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© Fred Fishkin
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Techstination is a daily report on consumer tech produced by tech journalist and host Fred Fishkin. Listen to full interviews and daily reports here and find more at www.techstination.com
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Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. The winter months can make it difficult to get those steps in outdoors. So to keep up with those fitness resolutions…a treadmill or walking pad can be a great investment. Lifesmart’s PowerTouch line electronically folds up. And it works coming back down too…where Lifesmart’s Dave Jackman says the design emphasizes safety…“We have incorporated an infrared sensor at the base of the treadmill so when it is folded up, let’s say, heaven forbid a soccer ball’s there or a cat walks under the treadmill, it will sense that object and immediately stop." Beyond that the Lifesmart PowerTouch models are well designed with cupholders big screens, Bluetooth speakers, and workout programs to keep you motivated. Learn more at LifesmartTreadmills.com. You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. They are watches that help you keep track of your fitness…but their main mission is fun. At My Play Watch …they are putting classic games from Atari, Tetris and more on your wrist. Chief Creative Officer Jeff Hardy…founder of the F84 game studio..“And so as game folks who spent our whole careers in games, we conceptualized the idea and said hey, let’s take retro games and make a new retro game watch. My Play Watch is non-connected. So it’s a really cool, smart, digital watch that gives you a suite of fitness things that you might want. Track your steps, check your heart rate, active calories. But then it really focuses on fun and fashion and the playful side of things.”You can find the My Play Watch line for under sixty dollars and learn more at MyPlayWatch.com.You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. If you are among the many wearers of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses…you know that the case for the glasses is how to keep them charged. But for your desk or nightstand…there’s another option. Reikiya is out with the AI Smart Glasses Charging Dock. It makes it easy to keep the Gen 1 or Gen 2 Ray-Ban Metas charged. We’ve taken a look for review and like the design…that includes a 3.3 foot USB C charging cable and the sufficiently weighted stand. The dock has an an LED indicator to show you the charge status. The price… under thirty dollars on Amazon. You can find a link on our site. We’ve continued to see discounted pricing for the Gen 1 Metas, by the way…but the Gen 2s have some significant improvements, including battery life. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLHXDY5D You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. Make room on that kitchen counter if you are a fan of slushees. Iceplosion…and company based in Messina, Italy…has unveiled an at home carbonated slushee machine. Founder Andrew Heighway..says it took four and a half years of research…“Yes, it’s a counter top kitchen appliance and it operates with capsules. So you have syrup capsules. And in actual fact, our machine, we found out that it was capable of doing other things as well. And so we could also make non-carbonated slushees and we also make ice cold sodas, which is another first for the industry as well in the current marketplace.”Heighway says Iceplosion should arrive before the summer for about seven hundred dollars…this is a pretty sophisticated machine….with the price of the capsules coming in at about a dollar. You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. With robots and AI everywhere at the 2026 edition of CES….the big international consumer electronics show….Lego managed to steal some headlines announcing Lego SMART Play. It will use SMART Bricks and Smart Tags making them interactive with sounds, lights and more. The first Star Wars themed sets are due to arrive in stores March first…..with prices starting at under under seventy dollars. Also gathering some attention… a device called AllergenAlert…. Portable device that can test for allergens in foods. The initial testing capability will be for gluten….with dairy and more categories on the way. Find the company …based in France…at Allergen-Alert.com. We’ll have more in the days to come. You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. Here we are half way through January already….and Google is offering some AI help in sticking to those resolutions you may have made for the new year. Google’s Sarah Armstrong says Gemini is perfect when it comes to health and fitness goals..“Because you can create a personalized workout routine, maybe it’s a meal plan. Instead of trying to stick to routines that maybe are going viral on social media, people can figure out what works for them. So you can say I can’t work out on Tuesdays, I prefer to be outside, I want to focus on this. All of that information, help me create a schedule for these days of the week and it can break that down for you. And Fitbit too, I have a Fitbit, has a new personal health coach.”Designed to help keep you on track. And of course, there’s a whole lot more to come.You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. The popular online gaming platform Roblox has become the first to employ facial age checks for chatting on the site. The move is designed to improve the safety of young people. Senior Director for Product Policy Eliza Jacobs…“So you just open up, start the process …you sort of turn your head left and right, sort of like how you open your iPhone with your face now and we will estimate your age. And then we will delete that data immediately. So it’s very privacy protecting. We only keep the information about how old you are and delete the other information, the other data.”There are other parental controls available as well. Parents are encouraged to have and link their own accounts. There is more info at Roblox.com/safetycenter.You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
ChatGPT Health has arrived. And it is free for consumers. What should you know? OpenAI CMO Kate Rouch shares that and her personal story in this Techstination interview with Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. The robotic companion puppy from TomBot is nearing production….designed, initially to assist with Alzheimer’s. Founder Tom Stevens and his team have built a very realistic labrador retriever puppy with very lifelike responses …“Our first puppy, Jennie, was designed specifically for seniors with dementia. She is designed to treat the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia and reduce the need for certain medications. That said, 71 percent of our pre-order and wait list customers are actually ordering her for a different use indication. So level two, level three autism. Intellectual developmental disabilities.”And more. The technology is impressive. Learn more at Tombot.com.You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. Something a bit uplifting for this new year. Ford Philanthropy has reached an impressive milestone. It has become the first corporation to surpass 100 million dollars in global donations with Global Giving. Mike Schmidt is director of Economic Mobility and Global Community Development…“We try to take a holistic approach to it and it’s all sorts of different kinds of work. We have community centers in Ford communities around the globe. We have mobile dental and medical offices that go out into communities that really need that support. We have education programs that are helping prepare young people for the future of work. So it’s a range of things that we do.”Often without a lot of fanfare. There is more info at FordPhilanthropy.org.You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
How can AI help you stick to those resolutions? Just about a week into the new year, Google's Sarah Armstrong joins Techstination's Fred Fishkin to chat about how Gemini can help with everything from fitness to travel and new tools to help you breeze through that Gmail inbox.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. The smart wallet folks at Ekster are out with the Cardholder Pro for MagSafe. As the MagSafe name implies…it will snap onto phones…from either side of the wallet which holds 7 cards with add-on capability as well. The push of a button at the base pops cards up . We’ve been a fan of the technology for years. CEO Olivier Momma..“It clocks to your iPhone. Any phone that has MagSafe technology. We also sell MagSafe stickers so you can stick it to other phones that don’t have MagSafe technology. It still has the card feature. But it now clicks. And it’s still trackable so there’s still the Find My technology in there.”What we’re most impressed with …along with the design…is the durability. Ekster includes a lifetime warranty. You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Roblox has become the first online gaming platform to implement facial age checks for chat. Why? How does it work? Director for Product Policy Eliza Jacobs chats with Techstination's Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. It was back in February of 2025, when we first introduced you to a Texas high school student, Tejasvi Manoj, who was inspired by her grandfather to create an app designed to protect older adults from scams using AI. She called it Shield Seniors….“And though I realized that there were a lot of seminars that were helping with cybersecurity for seniors, there wasn’t really a real time assistant for them. So that’s why I decided to create Shield Seniors which hopefully would help with that.” And we are happy to report that Tejasvi was named Time’s Kid of the Year for 2025. No doubt this new year will see her achieve even more as she prepares for college. Congratulations!You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
With the arrival of the Nebula X1 Pro and the newly announced Nebula P1i the latest projectors from Soundcore are capturing attention at CES 2026. Soundcore's Adam Weissman chats with Techstination's Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. It is a gadget category that is new….and growing pretty fast. AI notetakers. Soundcore Work is a remarkably small AI voice recorder, the size of a coin, that uses GPT for transcriptions and summaries. We have been impressed. It can clip onto clothing magnetically or be worn necklace style. Soundcore’s Adam Weissman…“While you’re in a meeting, while you’re talking to important people, if you’re in school or whatever, you can take notes. There’s really two pieces to it. So there’s the actual recorder, which is this part right here. And then there’s the bottom part or the bigger part is the dock slash charger.”That snaps right onto the back of a mag safe or similar phone making it easy to carry the Soundcore Work everywhere. You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. Among this year’s CES Innovation award winners is Netvue for some new innovations in its Birdfy smart bird watching line. There’s a new smart bird bath and a cleverly designed Hum Bloom smart hummingbird feeder. CMO Prima Shi..“This provide a 3MP camera capturing every wing beat because we know hummingbirds really move fast. With this one, you can see it clear and you can see every movement with the slow motion. The AI identifies over 150 species of hummingbirds. With the design, that is a leak proof hydraulic system.”There’s more info on the very full line up …including a smart bird house…at Birdfy.com.You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. At the beginning of this new year, we’ve been talking about the advancements in autonomous vehicles and robotaxis…and the need to use the technology to provide mobility who really need rides. And that need is great. For instance, ITN America, was started in Maine, thirty years ago and it has spread throughout the country enabling older adults who are capable of driving…to give rides to those who aren’t. The programs have provided more than one million 750 thousand rides and counting. The founder is Katherine Freund..“So we’ve driven a lot of miles over the years and we’ve served a lot of people. We’ve got about a hundred non-profit organizations in our national network and we just added fifty more, so up to a hundred and fifty now.”Freund looks forward to the day when affordable driverless vehicles can help as well. Visit ITNAmerica.org.You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. It has been a long time coming, many billions of dollars have been invested, but robotaxis are finally on the road in a handful of cities. But at Princeton University, the faculty chair of autonomous vehicle engineering, Professor Alain Kornhauser, says removing the driver should lower the cost, and make mobility for all much more affordable..and so far…that has rarely, if ever, been the case..“It’s a shame that we don’t do a better job for the people who are in most need. The seniors who can’t turn the key or press the button to start the care anymore or shouldn’t or the people who can’t afford it, simply because they have to feed their families.“ Kornhauser is the co-author of The Real Case for Driverless Mobility and is my co-host on the Smart Driving Cars podcast.You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. Self driving cars and robotaxis became a reality for many this past year. With Alphabet’s Waymo expanding service to more an more cities around the country there are thousands of people taking rides every day without human drivers behind the wheel. Amazon’s Zoox has begun testing in Las Vegas and parts of San Francisco. And Tesla launched its robotaxi service in the Bay Area and Austin…initially with safety drivers. And for everyday Tesla owners the progress made with FSD supervised technology was remarkable. While it doesn’t allow you to operate without a person behind the wheel, used properly, FSD can make Teslas much safer, with the camera systems and increasingly robust software able to see and react often more quickly than we humans. More, in my next report.You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.
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