- Father’s Day is coming up June 16th, and so we look at a handful of gadget ideas for the dad (or grad) on your gift list this June
- Get the 4-1-1 on Wi-Fi 7 with TP-Link. We’re joined by Jens Hennings to break down the significance of this emerging wireless standard
- Have aging parents who want to live alone at home? We learn about CareAware, a new Wi-Fi motion-based sensing solution for aging adults and their remote caregivers. We’re joined by Dr. Taj Manku, Founder and CEO of Cognitive Systems.
- We also have a special guest, Azzedine Downes, CEO of IFAW, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, to share a groundbreaking approach to environmental conservation – involving elephants!
- Thank you to Intel, Visa, and Western Digital, for your support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by theever changing world of technology? Check it
Out can help make some sense ofit all. Breaking down geeksbeak into street
speak. Technology columnist, author,and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer technology
each week for every listener, Marktackles the latest news, reviews, and
how toos to help you understand what'shot, what's not and why. Hey
(00:25):
everyone, welcome to teck it Out. This is episode three forty nine,
Wow, one away from three pointfifty almost seven full years, one a
week, fifty odd shows per yearthat tracks. Thank you to the awesome
check it Out listeners for tuning inevery week, radio stations, thank you
for carrying the show, podcast platforms, and of course the sponsors. Not
(00:47):
sure if you've been a listener fora while or new to the podcast or
radio show, but thrilled to haveyou along. We have a great show
planned for you today. In fact, we're going to kick things off with
care Aware. This is a companythat uses Wi Fi to help caregivers remotely
see what's happening in your aging parentshome. Yes, using Wi Fi to
keep an eye on your mom ordad. Well, hear how it works.
Speaking of Wi Fi. We'll alsotalk Wi Fi seven this hour,
(01:11):
this new and emerging standard and whatthe benefits are. Tplank will join us.
We'll talk about animals and the environment, including following elephants with an organization
called IPHA. And finally, I'llshare a bunch of gadget gift ideas for
dads and grads. All of thisand more on an all new tech it
out powered by Intel Core Ultra PCs, which I'll tell you more about shortly.
(01:34):
But let's officially kick off this week'snew show with our first interview.
If it's true that nine out often older adults wish to remain in their
homes, often referred to as agingin place or living in place. Technology
can play a significant role in thisprocess, as I've written about in several
articles over the years for the likesof AARP and Zoomer. And so today
we're going to learn about care Aware, a new Wi Fi motion based sensing
(01:59):
solution for aging adults and they're remotecaregivers. Joining us on the line to
tell us what it is and howit works is doctor taj Manku. He's
founder and CEO of Cognitive Systems.Yeah, it's great to be here.
Thanks for having me Mark. Now, before we talk about careware, please
chat with us about that trend thatI mentioned earlier, aging in place.
What is that exactly? Well,right now, a majority of people that
(02:23):
are aging, they particularly, justwant to stay in their home. They
feel comfortable there, they know theirenvironment, and they're generally not moving to
a new facility where they get care. That is being a trend over the
last while. Just the number ofpeople over sixty five. By twenty fifty,
there's going to be about just underone hundred million in North America,
(02:46):
which constitutes around twenty five percent ofthe population. So you're going to see
a lot of people that want todo that, that just want to age
in their home. And we're nottalking baby boomers, those are Gen xers,
right, yeah, yeah, Sothat's what we're talking about here,
staying home, living longer independently,rather than going to an assisted living in
an environment like a retirement home orwhatever. The vernacular is a long term
(03:08):
care facility, and tech I believecan play a role in that. You
know, whether it's fall detectors,sensors that you can place around the home,
cameras, medication alarms, and dispensers, there are stare lifts, sharelifts,
elevators. Yeah, I mean that'spart of what people want to see.
So there's usually a caregiver. Itcould be just like a son or
(03:30):
daughter or relative and they just wantto be able to see whether their loved
ones are doing well. Or itcould be somebody who's just an external member
monitoring them and making sure that they'reokay. And there's all the sensors,
like you said, that can enableit. It just got to be well
put together so you get the meaningfulinformation for whoever the caregiver is. So
(03:51):
whether that caregiver is a professional,you know, like a PSW, or
it is a relative or a friendwho remotely keep an eye on their love.
That's what we're chatting about today.And with that in mind, let's
now hear about Cognitive Systems, yourpartnership with a company called Electronic Caregiver and
the caregiver Wi Fi motion based sensingplatform. Yeah. So we've partnered with
(04:15):
Electronic Caregiver and we're bringing in somevery innovative technology to enable people to really
understand what's happening within the home.And essentially, Cognitive is a company that
provides software, and what we sortof do is we put software onto Wi
Fi devices like you might have smartplugs at home, you might have a
(04:35):
bunch of stuff at home that sortof relies on the Wi Fi to get
communication to tell it to turn onor turn off, or it could be
temperature sensor or whatever it may be. And because it's running on Wi Fi,
we provide software onto these devices thatlook at how it gets disturbed when
people sort of walk and you canjust imagine a person being sort of like
(04:58):
a bag of water. They walk, these Wi Fi signals sort of reflect
off them, and we pick upthat reflection and we effectively can tell people
are moving throughout that ability. Andonce we have that fundamental thing, then
we can provide more information. Sothe care a where Wi Fi motion based
sensing platform essentially uses Wi Fi,but it then uses that information to say,
(05:21):
hey, how much activity is thatperson having, Where are they in
the house, are they in thekitchen? Are they moving here? When
did they wake up from bed?Was there any disturbances as bed they have
to go to the washroom. Andwe collect that information and provide it to
a caregiver so that they can monitorthe individual their loved one or whoever they
(05:41):
are a professional monitoring person that mightbe looking at this person. All right,
I've heard of this before. Soit's using Wi Fi signals in order
to detect motion or movement, andthat could imply also fault detection. So
as cognitive systems, we don't getinto the fault detection. We think there
are others that are better, butwe do provide the ability to integrate them
(06:03):
as part of our solution. Sothen what would be a common application for
your technology just to let a remotecaregiver, like say a daughter or a
grandson to know that their parents they'reup and about and that's okay, like
they're in the kitchen or that kindof thing. Yeah, so the fundamental
technology is really around just knowing thatthey are moving around, which is very
fundamental, right, knowing that they'rearound. You could add cameras, but
(06:26):
it always provides a privacy issue forthe person that is sort of living there.
So what we do is we lookat this motion, We provide insights
of how active they are, wherethey are in the home. We also
provide ability to know at that momentthat they move from the kitchen to the
let's say bedroom, So we providethat information and then we also monitor their
(06:48):
sleeping behavior, so when did theygo to sleep, when did they wake
up, was there any disruptions?And we provide this information to the loved
one so that they know. Anexample, my parents are eighty five and
I use the system as well.And one thing I find really useful is
I get a notification every morning thatthey're up and about and I can see,
(07:10):
you know, how long they slept. I can look at patterns.
Is the sleeping pattern getting worse orbetter? Are there more interruptions at night?
So I get a lot of informationwith regards to how they're behaving.
True of the day got its peaceof mind exactly. We're chatting with doctor
taj Manku. He is founder andCEO of Cognitive Systems. This is a
(07:30):
software company that has partnered with anothercompany called the Electronic Caregiver to create the
care aware platform. It's Wi Fimotion based sensing. If the person there
isn't tech savvy, is that goingto be an issue or they don't need
to be it somebody else sets itup for them. Well. The way
it typically will work is the personwho is doing their caregiving is usually the
(07:53):
person that's setting it up, andit is a very simple setup. It's
essentially just a bunch of plugs thatyou plug into different rooms connected to the
Wi Fi and there is a wayto do that quick easily in the application,
and then it's pretty much done.After that, you might want to
label where those plugs are, likeyou put one in the bedroom. You
(08:13):
might say, hey, this plug'sin the bedroom. And then once you
do that, it essentially then startsworking and starts collecting data and historical data,
starts looking at patterns and so forth. What makes caraware unique. I've
heard of other Wi Fi motion sensingsolutions for aging adults as well. Yeah,
So we do a lot of lookingat the data over time and looking
(08:35):
at patterns. So for example,we look at the night's time and we
see the movement overnight and strikeen andpredict when they went to bed, when
they woke up, how many interruptions, and then we analyze a lot of
that data. So over a courseof some time, we'll also provide insight.
Hey, you know that person,there seems to be a decline in
the number hours they're sleeping, somethingthat you should be watching for, what
(08:58):
they should be paying attention to goingforward and maybe taking some actions for it.
I like to say information is bliss, not ignorance is bliss. Yes,
so the more you know the better. For sure. Just before we
wrap up, what kind of securityprotocols do you have in place? I
mean, does cognitive solutions get tosee all this data? No, it's
(09:18):
all encrypted by the person's credentials,so we don't see really any data at
all from our end, generally allencrypted. And then we do follow all
the privacy laws throughout North America,and the strictest one is California, So
that's the privacy law that we sortof maintain, and we try to be
a little bit better than that.But the nice thing about this type of
(09:41):
approach is that it isn't like acamera. It has contextual information, but
it's not high content information like acamera that can actually see you in your
bedroom. Where this just tells you, hey, you're moving around in your
bedroom and it doesn't tell you anythingabout what that person's exactly doing. There's
an element of privacy that's almost justinherently built in to the system itself,
(10:05):
Doctor mac who. As we wrapup, when is this coming? And
for pricing and other information. What'sthe best website to learn more? Yeah,
so there is a landing page onElectronic Caregiver. So if you go
to Electronic Caregiver website, there isa page there that's actually taking now people's
names if they want to have units. It will be coming definitely this year,
(10:26):
but you can start pre ordering orgetting some information on it on their
website specifically. All right, that'selectroniccaregiver dot com. That's correct, all
right, And the platform again iscalled Careware. Doctor Taje, thank you
so much for your time today.Sounds fascinating. Thank you, Thank you
for your time. Appreciate it.Check it out as powered by Intel.
(10:46):
Earlier this year, the Semiconductor Giantofficially unveiled its Intel Core fourteenth gen mobile
processors, built as the world's fastestmobile processors, with several laptops available by
all the biggest PC brands ship today. And the real story here is for
gamers clock speed up to five pointeight gigahertz thanks to its up to twenty
four cores and thirty two threads forincredible performance. And hey, you may
(11:11):
get a copy of the upcoming StarWars Outlaws for free if you buy one
of these Intel powered pieces. Moreis at Intel dot com. Why are
we going to talk about elephants ona show called teck it Out? You'll
find out when we return. Stickwith us, listen to check it out
whenever you want to find the checkit Out podcast, did I too,
or wherever you get your podcasts,Welcome back to check it out. While
(11:41):
we usually talk tech on this show, sometimes we veer a little into the
science realm, a complimentary discipline,i'd argue. And if you're feeling overwhelmed
by doom and gloom climate news,we've got a dose of hope for you
today as a Dean Downes is joiningus. He's CEO of IPHA, the
Internetiontional Fund for Animal Welfare, andhe's here to share a groundbreaking approach to
(12:03):
environmental conservation and it all starts withprotecting the planet's most beloved animals. As
it in great to have you onthe show today, Thank you, thanks
so much for having me. Solet's start with what is i FA again,
the International Fund for Animal Welfare,And I'm curious to learn about the
link between animals and efforts to combatclimate change. So firstly, I thought
(12:24):
is one of the largest and mostrespected animal welfare and conservation organizations in the
world today. We're a global nonprofit. We help animals and people thrive together
in more than forty countries around theworld, and we help rescue, rehabilitate,
and release animals and restore as wellas protect their natural habitat The link
between animals and climate change is reallyquite simple. The reason we have this
(12:48):
beautiful planet is because we have suchrich biodiversity, and so all the plants
and animals are critical to our ownhealth. And if you think about it
this way, just like as humans, the planet has an immune system,
and when that immune system is notworking, carbon builds up in the atmosphere
and we see dangerous climate change.So wildlife keeps the soil rich and maintains
(13:09):
the health of everything from wild grassesand forests to the oceans and the fresh
air. Interesting. You know,the only connection that I thought of was,
I know cows they emit methane gases, and that's supposedly not good,
and in like large quantities, wedon't even think about that. We think
cars and factories and other human madeemissions are the culprits. But as you
(13:31):
said, your organization is dedicated tohelping to save the planet, and interestingly
it starts by saving an elephant.Yeah, so it's actually quite amazing.
Elephants are the gardeners of the landscape, so actually when they thrive, we
survive. So elephants move through thelandscape and fertilize it as they go,
and they spread seeds and they usetheir tusks to dig water holes, just
(13:54):
like what you were saying with cows. They massage the soil. And the
point that I always like to makeis humans are not separate and apart from
nature. We're part of nature andwe need all the parts to function if
we are to mitigate climate change.Can you tell us more about this new
approach. I believe it's called Roomto Rome. Yes. So, Room
(14:16):
to Rome is a large scale initiativefrom IPA that spans eastern and Southern Africa.
Its ambitious vision as well as anurgent one, and Room to Rome
is designed to create wildlife corridors thatconnect twelve critical elephant habitats. It's urgent
because if we don't act now,the land will be lost to development,
(14:37):
and if elephants are forced to stayin one place, then the environment does
not remain healthy. And since elephantsmove across landscapes where people live, we
have to take serious steps to helpthe people who live with wildlife. So
our goal is for animals and peopleto thrive together in this vast planet that
we call home. This is fascinating. We are chatting with Azadine Downs.
(14:58):
He's CEO of IPHI, the InternationalFund for Animal Welfare. As the head
of the organization, what gives youhope amidst all the challenges in the world
today when it comes to climate changeand conservation. One of the most important
points I like to make is thatwe haven't passed the tipping point. So
there is hope and nature will bounceback, but only if we let it.
(15:20):
And during the pandemic we all witnesshow quickly nature begins to heal itself.
I think everyone heard about and sawlots of videos of animals walking around
cities, the big cities, thesmall cities, but they thrived because it
was quiet. And when I waslasting Kenya, people told me that the
air was so clean that they couldsee the famous Mount Kilimanjaro all the way
(15:41):
from Nairobi, and that's something thathad not happened in fifty years. Oh
Wow. So I have great faithin the younger generations who have a great
respect for the environment and they understandthat when the environment suffers, people suffer.
And so I know there's always suchbad news all the time, every
single day, but my messages don'tgive up hope because hope really does help
(16:06):
heal us. And how awesome isit that Jane Goodall wrote the forward to
your new book. Can you tellus more about your relationship with her and
the name of your book as well? Sure? So the name of the
book is The couscous Chronicles, AndJane Goodall is a really good friend of
mine and he has known each otherfor years. Yeah, and she's a
great mentor to me too. Mydaughter Maya, who studies cultural anthropology in
(16:29):
university, would be thrilled to hearthat that you know her. Yeah,
and your friends with her. Yeah, Well, say hi to your daughter
and I'll pass that message along toJane too when I talk to her,
because she she loves hearing that peoplefollow her and she's so inspirational. I'm
sorry to cut you off. Sothat chronicles, what's it about? And
more about your relationship with her?Yeah, So Jane and I have known
(16:51):
each other for a long time.She wrote the forward to the book,
The Couscous Chronicles, which is it'smy first book. It's a memoir of
all of my travels and adventures aroundthe world. She wrote the forward,
but she insisted that I include donkeysin the book, and there's a lot
of stories about donkeys about my timein Morocco and other places. She absolutely
(17:11):
loves donkeys and she has an incrediblesense of humor as well. But you
know, this year Jane celebrated herninetieth birthday extraordinary and she remains a beacon
of hope for so many people likeyour daughter. She asked me to join
her Council for Hope so that Icould help spread the message that we mustn't
give up this sense of hope thatwe've been talking about. And I think
(17:33):
that there are small things that everyonecan do, and they're simple. First,
go outside, take small steps toimprove the world around you. You
could plant a garden, flowers,anything really that will contribute to the belief
that you can do something. Thisis great. Thank you so much for
your time. Where can we learnmore? Please visit us at ifought dot
(17:53):
org, which is ifaw dot org. Or you can visit us on Instagram
at Global. Yeah, since thisis a radio or podcast interview, we
can't see the images of the elephants. I know that you've been doing TV
interviews. Thanks so much again foryour time. Thank you, Azidin No,
thanks so much for having me WiFi seven one oh one. When
we return on tech it Out,want to follow Mark Google, Mark with
(18:15):
a C and Saltzman with a Z, breaking down geeks peak into street speak.
This is check it Out. Checkit Out with technology columnist, author,
(18:36):
and TV personality Mark Saltzman. Welcomeback everyone. You're listening to check
it out. Given that virtually allour devices are connected to our home network
these days, wi fi is arguablythe most important piece of tech that you
have under your roof, and there'san emerging standard you should know about Wi
Fi seven, led by tp link, one of the biggest home networking companies.
(19:00):
Joining us to chat all about itis Jen's Hennings, a consultant and
spokesperson for tp Link. Welcome tothe show. Yen's good to chat with
you. Thank you, Mike,good to be here. Now, before
we talk about Wi Fi seven,please tell us a bit about tp Link.
Yeah, tplink company that was foundedabout thirty years ago, so they've
been in the technology space for quitea long time. They're a global leader
(19:22):
in not just home networking products wherethey have leading market share in most countries
around the globe, but they alsohave a whole suite of smart home products
and security camera products, everything basicallythat you'd like to get connected in your
home. And so tp link wasone of, if not the first home
(19:45):
networking companies to launch a Wi Fiseven router. Please tell us about this
new standard, Wi Fi seven.Correct, Yeah, that was launch.
The official launch was actually back inalmost end of twenty twenty two, but
globally, but that was kind ofa soft launch. Wi Fi seven is
(20:06):
quite a new standard. It's radicallydifferent from other generations of Wi Fi that
came before it. So if youthink about Wi Fi five, wi Fi
five was limited to two different bandwidths, two different frequencies that it operated on,
and really was just the next generationiteration of Wi Fi standards that came
(20:30):
before it. Wi Fi six isthe last standard and the one that most
people are probably familiar with today,and Wi Fi six was developed as a
standard that addressed efficiency of the networkshow it would handle many devices at one
time. Wi Fi seven is designedfrom the ground up completely differently. It
(20:53):
dramatically increases throughput and capacity, andit's really all about speed, number of
devices and getting networks home networks,small business networks ready for the next generation
of devices and so many more devicesthat have bandwidth needs all right, so
(21:15):
faster speeds, which is important especiallyfor those who like to stream say four
K video and play multiplayer games thatare very demanding. Support for multiple devices
on the network because increasingly we havemore and more of these in the home
on your Wi Fi router, greaterrange in some instances, which we'll get
to more in a moment when wetalk Mesh, and also additional security.
(21:36):
So it seems like it ticks allthe boxes. Quite a jump from its
predecessors. As you've touched on,Yeah, it really is. I mean,
in terms of speed, it's actuallyup to five times faster than Wi
Fi six, the last generation thatmost people are familiar with. Latency is
something that people talk about. Sothat's the delay that devices often have if
(21:59):
you're if you're trying to log inand you get a delay in that signal
coming back or that log in successfulcoming back to you in latency. It's
up to one hundred times faster wowthan Wi Fi six. Yeah, it's
really it's really radically radically more powerfulthan the Wi Fi six standard. And
(22:22):
so who would this be for?Then, yen I touched on a couple
of applications earlier and also tell uswhat Wi Fi seven solutions t Peelink has.
Absolutely, So, you know,some of the early adopters to new
technology are always the gamers because gamingis you know, speed is everything and
reaction is everything. So definitely gamerswill be attracted to this as a as
(22:48):
a Wi Fi robust enough Wi Fitechnology that they can take advantage of and
not be not be caught unaware,but a whole range of applications. So
anybody who's telecommuning, remote work,lots of video conference calls, that kind
of stuff that's going on, that'sideal and there's a lot of us that
(23:08):
are doing that now obviously since thepandemic. Anybody who's getting into AR or
VR virtual reality, that's that's areally fast growing field and it's going to
grow even faster with the all themetaverse stuff that's coming down the pipes.
You had mentioned the four K streaming. Now there's eight K streaming as well,
(23:32):
which is even more needs even morebandwidth. And then of course all
the smart home devices that are thatare around. As these devices get smarter
and smarter and the applications gather moredata and do more things, they also
need more bandwidth to communicate back tothe router, back to the network,
(23:53):
back and forth. So all ofthose things. Yeah, and I know
you have standalone Wi Fi seven routersand also ones that are tied to a
MESH system. Can you give usa couple of model numbers and explain what
MESH is again and the benefits ofit. Yeah. So some of the
most popular routers are the Bee ArcherBee five fifty that's kind of more of
(24:15):
an entry level one for people thatare that are looking for a price conscious
solution. And then there's the Archerb E eight hundred, which is a
really powerful Wi Fi seven router asa standalone item. Then in the MESH
systems, the top of the lineis the Bee ninety five, which is
the Deco B ninety five, whichis out in the market right now.
(24:37):
That one comes in a two nodeconfiguration, but you can buy and add
more nodes if you need them ifyou have a particularly large house. Right.
A note is like a hub ora pod that you place around the
home, right, and a meshsystem sort of makes a digital handshake between
all these devices that are plugged intothe wall in order to blanket more coverage
(25:00):
dead zones, no more dead zones. And as you walk from it,
from the signal of one mesh nodeto another, it actually seamlessly will hand
off the signals, so that ifyou're listening to music or watching a video,
it's not going to drop that signalbetween the two. It's going to
do the handoff in real time,which is pretty sophisticated. And a mesh
(25:22):
system is particularly important because as youget into the higher frequency bandwidth that these
networks use, the higher frequency handlesmore data, but it also has a
bit less range than the old twopoint four gigahertz that's been around for ages
and ages. That one has longerrange but can handle a lot of data.
(25:45):
So when you use the five gigahertsand six gigahertz frequencies, you really
want to have if you have alarge home, you really want to have
a number of these mesh nodes orpods ideas situated so that you're you're getting
the maximum throughput in each one overthose frequencies. All right, tplink dot
(26:07):
com YenS, thank you very muchfor your time, good to chat with
you have a fantastic summer. Thanksagain, always a pleasure, Mark,
Thank you. Gift ideas for dadsand grads when we return on tech it
Out breaking down GeekSpeak into street speakCheck it Out, hosted by Mark Saltzman.
(26:34):
You're listening to check it out.Father's Day is coming up on Sunday,
June the sixteenth, so about aweek or so away, and you
might be wondering what to get Dadthis year. Should you go with the
you know, tried and true tire, quirky socks, or maybe set of
golf balls with his name on itor something. Well, I would suggest,
because it's twenty twenty four, thatyou might go with something techie this
(26:57):
year, even if Dad is isn'tthe most technical guy. You know,
that's certainly the case for my dadstand Stan the man. But if you
help Dad along, he might bea lot more open to it. If
it's something that he's into, likewatching TV or playing games or reading exercising,
like even walking, there's always techthat compliments that. So I've got
(27:18):
a bunch of ideas for you,about seven ideas that you should definitely consider.
I'll also plug the website for eachone so you can get the latest
in pricing. And speaking of pricing, I know these do cost more than
the tie I mentioned or what haveyou, but hey, a lot of
times the family goes in on agift for dad. So here are a
few ideas for the dad or gradin your life. So let's start with
the first color e reader from Cobo. In fact, there's two of them,
(27:42):
Rakutin. Cobo has just introduced itsfirst pair of color e inc readers,
one of which is the Cobo LibraColor and the other is the Cobo
Clara Color. You kind of getbest of both worlds as you can read
books and magazines in color and markup and highlight passages with your fingertip or
optional stylis pen like you would aregular book or a textbook. But it's
(28:04):
still a Cobo that you can readoutside in bright sunlight. It's waterproof,
you can freely borrow library books,and it plays audiobooks too with Bluetooth connectivities
so the seven inch Cobolibra Color hastwice the storage at thirty two gigabytes of
storage instead of sixteen, so headover to Cobo dot com for more.
That's Kobo dot com. Speaking ofthe outdoors, there's a sale on the
(28:27):
Fitbit Sense too smart watch at bestBuy. That's the one with the heart
rate monitor, so it's on salepart of best Buy's Father's Day Gift guide.
The fitbit Sense two helps you keeptrack of health, wellness, and
sleep data, including a stress managementscore. It shows you notifications like who's
calling or texting on its color touchscreen, and up to six days of battery
(28:48):
life, so head on over tobest Buy for a sale on the Fitbit
Sense two. If the family isgoing in on a sleek laptop for a
dad or grad in the home,The hp n v X three sixty two
in one combines portability with versatility becausethe fourteen or sixteen inch touchscreen that's up
to you bends back on a threehundred and sixty degree hinge to use in
(29:08):
tablet mode, so you can useyour fingertips to swipe through videos or photos
or games or books. That screen, by the way, is a wide
one with a sixteen x ten aspectratio and it's got four K resolution.
It has an Intel Core processor builtin AI to get more done in less
time, and many privacy features likea camera shutter, a mute mic button
(29:30):
so the microphone could be easily mutedwhen you don't need it, and a
fingerprint sensor to use biometrics to logyou in. Biometrics just means using a
part of your body to identify you. You can head on over to HP
dot com to get pricing on theHPNVX three sixty two and one. Another
two in one if you will,is the epsyn Epic Vision Flex Smart Streaming
(29:51):
Portable Projector. I love when onedevice can be used in several ways,
so in this case, and speakingof the word flex, it can be
used in the boardroom or the familyroom because this powerful and portable projector can
deliver a full HD picture up tothree hundred inches that's four times bigger than
a seventy five inch TV and canbe used for PowerPoint or other presentation software
(30:11):
at the office, but then bringit home in your backpack to watch movies,
sports, TV shows, or playgames splashed on a wall at home.
Because it has high brightness at threethousand lumens. It can even be
used in well lit rooms. Unlikemost other projectors, this epsin projector also
has built in Android TV for builtin streaming, and you can use your
(30:32):
voice through Google Assistant to ask forwhat to watch. Epsn dot com has
more two more options, and speakingof TVs, if you want a top
of the line O LED television foryour family room, you can elevate your
home theater experience with the sixty fiveinch o LED EVO C four TV from
LG and pair it with the SCnine S soundbar for an incredible package fusing
(30:55):
LG's heritage and OLED televisions eleven yearsnow at number one in this space with
a matching SC nine S soundbar foran enhanced audio experience. This soundbar's bracket
fits the bottom of the OLED TVwhen mounted in fact, and so the
bracket acts as a stand on thewall. Very cool. Again. I
know this is on the higher end, so budget permitting, you're buying a
gift for the dat or grad somethingthat the family will go in on.
(31:18):
They also have smaller sizes as well, so check it out at LG dot
com. And finally, saving Dadcountless hours this summer. The Landroid Vision
WR two eight from Works is asmart robotic lawnmower that doesn't require a boundary
wire to be installed like most models. Instead, it uses sophisticated and safe
AI powered camera technology to learn yourlawn, cutting your grassy areas and avoiding
(31:44):
obstacles. When it's running low onbattery, it'll drive itself back to the
base to charge up, and it'ssuper quiet. It's an electric motor of
course, so it can even beused at night in all kinds of weather
conditions. And as you may knowwith robotic lawnmowers, it doesn't keep those
clippings in a bag. It leavesthem on top of your lawn, which
acts as a fertilizer to nourish thegrass and makes it look even better and
(32:05):
less work for you to clean upafterwards. Again, that's the Landroid Vision
WR two to oh eight from Works. You can go to works dot com
to learn more. There, well, there we have it. A look
at some Father's Day and graduation giftideas spanning various budgets and tastes. Again,
not all dads are going to wantthe same kind of thing, so
wanted to give you a selection.Hey, we're going to take a short
break and I'm going to share afew more gift ideas for dads and grads.
(32:28):
But first a shout out to Visa. We cover cybersecurity a lot on
this show and how you can bestprotect yourself in the digital age, even
if you're not super tech savvy.Over the next couple of weeks, we'll
have interviews with Visa on tips tobetter protecting yourself when you shop online and
just basically living in the digital age. They've invested billions over the last decade
to protect the financial information of individualsand businesses as well. Zero liability means
(32:52):
peace of mind when you shop onlineor at retail using your Visa card.
Read more about Visa and how securingthe world's payments is price I already won
at Visa dot com slash Security.That's Visa dot Com slash Security. A
few more gadget gift ideas for dadsand grads when we return on check it
out. Stick with us, We'llbe right back. Follow Mark Saltzman on
(33:12):
Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram. Listen to check it out whenever you
want. Imagine a PC that's notjust smart but brilliantly intelligent. Introducing the
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AI technology and support it by dozensof computer manufacturers. The modern PC learns,
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(34:22):
Upgrade your world today at Intel dotcom Slash AIPC. That's Intel dot com
slash AIPC. Alrighty, Well,as I mentioned earlier in the show,
I had a lot of fun onTV Thursday, the seventh of June,
talking on mostly TV stations, someradio as well about games and gadgets and
gear. Oh my just in timefor the summer season. Some is to
(34:45):
be used outside, some is inside, you know, when you want to
get a reprieve from the heat andenjoy some air conditioning. There is something
for everyone in all budgets as well, so I thought I would walk through
some of those ideas for you,or maybe if you're shopping for a dad
or grad your life as well.Let's start off with gaming. You know,
playing console games remotely is one ofthe biggest trends in gaming, and
(35:07):
Sony Interactive Entertainment recently introduced its PlayStationPortal to play your favorite PS five games
on a portable screen fits in thepalm of your hand. Gorgeous screen with
a controller on each side, perfectfor playing your PlayStation five games even if
someone else is using the family roomTV, as it works over Wi Fi.
With PlayStation Portal and PlayStation five,which now comes in a sleeker look,
(35:29):
you can play today's top games likeMLB, The Show twenty four or
the upcoming Star Wars Outlaws for theend of August. Costs are one ninety
nine for the PlayStation Portal and thePS five starts at four forty nine.
Speaking of TVs, the brand newRoku Pro Series TV is the centerpiece to
your home theater set up, providinga powerfully simple streaming experience with a brilliant
(35:52):
four K picture. These new premiumtelevisions also offer immersive audio and an elegant
design. You can also turn yourTV into a work of art with something
called Backdrops, which is a widecatalog of free artwork, including classic paintings,
for when you're not watching TV.It's better than having just, you
know, a black rectangle on yourwall. The Pro Series TV also includes
(36:13):
the new Roku Voice Remote Pro secondEdition, now with backlit keys and USB
charging. It's about time. Pricesstart at eight ninety nine for this fifty
five inch Roku Pro Series TV andgoes all the way up to sixteen ninety
nine for the seventy five inch model. Next up, a great accessory for
computer users. Wd or Western Digitaljust launched the highest capacity two and a
(36:35):
half inch external hard drive in thecompany's history at six terabytes. That is
six thousand gigabytes in something the sizeof a deca cards that you can connect
to your laptop or desktop. That'sa ton of storage for all of your
photos, videos, including four Khome movies, music, games and important
documents. As I mentioned, myPassport is a slim and durable drive,
(36:58):
really small and I like that itgets it power from the laptop's USB port,
so you don't need to plug itinto the wall like some other drives.
It includes software that adds password protectionin case your drive is misplaced,
and automatic backups. Mine is setto back up my important files at like
three in the morning or something whenI'm not at my PC, just in
case something happens to my computer.Prices start at sixty five dollars for the
(37:19):
one terabyte WD my Passport drive andgoes up to one hundred and eighty dollars
for six terabytes. Finally, let'sstep outside the home with the new Reolink
E series E five sixty. Thisis a four K Wi Fi six security
camera with pan, tilt and zoom. Along with that outstanding four K resolution,
which is four times the resolution ofHD, there's sixty four gigabytes of
(37:42):
memory include it, therefore no monthlycloud storage fees that you need to pay.
There's also auto tracking, two waytalk, and an easy to use
in free app. It's normally onethirty nine, which is a great price
in and of itself, but thereare specials out there where it's down to
one nineteen for that Reolink E series, that E five sixty security camera.
But if you don't want a wiredsolution, there's also the real Link Argus
(38:06):
B three sixty. The B standsfor battery, so it's a battery based
security camera with the solar panel includedand sixty four gigs of storage as well
for as low as one twenty nine. So as you can see, no
shortage of great games, gadgets andgear. Just ahead of the twenty twenty
four summer season. On the eveof the three hundred and fiftieth Tech It
Out, I wanted to sincerely thankyou again the listener. Thank you to
(38:28):
my awesome sponsors, Intel, Visaand Western Digital. To the gang at
Radio America that syndicates this show andmanages the podcast and the radio stations that
pick up this weekly show that aimsto break down geeksbeak into street speak.
If you're on social media, dropby and say hi. It's Mark with
a C Saltzman with a z MA R c SA L t z M
(38:51):
an I'm on x Instagram, threads, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok.
Have a great rest of your day, everyone, and I look forward
to catching up with you next weekendfor another episode of Teck It Out.
Bye bye for now.
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by theever changing world of technology? Check it
Out can help make some sense ofit all. Breaking down geeksbeak into street
speak. Technology columnist, author,and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer technology
each week for every listener, Marktackles the latest news, reviews, and
how toos to help you understand what'shot, what's not and why. Hey
(00:25):
everyone, welcome to teck it Out. This is episode three forty nine,
Wow, one away from three pointfifty almost seven full years, one a
week, fifty odd shows per yearthat tracks. Thank you to the awesome
check it Out listeners for tuning inevery week, radio stations, thank you
for carrying the show, podcast platforms, and of course the sponsors. Not
(00:47):
sure if you've been a listener fora while or new to the podcast or
radio show, but thrilled to haveyou along. We have a great show
planned for you today. In fact, we're going to kick things off with
care Aware. This is a companythat uses Wi Fi to help caregivers remotely
see what's happening in your aging parentshome. Yes, using Wi Fi to
keep an eye on your mom ordad. Well, hear how it works.
Speaking of Wi Fi. We'll alsotalk Wi Fi seven this hour,
(01:11):
this new and emerging standard and whatthe benefits are. Tplank will join us.
We'll talk about animals and the environment, including following elephants with an organization
called IPHA. And finally, I'llshare a bunch of gadget gift ideas for
dads and grads. All of thisand more on an all new tech it
out powered by Intel Core Ultra PCs, which I'll tell you more about shortly.
(01:34):
But let's officially kick off this week'snew show with our first interview.
If it's true that nine out often older adults wish to remain in their
homes, often referred to as agingin place or living in place. Technology
can play a significant role in thisprocess, as I've written about in several
articles over the years for the likesof AARP and Zoomer. And so today
we're going to learn about care Aware, a new Wi Fi motion based sensing
(01:59):
solution for aging adults and they're remotecaregivers. Joining us on the line to
tell us what it is and howit works is doctor taj Manku. He's
founder and CEO of Cognitive Systems.Yeah, it's great to be here.
Thanks for having me Mark. Now, before we talk about careware, please
chat with us about that trend thatI mentioned earlier, aging in place.
What is that exactly? Well,right now, a majority of people that
(02:23):
are aging, they particularly, justwant to stay in their home. They
feel comfortable there, they know theirenvironment, and they're generally not moving to
a new facility where they get care. That is being a trend over the
last while. Just the number ofpeople over sixty five. By twenty fifty,
there's going to be about just underone hundred million in North America,
(02:46):
which constitutes around twenty five percent ofthe population. So you're going to see
a lot of people that want todo that, that just want to age
in their home. And we're nottalking baby boomers, those are Gen xers,
right, yeah, yeah, Sothat's what we're talking about here,
staying home, living longer independently,rather than going to an assisted living in
an environment like a retirement home orwhatever. The vernacular is a long term
(03:08):
care facility, and tech I believecan play a role in that. You
know, whether it's fall detectors,sensors that you can place around the home,
cameras, medication alarms, and dispensers, there are stare lifts, sharelifts,
elevators. Yeah, I mean that'spart of what people want to see.
So there's usually a caregiver. Itcould be just like a son or
(03:30):
daughter or relative and they just wantto be able to see whether their loved
ones are doing well. Or itcould be somebody who's just an external member
monitoring them and making sure that they'reokay. And there's all the sensors,
like you said, that can enableit. It just got to be well
put together so you get the meaningfulinformation for whoever the caregiver is. So
(03:51):
whether that caregiver is a professional,you know, like a PSW, or
it is a relative or a friendwho remotely keep an eye on their love.
That's what we're chatting about today.And with that in mind, let's
now hear about Cognitive Systems, yourpartnership with a company called Electronic Caregiver and
the caregiver Wi Fi motion based sensingplatform. Yeah. So we've partnered with
(04:15):
Electronic Caregiver and we're bringing in somevery innovative technology to enable people to really
understand what's happening within the home.And essentially, Cognitive is a company that
provides software, and what we sortof do is we put software onto Wi
Fi devices like you might have smartplugs at home, you might have a
(04:35):
bunch of stuff at home that sortof relies on the Wi Fi to get
communication to tell it to turn onor turn off, or it could be
temperature sensor or whatever it may be. And because it's running on Wi Fi,
we provide software onto these devices thatlook at how it gets disturbed when
people sort of walk and you canjust imagine a person being sort of like
(04:58):
a bag of water. They walk, these Wi Fi signals sort of reflect
off them, and we pick upthat reflection and we effectively can tell people
are moving throughout that ability. Andonce we have that fundamental thing, then
we can provide more information. Sothe care a where Wi Fi motion based
sensing platform essentially uses Wi Fi,but it then uses that information to say,
(05:21):
hey, how much activity is thatperson having, Where are they in
the house, are they in thekitchen? Are they moving here? When
did they wake up from bed?Was there any disturbances as bed they have
to go to the washroom. Andwe collect that information and provide it to
a caregiver so that they can monitorthe individual their loved one or whoever they
(05:41):
are a professional monitoring person that mightbe looking at this person. All right,
I've heard of this before. Soit's using Wi Fi signals in order
to detect motion or movement, andthat could imply also fault detection. So
as cognitive systems, we don't getinto the fault detection. We think there
are others that are better, butwe do provide the ability to integrate them
(06:03):
as part of our solution. Sothen what would be a common application for
your technology just to let a remotecaregiver, like say a daughter or a
grandson to know that their parents they'reup and about and that's okay, like
they're in the kitchen or that kindof thing. Yeah, so the fundamental
technology is really around just knowing thatthey are moving around, which is very
fundamental, right, knowing that they'rearound. You could add cameras, but
(06:26):
it always provides a privacy issue forthe person that is sort of living there.
So what we do is we lookat this motion, We provide insights
of how active they are, wherethey are in the home. We also
provide ability to know at that momentthat they move from the kitchen to the
let's say bedroom, So we providethat information and then we also monitor their
(06:48):
sleeping behavior, so when did theygo to sleep, when did they wake
up, was there any disruptions?And we provide this information to the loved
one so that they know. Anexample, my parents are eighty five and
I use the system as well.And one thing I find really useful is
I get a notification every morning thatthey're up and about and I can see,
(07:10):
you know, how long they slept. I can look at patterns.
Is the sleeping pattern getting worse orbetter? Are there more interruptions at night?
So I get a lot of informationwith regards to how they're behaving.
True of the day got its peaceof mind exactly. We're chatting with doctor
taj Manku. He is founder andCEO of Cognitive Systems. This is a
(07:30):
software company that has partnered with anothercompany called the Electronic Caregiver to create the
care aware platform. It's Wi Fimotion based sensing. If the person there
isn't tech savvy, is that goingto be an issue or they don't need
to be it somebody else sets itup for them. Well. The way
it typically will work is the personwho is doing their caregiving is usually the
(07:53):
person that's setting it up, andit is a very simple setup. It's
essentially just a bunch of plugs thatyou plug into different rooms connected to the
Wi Fi and there is a wayto do that quick easily in the application,
and then it's pretty much done.After that, you might want to
label where those plugs are, likeyou put one in the bedroom. You
(08:13):
might say, hey, this plug'sin the bedroom. And then once you
do that, it essentially then startsworking and starts collecting data and historical data,
starts looking at patterns and so forth. What makes caraware unique. I've
heard of other Wi Fi motion sensingsolutions for aging adults as well. Yeah,
So we do a lot of lookingat the data over time and looking
(08:35):
at patterns. So for example,we look at the night's time and we
see the movement overnight and strikeen andpredict when they went to bed, when
they woke up, how many interruptions, and then we analyze a lot of
that data. So over a courseof some time, we'll also provide insight.
Hey, you know that person,there seems to be a decline in
the number hours they're sleeping, somethingthat you should be watching for, what
(08:58):
they should be paying attention to goingforward and maybe taking some actions for it.
I like to say information is bliss, not ignorance is bliss. Yes,
so the more you know the better. For sure. Just before we
wrap up, what kind of securityprotocols do you have in place? I
mean, does cognitive solutions get tosee all this data? No, it's
(09:18):
all encrypted by the person's credentials,so we don't see really any data at
all from our end, generally allencrypted. And then we do follow all
the privacy laws throughout North America,and the strictest one is California, So
that's the privacy law that we sortof maintain, and we try to be
a little bit better than that.But the nice thing about this type of
(09:41):
approach is that it isn't like acamera. It has contextual information, but
it's not high content information like acamera that can actually see you in your
bedroom. Where this just tells you, hey, you're moving around in your
bedroom and it doesn't tell you anythingabout what that person's exactly doing. There's
an element of privacy that's almost justinherently built in to the system itself,
(10:05):
Doctor mac who. As we wrapup, when is this coming? And
for pricing and other information. What'sthe best website to learn more? Yeah,
so there is a landing page onElectronic Caregiver. So if you go
to Electronic Caregiver website, there isa page there that's actually taking now people's
names if they want to have units. It will be coming definitely this year,
(10:26):
but you can start pre ordering orgetting some information on it on their
website specifically. All right, that'selectroniccaregiver dot com. That's correct, all
right, And the platform again iscalled Careware. Doctor Taje, thank you
so much for your time today.Sounds fascinating. Thank you, Thank you
for your time. Appreciate it.Check it out as powered by Intel.
(10:46):
Earlier this year, the Semiconductor Giantofficially unveiled its Intel Core fourteenth gen mobile
processors, built as the world's fastestmobile processors, with several laptops available by
all the biggest PC brands ship today. And the real story here is for
gamers clock speed up to five pointeight gigahertz thanks to its up to twenty
four cores and thirty two threads forincredible performance. And hey, you may
(11:11):
get a copy of the upcoming StarWars Outlaws for free if you buy one
of these Intel powered pieces. Moreis at Intel dot com. Why are
we going to talk about elephants ona show called teck it Out? You'll
find out when we return. Stickwith us, listen to check it out
whenever you want to find the checkit Out podcast, did I too,
or wherever you get your podcasts,Welcome back to check it out. While
(11:41):
we usually talk tech on this show, sometimes we veer a little into the
science realm, a complimentary discipline,i'd argue. And if you're feeling overwhelmed
by doom and gloom climate news,we've got a dose of hope for you
today as a Dean Downes is joiningus. He's CEO of IPHA, the
Internetiontional Fund for Animal Welfare, andhe's here to share a groundbreaking approach to
(12:03):
environmental conservation and it all starts withprotecting the planet's most beloved animals. As
it in great to have you onthe show today, Thank you, thanks
so much for having me. Solet's start with what is i FA again,
the International Fund for Animal Welfare,And I'm curious to learn about the
link between animals and efforts to combatclimate change. So firstly, I thought
(12:24):
is one of the largest and mostrespected animal welfare and conservation organizations in the
world today. We're a global nonprofit. We help animals and people thrive together
in more than forty countries around theworld, and we help rescue, rehabilitate,
and release animals and restore as wellas protect their natural habitat The link
between animals and climate change is reallyquite simple. The reason we have this
(12:48):
beautiful planet is because we have suchrich biodiversity, and so all the plants
and animals are critical to our ownhealth. And if you think about it
this way, just like as humans, the planet has an immune system,
and when that immune system is notworking, carbon builds up in the atmosphere
and we see dangerous climate change.So wildlife keeps the soil rich and maintains
(13:09):
the health of everything from wild grassesand forests to the oceans and the fresh
air. Interesting. You know,the only connection that I thought of was,
I know cows they emit methane gases, and that's supposedly not good,
and in like large quantities, wedon't even think about that. We think
cars and factories and other human madeemissions are the culprits. But as you
(13:31):
said, your organization is dedicated tohelping to save the planet, and interestingly
it starts by saving an elephant.Yeah, so it's actually quite amazing.
Elephants are the gardeners of the landscape, so actually when they thrive, we
survive. So elephants move through thelandscape and fertilize it as they go,
and they spread seeds and they usetheir tusks to dig water holes, just
(13:54):
like what you were saying with cows. They massage the soil. And the
point that I always like to makeis humans are not separate and apart from
nature. We're part of nature andwe need all the parts to function if
we are to mitigate climate change.Can you tell us more about this new
approach. I believe it's called Roomto Rome. Yes. So, Room
(14:16):
to Rome is a large scale initiativefrom IPA that spans eastern and Southern Africa.
Its ambitious vision as well as anurgent one, and Room to Rome
is designed to create wildlife corridors thatconnect twelve critical elephant habitats. It's urgent
because if we don't act now,the land will be lost to development,
(14:37):
and if elephants are forced to stayin one place, then the environment does
not remain healthy. And since elephantsmove across landscapes where people live, we
have to take serious steps to helpthe people who live with wildlife. So
our goal is for animals and peopleto thrive together in this vast planet that
we call home. This is fascinating. We are chatting with Azadine Downs.
(14:58):
He's CEO of IPHI, the InternationalFund for Animal Welfare. As the head
of the organization, what gives youhope amidst all the challenges in the world
today when it comes to climate changeand conservation. One of the most important
points I like to make is thatwe haven't passed the tipping point. So
there is hope and nature will bounceback, but only if we let it.
(15:20):
And during the pandemic we all witnesshow quickly nature begins to heal itself.
I think everyone heard about and sawlots of videos of animals walking around
cities, the big cities, thesmall cities, but they thrived because it
was quiet. And when I waslasting Kenya, people told me that the
air was so clean that they couldsee the famous Mount Kilimanjaro all the way
(15:41):
from Nairobi, and that's something thathad not happened in fifty years. Oh
Wow. So I have great faithin the younger generations who have a great
respect for the environment and they understandthat when the environment suffers, people suffer.
And so I know there's always suchbad news all the time, every
single day, but my messages don'tgive up hope because hope really does help
(16:06):
heal us. And how awesome isit that Jane Goodall wrote the forward to
your new book. Can you tellus more about your relationship with her and
the name of your book as well? Sure? So the name of the
book is The couscous Chronicles, AndJane Goodall is a really good friend of
mine and he has known each otherfor years. Yeah, and she's a
great mentor to me too. Mydaughter Maya, who studies cultural anthropology in
(16:29):
university, would be thrilled to hearthat that you know her. Yeah,
and your friends with her. Yeah, Well, say hi to your daughter
and I'll pass that message along toJane too when I talk to her,
because she she loves hearing that peoplefollow her and she's so inspirational. I'm
sorry to cut you off. Sothat chronicles, what's it about? And
more about your relationship with her?Yeah, So Jane and I have known
(16:51):
each other for a long time.She wrote the forward to the book,
The Couscous Chronicles, which is it'smy first book. It's a memoir of
all of my travels and adventures aroundthe world. She wrote the forward,
but she insisted that I include donkeysin the book, and there's a lot
of stories about donkeys about my timein Morocco and other places. She absolutely
(17:11):
loves donkeys and she has an incrediblesense of humor as well. But you
know, this year Jane celebrated herninetieth birthday extraordinary and she remains a beacon
of hope for so many people likeyour daughter. She asked me to join
her Council for Hope so that Icould help spread the message that we mustn't
give up this sense of hope thatwe've been talking about. And I think
(17:33):
that there are small things that everyonecan do, and they're simple. First,
go outside, take small steps toimprove the world around you. You
could plant a garden, flowers,anything really that will contribute to the belief
that you can do something. Thisis great. Thank you so much for
your time. Where can we learnmore? Please visit us at ifought dot
(17:53):
org, which is ifaw dot org. Or you can visit us on Instagram
at Global. Yeah, since thisis a radio or podcast interview, we
can't see the images of the elephants. I know that you've been doing TV
interviews. Thanks so much again foryour time. Thank you, Azidin No,
thanks so much for having me WiFi seven one oh one. When
we return on tech it Out,want to follow Mark Google, Mark with
(18:15):
a C and Saltzman with a Z, breaking down geeks peak into street speak.
This is check it Out. Checkit Out with technology columnist, author,
(18:36):
and TV personality Mark Saltzman. Welcomeback everyone. You're listening to check
it out. Given that virtually allour devices are connected to our home network
these days, wi fi is arguablythe most important piece of tech that you
have under your roof, and there'san emerging standard you should know about Wi
Fi seven, led by tp link, one of the biggest home networking companies.
(19:00):
Joining us to chat all about itis Jen's Hennings, a consultant and
spokesperson for tp Link. Welcome tothe show. Yen's good to chat with
you. Thank you, Mike,good to be here. Now, before
we talk about Wi Fi seven,please tell us a bit about tp Link.
Yeah, tplink company that was foundedabout thirty years ago, so they've
been in the technology space for quitea long time. They're a global leader
(19:22):
in not just home networking products wherethey have leading market share in most countries
around the globe, but they alsohave a whole suite of smart home products
and security camera products, everything basicallythat you'd like to get connected in your
home. And so tp link wasone of, if not the first home
(19:45):
networking companies to launch a Wi Fiseven router. Please tell us about this
new standard, Wi Fi seven.Correct, Yeah, that was launch.
The official launch was actually back inalmost end of twenty twenty two, but
globally, but that was kind ofa soft launch. Wi Fi seven is
(20:06):
quite a new standard. It's radicallydifferent from other generations of Wi Fi that
came before it. So if youthink about Wi Fi five, wi Fi
five was limited to two different bandwidths, two different frequencies that it operated on,
and really was just the next generationiteration of Wi Fi standards that came
(20:30):
before it. Wi Fi six isthe last standard and the one that most
people are probably familiar with today,and Wi Fi six was developed as a
standard that addressed efficiency of the networkshow it would handle many devices at one
time. Wi Fi seven is designedfrom the ground up completely differently. It
(20:53):
dramatically increases throughput and capacity, andit's really all about speed, number of
devices and getting networks home networks,small business networks ready for the next generation
of devices and so many more devicesthat have bandwidth needs all right, so
(21:15):
faster speeds, which is important especiallyfor those who like to stream say four
K video and play multiplayer games thatare very demanding. Support for multiple devices
on the network because increasingly we havemore and more of these in the home
on your Wi Fi router, greaterrange in some instances, which we'll get
to more in a moment when wetalk Mesh, and also additional security.
(21:36):
So it seems like it ticks allthe boxes. Quite a jump from its
predecessors. As you've touched on,Yeah, it really is. I mean,
in terms of speed, it's actuallyup to five times faster than Wi
Fi six, the last generation thatmost people are familiar with. Latency is
something that people talk about. Sothat's the delay that devices often have if
(21:59):
you're if you're trying to log inand you get a delay in that signal
coming back or that log in successfulcoming back to you in latency. It's
up to one hundred times faster wowthan Wi Fi six. Yeah, it's
really it's really radically radically more powerfulthan the Wi Fi six standard. And
(22:22):
so who would this be for?Then, yen I touched on a couple
of applications earlier and also tell uswhat Wi Fi seven solutions t Peelink has.
Absolutely, So, you know,some of the early adopters to new
technology are always the gamers because gamingis you know, speed is everything and
reaction is everything. So definitely gamerswill be attracted to this as a as
(22:48):
a Wi Fi robust enough Wi Fitechnology that they can take advantage of and
not be not be caught unaware,but a whole range of applications. So
anybody who's telecommuning, remote work,lots of video conference calls, that kind
of stuff that's going on, that'sideal and there's a lot of us that
(23:08):
are doing that now obviously since thepandemic. Anybody who's getting into AR or
VR virtual reality, that's that's areally fast growing field and it's going to
grow even faster with the all themetaverse stuff that's coming down the pipes.
You had mentioned the four K streaming. Now there's eight K streaming as well,
(23:32):
which is even more needs even morebandwidth. And then of course all
the smart home devices that are thatare around. As these devices get smarter
and smarter and the applications gather moredata and do more things, they also
need more bandwidth to communicate back tothe router, back to the network,
(23:53):
back and forth. So all ofthose things. Yeah, and I know
you have standalone Wi Fi seven routersand also ones that are tied to a
MESH system. Can you give usa couple of model numbers and explain what
MESH is again and the benefits ofit. Yeah. So some of the
most popular routers are the Bee ArcherBee five fifty that's kind of more of
(24:15):
an entry level one for people thatare that are looking for a price conscious
solution. And then there's the Archerb E eight hundred, which is a
really powerful Wi Fi seven router asa standalone item. Then in the MESH
systems, the top of the lineis the Bee ninety five, which is
the Deco B ninety five, whichis out in the market right now.
(24:37):
That one comes in a two nodeconfiguration, but you can buy and add
more nodes if you need them ifyou have a particularly large house. Right.
A note is like a hub ora pod that you place around the
home, right, and a meshsystem sort of makes a digital handshake between
all these devices that are plugged intothe wall in order to blanket more coverage
(25:00):
dead zones, no more dead zones. And as you walk from it,
from the signal of one mesh nodeto another, it actually seamlessly will hand
off the signals, so that ifyou're listening to music or watching a video,
it's not going to drop that signalbetween the two. It's going to
do the handoff in real time,which is pretty sophisticated. And a mesh
(25:22):
system is particularly important because as youget into the higher frequency bandwidth that these
networks use, the higher frequency handlesmore data, but it also has a
bit less range than the old twopoint four gigahertz that's been around for ages
and ages. That one has longerrange but can handle a lot of data.
(25:45):
So when you use the five gigahertsand six gigahertz frequencies, you really
want to have if you have alarge home, you really want to have
a number of these mesh nodes orpods ideas situated so that you're you're getting
the maximum throughput in each one overthose frequencies. All right, tplink dot
(26:07):
com YenS, thank you very muchfor your time, good to chat with
you have a fantastic summer. Thanksagain, always a pleasure, Mark,
Thank you. Gift ideas for dadsand grads when we return on tech it
Out breaking down GeekSpeak into street speakCheck it Out, hosted by Mark Saltzman.
(26:34):
You're listening to check it out.Father's Day is coming up on Sunday,
June the sixteenth, so about aweek or so away, and you
might be wondering what to get Dadthis year. Should you go with the
you know, tried and true tire, quirky socks, or maybe set of
golf balls with his name on itor something. Well, I would suggest,
because it's twenty twenty four, thatyou might go with something techie this
(26:57):
year, even if Dad is isn'tthe most technical guy. You know,
that's certainly the case for my dadstand Stan the man. But if you
help Dad along, he might bea lot more open to it. If
it's something that he's into, likewatching TV or playing games or reading exercising,
like even walking, there's always techthat compliments that. So I've got
(27:18):
a bunch of ideas for you,about seven ideas that you should definitely consider.
I'll also plug the website for eachone so you can get the latest
in pricing. And speaking of pricing, I know these do cost more than
the tie I mentioned or what haveyou, but hey, a lot of
times the family goes in on agift for dad. So here are a
few ideas for the dad or gradin your life. So let's start with
the first color e reader from Cobo. In fact, there's two of them,
(27:42):
Rakutin. Cobo has just introduced itsfirst pair of color e inc readers,
one of which is the Cobo LibraColor and the other is the Cobo
Clara Color. You kind of getbest of both worlds as you can read
books and magazines in color and markup and highlight passages with your fingertip or
optional stylis pen like you would aregular book or a textbook. But it's
(28:04):
still a Cobo that you can readoutside in bright sunlight. It's waterproof,
you can freely borrow library books,and it plays audiobooks too with Bluetooth connectivities
so the seven inch Cobolibra Color hastwice the storage at thirty two gigabytes of
storage instead of sixteen, so headover to Cobo dot com for more.
That's Kobo dot com. Speaking ofthe outdoors, there's a sale on the
(28:27):
Fitbit Sense too smart watch at bestBuy. That's the one with the heart
rate monitor, so it's on salepart of best Buy's Father's Day Gift guide.
The fitbit Sense two helps you keeptrack of health, wellness, and
sleep data, including a stress managementscore. It shows you notifications like who's
calling or texting on its color touchscreen, and up to six days of battery
(28:48):
life, so head on over tobest Buy for a sale on the Fitbit
Sense two. If the family isgoing in on a sleek laptop for a
dad or grad in the home,The hp n v X three sixty two
in one combines portability with versatility becausethe fourteen or sixteen inch touchscreen that's up
to you bends back on a threehundred and sixty degree hinge to use in
(29:08):
tablet mode, so you can useyour fingertips to swipe through videos or photos
or games or books. That screen, by the way, is a wide
one with a sixteen x ten aspectratio and it's got four K resolution.
It has an Intel Core processor builtin AI to get more done in less
time, and many privacy features likea camera shutter, a mute mic button
(29:30):
so the microphone could be easily mutedwhen you don't need it, and a
fingerprint sensor to use biometrics to logyou in. Biometrics just means using a
part of your body to identify you. You can head on over to HP
dot com to get pricing on theHPNVX three sixty two and one. Another
two in one if you will,is the epsyn Epic Vision Flex Smart Streaming
(29:51):
Portable Projector. I love when onedevice can be used in several ways,
so in this case, and speakingof the word flex, it can be
used in the boardroom or the familyroom because this powerful and portable projector can
deliver a full HD picture up tothree hundred inches that's four times bigger than
a seventy five inch TV and canbe used for PowerPoint or other presentation software
(30:11):
at the office, but then bringit home in your backpack to watch movies,
sports, TV shows, or playgames splashed on a wall at home.
Because it has high brightness at threethousand lumens. It can even be
used in well lit rooms. Unlikemost other projectors, this epsin projector also
has built in Android TV for builtin streaming, and you can use your
(30:32):
voice through Google Assistant to ask forwhat to watch. Epsn dot com has
more two more options, and speakingof TVs, if you want a top
of the line O LED television foryour family room, you can elevate your
home theater experience with the sixty fiveinch o LED EVO C four TV from
LG and pair it with the SCnine S soundbar for an incredible package fusing
(30:55):
LG's heritage and OLED televisions eleven yearsnow at number one in this space with
a matching SC nine S soundbar foran enhanced audio experience. This soundbar's bracket
fits the bottom of the OLED TVwhen mounted in fact, and so the
bracket acts as a stand on thewall. Very cool. Again. I
know this is on the higher end, so budget permitting, you're buying a
gift for the dat or grad somethingthat the family will go in on.
(31:18):
They also have smaller sizes as well, so check it out at LG dot
com. And finally, saving Dadcountless hours this summer. The Landroid Vision
WR two eight from Works is asmart robotic lawnmower that doesn't require a boundary
wire to be installed like most models. Instead, it uses sophisticated and safe
AI powered camera technology to learn yourlawn, cutting your grassy areas and avoiding
(31:44):
obstacles. When it's running low onbattery, it'll drive itself back to the
base to charge up, and it'ssuper quiet. It's an electric motor of
course, so it can even beused at night in all kinds of weather
conditions. And as you may knowwith robotic lawnmowers, it doesn't keep those
clippings in a bag. It leavesthem on top of your lawn, which
acts as a fertilizer to nourish thegrass and makes it look even better and
(32:05):
less work for you to clean upafterwards. Again, that's the Landroid Vision
WR two to oh eight from Works. You can go to works dot com
to learn more. There, well, there we have it. A look
at some Father's Day and graduation giftideas spanning various budgets and tastes. Again,
not all dads are going to wantthe same kind of thing, so
wanted to give you a selection.Hey, we're going to take a short
break and I'm going to share afew more gift ideas for dads and grads.
(32:28):
But first a shout out to Visa. We cover cybersecurity a lot on
this show and how you can bestprotect yourself in the digital age, even
if you're not super tech savvy.Over the next couple of weeks, we'll
have interviews with Visa on tips tobetter protecting yourself when you shop online and
just basically living in the digital age. They've invested billions over the last decade
to protect the financial information of individualsand businesses as well. Zero liability means
(32:52):
peace of mind when you shop onlineor at retail using your Visa card.
Read more about Visa and how securingthe world's payments is price I already won
at Visa dot com slash Security.That's Visa dot Com slash Security. A
few more gadget gift ideas for dadsand grads when we return on check it
out. Stick with us, We'llbe right back. Follow Mark Saltzman on
(33:12):
Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram. Listen to check it out whenever you
want. Imagine a PC that's notjust smart but brilliantly intelligent. Introducing the
all new Intel AIPC, a revolutionin computing, powered by Intel's cutting edge
(33:37):
AI technology and support it by dozensof computer manufacturers. The modern PC learns,
adapts, and anticipates your needs likenever before. Whether you're a creative
professional, a gamer, or amultitasking wizard, the Intel AIPC is your
ultimate sidekick. Experience lightning, fastperformance, seamless multitasking, and energy efficiency,
(33:58):
all thanks to Intel's A driven optimizations. Your PC recognizes your face,
adjusts the lighting for the perfect videocall, tweaks your audio like getting rid
of background noise during that video call, and even suggests personalized shortcuts and gamers,
brace yourself. The AIPC adapts graphicssettings on the fly, ensuring jaw
dropping visuals without a hitch. TheIntel AIPC, where intelligence meets innovation.
(34:22):
Upgrade your world today at Intel dotcom Slash AIPC. That's Intel dot com
slash AIPC. Alrighty, Well,as I mentioned earlier in the show,
I had a lot of fun onTV Thursday, the seventh of June,
talking on mostly TV stations, someradio as well about games and gadgets and
gear. Oh my just in timefor the summer season. Some is to
(34:45):
be used outside, some is inside, you know, when you want to
get a reprieve from the heat andenjoy some air conditioning. There is something
for everyone in all budgets as well, so I thought I would walk through
some of those ideas for you,or maybe if you're shopping for a dad
or grad your life as well.Let's start off with gaming. You know,
playing console games remotely is one ofthe biggest trends in gaming, and
(35:07):
Sony Interactive Entertainment recently introduced its PlayStationPortal to play your favorite PS five games
on a portable screen fits in thepalm of your hand. Gorgeous screen with
a controller on each side, perfectfor playing your PlayStation five games even if
someone else is using the family roomTV, as it works over Wi Fi.
With PlayStation Portal and PlayStation five,which now comes in a sleeker look,
(35:29):
you can play today's top games likeMLB, The Show twenty four or
the upcoming Star Wars Outlaws for theend of August. Costs are one ninety
nine for the PlayStation Portal and thePS five starts at four forty nine.
Speaking of TVs, the brand newRoku Pro Series TV is the centerpiece to
your home theater set up, providinga powerfully simple streaming experience with a brilliant
(35:52):
four K picture. These new premiumtelevisions also offer immersive audio and an elegant
design. You can also turn yourTV into a work of art with something
called Backdrops, which is a widecatalog of free artwork, including classic paintings,
for when you're not watching TV.It's better than having just, you
know, a black rectangle on yourwall. The Pro Series TV also includes
(36:13):
the new Roku Voice Remote Pro secondEdition, now with backlit keys and USB
charging. It's about time. Pricesstart at eight ninety nine for this fifty
five inch Roku Pro Series TV andgoes all the way up to sixteen ninety
nine for the seventy five inch model. Next up, a great accessory for
computer users. Wd or Western Digitaljust launched the highest capacity two and a
(36:35):
half inch external hard drive in thecompany's history at six terabytes. That is
six thousand gigabytes in something the sizeof a deca cards that you can connect
to your laptop or desktop. That'sa ton of storage for all of your
photos, videos, including four Khome movies, music, games and important
documents. As I mentioned, myPassport is a slim and durable drive,
(36:58):
really small and I like that itgets it power from the laptop's USB port,
so you don't need to plug itinto the wall like some other drives.
It includes software that adds password protectionin case your drive is misplaced,
and automatic backups. Mine is setto back up my important files at like
three in the morning or something whenI'm not at my PC, just in
case something happens to my computer.Prices start at sixty five dollars for the
(37:19):
one terabyte WD my Passport drive andgoes up to one hundred and eighty dollars
for six terabytes. Finally, let'sstep outside the home with the new Reolink
E series E five sixty. Thisis a four K Wi Fi six security
camera with pan, tilt and zoom. Along with that outstanding four K resolution,
which is four times the resolution ofHD, there's sixty four gigabytes of
(37:42):
memory include it, therefore no monthlycloud storage fees that you need to pay.
There's also auto tracking, two waytalk, and an easy to use
in free app. It's normally onethirty nine, which is a great price
in and of itself, but thereare specials out there where it's down to
one nineteen for that Reolink E series, that E five sixty security camera.
But if you don't want a wiredsolution, there's also the real Link Argus
(38:06):
B three sixty. The B standsfor battery, so it's a battery based
security camera with the solar panel includedand sixty four gigs of storage as well
for as low as one twenty nine. So as you can see, no
shortage of great games, gadgets andgear. Just ahead of the twenty twenty
four summer season. On the eveof the three hundred and fiftieth Tech It
Out, I wanted to sincerely thankyou again the listener. Thank you to
(38:28):
my awesome sponsors, Intel, Visaand Western Digital. To the gang at
Radio America that syndicates this show andmanages the podcast and the radio stations that
pick up this weekly show that aimsto break down geeksbeak into street speak.
If you're on social media, dropby and say hi. It's Mark with
a C Saltzman with a z MA R c SA L t z M
(38:51):
an I'm on x Instagram, threads, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok.
Have a great rest of your day, everyone, and I look forward
to catching up with you next weekendfor another episode of Teck It Out.
Bye bye for now.
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