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American Morning
Look at Some New Technology Coming to Stores Near You
Aired June 27, 2002 - 08:46 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The big tech expo ending today, the technology expo at New York's Javits Center, a few blocks from here, ending today, but if you can't make it, don't fret, we've brought some of the coolest gadgets right here. In fact, we've been showing a number of them throughout the week, a few more today.
Suzanne Kantra of "The Popular Science" magazine is with us. Good to see you again.
SUZANNE KANTRA, "POPULAR SCIENCE" MAGAZINE: Good to see you.
HEMMER: OK, first up here, the Visioneer Photo Port TV 100. Can these names get any longer?
KANTRA: I know.
But actually what it does is really cool. This little device here hooks up to a TV, and you can create slide shows. So we have here an album that we've created, and what you can do is, in addition to loading your photos, you can add text and graphics, and backgrounds, and as you can see here...
HEMMER: There's Daryn hard at work.
KANTRA: So this is a great way to share your photos with family and friends without having them crowd around.
HEMMER: That's me calling my broker.
KANTRA: Yes.
HEMMER: Because I wanted to find out if I owned WorldCom stock. I believe this was yesterday right after the news broke. Indeed, I did.
That's pretty neat, you know, because that provides you the opportunity not to get around the desktop, the computer top; you can go ahead and put it on your TV.
KANTRA: And everything is done with this keyboard here, so no computer involved.
HEMMER: What kind of price are you looking at, Suzanne?
KANTRA: We're looking at $99 for this.
HEMMER: Really?
KANTRA: Yes, not bad.
HEMMER: We don't want to see this picture again.
Zitel (ph), it's a hi-fi link. Kind of a cool little gadget down here. It looks rather new age. What is it?
KANTRA: It is. This is $50. And computers really weren't meant to generate really high-quality sound. They were meant to do like the dings and little noises we're familiar with. So what happens is this plugs into your USB port and plugs into your stereo so you can get really high quality sound out of your computer. So MP3 files, and even CDs, any music that's generated in your PC now can sound fantastic.
HEMMER: Got it. Sony got a Clea (ph) product here. Jack was talking about that earlier. What is it?
KANTRA: Right. If you are looking for the ultimate, in terms of PDAs, this has everything built into it, including a camera.
HEMMER: No kidding?
KANTRA: As you can see right here.
HEMMER: You just took a picture?
KANTRA: I just took a picture of you. There we go.
HEMMER: There's the goofball. It's all touchscreen, isn't it?
KANTRA: It's all touchscreen, but the other great part about it...
HEMMER: Just a favor. Hold that up for that camera right there, Susanne. Just hold it right there, and look at that.
KANTRA: And then, open it up and you can see it has a full keyboard in here, which is just fantastic, because when you're adding contacts, addresses, and that kind of thing, you want to be able to use a keyboard for entry. It also has a fantastic high-resolution display if you wanted to have your photos of kids. And all around, this has the most in it.
HEMMER: Fits into your shirt pocket, too.
KANTRA: Right.
HEMMER: Quickly here, got a about a minute left, a DVD recorder. This is fairly new stuff here. Most people just getting their first DVD. But this one can help you record.
KANTRA: Record movies. And this is built for a computer, and it's great for home video editing. You can send off DVDs to your family and friends, but what's really exciting about this is in a few years, this is going to replace your VCR. Right, it's $350 for a computer, and then this -- around Christmastime, this will cost you about $600 for something that you would use in place of a VCR.
HEMMER: These are the blanks, right?
KANTRA: Those are the blanks.
HEMMER: Cost is how much?
KANTRA: About $350 for the drive, but then you're looking, down the road to a consumer electronics device you would put in your stereo rack, and you be able to replace your VCR with this.
HEMMER: How about the news from Circuit City a week ago. They're not selling any more VCRs, only DVDs.
KANTRA: That's one indication of where it's going.
HEMMER: Is that's true that's the fastest selling electronic component?
HEMMER: The DVD drives?
KANTRA: The actually DVD player, 199 bucks -- you can get them even cheaper now.
KANTRA: Well, this category really took off much more quickly than one would have expected when it came out back in the '90s. And it just keeps on growing because of the price point.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Can we see that PDA thing again? What does that stand for, PDA?
KANTRA: Personal digital assistant.
KAGAN: Bill thinks it stands for public displays of affection.
(LAUGHTER)
KANTRA: Right.
KAGAN: No PDA.
JACK CAFFERTY CNN ANCHOR: Is that -- are they talking about actually doing away with VHS tapes at some point, we're not going to be able to get those any more?
KANTRA: Absolutely, because VHS tapes degrade over time. And so what DVD discs do for you these are great in terms of archiving. You can hold on to these for 100 years and you don't is to worry about it. VHS tapes, if you don't run them back and forth, will degrade over 10 years, 15 years.
CAFFERTY: So that means we have to take all of that stuff we've saved, the dance recitals, and the weddings and all of that, and take them someplace and transfer to DVDs, because someday, we won't be able to get a player to play them on?
KANTRA: Exactly. And it's really, really easy to do that.
LAFFERTY: Ain't technology wonderful?
KAGAN: All that film you had transferred to VHS, you have to get it transferred to DVD.
HEMMER: Jack, she says it's easy, though.
KANTRA: It's very easy, it's, you know, it's like dubbing a tape.
CAFFERTY: "Easy" is a relative term.
HEMMER: Suzanne Kantra, thanks for stopping by.
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