Our top 5 tech products of 2015 (Tomorrow Daily 291)

On today's show, we're counting down our top five favorite bits of technology for 2015. Robots, droids, drones, we got it all coming up. It's Tomorrow Daily. [MUSIC] Greetings, citizens of the Internet. Welcome to Tomorrow Daily, the best geek talk show in the known universe. I'm Ashley Esqueda. I'm Jeff Cannata and this is our end of the year week where we're counting down the best Of stuff they check. True. Today's technology. Yeah. This was a very hard fought list because, literally. So to explain how it works, each of us, Jeff, myself, and producer Logan Each got five votes. A first place through fifth place. And points correspond to that. So first place got five points. And so on and so forth. So each of us literally picked a different thing in every single category. There was so much good technology this year. [LAUGH] It was a It was a varied list, an eclectic list. It's extremely varied, there was only I think one or two things that made multiple people's lists. So, but we do have a top five, and we're really excited about it. So let's start out with number five. It was The Year of the Drone this Year and the DJI Phantom 3. That was one of our favorite things. I was hoping this was actually DJ Phantom, the scratching- DJ Phantom? Yeah, okay. No, it is the droid. It does feel like 2015 is where drones have finally come into their own. Yes. And so we had to pick a drone. I haven't actually played with this myself. I really wanted to, I haven't had a chance. A friend of the show, Michael Come on and shoot some drone footage for us, which has been fantastic. He has a Phanotom III, and they are really fantastic. I do love a lot of the features that DJI has sort of added on. They have these really great simulations that you can practice, so you're not flying your thousand dollar drone blindly and then crashing it and going oh I wish I knew how to fly this thing. [LAUGH] [BLANK_AUDIO] In almost every single way, I mean they made news for good things and bad things. Yeah. We saw drones fight fires autonomously. We've seen autonomous drones we've seen RC drones. I mean, we've seen every kind of drone you could possibly imagine. Yeah. We saw drones break the law. We saw drones help law enforcement. True. We've seen A revolution in wedding videos, actually. Anti, oh yes so true. Anti drone technology, we saw a different kinds of anti drone technology. It truly was the year of the drone. And for that the [INAUDIBLE] number five on our list. Number four I actually had to remind everybody that it came out this year because I am obsessed with [INAUDIBLE]. Pepper, oh Pepper. Pepper is the robot to own. Is it, is it really? Yes. Not on my list, I will say. Yes, because most people are not aware of the capabilities of Pepper. Let me explain, it's a companion robot. There's an iPad stuck to it's Yeah, but if that's how it's gonna communicate with you though maybe pictures. But it can still talk to you and stuff and it's really awesome. And in Japan, they want these to be companion robots. These are robots meant to be your friend. They're not meant to be robots that are gonna help an elderly person get up and go to the bathroom or make dinner or anything like that. This robot So they're useless. is designed to be a... No! I need a robot best friend, Jeff. You do? Will it at least vacuum my house? No, you need a Roomba for that. No? That's what Roomba's are for. That was best at 2005 the Roombas. I need a robot that does something. It doesn't just carry an iPad around and ask me to like Played, you know threes with it. Isn't friendship something? I guess. I guess. I guess. I mean, if you don't have humans to be friends with, we have to have robots. Pepper the Robot, friendship is magic. That's my goal next year, the befriend a robot. To be best friends With a robot, I don't have $9000 for Pepper though so I'm gonna have to give you. You already have your robot friends. I got [UNKNOWN] but he doesn't say much, very quiet, he's a quiet type. Pepper. I grant you Pepper you put it very high on your list which is why this I predict you'll be very disappointed with Pepper being your friend. I'm gonna get a Pepper. And Pepper and I are gonna be pals. We're gonna go shopping together. And it's gonna be awesome. [LAUGH] It's gonna be like, ma'am, ma'am, do not bring that into the store. [LAUGH] True, like yeah, I'm sorry. No shirt, no shoes, no sentient robots. Get it outta here. They're like, don't bring your vacuum cleaner into the store ma'am. [CROSSTALK] It doesn't even vacuum the floor. It doesn't do anything but be my friend. I'll sneak around the corner and go go exactly it doesn't even vacuum the floor. I wish I could get a Pepper and upload a Gladys. Like a Gladys pack to my Pepper and just have her treat me like garbage all the time. Then really what's the point? But it would be so fun. You have a strange idea of fun Ashley. I do. All right Three. Three is actual fun, fun that is a little out of our price range but the aspirational fun the Tesla Model X, great piece of technology. This would be number one on my list of things I covet. Yes. This is. Most coveted item, [UNKNOWN] Stevens from our new Our new road show. I got to test drive this thing. Yeah. Look at the windshield, how cool that is. And just gun it, yeah, I mean this thing is pretty incredible. So this is called the X because it has those cool X wings that fold up that you can actually Stand up, Shoot at the Death Star. Yeah, and it will still fit into a garage with the doors up, so cool. That extremely large windshield that has no seams, It's like a vertical panorama, which is amazing. Oh, I love that. pretty awesome. And the other thing is is it got very high crash test rating. Very safe car. Unless you're abusing auto-pilot which is another thing that came to the model this year. One man's use is another man's using it right. True. That's very true. Yeah. A lot of people really enjoyed being able to use autopilot. I know they're putting in some checks and balances so that people aren't going too crazy with it but Look at how cool those doors are. The doors are amazing. You can park You can stand up and walk into it. I believe they said, what was it, three inches on each side of the car. So you still won't hit anything with the doors. Pretty incredible. They're not [UNKNOWN] doors. The unfortunate part is the cost. The cost is really up there. Wildly outside my price range. I think for the insane mode is like 130 grand. I want to say. Yeah. The top end one is like over $120,000. Yeah. Which means I won't, I couldn't even get that if I sold a kidney. I couldn't even do the down payment for that car. You need more expensive kidneys. I do I need to gold plate my kidneys. That's right. And then even then I might Half. I might have half of the amount of money I need to buy a Tesla Model X. We really need the show to take off, so tell your friends about Tomorrow Daily. Yeah. Guys, sponsors. Cuz We want Tesla X's. Sponsors out there. Excuse me, Tesla. Are you perhaps interested in sponsoring Tomorrow Daily? Even better! Cut out the middleman and go right to the- Listen, Elon, we know you're a big fan of the show. That's right. Just let us a borrow a couple, we're not saying we want them forever. I want them forever. Jeff is saying he wants them forever. But I'll just borrow it on the long term loan. There you go. As a friend of the show. That's all I'm saying. So number two on the list. Let's talk about number two. It was something that all three of us voted for. Which is very exciting. I did not bring mine today. And I feel like a fool for that doing so. Sphero BB-8. Yeah, a little BB-8. I have one as well. It The thing that I like about the BB8, not only is it an adorable, awesome Star Wars character but the tech works. It's really good. It's not bad. You wouldn't think that when I first saw the BB8, I assumed, oh that's gonna be CG. That's not something that could exist in the real world. And then they rolled it out Celebration, and everybody's minds exploded. No. Okay, it's one thing to have a working prop from a multi-million dollar film- Yeah. that they can construct one of a kind. Right. But, to be able to build it on a small scale, and sell it to people for relatively Affordable prices. Yeah, pretty amazing. Something to be, that's something that blew me away, I will admit. It's a lot smaller than I thought it would. Yeah? When they announced it I was hoping it'd be a little bigger. I wanted it to be the size of the one that they sell at Target that's RC, it has it's own little remote control. It's about ten inches high. This is about half That. But I will say, it's adorable. It works perfectly like I loved it you can make it say yes or no and it does all the little great BB8 gestures and things like that. And they said they're gonna be adding more like as the movie, like releases and stuff. So. It's great, like you said, it's amazing that Sphero was able to translate this into a tiny affordable toy from a one of a kind- It's not cheap but it's affordable. Relatively affordable, it's only like a few hundred dollars, of 150. I mean, just cut in to my Tesla budget but you know, we're working on that. In fact, it does. Let me ask this question, you're the only one of us Between you and I that have pets. Does it terrify your pets? My pets want to eat BB-8. They don't have any qualms of it. They're sight hounds, and so they're like it's a small, fast thing and it's making noise, a squeaky noise, so I need to kill it. Yeah. So they go after it and hit it really hard and they send it flying across the hardwood I'm told that people with cats, it's a delightful cat terrorizer. That does seem like a cat terrorizer or a delightful cat toy depending on what your cat likes. But yeah, the dogs do not like it. One of them's afraid of it, the other one really wants to play with it and then just ends up knocking it into the walls and stuff and I'm like Oh you're gonna break my BB8, get out of here. Yeah. So, I have to tell him, leave it! And they finally stay away. But a cool tech gadget for 2015. But it's super cool. I'd say the hottest toy of the year. Yeah, yeah. Easily. #1 was a surprise to me. I own one. It was to me, too. I didn't think I wanted it, And now that you have it. Now that I have it I love it. > And it so technically this was a soft launch a year ago in November but it really only came out to the public in June. It's the Amazon echo. The Amazon Echo everybody. It's a voice controlled cylinder that sits in your house and always listens to you. Did I think I wanted that? No. That's not creepy at all. Do I love having it in my house? Yes. Do I ask it to play music and it does? Yes. When I'm cooking and I need a timer, do I just say hey Alexa, set the timer for two minutes, and it does it? Yeah. That's rad. It's super good. I think the one thing that I found most impressive about Amazon Echo is that you don't have to, so if I use Siri, I have to be like hey Siri, and then I have to go through. This whole thing, where I'm enunciating my words. Right. And sometimes Siri doesn't hear me right. Yeah. And it's not great. And even Google Now, and Google Now on Tap. I mean, it's way better than Siri. but it's still like sometimes you really have to enunciate especially if you're out and about and stuff. But in my house if you're using an Echo you can literally speak at it like a normal person. Like a normal person. And it knows. Like Star Trek. It knows what you want. You can have a conversation with Alexa and it's really nice. I can be in the corner of another room the room that Alexa This is not even in and I can be like hey Alexa, play some music and it will here me and understand and do it right. There's, something is missing. Some integration that is missing. But, you know what? If you own an Echo, every week you get an email saying hey, here's the new stuff we added. Which is very nice. Sometimes the stuff is not particularly cool but other times it is super cool. Like I can get sports updates now and I can ask it. I can ask it to tell me a joke, which is a not very fun experience. But, you know, baby steps. I just like the fact that it's expanding, it's growing, it's becoming new things. I want it to learn, you need to come up with a database of dad jokes that you can then send to Alexa, and then everyone will get an email that says, And what's another schedule [UNKNOWN] Joe Pinata. I like it. I gotta work on that. [UNKNOWN] Partnerships. Amazon, if you're interested in sponsoring. [LAUGH] Yeah, so that was our best technology of 2015. Once again, there were a lot of really good candidates. We have some honorable mentions. Yes. That definitely should have made the list, but top 5. You can only have 5. Yeah, my honorable mention, I got hands on with face on as the case may be. Face on. At an event. And that's the Samsung Gear VR. Pretty impressed, you know I'm excited for the real VR that's coming later. But the fact that you can do that for 99 bucks It's a winner. I'm ready for VR. It is really impressive. I really did like that Gear VR when we tried it at, I believe we tried it at [UNKNOWN] Connect. Yeah. It was really, really nice. And then producer Logan picked Beats One Radio. He's really impressed with Beats One Radio and sort of bringing back this idea of like having DJs and personalities put together playlists and all the shows that they're doing and everything. He really, really enjoyed that. And then for me, I actually picked the newly remodeled Soda's play five. Which I'm a huge start up fan. I've had their products forever, since before I had the old play five. Yeah. Like really big, bulky one. They've made this new Play 5 so much better. I don't have one yet in the house, cuz I'm like I don't need it. Saving up for that Tesla. Of course, yeah. [INAUDIBLE] for my Tesla. But yeah, the new Play 5 is just so well designed and it sounds so good. And then they also added in the true play functionality, where you're able to sort of optimize your speakers from different places. It knows where you are in the room, it'll optimize Optimize the sound and all that stuff. It's really great stuff. So, if you're looking for wireless audio solution like Sonos, it's my number one recommendation. But, really excited to see a remodel of that, cuz it was really big and clunky speaker. And now, it's so sleek and it looks so much better. I mean, it's awesome. So, those were our honorable mentions. Yeah. That's our technology. Those are best Good Stuff Good Stuff.>> Tech of 2015 really really good. You guys feel free to argue with us. I am sure you brought your list to the show. You were checking it against our stuff and if you absolutely hate our choices Drop yours down in the comments. Yeah. You're probably much better than we are at picking your top five. Yeah, we didn't pick any cell phones or anything like that so if you have like favorite tech- I didn' want to. I didn't either. I found this other stuff to be much more exciting. So many great gadgets this year. Yeah. There was nothing really innovative in the phone space. Everything was good. Right. I'm not saying it was bad. I mean, the The edge is really nice. Like that's a great phone. The Galaxy S6 Edge is a really nice. The Ipad Pro is nice. Like the Apple pencil is interesting. So is the Samsung smart watch. Like all that stuff is great but we just really thought these five were really interesting and fun and really we haven't quite See you before. Right. So I saw a really good list. Very cool. We'd love to see more. But if you agree with us, tell us. Tell us you agree and then we'll just give you a little Internet hug. It'll be great. You guys can find us over the Internet. We're at Tomorrow Daily. [UNKNOWN] It's all over here. Right underneath, feel free to find us online. And come back tomorrow cuz we're gonna have our top 5 games. into the air. Yes and as I've touted for the last two days now. You guys might hate us. So you make sure you stop by. That's the best kind of feeling. Get your rage ready because I have a feeling there's gonna be some fights in the comments for tomorrow's show. We will be back tomorrow with a brand new docket of Best of 2015 items. But until then be See you guys next time, Bye. [MUSIC]