CES 2022 Hardware and Tech Overview

Hey, this is Steve blue and you are listening

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welcome to Altered Geek. I'm your host, Steve

Megatron, and joining me on this adventure into

geekdom is TFG1 Mike. I am a robot. Bing bong,

bing bong. I am a robot. Welcome to CES. 2022.

Yes, 2022. Although they did have some... Organizations

not show up. What did show of a really good apparently

had people pull out like almost last minute I

know which is funny because toy fair had a big

chunk of people that were still going and then

there was like some that were on the fence and

They were like, yeah, we just pulled the plug

in the whole thing And you know what, you know,

normally that would be a toy cast topic. Whatever.

This is altered geek We can talk about whatever

but honestly As much as I was looking forward

to whatever Funco was going to reveal at Toy

Fair, which means they'll probably just have

their own thing to reveal their products kind

of thing, I am glad. We're in the midst of uptick

on all of this COVID stuff, and it's not good,

and we shouldn't be doing conventions right now

until whatever. But you know what? I almost forgot

about New York and London Toy Fair because even

though this is only January 12th as of this recording,

it just, again, time for me is like foobarred

all kinds of ways because I'm like, Toy Fair,

Toy Fair, shouldn't that have already happened?

And I look at the calendar, I'm like, well crap,

it's not even the middle of the month of January

yet. Like seriously, this morning I woke up thinking,

is it March 1st? Like, I don't know what the

heck's going on with me. Well, I do know, but

you know, it's like, I don't know. You know,

at last year SDCC canceled. What did Funco do?

They had the first Funco Fair 2021 and they just

had their own virtual thing. Honestly, I'm kind

of this point that I think that these giant uber

conventions are just kind of done. I think that

The fact that they're having people travel or

go to see these I think those days are done I

think that if they're gonna do it it needs to

be virtual or it needs to Have habits Just be

on their own just throughout the year. Yeah,

I you know what? I know it's tradition. I know

that SDCC, NYCC, any insert CC here or whatever,

I understand that it's been tradition for decades

and whatever. Well, the last two to three years

have taught us that stuff is changing. And honestly,

even if it wasn't for the cost factor at all,

if I had the money to go to San Diego Comic Con,

The only way I would do it is if I was staying

with my buddy Doug from talking about my generation

podcast because he lives out there in San Diego

if I was staying with him and we were able to

just get day passes and just go for a few hours

and See what we would want to see I would not

If I'm saving my money for something it's not

gonna Be going to a convention with and yes the

conventions that have happened in person have

done a great job with all of the COVID precautions

and everything else. But at the same time, I

still don't want to take a chance at all. Well,

and yeah, I totally get it. But that aside, let's

get to CES. Yes, because CES did happen in Vegas,

even though people were pulling out left and

right. There was quite a few things. I mean,

from the automobile. automobile world, we had

BMW with the E Ink that the Kindle uses where

they could change colors. And they're saying

that the demo was showing a black and white,

but color can be produced as well. So you can

theoretically change the color of your car at

a moment's notice. Yes. Which you think would

be kind of a. It's twofold. There's one, because

if law enforcement's trying to find your car,

you could change the color. Two is if it gets

damaged, there goes your e -ink. And cars never

stay pristine for very long. No. Here's the thing

with this whole e -ink thing, as far as I'm concerned.

Now, I know a lot of people... I like the idea.

I love the idea. I love the idea of it and I

think it's really cool. However, like you just

said, the main people that might take really,

really bad advantage of this are criminals. Now

I will go back and say through digital effects

and other things in 2008 when Knight Rider got

rebooted on NBC, Kit did have, the Mustang Kit

did have like changing body types. And Kit was

a damn transformer in 2008. He has yet to become

an actual transformer from Hasbro because Universal

and Hasbro haven't done any kind of deal, whatever.

But, you know, I mean, if we can get Ecto -1

as a transformer, if we can get the DeLorean

as a transformer, I mean, Kit, come on, that's

obvious. But anyway, in the show, they show him

doing this changing paint thing in a different

way. It was more digital looking than the way

the E Ink looked and other things. I think it's

cool. I just don't know if it's a really good

real world thing. So kind of getting back into

some of the other car things we've got a number

of electric vehicles there's There's a ton of

them Sony is even jumping into the car ring Yes,

yes, they are which I'm like why I'm like we

got enough different brands. There's Edison Future,

which is like they originally were piggybacking

off Ford, but now they're kind of doing their

own. It's Phoenix Motor Cars, which is a subsidiary

of Edison Future. And they've got like electric

heavy duty or medium duty trucks. And then there's

Indy One, which is another startup company. There's

there's like the TOG brand. There's Electric

Mechanica. There's The Cadillac's got a vehicle

that is a concept. It's called the Innerspace

Halo series. And they've shown it off before

with the 3D rendering, but it's actually in person

this time. And they showed that it's basically

a bedroom on wheels. It's got a huge display

occupying most of the windshield. It's got pillows

and a primary control in sight. There is no steering

wheel or pedals. It's a driverless car. And I'm

like, nope. I have no ambition of becoming roadkill.

Thank you very much. So at some point over on

Studio 2009, we had not gotten to it yet, but

we are going to get to it sometime this year.

You and I will be discussing the Amazon Prime

series upload. They had two seasons of that series,

I believe. And in part of that, I believe What

you just described you get in you late you recline

the seat or you lay back and there's pillows

like literally driverless cars in in a television

show kind of thing and I think it's great that

this technology is here and As like for me for

someone that doesn't drive that can't drive because

of my cerebral palsy and everything else a Driverless

car would be cool, but I am wondering if it would

be safe As long as it's smart enough to be safe,

sure. Until that happens, no thanks, I'll stay

home. Oh yeah, yeah. Nope. I honestly have no

ambition to have a driving car that does it on

its own. Because the idea just doesn't sit well

with me. I mean, the only way that... Like I

said, other than the whole safety thing with

the futuristic stuff with the technology, all

of this stuff reminds me of season three, four,

whatever. One of the later seasons of Knight

Rider had an episode called Junkyard Dog, and

in this episode, Kit gets destroyed by an ant.

He basically falls into an acid pit. And he gets

destroyed and they have to rebuild him and everything

else and everybody's like it's no hope It's no

this and whatever and one of Michael's one of

David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight's line is

lines is kit is the world's greatest automobile

If only we could have William Daniels just lay

in the trunk and give us what you know live GPS

What else you got? Well, moving on from there.

They have a massage robot. It's using AI machine

learning. And it uses these hammer impact things

to give a back massage. And I'm just thinking

that would save my hand so much effort. Yes,

but I'm sure. It's not the same touch as when

you actually give your wife a massage. Obviously.

Yeah. You know, when Karen was still with us,

you know, we saw two different times we went

into a store or something or other and it had

a furniture section and it was like, oh, try

out this new automatic, like it was a massage

chair, but Was kind of like what you're talking

about and even though it's a robot and it's like

I don't know man Yeah, one wrong hit to the back

and you're screwed. Yeah, I'm just gonna leave

that there. So anyways Yeah, so there's there's

other things they had a ton of different TVs

a bunch of different monitors They had you know,

not many LED then they have like these new OLED

TVs that had other technology meshed with them

the QD OLED and then they have You know various

curved ones they've got a hundred and thirty

six inch monitors They've got 55 inch 4k monitor

with a 16 by 9 aspect ratio And then they show

that you can flip it vertically and have three

monitors basically on one screen Right. It just

I don't know. There's a lot of different weird

tech that kind of shows up. I saw new video cards,

I saw new laptops, new technology as far as Tesla's,

there's a company that's, it's Gaff Energy and

they have basically solarized shingles. So instead

of having those big giant panels mounted to your

roof for energy, you can have shingles that do

it, that are the same thing, but pigeons can't

live underneath them. Speaking from experience,

I've seen a neighbor, you know Yeah, I understand

what you're talking about because my my grandparents

house the roof, you know back 30 years ago, obviously

had shingles and The sad thing is all as I'm

thinking about is the actual shingles disease

as you're talking about this Like oh god One

of the things I've noticed that I need to look

into an actual price for it is the Noveto N1

invisible headset and invisible headphones beam

audio directly to your ears Really? So I watched

the video of this and I'll embed it in the post

so people can see it looks just like a normal

sound bar The article here says invisible headphones

sound like something out of a sci -fi movie,

but fiction became reality at CES 2022 with the

launch of the Noveto N1. Rather than physically

connecting to your ears, the N1 uses something

the company calls smart beaming technology to

supply you with music that nobody else hears.

It works by sending ultrasonic waves directly

into your auditory system, while everyone else

experiences no more than a whisper. Out of everything

I've seen at CES with all the robots and the

this that and the other thing, This is my favorite

thing probably. This is a thing I would actually

most likely try to get for myself. Because it

looks really cool. Like I said, I'll share the

video with you and I'll embed it in the post.

It looks really cool. I'm sure there are obviously

a bunch of, oh, you have to have it at this position

or that position, but it looks really cool. I

guess we should mention, even though we're not

farmers, we should mention the John Deere self

-driving tractor. Oh, yeah, I did see something

about that. Mm -hmm. See, I watch a lot of...

I would say since about the pandemic started,

I started watching a bunch of tech YouTube people,

and I'm continuing to follow what they're doing

and whatever between Michael Fisher, aka Mr.

Mobile... Unbox Therapy, MKBHD, which is Marques

Brownlee, Mr. Who's the Boss. You know, I'm seeing

all of this stuff and while it looks cool and

I think it's great, there's just some of the

stuff that just is so out of this world. I'm

like, I'm waiting for the Jetsons Age to show

up and I'll be long gone by the time that happens.

Unless somehow I can... Figure out a way to keep

my brain anyway Yeah, you just never know. Yeah

So kind of diving back in they they've got a

ton of different things Some of it digital some

of it not some of virtual reality some of it

metaverse some of it cars You know the like I

said the solar panels and then you get into some

some other tech like They have they have these

new like COVID testing machines that has like

a it's it's reusable up to like 300 times or

something and gives you results in five seconds,

but it's like these Ones that it'll take your

it's like a breathalyzer for COVID or right,

but they also can put them in the in the building

too, which It's some of this stuff's weird To

be honest But yeah, I don't know. They had some

different Ultra PC stuff. They've got some AI

algorithm kits for like Lego like technology.

There's a lot of innovations in gaming, a lot

of custom buildable PC cases just for the case

itself. A lot of VR stuff, which the VR seems

like it's been going on since the 80s. Oh, it

has. I mean, it's, you know... It's constantly...

changing, which is good. I don't know. Virtual

reality just... It doesn't excite me. I used

to think it was really cool. And I've seen so

many TV shows that have done the concept from

the 90s to now. There was an episode of Mad About

You where they did it there. There's like several

episodes of Batman Beyond where they did it there,

because Spellbinder was using it in one of a

couple of those episodes. And it's cool, but

I don't want to have to wear giant glasses on

my face in order to experience it. Yeah. Well,

then they've got PlayStation VR too. They've

got some weird robots that look like they have

an Iron Man like arc reactor chest with like

this weird bendable face. I mean, every year

they have something that's like kind of an AI

robot type looking thing, but it gets creepier

every year. Mm -hmm Yes, yes it does and then

Yeah, they've got yeah various various robots

that do things and then I the thing about the

giant screens I Get it to an extent Mm -hmm,

but On the other hand, I just don't See the merit

in having 136 inch screens Other than we can

as someone who is legally blind I Can tell you

that I Upgraded my monitor from a traditional

HP 22 inch wide screen thing to a Samsung 32

inch wide screen And do I still have my face

sometimes at like three inches away from the

thing? Only if I'm actually looking at something

or whatever or, you know, that kind of thing.

If I'm sitting here editing a podcast, I am like,

OK, so I'm going to do this and I'll work around

in the editing. But that's my microphone. OK,

this is my this is my desk. And. That's my chair.

So I am sitting back in my chair looking at an

article. I'm not reading it, but I'm looking

at the screen and I can see everything. So I

kind of get it. The problem is, is that with

these large monitors and things, unless you're

doing it for a business purpose, like for example,

and I know this will never happen, but let's

say we get We win the lottery and we set up somewhere,

whether I move to Colorado or you guys come out

here, whatever, we find a place to build a whole

GCRN compound kind of thing. Obviously we're

gonna wanna have one of these large monitor things

as some sort of overall display, whether it's

a visual of your art stuff or if it's to catch

the news or whatever. So I understand it in certain

things, but for me personally as a widower who

lives in a one bedroom, which the one like 136

inches, I don't even think that would fit on

the wall I'm looking at right now. Like, I just

don't think it would. Yeah, I don't have a wall

big enough in any capacity, so. Right, yeah.

But yeah, I I've just There's been you know bendable

monitors now Samsung involved with that But yeah,

I don't know. There's just there's a ton of new

things not I mean not a lot per se like not in

the mobile not a lot of other type of innovation

things, but they They do have quite a few innovative

things. They're just not a lot of it. There's

still no way I would want to get in a car that

drives me. It's like a mobile coffin. No, thank

you. Yeah. I mean, I like this news. Asus or

Asus ZenBook Fold 17 OLED Unfold the Incredible.

I think that's cool. It's a tablet. It's also

a smaller tablet, I guess, but it basically folds

and unfolds. And I think that's cool. If I was

going to get just a specific tablet, because

right now, I think I said this on the last episode

of the podcast, I upgraded to the Google Pixel

6 Pro when I had to change all the phone and

cable and whatever. And the Google Pixel 6 Pro

screen is more than enough for what I do. However,

looking at a foldable tablet, I think that would

be really cool. I think that would be interesting.

But is it something I absolutely need? No. Yeah,

I don't know. I think that there's a lot of promising

technology there that probably will get used

for something else and not what they originally

designed it for. But it's still cool, nonetheless.

Yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, Any advancements

in technology, whatever it is, as long as it's

done well, I am all for it. There are also plenty

of things that just don't apply to me personally.

You know, my grandfather was a gardener. He wasn't

a farmer. He was a gardener kind of thing where

he would tend his garden and everything else.

So I don't really see the self -driving John

Deere you know, thing he would need. I've known

people because I lived in Kentucky for 25 years

who did work on farms and did have farms. And

I think that would be cool as long as the technology

functions properly. The last thing you need is,

you know, you you put in the whatever directions

into your self -driving tractor to track the

corn or track the tobacco in Kentucky's case

or whatever. next thing you know you're mixing

in the tobacco with the corn and the this that

the other thing and you know You've got smoking

on the cob or something. I don't know I Don't

know so with that I Think that about rounds this

episode out. Yes, I think so, too. I Wish there

was more phone things at CAS. I know CES is not

normally a phone show We only really got the

OnePlus 10 Pro and then I, nobody in the tech

world understands this, but the Samsung Galaxy

S21 fan edition. This is their, you know, year

late, you know, whatever, whatever, you know,

cheaper model, lower mid range budget, whatever.

And the S22 is literally right around the corner.

I don't know why they. Whatever. Samsung, they

be crazy, yo. Yup. They be crazy. Mm -hmm. Where

can the people find you online, sir? They can

find me on the Twitters at SCP -21 or at StevePhilipsVO.

You can find me at TFU and Mike. You can also

follow at AlteredGeek and at GeekCastRadio. Anything

we want to do, we want to ask the audience what

they thought if they paid attention to CES. Yeah,

I mean, I would be interested to see what people

thought of CES and what they wished was there

and what they were happy to see. Absolutely.

So I think that's going to do it. You want to

take us out of here? So, until next time, get

altered, get geeky with the Altered Geeks.