Fake pork meat and reasons to never walk again in Las Vegas this week

People are geeking out over the future of tech at CES in Las Vegas, an annual conference and showcase of the latest in gizmos and gadgets.

Dave Ross spoke to Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler on Seattle’s Morning News about what they have on display.

Fowler’s favorite thing so far?

“I think what we’re probably most likely to actually see and try is this new fake pork meat!” Fowler said. “The Impossible Foods people who made the fake hamburgers that have become really popular in the last year … they’re making a pork now.”

There were plenty of other out-of-the-box ideas. One of the most unsettling is perhaps Segway’s new S-Pod, which Fowler got a chance to ride around in.

It bears a startling similarity to the floating chairs featured in the Wall-E movie.

“It’s like the future humans and we’re all so fat and we don’t really walk anymore, we just float around in these little bubbly things?” Fowler said. “Yeah so they invented that, that’s real now.”

The pods can go up to about 24 miles an hour. But for people to test them out at the conference, Segway limited the machines to a max of 7 mph.

“Even that seems terrifyingly fast,” Fowler said. “I did wear a helmet though.”

And in other dystopian future/sit on your butt news, TV resolution has doubled with the unveiling of an 8K TV.

“I think it’s going to be a little bit of a harder sell,” Fowler said. “Yes, if you go from 4K to 8K you get four times as many pixels … but you have to stand really close to see the difference.”

There’s also a new TV made by Samsung called Sero that can rotate itself to stand vertically, optimized for viewing video or photos taken on your phone. Rotated, it does kind of resemble a giant phone.

“It’s not the world’s worst idea, I just don’t know how many people are going to want to buy that TV,” Fowler said.

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