Every year, the hosts from the shows represented in the Tech Podcasts Network's CES coverage get together and award their Top Picks for the show.
Vasco Electronics makes a series of language translation devices. These devices allow you to communicate with people around you even if you don't speak the language. Their newest device is tiny - coming in well under the size of a modern smartphone. The size makes it easy to carry around with you on an international vacation, business trip, or hanging out with a group of friends who speak different languages.
The device comes with free internet access that works across most of the globe. This allows for access to the entire language database and translation matrix nearly wherever you go. This is good because the system currently supports over 100 languages, with the ability to add new languages with time.
One of the things that has become a normal sight at CES is standards. Whether it's our friends at the Wireless Power Consortium or systems for hanging lights, there's something for everyone. The most impactful standard to our daily lives that we encountered this year was VoltSafe - an upgrade to the outlets in your home.
These new outlets are powered by magnets instead of blades, making it impossible to shock a child. Plus, you can angle them any way you want, so no more losing outlets because of a "polarized" plug on a wall wart covering your second outlet. In addition, the outlets include monitoring systems to identify areas of your home that are overusing power, saving you money in the long run.
Pivo is a company that makes tools for content creators like us. Their primary tools are used to connect to your phone and, using AI systems, track users. The device itself physically rotates your phone to keep you in the frame as you move about. It has a large range of motion and can be used for anything from a larger podcast studio to outdoor recordings.
This year, the new product is designed to work with larger devices, as well as the normal phone usage. Being able to use the Pivo Max with your phone, iPad, or even video camera, makes the whole system even more useful to content producers. In fact, Todd is hoping to be able to use this for his own floor interviews at CES 2024.
Psyonic makes one of the most impressive robotic hands we've ever seen. Dan St. Pierre wears one full time as a replacement for a lost limb. What makes his arm impressive is that he is able to control it entirely without any external controls. It learned how to respond to his thoughts and ideas and he can now use it like it's his actual hand.
However, what makes it really interesting in 2023 is the ability to control these arms remotely (but not Dan's). Dr. Aadeel Akhtar shows off the ability to hold your hand in front of a phone camera and have the hand remotely mimick your motions. This could make interactions from NASA space probes more robust with the same articulation of a human hand and with existing solid remote control.
WowWee is a toy company that has long made robotic toys. They were famous in the mid 2000s for the RoboRaptor and the RoboSapien. These days, however, they have turned their focus toward more companion-style robotics. Enter the Dog-E.
This new dog robot has the ability to generate its own unique personality when you first interact with it. It reveals the personality that was generated over time, in new and bigger ways. You also have the ability to make changes to the personality if you need to. It's also got some unique and odd features, such as a tail that can display text and emoji.
Conversation with Scott Ertz of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central, and Marlo Anderson of The Tech Ranch.
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.
Todd is the CEO of RawVoice / Blubrry - a podcast media company that represents 105,000 Audio and Video podcasters in which his company provides advertising opportunities, media distribution/hosting, podcast media statistics and other services. He is a podcast advertising specialist. Executing podcast advertising deals with a variety of national vendors for the past 13 years. Todd was responsible for bringing GoDaddy into the Podcast Advertising Space as one of the first podcast advertisers in 2005.
Marlo is a serial entrepreneur, global speaker, futurist and founder of National Day Calendar. Trending over 450 times on Twitter last year and a Social Media reach in the hundreds of millions, National Day Calendar is followed daily by more than 20,000 media outlets including Elvis Duran, Ellen Degeneres, Fox & Friends and Good Morning America. National Calendar Day has appeared in many major newspapers from the Wall Street Journal to the Fargo Forum. When he's not celebrating every day, he is the host of the radio show "The Tech Ranch" where he is known as "The Guru of Geek." This unique platform has allowed him to gain deep knowledge in emerging technology trends and hardware.
