January 9, 2012 • 46 mins
What is CES? How long has CES been around? What’s it like visiting CES? Tune in to for an up-close look at CES in this episode.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
tech Stuff from how Stuff Stop Coming. Hello, everyone, Welcome
to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and I
(00:20):
am an editor at how Stuff works dot com. Sitting
across from me, At least for now, he's still upright,
is uh? Someone who likes to talk about this is
favorite time of year. Senior writer Jonathan Strickland, you will
rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement
of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.
(00:42):
The reason I am picking on Jonathan today UM is
because today we're going to talk about UM, the event
formally known as the Consumer Electronics Show, but I think
it's it bears throwing that name in there for people
who aren't as familiar with the acronym which the organization
behind it wants us to us when we talk about
it CES. Yeah, and uh, And when this episode goes
(01:05):
live will be while I'm in Las Vegas at the
two thousand and twelve c e S. We're recording this
in December, but by the time this goes live, I
should be if I if I've counted my calendar correctly,
I should be in Vegas as you're listening to this
if you downloaded it the day it came out, right,
So if you're listening to this right now and it's
(01:27):
it's the second week of January, just remember Jonathan is
in Las Vegas and is exhausted and crying. Yes, and
I'm not right, although he may be still crying because
Chris does do that. But let's let's talk about Let's
talk about the the show, it's background, and then I
think we'll we'll concentrate on that in the first half
(01:49):
of our episode and the second half. This is one
episode of just the first section of our episode. The
second section of our episode, we'll talk about what the
experience is like being at CES. But us both both
of us have been, Yes, the fact that we we
were both there at the most heavily attended c E
s ever. Yeah. Yeah, the the show, um, may you
(02:10):
may actually be familiar with it? Yeah, there are, there
are a lot of people. Um, the consumer the organization
behind c E s UM basically is right in thinking
that a lot more people know about this show than
than they used to. Yeah, it's the Consumer Electronics Association
that puts on the show, and that that's an organization
of around two thousand companies that are in the consumer
(02:31):
electronics industry. And these companies have formed this organization for
many reasons. Part of it is the organization conducts a
lot of market research to kind of find out what
consumers are interested in, what the trends are going to be,
so that companies can kind of get a jump on
things and start developing products that are going to really
appeal to people. You know that it's always a challenge
(02:52):
figuring out what people are going to be interested in
and and developing that because you know, most of these
products have development cycles at last a couple of years,
so to Yeah, so to be able to identify what
a trend is going to be not tomorrow, but two
years from tomorrow is a huge challenge. So that's part
of what the c e A does. They also have
(03:13):
networking opportunities. UM I mean, obviously you've got a lot
of these really important folks in various major companies and
they all tend to know each other through organizations like
the c e A and UH. It's also about education
around things like legislation and regulation. There's a lot of
these industries do have legislation and regulations surrounding them, so
(03:33):
it's important for companies to be aware of that and
to know what is and isn't cricket before they go
into developing a product. Well but I but ces is
they're big, Like, that's the thing everyone knows them for.
Beau ce S's just it's it's the public face of
the organization and it's and it's become such a huge event,
(03:53):
especially from its humble beginnings. Yes, yes, but in in essence, um,
it's a trade show. UM basically a big open floor
with booths where companies are showing off their products and
there are people representatives from the company, not necessarily company employees.
Sometimes they're they're pr people that they've hired to talk,
(04:14):
hired guns who come in and they've got fact sheets
about all the different products that they have all memorized
and they're happy to spout off. But if you ask
them anything that's not in the fact sheet, then they
give you an email. Here, take my card. Um, we'll
get into into what it's like. It's it's interesting to
note um that this you know, we were in a
(04:35):
gadget hungry world now in the in the two thousands,
when the twenty one century, uh before that, you know,
it's like the nineties were kind of like that. To
the eighties. We had the Walkman, we had the the
debut of the compact disc player, um, which we'll get
into in a minute. Um, you know, we we we
live in an electronics crazy world, but the show goes
(04:57):
back a little before that to a time when they're
weren't um, you know, fifty different things plugged into our
walls in our living room, uh, sucking down juice. They were.
There were this organization and this event dates back into
the nineteen sixties. Yeah, nineteen sixty seven in New York City.
That was the first CES, and back then electronics consisted
(05:18):
of one radio and a television that didn't work yet
not true. No, that's that's like that was a complete
and well, the nineteen sixty seven part was true, but
the rest was a lie. I did find a flicker
set of photos from uh from early c e s
s there was around in nineteen sixty seven. That's amazing
(05:41):
the photos. However, Um, it's it's interesting, um to see
people lined up at the registration booth um where you
can killt them wearing you wearing suits and ties. Yes,
you know, because hey, you know they were members of
the press and it was a trade show, you know,
and it was a trade show, so you addressed up,
yeah it was. And none of them were platify right right,
(06:06):
Oh there you are, Perry. Uh. The so that that
first show, there were two hundred exhibitors at that first show,
and there were seventeen dollars and five hundred people attending
this show. And we should also point out that when
we say people exhibitors, Yeah, if only I could go
for half a day and I'd be done. Um, seventeen
(06:27):
hundred attendees and and uh, the attendees were all industry related.
You know, it's not open to the public. Why why
why would you want to go? Yes, because I mean
the idea, I mean I often ask myself that question.
But now the uh, the yeah, But I mean it's
their variations on different TV sets, different kinds of radio
(06:49):
stuff that's interesting. But for the most part, what this
is for it's it's for the vendors, that the manufacturers
to show off new products to retailers so that retailers
will go and order the devices from the manufacturer and
start selling them through their retail stores. That typical of
a trade show. That's what the four that's that's the
main that's the big business that's going on at c
(07:11):
E S. And then you have the press as well
that covers C E S. And I think back in
nineteen sixty seven, there probably weren't any bloggers, but it
was all journalists, um so. And I'm assuming that a
lot of them probably wouldn't have been interested in this
because this isn't as interesting to the reader in nineteen
sixties seven, uh, the general reader as it would be today. Yeah. There,
(07:35):
you know, the there did become kind of an interesting
uh history at CES for new technologies to debut there,
and we'll talk about those in a little bit. But
when it first started, it was pretty it was it
was fairly modest, and it was not the only big
trade show out there either. I mean some you know,
it's one of the ones that we hear about consistently today,
but it's not the only one. It was actually a
(07:56):
spinoff of another trade show, the Chicago Music Show YEP,
back in the day. But um uh, and then you know,
you skip ahead by a valid decade unless you had
do you had specific things you wanted to talk about.
In the early history of C e S, no, not necessarily,
so I was thinking like back in around the c.
E A decided to try something new and hold actually
(08:18):
two trade shows per year, the summer right and the
winter one was always in Vegas, and the summer one
for the first first couple of decades was in Chicago.
But then in nine c e A decided to try
and experiment and move the summer city to different destinations
(08:39):
and to kind of play that, play with that and
see how that went. Originally they were going to go
to Philadelphia in I think, and then the problem was
it was scheduled directly against uh, the E three UM
event and E three the Electronic Entertainment Expo is another
big trade show, UH. And that's so a lot of
exhibitors were kind of expressed concerned about that because they
(09:01):
really wanted to be and and retailers too they wanted
to be at the other trade show as well. They'd
have to pick between the two. And if if you've
got one show that has two shows a year and
one that only has one show a year, well then
that's easy. You you skip the one that has two.
You can go to the other show and then you've
got you you still have another chance to make it
to the first one. So they tried that a couple
(09:22):
of times. Uh in they decided, you know, this doesn't
make any sense. We're just gonna do one show a year.
It'll be that Winter show and it's gonna be in Vegas.
And that's how it's been since. So, um, you wanted
to talk about some of the products, some of the
technologies that have debuted at c e S. Yeah, we
actually we actually have several um tech stuff episodes about
(09:46):
some of the technologies that have that we're first shown
off to people beyond the manufacturers at c E S. Yeah. Yeah,
and um this is this is one of those those
things about the show. Um, well, we were going to
talk about what it's like to go to the show,
but if you go to to any of the booths,
I mean, you're likely to see incremental changes and a product,
(10:10):
the next version of a technology. Yeah, we've got the
new camera which has a slightly faster um, you know,
ability to do burst photography. Well a few years ago
burst photography was new. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, movement I'd say,
the stuff you encounter at ce S is just a
slight evolution on technology we've already seen. Yeah, but that
(10:33):
one percent, and and you know they're there um variations
on stuff. It'll be uh, you know, things that are
slightly smaller than last year, or they come in different colors,
or like the a camera that incorporates a button so
that you can share photos on social networking sites more
more readily. Yeah, that kind of stuff, like a new
(10:54):
feature that's in a pre existing technology. Yeah, you know.
Or you'll go to a or will go to a
press event and they'll we'll find out that, um, the
TVs are not any particularly larger or or thinner than
they were last year, but this time they're in blue
because blue is the trendy color this year. But you
will find this stuff that is brand new, and stuff
(11:16):
that is that was previously unavailable to the public that
will be including um and my first device was seventy
that groundbreaking and when I mean groundbreaking, it's because it
was large and heavy. Video cassette recorder YEP YEP video
cassette recorders or VCRs debuted at c e S was
the first time anyone outside of the the industry got
(11:41):
a chance to get a look at one of these,
and um, and for those of you who don't remember,
VCRs were a big thing. Yeah, yeah, and one of
your your hits now this I have a list that
came from c e S itself, The next of which
was the laser disc player in four and that was
that was pretty huge. Yeah, that LaserDisc players ended up
being more of a niche market. There was a like
(12:03):
an enthusiast market that it was extremely popular. And um,
I mean there's still devotees of the the Laser displayer
out there today, but it never reached a kind of
widespread adoption. And I'm going to do that thing that
that Jonathan hates it when I do, I want to
actually hold something up, especially gasses. Do you recognize this
(12:24):
device that would be the first cheap digital watch from
Texas Instruments. Yes, it made its its debut in the
in the mid seventies. I did recognize it. Yeah, that
was if you listen to our Texas Instruments episodes then
you know we actually talked about that about how d
I helped bring in this era of of less expensive
(12:47):
digital watches. Before that, they were all these luxury items
that cost hundreds of dollars transistors. It's transistors speaking of
something that has transistors in it. UM a device that
I owned in the ninety seventies and this UH, it's
interesting that you brought up E three in the mid
nineties because E three is much younger trade show. UM.
If you wanted to show off the next device, you
(13:09):
would have to take it to C E S because
there wasn't a N E three UM when it showed
up in ninety seven, and that would be Attris VCS
a computer system. Other consoles also first debuted at c S,
including some that debuted after E three started. That includes
Pong that's that was that was before E three, but
any s that also debuted CS in in America, granted
(13:32):
it had already been out in Japan, but made its
American debut in uh a Winter c S show. And
then UM also the Xbox Yeah. UM. Traditionally, there are
several keynote speeches that take place at C E S.
It's not all just out there on the trade show
floor where you're looking at booths. They also have sessions
(13:54):
that they hold where they talk about trends and technology
and and companies will have a press event where they
will unveil the stuff that you would be able to
see on the floor, but you'll get an early look
at what it can do before you get to the floor. Well,
Microsoft has had a keynote slot at cs for years
and at one of these they unveiled the Xbox. So
(14:18):
that was it wasn't any three thing that was before
Microsoft was big in games. Yeah, that was. It was
a huge splash for Microsoft because you know, Microsoft had
been involved in games on the computer side, but not
so much on the console side. So this was definitely
a pretty big move and it turned out to be
(14:38):
a really successful one, which, you know, it's nice to
be able to say that about Microsoft. Yeah, you're right.
I didn't mean to say that they weren't because they
had done They had been releasing games for years, not
on the scale that the Xbox, right, it was all
it was all computer based, like Microsoft Light simulator type stuff,
you know. But yeah, the other technologies that debuted at
(15:01):
c S um well, will you talk about laser discs
and VCRs. Let's stay on that topic. There was a
big year because that was when the cam quarter and
Compact Disc player was shown off. C d S and
then DVDs also debuted a C E S and as
did UM Blu Ray. Yes, it also debuted at C
E S. Yeah. Oh, and don't forget that earth shattering
(15:25):
announcement from Sony the mini disc. Yeah. Very popular in
other parts of the world, not so much in the
United States. Um, you know, hi, hi d TV here
in the United States, Um, you know, plasma TVs, um,
you know, all kinds of stuff, and of course three
(15:45):
D H d t V in the in the two
thousand nine Yeah. Yeah, So let's talk a little bit
about Um, well, first of all, let's talk about two
thousand h I've got one event in two thousand five.
This was before we went in two thousand five. We
have to talk about the the embarrassing moment for Bill Gates. Yeah,
that that you know what, and doing the research for this,
(16:07):
I wanted to look for products and and things that
made their debut, and that one was mentioned in several
and it kind of kind of feel terrible about it.
You know that so many people remember it. Sometimes stuff
doesn't beep, that's the problem. So yeah, for that to
happen to the company's founder and on a keynote speech, Yeah,
here's here's what happened, because you know, we're dancing around it.
(16:28):
So Bill Gates is up on stage and he is, uh,
he's demonstrating a Windows Media Center to a crowd at
c e S and as he's demonstrating it, the system
crashes and he gets the blue screen of death. So
imagine being the CEO of a company. You're showing off
your latest product on on a device that has had
(16:53):
its share of jokes directed at it for its the
you know, the fact that it does tend to crash,
and that the when it does crash, you get this
blue screen. For that to happen in public on the stage,
that had to have been a little, uh, you know,
a little bit embarrassing, and the press had a pretty
good time with it. It still does. So anytime you
see like a wrap up of big moments and c
(17:15):
e S, like Chris was saying, it tends to be included. Um,
Um and I have one more big moment, uh in
a similar vein that I think can can easily launch
us into the second half of our podcast where we
talk about what it's like to be at the show. Um,
Jonathan and I. The only time that Jonathan and I
attended c E S together. Was in two thousand eight. Yes,
(17:37):
and there was another. Um. I hate to use the
term epic fail, but this is this was painful and
in its obviousness, Um, I know what you're going for,
but I want to hear it. We had an opportunity
to be on the show floor early because we were
members of the media, so we got a chance to
kind of see. Now, most of the booths were kind
(17:58):
of wrapped off so that you couldn't see it. But um,
if you look at some of those old photo sets
of old c E s is the boosts were very bland.
It would be a white booth with the name of
the company written on it. Well, okay, it was black
and white, so it looks like a white booth with
a name in the company. Very very sober in comparison
with today's where they have elaborate displays with speakers and
(18:20):
all kinds of brilliant marketing materials. They might even bring
overlays of stuff so that the cubicle doesn't look like
so that the cube doesn't look like a cube, it
looks like something else. Sure, sure, yeah, And in some cases, um,
you know, you can't really see in it. Before they've
started the show, and in some cases they can't hide
(18:41):
what's going on. So we're walking around the show floor
and getting an idea of what what we're going to
get an opportunity to see the next day. And on
on one side we see Sony's enormous pirate ship of
the Blu Ray display. Yeah. So yeah, they actually had
a this this UH set essentially and it was because
(19:01):
of Pirates of the Caribbean UH. And they had this
big pirate ship type set in the middle of their booths. Now, now,
some of these booths are small, like some of them,
Some of them are only a slightly larger than what
you would find an office cubicle. Yeah, I mean their marketing.
Marketing dollars don't grow on trees for some companies because
they are paying for the square footage at this event
and other other ones, especially you know, of course from
(19:24):
the big companies are enormous, enormous booths, Panasonic, Sony, this
is taking place. Most of these booths are at the
Las Vegas Convention Center, which has I think three and
a half million square feet of space. Yes, and and
and c e s. These days, it's not just one building,
(19:44):
it's also in many other floors. Um, but anyway, you
were saying, so the Blue Ray, the Blue Ray presence
is there, and it was obvious, and then a couple
rows over, it wasn't even that far. It was on
the same show floor. It was the and this is
again one of our very first podcasts that we did
(20:04):
back when we were five minutes long. HD DVD versus
Blu Ray. Right, h D DVD was supposed to be
at cs and the week before c e S there
was a big stink because Warner Brothers announced that it
was going to be exclusively Blu Ray from that moment on.
And that was one of the few big movie studios
that had still been backing h D d d D
(20:27):
at that point. H D DVD they which this from Toshiba. Right,
had the Toshiba had decided to pull the h D
DVD presence from c e S rather than have to
endure a week long UH onslaught of questions about what
are you going to do now? Yeah, yeah, and that
was that was the thing they were. Um, there were
(20:50):
rumors that there was something going to happen with h
D DVD. UH. I guess in the weeks prior and
then it happened right before they had the set in
place on the show floor and it essentially never opened. Um,
and we didn't know. We got the announcement while we
were there UM that they were they were going to
(21:13):
do it, and then as we were there they said, yeah,
we're done. Yeah, So that was pretty much the end
of h D DVD. I had that down too. Yeah.
That also was two thousand eight was a big year
for UH for CS. We were a hundred and forty
one thousand attendees, so up from that seventeen thousand, five
hundred previously just just a few more. Now. I actually
(21:37):
wrote down the a couple of just little facts about
every year from two thousand eight ton because we were
you know, I attended all of those, So just a
couple of little notes. So you covered h D DVD,
which was one of the notes I had for two
thousand and eight. The number of attendees was another. And
also I have what c net picked out as the
best of CS because Senat is the official streaming partner
(22:02):
of CE s or was in for those years and
so s net always holds an awards um ceremony where
what they do is their editors go and hit the
floor and they all look at all the different tech
out there, and then they get together and they decide
what is the what is the best thing on the floor.
And I think it'll be interested to hear what one
(22:23):
over some of these years, because they're not all good
stories ahead. So two thousand and eight s NET Awards,
this one is not bad. Is the Phillips Eco TV show. Yeah,
this is a forty two in ten a d p
h D TV that had a lot of energy saving
technology built into it. Because two thousand eight, I think
Chris can remember this to two thousand eight, I think
(22:43):
was the big trend was green technology in two thousand eight. Um,
you can usually spot some pretty pretty prevalent trends each
year at CS two. If you attend what we can
talk a little bit about that as well. Two thousand nine, Um,
that was the when the LG watch phone was on
the show floor, which never came to the United States,
(23:05):
but it made a huge hit at the show. Yeah,
I got a lot of buzz because everyone's saying, Oh,
it's the Dick Tracy watching. It's got video and everything
and his touch screen interface, and you know what, we
don't have the l g Watch phone. But we do
have the iPod Nano that has a lot of the
same functionality, just not the phone part. Uh, so that's
kind of interesting. But what one that year, Senets prize
(23:28):
went to the Palm Pre Oh yeah, which is kind
of sad. So justin short, Palm Pre from from from
Palm never really took off. It very much impressed everyone.
Everyone thought that it was going to be a real
uh competitor to the iPhone. Yeah. That was basically the
debut of their brand new operating system. And then it
(23:49):
just never got traction. It took about six months from
CS before it even hit the market, and by then
the buzzard died down, so it never really took off.
HP ended up buying Palm. Uh, the Palm phones began
to disappear, webOS became a tablet only thing and then happened,
and no one really was sure what was going to
(24:09):
happen with webOS because they first HP was saying we're
done with it, and they're like, no, we're not done
with it, so we don't know if we're done with it.
And now they're saying we're not done with it and
we're moving it to open source. So that's been the
journey of webo s since c E S two thousand nine. Yeah,
pretty crazy. And we did a whole episode on Palm,
so you can listen to that if you want to
know more about that company. The big thing I remember
(24:32):
from twenty tenness seeing Intel's new Haleen processor running. I
had written an article about the Nehleen processor and this
time I got the chance to see it and I
was very much impressed. The big win for that year
was Panasonics three D h D t V. That's what
Sena gave the award to. And of course three D
television still has not really taken hold. It just hasn't
(24:56):
really gained that much attraction. There are a lot of
televisions out there they have three D built into them,
but we have not seen three D become a real
powerhouse in home entertainment. Yeah. And and actually you you're mentioning,
um uh, the Nehalen processor kind of reminded me to
a lot of the stuff on the show floor. I mean,
we've we've had many people, uh tell us that they
(25:17):
think going to see e S would be a whole
lot of fun. And yeah, in some ways, getting the
chance to see these gadgets and and and cool toys
and be it. Yeah, that that part is kind of cool.
But there's a lot of stuff where I mean, looking
at a motherboard with an Ahleen processor. I mean what
Intel does when they show that kind of thing off, um,
(25:38):
is they show a computer running stuff that you know,
they're talking about the the optimization, but if you look
at the process there, I mean, it's it's a chip.
So there's there's a lot of stuff there that's just
it's good and it's important, and it's it's nice to
have in your next computer. You know, Oh man, look
how fast that is. I'd like to have that, But
you don't stay there all day and just marveling at
it because it's the coolest thing. Every We can talk
(26:00):
about some of that, we can talk about some of that. Also,
want to get to our personal experiences, because I've got
a whole rant I could go off on, but not
about Intel, though they're they're expected to show a new
processor this year. Yeah. I saw sandy Bridge last year,
and again that was very impressive. So that was something
for last year being this year as we're recording it,
but last year when you're listening to this even Yeah,
(26:22):
I saw, I saw Sandy Bridge and that was very interesting. Um.
That was also it was a big year for tablets
and smartphones last year. The Motorola Atrix, which was the
smartphone that could dock with a laptop like docking device
and it could power that laptop, so you were actually
using the smartphones operating system in a laptop form factor. Uh,
(26:43):
BlackBerry Playbook was there to play with. That was the
first time I got my hands on one of those.
Um lots of different devices seen. That gave the award
to the Motorola Zoom, which again just never really I mean,
it hasn't done terrible and the it's not it's not
it's not a failure or anything in the market, but
I don't think it ended up making as big a
(27:06):
splash as we thought back when we were at CES. Yeah,
and part of that is just you know that that
was sporting the new Honeycomb build of Android. Well within
that same year, we've seen ice Cream Sandwich come out
or at least unveiled. Yeah. So I mean that's that's
(27:26):
one of the issues with CS two is that sometimes
the stuff that you see at the show that you
think is gonna be like, oh my gosh, I can't
wait for this to hit the market. It's gonna be
the next big thing. Some of it, some of it
never comes to market, and some of it will come
to market and then just fizzle. Uh. Let me get
my Let me get the one item that never came
to market that just drove me crazy. I know what
(27:46):
this one is. The Lenovo you won? Oh, the Lenovo
you won, which was a notebook computer where you could
detach the screen from the base of the computer and
it would become a tablet. And it actually had two
different operating systems. When it was a notebook computer, it
was running Windows seven. The original build I saw, when
(28:07):
you detached the screen, it would switch to a Linux
based operating system. The second time I saw it, which
was c S I can't remember if it was the
first Timmer nine anyway, the second time I saw it,
they had switched the tablet operating system over to Android. Uh.
And in both cases they were hoping to aim for
(28:28):
a summer release and it never happened. It did. There
was some limited releases in China, but nothing in the
United States. And I this was the tablet device I
really wanted because I wanted something that I could use
as a full computer, or I could detach the screen
and use that as a tablet, so that I could
preload all the things I needed before detaching the tablet part,
(28:49):
and then i'd have it to refer to on the tablet.
That way, for all the heavy data processing type stuff
or word processing word entrge kind of things. I could
use a keyboard instead of a touchscreen device. And um,
and you know, I'm still uh still said that that
never really came out. Um, but yeah, let's talk about
what it's like when you go to c e S.
(29:12):
We can cut We'll mostly be talking about from the
perspective of press, because that's what we are. We we
haven't We've never exhibited at C E S. Yeah, so
well it's uh, I can I can say that it's
if you're interested in gadgets or you're a member of
the media, it's the experience is not going to be
terribly difficult because, um, you're gonna want to see as
(29:36):
much of the show as you can. Now that the
show takes the better part of a week. Um, and
you know, as as as I mentioned and Jonathan mentioned before, Um,
it's quite a lot of square footage in terms of
show space, Um, it's grown very, very large. There's even
an outdoor section where they have mobile electronics and things
car cars. Um yea that that was the first time
(29:58):
I saw a Fiat five because Microsoft is showing off
it's uh uh Sinc. Operating system, and they had a
Fiat five there and I thought, wow, man, look at this.
They brought a Fiat overseas for just for this show. Um.
A lot of the audio exhibitors are in hotel suites
in one of the nearby hotels because you know, you
don't want to you don't want to have to try
(30:19):
and just and and show off your your high end
audio equipment on a show floor that's just clamoring with noise.
You need to have your own little area so that
you've at least kind of blocked out most of the
ambient noise so people can really hear what your stuff
can do. Yeah, to to quote Dr Seuss, oh the noise, noise, noise, noise,
(30:39):
it's it's allowed environment. People are talking. There's media playing
from from pretty much everywhere. Yeah, the central hall you
get um uh, there's usually a few. The one the
one audio areas you'll hear the most are from our
are the the car sets, like the the the audio
stereo systems that go into cars, those tend to actually
(31:01):
be on the show floor and they tend to drown
everything else out. I know that when m Leo Report
first got his This Weekend Tech table set up over
at CS he was put directly across from an area
where they had several of these exhibitors showing off these
incredibly powerful stereo systems. And so through most of the
(31:25):
twit footage of that first year, you hear doom, doom, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't,
like in the background, and like people are shaking when
they're sitting there at the table. It was pretty intense.
They had in two thousand eight, one night when we
went even had marine electronics. They had boats. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and uh interesting. So some of these, some of these
(31:47):
booths that you'll you would see are are wide and
spread out and and in some cases it's that the
company wants to make a big statement but doesn't necessarily
have that much to show. Um. Sometimes it's that they
need the space, Like the Parrot drone. The first time
I saw that, you know, that's the it's got four
(32:08):
helicopter type blades. Yeah, quadricopter that's that's not bad UM
and you can control it through and a mobile device.
It was it used to just be UM iPhone, but
they've expanded it a little bit since then. But that
was really pretty cool UM and took up a lot
of space, but it was it was it consistently drew crowds.
(32:30):
Taser tends to have its own space. Last year, I
saw them tasering people. That was kind of interesting. Yeah,
but it was I got a real charge out of it. Uh.
And then there for every booth that you see that
has really cool tech in it, they're about fifteen booths
that have things like computer cases or smartphone cases or
(32:53):
smartphone decals to put on stuff that's accessories for things
that you already owned. So it's not as exciting. It's
definitely stuff that people want. So that's why it's at
the trade show, because retailers are going to be looking
around to see what's available and say, oh, you know what,
I want my store to carry this line of smartphone
case because I think that would really move UM. But
(33:13):
as a as a member of the press or maybe
just a member of the general public, if somehow you've
found your way into cees. It wouldn't necessarily be like,
oh my gosh, look at that smartphone case. Well, and
some of them manufacturers too, aren't necessarily cutting edge. You
might see a headphone manufacturer there and they're not making
uh the latest noise canceling headphones or that hey that
(33:34):
would come in handy at zes or um uh you know,
the the high end cans that you see, um, people
paying three or more dollars. Where you'll see low cost headphones. Look,
we've made uh you know, earbuds with better response. Uh
that retail for and and that's not gonna be exciting
(33:54):
news necessarily, but it might be for retailers who are going, hey,
I can I can offer a wider range of low
cost stuff and selves in my store. Um. There are
a lot of manufacturers from overseas who are showing off,
um how they've been able to manufacture things in smaller
packages and uh and for lower costs. Um, so you
(34:16):
might be able to to fill out your low range
if you're looking for stuff to include in your store. Yeah,
there's actually an entire section that's essentially from Asian um
markets and it's all these really tiny booths filled with
some of it's filled with some of the weirdest electronics
you've ever seen. Like it's all the stuff that you
would typically say wow that that clearly had to come
(34:38):
from Japan because it's just so unusual. But um, but
also a lot of the other like the less expensive,
the more affordable types of electronics, and not the cutting
edge stuff, but the stuff that has been refined to
a point where the price has really come down. UM.
And then there are other sections of the floor where
you're gonna you're gonna see the cutting edge, like the
(34:59):
tops stuff that's coming out the next year. UM. These
are usually from the really really big companies, And once
in a while a small company will will really throw
you and you'll you'll go to some small booth and
you're like, wow, the parrot drone in a way was
like that. A lot of people say, wow, that's really innovative. UM.
But more often than not, you're going to see people
talking about the big companies like Sony, Pana, sonic, Um, Toshiba, Toshiba, YEP,
(35:25):
LG LG always has a really big presence there, Um, Intel, Microsoft, Uh.
These are the companies that have some of the largest
booth spaces on there, Like some of the booth spaces
for some of these companies are the same as if
you took ten of the other exhibitors together and put
them all in the same space. Oh yeah, I mean
(35:46):
these places are are in a lot of cases, larger
than a small retail store. Um. And and the the
result of that is you can spend a whole day
looking at a small section of the floor because need
a few minutes to take in what it is you're
looking at. So, I mean, you could spend a lot
of time on your feet looking around, and it's it
(36:08):
can be wearying, especially if you're carrying twenty pounds of
paper press kits or and six pounds of laptop. They
don't they don't do the paper press kits as much anymore.
But that was the year I went no, wait, there
was a point. I remember Chris and I both at
one point took out all the press kitts we had,
and it was it was probably combined, it's probably at
(36:32):
least fifty pounds of paper. Yeah, thankfully they don't do
that anymore now as much. Now it tends to either
be on a thumb drive or they give you a
card that has a link to an online press scott
which is so much better. Also, it makes it way
easier to get hold of things like images and stuff
if you need to run an article, So that that fantastic.
(36:54):
Keep that up the but it goes on for days.
I mean you can after the first day or so,
you can be quite tired. Yeah, the periods, and there's
there's just a lot to see and a lot to do.
There are three main halls in the convention Center, the
North Hall, Central Hall in South Hall, and South Hall
is the one that I typically hit first, and they're
(37:14):
most several of the big name companies are in South Hall.
Central Hall has more of the big name companies, and
I believe it's the Central Hall that has two floors,
which makes that even more intimidating. And then the North
Hall tends to have a lot of the vehicle stuff.
Some of it's in the Central Hall, but most of
the vehicle stuffs in the North Hall. The stuff is
not on display outside the convention center. Um and so
(37:36):
you also they also will have special zones set up
now at ces, so like they'll have a green zone
area where they've got a lot of exhibitors who all
specialize in green technology together. They'll have an educational zone,
they'll have a senior citizen type zone, so technology that's
specifically geared toward UM meeting the needs of elderly users.
(37:59):
So that's kind of interesting that you know, these different
zones can be in various halls. It all depends on,
you know, how c e S has arranged that particular year. Huh.
Then you've got all the different UM ones that are
in the the nearby hotels UM for example, the Venetian
off often has its own the audio section. Also, the
(38:20):
Venetian and Sands Expo Center tends to have a hall
display hall as well. It's a smaller one, doesn't have
as many big names in it, but it's another it's
another exhibitor hall, so it's not just the Las Vegas
Convection Center, which is already huge. The Hilton tends to
have several suites that people are using, the exhibitors are using.
Sometimes you have companies that don't rent space at c
(38:41):
e S, but they show up and get a suite
at a hotel and then they try and entice you
to come over to the hotel so they can show
off their stuff without actually being part of the CES
there's that issue as well. And then they're all the parties. Okay,
so people who have never been to ce S who
are saying, wow, this sound like it's incredible. I kept
and there are parties that sounds amazing. Let me tell
(39:03):
you what a c S parties like. So CES party,
you will, you will eat well, and you will you
could potentially drink as well. I don't drink, so that
means nothing to me. Um. I mean I drink water,
but I don't drink alcohol, so that means nothing to me.
But you go, you'll see some cool tech and then
you try and talk over the sound of everyone else talking,
(39:24):
plus the ambient music which is usually about three, three
or four times louder that needs to be in order
to explain who you are and and and find out
more about this product. It's all business talk. It's not
it's not fun stuff like it's not. It's not a
part of you go to to have fun. It's a
part of you go to the network to get a
little more information about stuff. It's still working. So it's
(39:46):
not like, um, you know you're you're dancing the night away.
It's not like that. Although maybe there are some of
the CE S parties, and those are just the ones
I've never gone to. Uh So, now at this point
I tend to I'll try go to a party now
and then because it is a really good way to
network with people, and it is a very good way,
like if you if you write about how stuff works,
(40:06):
like I do, it can be invaluable to get the
business card of an executive so that you can contact
that person and say, hey, I'm working on this article
about the thing that you specialize in. Is there anyone
at your company I could speak with so I could
get an expert on involved in writing this article. It's incredible.
But now I will often try and save the time
(40:29):
after the show floor closes to getting together with some
of my peers in tech journalism to sit down and
just kind of talk about what we saw and kind
of share knowledge, because there's a lot of that at
C E S. It's nice, you know, you don't see
a lot of at least in my experience, I don't
see a lot of journalists kind of shutting themselves off
from everyone else and not talking for fear of losing
(40:49):
the scoop. It tends to be a lot of people
sharing their information and kind of you know, figuring out
what are the trends, what what are was it that
we're seeing? What does this mean for the upcoming year?
And that, to me is is fascinating. That's one of
the parts that I like the most about c e S.
So sitting around in the old what used to be
the Star Trek experience at the Hilton with with folks
(41:13):
from the Twit network or from uh from Revision three
or from c Net. That's that's fantastic. I love that.
But it's uh yeah, it's not all fun and games,
that's for sure. Um No, it's a lot of work,
it is, and it is probably it's one of the
most physically tolling things I've had to do it. How
stuff works, it's by the end of the day you
(41:35):
you feel it, and then you get up and do
it again. Here's here's a hint for any of you
who are doing ce S for the first time this year.
If you're listening to this, you might be too late.
So if it's the first time you're doing c S,
will here's here's what you do. You need to know
if you plan on doing something after the show floor
closes and you go back to your hotel room to
set stuff down so that you can go back out.
(41:57):
Do not do not sit down and or lie down,
because that's it. You're not moving again. I have made
that mistake so many times. But I mean, oh, those
chairs and beds just look so comforting after you've done
on your feet all day long. It's a it's a
very interesting trade show. I don't think it's as phenomenal
(42:20):
or magical as outsiders seem to think it is. I mean,
but that's because I've covered it for four years now.
So um, if you if you were to experience it
the way I try and explain to people as if
you're a journalist, imagine walking into the world's largest shopping mall,
but every single store just sells electronics, and it's your
job to go into every single store and look at
(42:42):
every single shelf, at every single device, and then you're
going to write up what the best was when you're done.
And the problem is that the devices are you know,
it's none that they're bad, they're just not interesting. And
you have to do this through the entire mall. That's
not fun. But there are fun elements to it. When
(43:03):
you do stumble across that thing that that is debuting
for the very first time at c e S. There
is a level of excitement there that is, you know,
it's hard. You can't dismiss that that is pretty pretty
incredible to experience. Well, it should be, uh, should be
interesting to your reports when you when you are able
(43:25):
to file, if you're not completely worn out. Yeah, I'm
sure I'll blog some while I'm at c e S
and then maybe maybe when I get back, we can
talk a little bit about what it was I saw. Now, granted,
by the time that podcast goes live, it'll be um
well after c e S, but but I can I
can at least talk about sort of the trends and
you know, maybe what the field was like, because one
(43:47):
thing we did not touch on. And I guess we
could end here because it is kind of interesting. Um
is that you know, two thousand and eight most heavily
attended CS at that point in a dy people. So
you and I got to experience the most crowded it's
ever In two thousand nine saw drop in attendance because
that was when there was fear about recession. There was
(44:08):
a lot of economic uncertainty. Exhibitors pulled out of the show,
attendees canceled, and so, uh, I think it was like
around a hundred and ten thousand people showed up um
in two thousand nine out and said, you know, a
hundred thirty thousand people less than the previous year, on
(44:30):
which it sounds like it's still a huge amount, but
when you spread it over the entire event, it was
noticeable that there were fewer people there, um fewer people there,
and then two thousand and uh two ten there were
a few more, but it still was pretty it still
wasn't at its old levels. And then last year it
(44:51):
got back up two hundred forty thousand, so it's almost
back to where it was in two thousand and eight.
So I don't know what is gonna look like yet,
because I while I'm there while you're listening, I'm not
there while i'm recording, all right, But I'm sure I
can report back, assuming that I still have any you know,
ability to do. So I lost that toe on that
one year, that two thousand night. That's when I got
(45:12):
in between a reporter iNTS some free food. Anyway, bad idea.
Never do that in any circumstance, but especially at CES. Alright,
so we're wrapping this up you guys. If you have
any requests for episodes that you would like us to
cover in the future, let us know. You can contact
us on Facebook and Twitter are handled. There is tech
(45:33):
stuff H s W and Chris and I will talk
to you again really soon. Be sure to check out
our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how
Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and
perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The house Stuff Works iPhone FFP
has arrived down a bit today on iTunes to you
(46:00):
by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready, are
you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
tech Stuff from how Stuff Stop Coming. Hello, everyone, Welcome
to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and I
(00:20):
am an editor at how Stuff works dot com. Sitting
across from me, At least for now, he's still upright,
is uh? Someone who likes to talk about this is
favorite time of year. Senior writer Jonathan Strickland, you will
rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement
of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.
(00:42):
The reason I am picking on Jonathan today UM is
because today we're going to talk about UM, the event
formally known as the Consumer Electronics Show, but I think
it's it bears throwing that name in there for people
who aren't as familiar with the acronym which the organization
behind it wants us to us when we talk about
it CES. Yeah, and uh, And when this episode goes
(01:05):
live will be while I'm in Las Vegas at the
two thousand and twelve c e S. We're recording this
in December, but by the time this goes live, I
should be if I if I've counted my calendar correctly,
I should be in Vegas as you're listening to this
if you downloaded it the day it came out, right,
So if you're listening to this right now and it's
(01:27):
it's the second week of January, just remember Jonathan is
in Las Vegas and is exhausted and crying. Yes, and
I'm not right, although he may be still crying because
Chris does do that. But let's let's talk about Let's
talk about the the show, it's background, and then I
think we'll we'll concentrate on that in the first half
(01:49):
of our episode and the second half. This is one
episode of just the first section of our episode. The
second section of our episode, we'll talk about what the
experience is like being at CES. But us both both
of us have been, Yes, the fact that we we
were both there at the most heavily attended c E
s ever. Yeah. Yeah, the the show, um, may you
(02:10):
may actually be familiar with it? Yeah, there are, there
are a lot of people. Um, the consumer the organization
behind c E s UM basically is right in thinking
that a lot more people know about this show than
than they used to. Yeah, it's the Consumer Electronics Association
that puts on the show, and that that's an organization
of around two thousand companies that are in the consumer
(02:31):
electronics industry. And these companies have formed this organization for
many reasons. Part of it is the organization conducts a
lot of market research to kind of find out what
consumers are interested in, what the trends are going to be,
so that companies can kind of get a jump on
things and start developing products that are going to really
appeal to people. You know that it's always a challenge
(02:52):
figuring out what people are going to be interested in
and and developing that because you know, most of these
products have development cycles at last a couple of years,
so to Yeah, so to be able to identify what
a trend is going to be not tomorrow, but two
years from tomorrow is a huge challenge. So that's part
of what the c e A does. They also have
(03:13):
networking opportunities. UM I mean, obviously you've got a lot
of these really important folks in various major companies and
they all tend to know each other through organizations like
the c e A and UH. It's also about education
around things like legislation and regulation. There's a lot of
these industries do have legislation and regulations surrounding them, so
(03:33):
it's important for companies to be aware of that and
to know what is and isn't cricket before they go
into developing a product. Well but I but ces is
they're big, Like, that's the thing everyone knows them for.
Beau ce S's just it's it's the public face of
the organization and it's and it's become such a huge event,
(03:53):
especially from its humble beginnings. Yes, yes, but in in essence, um,
it's a trade show. UM basically a big open floor
with booths where companies are showing off their products and
there are people representatives from the company, not necessarily company employees.
Sometimes they're they're pr people that they've hired to talk,
(04:14):
hired guns who come in and they've got fact sheets
about all the different products that they have all memorized
and they're happy to spout off. But if you ask
them anything that's not in the fact sheet, then they
give you an email. Here, take my card. Um, we'll
get into into what it's like. It's it's interesting to
note um that this you know, we were in a
(04:35):
gadget hungry world now in the in the two thousands,
when the twenty one century, uh before that, you know,
it's like the nineties were kind of like that. To
the eighties. We had the Walkman, we had the the
debut of the compact disc player, um, which we'll get
into in a minute. Um, you know, we we we
live in an electronics crazy world, but the show goes
(04:57):
back a little before that to a time when they're
weren't um, you know, fifty different things plugged into our
walls in our living room, uh, sucking down juice. They were.
There were this organization and this event dates back into
the nineteen sixties. Yeah, nineteen sixty seven in New York City.
That was the first CES, and back then electronics consisted
(05:18):
of one radio and a television that didn't work yet
not true. No, that's that's like that was a complete
and well, the nineteen sixty seven part was true, but
the rest was a lie. I did find a flicker
set of photos from uh from early c e s
s there was around in nineteen sixty seven. That's amazing
(05:41):
the photos. However, Um, it's it's interesting, um to see
people lined up at the registration booth um where you
can killt them wearing you wearing suits and ties. Yes,
you know, because hey, you know they were members of
the press and it was a trade show, you know,
and it was a trade show, so you addressed up,
yeah it was. And none of them were platify right right,
(06:06):
Oh there you are, Perry. Uh. The so that that
first show, there were two hundred exhibitors at that first show,
and there were seventeen dollars and five hundred people attending
this show. And we should also point out that when
we say people exhibitors, Yeah, if only I could go
for half a day and I'd be done. Um, seventeen
(06:27):
hundred attendees and and uh, the attendees were all industry related.
You know, it's not open to the public. Why why
why would you want to go? Yes, because I mean
the idea, I mean I often ask myself that question.
But now the uh, the yeah, But I mean it's
their variations on different TV sets, different kinds of radio
(06:49):
stuff that's interesting. But for the most part, what this
is for it's it's for the vendors, that the manufacturers
to show off new products to retailers so that retailers
will go and order the devices from the manufacturer and
start selling them through their retail stores. That typical of
a trade show. That's what the four that's that's the
main that's the big business that's going on at c
(07:11):
E S. And then you have the press as well
that covers C E S. And I think back in
nineteen sixty seven, there probably weren't any bloggers, but it
was all journalists, um so. And I'm assuming that a
lot of them probably wouldn't have been interested in this
because this isn't as interesting to the reader in nineteen
sixties seven, uh, the general reader as it would be today. Yeah. There,
(07:35):
you know, the there did become kind of an interesting
uh history at CES for new technologies to debut there,
and we'll talk about those in a little bit. But
when it first started, it was pretty it was it
was fairly modest, and it was not the only big
trade show out there either. I mean some you know,
it's one of the ones that we hear about consistently today,
but it's not the only one. It was actually a
(07:56):
spinoff of another trade show, the Chicago Music Show YEP,
back in the day. But um uh, and then you know,
you skip ahead by a valid decade unless you had
do you had specific things you wanted to talk about.
In the early history of C e S, no, not necessarily,
so I was thinking like back in around the c.
E A decided to try something new and hold actually
(08:18):
two trade shows per year, the summer right and the
winter one was always in Vegas, and the summer one
for the first first couple of decades was in Chicago.
But then in nine c e A decided to try
and experiment and move the summer city to different destinations
(08:39):
and to kind of play that, play with that and
see how that went. Originally they were going to go
to Philadelphia in I think, and then the problem was
it was scheduled directly against uh, the E three UM
event and E three the Electronic Entertainment Expo is another
big trade show, UH. And that's so a lot of
exhibitors were kind of expressed concerned about that because they
(09:01):
really wanted to be and and retailers too they wanted
to be at the other trade show as well. They'd
have to pick between the two. And if if you've
got one show that has two shows a year and
one that only has one show a year, well then
that's easy. You you skip the one that has two.
You can go to the other show and then you've
got you you still have another chance to make it
to the first one. So they tried that a couple
(09:22):
of times. Uh in they decided, you know, this doesn't
make any sense. We're just gonna do one show a year.
It'll be that Winter show and it's gonna be in Vegas.
And that's how it's been since. So, um, you wanted
to talk about some of the products, some of the
technologies that have debuted at c e S. Yeah, we
actually we actually have several um tech stuff episodes about
(09:46):
some of the technologies that have that we're first shown
off to people beyond the manufacturers at c E S. Yeah. Yeah,
and um this is this is one of those those
things about the show. Um, well, we were going to
talk about what it's like to go to the show,
but if you go to to any of the booths,
I mean, you're likely to see incremental changes and a product,
(10:10):
the next version of a technology. Yeah, we've got the
new camera which has a slightly faster um, you know,
ability to do burst photography. Well a few years ago
burst photography was new. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, movement I'd say,
the stuff you encounter at ce S is just a
slight evolution on technology we've already seen. Yeah, but that
(10:33):
one percent, and and you know they're there um variations
on stuff. It'll be uh, you know, things that are
slightly smaller than last year, or they come in different colors,
or like the a camera that incorporates a button so
that you can share photos on social networking sites more
more readily. Yeah, that kind of stuff, like a new
(10:54):
feature that's in a pre existing technology. Yeah, you know.
Or you'll go to a or will go to a
press event and they'll we'll find out that, um, the
TVs are not any particularly larger or or thinner than
they were last year, but this time they're in blue
because blue is the trendy color this year. But you
will find this stuff that is brand new, and stuff
(11:16):
that is that was previously unavailable to the public that
will be including um and my first device was seventy
that groundbreaking and when I mean groundbreaking, it's because it
was large and heavy. Video cassette recorder YEP YEP video
cassette recorders or VCRs debuted at c e S was
the first time anyone outside of the the industry got
(11:41):
a chance to get a look at one of these,
and um, and for those of you who don't remember,
VCRs were a big thing. Yeah, yeah, and one of
your your hits now this I have a list that
came from c e S itself, The next of which
was the laser disc player in four and that was
that was pretty huge. Yeah, that LaserDisc players ended up
being more of a niche market. There was a like
(12:03):
an enthusiast market that it was extremely popular. And um,
I mean there's still devotees of the the Laser displayer
out there today, but it never reached a kind of
widespread adoption. And I'm going to do that thing that
that Jonathan hates it when I do, I want to
actually hold something up, especially gasses. Do you recognize this
(12:24):
device that would be the first cheap digital watch from
Texas Instruments. Yes, it made its its debut in the
in the mid seventies. I did recognize it. Yeah, that
was if you listen to our Texas Instruments episodes then
you know we actually talked about that about how d
I helped bring in this era of of less expensive
(12:47):
digital watches. Before that, they were all these luxury items
that cost hundreds of dollars transistors. It's transistors speaking of
something that has transistors in it. UM a device that
I owned in the ninety seventies and this UH, it's
interesting that you brought up E three in the mid
nineties because E three is much younger trade show. UM.
If you wanted to show off the next device, you
(13:09):
would have to take it to C E S because
there wasn't a N E three UM when it showed
up in ninety seven, and that would be Attris VCS
a computer system. Other consoles also first debuted at c S,
including some that debuted after E three started. That includes
Pong that's that was that was before E three, but
any s that also debuted CS in in America, granted
(13:32):
it had already been out in Japan, but made its
American debut in uh a Winter c S show. And
then UM also the Xbox Yeah. UM. Traditionally, there are
several keynote speeches that take place at C E S.
It's not all just out there on the trade show
floor where you're looking at booths. They also have sessions
(13:54):
that they hold where they talk about trends and technology
and and companies will have a press event where they
will unveil the stuff that you would be able to
see on the floor, but you'll get an early look
at what it can do before you get to the floor. Well,
Microsoft has had a keynote slot at cs for years
and at one of these they unveiled the Xbox. So
(14:18):
that was it wasn't any three thing that was before
Microsoft was big in games. Yeah, that was. It was
a huge splash for Microsoft because you know, Microsoft had
been involved in games on the computer side, but not
so much on the console side. So this was definitely
a pretty big move and it turned out to be
(14:38):
a really successful one, which, you know, it's nice to
be able to say that about Microsoft. Yeah, you're right.
I didn't mean to say that they weren't because they
had done They had been releasing games for years, not
on the scale that the Xbox, right, it was all
it was all computer based, like Microsoft Light simulator type stuff,
you know. But yeah, the other technologies that debuted at
(15:01):
c S um well, will you talk about laser discs
and VCRs. Let's stay on that topic. There was a
big year because that was when the cam quarter and
Compact Disc player was shown off. C d S and
then DVDs also debuted a C E S and as
did UM Blu Ray. Yes, it also debuted at C
E S. Yeah. Oh, and don't forget that earth shattering
(15:25):
announcement from Sony the mini disc. Yeah. Very popular in
other parts of the world, not so much in the
United States. Um, you know, hi, hi d TV here
in the United States, Um, you know, plasma TVs, um,
you know, all kinds of stuff, and of course three
(15:45):
D H d t V in the in the two
thousand nine Yeah. Yeah, So let's talk a little bit
about Um, well, first of all, let's talk about two
thousand h I've got one event in two thousand five.
This was before we went in two thousand five. We
have to talk about the the embarrassing moment for Bill Gates. Yeah,
that that you know what, and doing the research for this,
(16:07):
I wanted to look for products and and things that
made their debut, and that one was mentioned in several
and it kind of kind of feel terrible about it.
You know that so many people remember it. Sometimes stuff
doesn't beep, that's the problem. So yeah, for that to
happen to the company's founder and on a keynote speech, Yeah,
here's here's what happened, because you know, we're dancing around it.
(16:28):
So Bill Gates is up on stage and he is, uh,
he's demonstrating a Windows Media Center to a crowd at
c e S and as he's demonstrating it, the system
crashes and he gets the blue screen of death. So
imagine being the CEO of a company. You're showing off
your latest product on on a device that has had
(16:53):
its share of jokes directed at it for its the
you know, the fact that it does tend to crash,
and that the when it does crash, you get this
blue screen. For that to happen in public on the stage,
that had to have been a little, uh, you know,
a little bit embarrassing, and the press had a pretty
good time with it. It still does. So anytime you
see like a wrap up of big moments and c
(17:15):
e S, like Chris was saying, it tends to be included. Um,
Um and I have one more big moment, uh in
a similar vein that I think can can easily launch
us into the second half of our podcast where we
talk about what it's like to be at the show. Um,
Jonathan and I. The only time that Jonathan and I
attended c E S together. Was in two thousand eight. Yes,
(17:37):
and there was another. Um. I hate to use the
term epic fail, but this is this was painful and
in its obviousness, Um, I know what you're going for,
but I want to hear it. We had an opportunity
to be on the show floor early because we were
members of the media, so we got a chance to
kind of see. Now, most of the booths were kind
(17:58):
of wrapped off so that you couldn't see it. But um,
if you look at some of those old photo sets
of old c E s is the boosts were very bland.
It would be a white booth with the name of
the company written on it. Well, okay, it was black
and white, so it looks like a white booth with
a name in the company. Very very sober in comparison
with today's where they have elaborate displays with speakers and
(18:20):
all kinds of brilliant marketing materials. They might even bring
overlays of stuff so that the cubicle doesn't look like
so that the cube doesn't look like a cube, it
looks like something else. Sure, sure, yeah, And in some cases, um,
you know, you can't really see in it. Before they've
started the show, and in some cases they can't hide
(18:41):
what's going on. So we're walking around the show floor
and getting an idea of what what we're going to
get an opportunity to see the next day. And on
on one side we see Sony's enormous pirate ship of
the Blu Ray display. Yeah. So yeah, they actually had
a this this UH set essentially and it was because
(19:01):
of Pirates of the Caribbean UH. And they had this
big pirate ship type set in the middle of their booths. Now, now,
some of these booths are small, like some of them,
Some of them are only a slightly larger than what
you would find an office cubicle. Yeah, I mean their marketing.
Marketing dollars don't grow on trees for some companies because
they are paying for the square footage at this event
and other other ones, especially you know, of course from
(19:24):
the big companies are enormous, enormous booths, Panasonic, Sony, this
is taking place. Most of these booths are at the
Las Vegas Convention Center, which has I think three and
a half million square feet of space. Yes, and and
and c e s. These days, it's not just one building,
(19:44):
it's also in many other floors. Um, but anyway, you
were saying, so the Blue Ray, the Blue Ray presence
is there, and it was obvious, and then a couple
rows over, it wasn't even that far. It was on
the same show floor. It was the and this is
again one of our very first podcasts that we did
(20:04):
back when we were five minutes long. HD DVD versus
Blu Ray. Right, h D DVD was supposed to be
at cs and the week before c e S there
was a big stink because Warner Brothers announced that it
was going to be exclusively Blu Ray from that moment on.
And that was one of the few big movie studios
that had still been backing h D d d D
(20:27):
at that point. H D DVD they which this from Toshiba. Right,
had the Toshiba had decided to pull the h D
DVD presence from c e S rather than have to
endure a week long UH onslaught of questions about what
are you going to do now? Yeah, yeah, and that
was that was the thing they were. Um, there were
(20:50):
rumors that there was something going to happen with h
D DVD. UH. I guess in the weeks prior and
then it happened right before they had the set in
place on the show floor and it essentially never opened. Um,
and we didn't know. We got the announcement while we
were there UM that they were they were going to
(21:13):
do it, and then as we were there they said, yeah,
we're done. Yeah, So that was pretty much the end
of h D DVD. I had that down too. Yeah.
That also was two thousand eight was a big year
for UH for CS. We were a hundred and forty
one thousand attendees, so up from that seventeen thousand, five
hundred previously just just a few more. Now. I actually
(21:37):
wrote down the a couple of just little facts about
every year from two thousand eight ton because we were
you know, I attended all of those, So just a
couple of little notes. So you covered h D DVD,
which was one of the notes I had for two
thousand and eight. The number of attendees was another. And
also I have what c net picked out as the
best of CS because Senat is the official streaming partner
(22:02):
of CE s or was in for those years and
so s net always holds an awards um ceremony where
what they do is their editors go and hit the
floor and they all look at all the different tech
out there, and then they get together and they decide
what is the what is the best thing on the floor.
And I think it'll be interested to hear what one
(22:23):
over some of these years, because they're not all good
stories ahead. So two thousand and eight s NET Awards,
this one is not bad. Is the Phillips Eco TV show. Yeah,
this is a forty two in ten a d p
h D TV that had a lot of energy saving
technology built into it. Because two thousand eight, I think
Chris can remember this to two thousand eight, I think
(22:43):
was the big trend was green technology in two thousand eight. Um,
you can usually spot some pretty pretty prevalent trends each
year at CS two. If you attend what we can
talk a little bit about that as well. Two thousand nine, Um,
that was the when the LG watch phone was on
the show floor, which never came to the United States,
(23:05):
but it made a huge hit at the show. Yeah,
I got a lot of buzz because everyone's saying, Oh,
it's the Dick Tracy watching. It's got video and everything
and his touch screen interface, and you know what, we
don't have the l g Watch phone. But we do
have the iPod Nano that has a lot of the
same functionality, just not the phone part. Uh, so that's
kind of interesting. But what one that year, Senets prize
(23:28):
went to the Palm Pre Oh yeah, which is kind
of sad. So justin short, Palm Pre from from from
Palm never really took off. It very much impressed everyone.
Everyone thought that it was going to be a real
uh competitor to the iPhone. Yeah. That was basically the
debut of their brand new operating system. And then it
(23:49):
just never got traction. It took about six months from
CS before it even hit the market, and by then
the buzzard died down, so it never really took off.
HP ended up buying Palm. Uh, the Palm phones began
to disappear, webOS became a tablet only thing and then happened,
and no one really was sure what was going to
(24:09):
happen with webOS because they first HP was saying we're
done with it, and they're like, no, we're not done
with it, so we don't know if we're done with it.
And now they're saying we're not done with it and
we're moving it to open source. So that's been the
journey of webo s since c E S two thousand nine. Yeah,
pretty crazy. And we did a whole episode on Palm,
so you can listen to that if you want to
know more about that company. The big thing I remember
(24:32):
from twenty tenness seeing Intel's new Haleen processor running. I
had written an article about the Nehleen processor and this
time I got the chance to see it and I
was very much impressed. The big win for that year
was Panasonics three D h D t V. That's what
Sena gave the award to. And of course three D
television still has not really taken hold. It just hasn't
(24:56):
really gained that much attraction. There are a lot of
televisions out there they have three D built into them,
but we have not seen three D become a real
powerhouse in home entertainment. Yeah. And and actually you you're mentioning,
um uh, the Nehalen processor kind of reminded me to
a lot of the stuff on the show floor. I mean,
we've we've had many people, uh tell us that they
(25:17):
think going to see e S would be a whole
lot of fun. And yeah, in some ways, getting the
chance to see these gadgets and and and cool toys
and be it. Yeah, that that part is kind of cool.
But there's a lot of stuff where I mean, looking
at a motherboard with an Ahleen processor. I mean what
Intel does when they show that kind of thing off, um,
(25:38):
is they show a computer running stuff that you know,
they're talking about the the optimization, but if you look
at the process there, I mean, it's it's a chip.
So there's there's a lot of stuff there that's just
it's good and it's important, and it's it's nice to
have in your next computer. You know, Oh man, look
how fast that is. I'd like to have that, But
you don't stay there all day and just marveling at
it because it's the coolest thing. Every We can talk
(26:00):
about some of that, we can talk about some of that. Also,
want to get to our personal experiences, because I've got
a whole rant I could go off on, but not
about Intel, though they're they're expected to show a new
processor this year. Yeah. I saw sandy Bridge last year,
and again that was very impressive. So that was something
for last year being this year as we're recording it,
but last year when you're listening to this even Yeah,
(26:22):
I saw, I saw Sandy Bridge and that was very interesting. Um.
That was also it was a big year for tablets
and smartphones last year. The Motorola Atrix, which was the
smartphone that could dock with a laptop like docking device
and it could power that laptop, so you were actually
using the smartphones operating system in a laptop form factor. Uh,
(26:43):
BlackBerry Playbook was there to play with. That was the
first time I got my hands on one of those.
Um lots of different devices seen. That gave the award
to the Motorola Zoom, which again just never really I mean,
it hasn't done terrible and the it's not it's not
it's not a failure or anything in the market, but
I don't think it ended up making as big a
(27:06):
splash as we thought back when we were at CES. Yeah,
and part of that is just you know that that
was sporting the new Honeycomb build of Android. Well within
that same year, we've seen ice Cream Sandwich come out
or at least unveiled. Yeah. So I mean that's that's
(27:26):
one of the issues with CS two is that sometimes
the stuff that you see at the show that you
think is gonna be like, oh my gosh, I can't
wait for this to hit the market. It's gonna be
the next big thing. Some of it, some of it
never comes to market, and some of it will come
to market and then just fizzle. Uh. Let me get
my Let me get the one item that never came
to market that just drove me crazy. I know what
(27:46):
this one is. The Lenovo you won? Oh, the Lenovo
you won, which was a notebook computer where you could
detach the screen from the base of the computer and
it would become a tablet. And it actually had two
different operating systems. When it was a notebook computer, it
was running Windows seven. The original build I saw, when
(28:07):
you detached the screen, it would switch to a Linux
based operating system. The second time I saw it, which
was c S I can't remember if it was the
first Timmer nine anyway, the second time I saw it,
they had switched the tablet operating system over to Android. Uh.
And in both cases they were hoping to aim for
(28:28):
a summer release and it never happened. It did. There
was some limited releases in China, but nothing in the
United States. And I this was the tablet device I
really wanted because I wanted something that I could use
as a full computer, or I could detach the screen
and use that as a tablet, so that I could
preload all the things I needed before detaching the tablet part,
(28:49):
and then i'd have it to refer to on the tablet.
That way, for all the heavy data processing type stuff
or word processing word entrge kind of things. I could
use a keyboard instead of a touchscreen device. And um,
and you know, I'm still uh still said that that
never really came out. Um, but yeah, let's talk about
what it's like when you go to c e S.
(29:12):
We can cut We'll mostly be talking about from the
perspective of press, because that's what we are. We we
haven't We've never exhibited at C E S. Yeah, so
well it's uh, I can I can say that it's
if you're interested in gadgets or you're a member of
the media, it's the experience is not going to be
terribly difficult because, um, you're gonna want to see as
(29:36):
much of the show as you can. Now that the
show takes the better part of a week. Um, and
you know, as as as I mentioned and Jonathan mentioned before, Um,
it's quite a lot of square footage in terms of
show space, Um, it's grown very, very large. There's even
an outdoor section where they have mobile electronics and things
car cars. Um yea that that was the first time
(29:58):
I saw a Fiat five because Microsoft is showing off
it's uh uh Sinc. Operating system, and they had a
Fiat five there and I thought, wow, man, look at this.
They brought a Fiat overseas for just for this show. Um.
A lot of the audio exhibitors are in hotel suites
in one of the nearby hotels because you know, you
don't want to you don't want to have to try
(30:19):
and just and and show off your your high end
audio equipment on a show floor that's just clamoring with noise.
You need to have your own little area so that
you've at least kind of blocked out most of the
ambient noise so people can really hear what your stuff
can do. Yeah, to to quote Dr Seuss, oh the noise, noise, noise, noise,
(30:39):
it's it's allowed environment. People are talking. There's media playing
from from pretty much everywhere. Yeah, the central hall you
get um uh, there's usually a few. The one the
one audio areas you'll hear the most are from our
are the the car sets, like the the the audio
stereo systems that go into cars, those tend to actually
(31:01):
be on the show floor and they tend to drown
everything else out. I know that when m Leo Report
first got his This Weekend Tech table set up over
at CS he was put directly across from an area
where they had several of these exhibitors showing off these
incredibly powerful stereo systems. And so through most of the
(31:25):
twit footage of that first year, you hear doom, doom, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't,
like in the background, and like people are shaking when
they're sitting there at the table. It was pretty intense.
They had in two thousand eight, one night when we
went even had marine electronics. They had boats. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
and uh interesting. So some of these, some of these
(31:47):
booths that you'll you would see are are wide and
spread out and and in some cases it's that the
company wants to make a big statement but doesn't necessarily
have that much to show. Um. Sometimes it's that they
need the space, Like the Parrot drone. The first time
I saw that, you know, that's the it's got four
(32:08):
helicopter type blades. Yeah, quadricopter that's that's not bad UM
and you can control it through and a mobile device.
It was it used to just be UM iPhone, but
they've expanded it a little bit since then. But that
was really pretty cool UM and took up a lot
of space, but it was it was it consistently drew crowds.
(32:30):
Taser tends to have its own space. Last year, I
saw them tasering people. That was kind of interesting. Yeah,
but it was I got a real charge out of it. Uh.
And then there for every booth that you see that
has really cool tech in it, they're about fifteen booths
that have things like computer cases or smartphone cases or
(32:53):
smartphone decals to put on stuff that's accessories for things
that you already owned. So it's not as exciting. It's
definitely stuff that people want. So that's why it's at
the trade show, because retailers are going to be looking
around to see what's available and say, oh, you know what,
I want my store to carry this line of smartphone
case because I think that would really move UM. But
(33:13):
as a as a member of the press or maybe
just a member of the general public, if somehow you've
found your way into cees. It wouldn't necessarily be like,
oh my gosh, look at that smartphone case. Well, and
some of them manufacturers too, aren't necessarily cutting edge. You
might see a headphone manufacturer there and they're not making
uh the latest noise canceling headphones or that hey that
(33:34):
would come in handy at zes or um uh you know,
the the high end cans that you see, um, people
paying three or more dollars. Where you'll see low cost headphones. Look,
we've made uh you know, earbuds with better response. Uh
that retail for and and that's not gonna be exciting
(33:54):
news necessarily, but it might be for retailers who are going, hey,
I can I can offer a wider range of low
cost stuff and selves in my store. Um. There are
a lot of manufacturers from overseas who are showing off,
um how they've been able to manufacture things in smaller
packages and uh and for lower costs. Um, so you
(34:16):
might be able to to fill out your low range
if you're looking for stuff to include in your store. Yeah,
there's actually an entire section that's essentially from Asian um
markets and it's all these really tiny booths filled with
some of it's filled with some of the weirdest electronics
you've ever seen. Like it's all the stuff that you
would typically say wow that that clearly had to come
(34:38):
from Japan because it's just so unusual. But um, but
also a lot of the other like the less expensive,
the more affordable types of electronics, and not the cutting
edge stuff, but the stuff that has been refined to
a point where the price has really come down. UM.
And then there are other sections of the floor where
you're gonna you're gonna see the cutting edge, like the
(34:59):
tops stuff that's coming out the next year. UM. These
are usually from the really really big companies, And once
in a while a small company will will really throw
you and you'll you'll go to some small booth and
you're like, wow, the parrot drone in a way was
like that. A lot of people say, wow, that's really innovative. UM.
But more often than not, you're going to see people
talking about the big companies like Sony, Pana, sonic, Um, Toshiba, Toshiba, YEP,
(35:25):
LG LG always has a really big presence there, Um, Intel, Microsoft, Uh.
These are the companies that have some of the largest
booth spaces on there, Like some of the booth spaces
for some of these companies are the same as if
you took ten of the other exhibitors together and put
them all in the same space. Oh yeah, I mean
(35:46):
these places are are in a lot of cases, larger
than a small retail store. Um. And and the the
result of that is you can spend a whole day
looking at a small section of the floor because need
a few minutes to take in what it is you're
looking at. So, I mean, you could spend a lot
of time on your feet looking around, and it's it
(36:08):
can be wearying, especially if you're carrying twenty pounds of
paper press kits or and six pounds of laptop. They
don't they don't do the paper press kits as much anymore.
But that was the year I went no, wait, there
was a point. I remember Chris and I both at
one point took out all the press kitts we had,
and it was it was probably combined, it's probably at
(36:32):
least fifty pounds of paper. Yeah, thankfully they don't do
that anymore now as much. Now it tends to either
be on a thumb drive or they give you a
card that has a link to an online press scott
which is so much better. Also, it makes it way
easier to get hold of things like images and stuff
if you need to run an article, So that that fantastic.
(36:54):
Keep that up the but it goes on for days.
I mean you can after the first day or so,
you can be quite tired. Yeah, the periods, and there's
there's just a lot to see and a lot to do.
There are three main halls in the convention Center, the
North Hall, Central Hall in South Hall, and South Hall
is the one that I typically hit first, and they're
(37:14):
most several of the big name companies are in South Hall.
Central Hall has more of the big name companies, and
I believe it's the Central Hall that has two floors,
which makes that even more intimidating. And then the North
Hall tends to have a lot of the vehicle stuff.
Some of it's in the Central Hall, but most of
the vehicle stuffs in the North Hall. The stuff is
not on display outside the convention center. Um and so
(37:36):
you also they also will have special zones set up
now at ces, so like they'll have a green zone
area where they've got a lot of exhibitors who all
specialize in green technology together. They'll have an educational zone,
they'll have a senior citizen type zone, so technology that's
specifically geared toward UM meeting the needs of elderly users.
(37:59):
So that's kind of interesting that you know, these different
zones can be in various halls. It all depends on,
you know, how c e S has arranged that particular year. Huh.
Then you've got all the different UM ones that are
in the the nearby hotels UM for example, the Venetian
off often has its own the audio section. Also, the
(38:20):
Venetian and Sands Expo Center tends to have a hall
display hall as well. It's a smaller one, doesn't have
as many big names in it, but it's another it's
another exhibitor hall, so it's not just the Las Vegas
Convection Center, which is already huge. The Hilton tends to
have several suites that people are using, the exhibitors are using.
Sometimes you have companies that don't rent space at c
(38:41):
e S, but they show up and get a suite
at a hotel and then they try and entice you
to come over to the hotel so they can show
off their stuff without actually being part of the CES
there's that issue as well. And then they're all the parties. Okay,
so people who have never been to ce S who
are saying, wow, this sound like it's incredible. I kept
and there are parties that sounds amazing. Let me tell
(39:03):
you what a c S parties like. So CES party,
you will, you will eat well, and you will you
could potentially drink as well. I don't drink, so that
means nothing to me. Um. I mean I drink water,
but I don't drink alcohol, so that means nothing to me.
But you go, you'll see some cool tech and then
you try and talk over the sound of everyone else talking,
(39:24):
plus the ambient music which is usually about three, three
or four times louder that needs to be in order
to explain who you are and and and find out
more about this product. It's all business talk. It's not
it's not fun stuff like it's not. It's not a
part of you go to to have fun. It's a
part of you go to the network to get a
little more information about stuff. It's still working. So it's
(39:46):
not like, um, you know you're you're dancing the night away.
It's not like that. Although maybe there are some of
the CE S parties, and those are just the ones
I've never gone to. Uh So, now at this point
I tend to I'll try go to a party now
and then because it is a really good way to
network with people, and it is a very good way,
like if you if you write about how stuff works,
(40:06):
like I do, it can be invaluable to get the
business card of an executive so that you can contact
that person and say, hey, I'm working on this article
about the thing that you specialize in. Is there anyone
at your company I could speak with so I could
get an expert on involved in writing this article. It's incredible.
But now I will often try and save the time
(40:29):
after the show floor closes to getting together with some
of my peers in tech journalism to sit down and
just kind of talk about what we saw and kind
of share knowledge, because there's a lot of that at
C E S. It's nice, you know, you don't see
a lot of at least in my experience, I don't
see a lot of journalists kind of shutting themselves off
from everyone else and not talking for fear of losing
(40:49):
the scoop. It tends to be a lot of people
sharing their information and kind of you know, figuring out
what are the trends, what what are was it that
we're seeing? What does this mean for the upcoming year?
And that, to me is is fascinating. That's one of
the parts that I like the most about c e S.
So sitting around in the old what used to be
the Star Trek experience at the Hilton with with folks
(41:13):
from the Twit network or from uh from Revision three
or from c Net. That's that's fantastic. I love that.
But it's uh yeah, it's not all fun and games,
that's for sure. Um No, it's a lot of work,
it is, and it is probably it's one of the
most physically tolling things I've had to do it. How
stuff works, it's by the end of the day you
(41:35):
you feel it, and then you get up and do
it again. Here's here's a hint for any of you
who are doing ce S for the first time this year.
If you're listening to this, you might be too late.
So if it's the first time you're doing c S,
will here's here's what you do. You need to know
if you plan on doing something after the show floor
closes and you go back to your hotel room to
set stuff down so that you can go back out.
(41:57):
Do not do not sit down and or lie down,
because that's it. You're not moving again. I have made
that mistake so many times. But I mean, oh, those
chairs and beds just look so comforting after you've done
on your feet all day long. It's a it's a
very interesting trade show. I don't think it's as phenomenal
(42:20):
or magical as outsiders seem to think it is. I mean,
but that's because I've covered it for four years now.
So um, if you if you were to experience it
the way I try and explain to people as if
you're a journalist, imagine walking into the world's largest shopping mall,
but every single store just sells electronics, and it's your
job to go into every single store and look at
(42:42):
every single shelf, at every single device, and then you're
going to write up what the best was when you're done.
And the problem is that the devices are you know,
it's none that they're bad, they're just not interesting. And
you have to do this through the entire mall. That's
not fun. But there are fun elements to it. When
(43:03):
you do stumble across that thing that that is debuting
for the very first time at c e S. There
is a level of excitement there that is, you know,
it's hard. You can't dismiss that that is pretty pretty
incredible to experience. Well, it should be, uh, should be
interesting to your reports when you when you are able
(43:25):
to file, if you're not completely worn out. Yeah, I'm
sure I'll blog some while I'm at c e S
and then maybe maybe when I get back, we can
talk a little bit about what it was I saw. Now, granted,
by the time that podcast goes live, it'll be um
well after c e S, but but I can I
can at least talk about sort of the trends and
you know, maybe what the field was like, because one
(43:47):
thing we did not touch on. And I guess we
could end here because it is kind of interesting. Um
is that you know, two thousand and eight most heavily
attended CS at that point in a dy people. So
you and I got to experience the most crowded it's
ever In two thousand nine saw drop in attendance because
that was when there was fear about recession. There was
(44:08):
a lot of economic uncertainty. Exhibitors pulled out of the show,
attendees canceled, and so, uh, I think it was like
around a hundred and ten thousand people showed up um
in two thousand nine out and said, you know, a
hundred thirty thousand people less than the previous year, on
(44:30):
which it sounds like it's still a huge amount, but
when you spread it over the entire event, it was
noticeable that there were fewer people there, um fewer people there,
and then two thousand and uh two ten there were
a few more, but it still was pretty it still
wasn't at its old levels. And then last year it
(44:51):
got back up two hundred forty thousand, so it's almost
back to where it was in two thousand and eight.
So I don't know what is gonna look like yet,
because I while I'm there while you're listening, I'm not
there while i'm recording, all right, But I'm sure I
can report back, assuming that I still have any you know,
ability to do. So I lost that toe on that
one year, that two thousand night. That's when I got
(45:12):
in between a reporter iNTS some free food. Anyway, bad idea.
Never do that in any circumstance, but especially at CES. Alright,
so we're wrapping this up you guys. If you have
any requests for episodes that you would like us to
cover in the future, let us know. You can contact
us on Facebook and Twitter are handled. There is tech
(45:33):
stuff H s W and Chris and I will talk
to you again really soon. Be sure to check out
our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how
Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and
perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The house Stuff Works iPhone FFP
has arrived down a bit today on iTunes to you
(46:00):
by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready, are
you
TechStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Oz Woloshyn
Karah Preiss
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.