Transcript 0:00 Talk to me. Information, news, and entertainment on demand. WUSradio.com. 0:10 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the voice of IoT in our connected world, with your host, Peggy Smedley. [upbeat music] Hello, listeners, and welcome back to The Peggy Sledley Show. 0:25 My final guest today is a columnist, editor, book author, blogger, and a collector of abs- obsolete, I guess you could say, technology. You name it, she's got it. She's done it. 0:37 And in fact, most recently, she's the founder of a team, [chuckles] I love this, of technophiles who bring together, I think, these top experts and the latest, uh, innovations to look at the intersection of lifestyle and technology. 0:50 Please join me in welcoming Robin Raskin, founder and president of Living in Digital Times. Robin, welcome back to the show. Great to, great to be here. It's a lot less hectic than when I saw you last. 1:03 [laughs] Well, it was crazy at CES. I'm kind of glad that I'm not there right now. I'm kind of glad I'm in the ch- cold of Chicago right now. How about you? Uh, yeah, yeah. Where are you right now? 1:13 Co-cold of New York, so we're c- we're close. Um- [laughs] We, we got-- we're dealing with the cold, but at least we're not dealing with mobs and throes of people like CES was. No. 1:23 When, uh, this year it seemed to me more people got sick and got the flu and weird things than I've ever, ever seen at a CES before. So, um- Well- Uh, y-yes. I don't know. What was in the air? 1:35 I tell you, CES, I don't know. But when you saw CES, when we were there, you know, there was a ton of focus on all kinds of solutions. I don't know, what came out of it for you? 1:45 Let me-- let-- you know, for our listeners, what, what, what was your takeaway from that show? Yeah. So I think you're seeing all the things - CES is always cumulative. 1:56 Uh, you-- This wasn't a big breakout year for any one thing, but all the promises are coming true. So, for example, autonomous self-driving vehicles are really there. I mean, this is not science fiction anymore. 2:11 They work. They drove people around the streets of Vegas during the show. Um, artificial intelligence is getting there. 2:21 If I had to put it in a spectrum, I'd say, you know, it's probably somewhere like at about a five-year-old's [laughs] intelligence right now, but, um, moving very quickly to, um, to learn. 2:33 It will take it shorter to grow up than it took us to grow up. And then certainly, um, augmented reality and virtual reality in a whole range of settings. 2:44 Everything from helping train doctors to do surgery, uh, with virtual reality, to going shopping in a virtual world and actually buying things, to game playing, to deciding where your next vacation's gonna be. 2:58 So you're starting to see the real practical, um, productized versions of these technologies that you've been hearing about. And then, of course, 3:09 the Internet of Things, which is our name for physical things that are connected to the Internet. Everything from your toothbrush to, um, your wallet, to your glasses. 3:22 So everything becomes a device that can get information from the cloud and use it in some way. So you saw a host of things. You know, I joked the whole show, like, if you said the word Alexa, 3:36 you know, the, all the lights in the place would go off. Which they did. 3:39 [laughs] Well, I have to tell you, me and A- Alexa and I, you know, w-we argue every now and then 'cause she will not turn my lights on when I want her to, and I'm like, "Really? It's not that hard. Turn the lights on." 3:51 When I tell her to turn the lights off, sometimes it goes off. My son has to do it for me. He's like, "You and her just do not get along." And I'm like, "I don't know what the problem is." 3:58 And then the next time she does it, and I don't even have to say a few words. I don't know what her deal is, but she just sometimes can get it right, and sometimes she doesn't wanna get it right. 4:05 I-- It's just kind of a crazy thing, but, you know, that's what we're dealing with, the level of a- Don't take it personally. She's probably saying, "Yeah. [laughs] She's probably saying, 'Peggy, get off the... 4:13 Get, get up and turn your own lights on.'" [laughs] Turn on. Really, you know. Remember when we used to do that? Not anymore. 4:19 But I'm really-- I have to say, this whole world of AI that we're all getting, and then it'll be machine learning, and we're moving on to blockchain and, you know, quantum computing and the whole world, it's all about interoperability. 4:31 You know, this whole idea that we're gonna bring all these connected devices and, you know. But we're, we're all siloed right now. You know, that's the big problem. Yep. 4:39 You know, if you want Amazon, you gotta go the Amazon route. You want the Google, you gotta go to the Google route, you know. And then Apple's gonna pick, you know, with their HomePod- Yeah... just came out. 4:48 And now everybody... 4:49 But, you know, we've got Samsung who's got, you know, Bixby and that whole world there that they're doing, is they're kind of playing a, you know, one kind of narrow road saying, "Hey, you know, they're smart things. 4:59 We're, we're kind of being neutral." But, uh, you know, the consumer has to kind of pick. Oh, yeah. Apple also. Yeah. I, I agree. I, I, I agree. 5:08 And it's really not so easy as they make it look when your washing machine is telling you the laundry's done and... Although some of it. I mean, the stuff that's really solid now are, uh, d-door locks, for example. 5:22 And you, uh, you laugh, who cares if you have a digital door lock? But you do care because you cannot be home and see who's coming to your door. 5:31 You cannot be home and let a service person into your home, you know, if you desire. You can have somebody come in and then change the combination for the lock. So there are lots of practical reasons. 5:43 So door locks, and, and they work pretty well. Uh, the video cameras, the home monitoring systems work quite well now. It's-- And the thermostats work quite well. What doesn't work quite well is the interoperability. 5:57 You're, you're right. And so some people see that as an opportunity. Wouldn't you love to call the interoperability service person to come to your house? [laughs] And makes this all work. 6:08 Um, I think it's gonna be a huge opportunity because- That's a great new job. You just came up with a new j- a new job title. That's awesome. That's per, per- Yeah. [laughs]... perfect. 6:16 We haven't thought of a new job title. And then I think- I think that's it. Right. 6:20 And I think these companies also are just gonna have to, um, wake up that if they make this too difficult, nobody's gonna buy it, so that it's time to open up their, um, APIs, their, their programming interfaces to more platforms so it's not impossible to have an Apple Watch and to pay, you know, at a Samsung station. 6:41 Um, and, um, because I, I see it every day, people... 6:46 You don't want the person before you in line to have their mobile device to pay because [laughs] nine times out of 10, it's, like, not working, um, for a host of reasons. And so in order to- Well-... 6:58 further the i- industry- Well-... they've, they've gotta give up something. Well, let me ask you this though. I really think, are we as consumers partially to blame for this, this interoperability problem? 7:09 I was just talking to the National Science Foundation, and we were just talking in the last s- segment here is that we as consumers overall need to kind of stand up and, you know, scream from the mountaintop. 7:21 I kind of think about it's like distracted driving. 7:23 I mean, at the same time, we can't complain that we have too much distracted driving if we're the ones who are on the phone all the time with the, and causing the distraction because we are at fault. 7:32 And it's the same thing here. We have interoperability because we're the ones not demanding enough that we want it to stop. If we wanna be the loud voice- Yeah. 7:42 You know, as an industry, you know, an industry can come together. It's just like why are blockchains gonna work? Because an industry, a group of people come together, make them work. 7:51 They're not gonna work any other way. So I mean, unless people get up and say, "Enough's enough," we're gonna continue to have a, a, a lack of interoperability. Well, yeah, no. We almost... 8:01 You know, when it comes to these devices, we almost don't know. So it's, it's sort of like the old video games. Remember you went to buy your child a video game and say, "Oh, my God. 8:09 Does he have an Xbox or a PlayStation?" [laughs] "Which version?" That's what's happening now. 8:15 And if the industry doesn't do something like a, a plug-and-play center where you can bring your device in and, and check it out. 8:22 You know, and this is a great opportunity for bricks-and-mortar, you know, places to get involved or to have, you know, an Amazon-certified list of what works with what. I mean, it's not that 8:35 hard for them to be a little more helpful. And if they are helpful, they will sell more products. 8:42 'Cause right now you sit there in the store and say, "Gee, I'd love to control my lights, but I don't know if this one's Alexa compatible or Google Home companion compatible, so I'm not gonna buy it." 8:51 Um, you know, and so that's, it's sort of hurting, uh, hurting everybody by not having an easy way either to test something out in the store, to have somebody come to your home, to just... 9:05 What we're missing at this point is the infrastructure to make all of this easier. Yeah, I think you're right. Well, Robin, we are out of time, but thank you for being with us. 9:14 I know you'll be back, uh, and then, you know, as a regular, so thanks for spending time with us. Sure. It's always great to hear your voice. Have a great one. All right. Thank you. 9:23 All right, listeners, we are t- out of time. It goes by so fast. 9:27 And you know The Peggy Smedley Show is broadcast live every Tuesday at 12:00 PM Central, and you can check out our website at thepeggysmedley show.com, or you can always tweet at me at connectedwmag. 9:39 Thanks for listening. Hope you have a great week. Remember, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and relevant technology. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. 9:51 [upbeat music] With great technology comes great responsibility. 10:05 Follow Internet of Things tech expert and futurist Peggy Smedley, repeatedly ranked as a top IoT and M2M influencer. 10:13 Go to peggy_smedley on Twitter for her take on the latest tech news and lively interviews with other industry insiders on her weekly radio show. Visit twitter.com and search for peggy_smedley to follow her today. 10:27 [upbeat music] Video consumption is on the rise. So to reach this audience, Constructek Magazine created Constructek TV. 10:39 Constructek TV helps construction professionals leverage emerging solutions to better their business. Tune in to constructek.tv to catch the latest show on the first and third Tuesday of each month. 10:50 Like, view, and subscribe to constructek.tv. Bringing dynamic video to construction. [upbeat music] Signal to noise, an electronic term with new relevance on the internet. 11:05 Connected World Media cuts through the noise of data overload and finds you the signal of important information, information that will keep you current and aware of context in the Internet of Things. 11:16 Peggy Smedley shares her insights on The Peggy Smedley Show and in Connected World Magazine, all online at connectedworld.com. Stay current and competitive at connectedworld.com. 11:28 [upbeat music] Are you a small business or nonprofit? 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