have turned into. It would have been a mess, and people weren't like yeah, so that's right.
Mm, well you made it back. Everything went okay.
There's only one hundred and forty four homes in our HA.
Only only that's that's a lot of homes.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's my first age way, so I don't know.
I want to find out what else is going on with you. But also, justin did something this week? You got your son? Now, was this a Christmas present or a birthday present? You got your son a smart watch.
Which, yeah, you know, when you think smart watches for kids, there's really some people will always say, oh, don't give your kids anything if they're under thirteen, but there are some benefits to having technology.
Still tied with your child.
Yeah, definitely. So yeah, I did get him a smart watch for his birthday. It wasn't like an Apple Watch or a you know, a Samsung Galaxy Watch or anything like that. It was It is designed for kids. And it's called tick talk like you think TikTok, like the social media app, but it's tic k t a l K the words spelled out tick talk.
Yeah, which people I always have to fix them when I'm telling tiktalk radio they go TikTok radio.
No, No, yeah, no, tick Talk. It is a smart watch company. It was on Amazon. I think it was like one hundred and eighty bucks. It rides on either the AT and T or the team will network your choice, but it is a smart watch that allows him to text and call approved contacts. So as a parent, you set it up and you basically, you know, you set yourself and your spouse, if you got one, or anybody else that you might want to be allowed to contact your child or your child to contact them, and then
everybody else is blocked. Like if you were to try to call my son right now, because he has a phone number, he literally has a Denver area phones. Really, if you try to call him, it will it won't go through because it's not allowed. But you can also I thought I could just text him through my you know, my primary texting app. No, you have to actually use
their app to text because it encrypts the traffic. It keeps it secure so that way you don't have to worry about it, you know, just being on a standard you know, SMS or or RTS network.
So the app is he's pretty good, I gotta say, though.
The downside is.
He uses it all the time. Oh wow, and it's gotten annoying already. Yeah, like two days, two days and I see Sean looking at it in his monitor right there. Yeah, two days and he's already texted me probably one hundred and fifty times and he's called my my mom, you know, his grandma, He's called her about thirty five different times. And she's just like, Okay, you know what, we need to like set boundaries on this because I don't like to be bothered all day every day, like for every
little thing he wants to tell me. He doesn't need to text me or talk to me or whatever. And I'm like, I get it. I know it's a new little toy, but I do you know you can set boundaries.
You can set it up so that, like d like, during school hours, the watch will not work, right, Okay, the only thing that'll work is the SOS mode, and if he presses a certain combination of buttons, it'll activate SOS mode, which will then give him the option to either call me or call nine one one, right, and so that's a cool feature, but otherwise the watch will not operate during school hours.
I kind of.
Wonder Justin and Sean, I don't know what your thoughts on this. Should there be a program for youth now that where technology is that it actually that we could teach them about those boundaries, those lines, those proper maybe technology etiquette when it comes to things you don't want to do with somebody's WiFi or maybe do with your watch or do with it.
That that's an amazing idea, Sean, I don't know, what do you think.
I think that's a very good thing, right, I think that is something that needs to happen because kids don't learn social media or internet etiquette from anyone but their peers.
Well, we grew up, we see. The thing is is we grew up with it, Like we grew up from the infancy of the Internet. So we set the standard as we evolved.
Right, So, but you we also grew up like so the majority of our childhood right was pre modern internet, right, pre public public accessible internet.
Mine was mine was pre color television. What are you talking about?
So? So, I don't know. We think about this a lot, And Caitlin and I talk about this quite a bit with in terms of education. Her sister is a professor. I have several friends that are professor's and the question comes up all the time is how are kids learning
with technology versus how they would learn without it? Yeah, you get these kids that are just using and one of my my sister in law, said, it's very difficult to not get students to not use chat GBT or other online resources to teach them the content because she knows, She says, I can I easily identify this is not your work. You you don't know this.
Yeah, when when you when you're a third grader turning in a paper that's written by chat GBT in the form of a college essay, Yeah, your teacher is not going to have a hard time figuring that out.
Yeah, but it's I've heard from other people who have grade level kids that these their kids are just putting in the most basic stuff into chetchbt, like what does to plus four equal? Or what is the radius of pie? And not learning it and just copying and pasting answers from chet chub to their homework.
I remember when when I was a kid, I would go to the Hunting Beach Public Library and I would go through their encyclopedias. But I needed to look something up and it would do that. You couldn't cut and paste, you had to rewrite everything. And now I understand some kids aren't even learning cursive. You know, it's don't teach cursive anymore.
No, some kids are. There are studies going on right now that are showing that even like seventh and eighth grade level students are struggling with writing because they don't
do any actual handwritten work anymore. Right, so they're actually struggling with knowing how to actually write, not necessarily cursive, just writing in general and reading in general because you don't have to the process of writing and reading is so they're so entwined with each other that those functions don't happen when you're just typing into a computer.
I thought it was I thought it was really interesting. Was watching a YouTube video the other day. And I don't know if you guys know this, but you ever watch YouTube videos with your kids, you know, my grandson comes over each three and every moment of Maximue right, and my my grandson knows ABC's. He'll just say ABC's, ABC's and he'll point to the screen and want me to put the ABC's on on YouTube. YouTube kids is great.
But there was a there was one on their name, uh miss Rachel and yeah, I don't know if you're familiar with her. And I thought, okay, she gets on there. She's kind of bouncy, she sings. I went online and I started looking. Then I looked at how much Miss Rachel was worth ten million dollars. Oh easily, these influencers.
They get on get on there, just ten million bucks. Well not even not even just a single influencer. Look at look at that channel that recently was was was talked about as being really actually detrimental to your kid's health. Coco Melon.
I mean, Coco.
Melon was a massive hit. I mean billions and billions of views of their videos, and my son was some of probably at least three and a half million of those views. But they know, they recently came out and said that Coco Melon is like a predatory YouTube channel because they're utilizing the fast paced imagery with the bright colors and the round shapes to engage children with an underdeveloped brain to be addicted to their channel.
Yeah. I saw in one of the studies on that, and I was like really.
Yeah.
And when I first started that, I said the same thing. I was like really, But then I went back and I mean I read the article and I read their evidence against it, and then I went back and I actually watched a couple of Coco Melon videos and I'm like, oh my god, they're right, Like everything they're saying about this is totally addicting to children.
I can't imagine. How did we grow up learning our A, B c's or one two threes?
We did it the old fashioned way in a classroom.
We know, we sang that to him. We sang it to him.
Yeah, And I had a poster on my wall that I would study A B, C, D, E, F G and then I would learn it backwards and I could do it. I could actually at one point in my life, I could do the ABC backwards and you would write it and I would write it.
Yeah, and I would. And then you would write letters to words that use those letters, and then you would write them some more and write the big ones and then the small ones, and you'd write it in cursive and then yeah.
I actually recently asked Eric. I was like, so, what what is your like what what kind of like work do you do in your school? Like do you do you guys get a you know, pen and paper and you practice your writing skills.
And he's like, no, we got a laptop.
We just do it all online. And I'm like, does your teacher even teach you? And he goes, no, she just tells us to go to the website and follow the lesson online and I'm like, so basically your teacher is like like a prison guard. Maybe it wasn't good to compare it to that, but yeah, it's all done via a laptop or whatever. And all respects, all respects to teachers, though it's you know, it's the curriculum the
district chooses, right, I mean, respect to teachers. But you know again, what I would just say is, on one hand of me, that's like, hey, that's great because it takes the stress off of teachers because teachers have such a hard job, right, But.
I think it's super important though the kids need to learn the ethics involved. I mean, we can tell kids, you know, don't answer strange texts or don't you know those stuff they don't teach. They don't teach that stuff they don't teach. Don't take a photo and put of you and your friends online. Don't say what sports team you play for, say.
What school you go to.
Don't yeah, what's what what street you grew up on? I mean back when we were kids, what they were telling us, you know, not to do.
Don't dial the one nine hundred numbers.
Yeah, I used to dial that number all the time, the one where you could get a joke, dial a joke. I used to love dialog joke.
Yeah. I used to the dial jokes or the Nintendo Hotline to get to get you.
Oh yeah, the Miss Cleo Leo Psychic.
You know.
Yeah, there's so many different things. But I think they need to learn that, and nobody's teaching that. Maybe this would be a great opportunity for somebody who has a classroom experience.
To do this.
Well, what they didn't teach us to and in school obviously is like they didn't teach us like how to balance our check books, how to do taxes, you know, things like that you used to do. It's it's well, yeah maybe, but like every generation has that one thing where they're like, well, they never taught us this in school, and then we had to deal with this.
You know.
I learned computers in school in high school. That's when they were they were coming out and he had they would connect to you know, a server and you could use ten print, twenty print input a what is it Oregon Trail on the Oh yeah, oh, speaking of that, have you seen that the new Oregon Trails out on x Xbox Game Pass? Are you kidding me yet?
They remastered the game and they actually made it with there's multiple variations of Oregon Trail you can play and and and there's like different quests you can do. It is completely renewed for twenty twenty five Oregon Trail on Xbox Game Pass.
All right, listen, we got to take another quick break. We come back with more of Tech Talk Radio. We're going to talk CEES the Consumer Electronics Show. Earlier we had our buddy Paul Sanchez in from from ces in Las Vegas. But we are going to speak with a
representative from the Consumer Technology Association. They put on the big Consumer Electronics Show, Patrick Pennett, Who's gonna tell us about some of the cool things seen over this past week, some of the things to expect, and why this show is so important for so many And again you want to hang on for that because we'll find out about some of the some of the really cool stuff to
expect for this year. And as a reminder, if you do want to follow some of the action from Las Vegas and of course the keynote speeches that have been made, you could go to CEES dot Tech. But that discussion with Patrick is standing by.
I'm Andy Taylor, I'm Sean de Weird and I'm justin Lemme set us an ax at tech Talk Radio.
We'll be right back now back to tech Talk Radio. You know, there are many trade shows that happen throughout the country, throughout the world we'll never hear about. But one of those that we hear about every year we get so excited around this time of the year is the Consumer Electronics Show. And Patrick Pennett is a Senior director of Industry and Policy Communications for the Consumer Technology Association. Patrick, Welcome to tech Talk Radio.
Thank you, glad to be with you here today. Thrilled to be here less than nearly twenty four hours until CES twenty twenty five kicks off here in Las Vegas.
It's going to be an exciting time now this week, we're already getting the announcements of some of the great products that are coming out. But for our listeners who maybe are not familiar with the Consumer Technology Association, tell us a little bit about what they do.
So CTA, the Consumer Technology Association has been around for more than a century, one hundred and one years this year, starting as the Radio Manufacturers Association, and then we started what began as the Consumer Electronics show now known simply as CEES more than fifty years ago, and we've been in our home Las Vegas for several decades now. The first, you know, one of the first few weeks of January every year, really to set the agenda for the year ahead in technology.
The other fifty one.
Weeks a year when we're not here in Vegas. We're a DC based trade association, so we work with our membership of more than the thousand companies, many of rich, eighty percent of small to medium size, helping them with advocacy and helping them understand how to compete in a regulated and innovative environment, and helping secure a prosperous future for North America's tech companies.
Now we don't see just the huge players like Sony and Phillips and some of these others. We see also the small startups that find CES to be a great launching ground for them.
That is so true. One of my favorite areas that the show is in the Venetian Eureka Park. I equate it to like a Moroccan bizarre. You have a thousand startups in ten by tens each trying to get your attention to talk about the product that is the next big thing. That's where startups like Ring and Impossible Burger came to market, found partnerships and really got to tell their story. And I'm excited for some of the brands that we'll see this year. We're going to see I
don't have green thumbs. There's going to be plant Buddies that basically help you grow plants using AI to measure the light, the water, humidity to make sure you can keep that plant alive even while you're traveling, and it will give you guidance on how to do it. And I think it's this convergence of AI that's really going to sort of drive our future and be additive to
help make our homes better, more livable. And we'll also hear from companies who are helping make our world more livable, more comfortable, more sustainable.
Yeah, we're seeing products that that are not just designed for just business. We're seeing that stuff that we'll use in our everyday lives, whether it be a microwave technology or even robotic vacuum. There is products out there that can change and even up the game of what these products have been able to do.
That's right.
One example I think is EU Ecras in June coming out with a first to market. It's like a Rumba e robot that does your flaws with a mob but it uses AI and lighter to find transparent spills on the floor, so stuff that you might not see, this will find it, vacuum and clean and mock around it and then take itself back home to charge and empty out. So that's kind of the beginning of what we're seeing.
The other thing we're seeing, especially in the Venetian is the convergence of health technologies, health and fitness and smart home. So it's gone beyond just a smart watch. It's really getting down to how I'm able to manage my health with products like Abbott's Lingo that will help me monitor my blood sugar, my glucose to understand how that affects
my performance. I'm already tracking my sleep. I'm using new products like eslog Siltek's glasses that are going to help me both see but also using beamforming sound to actors over the counter hearing aids to improve my sound and my vision. And I can't wait for the next generation that will have Sensus like full detection and similar to that.
One of the questions I get asked a lot is when it comes to technology and CES announcements, what about our cars because we see so much. I saw my sun bought a car the other day and he brought it by and he opened the door and I looked at it, and I'm like, what the heck is all this so much electronics to assist in making the drive more enjoyable and more safer.
That's right, and that's why we are huge advocates of what you will see here at CES, and it's around autonomous driving. And it's not just cars, it's much smaller people movers. And it's also at the industrial scale. It's how there's going to be electrification in light rail and
heavy rail construction equipment. Again, the whole it's about the electricification of the entire mobility ecosystem, and that's what you'll see here on the floor and outside at CES, in addition to drive alongs to exactly see that beautiful O lead screen in a BMW as you do a drive along in Central Plaza. In addition to autonomous vehicles that you'll see on the streets and smaller micromobility companies like zoop and of course, where would we be without the
flying cars. So you're going to see companies like Xpe doing their initial launch of their electric flying cars so that you are seeing the whole ecosi of them.
Here now one of the cars from last year. I remember the Mobian that caught everybody by surprise with how it's able to move and navigate the roads and help people in many ways while they're in their vehicles. Will we see more vehicles like this, not.
Just vehicles, but boats as well. We can expect companies like Brunswick to come out with electric boats that are using AI and autonomous parking technology to help you do some of the most challenging parts of driving a boat, to dock it to more to take it out in
inclement weather. And I think again it's just you're seeing it across every form of transit and transportation down to even micromobility scooters that are going to have greater levels of technology collision avoidance and things like that just to help you. Not to mention wearables we've seen over time, jackets and collars and things that detect an incoming crash
and basically act as a personal airbag. So it really is a holistic look at the system of both safety, and that's something that we believe that our autonomous feature is really going to help drive safety.
We also look at our home entertainment systems. When you think about it, the VHS and BETA, I think we're announced at CES when they first came out, and you look at how far we've come with these huge, giant screens, but home entertainment change from having to pick whether it's going to be VHS or beta or even DVD. Now we're seeing so much digital content out there. How will entertainment play a role in our homes with announcements made from CS.
I mean, that's such a great question because when you
think it's it isn't just about the screen. What we hear from consumers is that they want a seamless experience from the TV to the phone, to the car dashboard to the tablet, and it really is this convergence of connected content and immersive entertainment with things like Dolby Atmostolby Vision DTX going through devices in cars, in home, on your phone, immersive sound in your headphones that are really going to help bring that experience to life, and it
really is going to become a content play. That's why we have c space at cees where you have brands like Walmart and Amazon who were telling the story about how the entertainment ecosystem can connect across all of your devices and be more seamless, and not just more seamless, catering to what I want. That's bespoke to me.
One of the questions we received a couple of months ago was translation devices. Are we seeing that technology ramping up where somebody can actually wear or have on their smartphone and automatically understand that language and translate.
It for you massively. And the technology it's general AI informed and it's just going to keep getting better. I used it on a recent trip to France. I would take a picture of a sign and I would have it translate what's on the sign, so I knew everything that was on the menu, and it's instantaneous. It's also going to be projecting to my earbuds or my headphones if I'm wearing them. The other thing that we're going to see a lot of this year is smart AAR
informed glasses. So whether it's like the Meta glasses and many other startups coming to market with their tape on those products. Many are crowdfunded or coming up through Kickstarter as well so at Eureka Park and also from estublished established brands like Eslor, Luxotica, and Meta. It's really going to be about this convergence of augmented reality glasses just like you're wearing. It's going to be more data infused.
Maybe it's maybe you're taking pictures, notes, or simply having an overlay so you're not having to have your nose in your phone while you're navigating down to midtown Manhattan.
You know, one of the things I'm wondering about is you go to an optalmologist, you get a prescription for your glasses, and over time you love these glasses. Over time your eyes maybe they need a little more work, they need a stronger prescription. I kind of wonder if they'll be able to adjust that in the lens itself.
I mean, I wouldn't doubt it, or maybe the smart contact lens of the future. I mean, it's this, this is where you see there if possible.
Now I have to ask you, Patrick, what excites you the most when you're walking the show floor, which is absolutely huge. If nobody has been to CS that we're talking to it, it's just amazing.
I think we're saying it's more than thirty football pitches, but even that doesn't make sense until you kind of count your steps at the end of the day and you realize you've basically just walked to marathon. But it really is about you can choose your adventure here. So if you want to dive in on mobility, or if you want to learn about startups, or if you want to get into digital health, we have curated experiences and also really compelling conference programming and keynotes from like Delta's
Ed Bastian Tomorrow Night, Panasonic. In the video Tonight the World's Most Valuable Company, Jensen Bong is going to be on stage telling the story. And that's what I love is that in the keynotes you'll hear the vision. In some of the conferences, you'll hear how it's coming to life, and then on the show floor you see it in reality, you get to touch it, you get to and really, frankly, the thing I love most on the floor is the serendipity.
It's running into something I didn't expect to be a success or the surprise thing that catches all the headlines, like bird Buddy last year, who'd have thought everybody in the world just wants to spend time looking at the birds in their garden.
And here we are. Yeah, exactly the para. So many great products, and again, if our listeners want to keep an eye on this, they can do that, keep an eye on the keynotes, they can check out the show floor. Great video presentations last year, and I know you're going to have more of the same for this year.
Huge amount more finded on cs dot tech and that Cees on Socials will be live streaming a whole lot, including much of the conference programming. The keynotes will be out there live as well, and can definitely encourage you to tune in, especially for new venues. Light in the video, the miklopolcho Arena tonight and then Delda at Sphere tomorrow night with Lenny Kravitz.
That's going to be a show.
Nice, great stuff. Patrick, Thank you so much for coming on tech Talk Radio. I hope you got your new shoes ready to go. It's a lot of WHI thank you for coming on tech talk Radio. We'll be back with more of tech talk Radio coming up next and now fact to tech Talk Radio. Great discussion with cees I'm kind of wondering is there anything Justin and Sean that you've said, Oh, I want to have that that
maybe you've heard about. I'll let Shan go first because I got something, but I'll let show Okay, all right, Sean, I don't know.
I think more of what my kids are gonna want, right right, and that's legos.
Legos legos and paw patrol stuff.
Yeah.
Oh I've been there.
I remember that.
And uh yeah, I gotta say.
The one thing that I did see from Cees was that robotic vacuum with with the with the robotic arm.
Oh isn't that awesome That can actually reach.
Out and grab an item in front of it and move it out of the way so it can vacuuming. That's the one thing that I have a problem with our robotic vacuum is I have to kill tell Eric, always clean up your room. Make sure there's nothing on the floor, clean up all the cat toys, you know, all that stuff, make sure there's no catpuke on the floor. But you know, but this this vacuum with the robotic robotic.
Arm, it is a it is a rumba right, yeah, but no, no, it's from a company called Robo rock and they're calling it it's the Santos two seventy. If you go to their website at us dot roboock dot com, you could see all the different products.
That they have.
Now they may not have the Santos two seventy on there yet, but it does. It has an arm and it uses AI and it could see, oh, there's a sock, and it will pick it up and move it and then clean the area.
I mean, I just really hope it doesn't detect like a dog poo and think it's a sock and try to move it and then it just spreads it all around.
Oh that, yeah, Just I don't know if you've heard those stories about the rumbas that have done that where they'll just roll right over it and it's just everywhere after that. Yeah, yeah, So all right, I.
Don't know, but I mean, that's that's the one thing I would say that is so far the coolest thing that I've seen come out of CS. And I'm sure there's plenty more. Honestly, we need to go to Cees in twenty twenty six.
I was talking with Patrick earlier and I told him next year we're coming. We'll get rooms, we'll you know, we'll stay out there it go see us unveiled the whole bit, do a live show, ye, do it all right, Lucy and Tucson. Real quick question, My daughter got herself a gaming device, I guess gaming computer. Oh my gosh, right, her dad got it for her. But but about the games? Can you rent them online and play them? What's the best way to get games for a gaming computer?
What games is she interested in? That's the big key.
Yeah, well, I mean we can't really answer that question with not her being here. Yeah, how about it.
But there's I mean, it's whatever she's interested, whatever the person using the computer is interested in playing, right, because then you're gonna have to download that specific vendors launcher Steam obviously is a big one, right, so Blizzard you if you're into Bizzard Games, Steaming, epic launchers, Origin, xbo I mean, good old, good old games, Xbox game Pass.
I mean, I mean, there's a there's a ton of them. But I mean, honestly, I would say I would personally say, let's just start with Steam. Steam it is the website is steampowered dot com, not Steam dot com, steam power dot com. That is the probably the go to place for PC games. I mean, there's about a million and a half games on Steam. It's it's by a company called Valve, which is a very famous company. Second on the list, I would say, like Sean said, I'd say
probably Blizzard. Blizzard has a ton of games because they're Activision Blizzard, which happens to also be owned by Microsoft. You've got World of Warcraft, You've got StarCraft, you've got Overwatch.
We don't yeah, we don't know how how old the Lucy's Daughter is so yeaheah.
I don't.
I don't know, but I mean there's a ton. And then like dog Sean mentioned, Good Old Games has another one, gog oh like those. Xbox game Pass is a great because Xbox game Pass nineteen ninety nine dollars a month. You get access to a butt load of games for you know, for that and it can all be played on PC and on the go on your tablet or phone. That's kind of like renting them, right, I mean, you know, kind if you think of the old Blockbuster days, we'd pay you know, four bucks a night.
If so, you know that that would work out pretty good.
And game pass basically you pay the monthly fee and then you get access to the games, and the games usually last ninety to one hundred and eighty days and then they start going away eventually, but if they're more popular, they'll stay longer.
But you know, they wrote take games all the time. I like good old games. I like that one because then you can play, you know, Loura Croft, some of the old games. And that's the thing when your parent and your kids start gaming, you want them to play the games you played, and then you introduce them to the games, and then they get angry with you because the graphics are just awful.
I know, I'm trying, man. I keep telling Eric about all these games I played, and he's like, dude, this sucks.
Yeah.
I do like the old games.
Uh.
And one of my favorite games that I have and you can get it on go og checks Quest check Quest.
I don't know that one. That Wasn't that a free game that came in a box of chex mix you checks?
Yes. The company them, tenter Mills River, they released they made a game called check checks Quest that they shipped out millions of CDs in checked Cereal Man, and it became it's a it became a cult classic video game. Yeah, And then they ended up remastering it and it's it's it's it's incredible.
You guys have no idea though, of the joy of getting a box of Cereal. Right, okay, you get a game in one, but did you ever get a forty five rpm record on the back of the box that you could take cut out of the box of Cereal, put it on a record player and it would play what.
Is a forty five rpm?
Oh my gosh, I'm just messing with you all right now.
I mean we're we're old enough to remember like getting demo CDs in PC magazines, oh yeah, and playing the ever living out of the demos, never getting the original games, yeah, and then then playing the playing the actual.
Game like twenty years later, like this game sucks.
All right, listen. That's it for this week's Tech Talk Radio. Thank you for joining. We'll have more next week. We'll take a look more of the products that have been announced from cees. I'm Andy Taylor, I'm Sean de Weird, and I'm justin Levy. Have yourselves a great week.
Make sure to check check out our blog blog dot tech talk radio dot com. We'll see you next time.
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