Attach This Title With Silicone Tape! - DTNS Live 4930 ![rw-book-cover](https://wsrv.nl/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.pippa.io%2Fshows%2F61954547cb03c875f7617118%2F0237f872-79d1-4cc6-976b-9aae7ded0f7b.png&w=100&h=100) ## Metadata - Author: [[Daily Tech News Show]] - Full Title: Attach This Title With Silicone Tape! - DTNS Live 4930 - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/003e2b02-3ece-49bf-a675-3fcd8e464f98 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Heated Beehives** - Allison Sheridan found a space heater for beehives at CES. - It combats a bee-killing parasite by raising the hive's temperature. Transcript: Robb Dunewood Well, I like to bring some of the weird and wonderful stuff that's maybe off the beaten path that maybe three people in the audience would be interested in. My favorite of that is called Life Hive. And the problem these people are trying to solve is that there's a parasite that kills bees. And it turns out if you raise the temperature of the hive to 40 degrees, 42 degrees C for about three hours on a schedule, and you have to do it every once in a while, it will actually kill The parasite. So these people build these, this substrate that then they can heat up. They've got solar panels. It's all, you know, apified and all that. And they're hoping to be able to help kill off these parasites. And you can even use these if, like, your neighbors have the parasites, but you can still keep them killed at your place. So it's a pretty slick product. Plus, the guy did the whole interview wearing a bee suit, you know, beekeeper suit. That helps. Yeah, he didn't want to put the thing over his face, but I made him. Tom Merritt So it's really just a fancy timer. Robb Dunewood I think so. Yeah, I was trying to get on that, but I couldn't get much past that. But I went to the website, and there was all these testimonials of people who are beekeepers going, oh, man, this is awesome. I have no parasites anymore. Nothing from actual bees, though, just beekeepers. No, the bees didn't talk about it. I did learn that bees actually self-control the temperature of the hive. So I don't know, flap their wings a lot to get air in there or something like that. But I keep thinking, aren't they going to try to cool the hive back down? Because 42 degrees C is higher than they normally keep it. But I am no bee expert, so I don't know the answer to those questions. That ([Time 0:07:18](https://share.snipd.com/snip/20c27c34-d686-4c67-b04c-7112c3a6e94d)) - **Robotic Emotional Support Animals** - TomBot created robotic emotional support animals, starting with dogs. - These robots provide comfort without safety concerns and react to touch realistically. Transcript: Sarah Lane Is cool, by the way. Yeah. So let's talk more about robot animals. Robb Dunewood Yeah. So a gentleman started a company called TomBot. The problem he was trying to solve was his mother got Alzheimer's, and he had to take her dog away because it was a safety issue. And so he thought, what if we could make emotional support animals that are actually robots? And he went back to school, got a Ph.D. From Stanford. I don't know why he had to do that to get this. But anyway, he started designing these robot dogs. And the idea is it's a dog that lays in your lap or lays next to you on the couch, and it reacts to your hand. So as you're stroking the ears, it'll do something different than stroking the back. And if you pick it up, it'll stop squirming so that it's easier to carry and not drop. And he worked with Jim Henson's Creature Shop to design things. Like the way the ears move on this little golden retriever. It's perfect. I mean, it really looked like a dog. It felt a little bit weird, but it was really compelling to watch. Tom Merritt So no Uncanny Dog Valley for you? Robb Dunewood No, and that was something I asked about. I said it doesn't seem to give this Uncanny Valley thing. And he said their studies have been done that Uncanny Valley is intraspecies. Wait, I'm getting it backwards, whichever. Tom Merritt Intraspecies is within the same species. Robb Dunewood Right, so if, you know, a fake Tom, you know, at the Wax Museum here in Las Vegas would not, would creep me out. He's staring at me right now. But a fake seven, the dog, might be just fine. That's what he was trying to explain to us. It was pretty interesting. They've gone through a lot of iterations, so he had an older, the dog's name is Jenny, had an older version of Jenny there, and the older Jenny looked a little creepy. I'm not going to lie. It didn't look quite right, but the newer one looked better, and it's still in alpha. They're not out to beta, but they've got 8,000 pre-orders already. Tom Merritt So it's an alpha dog? Robb Dunewood Yeah, it's an alpha dog. I ([Time 0:08:46](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5084c8eb-b2bc-4746-8284-43c8935daf4f)) - **iFixit Origin** - iFixit's founder started by fixing a broken PowerBook hinge after Apple refused to sell him the part. - This led to a business of selling parts from broken laptops and eventually iFixit's tool sets. Transcript: Sarah Lane Mean, you know, robo-puppy wouldn't replace, you beloved Otis, but I don't hate the idea of a robo puppy. Allison Sheridan It's also, you know, this is what Larry acts for in the mailbag yesterday. Oh, really? Tom Merritt We had mentioned a little bit about this Tombot. How could I forget? Yeah, but I'm glad you brought the details on it today. Robb Dunewood Yeah, it was pretty interesting. Let me go mainstream for my final one. A lot of people on the show, I'm sure, have heard of iFixit. And so we went to the iFixit booth, and I basically just wanted to go over and go, oh, I love you guys. You guys are so awesome. But I ended up talking to the chief tool designer. I think his first name was Eric. And he talked a lot about the genesis of how the company started. And I thought it was really interesting because I brought up the fact that I was really happy. I had two MacBooks from two friends of mine. One had a good display and one had a bad display, but the motherboard was shot. So I was able to take both of these apart, which is about 230,000 steps, get them both apart and put one back together and have one good laptop when I was done. And he said that that's actually how the founder started was he had a broken hinge on a PowerBook. And he wrote to Apple and said, I need to buy a new hinge. And they said, we don't sell parts. So he bought a broken one on eBay, took it apart, got the hinge out of it, put it back into his PowerBook, and then he sold the rest of it for parts and made four times his investment. And went, oh, there's something here. So that's actually how they started. They started buying old broken laptops and then taking them apart and labeling them and selling them for parts. We talked about the different tools and the advances they've got in them. And they've got a little smaller pack than their original one that has every single tool. Doing a lot of surveys, they found out what are the tools just about everybody uses, and maybe you don't need, like, the static wrist strap, for example. And so they made a smaller one, so that's more affordable. My favorite part, though, was after we were done with the interview, we were off doing some stuff, and my videographer, Steve Sheridan, is sitting right here, and he noticed that the Audio cable between the transmitter or the receiver and the camcorder was fraying and it was starting to go. And we're like, well, that's an important cable. And he says, well, I got to go get a new one. And I said, no, I bet I know who can fix it. And he's like, no, there's no way you're going to be able to get tape around this because they have the shrink tube sleeving. And I go over there and Eric goes, why, we have just the thing. It turns out they have this silicone tape that you just wrap around it, and over a little amount of time, it just kind of melds into itself and becomes one solid piece of tape. Tom Merritt Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's not electrical tape. It's not an adhesive. Robb Dunewood No, but it becomes like an adhesive. Steve is actually going to do a live demo for us in the room. He's going to be able to show us the... Well, we're going to be able to see it. Tom Merritt Not everybody's going to be able to see it. But, yeah, it just looks like electrical, like blue electrical tape. Yeah, but it's just silicon tape. Robb Dunewood Yeah, so it's just keeping it safe. But it was just such a fun moment, and he loved that we came back for it, that they could be the guys. Oh, the other thing that they demoed was they have a USB-C sold set and so it's supposed to be able to make soldering soldering sets yeah so usbc powered and then um it's got app control And things and it's a lot easier and maybe they're trying to make it where it's more approachable for people to learn how to do soldering yeah that's nice so it can give you some tips while Tom Merritt You're soldering i ([Time 0:10:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1e9c0a26-fdef-46d1-94b6-66424e0175b8)) - **Silicone Tape** - Use silicone tape to repair frayed cables. - It melds into a solid piece, providing a secure fix. Transcript: Robb Dunewood And so they made a smaller one, so that's more affordable. My favorite part, though, was after we were done with the interview, we were off doing some stuff, and my videographer, Steve Sheridan, is sitting right here, and he noticed that the Audio cable between the transmitter or the receiver and the camcorder was fraying and it was starting to go. And we're like, well, that's an important cable. And he says, well, I got to go get a new one. And I said, no, I bet I know who can fix it. And he's like, no, there's no way you're going to be able to get tape around this because they have the shrink tube sleeving. And I go over there and Eric goes, why, we have just the thing. It turns out they have this silicone tape that you just wrap around it, and over a little amount of time, it just kind of melds into itself and becomes one solid piece of tape. Tom Merritt Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's not electrical tape. It's not an adhesive. Robb Dunewood No, but it becomes like an adhesive. Steve is actually going to do a live demo for us in the room. He's going to be able to show us the... Well, we're going to be able to see it. Tom Merritt Not everybody's going to be able to see it. But, yeah, it just looks like electrical, like blue electrical tape. Yeah, but it's just silicon tape. ([Time 0:12:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5ea66b79-cfb3-4edb-958a-d4d538b2e46f)) - **CES Trends** - Allison Sheridan observed a rise in health tech and accessibility tech at CES. - This includes devices like a home stethoscope for monitoring breathing and sending data to doctors. Transcript: Sarah Lane Think so, yeah. That would be nice. Thank you, buddy. You're welcome. So, Allison, you know, as a veteran of CES, is there anything you're kind of feeling this year as far as, like, you know, sort of the tech polls? I know AI is obviously dominating the conversation, but anything you feel is just kind of different than before? Robb Dunewood Well, I was actually surprised that most of the people we talked to didn't bring up AI, or it would just be an in-passing phrase. It wasn't like they were going, hey, we have AI. It seemed a little bit more natural. I did see more accessible tech there than I was expecting to see. A lot of medical tech, so a lot of different solutions. There was a company that had a thing you stick to your chest. It's basically a home stethoscope, and it monitors your breathing. So if you have a chronic breathing problem, you've got asthma, for example, you could take a diagram basically that you can then send to your doctor, and they can actually listen and See the crackles in your lungs. Or even maybe sleep apnea type thing um they didn't talk about sleep apnea because it's just something you hold on your chest for a little while to listen i see while you're um yeah but To go back and forth with your doctor and and be able to get maybe a better diagnosis and not have to make an appointment every single time something feels a little weird is it easy to move Bodie Grimm Around because when you listen to lung sounds you don't just listen in one spot. You want to listen to all of the lobes. Robb Dunewood Yeah, it's just like a puck. And you set it on your chest in the different spots on your back and on your chest and everything. So yeah, that was pretty interesting. So definitely more medical tech than I remember seeing. Tom Merritt It seems to be a growing trend. ([Time 0:13:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5955cd71-4835-47ce-ae17-01fbd1ba576a)) - **Lightship RV** - Lightship RV offers a high-end, pop-up trailer with an electric motor for towing assistance and regenerative braking. - This addresses the range issue of EVs when towing and offers up to seven days of off-grid power. Transcript: Robb Dunewood Health tech and things like that. We haven't been on the show floor yet. Everything I've talked about, we've been to the press events, the early press events. We just spent today trying to find Tom's booth. Sarah Lane Every year, every year. I haven't been to CES myself in some time, but every year it's like, where are we again? It's an adventure. Somewhere yeah in uh in uh some sort of booth all right so bode let's talk about what you've seen at ces and what has stuck out to you at this point okay so we're going to start with lightship Bodie Grimm Rv which is a very large tow behind pop-up uh trailer so it has um it has a 78 kilowatt hour battery with an electric motor on it. So what it's designed to do, I mean, this thing is super cool, looks like a spaceship. But the biggest benefit of the Lightship RV is it uses that electric motor to assist you when you're towing. So if you have an electric vehicle, your range goes right down into the toilet as soon as you start towing. So what this does is it gives you that little bit of extra boost to basically reclaim your miles, reclaim your range. And it's all kind of controlled. I was like, how does it know? Do you have an app? And he's like, no. You don't want to get ahead. Right. So there's sensors in the tow hitch. And depending on how much force is being applied, it gives you a little bit extra. And if you're going downgrade, it will hold back a little bit, and it will just kind of help control your descent. And this works with internal combustion engines. It works with EVs. So I know even if you have a big you know f-250 and you're going up grade that it's going to be a slow slow climb so it's a smart system within the rv itself within the rv itself and it's a pop-up So uh when you're when you're traveling it goes down to like seven feet or something like that and then uh that that reduces drag now when i asked what the drag coefficient is, it's basically One, but he's like, it doesn't really matter because you have a big truck in front of it and that affects the drag coefficient. Tom Merritt Would it fit a smoker? I ask on behalf of Chris Ashley. Yes. It would probably fit a smoker. Bodie Grimm I don't know that you would want... This is a $250,000 RV. I'm not sure you want to put a smoker inside of it. Maybe one of these smart smokers you see on the floor that are tiny. Robb Dunewood Does it have regenerative braking too? Bodie Grimm It does have regenerative braking. So when you're slowing down or going downgrade, it will put the energy back into the trailer's battery, not into your vehicle's battery. Robb Dunewood 70 kW. That's big. That's significant. Bodie Grimm Yeah, it's 26 feet long, and it's 22 feet livable. Robb Dunewood It's all fancy inside. Allison Sheridan Yeah, it's super fancy. Now, can you use it when you're parked? Can you actually use it if it's got to charge to charge your car back up? Bodie Grimm That's a very good point, Rob. Yes, you can. You can't charge your car back up, but you can it to operate uh while you're camping up to seven days or i think it's a little over seven days depending on how you use it which for somebody Sarah Lane Who's like what does that mean you can charge your phone you can charge uh you know it's gotta run the refrigerator we're talking like yeah you can keep things cold inside the inside the R. Bodie Grimm In air conditioner, and it's got solar panels on top, so you're also recharging the battery while you're sitting there. I would go camping like this. Robb Dunewood That sounds like camping to me. Bodie Grimm Yeah, that's definitely camping to me, for sure. Robb Dunewood It's glamping. Sarah Lane This is glamping. That's me roughing it. ([Time 0:15:33](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7c607ccd-4fc3-4ce4-9443-fd62056e5e5c)) - **Pivotal Helix** - Pivotal's Helix is a single-person eVTOL aircraft controlled primarily by software. - It's classified as an ultralight, requiring no pilot's license, but has a limited 20-minute battery life and a parachute for emergencies. Transcript: Tom Merritt Glamping is another trend on our CES coverage. I don't know if it's on Broad or CES. It came up yesterday. Sarah Lane Yeah. Bodhi, what else did you see at the show that has stood out to you so far? Bodie Grimm Okay. One of the areas that I think is really cool that I honestly don't think is going to go anywhere is the eVTOL. You know, basically the Jetsons car, the drone that will take you up. Tom Merritt Vertical takeoff. Personal helicopter, vertical takeoff. Sarah Lane I mean, I keep waiting for it. I keep waiting. I want that. I want to fly in the sky. Bodie Grimm It might happen someday. I think it's going to be the domain of super rich people for now. But Pivotal showed off their Helix so that right now they have the, what is it, Blackfly is what they're delivering now, and the Helix is coming soon. This is a single-person EV tall. You can be six feet, five inches tall and still fly this thing. The cockpit is very tight. I would feel very claustrophobic in that thing. But it's got a wing in the back with drone motors and then propellers, and then it's got a wing in the front with the same. And I can't see if Joe is showing off the video, but it is crazy. It is a crazy little device for $250,000 also. Tom Merritt What do you have to have to fly it? Bodie Grimm Nothing. It's part 103, so it's considered an ultralight. And here's the thing. I talked to the first owner of this, and I said, do you have a pilot's license? He said and i said okay cool um are you familiar with flying like ultralights before you got into this and he had he'd been flying for a long time and uh i was like okay uh you know the next Question is like how do you you know when you're flying how do you know how to fly you know basically there is a certain amount of knowledge you have to know for flying an aircraft. Sarah Lane 100%. I wouldn't be comfortable just being like, all right, let me get into the air and see how it goes. Bodie Grimm Well, this is what he told me. He goes, you're not the pilot. He goes, the software is the pilot. You just tell it, I want to go left, I want to go right, I want to turn. And all the software does that. So I don't know if that's a technicality or not. It seems like you're still the pilot because you're telling it where to go. Tom Merritt You're going to be responsible if something happens. Bodie Grimm Right. But you're not really adjusting, like, attitude and things like that. You are going to go forward, and it's going to go forward at whatever it's programmed to go forward. It's going to stay within those standards. Robb Dunewood You're not telling it what kind of speed to come into the landing for or anything like that. Bodie Grimm Actually, there's a button for takeoff in that. Sarah Lane I think that's a conversation that we have a lot with autonomous cars on the roads right now. It's like, yeah, if anything goes wrong, the human should intervene. And not everybody has a driver's license, but many of us do, you know, who are sitting in the back of a Waymo type thing. When it comes to flying in the sky, I feel like we all need to probably have like a, you know, the equivalent of like the flying motorcycle license where it's above and beyond just being On the highway. Bodie Grimm Yeah, no, that's a really good, that's a really good comparison. The thing is, is if you get into trouble and it's just going to crash or if the, you can, I was like, it does like a drone, you know, if you're running out of battery, it just automatically Comes home and lands. And I was like, does this do that? And he goes, no, he goes after 20 minutes, it'll just fall out of the sky. If you don't, if you're not careful, it'll go down to negative five battery. And I was like, what happens then? He goes, there's a parachute. And I was like, okay, have you tested that? And he says, no and i was like yeah it's probably cool cool good idea cool cool yeah totally fine just make sure you're wearing sensible shoes you're fine yeah and clean underwear clean Underwear is important yeah also also a plus he said 20 minute battery life 20 minute battery life 40 minutes charge. And the guy I was talking to, his name was Tom. He had a smile on his face ear to ear when he was talking about flying this thing. He said it is so much fun. I asked him, what kind of looks did you get up in the air if you were flying around and you happened to come across another plane? Because this thing looks pretty weird uh he said uh he said some interesting ones he he gets he lives in a rural part of washington so um oh and the other thing i asked him is if this was the One of those drones that they're flying over new jersey he said no he said no yeah so although he may have been mistaken for one it is not right yeah well uh well ([Time 0:19:13](https://share.snipd.com/snip/aec5989f-c5e1-403a-803b-2b72ee997e5e)) - **Dyslexia Lamp** - Robb Dunewood, who has dyslexia, found a lamp from Lili for Life at CES that significantly improves his reading experience. - The lamp's flickering light reduces eye-skipping common in dyslexia, making reading less stressful. Transcript: Sarah Lane All right, Rob, I know you're excited about this one. You've been pounding the pavement at CES for a couple days now, but what has caught your eye? Allison Sheridan So I talked to the folks from France-based Lili for Life who have a product for people with dyslexia. Now, Allison knows that I have dyslexia, so she walked me towards these folks' booth, pointed it out to me, and said, Hey, make sure you go talk to these folks, and I'm so glad that I did. Because one of the things that the way my dyslexia presents itself, I have two dominant eyes. And with that, with the problem that causes is that when I'm reading, most people, when they read, they have a dominant eye that keeps track of where they are because I have two dominant Eyes. They are battling each other for, I want to see this. I want to see that. So what ends up happening is that I read and I'll be on one line and skip to another line and not realize it. Skip back up, skip back down. Sarah Lane Oh, you're not going like left to right, left to right. Allison Sheridan Right. So I'll go three words to the right, then I'll go down a space, one over to the left, and then up catty corner to the right. It's kind of crazy, but it's like I don't generally read in straight lines. So if I'm reading particularly like paper books, I actually will use an index card or use my finger to just make sure I'm tracking to that stay on the on the, you know, on the right line. And, you know, from from I think the age of, you know, from second grade until about seventh grade, I did all kind of therapy to learn how to read and to learn how to compensate. But what Lili for Life has created, they created two things. One of them is called the dyslexic lamp, and it literally is a light that flickers. And so if you're reading a paper book, you put this light over the thing that you're reading, and you have to tune it in. And essentially what this flicker will do is it will trick my brain into only allowing one of my eyes to be dominant. And when that happens, it doesn't make the dyslexia go away, but it makes the amount of skipping around that I do significantly decrease. And it was instantaneous. They also have an app for this. The app does the same thing. So instead of flipping light on top of a book, it's just flickering light in a screen. And that was even more just because I think it's a bigger screen and the light's probably more dialed into, you know, in my eyes, it was instantaneous. Tom and Amos were standing there watching me and I almost got emotional because it was like I literally could read new texts without having to have all the mental strain of trying to make Sure I stay on the same line. I remember, know, years ago I was on, uh, you know, you know, on, you know, one of the shows where we were talking about books and I was like, I never really read books for pleasure. It is like, I read technical manuals, I information. If there's something, there's information I want to get, I'll power through that. But you know, for me, it has never been a thing where I would sit down and curl up with a book and relax and read just because that is not relaxing. It is very straining. I literally have to concentrate hard to get through something without skipping around. And this product, it is truly amazing in what it does. It's not available here in the United States yet. They're trying to get licensed and to be able to sell it here. Robb Dunewood To be clear, I think it's the screen that isn't available yet, right? The computer screen, but the lamp is available here. Allison Sheridan The lamp is available now. It's been out for a couple of years. It's been out for a couple of years. The screen is not currently available. I think they said it's going to be out in the late spring, early summer. Robb Dunewood And I think he said that it was hardware-based that it was able to do this flickering. So the screen costs about double what a screen of the equivalent size would cost. That's what I was going to say. Tom Merritt Could you change your refresh rate or something? It sounds like the answer is no. Like on my monitor. No, you couldn't make your monitor do this. I need their monitor to be able to do the precise... Because it's actually flickering. Allison Sheridan Yes, definitely it's a hardware monitor. But the dyslexia does not go away but for me i literally if i don't if i don't make myself stay on a line i'll get three to five words in before i skip around and when i was doing this i was literally Able to get through an entire sentence like it doesn't go away there's still some yeah i still my eyes still want to skip yeah but it was i mean like i said you know, I got a little emotional Because like, where was this when I was in the second grade? Yeah. Because when I was, when I was younger, you know, it's like, well, everybody else can read. I can't read. So from, you know, from kindergarten, first grade, second grade, I was memorizing the books. But once you get to about second grade, third grade, it gets very difficult to try to remember this. Or, you know, I remember, you know, my parents you having the conversation with the schools and stuff like that and they're saying hey something's going on um he he's got a ridiculous Memory but he's not reading he's memorizing the books from other kids reading and you know teachers reading to me i'm memorizing and that's at that point you're you you know it's sort Sarah Lane Of like maybe your eyes, you just need glasses, you know, kind of thing. Like there are probably a lot of solutions that parents and teachers try to go through before they realize what's really going on. Allison Sheridan Right. And this, I mean, dyslexia was definitely around in the early 80s, late 70s when I was, you know, when I was, you know, the age when they figured it out for me. But it was still pretty new. It's not like today. So there was a lot of I'm not smart, I'm not bright, because everybody else is doing this thing. And like I said, this does not, and the CEO of the company we talked to, he said it does not take your dyslexia away. It just takes a bit of mental strain off of you when you're trying to read, because I'm not just reading. I am reading and concentrating significantly so to stay online with what I'm reading if I can't actually take my finger in track or put a note card up or something like that to track. So it's difficult. I don't relax when I read. I'm actually fairly stressed when I read. Robb Dunewood One other thing the CEO said was that typical eyes receive the signals slightly out of phase. Right. So it gets to one eye before the other eye. But people with dyslexia, it comes at the exact same time. Exactly. And that's part of the problem. And that's why the flickering is affecting it is because it's making it get out of phase, which it should, which makes it easier to read. Allison Sheridan That's exactly right. Now, there's some benefits to that. Like, I'm sports ambidextrous because I have two dominant eyes. I can shoot left-handed, shoot right-handed about the same. I'm a right-handed person, but I play golf left-handed. I'd rather shoot a basketball off my left hand. And it's just because both my eyes are dominant, so I can shoot from either side. I is that way. Robb Dunewood You know, are you emotional and logical on both sides? Let's cut you open and find out. Sarah Lane I mean, if so, yes. Let's study Rob's brain. Allison Sheridan Yeah, this device, like I said, the lamp is what really impressed me, which is available. I honestly want to see if I can't get one. Ship me one from France if I can get one because I just I simply don't enjoy reading paperback books because it is you know it's so stressful to actually sit there and read it I'd rather Read it on the screen because I can change the font I you know I was showing Tom you know right before the show I actually ma... ([Time 0:25:26](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bb051dd0-889e-42df-bf46-c26466c3145f)) - **Smart Glasses Trends** - Tom Merritt explores two trends in smart glasses: lightweight AR glasses like Rayneo X3 Pro and monitor-like glasses like Xreal 1 Pro. - Rayneo offers a short battery life but a stylish design, while Xreal excels in spatial computing and functionality but is tethered. Transcript: Tom Merritt I wonder if they could build it into monitors cheaply enough for displays to just take it up as a feature. Sarah Lane That too, yeah, AR glasses. That was where I went. But, like, yeah, monitors, you know, smartphones, whatever. While we're talking about glasses, Tom, I know you've been tracking some of the new and cool stuff at CES. Tom Merritt Yeah, smart glasses are new at CES, but they're becoming common. They're becoming a normal thing. They're from more and more companies. A lot of the companies are trying to differentiate themselves by emphasizing a particular feature. So there was one that was emphasizing live translation. There was another one that was emphasizing captions, like so you could see what people were saying as captions in your display. It was a little too close up. I wouldn't use it as a prompter necessarily. But I found two that I think are kind of emblematic of the two main trends here. China's Rayno, R-A brought their X3 Pro AR frames, full color AR display, 2,500 nits, nice and bright. Frames weigh less than three ounces. If you actually ran into these before, they were quite a bit heavier in the past. They're pretty light now. They look like normal frames. They put the cameras, two cameras, in the center of the frame instead of one camera on each end like meta does uh and they can do room and hand tracking uses qualcomm's ar1 gen one chipset Uh they can do real-time translation uh they have a virtual assistant using chat gpt that you can talk to the the downside on these they're wireless they can do all this stuff and look Like regular glasses but they don't have much battery uh battery lasts 30 minutes so you're not going to be wearing them for long. And they're expensive. The company says they hope to put them on sale later this year, and they would be around $1,500. On the other end, one of the OGs in this is Xreal. The Xreal 1 Pro is their new pair of glasses here at CES, has the X1 spatial computing chip. So they can do spatial computing in the Xreal 1. The Xreal 1 Pro, with the better chip, delivers less blur, no flicker, 120 hertz refresh rate. The new chip does not rely on a connected device for the spatial computing, which the old one did. It can do all of it on the glasses themselves. Also has a 57-degree field of view, and it's a little bit lighter than the older one. You can pre-order the X-Real One Pro for $599. That's shipping in March. The X-Real One, which was just announced a few months ago, is out of stock, but it's $499 and it will be back in stock soon. They're going to keep selling both versions of these. Now, the interesting thing about the X-Real is it's got a wire on it. So it is the version that is meant to be used as a monitor. But they're trying to say you can use it as a really good monitor. It can handle a lot of windows. It has a wider field of view. It's a 57-degree field of view in the Pro now. And it is able to plug into anything, anything that can output a screen. I plugged it into my iPhone, and it was able to show my iPhone screen floating in front of me, and I could position that screen wherever I wanted. But they don't look like regular glasses. They're a little bit heavy. They've got a little bit of a hood on them, and they've got a wire hanging out of them, right? Because you're plugging them into something. They're not wireless, but they're a lot cheaper because of that. I tried out the Xreal glasses. I felt like it for sitting down, say, on an airplane, which is one of the use cases they use, they would be comfortable enough for a while and I could be able to use them. Rob tried them out too with Spacetop, which is a software platform. If you've heard of Sightful, Sightful was the ones that made the laptop without a display. They were just selling Xreal glasses with the laptop base, and you would just use the glasses as your monitor. Well, they got rid of that product. They couldn't sell enough of them, but they're still selling the software they developed for it. It's called Spacetop, and you tried that out, right? I tried ([Time 0:34:16](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bb726d7f-8ef1-4255-aa10-c25bb25e66d8)) - **Spacetop Software** - Robb Dunewood tried Spacetop software with Xreal glasses at CES, experiencing multiple virtual screens in his field of view. - The software corrected for his prescription and offered features like volume adjustment based on gaze direction. Transcript: Allison Sheridan It. It was really cool software because essentially, I'm wearing the same glasses that Tom is talking about. And they corrected for my prescription, so they took my glasses, put them into a little machine so they could get my prescription, so they could change the lenses so I could see clearly. And once you put them on, I'm looking at literally 24 screens. It's like three rows of eight screens. And you look here, you see a screen. You look there, you see a screen. And it's cool. The software is pretty uh you know responsive so if you want to zoom in on one screen you just hit a button on the keyboard and now you're just looking at a giant screen as compared to a bunch Of little ones and it's it's translucent so you can see through the screen and you can dial that in as well so you can determine what you want to see you can look at other things um i don't Think you're going to be walking around wearing these things. It's more like if you're wearing them, somebody comes up and talks to you. Instead of having to take them off, you can just hit a button and what you're looking at goes away and you can look at the person. Like the Windows Z of a smart glass. Exactly. So it is pretty cool technology. I think it's going to be very specific use cases for someone who travels extensively. If you're on planes or trains a lot and while you're on them, you're working and getting work done. And just your laptop monitor, your tablet monitor is not enough. This is going to come in because what I did notice is that when you put the screens right in front of you, they are very clear. I mean, it looks like you're looking at a laptop monitor. And it's pretty impressive technology. Because of that wire, though, like I said, and the size of the glasses, they are a bit heavier. It's not like wearing a Vision or anything like that, Vision Pro, but they are noticeably heavy, so I would imagine you're probably not going to wear them for just hour upon hour upon Hour. You're going to wear them while you're doing work, and then you take them off and put your regular glasses on if you wear them and kind of go back and forth. Tom Merritt Although Space Top is using the old Air 2 Ultras, and apparently the new Pros are a little bit lighter. They are. Allison Sheridan So they're not heavy, but they're heavier than the glasses that Tom and I are wearing and Allison are wearing. So, you know, you will notice it. If you wear glasses, you'll notice there's a difference. But it's pretty cool software. Like I said, it's like, you know, you essentially are just looking at multiple monitors. You can put, you know, dozens of them up there and you just look up and left. You're looking at a monitor up to your left. You look down and right. You're looking at a monitor and you're right. And one of the cool things was that there's a YouTube video that was playing in one of my screens. When I look at the screen, that actually brought the volume up, which is really cool. So it actually knows that I'm looking at YouTube, so it says, oh, let's bring that volume up on the YouTube screen, which I thought was kind of, oh, you know what I'm looking at. Let's give you the volume so you can hear the video. ([Time 0:38:07](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0ee60ef2-9af5-42b9-b0b4-11170ecbfbc8)) - **BMW Touchscreen** - BMW is introducing a panoramic touchscreen interface in its new cars, potentially phasing out the physical iDrive controller. - Usage data suggests declining use of the controller, although personal preferences vary among drivers. Transcript: Tom Merritt And because it's a car tech story, I also want to get Bodhi's take. BMW's SVP of connected company technical operations, Stephen Durock, said that its panoramic iDrive touchscreen, which it showed off today at CES. It's a it's a what did I say it was hexagonal or rhomboid? It's a rhomboid like it's got angles in it. Touchscreen for your entire dash interface is coming to the new class BMWs by the end of the year. And Tim Stevens had the presence of mind while writing for Engadget to ask Durock about the rotary iDrive physical controller, the way you control an infotainment screen now. He says, it's not there on the new class. You say that this panoramic touchscreen that's along the top of the dash is coming to other cars. What about that physical controller? And Duroc said, we take a look at all of our data and usage. You can really see that usage of our rotary controller is declining dramatically. People don't even touch it. That's not him saying it's going away, but it doesn't sound good. Robb Dunewood But it sounds like if people aren't using it, I certainly wouldn't build the complexity. Tom Merritt Yeah, and I know you're a fan of the physical controller, but it sounds like maybe you're rare. I don't know. Robb Dunewood Well, yeah, one of the things I've figured out is, like a lot of things, all people aren't exactly the same, as it turns out. So the thing I really want a physical control of is the air vent. I want to be able to grab something and move the air vent, make it be, you know, turn the speed of the air blowing up and down, up and down when I change the temperature. I want that all to be a physical control. I was talking in front of mine, Steven gets, he says, Allison, I set the temperature in my car the day I bought it and I haven't touched it since. And he said, but what I really want is a physical control for the brightness of the display in front of me for when I'm driving on a dark road, I need to be able to dim that. And I said, I didn't even know cars could do that, Stephen. I've never done that. And then I talked to somebody else. They're like, no, but what I really need. And so what we've all decided is that what we need is some haptic buttons that are programmable for the driver. So I could have my haptic buttons that I can actually feel it. And I'm going to be able to change the temperature. He's going to change the brightness of that display. So I think that's the problem with it, right? Tom Merritt Yeah. You could use that iFlick button we were talking about yesterday that's for the smart homes, but put it in your car. Program it to do something for your car, yeah. There you go. Bodhi, you cover this space all the time. I'm just curious about your thoughts before we move along. I mean, love you love. Bodie Grimm You know, this is there was a little bit of a time when I like kind of waded into this with with listeners and stuff. And it's people are so passionate about what they like and what they don't like. It's you know, the great thing is, is like the Hyundai and Kia vehicles built on the GMP platform. They have a mixture of both. The Tesla is obviously mostly all touchscreen. You have a nice mix in the Ford products. I don't think anybody's not going to buy a Mercedes because it doesn't have a dial or because it does have a dial. Tom Merritt Do you think the physical controller is going away, though? Bodie Grimm If it does, it's going to drive my wife up the wall because she hates my car, my Tesla. She hates having to go to the screen every time she wants to do something like change the direction of that. I mean, you can't even change the direction of the way the vents are blowing without touching the touchscreen. So. Tom Merritt Oh, well. Sorry, physical control. We're all different. Yeah. We ([Time 0:44:23](https://share.snipd.com/snip/818f722d-5db3-46cc-8e55-e01719492321)) - **ChatGPT for Python** - Jamie from Canada used ChatGPT to create Python scripts for managing MP3 files, inspired by a previous episode. - This highlights how ChatGPT can empower users with limited coding experience to automate tasks. Transcript: Sarah Lane Are all different. What what what we're not different about is the fact that we love getting uh email from you uh in fact we got one from jamie in canada who sent us this really nice one saying long time listener Of dtnsTNS, beginning in the TNT days, I've always considered myself a techie person, but recently your show reminded me, we can all learn a little something. You all went around the table a few episodes ago and asked how you're utilizing ChatGPT in your day-to And it made me think about how I can utilize it in my own workflow. Fast forward, I'm now going to be using ChatGPT to generate some Python scripts to help me sort and tag and convert and process MP3 files, build and query a database, automatically track Downloads and duplicates, all with little to no coding experience. This is a huge step forward for me, and I have your show to thank for the inspiration to use ChatTPT in this way. Tom Merritt I love this. I love this email for multiple reasons. One is that it's somebody who didn't think there was a use for it until they heard other people giving examples. Robb Dunewood I have to tell you, I'm right there with him. I love that episode, learning how Brian Brushwood has it ask him questions. Give me one question at a time on this topic. And that was fascinating to me. I never thought of doing that. So I think the more stories we tell, the more people realize that maybe this is the way I would use it. Sarah Lane I also think, I mean, there are many of us who are like, eh, I don't know, my brain's better. And that sometimes is actually the right call. You know, it's like, you don't have to have the AI do everything for you all day, every day. But there are certain times where it's like it will just speed up my brain function for this specific task. And I think that's what Jamie's going for here. Allison Sheridan Yeah. You won't know until you try. It sounds like where AI is going and even being here at CES, like AI is everywhere, but people aren't just AI. We've got AI in our sheets. We've got AI in the soles of your shoes. It's not like that. It seems like it is. We've come to the point where now people are realizing that AI is just a tool that you can use to do what you were already going to do, but just make that thing that you were already going To do a little easier. Robb Dunewood Maybe get the tedium out of what you were doing. Allison Sheridan It's what I use. Instead of using a screwdriver, maybe you now have an electric screwdriver. And it's like it just makes what you were already going to do just a little bit easier. And I think that's what we're seeing a lot here at CES. Bodie Grimm I have a quick question. When people are using this for code and they have no idea how to code, how are they debugging things? There's actually AIs to debug for you. You put it through the debugger, yeah. You've got to run up against a wall somewhere, right? Yeah. Tom Merritt It's a good question for the developers in the audience, feedback at dailytechnewsshow.com. But as I understand it, people who don't know how to code at all aren't really using this much. And the people who are are using it in a traditional codeless way. So there was already a tradition of codeless apps where there would be systems that you would just tell it what to do and it creates solid code. And I think what they're doing is they're using ChatGPT in that way. Sometimes it's agentic, so it's got guardrails on it. And other times it's they're making it, they're running it to make sure it works, and maybe they're in some situations running it by a developer who just scans over the code and makes Sure that it doesn't have any security vulnerabilities or anything like that. Robb Dunewood I did an article, or did a discussion on an article I read where they studied the reduction in hits to stack overflow as a function of when ChatGPT came alive. And Stack Overflow was already declining at a significant rate, but it fell off a cliff after ChatGPT was trained on Stack Overflow. So what we used to do in the olden days is I want to write something. I was like, oh, how do I write a routine to do blah, blah, blah. I would go over to Stack Overflow, find somebody who told me how to do it, copy and paste it over to my code. Now I'm skipping the go to Stack Overflow part. And so we did that before. You're never supposed to go copy somebody's code off the Internet and paste it. But that's, of course, what most of us do. Or you can't remember the syntax kind of thing. So this can figure a lot of that out before you get it done. But what I was thinking was, why not say, now create a test suite for me to test whether my parameters are doing what they're supposed to do. And then you can start studying the test suite and work that in. And it's going to be able to find the bugs for you. It's ([Time 0:47:55](https://share.snipd.com/snip/26a67c13-dc2b-424f-ae3f-edd519429399))