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CNN Saturday Morning News
Analysis of Hi-tech Gifts for Chirstmas
Aired December 21, 2002 - 07:44 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: What, four days left?
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Isn't that hard to believe?
O'BRIEN: Gosh.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Daniel Sieberg is here with some stuff I want to put on my list. No, no, I mean it's for my kids. It's for my kids, right? All right, let's...
SIEBERG: I think, Miles, we're in that up category. You know how all the toys always say five and up, six and up? Well, we're in the up category.
O'BRIEN: We're up.
SIEBERG: Yes, we're up.
O'BRIEN: Up with toys.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk, before we get to the fun stuff, we have some testers here for this.
SIEBERG: Official testers.
O'BRIEN: Jonathan Scherr (ph) brought in his photographer. Can you get a shot of your daughters? They're here. They're going to play with these toys in a minute. I might have to borrow them just for a minute. But you guys get ready now. Get psyched. OK, now...
SIEBERG: We'll just, yes, we're just the sort of the demo testers originally, and then we'll give them to the real testers.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's it. Beta testers, then they get them.
SIEBERG: All right. Now, this is, the first one we're going to talk about here is the digital blue video camera. And you can see it right here. This is something I actually wish I had when I was a film student, believe it or not. It's the video camera that hooks up to your PC or your computer. Basically you're using it as a digital camera, if you can see here. You take some -- if you can see the screen there, as well, you're basically taking some video with this camera.
Now, the resolution isn't all that great. But for about $100, you're getting this digital video camera. It also takes digital still pictures. Then when you're done, you know, your kids are out, you can run around with it off the cradle, as well.
O'BRIEN: Right.
SIEBERG: You stick it in the cradle.
O'BRIEN: It has its own memory in there, so when you plug it in...
SIEBERG: Yes, it's has its own memory in here, so when you're out...
O'BRIEN: Wow, cool.
SIEBERG: ... you can take some pictures, go out. And then once you've put it back in the cradle here...
O'BRIEN: Oh, no, reboot the computer it says.
SIEBERG: Uh-oh. Oh, this...
O'BRIEN: The demo gods have one...
SIEBERG: Has this happened before with us, Miles?
O'BRIEN: We have, we have ways of breaking computers.
SIEBERG: This sounds very familiar.
O'BRIEN: I'll tell you what, while you're rebooting, let's play with the remote control.
SIEBERG: Yes, I think...
O'BRIEN: Oh, I think it's going to work.
SIEBERG: I think it might work. Basically, the idea behind it's you take the pictures...
O'BRIEN: It's saved.
SIEBERG: ... and the video on here and you hope that your computer works. Remember it has computer problems...
O'BRIEN: That's a big if, isn't it?
SIEBERG: It is a big if these days. Once you load it in, there's some software maybe we can go and do all sorts of different things. There's some lighting effects that you can do.
O'BRIEN: Oh, you know what? My little girl needs this. SIEBERG: You can do some motion capture, change some of the frames. You know, like I say, this is something I wish I had when I was younger.
O'BRIEN: All right, so wait a minute. This is a hundred bucks?
SIEBERG: This is about a hundred bucks.
O'BRIEN: Am I...
SIEBERG: You can get it for different prices. Again, it's the digital blue camera and it does take the still pictures, as well. You do sacrifice the resolution, but the good news with that is you can take a lot of pictures.
O'BRIEN: Right. Right.
SIEBERG: You can have a lot of video in there because it's not real compressed.
O'BRIEN: Well, when you're eight you're not...
SIEBERG: And if you're eight years old...
O'BRIEN: You're not too worried about the...
(CROSSTALK)
SIEBERG: Yes, exactly.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, it's funny, because my daughter keeps wanting to borrow my little DVD camera and I give that to her with some reluctance because there's some money invested there.
SIEBERG: Right. You're a little worried she's going to break it or something.
O'BRIEN: She's very careful. But this might be a good option.
SIEBERG: Yes, this is pretty durable.
O'BRIEN: So hopefully she's not watching right now.
SIEBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: All right, now, what else do we have?
SIEBERG: Now we're going to go to, these are the little tiny guys. I mean we're going to go from something with a fairly, you know, roughly a high price, $100, now we're talking $7.99. Do you remember the Sony Ibo (ph) dog, Miles, that would run around, the robotic dog?
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SIEBERG: Well, these are the extreme miniature version of those. Basically, once you put them down on the table there you push the top, you see those little eyes light up? They're intended to, they're from Atomi (ph). They are meant to respond to voice commands. So if I say "walk," well, he's already walking. So he's ahead of the game. This is...
O'BRIEN: This is a smart little toy.
SIEBERG: ... ahead of the curve here. But the idea is that they respond to different voice commands once you take the back out of them here and push the top. And they make all sorts of little noises. I don't know if you can hear them there on my microphone. And, again, these go for $7.99. They're sort of a stocking stuffer idea as opposed to like a real high tech one.
I know you're itching to get to these.
O'BRIEN: But beware. Beware, they make noise.
SIEBERG: They do make a little bit of noise, yes. The problem is...
O'BRIEN: This reminds me of Furby. Do you remember Furby a few years back?
SIEBERG: I do remember Furby, yes.
O'BRIEN: I've got a Furby that's still talking.
SIEBERG: Yes, well, that's -- yes.
O'BRIEN: I'm going to put it under water any day now.
SIEBERG: Now this is great because you're using the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: Yes, no, I'm getting cutaways for it.
SIEBERG: Right, yes.
O'BRIEN: All right.
SIEBERG: Now, I know you're itching to get to these.
O'BRIEN: This is the moment we've been waiting for.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Ladies, get out here. Come on. You, get, grab a remote control toy.
SIEBERG: Whichever one you want to take. Now this is...
O'BRIEN: And how about it?
SIEBERG: These are from...
O'BRIEN: I love the hovercraft.
SIEBERG: Yes, these are from Taoi (ph).
O'BRIEN: Wow.
SIEBERG: This is the edge hovercraft.
O'BRIEN: Cool.
SIEBERG: And the edge runner.
O'BRIEN: There you go.
SIEBERG: One is obviously a car and one is the hovercraft.
O'BRIEN: You know how to do it, push it forward. There you go.
SIEBERG: You know, we tested the hovercraft out. It goes for about $120. It actually goes over land, as you see here, and also over water. It doesn't go over camera cords all that well.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SIEBERG: But as you can see here, it does move pretty fast. It doesn't have a reverse on it that we can find, so you kind of have to keep it in an area where you can keep spinning around. The car here...
O'BRIEN: Oh, and it goes over water.
SIEBERG: It does go over water.
O'BRIEN: Probably pretty calm, right?
SIEBERG: Just like a hovercraft, right.
O'BRIEN: Yes, yes.
SIEBERG: You need to have some fairly smooth water.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SIEBERG: And as you can see, it keeps kids fairly entertained.
O'BRIEN: Yes, right.
SIEBERG: All ages. We were in here and you were in here playing with it earlier and, you know, it does keep you entertained for a while.
O'BRIEN: Wow. Wow, I like these. They're fun.
SIEBERG: Now, the remote control works for about 20 feet away. If you're about 20 feet away you can get the reception on them. But...
O'BRIEN: So what you need...
SIEBERG: And then it flips over. Now, did you see that?
O'BRIEN: Whooo, yes. Do that again.
SIEBERG: Now, the car actually flips over.
O'BRIEN: Do that again. Can you make it flip over?
SIEBERG: Yes, if you go real fast forward and then back over it...
O'BRIEN: Oh, cool.
SIEBERG: Did you see that?
O'BRIEN: Very cool. Wow, there you go.
SIEBERG: It actually runs upside down.
O'BRIEN: Neat, neat, neat, neat, neat. Very cool.
SIEBERG: Which is, you know, something different than the typical remote controlled car that you would see so, that's sort of the advancements in remote controlled cars and gadgets. Again, the hovercraft about $100, $120. The car about $90. I'll send it back out here.
O'BRIEN: You know what you -- and how much for the paint for your baseboards?
SIEBERG: Yes, right.
O'BRIEN: All right...
SIEBERG: It comes out of your kid's allowance. That's where they get it.
O'BRIEN: The Scherr sisters have helped us out. Thank you very much, ladies. Have a happy holiday.
SIEBERG: Yes, thank you.
O'BRIEN: Thank you for helping out.
Jonathan, we appreciate you coming in, too, and bringing the extras.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Daniel Sieberg...
SIEBERG: Four shopping days left.
O'BRIEN: Right. Now, keep playing. Keep playing.
SIEBERG: Yes, and you guys go for it.
O'BRIEN: This is, this is what it's all about -- we're here...
SIEBERG: Otherwise we're going to play with them. So somebody better do it.
O'BRIEN: Otherwise, yes. Come on.
All right, we've got to take a break. We'll be back with stuff that's a lot less interesting in just a little bit.
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 December 21, 2002 - 07:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: What, four days left?
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Isn't that hard to believe?
O'BRIEN: Gosh.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Daniel Sieberg is here with some stuff I want to put on my list. No, no, I mean it's for my kids. It's for my kids, right? All right, let's...
SIEBERG: I think, Miles, we're in that up category. You know how all the toys always say five and up, six and up? Well, we're in the up category.
O'BRIEN: We're up.
SIEBERG: Yes, we're up.
O'BRIEN: Up with toys.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk, before we get to the fun stuff, we have some testers here for this.
SIEBERG: Official testers.
O'BRIEN: Jonathan Scherr (ph) brought in his photographer. Can you get a shot of your daughters? They're here. They're going to play with these toys in a minute. I might have to borrow them just for a minute. But you guys get ready now. Get psyched. OK, now...
SIEBERG: We'll just, yes, we're just the sort of the demo testers originally, and then we'll give them to the real testers.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's it. Beta testers, then they get them.
SIEBERG: All right. Now, this is, the first one we're going to talk about here is the digital blue video camera. And you can see it right here. This is something I actually wish I had when I was a film student, believe it or not. It's the video camera that hooks up to your PC or your computer. Basically you're using it as a digital camera, if you can see here. You take some -- if you can see the screen there, as well, you're basically taking some video with this camera.
Now, the resolution isn't all that great. But for about $100, you're getting this digital video camera. It also takes digital still pictures. Then when you're done, you know, your kids are out, you can run around with it off the cradle, as well.
O'BRIEN: Right.
SIEBERG: You stick it in the cradle.
O'BRIEN: It has its own memory in there, so when you plug it in...
SIEBERG: Yes, it's has its own memory in here, so when you're out...
O'BRIEN: Wow, cool.
SIEBERG: ... you can take some pictures, go out. And then once you've put it back in the cradle here...
O'BRIEN: Oh, no, reboot the computer it says.
SIEBERG: Uh-oh. Oh, this...
O'BRIEN: The demo gods have one...
SIEBERG: Has this happened before with us, Miles?
O'BRIEN: We have, we have ways of breaking computers.
SIEBERG: This sounds very familiar.
O'BRIEN: I'll tell you what, while you're rebooting, let's play with the remote control.
SIEBERG: Yes, I think...
O'BRIEN: Oh, I think it's going to work.
SIEBERG: I think it might work. Basically, the idea behind it's you take the pictures...
O'BRIEN: It's saved.
SIEBERG: ... and the video on here and you hope that your computer works. Remember it has computer problems...
O'BRIEN: That's a big if, isn't it?
SIEBERG: It is a big if these days. Once you load it in, there's some software maybe we can go and do all sorts of different things. There's some lighting effects that you can do.
O'BRIEN: Oh, you know what? My little girl needs this. SIEBERG: You can do some motion capture, change some of the frames. You know, like I say, this is something I wish I had when I was younger.
O'BRIEN: All right, so wait a minute. This is a hundred bucks?
SIEBERG: This is about a hundred bucks.
O'BRIEN: Am I...
SIEBERG: You can get it for different prices. Again, it's the digital blue camera and it does take the still pictures, as well. You do sacrifice the resolution, but the good news with that is you can take a lot of pictures.
O'BRIEN: Right. Right.
SIEBERG: You can have a lot of video in there because it's not real compressed.
O'BRIEN: Well, when you're eight you're not...
SIEBERG: And if you're eight years old...
O'BRIEN: You're not too worried about the...
(CROSSTALK)
SIEBERG: Yes, exactly.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, it's funny, because my daughter keeps wanting to borrow my little DVD camera and I give that to her with some reluctance because there's some money invested there.
SIEBERG: Right. You're a little worried she's going to break it or something.
O'BRIEN: She's very careful. But this might be a good option.
SIEBERG: Yes, this is pretty durable.
O'BRIEN: So hopefully she's not watching right now.
SIEBERG: Right.
O'BRIEN: All right, now, what else do we have?
SIEBERG: Now we're going to go to, these are the little tiny guys. I mean we're going to go from something with a fairly, you know, roughly a high price, $100, now we're talking $7.99. Do you remember the Sony Ibo (ph) dog, Miles, that would run around, the robotic dog?
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SIEBERG: Well, these are the extreme miniature version of those. Basically, once you put them down on the table there you push the top, you see those little eyes light up? They're intended to, they're from Atomi (ph). They are meant to respond to voice commands. So if I say "walk," well, he's already walking. So he's ahead of the game. This is...
O'BRIEN: This is a smart little toy.
SIEBERG: ... ahead of the curve here. But the idea is that they respond to different voice commands once you take the back out of them here and push the top. And they make all sorts of little noises. I don't know if you can hear them there on my microphone. And, again, these go for $7.99. They're sort of a stocking stuffer idea as opposed to like a real high tech one.
I know you're itching to get to these.
O'BRIEN: But beware. Beware, they make noise.
SIEBERG: They do make a little bit of noise, yes. The problem is...
O'BRIEN: This reminds me of Furby. Do you remember Furby a few years back?
SIEBERG: I do remember Furby, yes.
O'BRIEN: I've got a Furby that's still talking.
SIEBERG: Yes, well, that's -- yes.
O'BRIEN: I'm going to put it under water any day now.
SIEBERG: Now this is great because you're using the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: Yes, no, I'm getting cutaways for it.
SIEBERG: Right, yes.
O'BRIEN: All right.
SIEBERG: Now, I know you're itching to get to these.
O'BRIEN: This is the moment we've been waiting for.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Ladies, get out here. Come on. You, get, grab a remote control toy.
SIEBERG: Whichever one you want to take. Now this is...
O'BRIEN: And how about it?
SIEBERG: These are from...
O'BRIEN: I love the hovercraft.
SIEBERG: Yes, these are from Taoi (ph).
O'BRIEN: Wow.
SIEBERG: This is the edge hovercraft.
O'BRIEN: Cool.
SIEBERG: And the edge runner.
O'BRIEN: There you go.
SIEBERG: One is obviously a car and one is the hovercraft.
O'BRIEN: You know how to do it, push it forward. There you go.
SIEBERG: You know, we tested the hovercraft out. It goes for about $120. It actually goes over land, as you see here, and also over water. It doesn't go over camera cords all that well.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SIEBERG: But as you can see here, it does move pretty fast. It doesn't have a reverse on it that we can find, so you kind of have to keep it in an area where you can keep spinning around. The car here...
O'BRIEN: Oh, and it goes over water.
SIEBERG: It does go over water.
O'BRIEN: Probably pretty calm, right?
SIEBERG: Just like a hovercraft, right.
O'BRIEN: Yes, yes.
SIEBERG: You need to have some fairly smooth water.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
SIEBERG: And as you can see, it keeps kids fairly entertained.
O'BRIEN: Yes, right.
SIEBERG: All ages. We were in here and you were in here playing with it earlier and, you know, it does keep you entertained for a while.
O'BRIEN: Wow. Wow, I like these. They're fun.
SIEBERG: Now, the remote control works for about 20 feet away. If you're about 20 feet away you can get the reception on them. But...
O'BRIEN: So what you need...
SIEBERG: And then it flips over. Now, did you see that?
O'BRIEN: Whooo, yes. Do that again.
SIEBERG: Now, the car actually flips over.
O'BRIEN: Do that again. Can you make it flip over?
SIEBERG: Yes, if you go real fast forward and then back over it...
O'BRIEN: Oh, cool.
SIEBERG: Did you see that?
O'BRIEN: Very cool. Wow, there you go.
SIEBERG: It actually runs upside down.
O'BRIEN: Neat, neat, neat, neat, neat. Very cool.
SIEBERG: Which is, you know, something different than the typical remote controlled car that you would see so, that's sort of the advancements in remote controlled cars and gadgets. Again, the hovercraft about $100, $120. The car about $90. I'll send it back out here.
O'BRIEN: You know what you -- and how much for the paint for your baseboards?
SIEBERG: Yes, right.
O'BRIEN: All right...
SIEBERG: It comes out of your kid's allowance. That's where they get it.
O'BRIEN: The Scherr sisters have helped us out. Thank you very much, ladies. Have a happy holiday.
SIEBERG: Yes, thank you.
O'BRIEN: Thank you for helping out.
Jonathan, we appreciate you coming in, too, and bringing the extras.
SIEBERG: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Daniel Sieberg...
SIEBERG: Four shopping days left.
O'BRIEN: Right. Now, keep playing. Keep playing.
SIEBERG: Yes, and you guys go for it.
O'BRIEN: This is, this is what it's all about -- we're here...
SIEBERG: Otherwise we're going to play with them. So somebody better do it.
O'BRIEN: Otherwise, yes. Come on.
All right, we've got to take a break. We'll be back with stuff that's a lot less interesting in just a little bit.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
