December 5, 2025 • 39 mins
- Recorded at AWS RE:Invent in Las Vegas, I sit down with Dr. Mackenzie Herzog, NFL VP for Player Performance and Innovation, to hear about the league's approach to injury data collection and strategy
- Speaking of AWS Re:Invent, we also talk about the cross section of technology and food – including something called “drive-thru AI” -- with Deborah Simeone, AWS Head of Restaurants
- Reolink stops by to chat about outdoor cameras. Guy Pithie, Reolink’s VP for North America, talks about a couple of models
- Also on the show today, tech lifestyle experts Mario Armstrong and Chassie Post each share some gadget gift ideas ahead of the holidays
- Thank you to Visa, Norton, and SANDISK for your incredible support!
- Tech It Out listeners get a huge discount on Norton products at www.norton.com/techitout
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the ever changing world
of technology? Check it Out can help make some sense
of it all. Breaking down GeekSpeak into street speak. Technology columnist, author,
and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer technology each week
for every listener, Mark tackles the latest news, reviews, and
how toos to help you understand what's hot, what's not
(00:22):
and why.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey everyone, welcome to check it Out. Episode four twenty three.
Hope you're all doing great today as we're inching towards
the holidays. Can you believe Christmas and Hanukkah just a
couple of weeks away already? And so holiday gift giving
will be one of the themes today on the show,
We're going to get some gadget gift ideas from two
tech lifestyle experts, Mario Armstrong and Chassis Post, both of
(00:48):
whom will share some suggestions on what to buy loved
ones or hey, yourself too, right take advantage of those
pre holiday sales. Also on the show today, I attended
Amazon's AWS Reinvent conference in Las Vegas this week. It's
an annual developer showcase to see how technologies like AI,
artificial intelligence and cloud computing are changing virtually every industry,
(01:10):
and so I conducted I think six or seven interviews
from there, and I will air two of them today,
one to officially kick off the show in about sixty
seconds from now, to hear how tech is changing fast
food restaurants, and then after that I sit down with
an NFL spokesperson about how Amazon's AWS is also helping
football teams and fans. Also on the show this hour,
(01:33):
we're not quite done yet, Riolink joins us to talk
about outdoor cameras for your home. Maybe you want to
keep an eye on packages this time of year. Right,
All of this and more on an all new tech
it out powered by Norton and Visa, two outstanding partners
of mine on this program. I'll tell you more about
that momentarily, but let's get going with our first interview.
(01:55):
All right, I'm here with Debra Semioni, AWS head of Restaurants.
We're at AWS Reinvent twenty five in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Nice to meet you, Thanks for your.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Time, Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
You're doing back to back interviews talking about the intersection
of technology and restaurants.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I think my listeners would find it fascinating.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So why don't we talk first about something you called
drive through AI?
Speaker 5 (02:18):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
So, drive through AI is one way to make eating
a lot more efficient. Thank you. Going to your favorite
restaurant and the person who's taking your order understands exactly
what you say the first time. You don't need to yell,
you don't need to repeat yourself. You're going to be exactly
what you need with higher order accuracy and the quality
is going to be great. So we're building different bots
(02:39):
that do order taking, and they use a model called
Nova Sonic at AWS, which is a speech to speech
generative AI model, so you can talk to the bot
back and forth they can take your order. And this
really helps restaurants because they're able to redeploy that labor,
that person who might be taking your order to something
totally different within the restaurant that's going to need their attention,
whether it's helping customers directly or helping make the food
(03:01):
and improve the quality. So great for restaurant tours, but
interacting and having your order taken so quickly and getting
through the drive through in record speed is something we're
working on for consumers.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, it sounds like a win win for sure. Can
you walk us through an example, So you pull into
a fast food chain, you're waiting in line, then you
pull up to the speaker the microphone, and then what
is that at the point where you would chat with
an AI assistant to order something, and it's very human.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Like sure, and even beyond that, the whole experience is
tending more towards this invisible personalization we're referring to. So
think you drive up to the drive through and you
see the menu bored that large screen, but it's personalized
just for you. In the future, would be saying, hello, Mark,
and here's your last three orders. Would you like to
just reorder that? And that makes it really easy for
you to get through, Or maybe it's going to recommend
(03:50):
you a limited time offer based on something you've tried
in the past that has a flavor profile or ingredients
that we think you'd like based on what you've ordered before,
using some of the data science and tools that AWS
can help you employee to learn more about your customers.
So think of that whole experience happening and now you
are talking back and forth with the order taker, getting
your order taken, and then getting out of there in
(04:10):
record time.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Yeah, that's wild.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I've heard that some restaurant chains, past food chains are
even using things like time of day to recommend something.
So if you're pulling up into it, I'm just using
it as an example of McDonald's at eight am and
you order a sandwich like whatever McMuffin, it will say
would you like a coffee with that? Or an orange
juice because it knows it's morning time, Whereas if you
order lunch or dinner, they may say you like a
(04:34):
coke or sprite or something that you may not be
as likely to drink in the morning. About judging my
listeners do, but you get the idea. So it's time
of day, and then over time gets to know you.
Is that by facial recognition or your license plate because
you might be sharing a vehicle with somebody.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
There's so many different things and different data points that
can go into that. Can even be your loyalty status
with the brand if it's able to recognize you by loyalty,
depending on local laws, regulations, and what's possible for restaurants
to recognize you. But you were asking about people sort
of driving up and getting this unique experience.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Probably not unlike shopping at Amazon and you buy something
in it says other customers have bought this too, that
they're upselling you to buy anything else. So it's a
win for the restaurant too. And that can also happen
with fast food. Would you like frise with that.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:24):
So, but I'm glad you brought that up personalized, So
the same personalization at Amazon dot Com uses is also
available on AWS two restaurant tours to be able to
make good recommendations, but so much more sophisticated than that, now,
going beyond time of day and the restaurant trying to
know you, beyond just saying, Mark, here's our latest thing.
If they're just pushing that to you, they know it's
not personal enough. It's not getting at those neurotransmitters that
(05:47):
light up every single time you hear your name or
you hear something that means something to you. So what
restaurants are finding is that just pushing offers at you
is sort of empty and it's not leading to many cells.
The other piece of sophistication that restaurants are reaching is
understanding what the line looks like in the drive through.
So why would I spend time up selling you on
five orders of fries. When I have a giant line
(06:09):
of cars, I might lose orders just on that. So
sometimes restaurants aren't going to sell, they're going to help
you get through more quickly. Other times they're going to
have the time to spend with you and not sacrifice
operational efficiency. So the technology is getting so good that
the AI will know, like, what's the scenario this person's
in and how do we help smooth out their experience?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Before we move on to taste profiles, is this already
in operation? I mean, is AWS able to share what
brands that AWS has partnered with on this fast food chains?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Like it sounds futuristic.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
The personalization that is that part is that already deployed.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
You'd be surprised how many restaurants are already personalizing your
experience in ways that you might not see, even down
to I have a salad chain in Singapore that doesn't
have very many locations but has some really advanced personalization
analytics for dietary restriction and really helping people navigate allergies.
So there's all kinds of different ways to employ personalization
(07:06):
and you might not be seeing it, but we've got
so many restaurants doing it. Door Dash is now at
the point they run on AWS, they're able to predict
what your likelihood is to order from a retail store
just based on your restaurant order history, So we know
kind of exactly what to push towards you, because what
we're leaning towards is offers that just are meaningless. We
(07:27):
live in a value economy. We have this consumer that's
really chasing deals and trends. But we don't just want
to push towards them what we think is going to
be the discount offer. We want to push towards them
what's going to be meaningful. It takes a lot of
data science and analytics to know your consumer in that
way to be able to predict what they're going to like.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
But what you're unveiling here at AWS Reinvent is this
new platform Nova Sonic. So you can't mention brands and
I respect that, but that's really cool that this is
where it's going, or as you said, it's even available
today kind of behind the scenes the magic of it.
Why don't we pivot, Deborah, we're tied with Deba Meoni,
AWS head of Restaurants. Let's just end off talking about
(08:04):
AI helping with taste profiles. Can you tell us about that.
We've had a perfume bar here at the show to
give you a customized accent. But what is taste profiles
all about?
Speaker 4 (08:15):
So we know in the restaurant industry that personalization leads
to purchases, and it leads to loyalty and recognition with
the brand and wanting to continue to engage with that
brand over time. And so traditionally restaurants have personalized your
dish by saying, oh, you always order this type of dish,
would you like to order that again? Versus the yeah,
(08:36):
like would you like to reorder this? Or like you
always order two salads, like would you like to order
two salads again versus you always order salads with a vinaigrette,
And like we can tell you like a tangy profile,
and here's some items or here's some combinations of ingredients
that might also tailor to your senses. So we're seeing brands,
(08:57):
especially salad concepts, this has been big or they're really
tailoring types of recommendations they make to the type of
taste profile that they think that you'll have.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Oh cool, all right, So again the idea is that
they get to know your tastes and can then recommend
something that you are more likely to order if it
knows that you like tangy, as you said, obviously going
to yield more purchases and overall customer satisfaction exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And help you discover things on the menu that you
may not have tried, and showing in the same way
that a waiter or a barista was showing that we
care enough to know you. That's part of the essence
of hospitality. We want to make you feel seen and
want to make you feel special. We don't just want
to offer you something that's free or discounted or what
you've done before. We want to help speak more to
you and enhance your experience.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
All right, So, just like drive through AI, is this
available now or is this very conceptual early stage theory.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
It's available now, and you'd be surprised. It may be
happening in some of the delivery apps they use now,
it might be happening in some of the drive through
experiences that you're already experiencing as a consumer, but again
invisible behind the scene, and you just don't know it.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
All right, Well, thank you so much, Debra for your time.
Very interesting discussion. Thanks again, thanks for having me. We
have another interview recorded at AWS Reinvent in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
We'll play it after a short break.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I sit down with someone from the NFL who will
talk about how technology is helping to avoid injuries and
also boosting fan engagement. So that's coming up shortly before, though,
I just wanted to give a shout out to Visa.
Did you know that shoppers are three times more likely
to enter an unfamiliar store if it displays a Visa logo,
and customers are five times more likely to think a
(10:34):
merchant is reputable. This is because Visa has invested billions
over the years in fraud prevention, so you don't need
to think twice about shopping at retail or online with
your Visa card, nor should businesses be concerned about secure payments.
Visa is deploying advanced technology to ensure customer data is
not vulnerable no matter where the transactions take place. This
includes something called tokenization powered by Visa as one part
(10:59):
of the solution, which reduces the risk of identity theft
because this technology replaces your actual cardholder info with a
random alpha numeric code so that the merchant never sees
your actual card number yet ensures a fast transaction as well.
To learn more about Visa's work and protecting you and
your purchases, visit visa dot com slash Security. We're going
(11:19):
to chat with the NFL when we return on check
it Out.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Stick with us, listen to check it Out whenever you
want to find the check it Out podcast? Did I too,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Welcome back everyone you're listening to check it Out.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
So I'm here at AWS Reinvent twenty five sitting with
Mackenzie Herzog.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
She is Vice president of Player Health and.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Safety and Strategic Innovation at the NFL.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Welcome to the program. Good to chat with you, Thank you,
thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So why don't we start very high level AWS host
of this amazing annual conference. They have a long standing
partnership with NFL. Tell us a bit about that partnership
and then your involvement.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, we do so.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
Player health and safety is obviously a top priority for
the NFL, and we've had a long history of collecting
data to understand player injuries and to improve player health.
We've made tremendous progress over the past decade, but prior
to twenty nineteen, a lot of that data collection was
very manual and it was very time consuming, and so
we went on a road show to identify a partner
(12:29):
that could help us synchronize all of the data sources
together and analyze that data and identified AWS as our
partner to develop the Digital Athlete, which is our program
that synchronizes data sources together to create a three hundred
and sixty degree view of the player on field experience
using data. So essentially it creates a virtual laboratory for
(12:50):
us to understand how to reduce injuries and how was.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
That data captured?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Do the players wear clothing or apparel that have sensors
on it or are these done with cameras that are
capturing this from afar?
Speaker 6 (13:02):
All of the above, so we use many different data sources.
We're very lucky in sports to have a lot of
data in our program. This comes from video, so we
use video capture to identify data points. We also have
sensors that the players wear in games and in practices
so that we can understand things like workload and distance traveled.
And importantly, we capture their injury data through an electronic
(13:23):
medical record and these are just a couple of data sources.
We get data from a lot of different places, and
that was really the technological kurdle to overcome, was to
get all of those data together so that we can
really harness the power of the data to make informed
decisions about player health and safety.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
On that note, and speaking of injuries, a lot of
this is for preventative care, if you will. So is
it fair to say that if you are analyzing a
team's players, Let's say, just I don't know Buffalo Bills
or Dallas Cowboys, and you notice that I don't know,
a linebacker is walking a little funny with his left leg,
that may hint at an injury that is about to
(13:59):
get So if that's true, how do you communicate that
back to the coach, to the organization that hey, watch
that player because of what might happen.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
Yeah, it's a really great question. So the Digital Athlete
is an AI backed platform that essentially takes all this
data and then gives it back to the clubs so
that they can make informed decisions about their players. So
all thirty two of our NFL clubs use the Digital
Athlete and they can create insights from the data we
have things like prediction models that identify players who may
be at risk for a future injury, or we give
(14:30):
them the data that they can compare their club or
their players to the rest of the league and so
that they can identify patterns in the data. The practitioners
on the field obviously know their players better than any
of us do, and so what we're trying to do
is really give that data back to them so that
they can make more informed decisions and more data driven
decisions about how to care for their players in the
best way that they can do.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Information is bliss not ignorant.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
Yes, yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
And so is this also used for non injury related
data collection if the team wants to tweak their performance.
You know, maybe you've got a quarterback that is having
an issue with a pass and you're analyzing games and
games worth of data in order to improve or optimize
their positioning on the field or their plays.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
Yeah, our focus really is on player health and safety.
With the digital athlete you, we're trying to reduce player injuries.
But of course our teams all have their special sauce
and they're using multiple data sources as well to optimize performance.
At the end of the day. All of our work
for player health and safety, to reduce injuries and to
keep players healthy is really about optimizing performance and reducing
the injury risk.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Can you quantify how successful this has been? I remember
something specific about NFL and miss games, So.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
We use data to quantify the success of our programs.
We ultimately we want to see fewer injuries within the games,
and we want our players to be available and on
field and mess fewer games. So we do quantify success
by tracking metrics, whether that's the number of concussions, the
number of games missed, the number of specific injuries.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
We're really pleased with.
Speaker 6 (15:59):
The progress we've seen. We have seen progress over the
last decade in terms of the fewest number of concussions
on record. Last season, we've seen a sustained reduction in
the number of lower extremity strains and the games that
players missed due to those injuries on field. Really pleased
with that progress. Obviously, there's always more work to do,
and we'd like to see all of the numbers come
down even further, but those are the metrics that we're
(16:21):
able to track, and we're really pleased with.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
The progress we've seen so far.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, I know, concussion has been a hot topic for
several years, understandably. Yeah, and they're doing more work there
with sensors and the helmets to find out exactly where
the blows are coming from and what kind of a
concussion that could cause, and how to obviously mitigate all
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
So really great work that you're doing, So thank you
for your time.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
We have been chatting with Mackenzie Herzog, NFL VP of
Player Health and Safety and Strategic Innovation.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
At the National Football League. Thank you so much for
your time.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
All Right, so we've played two interviews from AWS Reinvent.
We first spoke with Debora Simone, who is head of
Restaurants at AWS, to teach us about drive through AI
and taste profiles. Now we chatted with the NFL McKenzie
Herzog to hear how tech is changing the game very cool.
Next weekend i'll play a couple more interviews recorded in
(17:11):
Las Vegas from AWS Reinvent. Hey, if you want to
reach out on social media, let me know what tech
you've had your eye on for the holidays, and if
you have any questions about it or if you need
suggestions for loved ones, I'll spell my name in a moment,
but you can find me on all the major platforms
like x and Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky, Threads, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
And a couple of others.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I think I forgot a couple in there, but it's
Mark Saltzman, mar C s A L t z m
A N. Again, let's Mark with the C, Saltsman with
the Z. You can find me on all the big platforms,
and for my fellow Canadians, it's.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Sa L t Z M A N. Yes, that's right,
all right.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
And if you have suggestions for upcoming guests or topics
on tech it Out, you can let me know what
they are as well.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Always up for.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Suggestions, and be sure to let me know where you're
tuning into the show from always love hearing about that.
When we return on tech it Out, we're going to
catch up with tech lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong for some
of his top picks for.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Gift ideas this holiday season. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I want to follow Mark Google, Mark with a scene
and Saltzman with a Z breaking down geeks beak into
street speak.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
This is check it out.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Check it out with technology columnist, author, and TV personality
Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Welcome back to tech it Out.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Holiday shopping is in full swing, So are you ready
to tackle your list yet? If you are in need
of some techy ideas, Lucky for us, we've got digital
lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong here to help with his guide
to the season's hottest new gifts and tech savvy gadgets,
even if you're not as tech savvy as the gadget.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Hey, Mario, always good to chat with you. I love
how you break all this down for us.
Speaker 7 (19:04):
Yes, you know, this is one of my fun things
to do, is to really try to help people understand
like where technology is going, how can it be used.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
What a fun, what are great what are maybe unique
gift ideas?
Speaker 7 (19:13):
So it's always good to be on with you, Mark,
I really appreciate it. And I partnered up with some
awesome brands to kind of pull together that list of.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Some mustaves in my opinion, awesome. And again, I love
how you break it down into plain English, and so yeah,
I'm curious to know what you've got. I know you're
doing a bunch of TV interviews today. Why don't we
start off with a great pick for the aspiring musician
in your life. No doubt tech can play a role
there too.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
Oh absolutely, and in a big way. I mean, for
anyone that's ever really wanted to learn piano, this is it,
in my opinion, like or if you want.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
To get back into it.
Speaker 7 (19:42):
It's called the Roly Piano System that's spelled Roli, and
it's not an eighty eight key keyboard. It's a smaller keyboard.
It's something that you's portable, you can take it with you.
It's very fun, it's smart, it's interactive, and it has
these glowing keys that guide your hands while you use
the Roly Learn, which, by the way, it has a
ton of lessons, games, and a bunch of songs like
(20:04):
a thousand plus songs you actually want.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
To play, which is fun.
Speaker 7 (20:08):
And it's the only piano that sees your hands with
its AI hand tracking, so it can give you real
time feedback on your finger posture and a whole bunch
of things so that you can improve really fast. And
it's yeah, it's really awesome. It's twenty percent off. It's
you know, seven hundred and fifty eight dollars right now
with that discount.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Even just lit up keys that if they're prompting you
to press the right chords, that's for a song, that's
one thing. But to actually look at your hands too
with the camera, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
It is pretty cool, all right. So that's roly Roli.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Next up, Mario, any ideas to help get us excited
for the season ahead.
Speaker 7 (20:41):
Yeah, well, you know, American Greetings is celebrating one of
my favorites, Peanuts, and they're celebrating peanuts seventy fifth anniversary
with Peanuts Digital Advent Calendar.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
So this is a great digital.
Speaker 7 (20:52):
Gift that you can give to anybody or even do
with your own family. It's an interactive experience. You do
it online. It features Charlie, Snoopy, the whole gang, and
you essentially count down to Christmas with daily surprises. You
get exclusive animated Peanuts content, there's games, there's puzzles. You
can decorate the scenes on it as well. So it's
(21:13):
really just a great idea, I think for families, but
also for digital gift giving. Maybe you have relatives or
people that aren't in the area, or you're worried about
shipping and handling, like this is a great gift idea,
So check out American Greetings dot Com for some early
bonus activities as well.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Dude, I have Peanuts as a watch face on my
Apple Watch. I'm a fan.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
I did not know.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
I got Snoopy lying on his back when it's bedtime.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
I did not know.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
So we have the same car model and we both
love peanuts.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That's awesome, great, all right, So American Greetings bringing a
digital Advent calendar, which is all good except missing the chocolate,
I guess, but that's all good. We are chatting with
the digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong here to help us
guide us through the Black Friday, Cyber Monday and into
the holiday season with some great gadget gift ideas some
digital accessories too, like the Advent calendar. So how about
(22:04):
some great gift ideas for our loved ones and maybe
even something for ourselves.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Oh okay, okay, I see where you're going with this.
Come on now, I mean.
Speaker 7 (22:12):
Every time we go shopping for everyone else, we always
have to pick something up for ourselves.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Two for them, one for me, to that one for me. Right,
that's the ratio, all right?
Speaker 7 (22:21):
So my first one is a unique gift idea. It's
the gift of language, it's Rosetta Stone. I mean, look,
thirty years in the business, fifty million learners use this.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I have family and.
Speaker 7 (22:31):
Friends that have used Rosetta Stone and lived by it.
So they're offering their best deal of the year. It's
a lifetime membership for all twenty five languages for just
one hundred and forty nine dollars, which is sixty percent off.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
It's massive.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
So if you ever wanted to travel, or maybe you
have a college student that's gonna do that gap year,
or maybe go visit some relatives like it really helps
you because they have thousands of lessons. They have live
classes too, so you don't have to feel like you're.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Just on your own, and they have real world content.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
I think really helps you accelerate when you can actually
start having real world type conversations.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
And speaking of services, I know that you also have
something for avid readers, young readers that is also a
great deal I do.
Speaker 7 (23:12):
For the kids, I don't have you Do you know
about the popular book series. If you don't, it's Cat
Ninja and this popular book series has been read over
three hundred million times.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
It is a hit.
Speaker 7 (23:24):
Graphic novel with the kids. It's put out by Epic,
which is the world's leading digital reading platform for kids,
and they have launched their first ever Cat Ninja collectible figurines.
So these each collectible figurine features Cat Ninja in action
packed poses, so it's perfect for their imagination. They want
to play storytelling fun and it's just another connection to
(23:48):
the very popular graphic novel. And it's at just nineteen
ninety nine, so it's a great price.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah, that Epic app for readers like on a tablet,
fantastic for kids. And maybe we can end off on
one of my favorite brands, UFI. Really great and often
very aggressively priced products.
Speaker 7 (24:04):
They do, and this one is like UFI is incredible
what they're bringing to the table this year. I mean
the robot vacuum E twenty five. This is your all
in one cleaning hero. So this is probably the gift
that you give to yourself unless you really really love
somebody that you give this to them, because let me
tell you, it vacuums and mops your floors. Okay, it's
a robotic vacuum. Then it automatically empties the dust, it
(24:27):
washes and dries, its mop and it even refills clean water.
This finally makes it feel like the Jetsons are around
the corner.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
All right. That's from UFI, that's eu f Y.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Is there a website, Mario where we can see videos
of you using them in action?
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Yeah, you can. That's a great call out.
Speaker 7 (24:44):
So the website we have not only the ones I
just mentioned, but some other ones up there as well,
So you can check out some of the other lists.
Just go to in thenews dot tv. That's in thenews
dot tv.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Awesome, Mario, and I look forward chatting with you, I
hope even before the holidays, and of course at CS
I'll be seeing you the show.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Looking forward to it already, all right, see you soon. Chairs.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That's a crazy tech show which I will report from
for you in a month from now.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Before we get to our next interview with Rio Link
to talk about outdoor cameras, I wanted to thank Norton,
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(26:15):
We'll learn about outdoor cameras with reolink when we return
on check it.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Out, breaking down GeekSpeak into street speak. Check it Out
hosted by Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Welcome back to check it out.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Whether there are more break ins in your neighborhood, increase
instances of porch pirates taking off with packages, or you
simply want some extra piece of mind to keep an
eye on your home, whether you're inside or away from it.
Security cameras are becoming more affordable, easier to install, and
with a handful of cool features to learn about Reolink,
which offers a vast selection of wired and wireless security cameras.
(27:02):
We're joined by Guy Pithy. He's real Links vice president
for North America. Hi Guy, thanks for your time today.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
Hi Mark, Yeah, thanks for having me. I really appreciate
it great.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
So before we talk about specific solutions that you've got
some products from the real Link family, please tell us
a bit about the company.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Real Link absolutely.
Speaker 8 (27:19):
Reallink is a leading provider of innovative security solutions for
your home or business. Relink was founded in two thousand
and nine, and since then we've been dedicated and focusing
on really providing innovative solutions that are cost effective, easy
to use.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
And affordable.
Speaker 8 (27:36):
We've got a really wide range of everything from entry
level Wi Fi or IP camera solutions to a solar
powered range of cameras that are powered by solar panels.
We also have LTE solutions that work off sellingular networks,
which are really cool. And then we have a professional
line of NVR solutions network video recorders as well as
(27:57):
power over Ethernet cameras that connect to your network.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Or directly to the network video recorder.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Okay, great, so these are mostly outdoor cameras.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
Yeah, mostly outdoor cameras.
Speaker 8 (28:07):
We do have a few indoor cameras, but majority of
our cameras that we sell and design are designed to
go outdoor, weather rated and go withstand extreme conditions.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
And why do you think these are popular?
Speaker 8 (28:20):
Okay, outdoor cameras are a very popular. First off, it
is your first line of defense on your property or
your business. Not only they provide instant notifications if someone
does walk on your property, you can log onto that
camera and see live footage and you can also download
recorded footage. So it's really your first line of defense.
And it's also a major deterrent.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Yeah, good point. So it's a deterrent. But then you
also have some video footage should you need it. And
then depending on which unit you go with, how you
share that footage with, say the authorities will vary. But
let's focus on the real Link E series today, and
why don't we start with the E five sixty.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
What is it and who is it?
Speaker 8 (29:00):
The E five sixty is a really cool compact outdoor
or indoor rated camera. It's four K resolution, so it's
super high resolution. It has pan, tilt and zoom, so
it has three hundred and fifty five degrees panning so
you can control the camera left and right. It also
has fifty degree tilt control, so you've got you can
(29:20):
control the camera up and down. It's Wi Fi six,
so it's the latest Wi Fi protocol. It's fuel Wi
Fi ban so it's two point four and five gig hits,
so it's very easy to set up on your Wi
Fi network. It records locally to a micro SD and
we've the E five sixties. We've included a sixty four
gigabyte memory card with this camera, so everything's recorded locally.
(29:41):
You don't have to pay for any cloud subscription.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
I like that.
Speaker 8 (29:44):
Yeah, it's a great option because a lot of people
don't like spending money on monthly.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Subscriptions these days.
Speaker 8 (29:50):
The sixty four gigabyte memory is upgradable to one hundred
and twenty eight gigabyte.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
It has two way.
Speaker 8 (29:55):
Talk, spotlights and siren, so it's a great camera to
put in your front garden or your business or your
backguard because you can monitor the whole viewing angle of
your front.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
Property or the back property.
Speaker 8 (30:08):
And you can control the pan till zoom via the app,
so if you log on remotely, you can control the camera.
The camera also has auto tracking, so if it detects
someone on your property, the camera actually will follow someone
until they out of view.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
We're chatting with Guy Pithy. He is REO links VP
for North America. We're learning about its outdoor cameras, specifically
the E series first, starting with the five sixty, and
then we're going to move into a battery based model
in a moment. So for this Wired E five sixty, guy,
how much does it cost and where's the best place
to buy it.
Speaker 8 (30:39):
It's retailing for one hundred and thirty ninety nine right now,
so really competitively priced. We've got promos running down to
one hundred and nineteen in the next couple of months,
and you can find this product on best buy dot
com and we're actually in seven hundred and twenty seven
best Buy stores right now, so your local best Buy
has got this camera on the shelves.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
All right, awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Now let's pivot and talk about the E series. The
model called B three sixty. The B stands for battery,
I assume.
Speaker 8 (31:08):
Yeah, the Argus B three sixty another really cool compact camera.
We've also included the sixty four gigabyte memory.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
It doesn't have the.
Speaker 8 (31:16):
Pan till zoom but so it has aesthetic fixed lens,
but it has a battery built in, and we've also
included a six watt solar panel, so you don't need
any power source for this camera. All you need is
a place where you can put it where it gets
a bit of sunlight. It comes with a three meter
cable from the solar panel to the camera, so you
can mount say the camera on the north facing side
(31:38):
of your of your property and have the solar panel
on the east or west side, depending on which one
gets the most summed. So it's another it's another four
K resolution camera, so it's high resolution that has two
way talks spotlight and siren, and it's a really cool camera.
Competitively priced also at normally one sixty nine ninety nine,
and we're also doing pros down to one twenty nine
(32:03):
at best Buy.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Yeah, we're doing Deal of the Days right now in
the next couple of months.
Speaker 8 (32:06):
So we've got some really good promos running on these
two cameras.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
So our guest B three sixty would be for those
who who don't want a wired solution, and then the
only sort of trade off is that there's no ptz
pan Tilton Zoom, but.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Everything else is pretty much the same.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Four K resolution app support, sixty four gigs of included storage.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
YEP spotlight, two way talk, weather.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Resistant, and down to one twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
It's only ten dollars more on sale than the sale
price for the E five sixty, so this lets you
choose which one of the two is for you. And
I know there are other cameras at reolink dot com
as well.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Guy.
Speaker 8 (32:41):
Yeah, you can learn about all of our products on
rear link dot com. We have a wide range also
on Amazon dot com, best buy dot com. Costco is
also supporting our product line, but you can find it
all of your major retail outlets.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
All right, awesome, guy, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
Thank you very much, Mark, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
You are listening to tech it Out powered by Norton
and Visa. We'll be right back to chat with lifestyle
expert Chassis Posts to hear her top tech pics for
the holidays, stay with us.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, listen
to check it out whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Is it possible to shop for the holidays and not
get stressed out?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
According to our next guest, it is doable. We have
on the line lifestyle expert Chassis Post. She's here to
share her tips and tricks and top tech that's trending
this season. Hi Chassis, thanks for your time and welcome
to the show.
Speaker 9 (33:45):
Hi Mark, Thanks so much for having me. And I've
partnered with some awesome brands today for gift ideas that
are really going to help you out.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
All right, So, yeah, before we get to the tips,
why don't we start off with what major list for
let's say the home and for families.
Speaker 9 (34:01):
Yeah, so for anyone that's health conscious, let's talk about
a healthier way to clean our homes, especially if you
have allergies or pets. Now, I'm obsessed with the lavoiit
Aro cordless vacuum. It keeps your floors clean and the
air fresh by trapping all those pesky allergens, pet hairs,
and dust with its hepa filtration and the best part,
(34:23):
it auto empties and auto charges itself, so that means
the mess day is contained and you can spend zero
time wrestling with dirt entangled hair and more time with
family this season and for families, my gift pick has
to be the epsom Life Studio Flexplus portable projector. Now,
this device is pure magic. It instantly projects a bright
(34:45):
and colorful four K picture up to one hundred and
fifty inches, perfect for movies or creating personalized holiday videos
using the EPs and Projection Studio app and setup couldn't
be easier. And the audio is incredible with the built
in sound by bos technology.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Plus with built.
Speaker 9 (35:04):
In Google TV, you have access to over ten thousand
streaming apps like Netflix and Disney Plus.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Actually, I've been reviewing that projector from Epsen and it
is awesome. The sound is crazy with their partnership with Bows. Now,
how about a financial hack for shopping this holiday?
Speaker 9 (35:23):
Yes, well, my financial hack for the holidays would be
the Venmo debit card. It helps savvy shoppers stretch their
budgets further because it allows you to spend your Venmo
balance everywhere you shop, and it unlocks a new rewards
program called Venmo Stash. Now with Stash you can earn
up to five percent cash back on everyday purchases like
(35:43):
at your favorite retailers and restaurants, and signing up is
free right in the Venmo app, and you can add
the digital card to your mobile wallet in minutes before
the physical card even arrives.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
We are chatting with lifestyle expert Chassis Post about some
handy smart home ideas for gifting to loved ones. Why
don't we circle back about gifts, maybe this time for
the little ones.
Speaker 9 (36:04):
Well, I'm so excited about the Tony Box two, a
game changer for ages one to nine and totally screen free.
The colorful audio player is powered by the Tony's character.
Kids choose and there are literally hundreds to choose from,
like Elsa from Frozen. You just squeeze an ear, place
it on top, and the song or story starts. Now
(36:25):
for the littlest ones, my first Tonys are squishy characters
filled with simple sounds that make learning those first words
fun and hands on. And I just love gifts that
help promote independent play. Now for the gamers, I think
Sega has something for everyone. Sonic Racing Crossworlds. It's an
absolute blast because it totally changes the game mid Race.
(36:48):
It introduces travel rings that transport you across land, air, sea,
and space into all new dimensions, and with cross platform play,
the whole family can race together, making it the perfect gift.
Available on all current gen consoles and PC. For the
details on everything I covered, just head to Indeanews dot TV.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Thank you so much for your time, Chassis all the best.
Happy holidays to you, appreciate it all.
Speaker 9 (37:12):
Thank you so much for having me in. Happy Holidays
to you too.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Hey, I hope you all enjoyed a new episode of
tech It Out. Between the interviews recorded at AWS Reinvent
in Las Vegas, learning about restaurants as well as the NFL,
we chatted gadget gift ideas with Mario Armstrong and Chassis
post just now and reolink filled us in on outdoor cameras.
Next weekend we'll have another brand new show for you,
(37:37):
including how technology is helping to fight wildfires and continuing
the work of the late and great Jane Goodall in
the field protecting chimpanzees in the environment using technology. I
know I plugged Visa and Norton earlier in the program.
Some partners of mine on tech It Out a huge
Thank you to those awesome companies for their support, and
(37:59):
also to sand Disc, another company that protects you right.
Visa protects you while shopping and merchants too. Norton has
a suite of cybersecurity tools, and sand Disc is great
for backup just in case something happens to your device,
like your laptop breaks, or you lose your tablet or
your smartphone is stolen. There are external storage solutions for
multiple devices, and unlike the cloud where you have to
(38:22):
pay a monthly subscription fee, if you want more than
say two or five gigs of data, a sand disc
flash storage solution you just pay the one time fee.
They're super durable, high capacity, and there's always sales on
these devices, especially this time of year, so be sure
to check out sanddisc dot com, or I should say
check out SanDisk dot com, you know, just to stay
(38:44):
on brand. Whether you have an iPhone and Android device, Windows, PCMAC,
what have you. Great stuff there again, protection seems to
be the common thread between Norton, Visa, and sand Disc.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
All right, have a great rest of your day everyone,
and I look forward to catching up with you next
week or another brand new episode of Tack It out bye,
bye for now.
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the ever changing world
of technology? Check it Out can help make some sense
of it all. Breaking down GeekSpeak into street speak. Technology columnist, author,
and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer technology each week
for every listener, Mark tackles the latest news, reviews, and
how toos to help you understand what's hot, what's not
(00:22):
and why.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey everyone, welcome to check it Out. Episode four twenty three.
Hope you're all doing great today as we're inching towards
the holidays. Can you believe Christmas and Hanukkah just a
couple of weeks away already? And so holiday gift giving
will be one of the themes today on the show,
We're going to get some gadget gift ideas from two
tech lifestyle experts, Mario Armstrong and Chassis Post, both of
(00:48):
whom will share some suggestions on what to buy loved
ones or hey, yourself too, right take advantage of those
pre holiday sales. Also on the show today, I attended
Amazon's AWS Reinvent conference in Las Vegas this week. It's
an annual developer showcase to see how technologies like AI,
artificial intelligence and cloud computing are changing virtually every industry,
(01:10):
and so I conducted I think six or seven interviews
from there, and I will air two of them today,
one to officially kick off the show in about sixty
seconds from now, to hear how tech is changing fast
food restaurants, and then after that I sit down with
an NFL spokesperson about how Amazon's AWS is also helping
football teams and fans. Also on the show this hour,
(01:33):
we're not quite done yet, Riolink joins us to talk
about outdoor cameras for your home. Maybe you want to
keep an eye on packages this time of year. Right,
All of this and more on an all new tech
it out powered by Norton and Visa, two outstanding partners
of mine on this program. I'll tell you more about
that momentarily, but let's get going with our first interview.
(01:55):
All right, I'm here with Debra Semioni, AWS head of Restaurants.
We're at AWS Reinvent twenty five in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Nice to meet you, Thanks for your.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Time, Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
You're doing back to back interviews talking about the intersection
of technology and restaurants.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
I think my listeners would find it fascinating.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So why don't we talk first about something you called
drive through AI?
Speaker 5 (02:18):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (02:19):
So, drive through AI is one way to make eating
a lot more efficient. Thank you. Going to your favorite
restaurant and the person who's taking your order understands exactly
what you say the first time. You don't need to yell,
you don't need to repeat yourself. You're going to be exactly
what you need with higher order accuracy and the quality
is going to be great. So we're building different bots
(02:39):
that do order taking, and they use a model called
Nova Sonic at AWS, which is a speech to speech
generative AI model, so you can talk to the bot
back and forth they can take your order. And this
really helps restaurants because they're able to redeploy that labor,
that person who might be taking your order to something
totally different within the restaurant that's going to need their attention,
whether it's helping customers directly or helping make the food
(03:01):
and improve the quality. So great for restaurant tours, but
interacting and having your order taken so quickly and getting
through the drive through in record speed is something we're
working on for consumers.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, it sounds like a win win for sure. Can
you walk us through an example, So you pull into
a fast food chain, you're waiting in line, then you
pull up to the speaker the microphone, and then what
is that at the point where you would chat with
an AI assistant to order something, and it's very human.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Like sure, and even beyond that, the whole experience is
tending more towards this invisible personalization we're referring to. So
think you drive up to the drive through and you
see the menu bored that large screen, but it's personalized
just for you. In the future, would be saying, hello, Mark,
and here's your last three orders. Would you like to
just reorder that? And that makes it really easy for
you to get through, Or maybe it's going to recommend
(03:50):
you a limited time offer based on something you've tried
in the past that has a flavor profile or ingredients
that we think you'd like based on what you've ordered before,
using some of the data science and tools that AWS
can help you employee to learn more about your customers.
So think of that whole experience happening and now you
are talking back and forth with the order taker, getting
your order taken, and then getting out of there in
(04:10):
record time.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Yeah, that's wild.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I've heard that some restaurant chains, past food chains are
even using things like time of day to recommend something.
So if you're pulling up into it, I'm just using
it as an example of McDonald's at eight am and
you order a sandwich like whatever McMuffin, it will say
would you like a coffee with that? Or an orange
juice because it knows it's morning time, Whereas if you
order lunch or dinner, they may say you like a
(04:34):
coke or sprite or something that you may not be
as likely to drink in the morning. About judging my
listeners do, but you get the idea. So it's time
of day, and then over time gets to know you.
Is that by facial recognition or your license plate because
you might be sharing a vehicle with somebody.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
There's so many different things and different data points that
can go into that. Can even be your loyalty status
with the brand if it's able to recognize you by loyalty,
depending on local laws, regulations, and what's possible for restaurants
to recognize you. But you were asking about people sort
of driving up and getting this unique experience.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Probably not unlike shopping at Amazon and you buy something
in it says other customers have bought this too, that
they're upselling you to buy anything else. So it's a
win for the restaurant too. And that can also happen
with fast food. Would you like frise with that.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:24):
So, but I'm glad you brought that up personalized, So
the same personalization at Amazon dot Com uses is also
available on AWS two restaurant tours to be able to
make good recommendations, but so much more sophisticated than that, now,
going beyond time of day and the restaurant trying to
know you, beyond just saying, Mark, here's our latest thing.
If they're just pushing that to you, they know it's
not personal enough. It's not getting at those neurotransmitters that
(05:47):
light up every single time you hear your name or
you hear something that means something to you. So what
restaurants are finding is that just pushing offers at you
is sort of empty and it's not leading to many cells.
The other piece of sophistication that restaurants are reaching is
understanding what the line looks like in the drive through.
So why would I spend time up selling you on
five orders of fries. When I have a giant line
(06:09):
of cars, I might lose orders just on that. So
sometimes restaurants aren't going to sell, they're going to help
you get through more quickly. Other times they're going to
have the time to spend with you and not sacrifice
operational efficiency. So the technology is getting so good that
the AI will know, like, what's the scenario this person's
in and how do we help smooth out their experience?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Before we move on to taste profiles, is this already
in operation? I mean, is AWS able to share what
brands that AWS has partnered with on this fast food chains?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Like it sounds futuristic.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
The personalization that is that part is that already deployed.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
You'd be surprised how many restaurants are already personalizing your
experience in ways that you might not see, even down
to I have a salad chain in Singapore that doesn't
have very many locations but has some really advanced personalization
analytics for dietary restriction and really helping people navigate allergies.
So there's all kinds of different ways to employ personalization
(07:06):
and you might not be seeing it, but we've got
so many restaurants doing it. Door Dash is now at
the point they run on AWS, they're able to predict
what your likelihood is to order from a retail store
just based on your restaurant order history, So we know
kind of exactly what to push towards you, because what
we're leaning towards is offers that just are meaningless. We
(07:27):
live in a value economy. We have this consumer that's
really chasing deals and trends. But we don't just want
to push towards them what we think is going to
be the discount offer. We want to push towards them
what's going to be meaningful. It takes a lot of
data science and analytics to know your consumer in that
way to be able to predict what they're going to like.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
But what you're unveiling here at AWS Reinvent is this
new platform Nova Sonic. So you can't mention brands and
I respect that, but that's really cool that this is
where it's going, or as you said, it's even available
today kind of behind the scenes the magic of it.
Why don't we pivot, Deborah, we're tied with Deba Meoni,
AWS head of Restaurants. Let's just end off talking about
(08:04):
AI helping with taste profiles. Can you tell us about that.
We've had a perfume bar here at the show to
give you a customized accent. But what is taste profiles
all about?
Speaker 4 (08:15):
So we know in the restaurant industry that personalization leads
to purchases, and it leads to loyalty and recognition with
the brand and wanting to continue to engage with that
brand over time. And so traditionally restaurants have personalized your
dish by saying, oh, you always order this type of dish,
would you like to order that again? Versus the yeah,
(08:36):
like would you like to reorder this? Or like you
always order two salads, like would you like to order
two salads again versus you always order salads with a vinaigrette,
And like we can tell you like a tangy profile,
and here's some items or here's some combinations of ingredients
that might also tailor to your senses. So we're seeing brands,
(08:57):
especially salad concepts, this has been big or they're really
tailoring types of recommendations they make to the type of
taste profile that they think that you'll have.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Oh cool, all right, So again the idea is that
they get to know your tastes and can then recommend
something that you are more likely to order if it
knows that you like tangy, as you said, obviously going
to yield more purchases and overall customer satisfaction exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And help you discover things on the menu that you
may not have tried, and showing in the same way
that a waiter or a barista was showing that we
care enough to know you. That's part of the essence
of hospitality. We want to make you feel seen and
want to make you feel special. We don't just want
to offer you something that's free or discounted or what
you've done before. We want to help speak more to
you and enhance your experience.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
All right, So, just like drive through AI, is this
available now or is this very conceptual early stage theory.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
It's available now, and you'd be surprised. It may be
happening in some of the delivery apps they use now,
it might be happening in some of the drive through
experiences that you're already experiencing as a consumer, but again
invisible behind the scene, and you just don't know it.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
All right, Well, thank you so much, Debra for your time.
Very interesting discussion. Thanks again, thanks for having me. We
have another interview recorded at AWS Reinvent in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
We'll play it after a short break.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I sit down with someone from the NFL who will
talk about how technology is helping to avoid injuries and
also boosting fan engagement. So that's coming up shortly before, though,
I just wanted to give a shout out to Visa.
Did you know that shoppers are three times more likely
to enter an unfamiliar store if it displays a Visa logo,
and customers are five times more likely to think a
(10:34):
merchant is reputable. This is because Visa has invested billions
over the years in fraud prevention, so you don't need
to think twice about shopping at retail or online with
your Visa card, nor should businesses be concerned about secure payments.
Visa is deploying advanced technology to ensure customer data is
not vulnerable no matter where the transactions take place. This
includes something called tokenization powered by Visa as one part
(10:59):
of the solution, which reduces the risk of identity theft
because this technology replaces your actual cardholder info with a
random alpha numeric code so that the merchant never sees
your actual card number yet ensures a fast transaction as well.
To learn more about Visa's work and protecting you and
your purchases, visit visa dot com slash Security. We're going
(11:19):
to chat with the NFL when we return on check
it Out.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Stick with us, listen to check it Out whenever you
want to find the check it Out podcast? Did I too,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Welcome back everyone you're listening to check it Out.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
So I'm here at AWS Reinvent twenty five sitting with
Mackenzie Herzog.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
She is Vice president of Player Health and.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Safety and Strategic Innovation at the NFL.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Welcome to the program. Good to chat with you, Thank you,
thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So why don't we start very high level AWS host
of this amazing annual conference. They have a long standing
partnership with NFL. Tell us a bit about that partnership
and then your involvement.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Yeah, we do so.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
Player health and safety is obviously a top priority for
the NFL, and we've had a long history of collecting
data to understand player injuries and to improve player health.
We've made tremendous progress over the past decade, but prior
to twenty nineteen, a lot of that data collection was
very manual and it was very time consuming, and so
we went on a road show to identify a partner
(12:29):
that could help us synchronize all of the data sources
together and analyze that data and identified AWS as our
partner to develop the Digital Athlete, which is our program
that synchronizes data sources together to create a three hundred
and sixty degree view of the player on field experience
using data. So essentially it creates a virtual laboratory for
(12:50):
us to understand how to reduce injuries and how was.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
That data captured?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Do the players wear clothing or apparel that have sensors
on it or are these done with cameras that are
capturing this from afar?
Speaker 6 (13:02):
All of the above, so we use many different data sources.
We're very lucky in sports to have a lot of
data in our program. This comes from video, so we
use video capture to identify data points. We also have
sensors that the players wear in games and in practices
so that we can understand things like workload and distance traveled.
And importantly, we capture their injury data through an electronic
(13:23):
medical record and these are just a couple of data sources.
We get data from a lot of different places, and
that was really the technological kurdle to overcome, was to
get all of those data together so that we can
really harness the power of the data to make informed
decisions about player health and safety.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
On that note, and speaking of injuries, a lot of
this is for preventative care, if you will. So is
it fair to say that if you are analyzing a
team's players, Let's say, just I don't know Buffalo Bills
or Dallas Cowboys, and you notice that I don't know,
a linebacker is walking a little funny with his left leg,
that may hint at an injury that is about to
(13:59):
get So if that's true, how do you communicate that
back to the coach, to the organization that hey, watch
that player because of what might happen.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
Yeah, it's a really great question. So the Digital Athlete
is an AI backed platform that essentially takes all this
data and then gives it back to the clubs so
that they can make informed decisions about their players. So
all thirty two of our NFL clubs use the Digital
Athlete and they can create insights from the data we
have things like prediction models that identify players who may
be at risk for a future injury, or we give
(14:30):
them the data that they can compare their club or
their players to the rest of the league and so
that they can identify patterns in the data. The practitioners
on the field obviously know their players better than any
of us do, and so what we're trying to do
is really give that data back to them so that
they can make more informed decisions and more data driven
decisions about how to care for their players in the
best way that they can do.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Information is bliss not ignorant.
Speaker 6 (14:53):
Yes, yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
And so is this also used for non injury related
data collection if the team wants to tweak their performance.
You know, maybe you've got a quarterback that is having
an issue with a pass and you're analyzing games and
games worth of data in order to improve or optimize
their positioning on the field or their plays.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
Yeah, our focus really is on player health and safety.
With the digital athlete you, we're trying to reduce player injuries.
But of course our teams all have their special sauce
and they're using multiple data sources as well to optimize performance.
At the end of the day. All of our work
for player health and safety, to reduce injuries and to
keep players healthy is really about optimizing performance and reducing
the injury risk.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Can you quantify how successful this has been? I remember
something specific about NFL and miss games, So.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
We use data to quantify the success of our programs.
We ultimately we want to see fewer injuries within the games,
and we want our players to be available and on
field and mess fewer games. So we do quantify success
by tracking metrics, whether that's the number of concussions, the
number of games missed, the number of specific injuries.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
We're really pleased with.
Speaker 6 (15:59):
The progress we've seen. We have seen progress over the
last decade in terms of the fewest number of concussions
on record. Last season, we've seen a sustained reduction in
the number of lower extremity strains and the games that
players missed due to those injuries on field. Really pleased
with that progress. Obviously, there's always more work to do,
and we'd like to see all of the numbers come
down even further, but those are the metrics that we're
(16:21):
able to track, and we're really pleased with.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
The progress we've seen so far.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah, I know, concussion has been a hot topic for
several years, understandably. Yeah, and they're doing more work there
with sensors and the helmets to find out exactly where
the blows are coming from and what kind of a
concussion that could cause, and how to obviously mitigate all
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
So really great work that you're doing, So thank you
for your time.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
We have been chatting with Mackenzie Herzog, NFL VP of
Player Health and Safety and Strategic Innovation.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
At the National Football League. Thank you so much for
your time.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
All Right, so we've played two interviews from AWS Reinvent.
We first spoke with Debora Simone, who is head of
Restaurants at AWS, to teach us about drive through AI
and taste profiles. Now we chatted with the NFL McKenzie
Herzog to hear how tech is changing the game very cool.
Next weekend i'll play a couple more interviews recorded in
(17:11):
Las Vegas from AWS Reinvent. Hey, if you want to
reach out on social media, let me know what tech
you've had your eye on for the holidays, and if
you have any questions about it or if you need
suggestions for loved ones, I'll spell my name in a moment,
but you can find me on all the major platforms
like x and Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky, Threads, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
And a couple of others.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I think I forgot a couple in there, but it's
Mark Saltzman, mar C s A L t z m
A N. Again, let's Mark with the C, Saltsman with
the Z. You can find me on all the big platforms,
and for my fellow Canadians, it's.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Sa L t Z M A N. Yes, that's right,
all right.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
And if you have suggestions for upcoming guests or topics
on tech it Out, you can let me know what
they are as well.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Always up for.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Suggestions, and be sure to let me know where you're
tuning into the show from always love hearing about that.
When we return on tech it Out, we're going to
catch up with tech lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong for some
of his top picks for.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Gift ideas this holiday season. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I want to follow Mark Google, Mark with a scene
and Saltzman with a Z breaking down geeks beak into
street speak.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
This is check it out.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Check it out with technology columnist, author, and TV personality
Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Welcome back to tech it Out.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Holiday shopping is in full swing, So are you ready
to tackle your list yet? If you are in need
of some techy ideas, Lucky for us, we've got digital
lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong here to help with his guide
to the season's hottest new gifts and tech savvy gadgets,
even if you're not as tech savvy as the gadget.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Hey, Mario, always good to chat with you. I love
how you break all this down for us.
Speaker 7 (19:04):
Yes, you know, this is one of my fun things
to do, is to really try to help people understand
like where technology is going, how can it be used.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
What a fun, what are great what are maybe unique
gift ideas?
Speaker 7 (19:13):
So it's always good to be on with you, Mark,
I really appreciate it. And I partnered up with some
awesome brands to kind of pull together that list of.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Some mustaves in my opinion, awesome. And again, I love
how you break it down into plain English, and so yeah,
I'm curious to know what you've got. I know you're
doing a bunch of TV interviews today. Why don't we
start off with a great pick for the aspiring musician
in your life. No doubt tech can play a role
there too.
Speaker 7 (19:34):
Oh absolutely, and in a big way. I mean, for
anyone that's ever really wanted to learn piano, this is it,
in my opinion, like or if you want.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
To get back into it.
Speaker 7 (19:42):
It's called the Roly Piano System that's spelled Roli, and
it's not an eighty eight key keyboard. It's a smaller keyboard.
It's something that you's portable, you can take it with you.
It's very fun, it's smart, it's interactive, and it has
these glowing keys that guide your hands while you use
the Roly Learn, which, by the way, it has a
ton of lessons, games, and a bunch of songs like
(20:04):
a thousand plus songs you actually want.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
To play, which is fun.
Speaker 7 (20:08):
And it's the only piano that sees your hands with
its AI hand tracking, so it can give you real
time feedback on your finger posture and a whole bunch
of things so that you can improve really fast. And
it's yeah, it's really awesome. It's twenty percent off. It's
you know, seven hundred and fifty eight dollars right now
with that discount.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Even just lit up keys that if they're prompting you
to press the right chords, that's for a song, that's
one thing. But to actually look at your hands too
with the camera, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
It is pretty cool, all right. So that's roly Roli.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Next up, Mario, any ideas to help get us excited
for the season ahead.
Speaker 7 (20:41):
Yeah, well, you know, American Greetings is celebrating one of
my favorites, Peanuts, and they're celebrating peanuts seventy fifth anniversary
with Peanuts Digital Advent Calendar.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
So this is a great digital.
Speaker 7 (20:52):
Gift that you can give to anybody or even do
with your own family. It's an interactive experience. You do
it online. It features Charlie, Snoopy, the whole gang, and
you essentially count down to Christmas with daily surprises. You
get exclusive animated Peanuts content, there's games, there's puzzles. You
can decorate the scenes on it as well. So it's
(21:13):
really just a great idea, I think for families, but
also for digital gift giving. Maybe you have relatives or
people that aren't in the area, or you're worried about
shipping and handling, like this is a great gift idea,
So check out American Greetings dot Com for some early
bonus activities as well.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Dude, I have Peanuts as a watch face on my
Apple Watch. I'm a fan.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
I did not know.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
I got Snoopy lying on his back when it's bedtime.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
I did not know.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
So we have the same car model and we both
love peanuts.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That's awesome, great, all right, So American Greetings bringing a
digital Advent calendar, which is all good except missing the chocolate,
I guess, but that's all good. We are chatting with
the digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong here to help us
guide us through the Black Friday, Cyber Monday and into
the holiday season with some great gadget gift ideas some
digital accessories too, like the Advent calendar. So how about
(22:04):
some great gift ideas for our loved ones and maybe
even something for ourselves.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Oh okay, okay, I see where you're going with this.
Come on now, I mean.
Speaker 7 (22:12):
Every time we go shopping for everyone else, we always
have to pick something up for ourselves.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Two for them, one for me, to that one for me. Right,
that's the ratio, all right?
Speaker 7 (22:21):
So my first one is a unique gift idea. It's
the gift of language, it's Rosetta Stone. I mean, look,
thirty years in the business, fifty million learners use this.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I have family and.
Speaker 7 (22:31):
Friends that have used Rosetta Stone and lived by it.
So they're offering their best deal of the year. It's
a lifetime membership for all twenty five languages for just
one hundred and forty nine dollars, which is sixty percent off.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
It's massive.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
So if you ever wanted to travel, or maybe you
have a college student that's gonna do that gap year,
or maybe go visit some relatives like it really helps
you because they have thousands of lessons. They have live
classes too, so you don't have to feel like you're.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Just on your own, and they have real world content.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
I think really helps you accelerate when you can actually
start having real world type conversations.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
And speaking of services, I know that you also have
something for avid readers, young readers that is also a
great deal I do.
Speaker 7 (23:12):
For the kids, I don't have you Do you know
about the popular book series. If you don't, it's Cat
Ninja and this popular book series has been read over
three hundred million times.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
It is a hit.
Speaker 7 (23:24):
Graphic novel with the kids. It's put out by Epic,
which is the world's leading digital reading platform for kids,
and they have launched their first ever Cat Ninja collectible figurines.
So these each collectible figurine features Cat Ninja in action
packed poses, so it's perfect for their imagination. They want
to play storytelling fun and it's just another connection to
(23:48):
the very popular graphic novel. And it's at just nineteen
ninety nine, so it's a great price.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah, that Epic app for readers like on a tablet,
fantastic for kids. And maybe we can end off on
one of my favorite brands, UFI. Really great and often
very aggressively priced products.
Speaker 7 (24:04):
They do, and this one is like UFI is incredible
what they're bringing to the table this year. I mean
the robot vacuum E twenty five. This is your all
in one cleaning hero. So this is probably the gift
that you give to yourself unless you really really love
somebody that you give this to them, because let me
tell you, it vacuums and mops your floors. Okay, it's
a robotic vacuum. Then it automatically empties the dust, it
(24:27):
washes and dries, its mop and it even refills clean water.
This finally makes it feel like the Jetsons are around
the corner.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
All right. That's from UFI, that's eu f Y.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Is there a website, Mario where we can see videos
of you using them in action?
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Yeah, you can. That's a great call out.
Speaker 7 (24:44):
So the website we have not only the ones I
just mentioned, but some other ones up there as well,
So you can check out some of the other lists.
Just go to in thenews dot tv. That's in thenews
dot tv.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Awesome, Mario, and I look forward chatting with you, I
hope even before the holidays, and of course at CS
I'll be seeing you the show.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Looking forward to it already, all right, see you soon. Chairs.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
That's a crazy tech show which I will report from
for you in a month from now.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Before we get to our next interview with Rio Link
to talk about outdoor cameras, I wanted to thank Norton,
a new partner on tech it out. In today's connected world,
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That's Norton dot com slash t e c h t out.
(26:15):
We'll learn about outdoor cameras with reolink when we return
on check it.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Out, breaking down GeekSpeak into street speak. Check it Out
hosted by Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Welcome back to check it out.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Whether there are more break ins in your neighborhood, increase
instances of porch pirates taking off with packages, or you
simply want some extra piece of mind to keep an
eye on your home, whether you're inside or away from it.
Security cameras are becoming more affordable, easier to install, and
with a handful of cool features to learn about Reolink,
which offers a vast selection of wired and wireless security cameras.
(27:02):
We're joined by Guy Pithy. He's real Links vice president
for North America. Hi Guy, thanks for your time today.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
Hi Mark, Yeah, thanks for having me. I really appreciate
it great.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
So before we talk about specific solutions that you've got
some products from the real Link family, please tell us
a bit about the company.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Real Link absolutely.
Speaker 8 (27:19):
Reallink is a leading provider of innovative security solutions for
your home or business. Relink was founded in two thousand
and nine, and since then we've been dedicated and focusing
on really providing innovative solutions that are cost effective, easy
to use.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
And affordable.
Speaker 8 (27:36):
We've got a really wide range of everything from entry
level Wi Fi or IP camera solutions to a solar
powered range of cameras that are powered by solar panels.
We also have LTE solutions that work off sellingular networks,
which are really cool. And then we have a professional
line of NVR solutions network video recorders as well as
(27:57):
power over Ethernet cameras that connect to your network.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Or directly to the network video recorder.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Okay, great, so these are mostly outdoor cameras.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
Yeah, mostly outdoor cameras.
Speaker 8 (28:07):
We do have a few indoor cameras, but majority of
our cameras that we sell and design are designed to
go outdoor, weather rated and go withstand extreme conditions.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
And why do you think these are popular?
Speaker 8 (28:20):
Okay, outdoor cameras are a very popular. First off, it
is your first line of defense on your property or
your business. Not only they provide instant notifications if someone
does walk on your property, you can log onto that
camera and see live footage and you can also download
recorded footage. So it's really your first line of defense.
And it's also a major deterrent.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Yeah, good point. So it's a deterrent. But then you
also have some video footage should you need it. And
then depending on which unit you go with, how you
share that footage with, say the authorities will vary. But
let's focus on the real Link E series today, and
why don't we start with the E five sixty.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
What is it and who is it?
Speaker 8 (29:00):
The E five sixty is a really cool compact outdoor
or indoor rated camera. It's four K resolution, so it's
super high resolution. It has pan, tilt and zoom, so
it has three hundred and fifty five degrees panning so
you can control the camera left and right. It also
has fifty degree tilt control, so you've got you can
(29:20):
control the camera up and down. It's Wi Fi six,
so it's the latest Wi Fi protocol. It's fuel Wi
Fi ban so it's two point four and five gig hits,
so it's very easy to set up on your Wi
Fi network. It records locally to a micro SD and
we've the E five sixties. We've included a sixty four
gigabyte memory card with this camera, so everything's recorded locally.
(29:41):
You don't have to pay for any cloud subscription.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
I like that.
Speaker 8 (29:44):
Yeah, it's a great option because a lot of people
don't like spending money on monthly.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Subscriptions these days.
Speaker 8 (29:50):
The sixty four gigabyte memory is upgradable to one hundred
and twenty eight gigabyte.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
It has two way.
Speaker 8 (29:55):
Talk, spotlights and siren, so it's a great camera to
put in your front garden or your business or your
backguard because you can monitor the whole viewing angle of
your front.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
Property or the back property.
Speaker 8 (30:08):
And you can control the pan till zoom via the app,
so if you log on remotely, you can control the camera.
The camera also has auto tracking, so if it detects
someone on your property, the camera actually will follow someone
until they out of view.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
We're chatting with Guy Pithy. He is REO links VP
for North America. We're learning about its outdoor cameras, specifically
the E series first, starting with the five sixty, and
then we're going to move into a battery based model
in a moment. So for this Wired E five sixty, guy,
how much does it cost and where's the best place
to buy it.
Speaker 8 (30:39):
It's retailing for one hundred and thirty ninety nine right now,
so really competitively priced. We've got promos running down to
one hundred and nineteen in the next couple of months,
and you can find this product on best buy dot
com and we're actually in seven hundred and twenty seven
best Buy stores right now, so your local best Buy
has got this camera on the shelves.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
All right, awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Now let's pivot and talk about the E series. The
model called B three sixty. The B stands for battery,
I assume.
Speaker 8 (31:08):
Yeah, the Argus B three sixty another really cool compact camera.
We've also included the sixty four gigabyte memory.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
It doesn't have the.
Speaker 8 (31:16):
Pan till zoom but so it has aesthetic fixed lens,
but it has a battery built in, and we've also
included a six watt solar panel, so you don't need
any power source for this camera. All you need is
a place where you can put it where it gets
a bit of sunlight. It comes with a three meter
cable from the solar panel to the camera, so you
can mount say the camera on the north facing side
(31:38):
of your of your property and have the solar panel
on the east or west side, depending on which one
gets the most summed. So it's another it's another four
K resolution camera, so it's high resolution that has two
way talks spotlight and siren, and it's a really cool camera.
Competitively priced also at normally one sixty nine ninety nine,
and we're also doing pros down to one twenty nine
(32:03):
at best Buy.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Yeah, we're doing Deal of the Days right now in
the next couple of months.
Speaker 8 (32:06):
So we've got some really good promos running on these
two cameras.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
So our guest B three sixty would be for those
who who don't want a wired solution, and then the
only sort of trade off is that there's no ptz
pan Tilton Zoom, but.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Everything else is pretty much the same.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Four K resolution app support, sixty four gigs of included storage.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
YEP spotlight, two way talk, weather.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Resistant, and down to one twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
It's only ten dollars more on sale than the sale
price for the E five sixty, so this lets you
choose which one of the two is for you. And
I know there are other cameras at reolink dot com
as well.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Guy.
Speaker 8 (32:41):
Yeah, you can learn about all of our products on
rear link dot com. We have a wide range also
on Amazon dot com, best buy dot com. Costco is
also supporting our product line, but you can find it
all of your major retail outlets.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
All right, awesome, guy, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
Thank you very much, Mark, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
You are listening to tech it Out powered by Norton
and Visa. We'll be right back to chat with lifestyle
expert Chassis Posts to hear her top tech pics for
the holidays, stay with us.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, listen
to check it out whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Is it possible to shop for the holidays and not
get stressed out?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
According to our next guest, it is doable. We have
on the line lifestyle expert Chassis Post. She's here to
share her tips and tricks and top tech that's trending
this season. Hi Chassis, thanks for your time and welcome
to the show.
Speaker 9 (33:45):
Hi Mark, Thanks so much for having me. And I've
partnered with some awesome brands today for gift ideas that
are really going to help you out.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
All right, So, yeah, before we get to the tips,
why don't we start off with what major list for
let's say the home and for families.
Speaker 9 (34:01):
Yeah, so for anyone that's health conscious, let's talk about
a healthier way to clean our homes, especially if you
have allergies or pets. Now, I'm obsessed with the lavoiit
Aro cordless vacuum. It keeps your floors clean and the
air fresh by trapping all those pesky allergens, pet hairs,
and dust with its hepa filtration and the best part,
(34:23):
it auto empties and auto charges itself, so that means
the mess day is contained and you can spend zero
time wrestling with dirt entangled hair and more time with
family this season and for families, my gift pick has
to be the epsom Life Studio Flexplus portable projector. Now,
this device is pure magic. It instantly projects a bright
(34:45):
and colorful four K picture up to one hundred and
fifty inches, perfect for movies or creating personalized holiday videos
using the EPs and Projection Studio app and setup couldn't
be easier. And the audio is incredible with the built
in sound by bos technology.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Plus with built.
Speaker 9 (35:04):
In Google TV, you have access to over ten thousand
streaming apps like Netflix and Disney Plus.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Actually, I've been reviewing that projector from Epsen and it
is awesome. The sound is crazy with their partnership with Bows. Now,
how about a financial hack for shopping this holiday?
Speaker 9 (35:23):
Yes, well, my financial hack for the holidays would be
the Venmo debit card. It helps savvy shoppers stretch their
budgets further because it allows you to spend your Venmo
balance everywhere you shop, and it unlocks a new rewards
program called Venmo Stash. Now with Stash you can earn
up to five percent cash back on everyday purchases like
(35:43):
at your favorite retailers and restaurants, and signing up is
free right in the Venmo app, and you can add
the digital card to your mobile wallet in minutes before
the physical card even arrives.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
We are chatting with lifestyle expert Chassis Post about some
handy smart home ideas for gifting to loved ones. Why
don't we circle back about gifts, maybe this time for
the little ones.
Speaker 9 (36:04):
Well, I'm so excited about the Tony Box two, a
game changer for ages one to nine and totally screen free.
The colorful audio player is powered by the Tony's character.
Kids choose and there are literally hundreds to choose from,
like Elsa from Frozen. You just squeeze an ear, place
it on top, and the song or story starts. Now
(36:25):
for the littlest ones, my first Tonys are squishy characters
filled with simple sounds that make learning those first words
fun and hands on. And I just love gifts that
help promote independent play. Now for the gamers, I think
Sega has something for everyone. Sonic Racing Crossworlds. It's an
absolute blast because it totally changes the game mid Race.
(36:48):
It introduces travel rings that transport you across land, air, sea,
and space into all new dimensions, and with cross platform play,
the whole family can race together, making it the perfect gift.
Available on all current gen consoles and PC. For the
details on everything I covered, just head to Indeanews dot TV.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Thank you so much for your time, Chassis all the best.
Happy holidays to you, appreciate it all.
Speaker 9 (37:12):
Thank you so much for having me in. Happy Holidays
to you too.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Hey, I hope you all enjoyed a new episode of
tech It Out. Between the interviews recorded at AWS Reinvent
in Las Vegas, learning about restaurants as well as the NFL,
we chatted gadget gift ideas with Mario Armstrong and Chassis
post just now and reolink filled us in on outdoor cameras.
Next weekend we'll have another brand new show for you,
(37:37):
including how technology is helping to fight wildfires and continuing
the work of the late and great Jane Goodall in
the field protecting chimpanzees in the environment using technology. I
know I plugged Visa and Norton earlier in the program.
Some partners of mine on tech It Out a huge
Thank you to those awesome companies for their support, and
(37:59):
also to sand Disc, another company that protects you right.
Visa protects you while shopping and merchants too. Norton has
a suite of cybersecurity tools, and sand Disc is great
for backup just in case something happens to your device,
like your laptop breaks, or you lose your tablet or
your smartphone is stolen. There are external storage solutions for
multiple devices, and unlike the cloud where you have to
(38:22):
pay a monthly subscription fee, if you want more than
say two or five gigs of data, a sand disc
flash storage solution you just pay the one time fee.
They're super durable, high capacity, and there's always sales on
these devices, especially this time of year, so be sure
to check out sanddisc dot com, or I should say
check out SanDisk dot com, you know, just to stay
(38:44):
on brand. Whether you have an iPhone and Android device, Windows, PCMAC,
what have you. Great stuff there again, protection seems to
be the common thread between Norton, Visa, and sand Disc.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
All right, have a great rest of your day everyone,
and I look forward to catching up with you next
week or another brand new episode of Tack It out bye,
bye for now.
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