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I think we would all prefer the fun version of advancing tech. Like the one imagined in Back to the Future 2 (the good timeline) as opposed to the weird, bleak, Minority Report style of tech future that we got.

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Jan 11Liked by Adam Singer

The challenge with multiple gadgets was you needed a Batman utility belt to carry it all around. I am not a believer in voice UI, but I do like that people are experimenting with new form factors and new ways to interact with computers. I agree that it's cool to see people trying.

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You don't always have to bring everything with you!

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Jan 11Liked by Adam Singer

The trend so far seems to be pointless, but pretty. It is nice to see some hardware design again, but I think the early runners have yet to nail the ‘why.’

Can’t rule someone figuring that out though

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I think your memory is playing tricks on you! We used to get new devices every few YEARS, not weeks. These days there is a constant march of new phones with new features faster and better.

What you're really seeing is that the phones won the device wars. It's impossible to compete with them, they can do almost everything, so it's better to just build an app for them. And we have such an amazing universe of apps.

Devices are expensive to build and almost impossible to make a profit on. I prefer seeing phones become the everything device as the innovation can happen faster and crazier in the apps for it.

Tech hasn't lost its fun, you're just looking in the wrong place.

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Jan 11·edited Jan 11Author

Not just talking phones I mentioned many diff types of devices. Single use stuff is good btw! Who knows what people will discover building with the latest hardware. And anyway I'm speaking to the people who just auto hated on this one which is objectively cool.

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It's a cool looking gadget. I just am not too thrilled about AI in everything.

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It's not going to go all terminator :)

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I saw the demo. Looks like an interesting toy that is trying to replace apps but will have to overcome several challenges:

1. Voice User Interface. I am sure a lot of people may like it but not everyone. Siri, Alexa, and others have failed with Voice UI and even Humane AI Pin is struggling.

2. Another device to carry (what is stopping someone from building a master app on iOS and Android to replace this over time even if this device has some hardware/software advantage today?)

3. The price is very low compared to Humane AI Pin but without any subscription model, they have to find ways to make money beyond selling more and more devices as all these AI calls and building/maintaining connectivity to all these services will become costly)

4. I read somewhere the quality of the speaker is not great but then hopefully it will have a good quality with the headphones. At $200, you will expect compromises. What else has been compromised to keep the cost low?

5. Do not know if they will provide a way to build connectivity to other services so that whatever they do not want or cannot do the customers/developers can build. Is there a way for developers to make money?

6. I am personally not a big fan of using another device to configure something as generally, it expands to doing more things on the other device to make it work over time.

7. The screen feels small but may be good enough for the purpose.

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Watching Jesse Lyu's keynote and wondering if I can order an R1 in the form factor of the "Ziggy" handlink from Quantum Leap? I'll pass on Dean Stockwell's signature cigar.

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Can you tinker with this? There is no developer API and the "teach mode" seems limited. It looks fun but I don't think this allows for tinkering.

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Jan 13·edited Jan 13Author

Since it's AI-driven assume it can do lots of things, we'll see - at this point playing with all AIs feels like tinkering to me. Also from the founder: https://twitter.com/jessechenglyu/status/1745857809789714611

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