Geared Up Podcast: Google’s answer to the Echo Show and an Alexa enabled toilet

Alexa in the toilet. An in-home smart robot. Google’s answer to the Echo Show. From the whacky to the wonderful, smart assistants were the talk of the town at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Our man-on-the-ground, Geared Up co-host Andru Edwards, says this year’s expo marked the true dominance of Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant and a decline in the normal fervor around all things Apple.

We share our top picks from the show on this week’s episode of Geared Up, our weekly tech and gadget podcast. Listen in the player below, watch our live behind-the-scenes video above or subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher or your favorite podcast app.

This week’s stories:

• Google answers the Echo Show with new touchscreen smart devices from JBL, Lenovo, LG and Sony
• Huawei brings the flagship Mate 10 smartphone to the U.S., despite its deal with AT&T falling through
• Andru loved the TCL 6-series, affordable and high-quality home TVs unveiled at CES
• The Kuri robot, a driveable in-home assistant with a remote camera, made a big impression, but not without more fears of privacy concerns
• Kholer is launching a smart toilet that can be controlled by a paired Alexa-enabled mirror, taking the virtual assistant to a whole new level
• Toyota unveiled a new autonomous vehicle, called the e-Pallette, that could be used for anything from delivering pizzas to an autonomous roving hotel
• And finally, Andru had some fun whizzing around the show floor on this motorized, rideable bag from Modobag

Check out my live stream from #CES2018 Day 3 – I met my new robot best friend, and rode around on a piece of luggage.

Full episode available on @NationalPro’s Twitter and Facebook! #ad pic.twitter.com/x6Rg48SFft

— Andru Edwards (@AndruEdwards) January 12, 2018