Autoblog Gift Guide Blind React - Holiday Gift Guides 2021 - Show Notes

Autoblog Gift Guide Blind React - Holiday Gift Guides 2021

Friday Nov 12, 2021 (00:15:06)

Description

Here are the products we thought were the most interesting from the Holiday Gift Guide 2021 from Autoblog.

Participants

Scott Ertz

Host

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Allante Sparks

Special Correspondent

Allante - also well known as Wolff - is the newest member and co-host for PLuGHiTz Live! Radio. A gifted artist, he is usually found drawing up a character or two or sketching up whatever comes to mind. Do not think that he is not a hardcore gamer because he is about as hardcore as it gets! His favorites range from fighting games to RPGs, adventure and even a racing game here and there. Fighting games are his forte and he relays this message for all who oppose: You mess with the Wolff and you get the fangs!

Xbox Live - Enigmatic Wolff

PSN - Tsukuyomi_Okami

Live Discussion

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Transcript

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Scott Ertz (00:06)

Okay, I definitely wanted to talk about this one. This one's not necessarily tech related. I don't entirely know where this is coming from. It's on MSN. Oh Autoblog Okay, so yes, this is a blind react but we did have to scan real quick to see what was on it just to make sure that we're and this one is wild. So we're gonna start with Hot Wheels,

Allante Sparks (00:41)

Hot Wheels.

Scott Ertz (00:43)

Always a safe bet for kids

Allante Sparks (00:49)

except for the game they came out with not too long ago

Scott Ertz (00:51)

and then there's this

Allante Sparks (00:54)

What the heck

Scott Ertz (00:57)

Yeah, this is a hydraulic log splitter. What? For $263. What now? I would like to point out that Hot Wheels and a hydraulic log splitter are absolutely not intended for the same people

Allante Sparks (01:19)

That's when I'm like what is happening here this uh, everybody in the house kind of list

Scott Ertz (01:28)

I don't know this as far as I gotten them like oh, we're gonna talk about this yeah because what in the world

Allante Sparks (01:33)

What in the world? Hydraulic log splitter.

Scott Ertz (01:37)

Yes. Wow. Or you can get the the white label version from Harbor Freight for 150 Yeah, Harbor Freight Whoa. Sure. karate lessons. Okay. Oh, this is getting better. What are we looking at?

Allante Sparks (01:57)

Yeah, that's that is my stocking stuff. I'll tell you that right now.

Scott Ertz (02:02)

Oh, they don't have the picture. Alright, that sucks. All right out of Reading Mode. I was hoping that was gonna work. Okay. Oh, they don't Oh, there it is. Okay. Whoo. In case you desperately want your six year old to be an Instagram influencer.

Allante Sparks (02:28)

Wow, look at this thing, huh?

Scott Ertz (02:31)

Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. I do kind of want one sure to be able to see how it works. Yeah. So it's from VTech. Okay. So

Allante Sparks (02:46)

What's the price on this one, scroll up just this smidgen.

Scott Ertz (02:51)

100 bucks. Okay. Oh. Now, in addition to the green screen, oh. Okay, so $20 green screen.

Allante Sparks (03:05)

The total gift package is 100 bucks. Yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah, so probably 65 Yeah, sounds like it. Oh, 45. Oh, no,

Scott Ertz (03:17)

Oh, it's right there. Yeah. 45. So VTech is known in the industry for making solid kids versions of real things. The VTech kids learning laptops, were by far the best of their type. We used to sell a lot of VTech oddities like this at RadioShack. And so my guess is this is probably pretty solid. But it's weird. Yeah. Yeah. I don't like that. They call it a KidiZoom Creator Cam.

Allante Sparks (04:02)

Yeah,

Scott Ertz (04:03)

that's, that makes a little uncomfortable. Yeah. But, you know, it's interesting. I'd like to see it in action personally.

Allante Sparks (04:13)

I mean, that's, it's actually really Yeah, the name is the name is bad. Yeah, but, but the

Scott Ertz (04:24)

Are you? Are you locked in on Dr. Sasquatch now?

Allante Sparks (04:28)

Yeah.

Scott Ertz (04:30)

Dr. Squatch

Allante Sparks (04:32)

Saw it, brain went.

Scott Ertz (04:36)

Because this is definitely not for the same market as the kiddy cam.

Allante Sparks (04:42)

This list is something else, isn't it? It's something else.

Scott Ertz (04:46)

Dr. Squatch is pretty good soap. Thank you.

Allante Sparks (04:50)

I've seen the advertisements for Dr. Squatch. I'm not even sure if I'm saying that right. feel so dirty coming off of my tone. I prefer do canon that sounds

Scott Ertz (05:03)

yes horrible. Yes he does.

Allante Sparks (05:07)

That sounds like a mess.

Scott Ertz (05:12)

That is a another 200 plus dollar backpack ease. And it is the size of the kids from the camera photo. Yeah.

Allante Sparks (05:23)

I'm not gonna lie though, a duffel bag that you can wear in your back.

Scott Ertz (05:27)

Not a bad idea and

Allante Sparks (05:28)

I can I can give with that idea.

Scott Ertz (05:30)

I don't know for $220 now. All right, back to DJI. Yes, drones. If you're looking for a pro drone DJI is the only choice. Hmm. It's a map. Moving on. Alright, A trip to Iceland. Alright, well, there was a $44 children's video camera. And now a trip to Iceland.

Allante Sparks (05:56)

Sent me off to Iceland.

Scott Ertz (05:59)

This website is weird. Yes.

Allante Sparks (06:07)

This is cool. Oh, cool, man. Kids get the best stuff nowadays, man.

Scott Ertz (06:14)

Okay, so, ah, when I was a kid. We ended up with one of these little power wheels kids car thing. Yeah. That I did not understand well enough at the time now. Okay. Well, we didn't get a battery. Power Power Wheels indeed.

Allante Sparks (06:41)

Oh, yeah. Power Wheels. Yeah.

Scott Ertz (06:44)

That's what this is. It's a different brand. Yeah, the Power Wheels. Yeah. If I had known then what I knew less than 10 years later about it,

Allante Sparks (06:55)

You probably be dead. Is that a fair? Is that a fair assessment

Scott Ertz (07:03)

XMODS. Got it. In fairness, the XMODS thing was Charlie's idea not mine.

Allante Sparks (07:08)

You would be on fire.

Scott Ertz (07:10)

But so I didn't understand enough about electricity and batteries at the time when I was little. To understand that I could have gotten any 12 volt battery that I could have charged and made it compatible with the things. Which looking back makes me very sad. But you're also probably right. Yes. No way. I wouldn't have flipped it. At some point. You started in electrical fire.

Allante Sparks (07:41)

Yeah, yeah. Legit.

Scott Ertz (07:46)

Oh, my Yeah. A Volkswagen Replica RC Car.

Allante Sparks (07:50)

Why? I mean, at least it's one of the better looking Volkswagen vans.

Scott Ertz (07:55)

I didn't see a price for this. It's not in the title. Like the last ones. Yeah. It's not down here.

Allante Sparks (08:04)

There either. No. That means it's expensive. That's

Scott Ertz (08:10)

Yeah, because the only other one that I haven't seen a price for was the Iceland trek.

Allante Sparks (08:15)

stocking stuffer.

Scott Ertz (08:18)

Well, yeah. Plane tickets are pretty small. This is the kind of thing that I might get for Danny. I'm going to come back to that. Okay. Because she has a thing for Volkswagens, particularly Volkswagen buses.

Allante Sparks (08:35)

Really?

Scott Ertz (08:36)

Yeah.

Allante Sparks (08:37)

That's kind of adorable.

Scott Ertz (08:37)

Hopefully she's not watching. Yeah. Hey, listen. Yep, moving on. A LEGO Porsche 911. Yo, that's pretty cool

Allante Sparks (08:54)

That's cool. That's super cool. I wonder how big it is.

Scott Ertz (09:02)

Look at the textbooks behind it.

Allante Sparks (09:05)

That's so cool.

Scott Ertz (09:09)

So 149

Allante Sparks (09:11)

I thought it was a DeLorean at first, and almost needed to change my pants.

Scott Ertz (09:17)

So here's, here's the thing to know. Lego is doing some crazy stuff right now. Okay, their Lego kits. There are some super cool things. Because they have their, the patent on LEGO bricks is over. Oh, so anybody can make Lego compatible things. So Lego has had to stop resting on their patent and start doing unique and creative stuff. So they have been licensing some wild stuff.

Allante Sparks (09:55)

Give me LEGO Gundams and LEGO Evangelions and we're good.

Scott Ertz (09:59)

There. Get out build, I get a weekly email from LEGO on the stuff that they're working on. And they have a thing on the website where you can go say, You know what I'd really like I would like a LEGO FIRST Robotics competition field. And if enough people upvote it, they will go out and try and get the license for it.

Allante Sparks (10:24)

That's awesome. A Lego Infinity Gauntlet? Yes, there is.

Scott Ertz (10:30)

Oh, I was saying there are LEGO Gundams I don't know if it's that LEGO Gundam. Yeah.

Allante Sparks (10:36)

Yeah, I think I know what you're talking about. Oh. I was just talking about this.

Scott Ertz (10:42)

Yes, you were

Allante Sparks (10:43)

This game. Has. It has died hard. It is a great game. But they put some, they allowed for some like Mario 60 Mario Kart 64 type. What's a track skips like you can go off the track and get way ahead of everybody. Real fast. And kinda easy. And so the game died.

Scott Ertz (11:16)

got it for that reason. That's unfortunate.

Allante Sparks (11:19)

But it is so cool. Because some of the cars actually look like plastic.

Scott Ertz (11:23)

Yes. You know and metal. Yeah, some of them look like they're, they're Tonk Tuff

Allante Sparks (11:33)

But it's such a like, I think

Scott Ertz (11:37)

you mean features.

Allante Sparks (11:40)

True. That game is that game is pretty dope. I'm not gonna lie. It's, it's I hope they kind of just fix or some fixes that need to be made. Yeah. Because otherwise it's a really fun game. No, well, anyway,

Scott Ertz (11:53)

Kindle Paperwhite. Obviously industry standard when it comes to, to E-Ink displays and electronic book readers. Yep.

Allante Sparks (12:02)

It's a little surprising that it's that expensive, but

Scott Ertz (12:05)

Depends on which one. So there's a number of of Kindle Paperwhite models, or Kindle E-Ink models. The Paperwhite is the one that best replicates a physical book. So it's the thing that's easiest on the eyes. Couple you know, important exciting things to know about, you know, E-Ink displays, they only use electricity, they only use the battery when you're changing the screen. Once the screen is changed, no battery is used. Because for those who don't know, an E-Ink display is just a big sheet of teeny, tiny ping pong balls. On one side, it's black. And on one side, it's white. In this case, it's not white, and not black. It is book color and book printing color. And there's an electronic there. There's a static charge that goes across the screen. That flips the ping pong balls. Yes. And then it's done.

Allante Sparks (13:14)

Just like, what is that? Etch A Sketch.

Scott Ertz (13:18)

Yes. Very similar to an Etch A Sketch. Yeah, so the only time is using power is one of the bit blipping the screen. That's really cool. And then it doesn't use any more power.

Allante Sparks (13:26)

So that's product so much more interesting. Yeah. Ever thought it was?

Scott Ertz (13:31)

Yeah, E-Ink is fascinating. We had a company on CES 2019 maybe. We were on the tower two years. Yeah. One year 2020. And their product was these reusable shipping boxes. And on them was an E-Ink shipping label. So basically, you could bit blip, the shipping label to it. The barcode was fully readable. You could bit blip your your shipping label to it done and then it didn't need any more power.

Allante Sparks (14:16)

That's amazing. Yeah.

Scott Ertz (14:18)

We also interviewed at CES, I think it was you and I many years ago a company with these really interesting bluetooth headphones that had a box and the box had an E-Ink display on it that had the shipping information on it and then when you got it you could bit blip your own thing onto it. So you could put your gamer tag or your whatever.

Allante Sparks (14:42)

I do remember something like that.

Scott Ertz (14:43)

E-Ink is a fascinating technology. The fact that it's not in more places today is a surprise because technologically E-Ink is impressive.

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