What if building a robot was like picking options on a car? I'll have the vision module, the speech module ... better give me a wheeled transportation package for this one, a flying navigation module for that one ... I'll take LIDAR and a natural vision module ... and so on ... Ohmnilabs offers an modular robotics platform that lets companies configure autonomous robots. They have customers like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Toyota, and they 3D print components so you can test new versions quickly. The idea: pick your hardware, pick your software, build your robot. In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with Ohmnilabs' CEO Thuc Vu about how it works, what's possible, and how much faster/better/cheaper this model is ...  Links: Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Ohmnilabs: https://ohmnilabs.com TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Whether you want to be Dick Tracy or you want to just not take your phone on a hike, there is now a solution: Wristcam. It's the only camera available globally for Apple Watch, and I got a sample to test. I also spent some time with the CEO and CMO of Wristcam chatting about what it does, how it works, what quality people can expect, and whether it's a boat anchor on your wrist. You can take pictures, video, and yes ... even video chat live with Wristcam. Links: Wristcam: https://www.wristcam.com Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tec... Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoet...  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier  0:00 What is Wristcam? 2:02 Sample video and pics 4:33 Live demo 6:58 The technology 11:02 Feature - live video 12:53 Future of wearable video

Next-day delivery? Same-day delivery? Super-lame. What about 5-minute delivery? That's Manna from heaven ... or manna from drones. Manna is running autonomous drone delivery right now in Galway, Ireland, and has the licenses in place to take the service across Europe and maybe Canada. This tiny startup is beating Amazon to the immediate delivery punch in Europe. And the US? That's a problem: regulation is way, way, way behind. In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with Bobby Healy, CEO of Manna, about drone delivery, how it works, what it's accomplishing right now, and how soon you might see it in your backyard. Plus, what drone delivery as a service means for the future of commerce. Links: Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Manna: https://www.manna.aero TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Medical AI has a bright future. Apple’s focus on health data collected by wearable technology and new capabilities for streaming that data to doctors just guaranteed it. I just posted to my Forbes column, and here's a few expanded thoughts on what we just saw at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference. Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

If we thought crypto was polarizing, NFTs are 10X worse. Are they cool? Are they awesome? Are they nonsense? Are they a cash grab? Are they even anything real at all?  Well, even the Olympics have NFTs. In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with Harrison Schulman and Francisco Lopez, both co-founders of one of the newest NFT marketplaces, New Renaissance. New Renaissance is the first to create an NFT out of a major sports championship icon ... in this case, Danny Green's NBA championship ring. Links: Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Coin holders get exclusive access to $SMRT Space https://johnkoetsier.com/smrt-space/ TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Humm is a small grey patch you wear on your forehead that boosts the normal electrical signals in your prefrontal cortex, making you learn faster, retain memories longer, and assimilate complex data quicker.  In research studies, subjects had a 20% boost in cognitive abilities. In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I interview Humm CEO Iain McIntyre. We talk about what Humm is, how it works, the benefits it provides, how he's planning to take it to market ... and why McIntyre (a dual law and physics major) is in this business at all. Links: Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Humm: https://thinkhumm.com TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Pilot free level 4 drone autonomy? Exyn Technologies says they've achieved it, and in this episode we chat with CEO Nader Elm. Topics: what drone autonomy means, what level 4 looks like, and, crucially, what this unlocks for search, rescue, research, security, surveillance, inspection, delivery, and many more drone operations. According to Exyn, this is no longer point-to-point flight, but open exploration flight at double the speed with a smoother flight path and higher quality data accuracy. Links: Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Exyn: https://www.exyn.com TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier 

iOS 14.5 is perhaps the biggest change in the mobile ecosystem in a decade.  While most iPhone owners might not see that much change, for the first time they are getting a choice about whether they allow adtech companies and brands to track them around the internet. For the first five years of mobile, anyone who wanted it got our hard-coded UDID, or universal device identifiers. After about 2010, anyone who wanted got our IDFAs, or identifiers for advertisers. There was an opt-out, but few saw it. Now, we'll all be asked for permission to track, like GDPR cookie notifications on the web.. App Annie CEO Ted Krantz and I chat about what that means for apps, companies, and people. Links: Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ App Annie: https://www.appannie.com/ TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Imagine the ability to have a say in who I interview next. Imagine owning a token from your favorite creator or artist that gives you special access or a closer connection. Now imagine it’s a currency that can grow as the community does. And can be used to purchase goods and services ... or even exchanged for US dollars That’s a creator coin. Recently Rally.io raised $57M to make literally a million of them. Including #SMRT​ coin, which is my creator coin. In this episode of TechFirst I interview Bremner Morris, former Patreon executive and now chief marketing officer of Rally.io. Links: #SMRT coin: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier

Would you feel awkward wearing hearing aids? About 20% of people have hearing loss. But only a third of them will actually wear hearing aids. Too many people just don't want the stigma of hearing aids. (Or all those finicky wires!) But what if they looked just like regular earbuds? Like for example, Signia Actives. They look just like regular earbuds, and they adapt to different listening needs on the fly via an app. Noisy room? There's a setting for that. Music? No problem. Need to hear what’s in front or behind? Just change a setting. Need to hear what someone’s saying through a mask? There's a mode for that. Need more volume? Less? Just turn a dial via the provided app. Links: Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Signia Active: https://www.signia.net/en-us/hearing-aids/active/ TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/ Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1 Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier