The Vergecast - CES 2015, Day 3

Episode Date: January 9, 2015

They said it wasn't possible. They said the show couldn't go on. And yet, here we are, at the fourth and final Vergecast of CES 2015. Send the week off with your friends Nilay Patel, Casey Newton, Nitasha Tiku, and Emily Yoshida. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everybody and welcome to The Vergecast. So last Vergecast of CES. I'm Neil Appetal on the editor-in-chief of The Verge. I'm also extraordinarily sick. So there is a, I would say, greater than 50% chance that I actually just die on the show. And as Casey was saying to me earlier... It'll be a snuff film. Yeah, it's a snuff film.

And I think that is what the Verge should be known for. What was The Verge? It was a website, and then they got really into the murder movie business. But I'm joined by three very exciting people today on the Vergecast. two people who are new to the verge and new to CES. And Casey, who every day is a rebirth. So Natasha TQ is our new senior writer. Emily Oshita is our new entertainment editor.

Casey actually was just promoted to be our Silicon Valley editor. If you guys want to say hello, this would be an excellent time. Hello. What's up CES? Wow. Hi. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh-huh. All right. It's like a lot of tired people forcing it in the crowd today. Can I say, this is my first time in the Verge lounge here at CES, and I got so excited to see all these beautiful faces, and then I realized that everyone here is just charging their phones. Yeah, that's what a big game? Because we've set up an incredible state.

Like, how many power outlets do we have, and what is the electricity budget for the Verge at CES 2K15? I don't know, but it's all coming off that Mustang over there. Oh, I'm kidding. There's my brand of grace. I love the Mustang. It fills me with joy. No, but I will say this.

This space is really cool, but next year I want to get even bigger. Yes. So, yeah, that's it. Same here. So that is the end of the introduction portion of the Vergecast. I'm like really, like, my brain is at like 30%. Yesterday I was really hungover, and today I'm really sick. And tomorrow I'm telling you, I will just be a corpse on the ground.

I think that The Verge has been really good at organizing, though, the levels at which we get sick. Like, it feels like we're in shifts. Yeah. Like, I was definitely early shifts sick. And now I feel like a regular human being, which I feel really, really grateful for. But, you know, but now I'm you lie down. So, yeah. I will say Natasha, we were in a car on the way to do a party.

the other day. And I asked Natasha how her day was going. And she misheard me and thought I asked you, she thought I asked how her life was going. And then her answer was, I'm more susceptible to cults now. I mean, it's true. CES. So, hey, so the two of you are new. This is your first CIS. So I'm just going to ask you straight up, Natasha. How is your C.S? What is, what is this like for you? It has been very disorienting. Even walking to find this lounge for the second time I got a little lost, went to a different giant tech corporation entrance. It's been actually, though, really fun, too. Like, I am getting really excited about a lot of the people who are talking to me,

and I've been able to do some really fun things. I just watch Richard Branson give away 10 tickets to his private island at a startup contest. Like you do. Not in person, but... And I think that's a trap, by the way. Whenever a mysterious billionaire invites you to his private island, we've seen this movie. You will be hunted for sport. I mean, it's Branson, though.

He'll do it in a super handsome way. And that's what makes it so terrifying, is how good-looking he is. Well, it's kind of... Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Can we fact-check this for a second? Richard Branson is like a classic silver fox. Oh, no. No?

Wow. Sorry. I'm like, never more attractive billionaire than Richard Branson. I don't even know. I don't even know the state of who's a billionaire and who's not. Like, you could tell me that Ryan Sequist is a billionaire. Not that he would be my first choice. That's just the first person who popped into my mind.

Your subconscious just revealed your crush on Ryan Sechast live in front of an audience of hundreds. I was saying, like this is, this is, Neil, I wanted stories. Okay, so I went to the I heart media panel. I think it was yesterday. I have no concept of time anymore. And I was in the second row. but in the first row was a lady. And this has made me completely not self-conscious

about what I decided to take pictures of. She had her camera just fixed on Ryan Seacrest the entire time for an hour. She has an hour of uncut footage of Ryan Seacrest sitting. And I'm like, that's dedication. I don't know why she's here for C. Yes, I guess just for that. Can you imagine re-watching that?

I know. I know. What are you going to do with it? Wow. There is again. Cool. That's all. Do you guys want to watch one?

Sechrest movie? It's an hour of him sitting quietly. Oh, maybe it's like a, you can project it. Like, get one of those like new fancy projectors. Yeah, yeah. He's in her house. Yeah, in the corner in the living room. That's what's in her Oculus Rift is just Ryan Sechrest.

In both eyes. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt. This could be a very high concept, right? Andy Warhol famously shot a 24-hour movie of the Empire State Building, right? Maybe this is an elaborate commentary on celebrity. That's just an hour of iPhone footage of Iron Sechrest. That's generous of you. Nothing here is an elaborate or thoughtful commentary.

on anything. Like truly deep in my heart. I'm aware of this fact. It's elaborate. It is elaborate. I guess it's funny that you were talking about how you are disoriented here. This is eight years of this for me. And I'm so sad that I know how it works so well.

I'm like, oh, I got to go here. And then I just know. And it's like, why am I so aware of this totally artificial space that will be completely gone tomorrow? What do you mean? What have you learned in eight years? is that this is artificial. Well, not, I mean, not just the way... I mean, that's a self-evident fact.

Well, what's what I'm saying? It's like, what about this is fake? Yeah. It's just crazy. I think it's crazy that it's like a series of cities that are all built up, and the cities are owned by, like, various gigantic corporations.

I can't wait to see Ross Miller's video he's doing of his day living at CES, like, taking advantage of, like, the bed that wakes you up and going to wash his clothes at the Samsung booth and doing his dishes. or whatever, going to the fridge. We're going to put that up tomorrow, I think. Yeah, user really exciting.

I mean, you can just live here. Yeah. It's terrifying. So, Casey, what have you seen? What's been going off to you? Well, I did an investigation of brands at CES. CES is a show that is mostly about physical things. I wanted to do a show or do a story about how those things are sold to us.

So it turns out there was a event happening here called Brand Innovators, so I was already signed up because how could that be anything less than fun? And so I went there, and not only was Shaquille O'Neal there to give his thought, the name of his talk was, how do you, like, preserve your personal brand of the digital age or something very highfalutant. And then Shingey, who works for the AOL Corporation and whose title is Digital Profit, and who is a somewhat comic figure in the media world these days, because it makes these, like, sort of absurdist pronouncements about what all of our lives are going to look like.

Right. I mean, AOL definitely employs a man named Shingy who made his own fake TED talk. But you can go watch it. He set it up so it kind of looks like a TED Talk, but then you can also tell. Like, I used to work at AOL. I know the room that he shot it in. It's the studio at AOL. And it's like he set it up that room to look like a fake TED Talk.

That's so sad because they had a TED Talk at Burning Man. Like, you can have a TED Talk anywhere. He could have just gone to like a small city tech talk or TEDx BlackRock City. Just buy a TED franchise basically. All we have to do is just add the hashtag TED Talk to the verge cast and it becomes a retroactive Ted Talk. That is a true brand innovation. And that's what we're all about. So tell me, tell me about shingy.

Buzzwords galore. I still have no idea what to do with my personal brand or the Verge brand. But I do feel like... It's working for me. But it's working... Yeah. On me. Your personal brand.

Your personal. This is good news. What I honestly feel, though, is that brands are very scared because they used to be able to just buy television ads. And then we would just sort of, like, some portion of us would mindlessly do whatever the ad said. And nowadays, they have to develop a, quote, authentic voice, which really just means mimicking the voice of a teen boy.

and then just like use that voice on Twitter all day long in the hope that it will drive us to go buy a Gordita at Taco Bell. So they are just like in an absolute wilderness right now and it's left them very susceptible to these like folk heroes like Shingy who can come along and if they talk really fast and look kind of edgy and different, all of a sudden, you know, you have a digital profit. I mean, you know, it's funny because I get what he's doing, right?

Which is he's supposed to teach them how to like buy ads and AOL and like talk to the new generation of internet consumers. But it's like it's AOL. And like, I don't, I don't know. I love, I mean, Natasha is the one who like broke the shingy story at Valleywag. What was her headline? It was like, this man is representing AOL on national television. I don't, I think that was someone else.

Is that someone else? Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, they, I, it makes complete sense to me. Like, in the New Yorker piece, like the scenes that are set because I think what he's supposed to do, he's not actually doing any buying or selling. He just is supposed to make them feel. creative. They want to feel like makers and like, you know, they're innovating, think fluencing, what have you. And he inspires them. Like some spiky hair is all they need.

I mean, truly what I want. They don't want to be corporate. And my career is to be known as a man who inspires you to think fluence. That's the end of the game. So Emily, you've been going to parties, right? And then you stopped going to parties. I went to parties for about two nights. I thought going into this that that would be my beat, that I would be the party expert at CES, that it would be the only accessible cultural thing for me to pursue, and it did not end up being the case. What's that?

People don't dance at the parties. I was expecting it goes like I was going to be at these things by myself, so it's like, what do you do if you're at a party by yourself? You can't really talk to people because it's very loud. So I was just going to post up somewhere and watch people dance, and nobody, what's up CES? You've got like the best DJs apparently. Yeah, can we get a show of hands?

How many people danced at a CES party? Any of these people charging their phones? Hey, okay. Thank you for... I saw one hand in 90. Now, what's it like when you're the one person dancing, though, in a sea of tote bags? He said it was awkward, which I believe.

It is, I mean, every party here is extraordinary. Did you hear about the three-day yo party? No, we went to that. We went to it. We went when they had alcohol before it went dry. Yeah. Why did it go dry? I think something happened after we left.

It was very, very chill when we were there. Well, I was trying to tell Emily that it was a good party, and she was like, no. And then I think she went to more parties, and she was like, oh. Yeah. They don't get more down than that. It was in a very picturesque location, very Instagramable. Right. I mean, I think the problem with parties at CS, and every year I try to go to one or two.

I took Casey one yesterday, and he just looked at me. He looked at me with such anger and vitriol in his eyes. and he just goes, this is my nightmare. It really was. Like, when I was 22, the idea of, like, waiting in a line and then being escorted into a Las Vegas club by a bouncer had a lot of appeal. But then what you find when you get in there is that it's too loud to have a conversation, right? So you can either dance, which nobody is dancing, or you can just sort of, like, awkwardly shift your weight from one foot to another while drinking, you know, some overpriced beverage. You should have started think fluencing, though.

Well, what I should have started doing was trend fluencing, which is the word of the show for me. I didn't know it was a real word, but then I went to my brand seminar, and the back of my program asked the question, are you a trend fluencer? Which, talk about an existential dilemma. I didn't know if I was a trend fluencer or not. Should I be a trend fluencer? I don't think I am. I'm trying not to be. Right.

I mean, he should be, though. Well, we'll see how it works out in 2015. I mean, I just think, like, parties here and all that stuff. We were talking about on the show yesterday. Like, there's just an entire world of, like, B2B, like, people who are, like, I actually really want to write this piece. There's a whole subculture of, like, suits who are bad at Twitter. And they just, like, they just hashtag, like, Cisco at each other all day long.

And, like, it's, like, links to, like, B2B networking. And that's the parties, right? Like, I know most of the people who come here and want to go to a party. They don't care what the party is. They don't care where the theme is. They don't really even care, like, what the club is. can they get like enough free liquor to make them feel like they had a big night out while they were here in Las Vegas. Like that's all most people want.

I think that's why they're not dancing. Which is totally valid, I want to say. Yeah. Does you need the booze? I guess. I mean, yeah, why not? If you're here, if you get to come to Vegas one time of year and there's a reason for you to go out, then why not? I mean, the only times I've gone to clubs here when I'm working here doing a story or something.

So, you know. I think we're underselling the amount of partying that happens. I just think like we're, like the Yo suite was little, because it was 7.30 we walked in, and the smell of marijuana is just like wafting towards us. Robert Scoble is wearing a like hat, a trucker hat with a blinking Facebook like on it. And this is at 720 in the evening. So like, and they had red wine and white wine. And then apparently something happened that made them go dry the next day. Yeah, the Facebook post.

So people are partying in the sweets, I think. Yeah. A yo habish. Did you see there were like these two, this couple met on Yo? And I just like could not figure out, how is that possible? Draw me a diagram. Wait, you looked really skeptical of this. Well, I did, I interviewed the CEO of Yo while I was there.

And he did, I did not realize that they had made some changes, one of which is you can send your drop pin, send your location. So maybe, like, they said to a random person. So you just know you hit it off and you want to meet somebody based on your crackling conversation? And he was mostly talking to me about brands. He thinks the Verge brand should be on yo. What could the Verge brand do on yo? Well, as he told me, you should not be yoing more than once a day. This isn't Twitter.

So what they do is you can tweet a link. And that is what BuzzFeed and CNN and various things are doing. Huh. Yeah. And the TV have like a good evening, Robert Scoble. Oh, my God. I mean, every party I've been to here. And I like going, I mean, I enjoy parties.

Casey knows this. Same. Yeah, I can't confirm. Every year I end up, like, just randomly getting into a limo and driving around, and then the next day I'm wrecked. And so last year is, like, a way bigger party scene for me, and then this year has been a little bit quieter. But it's funny. This is better. Huh?

It's quieter. Quieter. Better is, uh, is, uh, is up. I think, I think CS is like, it just is. It is this level of itself and no further. So what else have you guys seen? Okay. see anything cool that you've been looking at? Well, look, the big buzz of the show over the past day has been the Belfy Stick. We were just getting comfortable with the selfie stick, which is, you know,

the stick that you can put your smartphone in, and then you hold it, and you can sort of get some better selfie angles for yourself. But somebody made, and is selling for $80 a Belfy stick, which is for taking butt selfies. Have there been any Belfy sightings at CES? I haven't, and it's my absolute greatest regret of the show. So you didn't purchase one? Is that he did not? They're all sold out for right now. Oh, really? Yes. But, yeah.

You say that like you were the one who bought all of those. Well, okay, this is what I think. I haven't, did we confirm that it's, okay, you confirm that it's real. I think that it's just like a really good idea for the selfie stick people because then there's something more ridiculous. So you actually, I feel totally fine. Like as soon as I go home, I'm going to buy a selfie stick. A selfie stick is a professional tool.

It's less money. I see people, all these people, I feel totally justified. It's normalized. The belfi is now the. is now the new low. Right. Or the new Utre. This is a good general question.

What gets normalized for you at CES that you have to get used to once you go back to the real world? How will re-entry be? Yes, how is re-entry? We will probably all just burn up on dissent. No, I mean, this place is so, like, the idea that every person I talk to, I immediately, like, look down and, like,

evaluate their career before continuing a conversation. Like, that's just a week of behavior that I have to unlearn every single year. I'm like, oh, you're, oh, you work for Sony. Oh, you're interesting. I'll go ahead and continue talking to you. Mostly because I'm really bad at faces and names. So I find CSB environment in which I can succeed.

So do you know what the colors stand for? Because I realize that I have not been paying enough attention. Oh, yeah, the colors are like, so they're classes of warriors and orcs. Yes. It's like press and analysts and buyers. It's charisma level. Right. It's basically like, who will provide you with money and then who will.

will try to make you, trick you into saying something you shouldn't have. Analyst and buyers, like they represent money. Guess which side we're on? We're the evil ones. So you know what Ashley, Emily, you were telling me, you tried the Oculus. Oh, yeah. So Ezra Klein was here, and he apparently was like super into the Oculus. And then you are not, which I think is wild.

Well, no, it's not that I'm not into the Oculus. I just think the experience I had was not ideal. But that is probably, I'm the entertainment editor of The Virgin. And, like, there's very few stories here that I think, like, squarely fall into my area of interest. And the way that Oculus can be used for the motion picture industry is one of those things. And so I went to go check out the demo of the wild Oculus experience, which is a very interesting. Like, it's like, it seems like a joke, but then you think it's actually, like, really interesting to do emotion, try to do emotional storytelling with Oculus. instead of this like whiz-bang, like interstellar type stuff.

And remind me like wild, it's like Reese Witherspoon, and she's just set loose in the wilderness. She's, so it's based on Cheryl Stride's book where she does the Pacific Crest Trail. It's like, like, a thousand miles or something like that. She literally walks a thousand miles, like the song. This Oculus experience is getting super weird. Yeah, no, exactly. So, so, yeah, it's a scene. it's just a few minutes, but you're basically in a stationary place in the forest and you see

Reese Witherspoon walk up to you and she takes a rest on a rock and has this conversation with basically the ghost of her mother played by Laura Dern. And it's very interesting. It's like very interesting to see how that works where it's not, you're not flying a jet through space or whatever. But I think the environment that I was in was a little loud. I think so much of that actually, like for it being Oculus and being virtual reality, so much of it is still dependent on the audio experience. And I was, yeah, I mean, I could hear people yelling in my ear, like, throughout the whole thing, which kind of doesn't really do the trick.

But I'm really excited to see how that evolves. Like that, if I came next year, that would be something I would definitely want to check up on. And how much freedom do you have to look around? Like, could you, like, did they film it in 360 degrees so you could, like, turn around and not even be looking at Reese? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a 360 degree. Which is always a choice I'd use today.

That's why I prefer to watch Wild. Well, it's so weird. I was talking about this with Ross, who I went to go see her with, and we're like, it's so strange to actually have this, because I didn't see the interstellar one, but I don't think there were any people involved. And so this is like you're in a real 360-degree space, and Reese Witherspoon is sitting right there. And it's like, she's a real person just hanging out.

Did you move around the space? No, no, that's the thing. It's like, you're stationary, and you're sitting down. so, and it doesn't move. I did an Oculus demo where I was in a, like a military installation in Iraq, and it's the same thing where you're in a fixed point. It's filmed in 360 degrees, and that is a mesmerizing experience. Because no matter where you're looking, there's some other story unfolding, which for

a filmmaker is going to, like, pose some really interesting challenges. That's, and I, and I was also saying, like, it reminds me that, for me, the most compelling example of what filmmaking will look like in the future. was in her, the, like, 3D projection that he had in his living room. And this is basically that, just, you know, on a headpiece thing. And, yeah, the idea of having something going on around you, like, everywhere, and you can kind of decide what you want to focus on as a viewer. That's super interesting.

It's like, you know, it's like advanced stage or something, theater or something like that. My dream, like Oculus thing is like a murder mystery, right? Like a bot, like a, where you get a bunch of people, like an Aga Christie. Yeah. Like there's like a bunch of people in the house. There's a murder and you can like run around the house and like watch all the timelines and like see who's murder. Oh, yeah. Well, what is that show in New York where you sort of walk into the house?

Sleep no more. Sleep no more. That's basically what I'm right. Like let me experience that. That would be fantastic. Yeah, no. Right. Yeah, I can't wait.

I mean, the technicality stuff aside, I mean, I think that they're focusing on the right things. If it was just, you know, effects stuff, I think that would kind of go down the same route that a lot of 3D stuff goes where it's just like, oh, great. It's great for filmmaking, a very specific kind of filmmaking. Well, in the wild thing, they included the worst part of the movie, which is like the CGI Fox. In the movie, it looks fake. And then they put it in their fake

formula. It was so loud. It was also fake. Layers of fake. It was so loud in the room. I didn't even hear the cue, the audio cue that makes you turn around and look at the Fox, so I want my money back. The Fox. No, I mean, the thing with that, Eddie wrote a piece about

this day. Everything with Oculus is a demo. It's nonstop demo after demo after demo. And the only people who are, like, really interested in making anything for it are, like, basically, like, brands and entertainment properties that are, like, here's a gimmick, and then you will, like, engage with our movie a little bit because you're going to wear this headset that you otherwise wouldn't buy. And I think until you, like, click over and you start making things that people want to watch at home, which I think that's, like, that's the dystopian future,

is, like, me sitting at home on the couch with my wife, and both of us are wearing headsets, and watching something together in like totally isolated ways. I mean, I fear for that future, basically. Well, I like that they don't want to, I mean, you know, maybe it's going to be like a failure at the end, but I like that they don't want to release a half-ass product or kind of take the market.

I went to this, like all these glass heads before they shipped in every model of, like, augmented reality eyewear, like starting back through the ages and they had some people. I mean, these were like the middle manager kind of people. It was just in this one room and just looking at all of it. It was so interesting. It was just all poorly timed and sent to the wrong people. Like in one case, they

gave it to Toyota, like car mechanics so that when they're under the car, they can see it and then nobody used it. So I don't I don't mind if they want to like figure it out a little bit. It's been tried so many times. Right. But the question is like is Oculus a product that is just going to be

perpetually six months away? Right. I mean, so you tried the gear VR, right? Yeah. Yeah, very strong opinions about that one. Because I think that's the future, right? Like, I'm never going to buy, like, a dedicated headset. I'm completely involved.

Like, I think the right idea is I'll buy a big phone and, like, put it in there, and it will help me do this thing. Right. Because, like, the idea of buying a 700-dollar headset that, like, run some software, all that seems bonkers to me. Unless the movies start being really, really good that they put on there. Like, everybody's like, oh, my God, you have to see this thing. You can only see it because you have this headset.

Yeah, but like, I don't know. Like, if you want to watch a movie with three people in your house and you have to buy three of them, it kind of makes more sense that you would all just like, that everyone would... I'm saving my money for the belt fee. They would buy them. Also, like, I think of the smartphone has taught us one thing,

it's that when you get three people in a room together, you know what they want to do, look at their smartphones separately and not talk to each other, right? So, like, I can absolutely envision a world where we all have separate headsets, and it's like, oh, you know, nice to see you, honey, and then slink away into your own private Reese Witherspoon. CGI Fox World.

I mean, I just, I haven't seen any. The one demo I saw, Adi as well, like, she had the two hand controllers, like the Kickstarter hand controllers, and she was like lightsaber fighting. And I was like, okay, that, I would do that. What terrified me was Adi's stunning competence

at fighting with virtual lightsabers. Like, she looked like she had been practicing for 20 years. She looked like Aria in Game of Thrones. She was like, you know, darting, like, from place to play. It was, I, I, I mean, I've always been afraid of Addy, but I'm terrified. So the answer to your question is, yes, she's a larper.

And we have 100% made a video of her larping in the past. Okay. And it's super hardcore. Oh, my God. You can always spot a larper. So you can't you, though? So speaking of LARPs. Let's talk about LARPs.

No, let's not. Let's use that to awkwardly transition into you still cycling with DeCostler. Oh, yeah. So that was my big adventure for the week, is SoulCycle and Twitter were doing a brand promotion that they somehow didn't really advertise that much, but somebody asked Dick Costello's the of Twitter if he was going, and he replied with the exact days and times of the classes that he was going to. So I was willing to, I mean, it took a little bit out of me to have to, like, you have to send like two hashtags and has to be like, Oh my God.

Yeah, like at SoulCycle and like I saw the other people and they're like, please, please. So I just tried to just give into the embarrassment of it. And I won. I won these two spots and I thought I was going to have to be competing with all these other reporters. But I guess nobody else wanted to wake up at 7 a.m. and then at 6 a.m. to Soul Cycle, which I've never done before and was a little concerned would make me vomit. And I want to hear all about Dick Costlow, but for people who may not have heard of Soul Cycle, Explain what is actually happening when you're on that bike because it sounds very cult like.

No, it is a cult. They're religious overtones. Such religious. Fact, it's a cult. I am a rabid atheist, but I fell for it. I am like praying at the church of Soul Cycle. What's different about it than spinning? Nothing.

Okay. The things I think that are different is that they come up with their own lingo. They repeat these like affirmational. phrases, like, you're stronger than you think. You have to turn their resistance. Like, they're constantly the whole time trying to get you to turn your resistance knob harder. And to do this, they just tell you you're stronger than you think.

Like, no one else can tell you how strong you are. And you just, like, you believe it. And I, like, did it. I thought, like, it would be so easy to cheat. I mean, even though, like, Dick Coslow could see me. But I didn't want to cheat. Were you worried that he would be like he would be mad at you if you were cheating? I mean, I was trying to prove to him.

I guess, like, this is, you know, me playing in their world. I've never tried this angle of reporting, but I subsequently heard that, like, all these tech guys do it. So now I'm going to, nobody else take this reporting strategy. I'm now going to go to all the right soul cycle classes because I could see who, like, the guy Ian who taught my class was, he's a parent. Like, the people who are, like, top tech people. Oh, my God. Yeah. I love the soul cycle master of the tech universe.

Yes. A spinner to the stars. And they have really good music, and it's like dim lights, and you're all in it together. Was the CEO of Twitter good at SoulCy? Oh, yeah, yeah. Ian called him out. He was like, I see you, Dixie. Like, good job.

I see you, Dick Cee. And also, he is kind of, it didn't include this in my story, but he's, like, very ripped. Like, not like Jeff Bezos Sun Valley, Idaho arms. I feel like that's always the picture that comes out of Sun Valley is, like, Jeff Bezos's massive guns. He's not like that. He's more lithe, but very fit. and I think was very surprised that I was able to make it through the class, which is a valid prediction.

I love the idea that in both of your minds, it's like this sort of like passive-aggressive war that's happening where either is acknowledging the other, but in reality you're sort of like trading glances whenever the other person looks away. Oh, what I tried to do is pretend I was taking pictures through all the room so I could take a picture of him, and he was like, looking right at me.

And I was like, okay. Yeah, that's about the first time somebody's tried to sneaky pick Dick Costello. Okay, you don't get to be CEO of Twitter without knowing who's sneaky picking you. Yeah. Yeah. That was me. Let's,

can I just, let's stop for one second and just examine the word sneaky pick? Okay. Okay. That's better than a creep shot. A sneaky pick is a creep shot. I mean, I guess it's like basically the same thing.

Yeah, what's the difference? Is it non-sexual? Yes. Is it, wait, is a creep shot inherently sexual? Yes. To me, to me a sneaky pick is when you were taking me.

I'm so worried. You thought that Richard Branson was handsome. Yeah, yeah. You don't know what a creep shot is. Aren't you like you hired us? Yes. I'm learning so much about just the weirdest stuff. Look, a sneaky pick is when you are pretending to do something else

while you take the picture. Like, a cream shot picture is more just like, oh, like, this girl doesn't know I'm looking at her, and like take a picture. But, like, you know, from time to time, in these, you know, journalism situations. Oh, yeah, no. I have to, you know, see.

Oh, yes. And they actually make an app. Wow, is that your movie? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can see that I'm recording. That's what you do when you're a, a celebrity when you're at the Ivy just chatting it up with celebs.

Do you take a fake phone call and then hit the shutter button? That's what I just did. You don't need to do a fake phone call because they make an app that looks like the New York Times app except where the photo goes on the front page of the New York Times app.

It's just the camera window. And so you look like you're reading the New York Times and then you line up the perfect shot and boom, you're done. Front page news. That's like three years old. That's not a new app. Which just goes to show you how old the sneaky pick concept is.

No, I know a lot of old school entertainment reporters who use that app. Really? Yes. The paparazzi, if you will. The old school entertainment reports. Thinking about this, because on the drive over here, I saw this guy trying to take a selfie, and it's just the most embarrassing posture possible. And nobody, none of these solutions have, or no one solved this problem of making it not look.

Just really sad. I don't know, I saw a Hello Kitty selfie stick today. Oh, that's adorable. No, now I'm starting to like, I'm like thoroughly converted, but at least with the selfie stick, you're honest with yourself. I feel like this, I trust this person. I would use it as like, you know, a character test. Yeah.

And what would the, how would you fail the character test with the selfie stick? No, you win the character test because you're like, you're honest about your intentions. You're just out there. Yeah. Like, I'm a rabid narcissist who needs like constant feedback and affirmation. So I bought this stick. And so, yeah.

I don't get out of bed before I get 100 likes, okay? Yes. I, uh, quote it takes these days. I'm super worried that I sent you guys out at CES to, like, talk to brand people, and now you're both terrible people. We've talked to too many brands. Yeah, you've been subsumed into the cult of shingy,

and you don't know that the virus is growing within you. The man has a lot of good ideas. I think we should hear him out. I mean, go ahead. Oh, no, I was just going to say, I was telling them I saw the double selfie move. Like regular conventional selfie with one hand, selfie stick with the other one.

Guess where I saw it at the Tisto Q&A. So. You did go to a fireside chat with TSA. Yeah, what was that like? It was, you know, he's got a headphones brand, which is really weird. I have a weird choice. Why?

I'm being, I'm the opposite joke. I'm too. I'm so broken. Why would you do that soon? He needs to take a minute. Why would you look at me in the eye and just like, all right, go ahead, talk about you this day. No, I mean, he only talked for a few minutes. He signed autographs, you know?

I mean, he's got a headphones brand. 50 cents got a headphones brand. Who else? Who else? Can we name everybody who has iPhones brand? Justin Timberlake? He's like an advisor? That's like a professional audio mastering software thing.

Doesn't that Nikki Minaj have her own headphones? No, she's just making money. Yeah. Right. But, like, Beets has most everyone. And then, like, 50 Cent has SMS audio. And, like, 50 Cent's Twitter is the best because it's mostly him, like, retweeting or applying to girls who send him naked pictures.

And then he, like, hashtags his headphones brand in all the tweets. He's like, yo, like, good butt, SMS audio. And it's like, I don't, this is not a reasonable strategy for you to market me. But then he made Star Wars headphones. He did. Ross has a long story about 50 Cent Star Wars. Yeah. He got to talk to him today.

And Ross also talked to Riza. And we had Nick Cannon here yesterday. I mean, like, celebrities at CS is a real. real thing. Jason Derulo's castle? Are we going to talk about Jason Gerullo's castle? Tell me about the castle. Oh, I don't know. You have to ask Kwamey, but Kwame talked to Jason Durullo at the I-Hart Radio Party last night, and apparently Jason Durlo has a castle. I can see that. I mean, like, he's like, because he's a secret Game of Thrones fan, right? Oh, is he? I learned so

much about Jason Durla. I learned that his last name is actually spelled like French, like D-E-S-R-E-A-U-L-U-X or whatever. It's, it's crazy. I have all of it. I don't, I don't think that I already had a lot of respect for him. I'm not going to say I have more respect from him because I already have a lot. No, but he's a massive like wiggle is like basically samples the Game of Thrones theme. Oh, wait. Are you talking about

Oh yeah? Like crazy? I'm trying to, I'm trying to, I'm trying to I'm trying to think of wiggle now, I think I talk dirty. So it's so hard. No, I was talking about like if I had gotten a chance to talk to him, I would have asked him just about like making the best meme songs.

Yeah, yeah. Because that's all those songs are. They're just like a fit, like vine. length snippets of something that's super catchy that you can't get out of your head, which is pretty genius. Yeah. That's wild. Actually, I've been meaning to ask you.

So CES for me is always like the worst musical environment in history. And it's like, what's that Black Eye P song? I got a feeling. Oh, don't even say a shuttle this morning. Don't say it. Don't say the name. Tonight's going to be a good night, Natasha. It's going to be great.

Let's live it up. I hate. Oh, wow. Did you know? drank. That one's okay. That's the same song. No, like that song has just, like, haunted.

Like, many, many, like, massive corporations were, like, led to believe that people would definitely have fun if they heard that song. Well, I've been going around shazamming for a playlist, the songs that they think will move product. It's still better than two years ago, because two years ago, every company had the independently hilarious idea that if they just played Gangnam style at the right moment, everyone would go back. bananas, and it probably worked during the very first keynote, but like 17 keynotes later, you would just, you're like, oh, my kingdom stuff. And the whole crowd is like, oh, my God. Misery. So, wait, I want to hear from Emily about the music of CS, because I feel like you care deeply

about music. I do care a lot, and I've actually been surprised. I mean, I'd be interested to know the lifespan of a song and how often it has play here, like how long. Because I feel like I definitely heard some of Vici levels, which, you know, which, You know, it seems like that's going to be on the down to now. It's Vegas. Yeah, yeah, I guess. I mean, what did I hear? I've heard a lot of the Ariana Grande. What? I said, I've heard levels on the baggage claim here before.

It's just Las Vegas. What's Ariana Grande. What's Ariana Grande song? Oh, the Ariana Grande, the Zad Ariana Grande song, Break Free. That's a lot of places. I heard there was a Scrillx song off of this most recent album that was played at the I Heart Media panel, which was, you know, that's deep, that's a deep, deep screlex cut. which I felt proud of myself for recognizing. What else? My favorite is like they start all the press conferences by like just jamming tunes at you. And it's like you're definitely making decisions about how I should feel right now. And most of the decision you're making is like this group of like pretty tired business reporters or like tech reporters and like financial analysts.

Like you're basically. Are there financial analysts here? Tons and tons of it like all over the place. Like that's and like. I want to talk to those people. Basically like there are suits everywhere here. And it's like right before Sony talks to them about their new product line and like all the business stuff, you should also also want to get super drunk in the club. And it's like that.

Oh, yeah. I was trying to remember what they played before Sony. It was the fireball, the pit bull song. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, it gets really excited about keynotes. Have you seen the people dancing on the AstroTurf in the parking lot? No.

Like, okay, if you have to exit at just the right time and everyone is standing in line for shuttles, but this few people are just like, you know what? I'm ready to let loose. I'm on some orange Astridorff in front of, like, a show car, and I'm drinking orange beer, and just, like, kind of moving around. It's time to go. Yeah. There's a very unfortunately named company called Vox International here with two Xs, and they own, like, any number of, like, mid-level audio brands, like RCA and AudioVox.

And every day they have, like, basically, like, a PG-13, like, fake stripper, just going after it. Well, like a DJ, like a medium Vegas DJ, like, scratches over fancy. And it's like, I just, I really want this to stop, and I want your company's name to stop sounding like my company's name. I don't know. Maybe we just embrace it and get a DJ next year and go ahead to head with them. I mean, that if we get in this room, a lot of people just looked really happy about that. I think we should definitely put a DJ in this room next year.

Well, and I have volunteered to, you know, get into PG-13 clothing and just, You know, here's what I've known about you for a long time, Casey. I don't know that if I've ever expressed this to you. You look really good in shiny clothes. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Glitter is a way of life. Yeah, glitter is for it.

So we should wrap this up. Is there more stuff? I want to hear from you, Mr. Newton. What happened to you at CS? How's it different? Well, I think here's the thing that I came to piece with about the CES. On a serious note, you guys. Oh, my God.

The unfortunate fact of life sometimes is that real progress is incremental. and that we don't get these massive leap forwards every year, even though that's what we all come here hoping to see. But watching this stuff particularly around autonomous driving, I did get really excited because that's technology that is going to save tens of thousands of lives in America alone every year. And man, it's coming really quickly. And it's not just Google who's doing it.

Ford is making some really interesting moves, Mercedes BMW. So I love to see that. Like, that's something to genuinely get excited about. And, like, as far as I'm concerned, they cannot spend enough money or hire enough engineers, like make that a reality, make me not have to drive a car anymore. Yeah, I mean, the second I can buy one of those,

I'm going to buy one of those, and I'll let it drive away while I get into a Mustang and just rev the engine on my... No, I don't know. On the flip side, Internet of Things continues to be the most mundane of all technologies. Whenever the Internet of Things is described, it's always like, flip this light switch

and it'll get your toaster going, right? Like, nobody can connect the dots in a way that makes me want to buy a single thing. People, you know, at this Samsung presentation, oh, when you wake up, we'll tell you what the weather is on your TV. I can see the weather on any imaginable screen, right? I'm pretty sure I can already get the weather on my microwave. Like also the window.

I can even look with my own eyes if I wanted to get really old school for a minute, right? But you'll be wearing your headset. Yeah. So what I don't understand is that these companies are often incredible at marketing things, and the failures of marketing in the Internet of Things start with the name itself. It is the worst, like, most boring, horrible name. they tried to upgrade it last year to the internet of everything. No, no, that was...

I saw a couple. That was just a really, like, wild Snapdragon keynote. Like, it didn't quite... Yeah, they went off... Wild keynote. Yeah, that was the one where, like, Big Bird was there, and then, like, a Mercedes exploded. Like, that is one of the craziest things I've ever seen in CS,

and that's where they did the internet of it. Like, when I say Big Bird was there, I mean, Big Bird was there, and then they cut to Kofi Annan, and then a Mercedes drove itself on this... Like, it was the craziest thing I've ever seen here. It had a certain internal logic. No, it didn't.

But seriously, like, are the autonomous, like, self-driving car people? Like, you should feel really great about CES. If you had anything to do with any presentation about the Internet of Things, like return to whence you came from, hanging your heads in shame, because you fail to sell what should actually be cool. Right. But this is why they need shingy, because otherwise they'll be saying the Internet of Things. Like, has no one vetted that?

Have they ever, like, put it out in the wild? They have no idea that hurt that is going to come upon them when real people start hearing. start hearing this. I was trying to think of how we could shame them out of it. Maybe if, like, a really cool person... Maybe if Nikki Minaj made fun of the Internet of Things, then I would stop because it needs to stop. And I'm not powerful enough to do it.

In terms of, like, ultimate verge moments, like, getting Nikki Minaj to make fun of the Internet of Things would make me so happy. Listen to me, Nikki. Help us. Help us. The brands are out of control. Natasha, what's your wrap-up?

This was your first one. I'm, like, very curious with the two. of you in particular. What was this like for you outside of the, like, hassles of being in Vegas in the show? Well, okay, I kind of had a different take than Casey because I wasn't coming here looking for the latest thing. I often, like, I consider myself, like, the last, last of the early adopters. And so what I really liked, even though there's absolutely nothing that I want to use here in terms of the internet things, what I liked is, like, what I liked is that it's, like, actually being implemented. All of it seems like it could. I get excited when things happen. Like, it's really

frustrating when you're right about software and you're downloading an app and no one else will play on it with you and they don't realize that you have to have like a full engaged audience. And even like I was washing my hands in the bathroom and I was like, oh, look, there was a time when we didn't, like, we would have to like squirt the soap thing and not just like put our hands, you know, up and down wildly. And so like I'm excited for like it getting actually into the infrastructure. just through brands. Wait, can I really, can we connect soap to the infrastructure again? I'm very, very...

Yeah, it's the internet of soap. The soap of things. Okay, Emily, what about you? Yeah, I mean, I am not also really a gadget person, but culture-wise, it's genuinely been something where I've definitely seen an entire world here that I would never have seen before, and that's really fascinating to me. I think, yeah, I mean, I'm kind of with that. Natasha, like, I think a lot of, I thought a lot of the stuff you see here, it's going to be the most interesting when you barely even notice it coming into your life, when it just sort of seeps in.

And I don't know, like, because I'm, like, I'm thinking, and I'm like, oh, the coolest thing I saw was, like, the 3D printed shoes, because I'm a girl, I guess. But it was cool, you know, and it's like, but the idea of, like, you know, finding new ways to make things or finding new ways to just park your car. Right. That's, you know, that's all interesting. It's not stuff that I'm, like, going to want to be on the first line of when it comes out. But, like, when it becomes a part of our lives, it's going to be the future. I think, well, it's this, for me, what this show is always about is, it's just about screens. And, like, the screens wax and wayne.

And it's like, what are you going to put on these screens everywhere? And, like, there are no, like, I've been saying it. It's crazy to me that there are no tablets at this show. Like, that was going to be, like, the main screen in our lives. and I would go to TV conferences, and I would hear TV executives talk about how they were going to build second-screen experiences so you would definitely be holding your iPad while you watched a TV show, and it's like, well, that definitely didn't pan out because nobody wants to do that.

Well, babies love them. Babies love iPad, so maybe they could just, like, read, find a new product market fit, make it a baby toy. There's one, like, right over there. The only tablet here is, like, a kid's tablet right behind her. No, it's just funny because, like, I look at this show and what happened was these phones ate everything. Like, they literally ate everything,

and they got pretty big, so nobody buys tablets anymore. And now it's like, there are TVs everywhere, and those screens are going to be computers. And it's crazy to me that we are better at putting a computer in a car, at making the car drive itself,

and we still can't figure out, like, how should we watch television? That's still, like, a pretty hard problem that this industry has been trying to solve, like, 30 years. And they, like, literally, like, cars are driving themselves now, and the TVs are still like...

Maybe because it's not a problem. I can watch television. I mean, yeah, it's so hard to improve on on button and then up down and instant delivery of show. It's hard to improve upon that. That's like the whole lesson of Google TV is they could not improve on TV. Reach the top and they should stop. Shut it all down.

No, you've reached peak. No, but that's to me, that's the question, right? You would never say that about a phone. You would never say you can't improve this basic experience of using a phone. No, I love my phone. You're never getting any phone, Natasha. Keeping this one forever. That's funny. That to me is the story of the show.

It's like, where are we going to put all of the energy and all the investment in making things better? And it's funny to just watch people try and, like, hit roadblocks and constraints and then move very quickly to something else entirely. And this show changes so fast. The other thing that I think is fun is that we all just get to party here. Like, our team gets to play together, which is really fun. And, like, I don't know. Get sick together. Huh?

And get super. Share all our journey. What I mean there's a lot of people out there listening this show who like one day you're working at a virgin what you should really know about it is that we do just share germs left and right It's super weird and that's there is a big jar of animal crackers in the trailer and the lid has been off since the first day of CES and I still just keep reaching my hand And just like grabbing two to three animal crackers every day Casey I just took my first hand And that's how much I trust my co-workers right Casey Casey will be dead within the week No, Casey, I just took my first handful from that jar to day. Not bad, right?

I'm going to go back to the trailer and touch all the animal crackers. So that's a show. I mean, I'm sorry that I am as, like, dead as I am, but that's the nature of CES. Like, fundamentally, if you're not completely broken by the end of the show. You did it wrong. You did it completely wrong. You know, I actually haven't even walked in the other two halls. Like, I haven't gone, I'm going to go look at the cars.

And I don't know. I'll go. I tried to make an Oculus Rift appointment. It's fucking full all. Really? Day. Of all of the reasons to drop an F-bomb. The girl likes her VR.

Who doesn't? Okay, that's it. That was a broadcast. That was CES for us. I hope all of us remain alive over the next few days. Thank you for listening. Thank you for the people who are downloading the show. Thank you for listening.

And that's it. Goodbye.