Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview with Suzanne Kantra

Aired January 10, 2004 - 09:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: From ever-shrinking digital cameras, to mini-MP3 players, there are many high-tech items on display at the Consumer Electronics Show going on now in Las Vegas.
Our technology correspondent, Daniel Sieberg, brings us a few of them.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are a lot of buzzwords floating around the Consumer Electronics Show, including wireless, video on the go, all sorts of things.

To help us sort through some of those products, we're joined now by Suzanne Kantra, a technology editor at "Popular Science" magazine, also owned by our same parent company, Time Warner.

Suzanne, let's start with one device here that combines a couple of technologies. Binoculars and a digital camera from a company called Mead (ph).

SUZANNE KANTRA, "POPULAR SCIENCE" MAGAZINE: Yes, and for $200, we've seen another device on the market that's quite a lot more expensive. But this will take digital stills, if you're, you know, catching that person sliding into home base, football fan, you know, whatever it is, and then it will also take video as well, so a combination of both. Now it's not just your eyes seeing that, you can share it.

SIEBERG: Right. And how much is this going to go for again?

KANTRA: Two hundred dollars.

SIEBERG: Two hundred dollars, all right. Well, go on to the next one here. This is from Panasonic, called the D-Snap (ph), right? Well, what does this offer in this really compact package here?

KANTRA: Well, it has a digital still camera in here, a digital video camera, voice recorder, and you can play back MP3 files. But this kind of multifunction device has been out there. What's brand- new about this is that it can take TV-quality video. So now you can feel comfortable bringing it to an event and sharing that, archiving it, your baby's first steps, whatever it is.

SIEBERG: And a flash for low light. About what, $500, you're saying?

KANTRA: It's $399...

SIEBERG: Three ninety-nine, OK. OK.

KANTRA: ... so not too expensive.

SIEBERG: All right. Now, this one, a little more high-end.

KANTRA: Yes, it is.

SIEBERG: Includes video technology, being able to watch things on the go. And this is from which company, again?

KANTRA: It's from Tight Systems (ph).

SIEBERG: OK.

KANTRA: It has one, and it takes these removable 60-gigabyte cartridges, 20 hours of video, so, you know, you might be able to store a whole season's worth of episodes on there. It also has a removable MP3 player.

SIEBERG: Aha, stores all sorts of things in here. So if you want to be on the go with your music, you just pop this out and have it on the go.

KANTRA: Absolutely.

SIEBERG: All right. We go from small video to rather large video. We're almost hidden by this screen from Phillips here. What's this all about?

KANTRA: This is about wireless video. We've seen -- Sharp had announced their wireless Aquos (ph), Phillips has their Streamium (ph). What this does is, it enables you to access your DVDs, your cable TV, any kind of video source in your living room, now in your bedroom, or any other location, wirelessly.

SIEBERG: OK. We should say we do have some cords plugged in right now, that's just to help us out to get some video in here. But it is intended to be wireless. And this is a trend, isn't it, for a lot of these (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

KANTRA: It certainly is. We have, as you said, Sharp, Phillips, Samsung is coming out with a high-definition version of it. So you're going to see a lot more of this on the market.

SIEBERG: Wow. So much to see here. Suzanne Kantra, technology editor, "Popular Science" magazine, thanks to much for joining us to help us out.

KANTRA: Thank you.

SIEBERG: Back to you.

COLLINS: All right, Daniel, thanks so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 10, 2004 - 09:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: From ever-shrinking digital cameras, to mini-MP3 players, there are many high-tech items on display at the Consumer Electronics Show going on now in Las Vegas.
Our technology correspondent, Daniel Sieberg, brings us a few of them.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are a lot of buzzwords floating around the Consumer Electronics Show, including wireless, video on the go, all sorts of things.

To help us sort through some of those products, we're joined now by Suzanne Kantra, a technology editor at "Popular Science" magazine, also owned by our same parent company, Time Warner.

Suzanne, let's start with one device here that combines a couple of technologies. Binoculars and a digital camera from a company called Mead (ph).

SUZANNE KANTRA, "POPULAR SCIENCE" MAGAZINE: Yes, and for $200, we've seen another device on the market that's quite a lot more expensive. But this will take digital stills, if you're, you know, catching that person sliding into home base, football fan, you know, whatever it is, and then it will also take video as well, so a combination of both. Now it's not just your eyes seeing that, you can share it.

SIEBERG: Right. And how much is this going to go for again?

KANTRA: Two hundred dollars.

SIEBERG: Two hundred dollars, all right. Well, go on to the next one here. This is from Panasonic, called the D-Snap (ph), right? Well, what does this offer in this really compact package here?

KANTRA: Well, it has a digital still camera in here, a digital video camera, voice recorder, and you can play back MP3 files. But this kind of multifunction device has been out there. What's brand- new about this is that it can take TV-quality video. So now you can feel comfortable bringing it to an event and sharing that, archiving it, your baby's first steps, whatever it is.

SIEBERG: And a flash for low light. About what, $500, you're saying?

KANTRA: It's $399...

SIEBERG: Three ninety-nine, OK. OK.

KANTRA: ... so not too expensive.

SIEBERG: All right. Now, this one, a little more high-end.

KANTRA: Yes, it is.

SIEBERG: Includes video technology, being able to watch things on the go. And this is from which company, again?

KANTRA: It's from Tight Systems (ph).

SIEBERG: OK.

KANTRA: It has one, and it takes these removable 60-gigabyte cartridges, 20 hours of video, so, you know, you might be able to store a whole season's worth of episodes on there. It also has a removable MP3 player.

SIEBERG: Aha, stores all sorts of things in here. So if you want to be on the go with your music, you just pop this out and have it on the go.

KANTRA: Absolutely.

SIEBERG: All right. We go from small video to rather large video. We're almost hidden by this screen from Phillips here. What's this all about?

KANTRA: This is about wireless video. We've seen -- Sharp had announced their wireless Aquos (ph), Phillips has their Streamium (ph). What this does is, it enables you to access your DVDs, your cable TV, any kind of video source in your living room, now in your bedroom, or any other location, wirelessly.

SIEBERG: OK. We should say we do have some cords plugged in right now, that's just to help us out to get some video in here. But it is intended to be wireless. And this is a trend, isn't it, for a lot of these (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

KANTRA: It certainly is. We have, as you said, Sharp, Phillips, Samsung is coming out with a high-definition version of it. So you're going to see a lot more of this on the market.

SIEBERG: Wow. So much to see here. Suzanne Kantra, technology editor, "Popular Science" magazine, thanks to much for joining us to help us out.

KANTRA: Thank you.

SIEBERG: Back to you.

COLLINS: All right, Daniel, thanks so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com