CNET UK podcast at CES 2013

-Hi, everyone. I'm Jason Jenkins, the Editor of CNET UK, welcome you to the CNET UK Podcast number 321, live from the CNET stage at CES in Las Vegas. Coming up, we're gonna take a look at the coolest kit we've seen at the show and some of the rubbish bits as well. But before we start, remind you that if you're listening for the audio version of this Podcast, make sure you go to CNET and look for the video version of it 'cause it's pretty cool. We have this week is Podcast regular Luke Westaway. -Hello. -Hello. -And plus a very, very special guest. He's a Tech Columnist for Reader's Digest and presenter of the amazing Answer Me This Podcast, welcome Mr.Olly Mann. -Hello. Wow. What a---- yeah, I've got four times the pixels of an Android Pocast. It's good to be here. Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me. -So how's the show [unk] improvement so far? -It's been all right. It's been okay. -Okay. -Yeah, well, I think it's sort of---- it's---- I'm kinda feeling out. -Yeah. It's---- -Nothing's blowing my mind but nothing's really upset me. -Okay. -Right. Right. -And nothing hurt my feelings. -Yeah. -Haven't seen any technology that's physically harmed me. Although I did see this laser burning thing that was etching something in wood. -Oh. -And I got a little wood etching from it. And that was really cool 'cause it was an extremely precise laser etching that was being done and I looked phenomenal but because it was burned wood, it did smell quite bad and I put it in my pocket and then my pocket smelled bad and I put it in my hotel room, when I came back, my hotel room smelled---- -It's a good story. Hope you got more of that. And right, let's crack in with the themes of this show. Right. We will start with themes of the show. -Not one of the themes of the show. Show me something. -Yeah, that was the top tag. -Yeah, yeah. -So, I guess the first thing is always about TVs, isn't it? So, what's the big TV thing this year, Luke? -There are two big TV things. -All right. -So, the first is OLED, O-L-E-D, which is a display technology as you may or may not know, that is currently most popular in small frames, [unk] small frames use this, that looks absolutely gorgeous and when you blow this display, take out to proper TV size, it looks mind-blowingly gorgeous. So you got this amazing contrast ratio. You just get this really, really deep bright colors and it just is fantastic. And so that's one. -Where have you seen this OLED TV? -I've seen basically everyone's got one but Sony is the most impressive because it adds in---- -How do you factor that in? Because they all look the same to me. To the naked eye, they are all amazing but I cannot differentiate between the Samsung one, the Sony one, the Panasonic one, the LG one. -Well, there's this thing---- all right, what you do is you look at it, and at the button there's normally a little word. So it's Panasonic or Sony or whatever. And that's pretty much it. -Well, I also worry sometimes whether if I was looking a normal LCD screen as well. -If they were showing the same images of a leaf, so it's a leaf, isn't it? -Yes. -A leaf, a waterfall. -Copyright free leaf. -A copyright free leaf, I'm not sure where the contrast [unk] up high that I'd always be able to tell the difference but you never really know until you watch a film on it. Do you guys think? -Are you trying to shatter the myth that there is much difference between most TVs? 'Cause I would like to stop this Podcast early. -Well, there is difference between OLED TV and the LED TVs that we've seen, right, because it looks a lot better than normal TV plus there are two 4K OLED TVs. -Yes. -If you wanna explain a bit what 4K is, well, there's [unk]. -So, a 4K is another very exciting display technology because it just has a phenomenal number of pixels. Got about 4 times as much as 1080p, it's full HD. So, when you're looking at it, it's like the first time you look at HD with a little bit more. It's just a bit more HD. Yeah. -I wanna try HDs, what they're calling it here. -Yeah, yeah. -So 4K is one thing that you see in the cinemas and there's also Ultra HD. Now, there is actually a reason for that and I know you're worried about this. The reason is that the 4K you get in cinema is actually something like 7% wider than the 4K you get on a TV 'cause the aspect ratio is a bit different. So, you get [unk] on the top. So, hence the name Ultra HD, so big, anyway, sorry I interrupted. -That's fine. -Yeah, but Sony is---- Sony's done something very cool. It's made a 4K OLED TV, that's something I've seen and really, really, I saw it and was just kind of awed by it. It was like a chance seeing it on the first time but I was moved. -You're being moved. -I was moved. I was moved, caught for a second. -Yeah. -Yeah [unk]. -One thing I did notice is that even from the back of the press conferences anywhere I was, it did look very crystal clear in a way that actually an HD or an LCD TV wouldn't. In the same way you can get very, very close up [unk] and you don't notice the pixels. I mean, that is noticeable straightway that even right from the other end of the hallway it still look like a really crystal shot display. -Yeah, exactly. It looks beautiful. There's another use [unk] that you've seen as well, only if you, the multi view TV from Samsung. -Oh, yeah. I do kind of think this is sort of end of days this stuff, really. And I'm a bit of an evangelist for the second screen, you know, the second screen tweet once you're watching TV and all that stuff. But when you actually literally putting a second screen in the big screen, so that you and your partner can be watching different things or playing different games at the same time, I just think there's something a little bit depressing about the idea for a family to be on it. -So, it's one TV, -Yeah. -with and you get what, two glasses or something? And how---- and then---- -Yes, two sets of glasses and you don't get crosstalk, that's a new look, where the eyeglasses from the Samsung press conference. No crosstalk. -At last. -I mean---- -Do you want to know how to measure for crosstalk? -Go on. -This is a little pro tip. You put the glasses on and you [unk]. -I really just slightly out of sensor. -Yeah and if you get---- and the images separate, that's crosstalk. -This is amazing one video rolling that in. -There you go. -I don't know if anyone still there yet. Okay. So---- -That was a lovely inherent sections as well of all of those presentations whether or like you wanna watch one thing. Let's say my wife wants to watch something else, -Oh, yeah. -You just go, okay, you're making a lot of a assumptions there. Firstly, everyone here at the press conference is male, secondly, they're all strays, thirdly, they've all got a wife, and fourthly, the wife would have completely different taste of them 'cause they're a woman. It's like, come on, takes for everyone, people. -Yeah. -Yeah, but you gotta remember that press conference is existing this week. Fantasy Land where people like watching leaves and stuff. -Leaves and what they are [unk]. -Leaves or clouds and the mountains. -I like watching leaves. -Leaves are beautiful. -My special [unk]. What else [unk]? Oh, NFC, that's something I'm kinda excited about. Maybe it's just me. It is exciting. So, on the Sony's stand, they've got some of the inches that uses NFC and it's---- technology has been on phones for ages and there's been a lot of NFC phones and [unk] I thought it's just paying for things. And that's gonna take a while to work out. But actually, what it does it helps one thing to another thing that otherwise, it wouldn't talk to each other. So, they had a TV and a phone and if they've both got something called Miracast on it, stay with me. You pick up your phone and you type it on the remote and then what's on the phone is projected on to the TV and you can just move it around and do that. NFC kind of establishes a pair between those two things and then Bluetooth takes over and so it does the file transfer. Also, they've got a little file transfer system, like a box and you put your phone on top of it, uses NFC's pair and then the box sucks off any pictures or you now, video, whatever you've got in your phone and box it off onto its same hard disk. But the thing you'd probably use it for is play music. So, you play music in the phone, you tap the phone onto boombox and boombox and it was like this big in sight. And the music comes out there. You don't need to like, you now, we Bluetooth and then we have to like press pair and then you go have a good and it gets to read of all that. So, thumbs up NFC I think. -If NFC becomes really popular in the future, do you think there's a chance that we'll lose the dexterity to handle cables and sockets and we'll just childishly push one piece of technology into another? -I think it's every chance you'll have. -Matching my computer into a television. -Like kids who don't know who to reboot 'cause they've grown up without the computers, they do that on pages. -That but this---- yeah, speak to me. Slaps, slaps forehead I should say for the [unk] people. -The Sony one, they're---- all their One Touch stuff, -Yeah. -Am I right or wrong in saying that that only works with Sony products? -You may or may not be. No one really knows including Sony. It should, to be honest, work with most---- it should work. -Okay. I think that's cool. Isn't it? -But no one really knows because obviously there's enormous infinite number of products. So, until you tested those, who knows really. The TV thing only works if both things got Miracast, which is a Sony technology that they are licensing it. But they're kind of just music stuff that should work, maybe. -The problem is what it will take for NFC to take off [unk] to be in everything, really. It should be in taxis, in chairs, airports, restaurants, everywhere you move in your house, every surface, the sofa, the cat, everything should have an NFC chip in it. -NFC cat. -Yeah because---- because otherwise, this is not gonna be more convenient than reaching for the remote or something. -Yes. -Yes, you are right. Well done. -Okay. -And I think that often when you're walking around CES and you see these manufacturers who developed technologies that really only work if everything in your house is made by that one developer, it can be very frustrating. -Yeah. -And the most ridiculous example sort of this was on the Toshiba stand. While I was talking about every member of the family can have a different account on the television so they can recommend programs that you might want to watch because that's easy, you have been choosing your own program. I was like, what kind of mad pearl universe is this where everyone has a Toshiba TV? And they genuinely think it's easy to recommend to dad what to watch using the social interface on that TV, then it just for example, accessing Twitter. So, I do just---- -Or maybe a phone call. -If you need to, yes. -Or not to. -No need to talk to me, son. Use your Toshiba tablet to swipe it. -All the radio times, there I say. -Yeah. Or TV guide for Americans, sorry. Yeah. -Okay. What the I guess one of the biggest [unk] phones. So, has this been a phoney show or a---- -Show phoney. -Nice. -Show phoney, no. No. They've been---- -There's a Sony show. -There's been a Sony---- there's been a phoney Sony phone. -That should probably stop now. -Yeah. Yeah. -Probably. -Yes. So, there's been basically one or two phones of notes but they're more notable by their absence. So, Samsung's got no new phones, really. -No new phones. -Sorry?-I thought this [unk] anything, in fact. -Yeah. Yeah. And so, lots of manufacturers have basically said, oh yeah, we are still making phones but we're not gonna show them off ahead. So, and obviously take it away for Mobile World Congress which is a mobile phone centric trade show in February---- -But what have we seen? -What have we seen? We've seen the Sony Xperia Z. That's probably one of the show highlights. So this is---- so Sony's stayed away from the making screens enormous fat which Samsung has embraced how heartily with things like their Galaxy Note and Note II. But its decided last that its phones aren't doing very well, so maybe it should try something that is working for other companies. So, the Sony Xperia Z is a 5-inch quad core, 13-megapixel camera, smartphone. It's basically every bell and whistle. -Yeah. -Yeah. The thing is like a 5-inch phone is not really very exciting, quad core is not very exciting because these things happened before. I mean, it might be perfectly good but it's not really pushing anything forward. The 13-megapixel camera though, Sony makes nice---- -Yeah. -nice cameras. -There is one other feature it has, right? Which is, it's waterproof. -Hurray. -That is actually quite useful. I mean waterproof, if the demonstrations that we believe, -Yeah. -that's the thing which actually docks it into water on this thing. -I know. -Yeah. -I'm pretty sure I was reading a press release that said, like feel free to use your phone in a close water or something. -Oh. -Which I think suggested that possibly in water. -I'd like to use like [unk]. -One of the new case scenarios that Sony mentioned to their press conference was and I quote "blogging in the bathtub". What kind blog are you writing? -Oh, man. -If you're doing a food blog but you're in the bathtub, you've got it wrong. -I could do my job in the bath as well. -I know it. -I thought I was in, you know, in---- I thought it was all great to be doing my job in my pants from bed. -Yeah. -Now, you can be in the bath. -I didn't really consider I could be in the bath as well. -You can accidentally access the 13-megapixel camera, that's the---- -That's the issue. -Yeah. There's another massive phone as well that I mean massive in terms of its screen size. -Oh yeah. -The Huawei. -Huawei. -Ascend Mate. Or it may---- you go 6.1 inches, Jellybean and a quad core. -This is a [unk]. You're gonna need a new one. -Yeah. This is an enormous phone, obviously, 6.1 inches is way too big or maybe not, if you really like a big phone and so---- -Oh no. I saw the first Galaxy Note, which was 5 something, point 7 or I can't remember. And I thought it was the most ridiculous product ever. I still think it's the most ridiculous product ever but they're selling, right? -Yeah. They like it. -So, what do I know? So, with that in mind, maybe this is the best thing ever. But it's a 6-inch, it's like you have stretch your hand to get it rounded. -Yeah. Well it's---- but then it's very easy to say that when we got 2 netbooks and 2 laptops and 2 tablets, but actually, if you're just choosing one device and you're upgrading for maybe even a dumb phone to your first smartphone, and you just want one that does stuff but you know, everyone else might be using a tablet for it's a bit more gadget centric. I can kinda see that you want one with the big is great. -Actually, okay. Olly Mann, voice of the people, I like that. I like that. Yeah. -Done with the mates, mate. -Yeah. Okay. So maybe---- -Forty-eight hours of power as well they claim. -Forty-eight hours? -Yes. -No chance. -Yeah. -No chance. -It doesn't---- I'm not---- -Forty-eight hours of being turned off maybe. -Exactly. -Yeah. Yeah. -Well. -All right. -You can turn it off as long as you like. -Yeah. -It actually can be a brick or something like. -Yeah. -Okay. Well, that's the main things to show. What are other cool stuffs have we seen? -I've seen the---- we should probably talk about the NVIDIA Shield. -Shield. -An odd gaming concept. So you remember last year RAZR kinda stole the show with its bizarre tablet with handles on the side. -And that's here again actually. -And it's a real thing now. -That's here again but I think this time the handles are detachable. So---- -Anyway, they [unk] into. -It's very complicated and it's like $1500 or something, or $1200. -Yeah. -Anyway---- -It's really complicated. -Yeah. -But the NVIDIA Shield, that's---- it's a small gaming handheld. It looks a bit like the Nintendo DS, it's got this 5-inch I think screen on the top. It plays Android games, that's fine but what it can also do, which is really interesting, is stream PC games. So the idea is you're playing games on the PC and you're like this screen is too big and this is too comfortable. I would like to go in the other room and play on my NVIDIA Shield. But possibly---- I don't wanna sound too cynical but it could be used for maybe if, say for example someone, maybe your wife wants to watch something on television. So, you have to stop playing you games, so you can transfer the game onto a different screen. It's an interesting idea. It's an interesting idea. -Okay. -What have you seen, Olly? Come on, talk about Viewzics. -What are you saying? -I'm a big fan of Viewzics. I've been following them for years. I've got quite big presents in the UK, and if you're interested in this wearable technology space, that kind of it leader really. But they don't have the budget of Epson or Sony. Here we've been getting a lot of press coverage for their kind of wearable cinema screens and all the rest of it, which iOS, like definitely iOS. I've tried them all, the Epson ones are really heavy on your nose, the Sony one, I think you have to plug into the wall, which fits the whole purpose of being on a plane with it and Viewzics all along have been doing interesting wearable technology derived from [unk] stuff. And this thing that they brought out for CES, the M100, they have an announcement it's actually going to be available and I wonder if indeed ever will. Well, they just wanna steal a march on Google Glasses and you do feel a bit like the Terminator wearing it. You just sort of wanna walk around and say I'm looking for Sarah Connor. But basically, it's a little monocle that sets that. -A monocle. -It is---- -It's pretty short. -Yeah. And you're walking and just say, I say, I've got an SMS. -And if you see something very surprising, will it pop up your face? -Mainly the idea was you sort of you can look upwards and it will send you through Bluetooth, text messages or whatever from your phone. It pass with your phone using Bluetooth. And I was just so skeptical about the whole concept of---- they say you can drive with it. And as you're driving, glance upwards and get a message and that sounds like a risk for you for car accident. -Yeah. -Well, I tried it and I can't sort of imagine that. It's no more distracting than actually if you were looking a sign going pass. -Hey, there's one right here. -Oh, there you go. -Generally did not plan this. -Can we have it on stage? -Can we [unk]? -Can we see it? -You know what, you should have [unk]. -Let's just check it up here and we're getting with the Bluetooth monocle. -All right. Now hold on. -[unk] that's actually [unk] now. -Oh. -But can you see anything through it? -Yeah, there's a video on it. So, now, let's say, I'm looking for Sarah Connor. Then [unk] Sarah Connor. -See? That was good. It's like he's really here. -Yeah, that's all it did. -And it's really interesting to see where they're going with next with this 'cause release together and I think people are gonna be buying this but I do think that's very scary. But I do think---- -Well, I'm not listening to you. It looks like a---- and in fact---- -I think what they're going to work, these sort of Google Glasses Sci-Fi [unk] where you've got a camera maybe embedded in the specs, they basically look like Ray Bands with I guess a phone onboard and not a Bluetooth pair device. It's quite exciting stuff. -Okay. Finally this is gonna be on the next big---- it's gonna be on the panel that's coming up anyway. So, what else do we see? I'm sorry. -Something that I've seen I really like is called HapiFork. Now this thing is---- -Oh, you're gonna like this. I like---- -I like the HapiForks, all about the HapiFork but I actually just pause that back down. This is a fork that got---- that communicates with your smartphone and if you eat too quickly, it buzzes. The IDP media helps you lose weight. -Telling me how to eat? -Yeah, this fork and it will send out data to your smartphone and you get a little graph and you can see how like quickly you've eaten and all that stuff. -I'm definitely [unk]. -No. And it's a bit too heavy, yes. And my child, no. I don't wanna be told when 10 seconds has gone by. I'm an independent person living in a free country. -Obviously with my hands---- -I like the HapiFork. -No, what I like it's---- -It's all about the HapiFork. -I like where it's going. I like the idea of connected devices that used to be not smart but I just think a fork that tells me when to eat can---- -Yeah. -cut the way off. -Connected devices should give you fun stuff to do and not tell you what to stop doing, especially affecting your eating. -Fair enough. What else have we seen then? -Can I just say on the HapiFork, I do think for kids, they would be good. I think the kid's learning how not to eat too greatly then it's a game, isn't it? 'Cause you don't want it to buzz. -Okay. -That's what I just wanted to get. -It's about the HapiFork, honestly. -Yes. Yeah, yeah. -I've seen a---- oh, okay. If you don't like the HapiFork, maybe you'll like the Parrot's Bluetooth thingy [unk] thing. [unk] now but it's got like pound detector icon. -Oh yeah. -It's like a---- it's a little fork and you put it in the soil of your plant and uses Bluetooth to communicate with an iPad or some such. -Yeah. -You tell the iPad what your plant is and it tells you when the HapiFork---- HapiFork, I have a big toad in my ear left by Sarah Connor. And it says you gotta water in two days, you [unk], that sort of thing. -It's pretty cool. I like it. -Can she give it a voice? And she gives the plant a voice. It's like, I'm thirsty. What would your plant say? -It would mostly say, I'm thirsty. -I'm thirsty. -I'm dying. -Yeah. -Yeah. -I'm dying inside. -I'm dead. I died many years ago please throw me away. -I think it's the 1st generation idea. It's good. I wouldn't buy one now but when you get to this stage for that kind of technology built into a plant pot that you buy home base, then I can imagine that working, you know, if it's actually free or it cost one pound more to get your Bluetooth enabled plant, that tells you when you water it, then you can imagine it working and I guess that sort of thing has to come out so they can filter the technology down but as you're buying something that cost anything upwards of 3 grades to put in your plant pot, tell you when to water it, it's just kind of quite---- -Leave it out. -Very good. -Very good. -Well---- -We're coming to the end unfortunately. -Oh. -So, let's just round up by saying what our favorite products of the show. What about you, Luke? -I'm gonna go with the Sony's 4K OLED. It blew my mind. -It did. It blew mine as well, I have to say. What about you, Olly? -This is something that we haven't talked about but it's very briefly. -Okay. -Martian is a new company of smart watches and I'm well into the Dick Tracy idea that one day we're gonna properly do this and it's never quite happened in all this pebble and stuff and it hasn't got the digital display. It's got an analog one. So, it looks like a fun analog watch bright straps but you can sync it with your phone and see messages and stuff. -It's great. -Very good. -Yes. -It's all about the HapiFork for me. I'm sorry. No one is gonna give in to me. I want the HapiFork. All right, well, [unk] show. Thanks very much for joining us. Next up at the top of the hour is a very, very cool and cutting edge tech. Brian Cooley will host our "Next Interface: You Panel", so make you don't miss it. That's it from all of us. Thanks to everyone for coming down here and that's it for year. See you next time.