[MUSIC]
Hi everybody, we are back with our continuing coverage of CES 2019.
I'm Ashley Ascetta and we are here to talk smart home and appliances.
Is absolutely the best stuff.
With me are some members of our CNET Smart Home team.
Molly Price, Meg Walurton, and Andrew Gebhart.
Thank you everybody for, for coming.
I know you guys have been really hitting the, hitting the pavement here.
Yeah, there's a ton to see here.
It's been a busy week for sure.
Yeah.
A very, very busy week.
You guys have seen a lot of really fun stuff, a lot of really cool stuff, a lot of really weird stuff.
A lot of really [SOUND] stuff.
It's a mixed bag, it's CES.
[LAUGH]
Yeah.
Yeah, it's CES.
So much stuff that'll never see the light of day-
Yeah, exactly.
And it's so far out there, but some stuff that's kinda ready to go.
I know.
Yeah.
Just, before we start off on our best-of, just, I wanna get your hot take real quick.
FoldiMate coming out this year, or no?
My Gosh, I would love it if it actually happen.
You saw live demo, right?
Folder mate?
Yeah.
I mean, I got to see it.
Is it real?
Is it happening?
I actually tried it out, I actually got to pick my own shirts, put them in, clamp them down up to 25 shirts at the time, you press an eject button and the shirts appear below you perfectly folded.
So, I did experience it.
How long does that take for shirt?
Just a few minutes.
Well, you mean the whole stack?
I was, like the whole stack.
Takes just a few minutes.
Okay.
A few seconds.
[CROSSTALK] That's all right.
A couple of seconds, yeah.
All right, we're gonna show some video of the FoldiMate.
Good.
[LAUGH]
I'm very tight.
This has been the question mark for me every year at CES for the last three years.
And it comes back every year, right?
Every year, they come back.
It's such a concept.
Yeah, it is.
Over and over and.
Yeah.
And each year it works a little bit better.
So maybe next year.
It's like an Arrested Development joke.
Every season it comes back and you're just like wow this is a long game you guys are playing.
Yes, yes.
Okay so here this is it.
So it wasn't too bad.
So you think this year, is this their year?
It could be, could be.
I mean they say by the end of 2019.
It will be available for sale and will cost about a thousand bucks.
But it still can't do things like fitted sheets baby clothes so.
And that's my problem with it I fold T-shirts but I fold a lot of other stuff too.
Yeah and you have to physically stand there and load each one so theres still active time.
It's not like you can just throw the whole pile in.
All right.
Well let's talk about what was great at the show this year.
You guys have a really nice list set up.
The very first thing we're going to talk about is Google Assistant Connect.
So this is a little bit different than your standard Google, Google hub.
This is, this is a totally different thing that is for manufacturers, so explain a little bit about what this is.
Yeah.
So it's not an actual product that you can buy.
Right?
It's, what we saw were prototypes.
What we saw was an E ink display.
That's what we're seeing right now.
And we saw buttons and there's the button.
But you can't actually buy those things.
What it is, is a chip inside of those devices that allows those devices to talk to a Google Home Mini or a Google Home Hub.
A nerby Goggle assisted device.
Any of those.
Okay.
That, and then the Google Assistant device is what does the computing.
So the e-ink display's showing the date, showing the weather.
It's sending a query to the Google Home hub, which sends that query to the cloud, back to the home hub, back to the thing.
So it's almost like a platform for manufacturers to not have to develop their own backend.
I should be able to tap into the power of Google.
Which also I'm sure Google loves.
They get all the beautiful date.
And you need to probably have a Google Home mini to make these products work.
Of course.
When thye eventually see the light of day, whatever they are.
But is hould be a quick way to make dumb stuff.
Work with Google Assistant, right?
Really, it could, in theory, expand Google's lineup of smart devices and compatible devices exponentially because these companies can just focus on hardware.
Yep.
Well, and we saw that with Android as well.
I mean, it's like when they said, hey, we've made this operating system, you can put it on your phone.
Just make sure to have Google Maps on, make sure there's Gmail.
And I know they got into a little trouble for that overseas.
But overall, that's why we have such a proliferation of inexpensive Android phones.
And I think they're obviously making the same move for a smart home, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Same move, so okay.
The next thing is a this is really getting into smart home in the kitchen.
Hm.
This is what people traditionally think of when they think of smart homes.
Stuff like appliances.
Yep.
We've seen all kinds of stuff over the years at CES.
But this is the Kitchen Aid smart display.
And then we're also are going to talk a little bit about the WLab smart countertop oven.
Hm-mm.
So this is the smart display.
So Kitchen Aid, we've seen some Kitchen-oriented smart displays, but this one is a little bit different, it has a really neat integration with Yummly.
So why don't you guys tell me about, Megan, tell me a little about this integration.
I think Molly took this one.
Come on, yeah.
So Whirlpool came to CES this year, and they also brought KitchenAid.
KitchenAid is their first time at the show.
So they brought a ton of smart stuff that we kinda were surprised by and Yummily is an app where you can plan your meals, set your recipes, get them exactly how you want them, and all of Whirlpool and Kitchenaid's stuff are really pushing that and really integrating with it.
And Andrew took a look at the smart display, what did you think about it?
Well so it's gonna have a little bit of trouble standing out because it's so, Google's had a big show.
That has Google Assistant built in.
So like a Google Home Mini, anything like that.
And so it's gonna have a lot of the same functionality as the Google Home Hub, as the Lenovo Smart Display, as the other stuff we've seen, but yeah, the Yummly is what they're banking on to help it stand out.
And you were talking about messes in the kitchen, the other way this stands out is it has splash resistance.
None of the others has splash resistance.
It's rated for that so If you're cooking, and making a big Mex-
That seems important in the kitchen.
Yeah.
Yeah, it really does.
I think that's one of those small things that they thought about that really is not a small thing, you know?
Yeah, makes a big difference.
Yeah.
Especially if you're a chef or somebody who, or even just somebody who's a novice, learning how to cook.
I mean, you're gonna get-
It's messy, yes.
Wet stuff, all over in the kitchen.
Have they said how much this is gonna cost?
Not gonna be super clean.
Yeah.
And then there's the W Lab Smart of it.
Yes.
This is.
I thought, this is, for a second, this was the one that had AR.
But this is different.
No.
So there's a whole...
There are multiple ovens.
It's ovens galore at the whirlpool booth.
So they have Imall oven with the AR And then KitchenAid also has an oven with attachments.
But the WLabs oven you're seeing here is a countertop model.
And if you're familiar with June, it's similar to what June did.
It has food-recognizing technology.
So you put that broccoli in there and it recognizes that it's broccoli.
It comes with that thermometer and the Cutting board up on top.
They're only gonna make 2000 of them, though.
They're available for pre-order now, and they're $799, which is a little more than the June.
The June was $599, I think.
Right.
I remember that.
So we're seeing more and more of these countertop ovens.
There's also Brava and Tavala.
There's a multitude out there this year.
Yeah.
Well I think I, I mean speaking for myself, I guess.
I would rather, if I'm baking, there's only two of us.
It's me and my husband.
So a lot of times I don't wanna have to preheat the entire oven for something like a couple of-
Exactly.
A couple of servings of Brussel sprouts, it doesn't make any sense.
They said if you're baking cookies you would need to preheat but otherwise they have 11 cooking modes and most of them don't require pre-heating.
So, it cuts your time in half, you're not heating as much of a cavity, it's not going to use as much energy.
Them making 2000 of them only, is that because they want to see how the product does and maybe get some feedback before moving on to a next.
Version?
That's what I think, because this is actually the first WLabs product ever.
So WLabs is their innovation little team, and so-
This is their debut.
Yeah, so they aren't really branded Whirlpool or KitchenAid, it's gonna be a WLabs product.
So I think they're just trying to kind of feel it out, and see how that goes.
See how things go?
Yeah, that's interesting, so from The kitchen to everywhere around the house, we've got smart lighting.
Usually I turn to our very own Ry Crist to tell me all about LED smart bulbs and how they are good or bad at dimming, and seriously you guys, if you follow Ry on Twitter, you will get nothing but great Tweets-
Nothing but lightbulbs and it's great.
About lightbulbs.
If you wanna know
So here is the C by GE lights.
They have an entire lineup of lights, it's a lot.
There's a whole bunch of different things, switches, lights, bulbs, it's obvious GE want to compete directly with Phillips Hue.
This is the direct competitor, and amongst others, but I think that's the one that comes to mind.
So tell us a little bit about these lights, and what separates them, and what made them really stand out at CES this year.
So they are gonna try to make setup super simple.
Again, Google Because they're going to have Bluetooth.
The first C by GE bulbs which you're looking at right now are a little bit older.
And the premise was, I mean, they packed in like with a starter kit with a Google Home Mini.
But they were not color bulbs, is that correct?
No, no.
Not color bulbs.
But the idea was that it was affordable because it was just Bluetooth and they would use the Google Home Mini as a bridge.
So it almost feels like this was kind of a proof-of-concept for the Google Assistant Connect that got debuted here, because Google Home's handling all the things.
Right, that makes sense.
But now, so they used that to get their feet wet, I guess.
And now here at the show, they've got switches and All these sort of things.
And ropes, [UNKNOWN] about LED, they've got an LED rope, they've got all kinds of stuff.
And their first color changing bulb.
And I mean, for such a large company it seems like they were kind of lagging behind in this space for such a long time.
They do feel a little late.
So what's exciting about this, too, is just the breadth of options they're now offering here.
So maybe they'll actually be able to compete on a larger scale.
It is an incredibly
Diverse lineup and rollout.
I was very surprised to see the list.
If you guys are interested, you should definitely go over to cnet.com and check out just how many bulbs that they announced, cuz it's a lot, it's actually a lot.
I mean, they sorta own the lighting aisle in a lot of hardware stores that way.
Sure.
so it would be cool if some of those were smart.
Yeah, why not?
And obviously at this point, its almost 2020, we're living the uture now, so we gotta keep it going.
So, Lenovo has a smart clock, but it's kind of like a simple smart clock?
Yeah, so they took the smart display idea and shrunk it, and I sort of thought that that was going to be it.
That it would be a smart display, only less, like smaller now.
But they actually cut a bunch of the functionality, too.
Like, they cut, there's no smart home drop down control panel.
You can't watch videos on it like you can do on smart displays, and That was surprising to me that they would actually trim functionality, but they really wanted to tailor it to a night stand.
And so what you can see on there is like calendar and traffic, and the things you wanna know when you wake up.
And it still has all the Google Assistant voice controls.
So A little bit more than a Google Home Mini, and a little bit less than a full on smart display.
A full display.
It kind of reminds me of the Echo Spot, because that kind of was marketed, sort of, as a nightstand companion, but it had a camera and I think for a lot of people that was a little weird.
It was really concerning.
The spot was, and the spot did what I was expecting these guys to do, which is, they just shrunk their Echo Shell.
Yeah, it's cute, the other.
[LAUGH]
It's little.
I like it.
Is this something you're, would you put this in your house, all three of you?
I wouldn't.
You would not?
Eh, [CROSSTALK]
I don't need it.
[CROSSTALK] a smart display at all-
That's a standard answer from me.
Yeah, I'm not into it, I feel like.
I might, I might.
I'm gonna withhold my judgment until I actually get to test it out.
All right.
I wanna see, I gonna take the middle road here.
You're gonna sleep in the cnet smart home, you're gonna test it out.
It will be great.
On the cnet nightstand.
On the cnet nightstand.
and night stands, yeah.
Smart Night stand.
Yeah.
Okay, so we want to talk about the net app most, Smart Video Doorbell.
yeah.
This is a little different and honestly, I, to me a little exciting just because there's no, there's no cloud Storage payment that you need to make
yeah.
So how it works with most smart.
Doorbells is that you pay a monthly or yearly fee for access to save video clips.
So if motion activity happens and you want to save that and review it later you have to pay at least three bucks a month sometimes up to 10 or 15 bucks a month.
But in this case, there's actually built-in internal storage.
So when something happens it records it internally it goes straight to the.
And you can review it for free, which is amazing, because so many of these companies have been adding these fees in.
Subscription-based model.
Yeah.
But it's not just that, they also have free person alerts, free motion detection zones, all of these things that are usually included in those fee-based monthly services.
So I guess the question is, do you feel that this is sustainable for them as a company, to be able to offer these things That's a good question and I think so, because this is their first smart doorbell, but it's not their first connected camera.
And they've done this with their other devices, this is just their first time they're bringing it to the doorbell.
And another cool thing about it is that it's Siri enabled.
It'll work with the Apple Home app and it's the first one we've seen.
That's fantastic.
Yeah, and I was surprised at how Little home kit we saw this year, compared to maybe a couple of years ago?
Yeah.
They're trying, they're-
Slowly, but surely.
As [UNKNOWN] want to do.
They made a Walled Garden, and Amazon and Google were like, anybody, everybody, come on in, and, you know?
Yeah.
Everyone's invited to that barbecue.
And then okay, so our last product is something that I saw you guys cover and I was really excited by it because I love decorative smart lighting.
I feel really bouji saying that, but I love decorative smart lighting.
And so LaMetric has this really interesting Smart lighting set-up, that is cute.
Yeah.
It looks cool and so much of it looks really dorky and this doesn't.
And that's exactly what again.
Ry is are lighting expert and we were talking about this.
And I said you know so many of the panels we've seen.
I personally.
Don't think they go with my home's decor.
Yeah you just-
It's not-
Yeah you just throw like an ID panel on the wall and it's just like bleh.
Yeah.
But this one, there's something about this one is different to me, something about this one I found really pretty and attractive and I-
Look at that, yeah, it's cool, right?
Mosaic and I need
Needed in my house.
Yeah, theres tons of cool options with that, I think.
And when they were designing it I read that they were going for a stained glass effect and I really love that.
I love that.
And it's something to do with how they incorporated triangular patterns instead.
Yeah.
So it's not just like a slab.
It's just Like a square you can actually make a cute design, like these.
It's very reminiscent of the Nanoleaf Rhythm series, which has those nice triangle shapes that you can sort of design something.
But I think those smaller triangular panels within each panel is so key to what makes it look so awesome.
Yeah.
I like it a lot.
What's the deal with these?
They coming out this year?
I believe they're due out this year, and the other nice thing about how precise the lighting is here is, apparently, you can display numbers and letters in the panel.
Yeah, words.
You can have, if you're a business, you could have your Twitter handle scroll, or something.
Cool.
You could use it in a commercial setting, even.
Yeah.
I want it.
I need it.
Pack one up for me.
[CROSSTALK]
This is one, I don't know.
Not for you?
I don't think this one's for me.
I know, I know I'm the one who is like yeah put the smart clock on my nightstand, but
That one goes out to all the ladies.
You're like, give me the little smart clock.>>One I think I can talk to and say hey in the morning.
Andrew wants a robot.
Yeah.
I also do want a robot.
I want a robot.
Yeah.
Who doesn't want a robot.
Wouldn't that be cool, walker was here and it brought me a can of Pringles.
I want, you know.>> Just so That is our smart home round up, but just really briefly, speaking of robots.
We are giving away an Aibo on the website and I am so sad that I can't enter.
I know.
I'm not eligible to win it cuz I'll never pay three grand for a robot dog.
But also, I'll win one and use it every day.
Right.
Every day
So we are in fact giving away an Aibo.
You guys wanna check that out.
Make sure you go enter because I can't and you can live in the future where there are no meat dogs.
They're just robot dogs.
All right guys, that is it for smart home.
Thank you all so much for sharing your expertise.
I know you guys have just been absolutely crushing it Just working so hard, so thank you.
Yeah.
For stopping by.
Thanks for having us.
Sure, thank you.
And relaxing with us on the CNET live stage.
That's it for Smart Home, everybody, we're gonna take a break.
