Gadgetory

the bacchanal weekly is supported by triple bytes don't have a degree in software engineering you don't need one to apply to the likes of Dropbox Robin Hood and Mixpanel take a quiz do a general interview and then advance on to your final handshake with triple bite weekly listeners can get a one thousand dollar signing bonus by applying at triple bite calm slash weekly that's triple B y-t-dot-com slash weekly hold on so ESEs mouth is completely open I don't know if they can see her but I think my I think they will okay I think we should I mean Jules can blur the face but babe can you return e Issa sorry it's just if you don't want your mouth completely open on camera buddy and this is a special episode of the bacchanal weekly episode number 341 brought to you by xda-developers and of course plugin now i tried to do a bit of an intro at the beginning of this as this is a car cast hai meetha Vetta and I were driving back from CES from Las Vegas back here to Los Angeles and we also had ISA Rodriguez in the back it is another look at CES 2019 as Jaime and I talked about some of our memories from the show and why we actually think that this might have been one of our favorite CES is that we've ever been to so why don't we go ahead and just cut over to the car cast is this legal I don't think so [Laughter] yeah I was trying to think of an intro as I was feeling up the car because I know that we always we want we want to have our our jewels esque intros oh this is the best one I can come up with in the desert you can't remember your name but after a sea of business cards and meetings throughout CES 2019 there's a whole lot else we don't remember hello everybody and welcome to this episode of the pocket now weekly brought to you by XDA end pocket now of course XD developers and pocket now i don't know what episode this is but this is of course our CES are we supposed to remember with all the alcohol I know right exactly we're on our way back from CES 2019 driving back to Los Angeles I have all of our belongings in tow of course over here to my right is I'm not one of your belongings I said our I said our belongings uh and in the back seat over there is Isla Rodriguez of glad you met who you might hear chiming in from time to time I'm getting onto the 15 freeway right now as we are coming back from Las Vegas so how did this how did the show turn out huh better than expected yeah it was a good time think it's the first time that I can say I like to see yes really yeah well it's what would attribute to that because we've always this is a topic I wanted to dive into for for this because we're gonna be when this episode comes out it's gonna be something of like a week since we came back yeah so what I'm looking for here is like everyone says that CES has been losing its luster it's been losing its relevance almost but it's not truly the case like did we feel that way this year I think we should just oh do me one favor can you bring it up so that's more in line with your mouth there all right sorry um I don't know I guess I have leveled my expectations of CES yeah um in the past we were like oh we're mobile focused and there is you know there was no mobile there was no phones and so our opinion was to find on that but now we are making a shift out of that yeah we are gonna cover mobile we will continue doing that but you know as technology is evolving with 5g and everything that's coming we've got 8k TVs we saw some amazing monitors and it's just technology is evolving in such a way that you know you have to understand that the smartphone is now just one of the many terminals that you could use I've been using products like a Google home hub lately that I love to death um and so I'm just I'm very enthusiastic and I am also I think I love the fact that we didn't overdo Vegas in the past there was all this rush of getting content and we made a conscious decision when we arrived in Vegas that Vegas was not gonna be about the content that the content was gonna be there um but there's even more coming out maybe even right now exactly but we decided that we wanted Vegas to be about the content and the relationship yes and the technology and just enjoying the show we slept we worked mm-hmm we did party and yet I don't feel overworked and that's something that I really wanted and obviously like the relationship building like just go yes going past just the Samsungs and lg's of the world yeah like there's so many new players and CES is a perfect place for them to showcase themselves that says I mean you have people coming from all over the world and Vegas is like one of the most accessible cities in the world indeed um so yeah you mean we just did a bunch of stuff with like we were getting in more with Razer we got to look at oh yes all right live god I love lasers offerings with that razor we'll just have so many cool things like they focused on the chroma RGB aspect but I have a great shot of you loving those headphones oh my god you know I wish I wish that that our timing and razor was not as tight as it was yeah because I would have loved to make a video but just you know the video just didn't allow itself for filming um not so much ya know I mean it also was like you mean obviously with pocket now it's it's been a mobile focus but yeah and I know that I owe you my razor phone review but now that I have the riser controller I'm willing to do the review yeah I'm super excited because I was very clear I will if I can't do a gaming phone review if I'm not willing to game with it and I'm not willing to game with a phone on its screen give me a controller and then we'll talk okay so razor was very clear that I was gonna wait until the controller to do my review and that's now's the time I have not tested it yet but but I feel like different from all the other shows like with yes the razor phone 2 came out a while ago yeah they had some chroma stuff to show off but we were like playing games on desktops and Expo I love playing - man ok so a game like doom will totally make me go back to playing on a PC and I have a gaming PC I just I needed a good monitor and oh my god LG oh yeah yeah oh I already told them that ultra-wide man I really want that ultra wide it was the 49 inch what 49 inch ultra wide it was fantastic and it's just for me it's not just about the ultra wide bragging rights LG knows how to do monitors their color accuracy is top-notch I love the in the case of their game monitors how they've already built in the LEDs like they noticed that we are sticking LEDs in the back of our monitor so they're just doing it for us no I love that you didn't get to see the monitor that razors developing no they're actually developing one I don't we couldn't get a full answer as to who they're partnering with to make it but the bottom of it like the worst Sharpe I assume that probably will be the bottom of that the stand has that same chroma lighting that the the razor two wireless charger has but their cable and you know what this is this is the highlight for me is that this is probably at least for me maybe for yourself also since there's like a shift in the way that things are working a pocket now like this there's so much more I I had a day where I looked at so many things on the show floor and like meeting with people and not one of them had to do with the phone yes it was fantastic yeah I love that I it's just isn't it refreshing yeah is it a refreshing I uh it's just if we go back to every single podcast that we've done ever since we started day one of CES it's all a cry show it is all all I didn't like it oh I was disappointed oh I was just the ranch story and you know we made a conscious decision this year we actually Josh and I made this decision in Hawaii that we were gonna be happy that we were gonna go enjoy the show for what it is that we were going to you know just embrace whatever it is the CES has to show yes and I think that we succeeded at this and I think that CES succeeded at showing us what we wanted to you know be showing us what they could do I mean surely you know companies are not doing major announcements or at least the companies that we focus on aren't but that's the problem it's just the companies that we focus on just don't you see yes yeah and we have to understand that it's not C ESS problem yeah they had enough TV announcements they had enough oh my god art home smart home they had everything there their vehicle announcements as well Qualcomm did an announcement of what they're focused and focusing on an automotive and so it's not like if there is no technology no we're the one that needed the shift the focus yes but also it's not hard to know what I feel like a lot of people don't realize is that even if there's no mobile focus at CES or or even shows like Aoife for example there are so many products that link into it yeah smartphone has become the home of it's become like the the epicenter of what the rest of tech ends up being yes so even then like I don't have it right here but I even have like a microphone that I was able to get ahold of that it's supposed to make vlogging with a smartphone even better yeah that's not really a phone announcement but it has everything to do with exactly that's what CES is all about and make that mental shift it becomes a really exciting show exactly so I'm actually you write it I feel much happier with how this one went because I was a because we were able to focus on way more than that but even then the shift is not hard now it's like a it's like a really easy pivot and you know I would really love comments what do you guys feel about our brand name I mean do you think that we so by the way it's funny when people are like yes but it's not pocket now I'm like okay so the brand was not born out of the concept of what fits in your pocket I was born out of an operating system when pocket now was found that the major operating system was Pocket PC oh I actually didn't know that exactly and so if you remember pretty much every website back then was Pocket PC thoughts and it was not the concept was not mobile it was focused on Pocket PC which eventually became smartphones so we started being a PDA website that eventually evolved into a smartphone website that you know it just drifted into becoming a mobile website because Android was the predominant operating system but we didn't even cover Android I remember when we made the conscious choice to move to Android because at some point we were the top Windows Mobile website it's stuff like that and so what do you do you feel that we should change the brand we've been considering certain ideas I'm not saying that we're gonna do it it's just obviously feedback is the best then if you could shine in the comments and let us know what you think that'd be fantastic yeah absolutely I I feel like you and I have had a couple of conversations as to like what it could be instead yeah not an easy question to answer it's not an easy question because I feel nostalgic for it Brandon feels nostalgic for it yeah we've it's taken us forever to grow it and to take it to what it is and definitely it's it's very difficult to let it go but sometimes you just need to and say oh I I'm not saying we will again it's just the question and you know suggestions and everything or or do you feel like we should just remain true to the brand and extensors and things that's also welcome let it know and I still think it fits the name does but just it's just that people need to understand that what is in the pocket control so much exactly and that's and that's really what the focus of like all the smart home and all that is it is involved with um but yeah indeed I wave opening that up do we have a bottle opener I think it's a twist-off I don't think it is I'm pretty sure it is here let me see mine this is we are multitasking like fiends right now on the road but you know what there's no traffic that's something that I'm actually really surprised by no it's not alright so this one's yours I'll take that one fine make fun of me okay I have delicate hands the well they have to be on camera so I don't blame you so so do mine for that matter I don't know why I'm making that joke okay that one's rough this one's rough yeah told you oh so weird anyways here's chips by the way this is root beer doesn't judge a diet root beer on the road yeah cheers Cheers hmm you know why that's what's exactly what I wanted it to be I think I have had root beer in ten years oh good old sassafras right there Jules you're gonna have to be editing all the burping man all right so on that note I swear I can open the beer the piers the root beers a little bit just in case we're gonna see if we need to do a tiny break before we get into the actual device stop the bacchanal weekly is brought to you with support from caseta by Lutron and today I want to talk to you about casita by Lutron brought to you by Lutron pioneers and smart home lighting with casita you can schedule your lights to come on at dusk so your family always comes back to a well at home and you can tell Google assistant alexa or Siri to turn the lights on or off bright or dim or anywhere in between these are dimmer switches we're talking about after all coming from Lutron the company with over 60 years of experience in illumination and you can integrate them into your smart home routine by connecting them to your Sonu sound bar your kness camera and thermostat and plenty of other devices our producer Jules wakes up with and goes to bed with the help of casita every day with winter bringing on late sunrises and early sunsets he times his lights to turn on with alarms and tells his assistant to turn them up when he's about to fall asleep that's smart lighting the smart way you can get it to search CAS ETA or head to Lutron comm to learn more coz theta by Lutron welcome home it's a peace of mind.we we were just talking a little bit during this particular portion of the ride like I was I was I was saying for a bit that we're on this road we have things like self-driving cars now and obviously we're in a vehicle with all this technology in front of us and only about a hundred years ago where were people like on dune dune buggies but like horse-drawn carriages or steam um locomotives steam locomotives yeah and like the kind of progress that we've made because I just look around it's literally we're in the desert right now yeah and it's a beautiful it's a beautiful scene don't get me wrong but we will from there we were talking a little bit about the different innovations that we could have seen at CES or may have seen or may not have seen because you did not really get to spend time with the Flex part the flex buy oh my god everybody please go watch my buddy's video bored at work and a bong the colonel duck colonel hey what was the title African Prince been his smartphone with his bare hands oh my god that guy's a character it's great yeah so they had a they had a little area in the back where they had press media even anyone who was just attending the show look at the phone okay um and I did get to like hold it and mess around with it I have a lot of footage in a video that you should be up by now so you could check it out yeah it's it's a foldable not a foldable it's a flexible display you're not folding it because you're not creating a crease yeah so it's really important to make that distinction but it's not glass it's not a glass display it is the entire thing is plastic yeah so that you can actually bend it and it's it is a responsive screen I can't say I can't say how responsive what kind of quality it is yeah but once you fold it you have what they call a three screen parents of ice yeah so you have the backside and then you have the front side where the main Android OS lives and then you have this like little not crease but fold or bend in the middle that if you were to look at it in like a tenth view that's where your notifications appear right and then when you take it out well when you fold unfold it rather there's a hinge on the back which is where it all happens and then a very strong magnet actually that keeps it together when you fold it interesting can I ask you a question go for it why why will you ever use a product like that okay so that I I did not really ask the gentleman there in those terms but I was like you know I really like it as a tablet this is so this is probably what a tablet should be like it's really thin it's easy on the hands because it's super light I had it and and it's it's easy to use so if you made a tablet that looks like this I would be so in it's like a eight seven or eight inch and when it's a taxi I but he said that one of the people because they did start seating out the devices to like certain VIPs in China yeah um one of them noticed that those magnets on the back were so strong that he's using it as a display for his refrigerator I thought that was dope I'm trying to think of an example I think that I think that as a phone it's weird though I agree with you it's the weirdest thing okay so I you know you'll never see like a transformer car that is a sedan at some point and then you can turn it into a 4x4 unless you bought a Subaru and even those it's it's just it's very difficult okay a smartphone has been proven for the past decade 12 years that there is one form factor flat slab there there is one form factor and then the tablets have been proven or I mean Microsoft experimented with so many types of designs for tablets and then came Apple with the iPad and boom that the form factor was just the fine so I'm not saying that these are not cool products they're very cool yeah and it's nice to have this like Vanguard product that's gonna pull publicity in your direction because that's what I feel that they're gonna be there's only one reason why we visited that booth and it's because we were curious to see the Flex thingy but I it serves no purpose it serves very little purpose other than at being good PR a good way of actually presenting what their other product and what they're capable yes because they have these flexible displays on other products where they make perfect sense there was that smart speaker that they have where they actually wrapped a display or that makes it that makes sense yeah but it's just for me I for example I love my iPad and it all it also bends now I love my iPad but one of the things that I love the most about don't have a bend all right there's no bent right have you checked yeah but but what I love about the iPad most is I could put it you know it's there's my computer and then I could fit the tablet in front and it doesn't bother like it feels like if there's nothing there okay doesn't weigh anything and so I can't imagine using that flexi thing in my pocket or putting it in my bag without wanting to extending it but then if I wouldn't but but then if there's no purpose for it to flex then why would I ever flex it exactly so how is the experience any better when you can flex it is the question the thing is that it that is a that's an almost impossible question to answer at this juncture because Android simply does not play well with it like apps were opening in the wrong orientation it was confused about like what configuration the phone was in but that you know this is an early product obviously so it's a concept phone that they had examples of but it may never prove itself on the market and when it's flexed it feels weird in the pocket little as it's asymmetric let's try to remember another case of a product that was a vapor we're like why like I'm trying to remember of other products or other concepts and ideas that were either too late for their time or too early for their time or just flat-out we're cool but didn't make sense well in in in the vein of what we're talking about right now I'm inclined to say the axon M but it just wasn't it just wasn't implemented right was its biggest problem exactly and so I mean but what was the biggest problem with the X on him it was the software wasn't ready and then the phone was just too thick it has a design is so the design was made to benefit the the whole idea of making a two screen tablet that's a phone this and that but then if it completely disregards our economics and becomes this thick product then you simply it's it's just I mean when was the last time that we used holsters in our in our belts to carry a phone yeah I'm done it yes make fun of me all you want in the comments I didn't know no Michael Fisher for that oh that's it we need mr. michael fisher with as a mature like yeah LD us LD us holsters I use Poulter's holsters and I love them but we've been so used to using smartphones in our pockets that yeah that it's like what so we're gonna go back to using holsters well you know the man bag is back the what you know the man bag has returned what is that like they're dudes that walking around with like oh sorry in Spanish we call those well yeah like there are like small sling bags that people are you that guys are using now to carry stuff and you know what I got a save probably the reason why the man bag is back you know you can thank vloggers for that they got a carry gear on the daily tunnel I mean can you see that all this yeah I use I use a camera a small cameras messenger for that peak design so yeah but anyway yeah well we're probably going to need stuff like that as we figure out how to streamline all these designs and that's the reason why I don't think CES gave us any real indication that these trends like foldables or actually good Idol I don't think they're gone I don't think they're gonna go anywhere and it's great I mean I love that they're experimenting with the technology because it might lead to something else yeah I mean if you think about it the iPhone was the result of a tablet project hmm you know Apple was working on a tablet project three to four years prior to the launch of the iPhone and then they were like you know what this is a nice idea but it would be great if we had this on a phone hmm yeah and so that's how the that's how the modern smartphone was born it was so fine there there is no reason for this product to exist right now but it could lead to something eventually yeah I agree now and that's what I that's one looking forward to and that's the reason why like I said like I I applaud yeah sounds like right in my face and that's why I applaud where we're going right now in terms of just like what they're going back to normal phones I have to agree yeah where we were going right now we finally got a look and the videos been up for a bit now we finally got a look at a real punt hole punch punch hole something like that by the way phone manufacturers thank you so much for picking the worst name for it because the YouTube algorithm immediately Flags videos with the word hold because they assume that it's going to be inappropriate yeah so thank you for that yeah phone manufacturers one of the worst things you could have done for us youtubers so that's why the video says goodbye knotch I couldn't say hole-punch is here yeah because it warns me that whole depending on what the algorithm thinks it might be monetize the video anyway we got a look at our first punch hole display and that would be the honor of u-20 yeah um we have I have it in the bag and we're gonna do our full review are you gonna go to the launch do you know yet or are you deciding it now it's too tight okay because there's a lot going on too tight I mean there's a lot going on and to be fully honest with you I like Michael Fisher's uh we had a good conversation with him and he was like dude I need to learn to say no to all the travel yeah yeah because if I have to define how much or what how is this turning over I can't really say that it's becoming beneficial for me it's very hard to say no to travel because I love to travel yeah Sam um and it also leads to great opportunities to - I love going to briefings and I love going to briefings because you get to meet the people that design the product and it's not like when you stand in a presentation and whenever you watch a keynote this presentation was designed for consumers it wasn't designed for press and so I love going to briefings because that was designed for us and and and so we get to have a real conversation we get to ask real questions and we get to provide a more educated opinion whenever we review the product or tell you about it and so that's the reason why I love to take these trips because you get the opportunity to spend some time with these people and sometimes in an informal in an informal environment which makes them loosen up and tell you even more about why this product came to be yeah you know sometimes and and it's the reason why it's I have a really hard time bashing products um I will be very critical and tell you like the keyboard on the on the pixel slate is terrible um and but it's just when you get to learn when you get to learn the amount of work that goes into a product in all the stages that a product goes into it's very hard for you to just come to companies and be like your product is trash yeah I mean how many phones have you built Josh exactly I mean I mean we know people who do that though they just come right in and they're like this is just not good yeah you know and that kind of feedback is important to them but you gotta find a way to say it so that it's not just well it it's the more you learn why I mean I think every company would like to create the perfect product oh yeah but every company has either a defined budget or constraints in material or they can't secure enough chips for the man of their project picture you know it says it's just so many hurdles in the industry but you you get to learn it's not empathy but you get to to understand more of where the product is going and again it just helps you provide a more educated opinion about it mm-hmm yeah and that doesn't mean that we don't say what we want of it oh my god no we do there were plenty of those opportunities during this trip as well because we were hanging out with a lot of people but I will say the going back to our topic we have the Vanar of you 20 I hope the video looks okay with the Sun right in our faces but there's only one way to find out my friend I think we're okay I think we are yeah the GoPro Hero 7 by the way which is what we're using to record the video portion of this podcast it does a pretty good job so hopefully it's safe you have two black and I couldn't get the black that gave me the silver I knew I needed to like get this I get I get it it's just you can replace the battery on the silver in some like you know that the battery on your product is trash and I'm not I'm like you can't bash products but yes now I have to say right there that battery on that camera is trash and I can replace the battery like seriously we have a we have a straight-up like desert road trip look to us right now in the video I bet so if you're listening to this right now you're gonna want to watch the video because this is one of the most unique I've been trying my best I have like as unique podcast as I possibly can this is definitely one of them sure okay so going back to the honour view 20 by the way why is it V 20 in some places and then interview 2000 companies tailor their products to market I mean they even launched it with different specs in different areas it's crazy you know it's crazy right but what we have here is a very high powered device you obviously have the the latest snap drag you had that 48 megapixel Snapdragon latest cure oh sorry I don't know why but in my head I crossed the - yes you're right the Kirin 980 polygons that the latest Sony sensor that 48 minutes yeah that's what I want to try out yeah I hate you right now it comes like it comes with the it comes with also that 3d camera on the back that uh what do they call it a time of flight camera time of flight camera yes cuz I but we're gonna have to see what it is yeah you could do 3d modeling with the phone but I mean we all know we all know that that doesn't always translate to like an actual user experience true that um but on top of that there's this display and the display itself is like what 6 point something inches and it's really it's a really nice display yeah that has this tiny hole at the top now my number-one concern about these whole displays these punch hole displays was that that actual hole was going to be too close to the back button of many Android apps how is the experience been for you it's been good because of the punch hole is it's small they did they they're making a big deal about the fact that this punch hole is so small compared to what other punch holes will will be or are and it's nestled right in the notification area interesting that's where they put it and if anyone died of into the the deep settings of Android the latest version of Android oh yeah you can see it in the pixels a developer setting yes you can see where the notches are meant to be so it makes sense that they were able to like put it in nestled in that corner yeah so hopefully everyone else follows suit but if their holes are bigger it might pose a bit of a problem it's been fine honestly it's been fine I have to say the punch hole I will get used to way quicker than I did for the batch do I love it still remains to be seen like I haven't come across any content that it would actually cut and if you obviously if you hide the notch quote-unquote or hide the whole corner quo it's still called notch though in the settings because they don't have a name they don't have a name for a whole yet yeah um when you hide the notch in this device it just goes right all content just renders below the notification Infinity oh yeah Oh rather so we have that first look I would love for you to like you know we're gonna be hanging out a little bit I'll make sure you get some time with it but I'm gonna be doing the floor review on it oh look at this look at this blessing of a thank you for of a big rig in front of us [Laughter] but yeah the I'm gonna start tailgating this big rig just so just for the show he's slow no no kidding I'll go around a little bit but we should probably stay behind it for a bit yeah so that was our first look and that was a mean one which is funny because um wasn't it Hisense who actually had a phone at their booth that he did they didn't I didn't have the time to go look at it I was just alright so what uh one of our sponsors for this trip was hi since but before we accepted the sponsorship I was like I first I need to see your product um okay they're android tvs or they're really good obviously my impression is just from the show floor okay so it's not a final product yet I mean they're not launching until May and June but they're they have a proprietary u LED technology that oh my god like reds are red blacks or blacks um and I just I never took Android TV seriously because it always seemed like sort of a like a bloated version of something that just I don't know and we'd also seems somewhat bastardized compared to real exactly yeah and so now it's not that it's like if they grab the user interface of the Google Home Hub and they turn that interface so you can control your home from your television because it behaves like a home hub um obviously you can talk to your assistant through the control and there are a ton of applications because obviously there is a platform for it now and so I was just reach the blend of both things because the other thing is my biggest problem with with Smart TVs I have a Roku TCL oh nice it sucks really it got it minds okay and Here I am saying that I shouldn't bash products but I bought this TV and he said well you know what just to be just to be fair I'm new to TVs because I've been working for six years it's probably the one that I bought you know I didn't go all it all expensive with that 50-inch that I bought so it's a 1080p variant it's just the user interface of Roku is very sluggish okay it is very clunky I'll give that I'll give that it is very clunky and so for me it's frustrating to be like you know just pressing the buttons and it doesn't move and it's that and it just really upsets me yeah and so I I was like okay so I want to try android TV on your least expensive tia television and so they took me to the a h8f on android TV it's a 399 television in 4k which that's how much I paid for my TCL in 1080p Jude no lag nice no lag and so I'm like okay uh okay I'll do the video how how much is that thing 399 - what okay 399 4k you led Wow I'm down for that's what I'm saying yeah yeah that's what I'm saying man I'm like how can I not sound like a fanboy of this video hard but it's just their product was really good yeah you know and they're they it's I was doing research on them they've been in the market for 50 years it's just they've been more noti'm in the past and now they're bringing in their own Frank pretty much like what HTC did pretty much like what wall we did at some point as well and so you know I was like am I gonna get a unit for everything like sure sure I can't wait ah there there there punch hole phone was called au 30 you may not you may not even hear about this phone no neither did we until we just walked around the booth and just looked like Oh a lot of people made disappointing comments like the fact that it was using Samsung's 48 megapixel I don't remember Samsung launching a forty eight megapixel sensor there that's the thing with sony has and that's yeah that's the things these companies sometimes don't really have ducks in a row wait I remember now yes I did cover it in the daily but a while ago that you thirty you mean yeah yeah a while oh good what so then yeah we're in the know at least but I mean it's obviously it's not gonna be a splash of a phone no not the way that the view 20 was not the way that the Flex PI was and then there were a few other phones on the on the show floor that we kind of came across one in particular so you got a look at the Nubia oh yes yeah the dual screen once I finally saw the video I was on the case yeah I should have gone yeah okay so it does not look like a cheap phone yeah it looks like an expensive phone and I I just I don't know if I like the idea of dual screen I the good thing is you would not be able to tell that it has two screens unless you tried to take a selfie or you activate it like it looks like a regular phone without bezels then that's just that you grab it and it looks like a regular phone without bezels but then when you activate the secondary display it turns on and it's you know it's not the sharpest display in the world but I don't care I hate selfie cameras so this is like the perfect solution for a selfie camera yeah you remember I mean we've seen companies fumble with like rotating cameras for the longest time and stuff like that I will try which I honestly miss yes now I don't think that the secondary display should be as large as it is I mean it serves very little functionality I mean if they gave me like a small little heads-up display but look below the camera or something like that or a square you know what's the phone that did that right um they call it the he says the sleeve she Oh a sharp yes yeah I was sharp there you go yeah he says asleep she loved that thing she would be able to say like that um but it's a small little screen that just shows you your face yeah well you know what I did see I'm to remember who had it oh that's one of the okay this this show was a major win in all fronts not only for Pocket now but also for myself there's one company that I did not get to see I think it does he pop suck it I gotta go oh I'm so sorry oh no don't worry I didn't know where they were um I shall run around showstoppers Mart of try to find them you can have all the pops off as you want I uh I saw someone have a pop socket where the actual like disc in the pop socket was a mirror that's a perfect idea okay that's a good idea yeah that's a great idea and that's good for like the selfies and one on anyway I digress but like VEVO did that concept too right they have the rear screen yeah they even have a ring light around the thing and it's it's it's funny how things are getting so weird oh you want to hear weird I love it you want to hear weird grab a Sony Xperia z3 on its default settings and try to take a selfie if the beauty find the beautifying modes are set by default one of these is how is it like face ah like it makes your face slimmer yeah which I totally need it makes your eyes bigger I'm like oh look like an anime character I literally look like the aliens that were in the store that we just have we went to alien jerky oh my god which is why we have the root beers in the first place yes indeed but yeah it's it I love where the experimentation is going I just hate that one particular design is going to become the de-facto and that's the whole punch we're gonna lose the slider before I had it heyday yes I don't mind losing the slider Oh honestly I don't mind losing this I don't mind losing the slider unless you do it like vivo because but it was so the problem is it's it's not water resistant I know and for me I value water resistance more than a selfie camera okay that's then that's fair I I think that's that's a that's a perfectly good reason yeah because the water resistance ipera certifications are almost like there's almost system I would rather deal with the punch hole I mean come on essential did it okay I mean essential was pretty much the company that came up with the concept of the knotch yes um and then everybody else followed in their own way this is just another notch man I'll put up with it I don't care just give me a water-resistant phone okay that's what I want you know these are things that I do value okay fair enough this might be a slightly shorter podcast considering we have daylight kind of escaping us so for the last like 15 20 at the most any of highlights from CES as a whole you always tell me you don't like Vegas I don't I never have I love it I love Vegas you're young that's why well maybe that's part of it but I do think that Vegas is just like it's one of those places where you could wake up in the morning and if you want to do something you can do it aside from go to the beach they like a fake beach beach for you oh yeah I mean you could go to a beach club which all I mean I've never done because I don't have the body for it but I digress um the the thing is that the resources in Vegas are so vast that that's the reason why it's a perfect place for a convention sure though you can go places you have transportation that's easy we didn't get to do any self-driving cars some taxis no I tried I tried the lifts I I accepted the whole program where you can do the self-driving lifts but I never you never got was never received by one I think Jules did and I would love Jules did that's true yeah I want I wonder what his experience was he said mostly his his post on Instagram which Jules is probably pulling up right now I he said that the trip was mostly done by the self-driving not the entirety yeah so they probably had to like take control at some point yeah how are you on the so as far as not just like how you feel but also um are we as a let's say brand gonna be looking into stuff like automotive and self-driving and autonomous vehicles I I do I do feel so it's just obviously right now we're a very small team smaller than ever so we're gonna need a lot and we're gonna believe a larger team to be able to cover all the technology that's coming I do feel we will it's just right now again this vehicles are in a level of experimentation that's you know not necessarily even close to its full potential yeah I mean particularly when it comes to self-driving cars there is a lot more to go mm-hmm a lot more to go did you ever did you ever check out like a Tesla or anything like that yeah okay yeah one of my buddies just got one and I want to make a video so bad really yeah but did you feel about all of that type of word what do that tech is going cuz automotive has a big presence I see yes I again man I Drive a Honda Accord the latest model in New York um and even that cruise control in that car is pretty much a self-driving car already I mean to a certain degree it detects what cars in front of you it will literally maintain a distance from it it'll detect the road it'll steer it'll do pretty much everything in cruise control except change lanes I mean that's if that car can do that without all the cameras and all the technology the Tesla's have you know I think it's fascinating it's just there's so much work and then you know obviously there will be the naysayers that believe that the best thing is to have somebody on the wheel which by the way the person that's talking to you right now I already had an accident because I fell asleep on the wheel all right and I put a lot of people in danger because of the the reckless driving that I did that day because I was totally tired and so to be fully honest with you would I have wished to have a self-driving module in my car back then I was driving ten hours with my son in the car and I put his life in danger because I didn't choose to just stop and not drive so do I want self-driving cars I do do I want self-driving Ebers no because honestly they provide jobs hmm okay they provide new new levels of income and I think it's unfair for a company to just do you imagine like everybody that already has a car having a car and then self-driving cars as well and and like they're only gonna congest the the road a lot more and it's less people making income only to make somebody's some CEO but the person in that in the seat for emergencies like they're good right now yes but the whole idea is that eventually the person is to be removed that's the problem that's true and said so for me it's like alright I don't need to help the CEO buy a new yacht economies need people to have jobs in uber uber and lyft have been a good way to mediate some of that over the last couple of years as jobs in this country haven't been great mm-hmm all right so I I will support the self-driving technology I will not support it in any way well where will reduce income in in people's pockets that's just me that's my political I know for me I guess other technologies that I liked I love the laptops that Huawei mate book 13 mmm-hmm I love that I'm getting one very soon well done sir dude I really that make book X Pro man it's it's really it wasn't it was our favorite laptop last year I mean and people can say whatever they want about Huawei sure that they sponsor some of our content again we wouldn't have accepted the sponsorships to the daily of their products would have been great yeah what was the best smartphone camera of last year well I'm sure people will argue that it's the pixel 3xl for me it's not for me it's to may 20 Pro hmm they're in a dead heat for me they're not absolute dead heat and yeah definitely like while we was putting on some amazing stuff they're even trying to make sure that tablets are still a thing yeah oh my god so I love like I honestly I would love to give my kids those tablets because there's a kid's mode and then there's the regular mode and what defines it is the fingerprint scanner so I don't have to worry about my kids going into my you know whatever history or or for them to have access to applications that I don't want because Android is not necessarily the best when it comes to parental controls I have to give that crown to iOS okay and so I love that Huawei is taking that to another level I feel that that's the way it should be I honestly I have a hard time giving my kids technology because of that because I can't fully control what they do hmm how about as far as tablets go I got a good look at this and again there's gonna be a video I'm talking now about it lenovo did bring out another tablet now I got a little disappointed because it's so Amazon forward true I like Google assistant better to be honest and also for the next five minutes we have to be careful not to say hot words right but basically what they created was a tablet 10 inch tablet that goes into a smart dock yeah that is a speaker and when you put it in it becomes a show yeah becomes an echo show is that is that one of the highlights quartz okay yeah I liked it I think it's cool and I I like the concept of it I like the idea the smarts the the smart dog can be a speaker when you're not using it as a show yeah that's the cost of that I want to see and speaking of docks or base stations that can be used without a display that LG rollable TV now oh I didn't see that I see it so the rodent will what I love where that was their protector their wall projectors is this thing that you could just place very like a foot away from the wall and it projects up to it oh that any sort of aberration or anything it's fantastic nice but tell me about that rollable because we thought we saw the concept but now we have the product now we have the product and the thing that I loved about it is that they found practical ways of using it in different configurations like for example instead of instead of it being like a wallpaper TV that has a cord coming out of it and it goes into like this big piece of tech that's is still bulky it's all one big thing so what happens is it'll can it can actually roll all the way in and it rolls all the way out but you can also roll about a third of the way and it becomes an interface for the speaker interesting you can also have it do ambient stuff like maybe you want a fireplace it'll show a fireplace and you can hear it coming out of the speakers when it's rolled all the way down that does it also heat the place maybe that maybe that skeuomorphism at its finest and so the when it's rolled all the way into the base station that whole thing can be used as a smart speaker as well say the same concept but when it's when it comes out it's just the OLED goodness that you always love from LG and it's as beautiful the beautiful display mmm thing now put that right up against the micro LEDs from Samsung oh yeah I did not know much about micro LEDs until this show yeah I'm not going to use there's only one way to find out and I mean why not yeah that's true why not now let me ask you this what did you think about fossil I I oh yeah yeah it was a good briefing that was a really good briefing um I okay so I'm actually kind of excited would this help these lights at least one of them no both of them whatever yeah what I find think this would help yeah I think it's fun that I think what I what I'm excited about is the truck lane I think it's exciting that smartwatches are more or less making a bit of a resurgence I will I would not really I would not really tribute that to where OS 2.0 no but I also have to admit that where where OS 2.0 is a vast improvement from anything that came before it it's a better user interface that still requires oh my god am I the only person like I've been using this what this fossil queue Explorer HR um and I'm honestly I have like I told them because they they asked me like genuinely how do you feel about that watch and I'm like the battery life man of course my sign is a single night no smile my watch is dead yeah every like we start the day at 10:00 a.m. and by 9:00 p.m. it's dead yeah I mean come on man I and then they come up with a 3100 which they're not really fully adopting except on the sport and the battery life is also bad yeah I mean okay and that's one of my problems the battery life I just resigned myself to they're not gonna it's not gonna get figured out for a while yes but then you've got Apple and Samsung with their offerings figuring it out yeah they're trying to Italy okay so here's the thing I have a problem with where OS not just in the battery life this has been the first time that I've been using where OS non-stop for a month because I'm doing the google fit challenge clearly Vegas didn't help I'm sorry about that I'll get back as of tomorrow but the thing about it is dude that user interface is so clunky it makes sense to me but it's clunky yeah if I'm training oh my god I like sometimes I want to pause my workout and I can't because it's it's stuck and it's it's refreshing and it's like and so your tits it you know we were at the presentation from Qualcomm for the 3100 yep and then you get the the presenter saying no this is the perfect chip we don't need to do anything with it all we needed to do is add a module for it to be more power efficient whenever you're not using the watch and I'm like you're wrong you're wrong where OS is a clunky mess well where OS aside what a what I really enjoy about smartwatches right now is that we're finally at a place where the actual watchmakers themselves kind of clued into it like what if we have the watches that people love from us just connected and we had a whole generation of them last year that came out that yeah kind of a lukewarm response people kind of liked it but now they're going all in with like a second gen they really want to make the body smaller they want to make them accessible to everybody so yeah there's a lot of choice now and that's exactly what smartwatches needed yeah but you needed a no DM like fossil you need you needed them as he's needed that because fossil has so many brands Michael Kors Kate Spade exactly you know they've got Skagen they're doing they're still doing hybrids I yeah you know it's just funny I've been trying to use the krona be mm-hmm Crona be sent me their most beautiful watch my biggest problem with with uh with these hybrids is I am so used to being able to see the time in the dark with the always-on displays at the moment that I go back to a regular watch and I can't see the time because it doesn't really glow in the dark that much yeah I feel it feels weird to me now I've been using smartwatches as the original pebble it's it's kind of hard for me to go back yeah III don't believe me they're my favorite thing about hybrid watches which the reason why that I really love them is because it's that entry point that I think people overlook you know if you're just a timepiece fan then you have options you can get a timepiece it just also happens to do extra stuff you can I just I that kudos to you though fossil for really brick for you continue to push and it's great it up to us to educate about hybrids but as far as far as actual like full-on smartwatches are concerned that fall so sports a great example of what the future can hold it is a good example it's just I wish that okay we have Apple where they just came up with that s2 chip for the Apple watch series for okay the Apple watch I will never recommend Apple watch series one or two series three I can if you don't get the composite back which is in the new generation they swap the back and they don't tell you yeah that's a bad move on Apple and I call it out but if you grab an Apple watch series three this is the first time that I'm away from my Apple watch and I miss it and I miss it because it actually works you raise your wrist you know hey whatever works you call on whatever apps I asked for it for walking directions it works it's tracking my workouts you it's such a versatile watch my problem with the Apple watch is its durability if you're going for the entry-level model that that aluminum oxidate s-- so I feel that oh you know companies need to understand that you know people like to collect watches you know people like to collect watches and have more than one and so it's a problem when you buy a watch that won't last you more than a year or two because of the hardware and so that's my biggest problem with the wear OS if the operating system is clunky operating systems don't get less demanding over time they get more demanding yeah and so in batteries the problem with these lithium lithium ion batteries is that they degrade over time and so you something someone has to find the solution for a timepiece that can be a little more timeless than what some our watches are currently because it's very hard to tell people oh yeah pay $400 for a watch that's not gonna work well two years from now yeah I agree I agree you know yeah I do need to give one shout out to another smart watch we have take using the tick watch right where's my sample tick watch Bob boy was out in the sand but oh you finally I understand how you pronounced that yeah ma boy ma boy ma boys finally not finally ma boy was out in the sands with their booth and they had a lot of stuff to show and they announced the updated versions of their tech watch s and E now let me preface this real quick like I'm gonna have some content on these watches so you can stay tuned for that there's not only the tick watch S or the e there's also the earlier take watch see the c2 is the one that ISA is wearing because it's the most fashion-forward one of the bunch it's the highest not the highest end model because that's the pro but it definitely looks more fashion-forward than the one I'm wearing which is the e - yeah this is the point of the s and the e - super low barrier of entry into a SmartWatch true these are these are sub $200 and they they'd they're not they're not really any amazing bells and whistles or anything like that but it's a great showcase oh it's good design exactly I mean I love the tick watch Pro yeah the trick watch pros is is definitely up there these you may not feel that way because they are thick they are large bodies they're polycarbonate yeah but they're light you they're they're light as a feather you know it's like it's like the old days of the pebble when it comes to materials yeah but it's good enough mm-hmm so if you if you're skeptical about a SmartWatch and you don't really know like I actually think this is a wonderful entry point because you don't have to spend so much money to get like a fossil Sport for example no um you know so sub 200 that's this is actually not so bad so I will you know what I like that we ended on that because CES is a good this was a good example of how a category like smartwatches they're not going away no they're not and I'm actually kind of happy about that or not and and just fossil they reiterated their commitment like people are liking smartwatches I just again this is and I even when they asked me for feedback I'm like okay I don't need to give you feedback I've given Google my feedback apparently doing the fit with Google project they finally got the workouts right I'm like I'm not gonna be counting sit-ups dudes and then then ending the workout and then counting my push-ups on a separate workout I just want weight weightlifting yeah I want one module for weightlifting one module for running one module for spinning that's it I don't want one who's Jenna yeah I didn't know you spin I was a spinning instructor man what yeah I didn't know that are you kidding me I had no idea what would you like a class why where'd you where would you teach ya LA feathers if you want okay I'll think about it uses actually been thinking about doing some spin I mean we could totally do Bluetooth five connect a couple of headphones and I'll give you the class let me go because it's all about the music but yeah yeah I was a spinning instructor wow that's cool had some odd jobs but ya know here's the thing it's it's they finally got that Fitness part right what they need to work on is just like Capel with their s2 chip I'm sorry Qualcomm you know we give you a lot of love for certain things you do right like 5 g and the 855 and that's all great but your wearable approach needs work yeah it does need work I I don't feel that that what is it a it's a 14 nanometer chip or no it's a 20 nanometer chip I think it's something ridiculous like that it's all technology man I mean and you can totally tell and how clunky the watches are so Google is doing a better job in fixing the user interface OMS are doing a better job at designing designing better smart watches but then we don't have the most powerful chip on these watches yeah I think that I needs to change or even then the most efficient chip or it could just be that because my mom belongs on a two-sample number haha and I wasn't able to go to the fossil briefing and that's the reason why I don't have a fossil sport I just haven't experienced a 3100 that could also be it I've heard that it wasn't the massive leap that perhaps BAM Qualcomm I heard it wasn't the massive leap that everyone was expecting but it did help a little bit but that fossil support is definitely where we have to try it out there's only one way to find out that's right and on that note that is it for now on the pocket now weekly as the Sun is going down we have a wonderful gradient over on the side we're coming through I think we're in Bakersfield Lynwood we're in we're coming through Leo we're in Barstow we're coming through I know is this Barstow yeah this is Barcia yeah it is we're coming through Barstow I don't think we need an in-and-out run right now we can we can get to the our final destination and figure it out that our next show is technically going to be MWC but we also have some events coming up because that Samsung has 10 in early they may talk about that we didn't talk about that but I'm sure there would be plenty of time to speculate wildly let us know what you think about that's gonna be in our recap we did react on the recap okay there you go yeah well they're gonna be some thoughts on that for sure I have one and that'll be my hot take while we as we leave the show the way that the invite looks that zero looks a lot like the oculus logo doesn't it true that all right we'll see you on the next one thank you so much for watching and listening and on that note even though I tried to do an outro at the end that is our special episode of the weekly for this week just to let you know our theme music is bloom by Minerva courtesy of a royalty-free license with Argo Fox you can learn more in this episode's description you can also follow our crew on Twitter our producer Jules long is at Point Jules ISA is at si si si ID sisa said Jaime is that Jaime underscore Rivera and I am JV tech team you know me I am JV I love Tech and I love to drink me some tea don't forget that we would love to hear from you at the email address podcast at pocketnow.com and we would certainly appreciate all of your reviews on pretty much anywhere that you're streaming us whether it be Google Apple Spotify overcast or wherever because without you we wouldn't have been able to make this show for now seven years straight we'll see you next week for more regularly scheduled and podcasts and until then we're gonna go ahead and just say thank you so much for listening and we'll see you on the next one this happened everything okay here to be what