Preserving indigenous language, thanks to Motorola and UNESCO. Plus, ESR Tech’s latest cases, and Spines audiobooks.

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Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the ever-changing world of technology?
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Tech It Out can help make some sense of it all.
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Breaking down geek speak into street speak, technology columnist, author,
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and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer technology each week
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for every listener. Mark tackles the latest news, reviews, and
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how-tos to help you understand what's hot, what's not.
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And why.
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Hey everyone, welcome to Tech It Out, episode 462. Hope
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you're all doing great today on this September day. In
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the tech industry, we call this time of year Tech-Tember
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because from now all the way until January when the
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CES show, the Consumer Electronics Show, takes place in Vegas,
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it's non-stop going. tech announcements and product launches, new game releases.
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It's a very busy season, as you can imagine, the
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fall and into winter gift-giving season. And so I'm thrilled
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to have you along for the ride. If my travel
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lately is any indication, it really has amped up. As
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you may recall from last week's Tech It Out, I
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was in Cupertino, California at Apple Park for the unveiling
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of the new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. the
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foldable iPhone Duo, new Apple Watches, and AirPods. Hey, we
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have a very busy Tech It Out for you. Speaking
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of the new iPhones, I was in New York this
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week visiting three companies, one of which was ESR Tech.
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This is a mobile phone accessory company with 130 million
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customers around the world. We'll hear what's new when it
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comes to smartphone cases and chargers for the home and
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in the car. Some pretty wild tech. After that, we
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speak with Dr. Anton Troyer.
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He is an.
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Ojibwe author, professor and public speaker. And we're going to
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talk about technology to help preserve indigenous languages. There's a
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partnership between Motorola and UNESCO. It's really fascinating work, so
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we're going to hear about that. It includes a new app,
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by the way. And finally, you may be into audiobooks,
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and you probably know that Audible, owned by Amazon, kind
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of corners the market. But there is a scrappy startup
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called Spines that has some really wild audiobook technology. All
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of this and more on a brand new Tech It Out,
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powered by Norton and Visa. Two brands that protect you
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in slightly different ways. They're amazing partners of mine on
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this program. I'll tell you more about them shortly. But
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without further ado, let's officially kick off a brand new
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Tech It Out with our first interview. All right. As
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I mentioned earlier in the show, I'm in New York
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at an event hosted by ESR Tech, which makes popular
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mobile accessories, including cases. Choosing a fitted case for your
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favorite phone protects your device from damage, of course, improves
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your grip, and in some cases, pun intended, adds useful
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features like a kickstand to prop up your device. Joining
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us to chat is Noad Akbarali. He is Global Marketing
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Manager at ESR Tech. Thanks, Noad, for your time. Nice
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to meet you.
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Nice to meet you.
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Coming all the way from Shenzhen via Sydney, so you
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must be tired, but great event tonight.
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How are you feeling?
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Yeah, good.
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Met a lot of people, you know, spoken a lot
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about our products.
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So, you know, it's been great.
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Yeah, and I have to say a lot of buzz
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about what you've been showing, including new devices for the
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iPhone family that was just unveiled by Apple last week,
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of course. We'll get to all of that. But why
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don't we start at a high level, Noad? For those
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unfamiliar with ESR Tech as a brand.
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Please tell.
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Our motto is tech made easier.
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And that's all about taking a device, taking an accessory,
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working through all the, you know, the points of friction,
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the difficulties and making it an easier product. We believe
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that tech shouldn't burden people. It should make life easier.
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And that's what we do with all our products.
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So there are other companies that make cases. I know
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you make other products as well, like chargers and all that.
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We'll get to that. But would you say that is
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then the key differentiator between ESR Tech and others is
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that your primary MO is to make life easier for
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those who use their devices like smartphones? And that is
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the common thread. that runs between all of your products.
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Look, we make a product that we want to use.
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So we look at the issues that we face in
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everyday life that make it, and then we take care
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of it.
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We make it easy to use.
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We add functionality that's actually useful, not just for the
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sake of it.
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Yeah.
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So not just like a gimmick.
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But something that is practical, such as I mentioned a
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case earlier that has a built-in kickstand. That's a good
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segue into hearing what I saw tonight tied to iPhone Duo,
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which is, of course, Apple's first foldable iPhone coming in
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late October.
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I happened to see that in person.
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I was fortunate to be at the Apple Park event
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last week in Cupertino. So you've got new devices for
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these new phones like iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.
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But can we start with the Duo, including a case
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that I saw that had a really neat kickstand configuration
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at the back?
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Yeah, so from day one, we've got all the cases
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for iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone Duo. Our cases come,
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that little stand you're talking about is our camera guard.
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So it's dual function, right? protects the cameras at the
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same time it pops.
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Out and so you can pop it on your desk
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you can pop it standing up you can hold it
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with the the guard so.
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It's like a three-in-one it protects the lenses primarily again
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it's a two thousand dollar phone 3000 to start in Canada.
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And so it protects the lenses on the back of
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the iPhone Duo, but it's a kickstand in both vertical
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and horizontal orientation, landscape and portrait mode.
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And you can hold it because it's got a loop
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kind of mechanism.
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You can put your fingers through the middle.
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So it gives you a better grip when you are
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holding a device that does unfold to be like an
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iPad mini.
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So you want.
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Perhaps that extra grip.
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Yeah.
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Very versatile.
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Yeah.
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All right.
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And then the colors that includes burgundy, which is the
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new color. If last year was orange and This year
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is burgundy. Not so much on the iPhone Duo, even
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though I did see this case in the Duo. That's
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more for the 18 Pro and Pro Max. Why don't
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we segue to those products? What's new from ESR Tech
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for those new iPhones coming this month?
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So we've got the Telia vegan leather case for both phones.
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So the 18 Pro and the Duo. Really nice texture. Yeah.
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So it's a very nice, soft kind of leather feeling texture.
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Very protective. So it will, like you spill a coffee
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on it, it's not going to stain.
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So nice to touch, but you're not sacrificing durability. Is
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there something under that vegan leather?
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So very similar to our classic hybrid case. It's got
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the reinforcement inside, so you drop it. It's got the
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four times military grade protection, one times on the iPhone
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Duo because of the hinge. Inside, there's also a microfiber
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kind of lining, so.
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It won't scratch your phone. You know, you pay a lot.
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You don't want those micro scratches.
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And then you also have these transparent cases as well
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that you were saying that won't discolor over time. That
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is a common complaint with many of these clear or
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these see-through cases that after a few months, they get yellowy.
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How do you prevent that from happening? And what's that
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line called?
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So we all know that issue, right? You buy a case,
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it's clear, it's beautiful. When you first put it on
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and then a few weeks down the track, it starts yellowing.
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A month or two down the track, it's like gone yellow.
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Not nice at all.
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So our Clearguard technology, so that's.
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A new coating that we put on our cases and
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that extends the life of the case substantially. That means
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you get that fresh phone feeling from day one right through.
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It can last over six months. Compared to competitors, compared
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to our old cases, it's a much fresher, newer experience.
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If you're just joining us now, we are chatting with
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Noad Akbarali. He is Global Marketing Manager at ESR Tech.
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We're in New York City at an event where we're
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seeing their new product lineup tied primarily to the new
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iPhone 18 family and the iPhone Duo coming in a
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month and change. And you also showed, Noad, some new
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charging solutions. Some of them are integrated into the case,
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like MagSafe.
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Others were for the car, for the home, like a
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bedside companion.
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So big things in the charging range.
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Let's start with MagSafe.
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So MagSafe is Apple's magnetic charging technology.
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Now, one of the big issues is heat. A wireless
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charger that heats up and your charging rate drops.
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It's a proprietary technology, right?
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It is.
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So it's CryBoost Active Cooling Technology. And what it does,
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it removes the heat that's at the back. It can
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drop it down by 11.7 degrees. What that means in
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real life is that you don't get that message popping
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up saying, iPhone too hot, charging stopped. You'll get that
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continuous charging at the full 25 watt G2 speeds. And
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your phone will charge as opposed to not charging.
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And these were really quiet fans at work, right? I
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think I even asked you earlier tonight, like, is this on?
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Because I thought that it was like a dummy phone
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just to show what the style or design would look like.
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But it was actually on because I felt the cooling
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when I put it up against my face. You don't
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hear that fan. What I said earlier, you may have
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this beside your bed if your phone is your alarm clock.
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Well, think about it.
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Do you want to sleep or be trying to fall
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asleep and you get that buzzing sound or that constant whir?
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No.
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We made sure that if you've got it sitting by
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your bedside, you're not hearing it. There's nothing distracting about
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using it. It's quiet like a wired charger. All right,
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that's called CryoBoost, right? One word, capital C, capital B,
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and that's.
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An ESR tech exclusive to keep both the charger and
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the phone cool while it's doing its thing, and that's
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built into many of your new products. You also had
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some even with retractable cables, which is convenient because you
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may forget the cable at home.
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So that's a new line for us. It's our extended chargers.
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They all have retractable cables, 3.1 feet or 95 centimeters.
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They will charge multiple devices.
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So you've got the cable that retracts.
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You can plug in a phone. You can plug in
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an iPad.
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You can even plug in a MacBook Pro to the charger,
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and it will charge.
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Starting with the wall plug, it's 45 watts.
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Goes up to 60 watts, and will charge the new
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iPhone 18 Pros at their full speed. With the car charger,
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it's got two retractable cables, so you can be charging
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a phone, a laptop, and even plug in an additional
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device like a traffic camera.
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Right, it's got a USB-A port built in as well. Exactly.
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Yeah. So Noah, what about screen protectors for the glass itself.
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In the front of the iPhone?
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So we've got our Armorite Pro range and those ones
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are made with accessory glass by Corning. So the same
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glass that Apple uses in their iPhone screens, we use
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that to protect those same screens.
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Really great protection.
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It'll withstand like crazy drops, scratches.
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You have to put your keys in there, in your
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pocket with it. Done that many times.
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You don't have any issues that way. We've got our
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oleophobic coatings on them. So like you don't get water
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beating off it. No fingerprints.
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Very clear.
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Noad, it's been great chatting with you. Congratulations, by the way.
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I understand over 130 million people around the world use
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your products already. Is there a website to read more
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about your products and see what the retail support is like?
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You can find us at esrtech.com or on Amazon. And
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we've got a full range on both.
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All right.
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ESRtech.com.
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Noad, once again, thanks for hosting us tonight.
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Nice to meet you. Thank you, Mark.
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When we return on Tech It Out, how Indigenous language
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is kept alive through technology.
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We'll be right back. Listen to Tech It Out whenever
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you want.
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Find the Tech It Out podcast at iTunes or wherever
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you get your podcasts.
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Welcome back to Tech It Out.
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We cover cybersecurity a lot on this program and how
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you can best protect yourself in the digital age, even
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if you're not super tech savvy. One part of the
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solution is securely shopping online. And so I'm thrilled about
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my partnership with Visa on Tech It Out as they've
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made some significant investments in fraud prevention over the past
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five years, as much as $ 10 billion.
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Yes, that's billion with a B.
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To support Visa's brand promise to protect the financial information
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of individuals and businesses. Zero liability means peace of mind
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when you shop online using your Visa card. There can
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be no half measures when it comes to cybersecurity, which
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is why the company takes an aggressive and multi-layered approach
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to combating the rising threat of malicious software and other
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threats by well-funded and global criminal enterprises.
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Read more about Visa.
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And how securing the world's payments is priority one at visa.com
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slash security. That's visa.com slash security. Personally, I love when
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technology can help bridge communities and also preserve the past
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for future generations. And so I'm really looking forward to
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this next interview tied to Motorola partnering with UNESCO on
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digitizing and promoting endangered indigenous languages. Joining us to chat
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is Dr. Anton Troyer, an Ojibwe author, professor, and public speaker.
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Hi, Dr. Troyer. Thanks for your time today.
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Bonjour, Anin, and hello. Thanks for having me on.
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The pleasure is all mine.
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Before we talk about this partnership between Motorola and UNESCO,
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please tell us a bit about your work. Sure.
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So I kind of sit on a three-legged stool. One
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of them is I am just at the service of
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my community. The Ojibwe are a really big group of people.
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There are probably 600,000 of us, and the U.S.-Canadian border
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ran right through the middle of Ojibwe country. So I
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live at Leech Lake, which is in northern Minnesota, and
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my kind of ceremony and community service work is regional.
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So it really does straddle the border. I'm traveling throughout
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the United States and Canada, and especially in Ojibwe communities
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where I officiated a variety of ceremonies and things like that.
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That's one of the legs of the stool. Another one
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is that I am a professor of Ojibwe, meaning I
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teach Ojibwe language, history, and culture at Bemidji State University.
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And we've had an Ojibwe language program there since the 1960s.
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And the third leg is I write books and give talks.
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And to me, they're kind of like three strands of
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a braid. They all feed one another. And that's kind
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of the core of my professional work.
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Amazing.
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Congratulations. It sounds.
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like a very rewarding lines of work, plural, as you said,
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that are all interconnected. So you're the perfect person, Dr. Troyer,
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to talk to about this topic on preserving Indigenous languages.
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I guess it's been said that good technology solves a problem.
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And so why don't we first identify what the issue is,
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and then maybe how tech can help?
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Oh, sure.
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You know, maybe first of all, for the benefit of
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folks listening in, we could zoom out and then we'll
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zoom in on what's going on with this particular project.
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Please.
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You know, broadly, there are about 7,000 languages spoken on
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planet Earth right now. And about 2,500 of them are
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spoken only by elders. So while most people are aware
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that we're at an inflection point where climate change and
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human development are threatening a whole generation numerous numbers of
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species of animals, for example, on planet Earth, people are
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a little less aware that whole bodies of human knowledge
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and ways of knowing, as embedded in languages, are also
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highly endangered. And I don't think any one group has
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a monopoly on all the great ways of looking at
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the world or solving problems. We have lots to learn
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from one another. A lot of things get in the way.
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Right now, you have about 100 of the 7,000 languages
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which are widely taught at colleges and universities, just as
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one indicator of language health. And so you're seeing, you know,
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the proliferation of a smaller handful of major world languages
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and a lot of stress on other ones. I mean, honestly,
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they're even worried about Swedish. which is the official language
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of a very wealthy country that will buy a copy
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of any book published in Swedish and put it in
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every library in the country. And they still can't get
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enough people to publish books in Swedish and everyone there
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also speaks English. And so, you know, where you're at
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right now is very different from where you might be
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a hundred, 200, you know, 500 years from now. So yeah,
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There are lots of interventions that can be made and
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each language has its own unique, not just linguistic underpinning,
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but history and geography and lots of things can impact this.
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There has been a growing effort amongst many indigenous communities
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in Canada, in the United States, and really around the
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world to stabilize and revitalize their heritage languages. Which, of course,
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in addition to all the things all world languages have
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been navigating, Native people have been subjected to lots of
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effort to eradicate their languages and cultures. Think about residential
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boarding schools.
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A hundred percent.
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All of that has provided new challenges to the strength
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and vitality of Native languages and some of the interventions involved.
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are really, really powerful. And I do think that this
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is one of the intersection points where technology can be
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so helpful in the revitalization of a language. There's an
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internal discussion within a Native community about how to use
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technology and not get used by it. Of course, there's
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an effort to capitalize and corporatize even the most worthy efforts.
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But in spite of all of these sorts of barriers
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and the discomfort or maybe even lack of capacity, a
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lot of Native communities might have for embracing and using
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the technologies. They can provide powerful levers.
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We continue chatting with Dr. Troyer when we return on
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Tech It Out. We'll be right back. Want to follow Mark?
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00:18:15.539 --> 00:18:17.849
Google him. Mark with a C and Saltzman with a Z.
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Breaking down geek speak into street speak.
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This is Tech It Out with technology columnist, author, and
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TV personality, Mark Saltzman.
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Welcome back to Tech It Out.
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We are chatting with Dr. Anton Troyer, an Ojibwe author, professor,
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and public speaker. We're talking about the Indigenous Collections app.
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Motorola has a partnership with, I believe, the Rainy Lake
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Ojibwe community to not just, as you said, to preserve
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the native languages of your people for future generations, but
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also to be consumed and enjoyed today. I believe it's
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simply referred to as the Indigenous Collections app created between
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Motorola and UNESCO. Can you tell us a bit about this,
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this partnership?
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Yeah, I'm really excited about this app.
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So my role.
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With the effort has really been one of providing advice
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and feedback, both with development and editorially. And honestly, it's
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so exciting. Even the Amish communities struggle to go Amish,
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to freeze a language and culture and time and wall
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themselves off from the world. So if Ojibwe people are
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going to have a smartphone on their person and a
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television in their home. well, we should get those things
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speaking our language. And Nancy Jones, who's from Niigagusa-Minneconning First
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Nation in northwestern Ontario, was really probably the most significant
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language and culture advisor and resource for the app. So
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One of the things that's included in it are some
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of her stories and they are available in audio form,
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in a textualized Ojibwe form. And there is room to
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even grow this app to provide lots more like grammatical
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learning tools and other things kind of embedded and connected
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to the content that's been captured there. And what it
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does is it means you can have an Ojibwe speaker
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In your pocket and right in front of your face
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to learn from and engage with full proper Ojibwe, not
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just kind of cut down into very simple talking flashcard
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type applications and all of that is really. a welcome
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contribution to the growing efforts to stabilize and revitalize Ojibwe.
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Interrelated dialect groupings and is closely related to Ottawa and Potawatomi.
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So you'll find amongst Ottawa, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, even Cree, the
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word Anishinaabe is a word of self-reference. So it's a
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broader label. Ojibwe is a little more tribally specific and yes,
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there are lots of folks who are interested in and
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working hard on the revitalization of their languages. So I
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think for related language groups, seeing this work is useful
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and helpful, not just a curiosity, but even for folks
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who are in radically different languages, interior Salish as another example, or,
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you know, Blackfoot, both of those groups straddle the U
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S Canadian border. Both of those groups are engaged in
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language revitalization efforts. And even though, you know, the stories
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are in what to them would be a completely different language,
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looking at the patterns, the technology applications, the relationships and
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the power of technology to leverage speakers and to more people,
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provides them with support, fuel, and ideas for how to
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advance their own efforts.
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The last question, Dr. Troyer, is how do we get
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going and how do we learn more? Do you recommend
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downloading the app or is there a dedicated website where
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we can learn more about this partnership between Motorola and
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UNESCO is very much involved in this?
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Yeah, so people can access the application on their smartphone. So,
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you know, any of the Motorola or Android phones will
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be able to support this application and should be easily
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and freely accessible on those applications. In addition, this is
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one of of many technology interventions that is ongoing right now.
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We've developed Rosetta Stone for the Ojibwe language. There are
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lots of people who are teaching in a variety of
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contexts from in-person to Zoom classroom to asynchronous learning environments.
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And these sorts of technology applications are super useful in
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all of them. I don't think that a technology like
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this will replace a fluent speaker or the beauty or
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benefit of engaging in living language communities any more than
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reel-to-reel technology would replace fluent speakers or cassette technology or
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digital technology or wave file recordings and video or anything
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like that. They're just more tools in the toolbox. And
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the more tools you have, the more adaptable you can
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be to your contemporary reality to different types of learning
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environments and meeting people right where they're at so we
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can go on a language learning journey together love.
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That thank you so much dr troyer and yeah just
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00:24:01.930 --> 00:24:05.210
to confirm It is available at the Google Play Store
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00:24:05.269 --> 00:24:10.509
for Android devices, not yet available for iOS at the
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00:24:10.589 --> 00:24:12.970
App Store for iPhone and iPad, just a heads up.
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But the Indigenous Collections app is published by Motorola Mobility, again,
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in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization,
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or UNESCO.
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Thank you again, Dr. Troyer.
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It's been fascinating talking to you. Keep up the great work.
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And thank you so much once again for carving out
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some time to talk.
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00:24:30.200 --> 00:24:31.180
Hey, thank you so much.
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00:24:31.869 --> 00:24:34.940
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Norton 360 with LifeLock, simply visit norton.com slash techitout. If
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you want to reach out on social media to share
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your feedback on Tech It Out, maybe you've got suggestions
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for upcoming guests or topics, or you've got a tech
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question for me, you can find me on X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads,
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Blue Sky, TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
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It's Mark Saltzman, M-A-R-C-S-A-L-T-Z-M-A-N.
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When we return on Tech It Out, what's new in audiobooks,
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your ears will perk up.
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We'll be right back.
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Breaking down geek speak into street speak.
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Tech It Out, hosted by Mark Saltzman.
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Welcome back, everyone. You're listening to Tech It Out.
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It's no secret that AI is changing every industry, and
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audiobooks are no exception. Spines, a platform to publish your
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own books professionally, is also helping authors create and sell audiobooks,
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leveraging AI to facilitate this. Joining us on the line
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to explain how it works is Yehuda Neve, CEO of Spines.
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Thanks for your time, Yehuda. Good to talk to you.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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It's great to be here.
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Before we talk about spines and what you're doing in
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the audiobook space, why do you think audiobooks are so
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popular today?
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00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:11.960
I believe it's a matter of time management. You know,
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people are busier than ever nowadays. Being able to listen
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to a book, like when you sit and read a book,
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that's something you do active.
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00:27:18.920 --> 00:27:20.269
But listening to a book, you.
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Know, it's a passive process. You don't have to actually
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allocate a lot of time to do that. Let's make
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that more easy. And I believe it's a different media
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of books that is emerged as something which is more
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consumer favorable because.
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It is just easier and you can control the speed.
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00:27:42.259 --> 00:27:47.839
And sometimes you are getting a few emotions of the
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00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:50.740
one who was doing the audiobook version.
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00:27:50.819 --> 00:27:53.890
And it's a nice experience, you know, to listen to
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00:27:53.990 --> 00:27:54.829
instead of reading that.
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00:27:55.430 --> 00:27:55.769
Agreed.
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00:27:55.990 --> 00:27:58.849
Yeah, it's easier to multitask. I travel a lot as
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a journalist. And so I like listening while I'm walking
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through airports. Not to mention, think of all the people
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listening right now who are commuting to and from work
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every day. A lot of people aren't called back to
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00:28:09.210 --> 00:28:12.930
the office post pandemic, and they're fighting traffic in their
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00:28:13.210 --> 00:28:16.380
cities and they want to remain entertained both ways. And
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00:28:16.400 --> 00:28:18.619
I agree with you. There's also the emotion of the
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narrator in some cases.
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00:28:20.099 --> 00:28:22.339
All right. So would it be fair then to say.
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00:28:22.359 --> 00:28:25.779
Yehuda, that Audible, which is an Amazon brand, they're probably
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00:28:25.799 --> 00:28:28.900
the biggest platform for audiobooks. Is it true they're putting
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00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:32.259
up roadblocks when it comes to publishing audiobooks?
533
00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:36.759
Funny story. One of our lead investors, Oren Ziv, he
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00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:40.619
led our Series A. It was $ 60 million in funding.
535
00:28:40.859 --> 00:28:42.019
Oh, wow. Congrats.
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00:28:42.039 --> 00:28:42.220
Yeah.
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And he was one of the first investors in Audible.
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And also he was one of the early investors in Chegg.
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So he's actually a venture capitalist who has a major
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00:28:54.069 --> 00:28:56.450
success in the publishing space. And he told me that
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he believes Spice will be the third. And what Audiobuild
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00:29:00.900 --> 00:29:03.160
used to be and what it is right now, it's
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00:29:03.180 --> 00:29:07.359
a very different approach to audiobooks. However, I do believe
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they have an amazing catalog on the user end of
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00:29:12.440 --> 00:29:12.960
the reader.
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00:29:13.339 --> 00:29:16.609
It's an amazing platform. However, for publishers or authors.
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00:29:17.210 --> 00:29:20.309
We in Spines, we created a process that we can
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00:29:20.349 --> 00:29:23.730
help anyone to create an audiobook version for themselves, because
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00:29:24.089 --> 00:29:27.759
up to date, creating an audiobook used to be something
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00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:30.880
which is very either labor intensive, because you will have
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00:29:30.940 --> 00:29:33.980
to go to 40 hours into a studio and create
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00:29:34.140 --> 00:29:37.059
your own audiobooks, or you will have to get a
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00:29:37.099 --> 00:29:39.420
studio to create that for you, which is very expensive.
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00:29:39.509 --> 00:29:42.329
So most of the books don't have an audiobook version
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00:29:42.390 --> 00:29:45.259
because it's quite a big project.
556
00:29:45.859 --> 00:29:48.759
Yeah, like you said, it's labor-intensive or cost-prohibitive.
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00:29:49.160 --> 00:29:49.440
Yes.
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00:29:49.720 --> 00:29:51.680
So what we did with Spice, we created a process
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00:29:51.740 --> 00:29:54.559
which we can model the author's own voice. We can
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00:29:54.640 --> 00:29:58.099
create a model and instead of him going 40 hours
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00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:00.599
into a studio, we only need three minutes. And then
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00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:03.299
we create an audiobook version based on his voice. Or
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00:30:03.579 --> 00:30:06.009
if he doesn't want to use his voice because he
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00:30:06.029 --> 00:30:10.609
has an Israeli accent like I have, for example, he
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00:30:10.630 --> 00:30:15.009
can use one of our 300 synthetic voices for generating
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00:30:15.049 --> 00:30:17.690
his audiobook. And what we can do also is to
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00:30:17.730 --> 00:30:21.369
assign different voices for different characters. And so if you
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00:30:21.390 --> 00:30:24.309
want to create an audiobook with few voice actors, that
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00:30:24.529 --> 00:30:28.859
should be very expensive. But with our tools, it's very simple. However,
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00:30:29.059 --> 00:30:32.220
those books, the voice part of those books was AI generated.
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00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:36.660
Sometimes it's very hard to get them uploaded to platforms
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00:30:37.079 --> 00:30:40.680
like Audible because they still block them. So, on one hand,
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00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:43.680
of course, they want to have a bigger catalog with
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00:30:43.720 --> 00:30:47.309
more books. However, they are still not opening the gates
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completely to these.
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Kinds of AI-generated audiobooks.
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00:30:52.069 --> 00:30:54.130
By the way, the book was completely written by a
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00:30:54.150 --> 00:30:56.710
real human being, just the audiobook version was created by
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00:30:56.730 --> 00:30:57.309
the help of AI.
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But they do allow.
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00:30:58.750 --> 00:31:02.089
It when it was created with their AI tool, which
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00:31:02.150 --> 00:31:04.319
is not yet available for everyone.
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00:31:05.859 --> 00:31:06.839
But I think all of.
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00:31:06.839 --> 00:31:10.319
Those challenges are only a matter of time until, let's say,
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00:31:10.339 --> 00:31:13.160
the conviction in the quality of the technology will be
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00:31:13.420 --> 00:31:14.259
good enough.
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00:31:14.579 --> 00:31:17.039
And those roadblocks.
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Will be removed and it will be more streamlined than
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00:31:19.089 --> 00:31:20.950
what it is right now. So I think it's a
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00:31:20.970 --> 00:31:23.529
matter of a year, two years top.
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00:31:23.849 --> 00:31:26.250
And all of this nonsense will be.
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00:31:27.609 --> 00:31:28.069
Ironed out.
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00:31:28.410 --> 00:31:28.809
Yeah.
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But it will take a while.
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00:31:30.119 --> 00:31:33.099
Now, so what we do, we allow those books to
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00:31:33.140 --> 00:31:35.779
be distributed in other channels because in Spines, we can
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00:31:35.799 --> 00:31:38.940
list the books in more channels and audiobook is an
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00:31:38.980 --> 00:31:41.549
amazing channel, but it's only one of them and we
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00:31:41.569 --> 00:31:42.569
have much more than that.
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00:31:42.789 --> 00:31:44.029
This is how we solve it right now.
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00:31:44.109 --> 00:31:44.210
Yes.
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00:31:44.789 --> 00:31:45.869
Sounds fascinating.
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00:31:46.089 --> 00:31:47.410
In a couple of minutes from now, I'm going to
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play you a sample of what one of the AI
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00:31:49.670 --> 00:31:52.930
voices sounds like. It's going to blow you away. So
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00:31:53.109 --> 00:31:55.730
stay tuned for that. So the author, he or she
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00:31:55.829 --> 00:31:58.490
can go into the studio, just record a couple of
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minutes worth of their voice.
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And your AI takes it from there.
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00:32:01.509 --> 00:32:04.309
Alternatively, you can choose one from a couple of hundred
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00:32:04.369 --> 00:32:07.569
different voices you already have in your database. And by
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00:32:07.609 --> 00:32:09.769
the way, some of them may like an Israeli accent,
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00:32:09.789 --> 00:32:10.950
by the way. They may be a fan of the
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00:32:10.990 --> 00:32:15.859
show Fauda or something. So don't sell yourself short, Yehuda. No,
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00:32:15.890 --> 00:32:17.539
but I got the idea is that you can choose
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00:32:17.559 --> 00:32:19.819
somebody else's voice if you like. So is this limited
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00:32:19.880 --> 00:32:23.380
right now to authors who are already on the Spines platform?
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00:32:24.019 --> 00:32:24.960
So we will only.
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00:32:24.819 --> 00:32:28.019
Help authors who wrote their book by themselves. We do
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00:32:28.059 --> 00:32:31.279
not publish AI-generated books or something like that. Like only
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00:32:31.339 --> 00:32:34.380
books that was origin in real human beings.
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00:32:34.920 --> 00:32:37.160
And in Spice, we have a few packages.
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So there are packages or A to Z solution for editing, proofreading, formatting,
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00:32:42.029 --> 00:32:45.430
cover design, and of course, AI-generated audiobook and distribution across
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00:32:45.430 --> 00:32:49.109
100 channels and royalty management and distribution.
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00:32:49.130 --> 00:32:50.329
So all of that is included here.
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00:32:50.750 --> 00:32:53.410
In a few of our packages, and also publishing the
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00:32:53.430 --> 00:32:57.890
book in multiple languages in both audiobook and print-on-demand and
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00:32:58.109 --> 00:32:59.849
e-book versions as well, multiple languages.
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00:32:59.890 --> 00:33:01.089
So we have a lot of solutions.
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00:33:01.569 --> 00:33:03.269
And we're going to hear about more of them when
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00:33:03.309 --> 00:33:06.670
we return on Tech It Out. We're learning about Spines.
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00:33:06.910 --> 00:33:09.710
This is an audiobook platform leveraging AI.
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00:33:09.910 --> 00:33:10.630
We'll be right back.
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00:33:11.450 --> 00:33:14.730
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram. Listen
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00:33:14.759 --> 00:33:16.519
to Tech It Out whenever you want.
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00:33:26.829 --> 00:33:29.960
We are chatting with Yehuda Neve. He's CEO of Spines.
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00:33:30.119 --> 00:33:34.359
This is a popular platform to publish your own books professionally.
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00:33:34.380 --> 00:33:37.400
They've already got 6,000 books published, and they're also helping
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00:33:37.509 --> 00:33:41.730
authors create and sell audiobooks as well, leveraging AI. Before
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00:33:41.750 --> 00:33:44.130
the break, Yehuda, you were going to mention one more
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00:33:44.410 --> 00:33:48.259
option for authors. So please continue your thought.
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00:33:48.819 --> 00:33:49.059
Yes.
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00:33:49.220 --> 00:33:51.960
We also have a package for those who has already
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00:33:52.039 --> 00:33:55.619
published a book, not with Spanish, but now they just
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00:33:55.680 --> 00:33:58.349
want to translate it to Spanish, for example, or they
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00:33:58.390 --> 00:34:00.670
want to have an audiobook version for the book because,
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00:34:00.990 --> 00:34:04.549
you know, 40% of the book consumption nowadays is voice.
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00:34:05.190 --> 00:34:06.589
Is audiobooks.
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00:34:06.730 --> 00:34:09.550
However, most of the authors don't have an audiobook version
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00:34:09.590 --> 00:34:10.090
for themselves.
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00:34:10.489 --> 00:34:11.909
So in order for.
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00:34:11.869 --> 00:34:13.800
Them to work with Spines, they will only have to
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00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:16.880
make sure they actually own the copyright. So if they
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00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:22.860
self-published it or hybrid publish it, probably they're supposed to
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00:34:22.920 --> 00:34:27.090
have the rights on the audiobook version.
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00:34:27.199 --> 00:34:27.469
Got it.
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00:34:27.570 --> 00:34:29.909
Then they can use Spines tools to create their own
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00:34:29.929 --> 00:34:32.690
audiobook version and use our distribution tool to distribute it.
660
00:34:33.289 --> 00:34:34.369
Thanks for the clarification.
661
00:34:34.909 --> 00:34:36.809
So Yehuda, I'd love to just play a clip for
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00:34:36.889 --> 00:34:40.349
our listeners to hear what the AI-based voice sounds like,
663
00:34:40.369 --> 00:34:42.550
what it sounds like for an author to choose one
664
00:34:42.570 --> 00:34:44.929
of the existing AI voices, not his own. His name
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00:34:44.969 --> 00:34:47.449
is Zvi Lanier, and he chose to use one of
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00:34:47.489 --> 00:34:50.550
the existing AI voices you already have. This is from
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00:34:50.610 --> 00:34:53.070
his book called Thinking Like a Fox. So let's have
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00:34:53.090 --> 00:34:53.469
a listen.
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00:34:53.760 --> 00:34:56.820
There are many concepts that reflect different aspects of our world.
670
00:34:57.380 --> 00:34:59.639
The list of these concepts is something I put together
671
00:34:59.659 --> 00:35:02.519
a few years ago while preparing a lecture on the question.
672
00:35:03.250 --> 00:35:06.349
What kind of world do we live in? On the surface,
673
00:35:06.570 --> 00:35:08.949
the topic of the lecture seems like an odd question.
674
00:35:09.269 --> 00:35:12.710
Wow, so that's a synthetic voice. Again, this is not
675
00:35:12.869 --> 00:35:16.380
a human coming in, but it sounds pretty real. Again,
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00:35:16.489 --> 00:35:18.360
I think a lot of people would be hard-pressed to
677
00:35:18.559 --> 00:35:22.280
hear the difference between a synthetic voice and a real
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00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:22.920
human voice.
679
00:35:23.139 --> 00:35:25.340
That is one you can choose, or you can read
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00:35:25.380 --> 00:35:26.280
your own if you prefer.
681
00:35:26.659 --> 00:35:28.880
Yes. And I can share a funny story.
682
00:35:29.079 --> 00:35:32.079
One of our investors, Michael Eisenberg, is the founder of Aleph,
683
00:35:32.199 --> 00:35:34.360
is one of the top tier VCs in Israel in
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00:35:34.409 --> 00:35:36.750
early stage. And a few weeks ago, he asked me
685
00:35:36.909 --> 00:35:39.010
if we could create an audiobook version for one of
686
00:35:39.050 --> 00:35:41.309
his books because he's a nine-time published author.
687
00:35:41.570 --> 00:35:42.989
He sent us a sample of his voice.
688
00:35:43.530 --> 00:35:46.739
We created a 10-minute sample, sent it back to him.
689
00:35:47.139 --> 00:35:48.940
And he shared it with his friends and he told them,
690
00:35:49.659 --> 00:35:53.699
What do you think about my new recording? And no
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00:35:53.800 --> 00:35:57.070
one could tell the difference that this was an AI
692
00:35:57.110 --> 00:35:59.670
model and not him. And then he told me that
693
00:35:59.750 --> 00:36:01.989
even his wife couldn't tell the difference.
694
00:36:02.289 --> 00:36:02.590
All right.
695
00:36:02.630 --> 00:36:05.679
That's a testament to how good the AI is getting.
696
00:36:05.739 --> 00:36:08.219
Yeah. AI is freaking me out all across the board.
697
00:36:08.260 --> 00:36:09.530
But yeah, that's an example of it.
698
00:36:09.719 --> 00:36:11.360
Yes. Do you think this is a trend that will
699
00:36:11.400 --> 00:36:14.539
only become more and more popular, whether it's Spines or
700
00:36:14.659 --> 00:36:16.019
other audiobook platforms?
701
00:36:16.239 --> 00:36:19.590
For sure, because nowadays there are those books you would
702
00:36:19.659 --> 00:36:22.889
love to listen to them in audiobook version, but the
703
00:36:22.929 --> 00:36:26.250
audiobook version is not available yet because it wasn't created.
704
00:36:26.489 --> 00:36:28.690
But with AI, those.
705
00:36:28.510 --> 00:36:32.469
Could be created in a matter of days instead of months.
706
00:36:33.170 --> 00:36:34.909
and in the fraction of the cost, and it will
707
00:36:34.929 --> 00:36:39.309
only get easier and better. You know, Spines, we might
708
00:36:39.349 --> 00:36:42.070
be the first ones, but we probably won't be the last.
709
00:36:42.449 --> 00:36:45.730
I believe in the future, what could happen, let's say
710
00:36:45.750 --> 00:36:48.530
in five years' time, you could listen to any book
711
00:36:48.739 --> 00:36:54.889
in any voice, in any language. And this will just
712
00:36:55.429 --> 00:37:00.219
increase the book consumption and will help authors to double,
713
00:37:00.920 --> 00:37:04.449
quadruple their audiences because their books will now be available
714
00:37:04.489 --> 00:37:06.889
in more formats, in more languages, and everything.
715
00:37:06.670 --> 00:37:07.309
Will be seamless.
716
00:37:07.719 --> 00:37:10.300
This is the future, how AI will help authors and
717
00:37:10.360 --> 00:37:15.150
publishers and distributors to actually get more content available to
718
00:37:15.210 --> 00:37:17.090
more readers or listeners.
719
00:37:17.409 --> 00:37:20.230
Just to play devil's advocate, what would you say, though, Yehuda,
720
00:37:20.269 --> 00:37:22.809
to those listening, thinking, well, what if that's your job?
721
00:37:22.849 --> 00:37:27.360
You're an audiobook narrator. and then you hear AI coming
722
00:37:27.380 --> 00:37:30.719
in that could replace you. This is happening in every industry, right?
723
00:37:30.760 --> 00:37:33.340
Instead of hiring a photographer to take a picture of
724
00:37:33.500 --> 00:37:36.070
someone for your website, you may use AI to do it,
725
00:37:36.239 --> 00:37:38.360
and it looks lifelike. So, I mean, it's not just
726
00:37:38.489 --> 00:37:41.070
in the audiobook space. What would you say to those
727
00:37:41.110 --> 00:37:43.710
who are concerned about this? I know it can help
728
00:37:43.769 --> 00:37:45.730
you save money as an author, but what would you
729
00:37:45.769 --> 00:37:49.210
say to those whose livelihood depends on authors hiring them
730
00:37:49.269 --> 00:37:49.989
to read their books?
731
00:37:50.489 --> 00:37:52.139
You know, so it's the same thing that you would
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00:37:52.179 --> 00:37:54.710
say to all those Uber drivers that are now being
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00:37:54.750 --> 00:37:56.429
replaced with automated cars.
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00:37:56.829 --> 00:37:59.969
I'm always saying, I didn't invent this technology.
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00:38:00.090 --> 00:38:04.010
I'm only using it and leveraging it to help my customers,
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00:38:04.070 --> 00:38:04.929
which are authors.
737
00:38:05.389 --> 00:38:09.369
The AI revolution is something that will affect every aspect
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00:38:09.409 --> 00:38:10.030
of our lives.
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00:38:10.250 --> 00:38:10.630
For sure.
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00:38:10.909 --> 00:38:12.250
And we need to be responsible.
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00:38:12.710 --> 00:38:16.090
If your earnings are coming from something that it will
742
00:38:16.110 --> 00:38:19.690
be much easier to be replaced with AI... You need
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00:38:19.730 --> 00:38:22.530
to start to think, how can you start navigate your
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00:38:22.630 --> 00:38:27.889
career to more safer places? In every working space, AI
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00:38:27.929 --> 00:38:31.960
will affect. People that can use AI will probably replacing
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00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:33.679
people who do not use AI. Yeah.
747
00:38:33.980 --> 00:38:36.599
For better or for worse, it's definitely here and only
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00:38:36.639 --> 00:38:39.320
can become much, much bigger, changing everything, just like the
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00:38:39.340 --> 00:38:39.920
internet did.
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00:38:40.239 --> 00:38:44.000
Thank you so much, Spines.com, to learn more. Thank you
751
00:38:44.019 --> 00:38:45.539
so much for your time, Yehuda. All the best.
752
00:38:45.659 --> 00:38:46.079
Thank you.
753
00:38:46.570 --> 00:38:47.010
Bye, Mark.
754
00:38:47.570 --> 00:38:51.469
Thank you to SanDisk for their awesome storage solutions and
755
00:38:51.510 --> 00:38:53.699
being a great partner on Tech It Out. Thank you
756
00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:58.380
to Visa and Norton, outstanding partners as well. And most importantly,
757
00:38:58.420 --> 00:39:00.590
thank you for tuning in to Tech It Out. We'll
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00:39:00.610 --> 00:39:01.610
catch up with you in a week.
759
00:39:01.730 --> 00:39:02.230
All the best.
760
00:39:02.409 --> 00:39:03.010
Bye-bye for now.