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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Suzanne Kantra

Aired November 09, 2003 - 08:17   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.


RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Christmas. Have you finished your shopping yet? Well, if not, we've got some ideas for you. "Popular Science" magazine out with its 100 best gadgets of 2003 issue. And joining us from New York with five of them -- actually, four of them -- is "Popular Science" technology editor Suzanne Kantra.
Suzanne, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.

SUZANNE KANTRA, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR, "POPULAR SCIENCE" MAGAZINE: Thank you.

SAN MIGUEL: Before we get to these gadgets, I have to ask you to kind of do a wrap-up of the year. I mean, technology is sneaking its way more and more into everyday consumers' lives, everything from, you know, more use of cell phones to this downloading issue. Now you can get sued for downloading music. And the technology that was on display during the war and some of the medical technology that we're seeing, for example, with the conjoined twins, with all of this going on, what do you think about the year in technology?

KANTRA: Well, it's been a very exciting year. And every year, when the editors go through the thousands of products and technologies, we're really selecting those products and technologies that make a step forward in their category, and in some ways, touch our lives. So it's a difficult process, because there's so much out there.

SAN MIGUEL: I could imagine. And we're talking consumer products here right now, such as the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) GPS locator for children using geosynchronous positioning satellite technology to help keep track of your kids.

KANTRA: Yes. And you can put this on your child's wrist and log onto a Web site and at any time see where your child is on a very detailed street map or an aerial photo. You can even log on and see a bread-crumbing feature. So if you wanted to trace your child's steps from school to home, you could find out exactly where they've been.

SAN MIGUEL: I could imagine that these have become very popular items since, well, 9/11, since some of the stories that we see making our headlines. There's enough of these to go around? The demand is there, but also the supply is there as well?

KANTRA: The demand is definitely there. The question is, how many people want to have a very bulky watch on their child's wrist? This is not a small device. This is the beginning of this kind of technology. We're going to see these kinds of devices get a lot smaller and be integrated into other types of things like teddy bears or cell phone batteries that might make it a little bit less obvious that your child has a tracking device on them.

SAN MIGUEL: And of course that all brings up all kinds of privacy issues. But we'll get to that in another segment, another time.

Let's move on to the Phillips iPronto, being called the world's smartest remote control. You know our weatherman, Rob Marciano, was talking about having to use basically garage door opens in his weather center here. Maybe he could use something like this.

KANTRA: This is really the world's smartest remote control, as you said, because it has high-speed networking built into it. And what you can do is, while you're watching TV, you can look a lot smarter because you can Google (ph) up the answers to any of those questions that come up while you're watching your favorite programs.

SAN MIGUEL: OK. And maybe it will start my car for me, too. Who knows.

You know, we're adding so many devices, though, to our dens, our living rooms. Is this able to keep up with that? Does it have enough, I guess capacity, to add video games and things like that?

KANTRA: This is a fully configurable remote control. So as much technology as you have, you can throw at it, and you can customize the interface, too, so it has just the buttons that you need to be able to get you through to your devices much more quickly than trying to juggle, you know, six, even 10 different kinds of remote controls.

SAN MIGUEL: We move on now to the Rayovac IC3. Now, you can add all kinds of memory and computer chips to these devices that we carry around with us, but they all still depend on the batteries, don't they?

KANTRA: They certainly do. And when your child is waiting for his or her favorite toy, you don't want to be waiting for a long time. Rayovac has developed a new technology that recharges the batteries in 15 minutes versus an hour. And believe me, if you have small children, that is a big difference in time.

SAN MIGUEL: Well, on Christmas morning that definitely can make the difference. And then finally, we move on to the Festool CDD 12FX (ph), the tool you want, it says here, when you're in a tight spot. Kind of an all-in-one kind of tool?

KANTRA: Absolutely. You can see that this tool, it can actually rotate around. It can go around corners, and then there's a different chuck (ph) that can get into extremely tight spaces. So this is for the handy man around the house, it's for somebody who really loves to work with his or her hands.

SAN MIGUEL: And how much would that cost, I wonder?

KANTRA: Well, something like this is a specialty tool. So it's going to cost about $400. It comes with these two different chucks (ph) and an additional chuck (ph) will be about $70.

SAN MIGUEL: And when you pick these gadgets for your "best of" magazine, what are the price ranges are we talking about here? Everything is pretty much affordable for the average family?

KANTRA: Well, it ranges in price. The batteries, for instance, are going to cost you between $20 to $35 for the recharger. But we're talking about cutting-edge technology. So if you're worried about price, you may want to wait a little bit longer to buy what's cutting edge now until the prices come down.

SAN MIGUEL: We should point out that the iPronto, you know, the world's smartest remote control, if you're going to pay for that, that's $1,700, I believe, is the price tag for that.

KANTRA: Yes.

SAN MIGUEL: We have to leave it there. Suzanne Kantra of "Popular Science" magazine, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate your time.

KANTRA: Thank you.

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 November 9, 2003 - 08:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: Christmas. Have you finished your shopping yet? Well, if not, we've got some ideas for you. "Popular Science" magazine out with its 100 best gadgets of 2003 issue. And joining us from New York with five of them -- actually, four of them -- is "Popular Science" technology editor Suzanne Kantra.
Suzanne, good to see you. Thanks for being with us.

SUZANNE KANTRA, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR, "POPULAR SCIENCE" MAGAZINE: Thank you.

SAN MIGUEL: Before we get to these gadgets, I have to ask you to kind of do a wrap-up of the year. I mean, technology is sneaking its way more and more into everyday consumers' lives, everything from, you know, more use of cell phones to this downloading issue. Now you can get sued for downloading music. And the technology that was on display during the war and some of the medical technology that we're seeing, for example, with the conjoined twins, with all of this going on, what do you think about the year in technology?

KANTRA: Well, it's been a very exciting year. And every year, when the editors go through the thousands of products and technologies, we're really selecting those products and technologies that make a step forward in their category, and in some ways, touch our lives. So it's a difficult process, because there's so much out there.

SAN MIGUEL: I could imagine. And we're talking consumer products here right now, such as the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) GPS locator for children using geosynchronous positioning satellite technology to help keep track of your kids.

KANTRA: Yes. And you can put this on your child's wrist and log onto a Web site and at any time see where your child is on a very detailed street map or an aerial photo. You can even log on and see a bread-crumbing feature. So if you wanted to trace your child's steps from school to home, you could find out exactly where they've been.

SAN MIGUEL: I could imagine that these have become very popular items since, well, 9/11, since some of the stories that we see making our headlines. There's enough of these to go around? The demand is there, but also the supply is there as well?

KANTRA: The demand is definitely there. The question is, how many people want to have a very bulky watch on their child's wrist? This is not a small device. This is the beginning of this kind of technology. We're going to see these kinds of devices get a lot smaller and be integrated into other types of things like teddy bears or cell phone batteries that might make it a little bit less obvious that your child has a tracking device on them.

SAN MIGUEL: And of course that all brings up all kinds of privacy issues. But we'll get to that in another segment, another time.

Let's move on to the Phillips iPronto, being called the world's smartest remote control. You know our weatherman, Rob Marciano, was talking about having to use basically garage door opens in his weather center here. Maybe he could use something like this.

KANTRA: This is really the world's smartest remote control, as you said, because it has high-speed networking built into it. And what you can do is, while you're watching TV, you can look a lot smarter because you can Google (ph) up the answers to any of those questions that come up while you're watching your favorite programs.

SAN MIGUEL: OK. And maybe it will start my car for me, too. Who knows.

You know, we're adding so many devices, though, to our dens, our living rooms. Is this able to keep up with that? Does it have enough, I guess capacity, to add video games and things like that?

KANTRA: This is a fully configurable remote control. So as much technology as you have, you can throw at it, and you can customize the interface, too, so it has just the buttons that you need to be able to get you through to your devices much more quickly than trying to juggle, you know, six, even 10 different kinds of remote controls.

SAN MIGUEL: We move on now to the Rayovac IC3. Now, you can add all kinds of memory and computer chips to these devices that we carry around with us, but they all still depend on the batteries, don't they?

KANTRA: They certainly do. And when your child is waiting for his or her favorite toy, you don't want to be waiting for a long time. Rayovac has developed a new technology that recharges the batteries in 15 minutes versus an hour. And believe me, if you have small children, that is a big difference in time.

SAN MIGUEL: Well, on Christmas morning that definitely can make the difference. And then finally, we move on to the Festool CDD 12FX (ph), the tool you want, it says here, when you're in a tight spot. Kind of an all-in-one kind of tool?

KANTRA: Absolutely. You can see that this tool, it can actually rotate around. It can go around corners, and then there's a different chuck (ph) that can get into extremely tight spaces. So this is for the handy man around the house, it's for somebody who really loves to work with his or her hands.

SAN MIGUEL: And how much would that cost, I wonder?

KANTRA: Well, something like this is a specialty tool. So it's going to cost about $400. It comes with these two different chucks (ph) and an additional chuck (ph) will be about $70.

SAN MIGUEL: And when you pick these gadgets for your "best of" magazine, what are the price ranges are we talking about here? Everything is pretty much affordable for the average family?

KANTRA: Well, it ranges in price. The batteries, for instance, are going to cost you between $20 to $35 for the recharger. But we're talking about cutting-edge technology. So if you're worried about price, you may want to wait a little bit longer to buy what's cutting edge now until the prices come down.

SAN MIGUEL: We should point out that the iPronto, you know, the world's smartest remote control, if you're going to pay for that, that's $1,700, I believe, is the price tag for that.

KANTRA: Yes.

SAN MIGUEL: We have to leave it there. Suzanne Kantra of "Popular Science" magazine, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate your time.

KANTRA: Thank you.

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