The biggest tech trade show in the world has returned: Talking Tech podcast

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Hey there, listeners. It's Mike Snider here.

And I'm Brett Molina. Welcome to Talking Tech. Most of the big tech news this week is coming out of CES, the giant technology trade show held annually in Las Vegas. In the past I've covered the show in person. I actually have only done it one time, surprisingly. I've covered it remotely several times but I've only been there once. And there are times where I'm kind of thankful for that. Mike, I know, has been to CES a lot.

Yeah, that's right. And I, us journalists kind of have a love-hate relationship with CES because it's such a grind. But you will want to be there because not only do you get to put hands on products that are going to come out in the next year, but you get to see all your colleagues from wherever, from all around the country and all around the world, to be honest with you. I've covered more than 20. I lost count. In fact, I even went to CES when there was a summer event in the nineties in Chicago. And at that time, there was no E3 yet. The video game companies like Nintendo and Sega were exhibitors there. But this year, because of COVID 19 and the surge and the Omicron variant, some big name exhibitors and many attendees, including USA Today have opted to take a year off or to cover the show remotely.

And we can cover it remotely because many of the big events this week will be streamed online. This is similar to last year when the entire event was virtual. This year all the keynote speeches will be streamed. That includes presentations by Samsung, Abbott Labs and General Motors. Mike, what can readers expect to learn about CES this week?

Well, I think there are some certain things. There will probably be some surprises. We always hope there's that. We already know Samsung has announced a new Galaxy S21 FE smartphone, price starting at 699, with many of the features found in the higher priced. S21 lineup came out last year, including an AMOLED display, bigger battery and faster processor. That's coming January 11th, and most of the of big carriers have already announced special deals to get that. And Brett, you wrote about Samsung's new Eco Remote, which doesn't need batteries and is powered by wifi waves. That's an interesting development. The the Samsung Remote I currently have uses solar power to stay powered up. Beyond that, people can read about those on tech.USAToday.com, we've already written about that stuff.

With all the hype around the Metaverse, we're going to see plenty of products and services that claim to help advance us toward this more connected future that is being overly hyped, I think, at this point. But I wrote about several products, including one that comes from a company called Owo. I have no idea if I'm pronouncing that correctly. It's O-W-O. It's a tech company in Spain. It's developing what's called a haptic wearable vest. It has actuators built in that can deliver sensations to your arms and, arms and chest so if you're playing a video game and your avatar gets punched, shot or hugged, you would feel that. Right now it's being tested with video games, but when it comes out, it could be evolved to do things in the Metaverse. Which, you and I have both and with written about the Metaverse, it's this persistent online virtual world, where you can do almost everything that you can do in the real world. That's the theory and the concept.

I don't know what I'd feel more uncomfortable with, getting virtually shot or virtually hugged in the era of COVID. But this part of the Metaverse intrigues me a lot lately, just because we've heard a lot about the Metaverse and how it's supposed to be this seamless interconnectivity between what we do in the real world and what we do online. And this is where I'm curious, is how that all comes together. Because right now it feels like it's mostly just VR platforms and where I think we see Metaverse maybe become more widely adopted is when this type of tech takes off, and whether we see those pieces of technology that help make the connection between a Metaverse and real world more seamless.

Yeah, totally agree. All the technology to deliver this vision of the Metaverse that we see, the evolved vision, is not here yet, that can get to everybody. You can do it in a lab, probably, and in closed tests, but this development's going to go over, I don't know. I'm not an expert on this. I'm not a developer, but a decade from now we may still be talking about the coming of the Metaverse, for all I know.

Another hot topic that CES will be involved with is NFTs. Now, there's often these, there's sessions at CES, they're not just product displays and demonstrations. Experts come, movers and shakers, they discuss current and upcoming tech trends. And NFTs is going to be one of them. If you haven't read or listened to us talk about NFTs before, they're non-fungible tokens, they're unique digital collectibles with digitally authenticated ownership, so you can own one of something. Or if there's a limited number of a hundred of these things, you can own them. Kind of like, think about owning a very rare baseball card or something, for instance. Well, you remember Paris Hilton. She's actually issued NFTs and she's invested in companies supporting this technology, so she's going to be on a panel, which also includes CEO of Dapper Labs, which is behind the popular NBA Top Shot NFTs, which you've written about, Brett.

Yeah. It's definitely something last year that took off in a big way, and we obviously saw all that buzz. And it feels like NFTs are still part of the conversation, but maybe not as dominant as it once was. But I am interested to see how this area evolves and whether we go beyond just digital collectibles. Does it get to something a lot more in depth, with a lot more meaning? I remember one expert I talked to when I wrote about NFTs discussing how blockchain technology and NFTs could lead to stuff like home ownership, where you transfer a deed through an NFT. I'm really interested to see if it evolves beyond just being a way to share collectibles with other people.

Yeah, I agree with you. I think one of the reasons why it feels like it's not as front of mind right now is because there's just so many celebrities, artists, athletes releasing NFTs, so you're kind of like, you see NFT 30 times a day so you kind of tune it out because you got to stay focused on whatever it is you got going. But I think the concept could deal with all kinds of purchases and interactions, transactions in the future. I totally agree with you there. Another topic that's been showcased at CES for years is self-driving technology. CES in Las Vegas, that's where I rode in my first self-driving car five years ago. But this year, something, in a twist, John Deere's reportedly going to show a self-driving tractor.

I definitely am going to keep an eye out on that. I would kill though, especially if you're on the East Coast, I would kill for a self-driving snowplow right now. Because that would be amazing and it would save me from shoveling. But anyway, we'll keep an eye on the tractor. We'll keep an eye on all great things from CES. Stay tuned to tech.USAToday.com and the USA Today app for all of our CES coverage this week. You can also get news from CES and all tech coverage year round by subscribing to the Talking Tech newsletter. It's out every Thursday. Just go to newsletters.USAToday.com. Listeners, let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, show ideas? You can find me on Twitter @BrettMolina23.

And I'm @MikeSnider. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. You've been listening to Talking Tech, we'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.