- Vehicle owners, listen up. Wouldn’t it be great to easily diagnose your car or truck’s health BEFORE any costly repairs were needed? SPARQ Diagnostics is an AI-powered car health monitor that’s normally $500 but given away for free. I chat with Daniel Nieh, co-founder of SPARQ
- What are the latest TV features you need to know about? What features are important? We’re joined by TCL’s Bruce Walker, a “product evangelist” at the company
- On what’s new and newsworthy in home alarm systems and smart home gear, I sit down with Gilles Drieu, Chief Technology Officer of ADT
- Thank you to Visa and SanDisk for your support!
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? Can Check it Out? Can help make some
sense of it all? Breaking down geeksbeak 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
(00:21):
not and why.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey, everyone, welcome to Teck it Out. It's episode three
ninety three. Going to have to do something big for
the four hundredth episode, maybe a big giveaway or something.
Stay tuned for that. Now that we're well into May,
I hope you're all doing fantastic and thank you for
making tech it Out a small part of your day today.
And we do have a stellar show planned for you
(00:45):
this hour, if I may say so myself, with three
great guests. We're going to kick things off with TCL,
a company best known for its TVs and you know
the company is really crushing it. So we're going to
chat in about sixty seconds from now with the TCL
evangelist for the brand about what's new from the company,
what to look for in a new TV across the board,
(01:06):
what features are important, and I'll also ask them how
well TCL is doing in North America. I think they've
recently hit some impressive milestones. After that, ADT will join
us to talk about what's new in home security and
smart home convenience, both of which are super hot topics,
and so we'll chat with ADT. We'll get the four
one one on that. And finally, I had a guest
(01:29):
on back in March, and I received a lot of
feedback from tech it Out listeners about the device his
company is giving away for free. The product is called Spark,
and it's one of those small onboard diagnostics devices for
your vehicle. Plugs into your obdport near your steering wheel,
and it tells you a ton of info about what's
happening with your vehicle before any problems arise, and it's
(01:51):
all handled via a companion app. You can even take
a picture or upload audio to the app of something
going on and it'll diagnose it for you. Wild it
uses AI. Spark is giving these away for free, and
so I'm going to replay my interview towards the end
of tech it Out today, and Spark is normally five
hundred dollars. By the way, so I'm going to ask
(02:12):
them why they're giving it away for free as well.
All of this and more on an all new tech
it out powered by Visa. Securing the world's payments is
priority one. I'll tell you more about Visa's anti fraud
efforts shortly, but let's officially kick off the show with
our first interview. Walk through the aisles of your local
big box store and when you get to the TV section,
(02:33):
it could be pretty overwhelming with all the different televisions offered,
and so how do you choose one that suits your
needs and budget? What should you look for in a
new television? What features are important? To answer these questions
and others, we're joined by Bruce Walker. He's tcl's product evangelist.
Welcome to the show, Bruce, good to chat with you.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Great, Thank you for having me Mark, I'm very excited
to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Awesome. Now, before we talk about what to look for
in a new TV, please tell us a bit about TCL.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Yeah, we're very excited to have such success in North America. Really,
one of the secret sauces to TCL, if you could
sum it up into two words, is really vertical integration,
meaning we make all the major components that go into
a TV set we manufacture, and that gives our consumers
quite a bit of benefits.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
First and foremost, it saves the cost.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
We're not paying a middleman markup for panels and chassis
and things like that. It's also a great technology story
because we make all of our own stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
We know everything's going to work together, and we'll.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Get a little bit nerdier in a second about the technology,
and it really gives the customer the value. Been in
the United States since nineteen eighty one, been an exciting
areas of growth for US particular in the past several years.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, congrats, Can you quantify that growth?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
One of the most recent things that was very exciting
for US is at CEES this past January, Sirkana, the
main data company for our industry, announced that we were
a North America's fastest growing TV brand. And that's really
exciting and even more exciting when you consider that we've
been number two in North America and unit sales for
the past six years in a row. So it was
(04:03):
one thing to be the fastest growing when we were
number fifteen, but to be the fastest growing when we've
been number two for six years in a row is
really amazing. The other part that I'm very proud of
is we're actually announced that we were number three in
revenue in North America and we went from number five
to number three, And that's telling us that not only
are people buying lots of t sale TVs, but they're
buying bigger TVs from US and better TVs from US.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
No doubt that's one of the big trends in twenty
twenty five. Bigger, bigger, bigger TV. So for sure, yes,
And I know TCL also makes smartphones, they make tablets.
Speaking of ces, I looked at the next paper tablet
that doubles as an e reader, so it's got that
Matt Finish with gray scale, you can read outside and
all that. And I also saw the company more recently
at Mobile World Congress. You guys had a huge booth there,
(04:47):
So yeah, it's not just TVs. All that being said,
let's chat about what to look for in a new TV.
Where should people start? Is it always budget or what
about wall size?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
It's obviously the budget's going to be the over and concerned,
But in terms of what we found the driver is nowadays,
it's screen size. People want bigger TV sets. When you're
seeing big shift in premium first run content being shown,
streaming and things like that, people are just getting bigger
TVs and they're becoming more affordable, they're becoming most of
(05:17):
our retail partners are offering great services to get these
giant TVs into customers' houses. So if you really look
where the growth in the market is, it's in that
seventy five inch and up screen size category, and then
you know, obviously from there, depending on the customers' needs.
You know, part of our story has always been the
value story, but so TCL we offer everything from some
(05:38):
of the most value priced achievable giant screen TVs to
some of the leading technology giant screen TV sets. But
really it starts with size and then finding out where
they want to.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Go from there.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Fair we want to replicate that movie theater experience in
the home. So I think, now more than ever, and
it doesn't always have to be a projector, TVs are
now getting much much bigger. It's crazy that can get
like a seventy five inch TV for under you know,
like eight hundred bucks.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
In twenty twenty five, we're going to offer nine different
ninety eight inch TVs offer customers at at some point
any point during the year.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
It's really it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
It can also be confusing, not just to pick a
brand to invest in, but also the screen technology seems
to vary. We had LCD, which evolved into LED. We've
seen O lead televisions than QLED or quantum dot technology,
then micro LED. It can make your head spind what
technology or what panel technology does TCL offer and why sure?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, So what I'm going to cover over the next
four hours is you have.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Your PowerPoint already to go exactly power.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Being vertically integrated.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
We make O LEAD panels primarily for smaller devices things
like that, but really the power of what we do
is with our LED technologies. So it's again it's it's
that panel manufacturer. We've invested thirty eight billion dollars in
panel manufacturing recently. Our newest panel manufacturing facility is two
hundred and sixty acres in size, and it's really what
customers want because you get with a premium LED based
(06:59):
TV we call are QD medially dtvs, you get the
brightest pictures that are out there, you get incredible contrast,
and really, to sum up the technology, what customers are
looking for can be looking for. It's it's you know,
color clarity, and contrast the three season of picture quality
and the LED TVs, the QD menial dtvs that the
TCL offer give really the best combination of performance and
(07:22):
value in those three areas of picture performance.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Okay, so these are LED back lit TVs. Do they
have things like local dimming?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Our newest launch this year is our Precise Dimming series TVs,
which incorporates currently three different series of TVs, and then
we're going to have some more exciting stuff throughout the year.
But all the TVs offer various levels of local dimming,
which again tech talk to street talk.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I think was the phrase you use breaking down geeks
speak into street speaking.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
I was close with local dimming.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
It's the only way an LED TV can have the
blackest blacks and whitest whites on screen at the same time.
And when we talk about that backlight technology, and again
to keep as simple the back lays, because you can
see a picture on the TV that you're looking at
because there's a back light shining through the TV through
the LCD layer. There's a whole new backlight technology that
(08:10):
TCL is designing, engineering, and manufacturing all ourselves in house. Again,
that's another part of that vertical integration that the technology component,
and we're calling it our halo control system. Everything from
soup to nuts on that back lay system is TCL again,
design manufactured, engineered, all by us, and it's really bringing
everything from a new level of premium picture performance to
(08:32):
a lower price point than we've ever had to new
TVs that are coming out, they're going to be the
biggest and brightest TVs we've ever offered. So if you
see precise dimming series on a TV, if you see
QD men LYD when the customer shopping for TVs, that's
going to be kind of the hallmark of exceptional performance.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
In twenty twenty five, we're chatting with Bruce Walker. He
is tcl's product evangelist. He may be preaching to the
choir because TCL is so popular, but if you haven't
yet seen the Brain TVs at retail or at a
friend's place, I encourage you to do so. And yeah,
we're going to now pivot and talk about a couple
of models that you could recommend, something maybe new for
the summer. How you use your TV may vary. If
(09:11):
you're a gamer, you probably want more speed. If you
love streaming, then you may want a smarter TV platform
with app support and all that. Is there a certain
model series that we should know about.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Yeah, I mean we're doing a lot of we're carrying over,
continuing and doing some polishing on our entry level products,
the exciting stuff that as a fellow evangelist of the
technologies again with that precise dimming series. Earlier in the year,
we launched our QM six series. Just recently we launched
our QM seven series, which is the next step up,
(09:42):
and they've got everything from great screen sizes from a
moderate fifty to fifty five in screen size all the
way up to our q sevens available in a wall
devouring one hundred and fifteen inch screen size. And those
are the TVs that are going to give you that
picture performance that you're looking for from a gaming point
of view. Again, they're going to have everything that the
latest gamers are demanding.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
And as the official you know TV of Call of.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Duty, you know those are very demanding users that are
out there, so we know our TV's are going to
perform well. And then on the other end of the
Spectrum were a huge sports company. We're the official TV
partner of the NFL, so we know that the NFL
works very hard to make their games look the best
they can, and for them to trust us to make
their games look the best they can as very.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Exciting for us.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
But those that QM six and QM seven series of
TVs are very exciting for us this year.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And then finally, let's chat about where to learn more.
What kind of retail support we're talking or do you
just recommend people to head on over to TCL dot com.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah, we've got all the major retailers in North America.
We are there.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Obviously, recommend you go to TCL dot com and that
has all the latest information on all of our models.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
You've got a great bunch of.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Blog posts that are out there, and go into a
place called ask Bruce and see if you've got any
technology questions. We can be there to answer well. But
tsal dot com is a great place to start doing
your research.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Great, and I'm glad that we were able to ask
Bruce some TV related questions over the last ten minutes.
Thank you very much for your time, Bruce.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Mark, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.
Anything else I can do to help, please let me know.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Thank you again, TCL dot com for more. When we
return on tech it Out, we're going to catch up
with ADT to learn what's new in home alarm systems
and smart home conveniences. And then two actually go hand
in hand, as we'll learn, so stick with us more
check it Out coming right up after this short break.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Listen to check it Out whenever you want to find
the check it Out podcast at it Too, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Than Welcome back everyone you're listening to check it Out.
ADT has been around a long time, like we're talking
eighteen seventy four when the Baltimore Company was registered as
American District Telegraph or ADT for short. But you wouldn't
know that they were more than one hundred and fifty
years old as they're very high tech by today's standard.
(12:00):
Joining us to share what's new and newsworthy in home
alarms and smart home gear. We've got on the line
with us. Jill Drew, chief Technology Officer at ADT. Welcome
to the show, Jill, good to talk to you.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
Hell Mark, happy to be here, Thanks for having.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Us now before we start, I should tell you that
some of my listeners are perhaps more interested in securing
their home, while others are keen on adding smart home conveniences.
But I know ADT plays in both of those spaces,
even though they're not mutually exclusive. There are some devices
like door locks that are both convenient and secure. Just
to be clear, ADT is not just an alarm company.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Yes, that's right, and it's a great point. I mean
a lot of people still think of adit as just
a traditional alarm company, and I get that. But over
the past few years we really evolved. We've been building
something that meets both needs, the peace of mind and
the convenience. For instance, our add plus latest product offering
(12:57):
we call that. Our platform was designed from the ground
up and we started a few years ago. We deployed
it last year nationally, and it brings the smart and
the secure together in one seamless experience, so not as
two separate systems or boat tones, but as a unified
dot full setup that's easy to use. And of course
(13:19):
you know, as you know, our partnership with Google has
helped us push that even further. Right, we've taken adits,
as you mentioned, one hundred and fifty years experience in
home security and combined it with the Google's best in
class smart home technology, so you get the best of
both worlds. In that case, I actually game to d
T after over two decades in the Silicon Valley. I
(13:42):
worked for Apple. I spent ten years at Google where
I worked on Nest and the Matter standard. Not to
speak too much gigst, but it's like the way the
smart home device is stuck with each other, and that's
that's called matter. And of course, as you know, Google
has the Google Home devices, Crome Cast and also all
the will Nest devices, so I worked on that, and
(14:02):
so I've seen firsthand what it takes to build system
that are both smart and also user friendly. And that's
what we're doing here, making sure everything works together. Simply,
at the end of the day, we are not just
aiming for smart or secure. We're focused on smart home security.
Let's be honest. I mean, people don't want to choose
between safety and convenience, and they want both and that's
(14:23):
what we're delivering, right.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
No trade offs. So with that in mind, would it
be fair to say that a regular home alarm system today,
you know, a keypad near the door kind of thing
is not really enough in twenty twenty five, maybe you
could talk to us a bit about that, including AI
driven security. Does that imply cameras and things like that, sensors.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
It's a great question. So a traditional alarm system with
the keypad still does its job. It gives you basic protection.
But these days, I mean, we can do a lot
more with the help of a HI. So with add Plus,
we are layering in smart features that make the c
stem more aware of what's happening around your home, inside
(15:03):
and in the surroundings. For example, motion detection that knows
the difference between your dog, a person, or just a
car driving by. That means fewer false alarms, and also
a system that responds better to real situations. And yes,
features like facial recognitions are part of that too. We
use it in a very lightweight way, like in our
(15:26):
Trusting Neighbor feature. So I mentioned earlier ADT plus platform
and products that we deployed last year, and on top
of that platform, now that we have full control over
the software and hardware, we can have services built on
top of that, and Trusting Neighbor is the first of
the kind. That's when you can get a clear idea
of wes coming thanks to a high is coming and
(15:49):
going around your house as well, and we can talk
more about that if you want.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, let me ask you please a bit more about
Trusted Neighbors as it's called, which is part of your
ADT plus platform. As you mentioned, so, is this kind
of like neighborhood Watch, but more modern day version of
it where you're leveraging technology to help keep an eye
on not just your home but your neighbors, like your community.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
You can see this way. In fact, Trusting Neighbor is
a modern take on something we've all done right giving
a key to someone we trust. Except now instead of
hiding a spare key under the mat, you can securely
grant temporary access through the Edit plus app and Edit
plus system. So it's perfect for things like package deliveries,
(16:28):
checking on pets, or leading a friend in while your
way to water the plants, or even if you have
an alarm like a water leak, you can notify your
friend through this feature and they can come in and
resolve the problem, whatever that might be. So it combines
AI powered verifications from the nest cameras or doorbells with
the yell smart blocks right. So it's safe, convenient, and
(16:50):
totally key free. So it's not just a new feature,
it reflects how we are thinking about community and access
to your porn earlier. In a small home environment, we
are making it easier to let the right people in
and keep everyone else out. And you can also select
the entry method. We just released this week in partnership
with yel and also we partner with the Zero Alliance
(17:13):
a new touchlock, so with the power of just your fingerprint,
you can enable someone in a very very secure way
to unlock your door if you allow them to do so.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I like the convenience of biometrics using a part of
your body to identify you securely in order to grant
access to your home. So whether it's a facial recognition
or we've seen palm scanning with some of these door locks,
or fingerprint as you said, it's just so much more
convenient and even having to remember a code, let alone
a mechanical key, so long as it's still secure, right,
And so when you pair that with a camera and
(17:45):
an app where even if you're not at home, you
can see who's at your door. Not to mention time stamps,
and all that. Then I think you're going to have
the trust that consumers want in order to enable these features.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
Exactly, very well said.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
We're going to continue chatting with eight after this shortbreak
to learn more about some of their latest products and services.
After that, a free onboard diagnostics device to analyze your
car normally five hundred dollars. We're going to get to
that later in the show. We'll be right back with
more check it out.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Want to follow Mark Google, Mark with a C and
Saltzman with a Z breaking down geeks peak into street speak.
This is check it Out to check it out with
(18:35):
technology columnist, author, and TV personality Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Welcome back to check it Out. We are chatting with
Jill Drew. He is CTO of ADT, a one hundred
and fifty one year old company that is not resting
on its laurels. They've got a lot of technology to
help keep your home, its contents, and most importantly, your
family safe. So you talked a bit about ADT's partnership
with Google, where you used to be employed. This is
(19:01):
obviously a company that has all kinds of Wi Fi thermostats,
They've got video door bells, cameras, all that kind of thing.
Do you offer this as a suite to ADT customers?
And please tell us a bit more about the MATTER platform.
I think it's a term that not many people are
familiar with, but essentially it facilitates a secure connection between devices,
(19:22):
even from different companies and makes it easy to all
set up and work together and communicate with one another.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
That's totally fair. When you was created originally a few
years ago now, the premise of it was, well, instead
of working each in a silo and develop let's say Google, Nest,
Google Assistant Power devices and Alexa power devices and so
on and so forth, and then you are serior devices
and you're kind of locked in in the system and
now you have to you have to continue to buy
(19:50):
smart home devices right within the ecosystem that are only
compatible with those or assistants. The idea was, well, we
can win together and let's focus on the customer experience.
And Matter was initially it was called CHIP, which was
a code name, but I evolve into Matter and it's
exactly what it does. It's like, if you are compliant
with Matter as a standard, which is a communication protocol
(20:12):
between all these smart devices, it does not matter if
you opened by.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
The way, I was going to say, good one.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
It's a little easy. But if you start, let's say,
with an Apple device or Google device on an Amazon
device or hub, and you will add a smart switch
or other types of smart home devices as long as
they are MATTER compliant. The promise of that standard is
that you can just keep adding to your house and
(20:39):
there's a compatibility. You can look at it as very
long time ago. I use that analogy. That may be
a bit ancient, but I'll use it anyways. Printers used
to have their own language, so you would buy a
printer printer, you would be locked in into this. And
then once upon a time, PostScript was invented and all
printers talked about that language, and all of a sudden
(21:00):
everything became much more compatible and thluid. So it's exactly
the same idea open standards. Usually you always win. Same
for the web fifteen years ago with htmail five.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Got it. Yeah, that all makes sense to me, thank you.
And so you don't have to stick with, for example,
only Apple products, or only Alexa enabled Amazon devices, or
only Google. If it's MATTER compliant, then you can play
the field. You can invest in different companies like Yale,
for example, with their smart locks, because they all work together,
talk to one another and remain secure, which is really
again something I keep hammering, but I know it's a
(21:32):
major concern among many of my listeners as they want
to adopt more smart home tech, they don't want it
at the expense of privacy or security. Jill, you talked
a bit about what's new from ADT. Maybe you can
expand on some of the new solutions you've got as
part of the ADT Plus platform coming this summer.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
Yes, absolutely. I made a reference to our new touchlock,
the Yale Azure lock too. That's the touch which is
the It's a z Wave, So we talked about matter,
but we also support an other communication protocol between smart
home devices, which is called Zwave. It's been existing for
a long long time, and EDIT has been really at
the forefront of adopting and embracing that format. There's actually
(22:12):
an extension of it called the Wave Long Range. So
this way devices can be further apart and still talk
to each other, which is very powerful. So this week
we announced the release of this new lock, which is
a biometrics touch lock, what I call fingerprints earlier, and
that's a great extension to not only our adit plus platform,
(22:32):
but also the Trusting Neighbor offering, where now you can
subscribe to Trusting Neighbor and install that luck and it
becomes even easier to have this touch driven entry method.
Our partnership with yel and of course we just talked
about our very strong partnership with Google has enabled us
to develop these solutions. When it comes to this new product,
(22:54):
we also partner with the z Wave Alliance and it's
really a great example of convenience meeting security. We can
unlock your door, as I said, with a fingerprint, and
at the same time it can arm or disarm you
Edity plus system depending on whether you're come in ongoing.
So this smart dock is the first and currently the
(23:15):
only lock to integrate with something we call and that's
a little bit gigtok here, but it's called a z
Wave User Credential Command Class. And so we just talked
about privacy and security, but we've been able to innovate
deeply at the technical level with the Zwave Alliance and
yell to create a lock based on this extension of
(23:36):
the z Wave standard. And so what it means really concretely,
is that we just anauthorized fingerprint users can unlock and disarm,
or lock and rearm their edity system through the seamless
integration with yel touchlock.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Basically, yeah, I see. I like that because currently in
my home, I have two separate apps. One for my
home alarm company, so if I forget to set the alarm,
for example, and I've left my home, I can remotely
set it, which is convenient. And then for my smart lock,
which is just an off the shelf kind of model,
I have a separate app for that. So I like
that you're integrating the two together. Again, convenience is key
(24:10):
so long as security is not compromised. Love that, and
then that leads me to my last question, Jill, if
I'm not mistaken with ADT, you don't just buy these
things sort of off the shelf and install it yourself.
Is that fair? It's not a DIY arrangement. If that's
the case, you have ADT professional come in and assess
and then you can decide what products you want. Can
you walk us through the process.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Yes, that's correct. It's very simple. You can head to
edit dot com. The Web's our website. And you can
explore everything we offer. We actually support both types of customers,
those who want to do it themselves right, so we
have a self setup offering as well, and also some
of our users prefer a professional setup, which is really
(24:51):
convenient as well. So our self set up system is
designed for easy and guided installation. And of course we
also offer a full service installation, so for a full
install with all the sensors, so that that can be
a huge time saver. And there's also some installation for
some sensors where our technicians have all the seaviness and
long standing expertise on where to install things in the
most optimum way, whatever your comfort level is, that's a
(25:14):
way to get started. I will add that OURDT plus
system and platform has been designed completely to support both
the DIY and also the DIIFM mode.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I like that option because I write a lot for
aging adults. I write for AARP and I love the
movement of aging in place as it's called how do
we allow our loved ones to live longer at home independently?
And technology plays a key role here and I like
that you could have professional installation and all that instead
of requiring the person to have to know how to
do all this themselves. So it's good to have options.
(25:46):
So it's simply ADT dot com and that's where they'll
find pricing. And there's presumably a subscription service with this,
especially as it's an alarm system too.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Okay, all right, Jill, great to chat with you, very insightful.
Congrats on all these new innovations with a company that's
been around since eighteen seventies. Amazing.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Thank you very much, Mark, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
And onboard diagnostics device that can analyze your car for free.
You'll hear all about it when we return on tech
it Out and why the company has giving away this
five hundred dollars device at no cost. Stick with us.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
We'll be right back breaking down Geeks Speak into street
Speak check it Out hosted by Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Welcome back to check it Out. We cover cybersecurity a
lot on this program and how you can best protect
yourself in the digital age, even if you're not super
tech savvy. One part of the solution is securely shopping online.
And so I'm thrilled about my partnership with Visa on
tech it Out, as they've made some significant investments in
fraud prevention over the past five years as much as
(26:59):
ten billion dollar, Yes that's billion, with the b to
support Visa's brand promise to protect the financial information of
individuals and businesses. Zero liability means peace of mind when
you shop online using your Visa card. There can be
no half measures when it comes to cybersecurity, which is
why the company takes an aggressive and multi layered approach
(27:19):
to combating the rising threat of malicious software and other
threats by well funded and global criminal enterprises. Read more
about Visa and how securing the world's payments is priority
one at Visa dot com slash Security. That's Visa dot
Com slash Security. Vehicle owners, listen up. Wouldn't it be
great to easily diagnose your car or truck's health before
(27:42):
any costly repairs were needed. Well, this is precisely what
Spark Diagnostics aims to help with. It's an AI powered
car health monitor that may prevent expensive service work. Joining
me on the line to explain how it works and
why they're giving it away for free is Daniel Nia.
He's co founder of Spark. Great to have you on
the show, Daniel, Thanks for your time today.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
Thanks Mark, Thanks for having me here now, before.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
We talk about the solution, tell us what the problem is.
When it comes to car maintenance or car issues.
Speaker 6 (28:10):
You know, Mark, A lot of times what we realized,
especially with vehicle ownership, is that car owners nowadays, they
just don't have enough information or even access to the
tools to gather them enough information to know about what's
wrong with their vehicles. A lot of the car owners
almost have no options but to rely on a third party,
for example, a mechanics opinion on what they should do
(28:33):
with their vehicle without much of an external due diligence.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And it's not just the who like where you need
to take it to an expert to diagnose it, but
also the when is the issue? Often after the problem
has started, it could be too late right at that
point exactly exactly it could be.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
It could be either too late by the time that
you realize the problem, by the time the car owner
realized the problem, or they could just not know where
to even begin with to diagnose the problem or who
should they go to for the ultimate truth.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
So with that in mind, what does Spark Diagnostics do.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
So.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Spark Diagnostics is a device that can turn your car
into an AI It allows your car to directly communicate
with you about what it needs based on how you drive,
as well as the vehicle that you drive at any
given moment. Car owners will be able to perform more
than fifty thousand independent inspections on your vehicle without ever
needing to go to a dealership or mechanic shops again.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
And this device it plugs into your car's obdport. Is
that what it's called the onboard diagnostics port, which most
vehicles have, right? Is it usually just to the bottom
left of the steering column? Is that fair?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
That is correct?
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Most of the obdport, if not majority of the OBD
port with existing vehicles are located at the lower left
of the steering wheel starting with vehicles after nineteen ninety six.
We're currently fully compatible with vehicles twenty ten to newer,
but it is part of our roadmap to expand support
all the way down to nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
All right, So the Spark Diagnostics device and how big
is it? By the way, it works with virtually all
cars and models, like making models after twenty ten correct.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Correct fully combatible with twenty ten and newer, and then
we're expanding support down to all the way down to
nineteen ninety six. It is about the size of an
AirPods if if people are familiar with the size of
how big the AirPod is, but it's quite a small
form factor. All you have to do is plug Spark
Diagnostics into your OBD two port and through you know,
through sparks app our simple interface, you can talk to
(30:33):
your car directly. You can perform more than fifty thousand
independent spects on your vehicle. And with additional new features
that we're planning on releasing in the upcoming months.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
It's the size of an air pod, earbud or the case.
The case Okay, that's still very small, and that plugs
in And I was going to ask you how it
works and is it easy for a non techie person
to figure this out? And then the interface there's no
screen on the device. Does it wirelessly talk to your phone?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
It wirelessly talks to your phone.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
So every single information that you'll need, we break it
down into very simple and plain English that anybody who
got the literacy will be able to understand what a
certain code means. We'll break it down into plane English.
We tell you exactly. For example, instead of piezer or
four hundred code. We say, well, the app will tell
you that cylender number four is misfired and give you
(31:27):
a recommendation on what you should do to get it
serviced or get it repaired and within what mileage or
what typeframe before it becomes a more severe issue.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Does it work, Daniel with both evs and ICE vehicles
combustion engine like GASK vehicles, So.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Spark Diagnostics we currently only support ice and hybrid vehicles.
We're working on expanding support into evs because EV's are
very different.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
We are chatting with Daniel Nia. He's co founder of Spark.
They are the folks behind Spark Diagnostics. It's a device
that you plug into your vehicle's OPD port in order
to diagnose the health of the vehicle so you can
act on it in plain English via the Spark app.
And Spark, by the way, is SPARQ. We'll talk pricing
in a moment. There's a bit of a surprise there.
(32:13):
But speaking of smartphones, Daniel tell us how you can
snap a photo of the dashboard warning light or upload
sound like a weird engine noise to the app.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Is that right?
Speaker 6 (32:25):
That is correct?
Speaker 2 (32:25):
That is correct? And Daniel will elaborate when we return.
Before that, though, I wanted to give a quick shout
out to sand Disc. They make extraordinary flash based storage solutions.
Whether it's for fun like for gaming for your PlayStation,
your Xbox, you're a Nintendo switch for your PC, or
if you're a content creator you shoot video in the field,
(32:47):
or you're a podcaster or a photographer, blogger, what have you.
You can rely on sand disc storage. Whether it's solid
state drives, USB thumb drives or micro SD cards. There's
always great sales on these high and super durable drives.
If you go to sanddisk dot com you'll see what
I'm talking about. But when we return, more with Spark
(33:07):
and how to get that free onboard diagnostics device. Stick
with us.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram. Listen
to check it out whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
A couple more minutes left with Daniel Nia, co founder
of Spark, a company that's giving away it's Spark Diagnostics
plugs into the little onboard diagnostics port near your car's
steering wheel to diagnose your vehicle for free. It's normally
five hundred dollars. Before the break, Daniel I was asking
about the app and how from what I understand, you
can record audio, for example, what your engine sound is making,
(33:50):
or a photo of something on your dashboard and upload
it to the app, and that will also help diagnose
any issues. Is that right?
Speaker 6 (33:56):
That is correct? So we release a spark GI to
the public during our Chino event a few weeks ago. Essentially,
what you're able to do, or what any car owner
in any of our users is capable of doing, is,
for example, if there is a check engine light that
is presented on your vehicle, all you have to do
is within our app, take a photo of that check
engine light. What that does is it will run a
(34:18):
real time diagnostics as well as analysis on that check
engine light to figure out what's wrong with your vehicle.
And let's say if you start your vehicle and you
hear a word sound that is abnormal from your everyday driving,
all you have to do is to record that sound
within the app, and our AI will be able to
identify based on the frequency as was the rhythm of
(34:40):
the sound, to categorize with our sample set to see
what and to identify and diagnose what that particular sound
problem is. So we can't identify whether that be a
misfile or a crank chef issue, things of that nature.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
That's really cool. I haven't heard of AI determining based
on a photo or a sound what the vehicle issue
might be. That's kind of unique. But I think there
are other devices like Spark Diagnostics, things that plug it
like little do hickys that plug into the OBD port
to diagnose the vehicle. What makes SPARK unique.
Speaker 6 (35:12):
Well, OBD two scanners there are nothing new on the market.
They've been in the market. The platform has you know,
been in existence for a very long time. And what
makes this different really is our ability to aggregate a
lot of these fragmented devices into a cohesive ecosystem. For example,
one of the things that we are the most comprehensive
on with our scanning or with our ability to diagnose
(35:34):
vehicle issues, where by far the most comprehensive consumer scanner
on the market. A lot of times, instead of needing
to purchase a commercial grade scanner that mechanic shop and
dealership uses that cost about anywhere between five thousand to
fifteen thousand dollars, you can have you can have the
same capabilities within a single device from Spark.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
And speaking of which, another unique or differentiating feed, it
seems is the price. When this was a Kickstarter campaign,
correct me if I'm wrong. You were selling this for
five hundred dollars, but you're now giving it away for free,
the Spark Diagnostics device, and correct if so, how can
you do that? What's the thinking behind that?
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (36:15):
You know.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
The reason Mark that we believe we are in a
position for us to give away the devices for free
is because after our initial debut at LA Auto showback
in November twenty twenty four, we realize the market response
as well as the audience in need for a device
like Spark, and our goal really is to help and
(36:36):
support the everyday driver by giving the devices a way
for free and having them pay for shipping if they
purchase it online. But that's how confident we are with
our product is we believe that the everyday driver, regardless
of what income category they're in or what kind of
vehicle that they drive, they should deserve to have the
ultimate truth about their vehicle before heading into a mechanic
(36:58):
so they know exactly what is required for their car
instead of relying on a third party or needing to
establish a long term relationship that usually takes years to
build with the mechanic.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
That's very generous of you, but it's not sustainable when
you do start charging for it. How much do you
think it'll be? And what's the best website for our
listeners to learn more or take advantage of your giveaway?
Speaker 6 (37:22):
Anybody can go on the website is Our website is
Joint Spark www dot JOI n s p ar q
dot com to obtain their free device. It is a
limited promotion that we're offering for the device to giveaway.
But when that promotion ends, what's going to happen is
the device will continue through retail for four hundred and
(37:43):
ninety nine dollars. We charge a one time fee for
the purchase, so you purchase the device outright, you don't
need to pay for None of our users will ever
be required to pay for a subscription or annual fee
for the device or for the software. Nothing that they
need to pay for it to upgrade it as well
to a certain features. And the most important part is
we don't monetize on our users data.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, that's one question I didn't ask you is about
your the data you collect. And because I know a
lot of people are concerned about privacy these days, so
that's all great to hear. Rick Daniel, so join Spark
dot com and Spark is SPA r Q. I wish
you much success on this device. It sounds great. I'm
looking forward to trying it myself. Thanks again for your
time today, Daniel, all the.
Speaker 6 (38:23):
Best, absolutely, Thank you, Mark, Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
And thank you for tuning into tech it Out, whether
it's on your local talk radio station or in podcast form.
Happy to have you along. If you want to reach
out on social media, just do a search for my name,
Mark Saltzman, M A R C s A L t
Z M A N huge thank you to Visa for
your support on tech it Out. It was awesome to
(38:48):
visit the company in San Francisco last Wednesday. I hope
you all have a fantastic week ahead and I look
forward to catching up with you next weekend for another
brand new episode of tech it Out, recorded from Italy.
Looking forward to chatting with you then, but bye for now.
Chow
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the ever changing world
of technology? Can Check it Out? Can help make some
sense of it all? Breaking down geeksbeak 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
(00:21):
not and why.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey, everyone, welcome to Teck it Out. It's episode three
ninety three. Going to have to do something big for
the four hundredth episode, maybe a big giveaway or something.
Stay tuned for that. Now that we're well into May,
I hope you're all doing fantastic and thank you for
making tech it Out a small part of your day today.
And we do have a stellar show planned for you
(00:45):
this hour, if I may say so myself, with three
great guests. We're going to kick things off with TCL,
a company best known for its TVs and you know
the company is really crushing it. So we're going to
chat in about sixty seconds from now with the TCL
evangelist for the brand about what's new from the company,
what to look for in a new TV across the board,
(01:06):
what features are important, and I'll also ask them how
well TCL is doing in North America. I think they've
recently hit some impressive milestones. After that, ADT will join
us to talk about what's new in home security and
smart home convenience, both of which are super hot topics,
and so we'll chat with ADT. We'll get the four
one one on that. And finally, I had a guest
(01:29):
on back in March, and I received a lot of
feedback from tech it Out listeners about the device his
company is giving away for free. The product is called Spark,
and it's one of those small onboard diagnostics devices for
your vehicle. Plugs into your obdport near your steering wheel,
and it tells you a ton of info about what's
happening with your vehicle before any problems arise, and it's
(01:51):
all handled via a companion app. You can even take
a picture or upload audio to the app of something
going on and it'll diagnose it for you. Wild it
uses AI. Spark is giving these away for free, and
so I'm going to replay my interview towards the end
of tech it Out today, and Spark is normally five
hundred dollars. By the way, so I'm going to ask
(02:12):
them why they're giving it away for free as well.
All of this and more on an all new tech
it out powered by Visa. Securing the world's payments is
priority one. I'll tell you more about Visa's anti fraud
efforts shortly, but let's officially kick off the show with
our first interview. Walk through the aisles of your local
big box store and when you get to the TV section,
(02:33):
it could be pretty overwhelming with all the different televisions offered,
and so how do you choose one that suits your
needs and budget? What should you look for in a
new television? What features are important? To answer these questions
and others, we're joined by Bruce Walker. He's tcl's product evangelist.
Welcome to the show, Bruce, good to chat with you.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Great, Thank you for having me Mark, I'm very excited
to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Awesome. Now, before we talk about what to look for
in a new TV, please tell us a bit about TCL.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Yeah, we're very excited to have such success in North America. Really,
one of the secret sauces to TCL, if you could
sum it up into two words, is really vertical integration,
meaning we make all the major components that go into
a TV set we manufacture, and that gives our consumers
quite a bit of benefits.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
First and foremost, it saves the cost.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
We're not paying a middleman markup for panels and chassis
and things like that. It's also a great technology story
because we make all of our own stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
We know everything's going to work together, and we'll.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Get a little bit nerdier in a second about the technology,
and it really gives the customer the value. Been in
the United States since nineteen eighty one, been an exciting
areas of growth for US particular in the past several years.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, congrats, Can you quantify that growth?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
One of the most recent things that was very exciting
for US is at CEES this past January, Sirkana, the
main data company for our industry, announced that we were
a North America's fastest growing TV brand. And that's really
exciting and even more exciting when you consider that we've
been number two in North America and unit sales for
the past six years in a row. So it was
(04:03):
one thing to be the fastest growing when we were
number fifteen, but to be the fastest growing when we've
been number two for six years in a row is
really amazing. The other part that I'm very proud of
is we're actually announced that we were number three in
revenue in North America and we went from number five
to number three, And that's telling us that not only
are people buying lots of t sale TVs, but they're
buying bigger TVs from US and better TVs from US.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
No doubt that's one of the big trends in twenty
twenty five. Bigger, bigger, bigger TV. So for sure, yes,
And I know TCL also makes smartphones, they make tablets.
Speaking of ces, I looked at the next paper tablet
that doubles as an e reader, so it's got that
Matt Finish with gray scale, you can read outside and
all that. And I also saw the company more recently
at Mobile World Congress. You guys had a huge booth there,
(04:47):
So yeah, it's not just TVs. All that being said,
let's chat about what to look for in a new TV.
Where should people start? Is it always budget or what
about wall size?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
It's obviously the budget's going to be the over and concerned,
But in terms of what we found the driver is nowadays,
it's screen size. People want bigger TV sets. When you're
seeing big shift in premium first run content being shown,
streaming and things like that, people are just getting bigger
TVs and they're becoming more affordable, they're becoming most of
(05:17):
our retail partners are offering great services to get these
giant TVs into customers' houses. So if you really look
where the growth in the market is, it's in that
seventy five inch and up screen size category, and then
you know, obviously from there, depending on the customers' needs.
You know, part of our story has always been the
value story, but so TCL we offer everything from some
(05:38):
of the most value priced achievable giant screen TVs to
some of the leading technology giant screen TV sets. But
really it starts with size and then finding out where
they want to.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Go from there.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Fair we want to replicate that movie theater experience in
the home. So I think, now more than ever, and
it doesn't always have to be a projector, TVs are
now getting much much bigger. It's crazy that can get
like a seventy five inch TV for under you know,
like eight hundred bucks.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
In twenty twenty five, we're going to offer nine different
ninety eight inch TVs offer customers at at some point
any point during the year.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
It's really it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
It can also be confusing, not just to pick a
brand to invest in, but also the screen technology seems
to vary. We had LCD, which evolved into LED. We've
seen O lead televisions than QLED or quantum dot technology,
then micro LED. It can make your head spind what
technology or what panel technology does TCL offer and why sure?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, So what I'm going to cover over the next
four hours is you have.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Your PowerPoint already to go exactly power.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Being vertically integrated.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
We make O LEAD panels primarily for smaller devices things
like that, but really the power of what we do
is with our LED technologies. So it's again it's it's
that panel manufacturer. We've invested thirty eight billion dollars in
panel manufacturing recently. Our newest panel manufacturing facility is two
hundred and sixty acres in size, and it's really what
customers want because you get with a premium LED based
(06:59):
TV we call are QD medially dtvs, you get the
brightest pictures that are out there, you get incredible contrast,
and really, to sum up the technology, what customers are
looking for can be looking for. It's it's you know,
color clarity, and contrast the three season of picture quality
and the LED TVs, the QD menial dtvs that the
TCL offer give really the best combination of performance and
(07:22):
value in those three areas of picture performance.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Okay, so these are LED back lit TVs. Do they
have things like local dimming?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Our newest launch this year is our Precise Dimming series TVs,
which incorporates currently three different series of TVs, and then
we're going to have some more exciting stuff throughout the year.
But all the TVs offer various levels of local dimming,
which again tech talk to street talk.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I think was the phrase you use breaking down geeks
speak into street speaking.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
I was close with local dimming.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
It's the only way an LED TV can have the
blackest blacks and whitest whites on screen at the same time.
And when we talk about that backlight technology, and again
to keep as simple the back lays, because you can
see a picture on the TV that you're looking at
because there's a back light shining through the TV through
the LCD layer. There's a whole new backlight technology that
(08:10):
TCL is designing, engineering, and manufacturing all ourselves in house. Again,
that's another part of that vertical integration that the technology component,
and we're calling it our halo control system. Everything from
soup to nuts on that back lay system is TCL again,
design manufactured, engineered, all by us, and it's really bringing
everything from a new level of premium picture performance to
(08:32):
a lower price point than we've ever had to new
TVs that are coming out, they're going to be the
biggest and brightest TVs we've ever offered. So if you
see precise dimming series on a TV, if you see
QD men LYD when the customer shopping for TVs, that's
going to be kind of the hallmark of exceptional performance.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
In twenty twenty five, we're chatting with Bruce Walker. He
is tcl's product evangelist. He may be preaching to the
choir because TCL is so popular, but if you haven't
yet seen the Brain TVs at retail or at a
friend's place, I encourage you to do so. And yeah,
we're going to now pivot and talk about a couple
of models that you could recommend, something maybe new for
the summer. How you use your TV may vary. If
(09:11):
you're a gamer, you probably want more speed. If you
love streaming, then you may want a smarter TV platform
with app support and all that. Is there a certain
model series that we should know about.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Yeah, I mean we're doing a lot of we're carrying over,
continuing and doing some polishing on our entry level products,
the exciting stuff that as a fellow evangelist of the
technologies again with that precise dimming series. Earlier in the year,
we launched our QM six series. Just recently we launched
our QM seven series, which is the next step up,
(09:42):
and they've got everything from great screen sizes from a
moderate fifty to fifty five in screen size all the
way up to our q sevens available in a wall
devouring one hundred and fifteen inch screen size. And those
are the TVs that are going to give you that
picture performance that you're looking for from a gaming point
of view. Again, they're going to have everything that the
latest gamers are demanding.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
And as the official you know TV of Call of.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Duty, you know those are very demanding users that are
out there, so we know our TV's are going to
perform well. And then on the other end of the
Spectrum were a huge sports company. We're the official TV
partner of the NFL, so we know that the NFL
works very hard to make their games look the best
they can, and for them to trust us to make
their games look the best they can as very.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Exciting for us.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
But those that QM six and QM seven series of
TVs are very exciting for us this year.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
And then finally, let's chat about where to learn more.
What kind of retail support we're talking or do you
just recommend people to head on over to TCL dot com.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah, we've got all the major retailers in North America.
We are there.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Obviously, recommend you go to TCL dot com and that
has all the latest information on all of our models.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
You've got a great bunch of.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Blog posts that are out there, and go into a
place called ask Bruce and see if you've got any
technology questions. We can be there to answer well. But
tsal dot com is a great place to start doing
your research.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Great, and I'm glad that we were able to ask
Bruce some TV related questions over the last ten minutes.
Thank you very much for your time, Bruce.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Mark, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.
Anything else I can do to help, please let me know.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Thank you again, TCL dot com for more. When we
return on tech it Out, we're going to catch up
with ADT to learn what's new in home alarm systems
and smart home conveniences. And then two actually go hand
in hand, as we'll learn, so stick with us more
check it Out coming right up after this short break.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Listen to check it Out whenever you want to find
the check it Out podcast at it Too, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Than Welcome back everyone you're listening to check it Out.
ADT has been around a long time, like we're talking
eighteen seventy four when the Baltimore Company was registered as
American District Telegraph or ADT for short. But you wouldn't
know that they were more than one hundred and fifty
years old as they're very high tech by today's standard.
(12:00):
Joining us to share what's new and newsworthy in home
alarms and smart home gear. We've got on the line
with us. Jill Drew, chief Technology Officer at ADT. Welcome
to the show, Jill, good to talk to you.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
Hell Mark, happy to be here, Thanks for having.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Us now before we start, I should tell you that
some of my listeners are perhaps more interested in securing
their home, while others are keen on adding smart home conveniences.
But I know ADT plays in both of those spaces,
even though they're not mutually exclusive. There are some devices
like door locks that are both convenient and secure. Just
to be clear, ADT is not just an alarm company.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Yes, that's right, and it's a great point. I mean
a lot of people still think of adit as just
a traditional alarm company, and I get that. But over
the past few years we really evolved. We've been building
something that meets both needs, the peace of mind and
the convenience. For instance, our add plus latest product offering
(12:57):
we call that. Our platform was designed from the ground
up and we started a few years ago. We deployed
it last year nationally, and it brings the smart and
the secure together in one seamless experience, so not as
two separate systems or boat tones, but as a unified
dot full setup that's easy to use. And of course
(13:19):
you know, as you know, our partnership with Google has
helped us push that even further. Right, we've taken adits,
as you mentioned, one hundred and fifty years experience in
home security and combined it with the Google's best in
class smart home technology, so you get the best of
both worlds. In that case, I actually game to d
T after over two decades in the Silicon Valley. I
(13:42):
worked for Apple. I spent ten years at Google where
I worked on Nest and the Matter standard. Not to
speak too much gigst, but it's like the way the
smart home device is stuck with each other, and that's
that's called matter. And of course, as you know, Google
has the Google Home devices, Crome Cast and also all
the will Nest devices, so I worked on that, and
(14:02):
so I've seen firsthand what it takes to build system
that are both smart and also user friendly. And that's
what we're doing here, making sure everything works together. Simply,
at the end of the day, we are not just
aiming for smart or secure. We're focused on smart home security.
Let's be honest. I mean, people don't want to choose
between safety and convenience, and they want both and that's
(14:23):
what we're delivering, right.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
No trade offs. So with that in mind, would it
be fair to say that a regular home alarm system today,
you know, a keypad near the door kind of thing
is not really enough in twenty twenty five, maybe you
could talk to us a bit about that, including AI
driven security. Does that imply cameras and things like that, sensors.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
It's a great question. So a traditional alarm system with
the keypad still does its job. It gives you basic protection.
But these days, I mean, we can do a lot
more with the help of a HI. So with add Plus,
we are layering in smart features that make the c
stem more aware of what's happening around your home, inside
(15:03):
and in the surroundings. For example, motion detection that knows
the difference between your dog, a person, or just a
car driving by. That means fewer false alarms, and also
a system that responds better to real situations. And yes,
features like facial recognitions are part of that too. We
use it in a very lightweight way, like in our
(15:26):
Trusting Neighbor feature. So I mentioned earlier ADT plus platform
and products that we deployed last year, and on top
of that platform, now that we have full control over
the software and hardware, we can have services built on
top of that, and Trusting Neighbor is the first of
the kind. That's when you can get a clear idea
of wes coming thanks to a high is coming and
(15:49):
going around your house as well, and we can talk
more about that if you want.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, let me ask you please a bit more about
Trusted Neighbors as it's called, which is part of your
ADT plus platform. As you mentioned, so, is this kind
of like neighborhood Watch, but more modern day version of
it where you're leveraging technology to help keep an eye
on not just your home but your neighbors, like your community.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
You can see this way. In fact, Trusting Neighbor is
a modern take on something we've all done right giving
a key to someone we trust. Except now instead of
hiding a spare key under the mat, you can securely
grant temporary access through the Edit plus app and Edit
plus system. So it's perfect for things like package deliveries,
(16:28):
checking on pets, or leading a friend in while your
way to water the plants, or even if you have
an alarm like a water leak, you can notify your
friend through this feature and they can come in and
resolve the problem, whatever that might be. So it combines
AI powered verifications from the nest cameras or doorbells with
the yell smart blocks right. So it's safe, convenient, and
(16:50):
totally key free. So it's not just a new feature,
it reflects how we are thinking about community and access
to your porn earlier. In a small home environment, we
are making it easier to let the right people in
and keep everyone else out. And you can also select
the entry method. We just released this week in partnership
with yel and also we partner with the Zero Alliance
(17:13):
a new touchlock, so with the power of just your fingerprint,
you can enable someone in a very very secure way
to unlock your door if you allow them to do so.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I like the convenience of biometrics using a part of
your body to identify you securely in order to grant
access to your home. So whether it's a facial recognition
or we've seen palm scanning with some of these door locks,
or fingerprint as you said, it's just so much more
convenient and even having to remember a code, let alone
a mechanical key, so long as it's still secure, right,
And so when you pair that with a camera and
(17:45):
an app where even if you're not at home, you
can see who's at your door. Not to mention time stamps,
and all that. Then I think you're going to have
the trust that consumers want in order to enable these features.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
Exactly, very well said.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
We're going to continue chatting with eight after this shortbreak
to learn more about some of their latest products and services.
After that, a free onboard diagnostics device to analyze your
car normally five hundred dollars. We're going to get to
that later in the show. We'll be right back with
more check it out.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Want to follow Mark Google, Mark with a C and
Saltzman with a Z breaking down geeks peak into street speak.
This is check it Out to check it out with
(18:35):
technology columnist, author, and TV personality Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Welcome back to check it Out. We are chatting with
Jill Drew. He is CTO of ADT, a one hundred
and fifty one year old company that is not resting
on its laurels. They've got a lot of technology to
help keep your home, its contents, and most importantly, your
family safe. So you talked a bit about ADT's partnership
with Google, where you used to be employed. This is
(19:01):
obviously a company that has all kinds of Wi Fi thermostats,
They've got video door bells, cameras, all that kind of thing.
Do you offer this as a suite to ADT customers?
And please tell us a bit more about the MATTER platform.
I think it's a term that not many people are
familiar with, but essentially it facilitates a secure connection between devices,
(19:22):
even from different companies and makes it easy to all
set up and work together and communicate with one another.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
That's totally fair. When you was created originally a few
years ago now, the premise of it was, well, instead
of working each in a silo and develop let's say Google, Nest,
Google Assistant Power devices and Alexa power devices and so
on and so forth, and then you are serior devices
and you're kind of locked in in the system and
now you have to you have to continue to buy
(19:50):
smart home devices right within the ecosystem that are only
compatible with those or assistants. The idea was, well, we
can win together and let's focus on the customer experience.
And Matter was initially it was called CHIP, which was
a code name, but I evolve into Matter and it's
exactly what it does. It's like, if you are compliant
with Matter as a standard, which is a communication protocol
(20:12):
between all these smart devices, it does not matter if
you opened by.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
The way, I was going to say, good one.
Speaker 5 (20:19):
It's a little easy. But if you start, let's say,
with an Apple device or Google device on an Amazon
device or hub, and you will add a smart switch
or other types of smart home devices as long as
they are MATTER compliant. The promise of that standard is
that you can just keep adding to your house and
(20:39):
there's a compatibility. You can look at it as very
long time ago. I use that analogy. That may be
a bit ancient, but I'll use it anyways. Printers used
to have their own language, so you would buy a
printer printer, you would be locked in into this. And
then once upon a time, PostScript was invented and all
printers talked about that language, and all of a sudden
(21:00):
everything became much more compatible and thluid. So it's exactly
the same idea open standards. Usually you always win. Same
for the web fifteen years ago with htmail five.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Got it. Yeah, that all makes sense to me, thank you.
And so you don't have to stick with, for example,
only Apple products, or only Alexa enabled Amazon devices, or
only Google. If it's MATTER compliant, then you can play
the field. You can invest in different companies like Yale,
for example, with their smart locks, because they all work together,
talk to one another and remain secure, which is really
again something I keep hammering, but I know it's a
(21:32):
major concern among many of my listeners as they want
to adopt more smart home tech, they don't want it
at the expense of privacy or security. Jill, you talked
a bit about what's new from ADT. Maybe you can
expand on some of the new solutions you've got as
part of the ADT Plus platform coming this summer.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
Yes, absolutely. I made a reference to our new touchlock,
the Yale Azure lock too. That's the touch which is
the It's a z Wave, So we talked about matter,
but we also support an other communication protocol between smart
home devices, which is called Zwave. It's been existing for
a long long time, and EDIT has been really at
the forefront of adopting and embracing that format. There's actually
(22:12):
an extension of it called the Wave Long Range. So
this way devices can be further apart and still talk
to each other, which is very powerful. So this week
we announced the release of this new lock, which is
a biometrics touch lock, what I call fingerprints earlier, and
that's a great extension to not only our adit plus platform,
(22:32):
but also the Trusting Neighbor offering, where now you can
subscribe to Trusting Neighbor and install that luck and it
becomes even easier to have this touch driven entry method.
Our partnership with yel and of course we just talked
about our very strong partnership with Google has enabled us
to develop these solutions. When it comes to this new product,
(22:54):
we also partner with the z Wave Alliance and it's
really a great example of convenience meeting security. We can
unlock your door, as I said, with a fingerprint, and
at the same time it can arm or disarm you
Edity plus system depending on whether you're come in ongoing.
So this smart dock is the first and currently the
(23:15):
only lock to integrate with something we call and that's
a little bit gigtok here, but it's called a z
Wave User Credential Command Class. And so we just talked
about privacy and security, but we've been able to innovate
deeply at the technical level with the Zwave Alliance and
yell to create a lock based on this extension of
(23:36):
the z Wave standard. And so what it means really concretely,
is that we just anauthorized fingerprint users can unlock and disarm,
or lock and rearm their edity system through the seamless
integration with yel touchlock.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Basically, yeah, I see. I like that because currently in
my home, I have two separate apps. One for my
home alarm company, so if I forget to set the alarm,
for example, and I've left my home, I can remotely
set it, which is convenient. And then for my smart lock,
which is just an off the shelf kind of model,
I have a separate app for that. So I like
that you're integrating the two together. Again, convenience is key
(24:10):
so long as security is not compromised. Love that, and
then that leads me to my last question, Jill, if
I'm not mistaken with ADT, you don't just buy these
things sort of off the shelf and install it yourself.
Is that fair? It's not a DIY arrangement. If that's
the case, you have ADT professional come in and assess
and then you can decide what products you want. Can
you walk us through the process.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Yes, that's correct. It's very simple. You can head to
edit dot com. The Web's our website. And you can
explore everything we offer. We actually support both types of customers,
those who want to do it themselves right, so we
have a self setup offering as well, and also some
of our users prefer a professional setup, which is really
(24:51):
convenient as well. So our self set up system is
designed for easy and guided installation. And of course we
also offer a full service installation, so for a full
install with all the sensors, so that that can be
a huge time saver. And there's also some installation for
some sensors where our technicians have all the seaviness and
long standing expertise on where to install things in the
most optimum way, whatever your comfort level is, that's a
(25:14):
way to get started. I will add that OURDT plus
system and platform has been designed completely to support both
the DIY and also the DIIFM mode.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I like that option because I write a lot for
aging adults. I write for AARP and I love the
movement of aging in place as it's called how do
we allow our loved ones to live longer at home independently?
And technology plays a key role here and I like
that you could have professional installation and all that instead
of requiring the person to have to know how to
do all this themselves. So it's good to have options.
(25:46):
So it's simply ADT dot com and that's where they'll
find pricing. And there's presumably a subscription service with this,
especially as it's an alarm system too.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Okay, all right, Jill, great to chat with you, very insightful.
Congrats on all these new innovations with a company that's
been around since eighteen seventies. Amazing.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Thank you very much, Mark, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
And onboard diagnostics device that can analyze your car for free.
You'll hear all about it when we return on tech
it Out and why the company has giving away this
five hundred dollars device at no cost. Stick with us.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
We'll be right back breaking down Geeks Speak into street
Speak check it Out hosted by Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Welcome back to check it Out. We cover cybersecurity a
lot on this program and how you can best protect
yourself in the digital age, even if you're not super
tech savvy. One part of the solution is securely shopping online.
And so I'm thrilled about my partnership with Visa on
tech it Out, as they've made some significant investments in
fraud prevention over the past five years as much as
(26:59):
ten billion dollar, Yes that's billion, with the b to
support Visa's brand promise to protect the financial information of
individuals and businesses. Zero liability means peace of mind when
you shop online using your Visa card. There can be
no half measures when it comes to cybersecurity, which is
why the company takes an aggressive and multi layered approach
(27:19):
to combating the rising threat of malicious software and other
threats by well funded and global criminal enterprises. Read more
about Visa and how securing the world's payments is priority
one at Visa dot com slash Security. That's Visa dot
Com slash Security. Vehicle owners, listen up. Wouldn't it be
great to easily diagnose your car or truck's health before
(27:42):
any costly repairs were needed. Well, this is precisely what
Spark Diagnostics aims to help with. It's an AI powered
car health monitor that may prevent expensive service work. Joining
me on the line to explain how it works and
why they're giving it away for free is Daniel Nia.
He's co founder of Spark. Great to have you on
the show, Daniel, Thanks for your time today.
Speaker 6 (28:01):
Thanks Mark, Thanks for having me here now, before.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
We talk about the solution, tell us what the problem is.
When it comes to car maintenance or car issues.
Speaker 6 (28:10):
You know, Mark, A lot of times what we realized,
especially with vehicle ownership, is that car owners nowadays, they
just don't have enough information or even access to the
tools to gather them enough information to know about what's
wrong with their vehicles. A lot of the car owners
almost have no options but to rely on a third party,
for example, a mechanics opinion on what they should do
(28:33):
with their vehicle without much of an external due diligence.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And it's not just the who like where you need
to take it to an expert to diagnose it, but
also the when is the issue? Often after the problem
has started, it could be too late right at that
point exactly exactly it could be.
Speaker 6 (28:50):
It could be either too late by the time that
you realize the problem, by the time the car owner
realized the problem, or they could just not know where
to even begin with to diagnose the problem or who
should they go to for the ultimate truth.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
So with that in mind, what does Spark Diagnostics do.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
So.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Spark Diagnostics is a device that can turn your car
into an AI It allows your car to directly communicate
with you about what it needs based on how you drive,
as well as the vehicle that you drive at any
given moment. Car owners will be able to perform more
than fifty thousand independent inspections on your vehicle without ever
needing to go to a dealership or mechanic shops again.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
And this device it plugs into your car's obdport. Is
that what it's called the onboard diagnostics port, which most
vehicles have, right? Is it usually just to the bottom
left of the steering column? Is that fair?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
That is correct?
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Most of the obdport, if not majority of the OBD
port with existing vehicles are located at the lower left
of the steering wheel starting with vehicles after nineteen ninety six.
We're currently fully compatible with vehicles twenty ten to newer,
but it is part of our roadmap to expand support
all the way down to nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
All right, So the Spark Diagnostics device and how big
is it? By the way, it works with virtually all
cars and models, like making models after twenty ten correct.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Correct fully combatible with twenty ten and newer, and then
we're expanding support down to all the way down to
nineteen ninety six. It is about the size of an
AirPods if if people are familiar with the size of
how big the AirPod is, but it's quite a small
form factor. All you have to do is plug Spark
Diagnostics into your OBD two port and through you know,
through sparks app our simple interface, you can talk to
(30:33):
your car directly. You can perform more than fifty thousand
independent spects on your vehicle. And with additional new features
that we're planning on releasing in the upcoming months.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
It's the size of an air pod, earbud or the case.
The case Okay, that's still very small, and that plugs
in And I was going to ask you how it
works and is it easy for a non techie person
to figure this out? And then the interface there's no
screen on the device. Does it wirelessly talk to your phone?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
It wirelessly talks to your phone.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
So every single information that you'll need, we break it
down into very simple and plain English that anybody who
got the literacy will be able to understand what a
certain code means. We'll break it down into plane English.
We tell you exactly. For example, instead of piezer or
four hundred code. We say, well, the app will tell
you that cylender number four is misfired and give you
(31:27):
a recommendation on what you should do to get it
serviced or get it repaired and within what mileage or
what typeframe before it becomes a more severe issue.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Does it work, Daniel with both evs and ICE vehicles
combustion engine like GASK vehicles, So.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Spark Diagnostics we currently only support ice and hybrid vehicles.
We're working on expanding support into evs because EV's are
very different.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
We are chatting with Daniel Nia. He's co founder of Spark.
They are the folks behind Spark Diagnostics. It's a device
that you plug into your vehicle's OPD port in order
to diagnose the health of the vehicle so you can
act on it in plain English via the Spark app.
And Spark, by the way, is SPARQ. We'll talk pricing
in a moment. There's a bit of a surprise there.
(32:13):
But speaking of smartphones, Daniel tell us how you can
snap a photo of the dashboard warning light or upload
sound like a weird engine noise to the app.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Is that right?
Speaker 6 (32:25):
That is correct?
Speaker 2 (32:25):
That is correct? And Daniel will elaborate when we return.
Before that, though, I wanted to give a quick shout
out to sand Disc. They make extraordinary flash based storage solutions.
Whether it's for fun like for gaming for your PlayStation,
your Xbox, you're a Nintendo switch for your PC, or
if you're a content creator you shoot video in the field,
(32:47):
or you're a podcaster or a photographer, blogger, what have you.
You can rely on sand disc storage. Whether it's solid
state drives, USB thumb drives or micro SD cards. There's
always great sales on these high and super durable drives.
If you go to sanddisk dot com you'll see what
I'm talking about. But when we return, more with Spark
(33:07):
and how to get that free onboard diagnostics device. Stick
with us.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram. Listen
to check it out whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
A couple more minutes left with Daniel Nia, co founder
of Spark, a company that's giving away it's Spark Diagnostics
plugs into the little onboard diagnostics port near your car's
steering wheel to diagnose your vehicle for free. It's normally
five hundred dollars. Before the break, Daniel I was asking
about the app and how from what I understand, you
can record audio, for example, what your engine sound is making,
(33:50):
or a photo of something on your dashboard and upload
it to the app, and that will also help diagnose
any issues. Is that right?
Speaker 6 (33:56):
That is correct? So we release a spark GI to
the public during our Chino event a few weeks ago. Essentially,
what you're able to do, or what any car owner
in any of our users is capable of doing, is,
for example, if there is a check engine light that
is presented on your vehicle, all you have to do
is within our app, take a photo of that check
engine light. What that does is it will run a
(34:18):
real time diagnostics as well as analysis on that check
engine light to figure out what's wrong with your vehicle.
And let's say if you start your vehicle and you
hear a word sound that is abnormal from your everyday driving,
all you have to do is to record that sound
within the app, and our AI will be able to
identify based on the frequency as was the rhythm of
(34:40):
the sound, to categorize with our sample set to see
what and to identify and diagnose what that particular sound
problem is. So we can't identify whether that be a
misfile or a crank chef issue, things of that nature.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
That's really cool. I haven't heard of AI determining based
on a photo or a sound what the vehicle issue
might be. That's kind of unique. But I think there
are other devices like Spark Diagnostics, things that plug it
like little do hickys that plug into the OBD port
to diagnose the vehicle. What makes SPARK unique.
Speaker 6 (35:12):
Well, OBD two scanners there are nothing new on the market.
They've been in the market. The platform has you know,
been in existence for a very long time. And what
makes this different really is our ability to aggregate a
lot of these fragmented devices into a cohesive ecosystem. For example,
one of the things that we are the most comprehensive
on with our scanning or with our ability to diagnose
(35:34):
vehicle issues, where by far the most comprehensive consumer scanner
on the market. A lot of times, instead of needing
to purchase a commercial grade scanner that mechanic shop and
dealership uses that cost about anywhere between five thousand to
fifteen thousand dollars, you can have you can have the
same capabilities within a single device from Spark.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
And speaking of which, another unique or differentiating feed, it
seems is the price. When this was a Kickstarter campaign,
correct me if I'm wrong. You were selling this for
five hundred dollars, but you're now giving it away for free,
the Spark Diagnostics device, and correct if so, how can
you do that? What's the thinking behind that?
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (36:15):
You know.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
The reason Mark that we believe we are in a
position for us to give away the devices for free
is because after our initial debut at LA Auto showback
in November twenty twenty four, we realize the market response
as well as the audience in need for a device
like Spark, and our goal really is to help and
(36:36):
support the everyday driver by giving the devices a way
for free and having them pay for shipping if they
purchase it online. But that's how confident we are with
our product is we believe that the everyday driver, regardless
of what income category they're in or what kind of
vehicle that they drive, they should deserve to have the
ultimate truth about their vehicle before heading into a mechanic
(36:58):
so they know exactly what is required for their car
instead of relying on a third party or needing to
establish a long term relationship that usually takes years to
build with the mechanic.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
That's very generous of you, but it's not sustainable when
you do start charging for it. How much do you
think it'll be? And what's the best website for our
listeners to learn more or take advantage of your giveaway?
Speaker 6 (37:22):
Anybody can go on the website is Our website is
Joint Spark www dot JOI n s p ar q
dot com to obtain their free device. It is a
limited promotion that we're offering for the device to giveaway.
But when that promotion ends, what's going to happen is
the device will continue through retail for four hundred and
(37:43):
ninety nine dollars. We charge a one time fee for
the purchase, so you purchase the device outright, you don't
need to pay for None of our users will ever
be required to pay for a subscription or annual fee
for the device or for the software. Nothing that they
need to pay for it to upgrade it as well
to a certain features. And the most important part is
we don't monetize on our users data.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Yeah, that's one question I didn't ask you is about
your the data you collect. And because I know a
lot of people are concerned about privacy these days, so
that's all great to hear. Rick Daniel, so join Spark
dot com and Spark is SPA r Q. I wish
you much success on this device. It sounds great. I'm
looking forward to trying it myself. Thanks again for your
time today, Daniel, all the.
Speaker 6 (38:23):
Best, absolutely, Thank you, Mark, Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
And thank you for tuning into tech it Out, whether
it's on your local talk radio station or in podcast form.
Happy to have you along. If you want to reach
out on social media, just do a search for my name,
Mark Saltzman, M A R C s A L t
Z M A N huge thank you to Visa for
your support on tech it Out. It was awesome to
(38:48):
visit the company in San Francisco last Wednesday. I hope
you all have a fantastic week ahead and I look
forward to catching up with you next weekend for another
brand new episode of tech it Out, recorded from Italy.
Looking forward to chatting with you then, but bye for now.
Chow
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.