All posts by Todd Cochrane

CES 2013 Broadcast Location!



I am very pleased to announce that for CES 2013 we will have our Broadcast booth just outside the North Hall. This is a great location not only for our perspective sponsors, but also will be incredible for the amount of foot traffic we will see at the studio. This will be the third year we have live streamed the show and like last year will be live for 45 hours of coverage with a new guest every 10 minutes.

We provide the widest coverage of the show of any network at CES. Pre-show coverage starts December 1st.

As an update the TPN team, has ramped up their planning for the show, hotels are reserved cars rented along with a 100 additional items we have to cover before the show. We are still more than 4 months out but excitement is already building.


CES 2013 Planning Underway



Several weeks ago the TPN team had their first planning meeting for coverage of the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show. The response was great, and we have a great team already on the roster. So we are marching forward in our show coverage planning.

If you watched our 2012 live coverage we racked up 670,000 viewer hours on the 25 sites that simulcast our content, with an average of 14,000 live viewers per hour during the live coverage.

Post show we published over 280 interviews on each of our participating host sites racking up some serious Google juice. Those interviews utilized or standard distribution methods have now been watched 10′s of millions of times over 100+ media devices, including Google TV, Roku, Boxee, Samsung Smart Tv, Tablets of all makes and just about every other media device with a screen.

As you know those spots covered every cool and note worthy gadget and consumer product that CES had to offer. Our viewer numbers are already hitting record numbers for us, and will continue to accumulate views as Google drives traffic to all of that content on our host sites and Tpn.tv.

If you appreciated our coverage over these past 7 years, we are on the hunt for our 2013 sponsors for the show, and we have one amazing advertising opportunity for no more than three sponsors spots. You only have a few days to react before we distribute the media kit, so get your hooks in early for a shot of being one our 2013 CES sponsors.


Stanton SCS.4DJ Digital DJ Mixstation



SCS.4DJ MixstationIf you’re a DJ, you probably know the name Stanton, purveyors of DJ hardware. If you’re not a DJ, you probably still know the parent company, Gibson, of the guitar fame. Either way, we’re in good company here. Todd and Steve mix it up with Darrin “B-Side” Young from Stanton.

On show is Stanton’s SCS.4DJ Digital DJ Mixstation, a self-contained digital controller that has its own built-in computer and mixing software. The Mixstation is Linux-based with proprietary software that takes advantage of the unit’s features.

The music itself is all digital (.mp3, .wav, .aac) and USB storage can either be plugged in temporarily or else more permanently fitted on the underside in media bays.

Some of the cool toys include a 4″ hi-res colour LCD screen, display of the current track’s beat and wave form, media browser and automatic synchronisation between tracks (beat match). There’s also an auto DJ feature that takes a playlist and beat matches between the tracks. Nice.

Available now for $499 from over 500 retailers nationwide.

Interview by Todd “TC” Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network, and Steve “Surfer” Lee of Waves of Tech.

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Gazelle



Gazelle If you have old gadgets lying around your house, there are a couple things you can do with them, keep them, throw them in the trash, try to sell them on Ebay or Craiglist or you could use Gazelle. Option one isn’t very practical. Option two is bad for the environment and is illegal in most states. Option three can be a hassle. The best option to me is option four, Gazelle. Whenever I have an old gadget I want to sell or get rid of I go to Gazelle. Currently I am waiting for the box to ship my iPad version 1 to them. I am going to get $140.00 for it, which will go toward the purchase of an iPad 3.

Gazelle has been around 2006. You can trade in your old gadgets for money or recycle those that aren’t worth anything. Around 95 percent of all items they receive are worth something, the other 3 percent they will recycle properly. They handle products in 23 different categories everything including cellphones, gaming consoles, laptops and mp3 players just to name a few. Gazelle takes data removal very seriously any data that is on the device is removed using the most secure method. Gazelle gets most of their business from people who wanted to get the latest and greatest and trade in their old device. Since the release of the iPhone 4s in Oct they have received over 150,000 iPhones in trade in. They are currently getting ready for the release of the iPad 3.

The thing I didn’t know about Gazelle is they have a store, where they sell the items they receive that are in good working order. So when the iPad 3 comes out you maybe able to pick up a iPad 2 for a good price. In fact many people will buy a device from the Gazelle store and then later sell the same device back to Gazelle to get some money. In case you haven’t noticed I am a big fan of Gazelle, so if you have old gadgets you are trying to get rid of you may want to check out Gazelle.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central and Steve Lee of Wave of Tech

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TVman Wireless DTV Tuner by Dediprog



TVman Do you want to watch over the air TV on your laptop or tablet while traveling, then the TVman Wireless DTV Tuner by Dediprog maybe what you are looking for. It is a digital TV receiver that allows you to watch over the air TV. It transfers the signal to any computer or tablet by Wi-fi. So there are no extra wires to carry around. The cord is the antenna. Because it doesn’t depend on 3G connectivity you get a full high def signal. Unlike other options available now which depend on the 3G signal and are often compressed. Dediprog distributes the product themselves and also through other vendors. They expect to sell it in the US for around $100.00. It is available now in Japan and South America. They hope to have it available in Europe within 3 months and the US by end of the year.

Dediprog also showed off a second item which combines the wireless DTV tuner with 3G. The device can be used as a mobile hotspot or a digital TV receiver. Dediprog is trying to build partnerships with various mobile service providers which would provide the 3G connectivity. They also need to get FCC approval for both devices.

Both products are small enough to fit into a man’s front pocket. You carry them with you and as long as there is an over the air signal available you can watch TV. Not sure how long the battery last or how far the wi-fi signal travels. I expect you need to be in the same room as the device, but that is an assumption on my part. Both products will works with Android, iOS and Windows. I would love to get a hold of the device to test it, to see what kind of signal it picks up

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central and Steve Lee of Wave of Tech

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Fulton Innovation’s Wireless Charging



Fulton Innovation logoThe great thing about CES is that every now and then an unknown shows off something cool. I’d never heard of Fulton Innovation but they have smart products based around wireless power transmission. Todd learns more about eCoupled from Dave Baarman.

Fulton Innovation have developed an inductive coupling solution that scales from simply making a magazine cover light up as you walk past to being able to charge a whole bag of devices without taking them out of the bag. Electric cars could be recharged by parking in the right spot and not by plugging them in.

Not all of these products are ready for market just yet, but inductive charging efficiencies are on a par with plug-in chargers though economies of scale are needed to bring the prices down to a point where it’s built-in as standard. Palm’s Pre range of smartphones used inductive charging with the Touchstone and the Motorola Droid 4 has inductive charging as an option. As a Pre 3 owner, it’s brilliant not having to fiddle with cables and I hope more devices come to the market with inductive charging in 2012.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network, and Dave Lee from Waves of Tech.

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Rocstor AES 256-bit Enctypted Hard Drive



Rocstor has unveiled a new portable external hard drive that practically guarantees that your data won’t be stolen. The hard drive, which comes in capacities up to 1 TB, has a slot for a smart card. Enter the card, punch in your code (which you choose), and you unlock the drive and all of the data you have stored on it. The drives are FIP certified and ship with multiple cards. For users that need additional cards, they can be purchased blank and inserted into a unit to be programmed to work with it. PIN Numbers can be changed an unlimited number of times as well.

These hard drives are probably not for average consumers, but more for business and government. They are designed to protect highly-sensitive data and eliminate those stories that are always in the news these days about stolen laptops filled with account and credit card information. The drives retail in the $400-600 range and are available now from Rocstor.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.

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Skifta by Qualcomm



Skifta Qualcomm which is known for its silicon and wi-fi technology for handsets and tablets is spreading into software and service. One of the consumer products they are currently developing is called Skifta. It is a media shifting platform which works through DLNA-certified and UPnP -compatible devices. DLNA protocol has been around for about eight years. Most TVs today which are over 36 inches and Internet enable are DLNA capable. The Web site of your TV’s manufacture should let you know if your TV is DLNA capable. DLNA is a nonprofit trade organization which enables the sharing of digital media between various consumer devices by defining interoperability guidelines. Because DLNA is a nonprofit organization they don’t have the money to spend on advertising and promotion, so its adoption has been slow but steady. The growth of the Smart or Connected TV market has help to increase its popularity over the last 12-18 months. Its biggest rival is Apple’s Air Play.

Qualcomm was showing off its software platform Skifta at CES 2012, which works with the DLNA platform. Think of Skifta as Airplay for Android. Once Skifta is installed on your Android device, it will go out and find any DLNA enabled device including TV’s, computers and the Playstation. You can then sending any media that is available on your network to that device. Skifta also gives you access to various Internet providers including Revision3, Ted Talks, Facebook and others.

Qualcomm is also developing a Skifta audio adapter which you attach to a receiver that is not DLNA enable and enable it. They are also making a DLNA platform that can be installed easily by the manufacture into a receiver. I installed the Skifta application on my Android phone and it almost immediately connected and found the media on my network. Once I set up an account it also let me pick up media from Revision3 and Ted Talks among others. Unfortunately I don’t have a connected TV, so for me its use is limited, but I love its possibilities.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central and Steve Lee Wave of Tech

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Yale Locks Brings High Tech to the Common Door



Yale has new home door locks that bring a high-tech flare to your house. These aren’t your average doorsets – they have touch-screens and smartphone apps. You can buy the locks alone from many retailers, like Amazon, however, they are big with custom installers of home security systems. Now they have introduced NFC (near field communication) to their locks. That means you don’t need a key or a code. Your phone alone can unlock the door just by being close to it. If you are worried about your phone being lost or stolen then you can set up a secondary line of security such as a pass code. You can also revoke a mobile key via the web site if a phone gets lost. In addition, you can assign a separate code to each person in your home and even have the lock send you a text when someone passes through the door. Yale Locks are available on the market today, and the ones with NFC technology will be arriving soon. Prices and availability have not yet been determined.

You can find out more at Yale. Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.

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