Let’s get human here for a second, and establish for the record that I have trouble with tech blogs. Mostly because they offer endless, nuanced detail on the specs of the newest gadgets, and seldom get to the point of What’s In It For Me. Case in point: in October when the iPhone 4S was coming out, I asked what the difference was. The answers I always got were related to processor speed, connectivity, etc… and I’d finally have to break down and ask “No, no, no, dearest techie. What can I do that I couldn’t do before?” They’d go, “Oh, Siri.” And I was all, “Thanks. THAT’s an answer.”
So in giving this brief overview of what I learned at the VivaKi Mobility tour at CES, led by PhoneValley and our awesome friends at Pandora, I’m not going to give you one single spec. Not a speck of specs. Instead, I’m just going to tell you what I learned I can do or will be able to do that I couldn’t do before based on a number of tour stops I toured.
At the OnStar booth, I learned I will never walk into an overheated house again after a road trip. This is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what I learned about the networked home being the future of our business (I say with zero understatement) and how our transportation can connect to that. Almost home? Turn on the heat. And access better navigation. And access better diagnostic information and updates. OnStar made a really compelling case about having the ultimate goal of improving lives and having tech help that along.
At Intel I learned I can access my text messages on my computer. Say your phone is charging in the next room. They’ve now got an app that’ll let you access and respond to your texts from your laptop. Oh, and I can also treat my iPad like a big ol’ flash drive, which is awesome because it lacks a USB drive. And finally, and maybe most cool of all, I can use a phone at such insane processor speed that even a non-spec guy like me can tell this thing works like phones work in TV commercials. With instant, unflinching, unpausing speed. I guess what I can do now is not get buffering-induced rage. It’s a real problem, and it affects lives.
At Samsung, I learned the most important thing of all: as far as watching any content I own on any screen goes, I can be one of the damn Jetsons. No overstatement, no hyperbole: the the things that I saw at Samsung led me to believe I’m only a few years away from just owning or streaming content to any screen I want in my home with complete ease and an incredible smooth user interface. The whole Samsung booth made me smile.
Finally, today at Verizon, I learned that I can take care of a sick aunt and investigate a nuclear plant leak without leaving my home. I can do this because of a year old device called V-Go, which is essentially a non-ridable Segway with built-in teleconference tech you can view on a laptop. So, my sick aunt is at home, and I can wheel around a teleconferencing device that lets me see how she’s doing. Or if I’m a student who’s health compromises my school attendance, V Go heads to class for me (as long as class isn’t up any stairs. V Go and stairs don’t get along yet.) And if I were a nuclear technician, I could sent V Go in for surveillance on a radiated area for visual recon.
I’ve never been to CES before this year. Everyone should go if only to get a taste of all the wonderful things you’ll be able to do soon.