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>> Talk Nerdy to me, a conversation
about technology's hottest topics
at Indiana University and beyond.
Welcome to Talk Nerdy to me, a conversation
about technology at IU and beyond.
I'm your host Janae Cummings, and
with me as always is the Hermione and Ron,
to my Harry, Brendon Howell and Liam Bolling.
Welcome back from the holidays guys.
How's it going?
>> It's going pretty good.
Had a good holiday.
Holidays.
>> Yeah. Because it was full
of presents and good stuff.
>> That, plus I got to see all my family and
friends and stuff, and it was just a good break.
>> Nice.
>> That's awesome.
>> Were you in Mexico?
>> Yeah, I went to Mexico for a couple of days.
But other than that, just a lot of
sleeping, you know, some presents too.
Not as cool as some other people's presents.
>> Which we will get to in a little bit.
So as we discussed in the last episode, Liam
was supposed to go to Las Vegas for CES 2016,
and then we were going to talk about all
the new hotness that he was lucky to see.
But that did not work out I understand.
>> Last minute flight plans got really messed up.
>> So, which sucks for you
and I guess the rest of us.
But we're going to talk about all the
new hotness that the other people saw.
And maybe a couple of ridiculous things too.
So let's start with the cool stuff.
The first, which surprises
me to say, is the Chevy Bolt
because I can't believe anything
cool comes out of Chevrolet.
But it has.
It's an all-electric car, a
promised range of 200 miles,
and it's coming in under 30
grand after tax credits, so.
>> That'll be nice.
I mean the Chevy Volt was kind of expensive
when it came out, which is why you don't see
that many of them on the road probably.
>> Right.
>> But they were a sexy car.
So this one I don't think is as sexy, but I mean.
>> It's kind of a hatchback isn't it?
>> Yeah. Yeah.
But it's like, it does look nice.
I mean it has nice lines on
the car, which I think a lot
of hatchbacks look very hippie-ish,
and this one doesn't.
>> Right.
>> It's pretty cool how they like beat
Tesla to the punch of the like less
than $40,000 car, all-electric and everything.
>> For sure.
But it is, is not as sexy as.
>> Oh not at all.
>> One of those is going to be.
But I mean it also has great features like a
real camera, surround vision, Android Audio
and Apple Car Play pre-integrated
with your smartphone.
Like that's all the kind of stuff we need.
>> Yeah. I don't think many other cars
really have that surround vision besides BMW.
At least I haven't seen them in any other cars.
>> Well I think the i3, it can't go 200 miles.
I don't think anything in
that range is pretty poor.
Well not poor, but pretty mediocre.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
I haven't seen that many of
those floating around either.
I mean I've seen like one or two.
But they come out.
>> I saw one on campus.
>> Oh really?
>> Usually in a handicap spot,
which I find kind of interesting.
But.
>> What is the car that BMW came
out with that's also like a hybrid.
It's much more expensive than the i3.
>> I am not sure.
>> I think, I know what you're talking about.
>> Yeah.
>> That one is sexy.
>> Yeah, that's a good looking car.
But.
>> What I saw though, there was some Tesla shade
also, we were talking about Tesla a second ago,
Chevy noted that they still believe in the dealer
model, which obviously we know Tesla doesn't.
And also that customers won't have to drive
into another state to get their cars serviced.
Which.
>> Wow.
>> Yeah.
>> Brand punches.
>> Yeah. It's a deep blow.
It's a deep blow.
>> Yeah.
>> I mean there's other stuff that's going
to go on with the car that we won't know
until the Detroit auto show,
which I'm actually curious to see.
Which I wouldn't normally care about.
But that could actually be pretty cool.
So. You think you might get one?
>> Me?
>> Anyone?
>> That's a little out of my
price range for right now.
But maybe one day.
>> I'm still, I'm still killing
the earth with my Jeep.
So I plan to do that for many more years.
>> Tesla had that recently I think
it was the Tesla Summon feature.
What was it?
They just like demoed it or something.
>> Yeah and it would come to you, right?
>> Yeah, yeah.
And it just like parks itself in the garage.
I mean if Elon Musk wanted to get back at them
he could be just like, well does your car,
you know, drive itself and park itself?
>> I think it's funny that we had that whole
conversation about artificial intelligence
and how Elon Musk was so against
it or warning everyone about it.
But yet Tesla's become more and
more artificially intelligent.
So.
>> Now they absolutely have.
But I think he's also putting forth research
to make sure the AI he creates
doesn't turn around and kill us.
So it's a benevolent AI I guess.
So next on the car front is
Faraday Future's FFZERO1,
which is a purely theoretical
beast, total concept car.
It looks like the Batmobile.
It's supposed to have 1000 horsepower, zero to
60 in three seconds, 200 mile per hour top speed.
It would be a Tesla killer if it existed,
if it could actually be street legal.
>> Probably not in the US.
>> Oh no.
>> We don't have an Autobahn to drive on.
>> Yeah.
>> Absolutely.
>> There is so much hype behind that car.
It was absurd.
YouTube videos like all the tech press
going over like, oh what's the Faraday car.
And it's not even real.
>> It's not real.
And it seems just to be a hype machine
for the billion-dollar factory
they're going to build in Nevada.
Which could be really interesting.
Because I think what I saw is that the
car was more focusing on the flexibility,
like the system flexibility of the car.
>> Yeah the chassis can be like any type of car.
>> Yeah it's almost modular.
It's customizable.
If you need a different size battery pack
or whatever, like they can do that for you.
And I think with this business model,
you can just almost subscribe to a plan.
Like customers can subscribe to a plan that
gets you the kind of car that suits your needs.
>> Oh wow.
>> Which is actually, that's pretty awesome.
>> That's kind of cool.
>> This is just a one-seater car, right?
>> I think so.
>> Yeah.
>> One-seater fake car.
>> Yeah. But the website is like so legitimate.
Like it looks so good, and
they've done a good job with it.
But it does look like the Batmobile.
>> It does.
It does. What's also cool about it they said
their market was US and China, which makes sense.
But they're partnering with Chinese
electronic company called LETV.
They make smartphones, connected
TVs, that kind of thing.
And they're trying to use that as
their entry into certain markets.
So they're fueling this, almost
funding it on partnerships.
>> That's interesting.
>> It's an interesting take.
>> I mean how well are they doing with partners?
I mean they're building a billion-dollar factory.
So obviously they must be doing it.
>> But largely I think supported by this LETV.
I haven't seen anything about
American manufacturers
or more Westernized manufacturers doing anything.
>> Probably because they know that it
wouldn't, like you said, be street legal here.
So they don't see a market for it in the US.
>> Right. Right.
>> I think they'll find out like mass-producing
cars is a lot more difficult than they think.
Like Tesla is hitting all these road bumps of, you
know, cars catching on fire, some other things.
And things that Toyota and the other car
companies have learned like a little while ago.
So.
>> Plus this is a one-seater.
And I mean because usually very family-oriented.
>> Is this more like a billionaire's play thing?
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> Every couple years they'll
come out with five or ten.
I remember a few years ago Aston Martin's
177 I think they produced 177 of them.
And if you had 1.1 whatever million dollars
you could have one and they were done.
And so I can see something like this happening.
If they ever produce something.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> That isn't a hologram or whatever that was.
So next, that was pretty big
at CES were the wearables.
And I think after last year people
expected to see a less wearable tech at CES.
I mean they have wearables overall apart from like
the Apple watch, and that hasn't really taken off.
But you know, fitness aside.
But this year offered a different take.
And the four that really stood out
to me were Wise Wear smart jewelry,
which is a personal attack alarm
that sends a person's location
and an SOS message to any emergency contacts.
There was L'Oréal's My UV Patch,
which is a sticker that you wear.
It monitors your exposure to sunlight.
Owlet came out with a smart baby sock that
monitors newborn's vital signs to prevent SIDS.
And a company called OhMiBod had the Lovelife
Crush, which is a smart Kegel exerciser,
which I guess we can all giggle a little bit.
But a Kegel exerciser that helps
women strengthen their PC muscles
and those frequently weakened
due to age and childbirth.
So it seems like instead of having
products that are doing all the things,
we're getting products now that do one
thing and do them really, really well.
>> I think a lot of the, at least from this year,
the focus on the wearables
was really health-oriented.
And having, I guess, a purpose for them.
I mean we all have the Apple watches
and all the Moto 360 watches and stuff.
They're kind of supposed to be
like a do-all for your phone.
But they don't have like one
purpose like these items do.
>> I'm just interested in seeing them move away
kind of from the watch idea to more, you know,
jewelry, patches, things like that.
That's, I don't know.
It's interesting.
>> I think these are the kind of
wearables that can really, really take off.
>> Yeah.
>> You know, we're talking
about health and safety.
People want those.
And kind of development that can go into those,
monitoring maybe your vital
signs and that kind of thing.
>> Yeah, and plus they're disguised as
everyday things that you would wear anyway,
which makes it a lot easier to incorporate
them into your outfits and whatnot.
>> Right, particularly the
WiseWear, which just is kind
of like costume jewelry that's smart, you know.
That's something that I think most people
would really like to take advantage of.
Particularly women, of course.
>> Yeah. Even Fitbit kind of did that with
a, they partnered I think with Tory Burch,
and they came out with little like
different, I guess, wristlets or whatnot
to put the Fitbit into, so that
women could still wear them.
But it was kind of disguised
as a piece of jewelry.
>> Yeah I saw a couple of those
on Instagram a few weeks ago.
Some celebrities had them.
And they, I mean they looked kind of cool.
I mean they weren't half bad at all.
>> Yeah.
>> So, I don't know.
I'm interested in seeing what, I'm
interested to see where this goes.
It's pretty exciting in that we're actually
getting things, I think, specifically for things
in our lives instead of trying to
find, I don't know, devices that,
or trying to find reasons to wear these devices.
>> Yeah. There were quite a few
of them that came out at once.
I want to see which one is going
to last and actually stay around
and develop like another model or not.
>> So CES has awesome things.
It also had really dumb things.
We saw a Bluetooth-controlled blender.
>> That is, I just think it's
the worst idea I've ever heard.
I mean it's like, you're going to put
your, the contents you're going to blend.
And then just wait, you know, I'll just
do it when I'm at work or something.
It's like I don't get it.
The vegetables and things are
just going to rot all day.
It doesn't make any sense to me.
But.
>> Or if you're making like a
smoothie like right then and there,
why couldn't you just push the button yourself?
>> Exactly.
That's faster than like getting your phone.
You've got get the app out.
>> This could actually work if they
partnered with some of those cocktail,
those Bluetooth cocktail makers that
we talked about a couple months ago.
>> Oh yeah.
>> And it was part of like a margarita machine.
>> Yeah, or like, yeah like the frozen
margaritas or whatever and you had ice in there
and it crushed the ice and blended the drink.
That makes sense, but.
>> But standing alone it's just really dumb.
There was another thing, hoverboards
with built-in speakers.
Those things are exploding anyway.
Adding speakers to the mix seems like a poor idea.
>> And I hate that they're called hoverboards.
>> Yeah.
>> And you're like, what are you driving
around and you're just like, you know,
throwing music out of your hoverboard?
I mean, I don't know, you're
going to get like even more looks.
>> There's a particular demographic
they're aiming for with those.
>> Oh absolutely.
The only hoverboard that's actually
hovering is Lexus' hoverboard.
But you need what, liquid nitrogen
and magnets to make that work.
>> Yeah, super magnets.
>> I did see this video of this
new hoverboard that's coming out.
I think it's on Kickstarter right now.
But I don't remember the name of it.
But it doesn't use any of that.
But it's really big, and it's kind of ugly.
But it goes much higher than the Lexus
one does and actually does hover.
So.
>> How does it work?
>> I don't know.
The video told you very little
about how it actually works.
>> Of course.
>> We don't know.
>> Typical Kickstarter.
>> It's on Kickstarter.
So if you look on there you
should be able to find it.
>> Okay. Other things, there was a Grill Bot,
which is essentially a Roomba for your grill.
So if you're so lazy that you
can't even scrape of the grates.
There's also a $250 gadget that will
look for, test your food for gluten.
I know gluten is really a
rageful topic these days.
>> I don't understand why.
>> People trying to avoid it.
And I mean there are people with
legitimate gluten sensitivities.
People with Celiac disease.
But beyond that.
>> Yeah.
>> I don't see this one lasting.
>> I think it's where the, well
part of the whole like food thing,
like everyone trying to say something's bad.
This is bad, that's bad.
Like we have been eating this
stuff for like centuries now.
But all of a sudden it's like a big deal.
And I feel like the life expectancy
has gotten longer and longer, so why,
like everything nowadays you
shouldn't be eating basically.
Just vegetables and that's it.
>> Don't eat.
Next thing you know it's going
to be don't eat vegetables.
So.
>> But maybe people died off earlier,
not just because of harsh situations
and saber-tooth tigers eating
them and everything else,
but because maybe they ingested
some gluten and over time.
Went awry.
>> Way too much gluten.
It just builds up.
And they didn't have the gadget
that tests for gluten.
>> No, and they started kicking off at 29.
>> Maybe that's what they're aiming for.
I personally love me some gluten.
>> Better humanity.
>> Gluten is delicious.
>> Yeah.
>> But we understand for our
gluten-sensitive audience out there,
we understand your plight,
and we do take it seriously.
>> But in fact a lot of foods to like identify
whether they are or are not gluten-free, so.
>> But it's becoming very
popular to be gluten-free.
>> Yeah, so why do you need something to
tell you whether or not it's gluten fee.
Like if the bag doesn't say
gluten-free, then it's not gluten-free.
>> No.
>> Yeah, and if it's like made of wheat, well.
>> Have an apple.
>> It's probably not gluten-free.
>> Yeah, exactly.
>> Another thing there was an
exoskeleton, and you pointed this out Liam,
that makes you feel older or have a disease.
>> Yeah, it was really interesting.
It's a whole like whole suit you put
on with like goggles and everything.
And then they can just make
like, oh you have glaucoma.
And you like, your vision is impaired.
And then one was like you age
50, 60 years or something.
Or you have arthritis and it just starts
degrading your joints and everything.
It's so interesting.
>> That's bizarre.
>> It's really weird.
Yeah.
>> I think that would be really good for research.
>> It's true.
>> But that's about it.
>> I mean more like, you know,
say hey, work out more.
This is what's going to happen.
And then.
>> That's fair.
>> Oh my Gosh, like I don't want that to happen.
>> Right, right, right.
>> Yeah.
>> So another great side of CES, well according to
the media at least, was the unmanned marketplace,
which is just, which is basically
like a drone heaven.
They have the EA, or the E-Hang 184, which is
a human-size drone, autonomous human size drone
that can carry a single passenger
for 23 minutes at 60 miles per hour.
Has gull wing doors, the arms fold up.
>> Yes.
>> Totally illegal.
>> Well did you see the FAA
[inaudible] that thing.
They made you, by December 21st I
think you had to register every drone
that was like over a half a pound.
So I don't know if we registered the [inaudible]
yet, but we might have to get on that.
>> There was also the Parrot Disco
Drone, flies up to 45 minutes.
Gets up to 50 miles per hour, and
has a 1080p 14-megapixel camera.
We just played with your Parrot drones.
Which were the raddist experience of my weekend.
>> Yeah.
>> Probably my month, which poor thing.
>> Parrot, I haven't seen the Disco drone yet.
But I did see they have the Bebop drone.
And that one also has a 1080p camera.
But I think their drones are really good.
I mean there's a lot of other drone manufacturers
out there, and I've tried a couple of them.
But none of them are as stable as Parrot.
And their controls aren't as easy.
Like one of them I bought over the
Christmas break, and I just could not fly it.
Like I just couldn't, I couldn't get it to hover.
I couldn't get it to do anything.
It kept running into a wall.
It had like a manual, like its own controllers.
So I didn't use my phone or anything.
But it was just really hard to fly.
And you have the Parrot, and you just toss
it in the air and it just hovers by itself.
>> It's so cool.
>> You just control it when
you want to control it.
I think they do a much better job with
the technology they put into the drones.
And there's cameras, like even the little one,
it doesn't have like a recording
camera, but it has one on the bottom.
>> And that's the Parrot mini-drone, right?
>> Yeah, Parrot mini-drone.
And the camera on the bottom is used to detect, it
takes a picture like every whatever milliseconds
to detect how far it's moved and
to detect how fast it's going.
That way it can always stabilize itself.
I think other drones don't have that.
And I think that's one of the
advantages that Parrot has.
>> Where the Parrots are also pretty cheap.
A good mini-drone is a hundred bucks.
>> But see the price is really competitive.
>> Yeah.
>> It's a smooth fly.
I think nearly anyone can pick those up.
Go out and get one and be flying it an hour later.
>> Probably going to do that in like 30 minutes.
>> I am absolutely walking
up there and getting a drone.
>> But it's nice too that you can use your phone
to do it, so you don't have to worry about having
like another controller with another piece of
something to lose or put batteries in or whatnot.
>> And for anyone listening, we will
be posting videos of our drone play,
which I think is a [inaudible] drone
play, on our website talknerdy.iu.edu.
So another really awesome drone though that
has come out, and it was announced last year,
but I think got a lot of play at CES was
the Lily Drone, the Lily Robotics Drone.
It's essentially a selfie drone.
It can follow you.
It follows you kind of at a
distance for about 20 minutes or so.
That's as long as its battery life is.
But it's guided by like a homing device.
>> Yeah.
>> From your smartphone.
That could be amazing.
Not just for things like extreme sports, but
anything else you might want to be doing.
>> Selfies.
All selfies.
>> All narcissism all the time.
>> But I've been following the Lily Drone since
it kind of got announced like a while ago.
And I mean, I want it, but I don't feel like, I
don't feel like I'm the right person to have it.
>> Yeah.
>> But it's, you have like this
little device, like a little circle.
And you just put it in your pocket.
And then that's what Lily uses to track
you and to figure out where you're at.
And it has all these different
modes it can fly in.
You can put it in like an orbit mode and an
orbit around you while you're like snowboarding
or kayaking or even just walking
down the street or whatever.
Or to follow you and basically
record you from behind.
But it's basically designed to just record all
the extreme moments that you're having basically.
And I think it's, I think it's cool.
And it's cute.
And yeah.
>> It is adorable.
Well there are, there are 60,000
pre-orders so far for the Lily Drone.
Are there 60,000 people out
there who are that extreme?
Because if we're thinking about people
who are doing interesting enough things
to have a personal videographer,
essentially following them around.
That number.
>> There's definitely 60,000 people
who think they're extreme.
>> They think they do.
>> Oh yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> But I think it's one of the, it's one of
the first drones that I, not one of the first
that has a GPS in it, but one of the first that's
really been marketed to like consumers and that.
A lot more people know about them.
I mean there's other drones out
there that do similar things.
But no one knows about them.
You have to go scour YouTube videos
just to find out what these drones are.
And Lily's been the first one to
really market itself for that.
It's also one of the prettiest ones.
Other drones are kind of very rugged,
and like all their parts are exposed.
And Lily keeps everything just nice and safe into
that one little circle, the circle in the middle.
And it's waterproof.
You can throw it in the water.
It can fly out of the water and
follow you around and everything, so.
>> Can you imagine someone walks out
of the water and this thing emerges
>> Yeah.
>> Like you just toss it in the water.
And then when you start moving
it'll just fly up out of the water
and start following you while
you're like kayaking or canoeing.
And I think that's something
that makes a little bit more.
>> It's a nightmare.
>> useful for consumers.
Yeah.
>> I think it's easy to take an
idea like this to the extreme
and say the government's going
to use it against us.
But I think it could be cool or very useful
for things like the police on chases,
this kind of thing with, you know, things
we've been seeing in society lately.
That kind of use.
I also wonder if there's any privacy implications.
You're out there thinking
you're doing extreme stuff.
So you're going to run into people
who don't want to be on your camera.
>> Yeah.
>> Or might think it's really cool.
One of the two.
>> Yeah.
>> It be one or the other.
>> I think it's really cool,
and I think that it'll do well.
I mean they've already had
$34 million in pre-orders.
So I think they're doing just fine.
>> That's outrageous.
>> Yeah.
>> I'm excited.
I don't know, maybe we need to
find a way to fund a show Lily.
They could tape us for at least 20 minutes.
>> Yeah. I think it's really fun.
I mean I think people at IU could probably
use it too for different projects and stuff.
So.
>> It would be great for any communications
video teams, that kind of thing.
>> Yeah. Exactly.
You know, remember that, so
we watched that Lexus video
or the Lexus hoverboard, that
was filmed with a drone.
>> I didn't know that.
>> You can see it flying in the background.
>> Okay.
>> It's like two drones on both sides flying.
So.
>> Nice, nice.
In non-CES news, a recent Nest software update,
Nest being the smart home device thermostat,
introduced a bug that crashed the company's
thermostats just as winter was kind
of truly sweeping over the nation.
People woke up to cold homes.
They had to manually fix their thermostats.
It sounds like first world problems.
>> Yeah.
>> But it could go deeper than that.
Like you were affected.
>> Yeah, yeah.
So it was like two years ago when Nest first
came out I installed like four in our home.
It was like this is so cool.
And my family loved it.
They can, you know, play around with
the settings and change the temperature.
But yeah when we were in Mexico we were
trying to check, you know, how's the house.
All disconnected.
No clue what's going on.
So our neighbor went over, and
all the thermostats were just
like going up and down all over the place.
So it's, it was pretty weird.
I don't know.
But they occasionally do get those
software updates once in a while.
And you'll wake up, and your Nest
will look completely different.
But yeah, I don't know what happened over.
>> Well it seems like, they
sound like small glitches.
>> Yeah.
>> But this is a serious issue I think long
term for gadgets that are connected by internet,
of like internet of things gadgets.
Like this is a problem.
>> So were they just, did the Nest just not work?
Or was it like fluctuating
the temperature up and down?
>> It, so it wasn't like connecting
to like centralized Cloud.
So I couldn't check the temperature
like even in the house.
>> Yeah.
>> Using like the app or anything.
And it was like going down to the away setting,
but then kind of dipping a
little bit lower than that.
So we set that like, you know, when we're out
of the house, don't go lower than like 60.
But it was like dipping down to like 55.
And that was kind of [inaudible].
>> It could have like pipes burst
bursts and stuff like that.
>> Yeah exactly.
Yeah.
>> But at least it wasn't
going up, down, up, down.
Your electricity bill might
be a little outrageous.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> So I mean, any time you're away, you're
counting on that to kind of take care of things.
>> Exactly.
>> You know, while you're not home.
That's the whole point.
So.
>> Yeah, especially.
>> I wonder if these are the things we need to
start considering when we buy these products.
So I think thus far it's just been very cool.
And I can be at work, and
I can turn on my thermostat
and have my home be warm by the time I get there.
>> Right.
>> And it's hard to remember that, you know,
things are all functioning on a system.
And if that system goes down, then.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> I think it'll get better and better.
They definitely learn from their mistakes.
You know, just.
>> Yeah. I just feel like you can't
get, you can't freak out over something
like this happening, because it's technology.
Like it's going to have a
glitch every now and then.
>> Exactly.
>> The nice thing is that
they caught it pretty quickly.
So.
>> Yeah.
>> And fixed it pretty quickly.
[ Overlapped Speaking ]
We're getting away from gadgets a bit
to talk about the hot new IOS app.
It's called Peach.
It's the best thing in social media since
the last best thing in social media.
What we seem to know is it's a messaging app.
It's kind of as if Twitter and Slack had a baby.
But there's no direct messaging.
People have to click on your
stream to see what you're saying.
It's buggy.
Is this useful?
Have you guys played with this at all?
>> I didn't hear about it until recently.
But I don't, how's it a messaging app
if you can't talk to other people?
>> You can't direct message other people.
>> What's the point of that?
>> I don't know.
>> So it's like you just basically
like follow people's stream of messages
and then, can you comment back to them?
>> Yeah. Yeah so you can like, you can comment
on like their statuses, kind of like Facebook.
>> Basically a Facebook wall writing on.
>> Yeah.
>> But I think you need to actually click
on their stream to see what they're saying.
It's not as if it's.
>> It's not a timeline.
>> It's not on display for you in the way
that a news feed or a Twitter feed would be.
>> Yeah.
>> You need to engage with them directly.
>> Yeah.
>> Like your stream is just people's profiles.
And like the most top one is the person
that most recently posted something.
But then you have to go into their profile and
actually see like oh, he posted a, you know,
a picture or a drawing or something like that.
>> So they could just be rambling on all day.
>> Oh yeah.
>> And no one would know.
>> Yeah.
>> Or if you don't scroll down far
enough, like I think about Instagram
and if I haven't been on it for a little while.
You know, there's 15 hours of stuff
that I'm never going to get to.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> I mean maybe it like kind of prevents...
we all have those friends that like tweet too much.
>> Yes.
>> And you see like a lot of
their, a lot of their tweets.
And you're like, alright, just trying to scroll
through all of that junk to get to the good stuff.
>> Right.
>> Maybe that's a good way to prevent it.
Like it's all just in one little person's profile.
>> But it seems more geared
toward your close friends.
I mean there are probably six people in my
life that I want to hear from consistently.
And then the rest of them, okay,
I'll check with you sometimes.
>> Yeah.
>> Why not just keep doing
group texts or regular SMS?
>> Yeah I don't know.
It's kind of like you said, like very buggy too.
Like sometimes you tap on somebody
you don't really know what's going on.
It's like thinking behind the scenes, and
then it just like crashes or something.
But I don't know, it just blew
up like a couple of days ago.
>> I think, it seems very
flavor of the week to me.
>> Yeah.
>> But it's fascinating because
it has blown up so quickly.
And the tech media has seized on it.
>> Yeah.
>> And it almost feeds on itself.
Like Tech Crunch says its amazing.
So Engadget says its just amazing.
And then all of a sudden it's gone.
Almost like Meerkat.
>> Yeah.
>> If you remember Meerkat was
here for like a month and out.
>> Yeah. I mean this does
look, I mean when you click
on someone's profile, it does
look a lot like Twitter.
>> Yeah.
>> You just see everything
they're saying in there.
Does this, does this tie back
to any other cell phone media?
>> No, no, it's just its own thing.
>> So they have to go in there
and post like bedtime or.
>> Yeah. It's kind of cool though.
When you type, like you can type in here
and what it'll do is it autocorrects
to like tag your location.
I think there's some other things
like draw or, what's another one.
Like time, and you can post
the time or the weather
or like your current location or something.
So there's like these little, like quirks
and things for that make it kind of unique.
But yeah overall, there's no like tie in
with any Twitter or Facebook or anything.
>> Are there any age restrictions?
>> I forget how I signed up.
I think it was just like username and password.
That's it.
I don't even think I put a
phone number or anything.
>> Right. I would almost wonder
if this would be bad for younger,
I don't know, you think about younger kids.
If you locked this off, for instance, at 18.
And it was something for younger kids
just to keep in touch with each other.
>> Yeah.
>> Which they do since they get
phones like at seven years old now.
It doesn't seem like, it seems
like it could find a place to live.
>> Yeah.
>> You know.
>> And I think it only, somehow it's
only suggesting like friends that,
I must have signed up with Facebook then.
I completely forget how I signed up.
But I think it like keeps your like close
circle of friends together and everything.
>> I'm curious to see if this like
still exists when we meet again.
>> Yeah.
>> I think like half the story is the
fact that the icon is basically an emoji.
And that could be why the things is blowing up.
>> I think it's funny it's a peach emoji because
no one ever uses it when talking about peaches.
[ Laughing ]
It's like complete opposite of.
>> That's probably, we need to segue
away, we need to transition away.
So.
>> On that note.
>> So on that note, let's get to
our sad trombone and technology.
What in the world is happening to Fitbit stock?
Last week at CES, Fitbit announced the
Blaze, which is a fitness-focused smartwatch.
It was immediately panned as a
not-so-smart watch with limited apps.
The stock fell dramatically, nearly 40% I think.
It's now, I think that's like a billion
dollars of market capitalization.
And just after the holidays it was one of
the most downloaded apps of the season.
And now it's trading below it's
IPO price, which was 20 bucks.
>> Well I think Fitbits, like the
normal Fitbits are good, I guess, gifts.
I think a lot of people got them for Christmas.
People on my engagement team,
like half of us have one.
>> Yeah.
>> I don't wear one because I
use my Apple one for fitness now.
But I have a Fitbit.
Because I feel like those are
becoming more and more prevalent.
Like people are wearing them because
they want to be fitness conscious.
And it is the new year, so now
new year, new me, new body.
But their watch, it's not really a watch.
I mean it tells time.
But that's it.
I actually like the look of it.
>> You like it?
>> Yeah.
>> Oh wow.
>> I think it looks kind of cool.
>> But.
>> I didn't really care for it.
>> It doesn't do anything
other than the normal Fitbit.
I mean you get.
>> Text notifications and like
call notifications.
You can control your music.
But the Fitbit Surge did that too.
And I thought, I don't think it's
really different than that it just looks nicer.
>> That is simply not good enough.
With Apple Watch 2 coming.
>> Yeah.
>> If you're going to like a watch,
you'd better perform in the same way.
>> But didn't the CEO of the
company say that they didn't want
to do everything the Apple Watch could do.
>> Yeah he said it was limited on purpose.
>> Yeah.
>> But I don't believe him.
>> Yeah. I don't know.
I mean stock prices are always based on what
people think the future of the company is.
And I would have to agree with the, you know,
Fitbit, they're going to slowly be cornered
to like super fitness kind of market
that Apple could easily just wipe out.
Like you said, you wear your Apple
Watch now, you know, the future of it.
>> It's a colossal strategic blunder.
I think they shouldn't have gone down this road.
>> Yeah.
>> Improve what you got.
>> Exactly.
>> Yeah. Or if you're going to make
a smartwatch, make a smartwatch.
>> Right.
>> I thought they could combine what they do with
what another smartwatch manufacturer does and have
like the best smartwatch out there.
>> Right.
>> Like Apple's fitness could use some improving.
Apple buy them, like, let's do it.
So.
>> Maybe they will.
But it's also, I got a look
at the watch, and it was okay.
But if it's going to be a fitness
watch, let it look like a fitness watch.
This looked like it was trying
to be classy and clean.
>> Has the metal bands.
Leather bands and stuff.
>> No one wants to wear that
while they're running.
Or while they're working out.
>> Yeah. So I don't know.
My friend, actually when they first had their IPO,
he bought a ton of their stock
at like $30 per share.
>> I hope he sold early.
>> Oh God.
>> It went up to like 60 or whatever,
and he was like I should sell.
but he didn't.
And now it just tanked.
And he's so mad.
[ Laughing ]
Like I think he bought like
$30,000 of stock at the beginning.
And then now it's just like gone.
>> Sell high kids, sell high.
>> They could have prevented that by
just not introducing the smartwatch.
Just don't get into that game.
Stick with what you know, and then
try to like capitalize on that.
But.
>> Yeah.
>> Once you start to compete with Apple.
>> You can't do it.
>> Yeah, and Google.
Like every, every major company that is
bigger and better than you in software.
Why would you just try right now.
It's not a good idea.
>> You just can't do it.
>> Yeah.
>> I would have hoped they'd be smarter than this.
>> Well even Pebble, even Pebble
is struggling to stay afloat.
Pebble does really well with what they sell.
But like Apple blocks so much
of what the actual watch can do.
And you have to have Android phones
to do that, and let's be honest,
like the majority of people
out there have iPhones.
And so it needs to be IOS
compatible to the fullest.
And Apple is like, no you're not
going to outdo the watch that we have.
So we're just going to block
all this stuff in your app.
And you only can basically tell time.
So.
>> Get texts, tell your time, that's it.
>> Yeah, you can read the text,
but you can't respond to it.
>> Good luck.
>> Woe is Fitbit.
So with that I bring this episode
of Talk Nerdy to Me to a close.
If you have any feedback, questions or want
to say hi, you can reach out to us online
at TalkNerdy.iu.edu, on Twitter at Talknerdyiu.
And via email at Nerdy@iu.edu.
On behalf of Brendon, Liam and our
production crew, this is Janae Cummings.
Thank you for listening.
We'll see you next month in February.
[ Music ]
This has been an official production of the
IT Communications Office, copyright 2015,
the trustees of Indiana University.
