time-to-build-new-hardware.md (8720B)
1 +++ 2 title = "It's Time to Build New Hardware" 3 date = 2025-01-14T17:57:00-08:00 4 updated = 2025-01-14T22:05:00-08:00 5 [extra] 6 type = "post" 7 +++ 8 9 [There is a feeling coursing through the populace.] It is just now 10 bubbling over, spilling through the cracks and taking its many shapes. 11 The world changed forever with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007—it 12 is a fool who thinks it can't change again. I am a fool who thinks it is 13 going to change very imminently. 14 15 <!-- more --> 16 17 > Let’s be honest, making a new primary device is effectively 18 > impossible. We probably won’t see a smartphone-killer or a 19 > computer-killer ever.<br/> 20 > [Louie Mantia, Jr.] 21 22 These two sentences represent the prevailing wisdom on mobile computing. 23 Not just that consumer hardware is hard—it is, with even great successes 24 like [Pebble] eventually collapsing—but that it's not worth pursuing: 25 that we've already figured it out. It's the most dominant form of 26 technology worldwide. Billions of people make their digital homes on 27 their phones. Surely that means the field is done. 28 29 To my mind, this has always sounded ignorant. Look at your phone: it's a 30 rectangular screen. What is this optimized for? What does this form 31 factor make easy? The screen is a blank canvas. It enables Jobs' vision 32 of a device that doesn't need physical updates to gain new 33 functionality. But it's also profoundly lazy. It is the lowest common 34 denominator of interfaces. 35 36 > A game for everyone is a game for no one.<br/> 37 > [Arrowhead] 38 39 The screen is also uniquely condemnable for the way it inherently 40 hijacks our attention. Our brains are ill-prepared to encounter the 41 light of a thousand suns or colors more vibrant than any Amazonian tree 42 frog, but that's what we see when we check our phones at 3am. Try and 43 have a conversation with a phone in your peripheral vision. Play a video 44 with the sound on mute: can you avoid distraction? Alternatively: could 45 you actually recognize the contours of your palm? The common turn of 46 phrase would suggest this to be the most familiar thing in the world. I 47 suspect we all know our home screen much better. 48 49 > \*wakes up and looks at phone\*<br/> 50 > ah let's see what fresh horrors await me on the fresh horrors 51 > device<br/> 52 > [@missokistic] 53 54 At the same time as I am thoroughly steeped in technology, I hate it. I 55 want to maximize the amount of time I spend present with the people I 56 love: my friends, my family, random kind and exciting people. The time I 57 spend "in" a device—the fact that such a turn of phrase even exists—is 58 despicable, in my eyes. And I'm not alone in this: 59 60 > If you’re looking at a phone more than someone’s eyes, you’re doing 61 > the wrong thing!<br/> 62 > [Tim Cook] 63 64 The status of this crusade, as it stands, is a bit of a mixed bag. On 65 the one hand, there are a metric ton of reasons to despair: there's a 66 whole generation of "iPad kids" out there who have grown up breaking 67 Cook's ironic axiom above. I myself just quit a Reels addiction. The 68 status quo is riddled with the ills of our devices, from the wasteland 69 of social media to the phantom notifications plaguing our pockets. 70 However, there is some cause for hope and excitement: that feeling I 71 mentioned earlier. People don't just live amidst all the garbage—they're 72 starting to feel it. 73 74 Some of these people are seeking to do something about it all. 75 Throughout the industry there are new takes on what the coming device 76 paradigm might look like: new minds finally tackling the question of 77 what it should look like to live alongside our technology. Obviously, 78 none of them have come close to supplanting the phone or the laptop or 79 the *screen* at all. Not just yet. But I hope they will, eventually, and 80 I want to be a part of that. 81 82 There are numerous significant and cool initiatives in this area these 83 days. [Humane] has been universally panned but I'm extremely interested 84 in rapidly developing their laser display technology as an alternative 85 to traditional display panels. [Origami Computing] is actually the 86 reason I'm writing this post, because I promised Sarvasv I would do so 87 over six months ago and I want to reply to his email. I steal his line 88 about the love-hate relationship we have with our devices all the time. 89 The [Apple Vision Pro] may initially seem like its going the exact 90 opposite direction of what I'm advocating in this post, but if you look 91 at it closely you realize that it too is seeking to eliminate the role 92 screens play in our lives today. [tinyPod] is such a compelling reason 93 to buy an Apple Watch that I might actually do it. I own the [reMarkable 94 2] and use it every day for school: for years it replaced all my paper 95 use, though I've built up a nasty habit of of sketching and journaling 96 on dead trees again. I met an angel investor in [Daylight] on a flight 97 to New York—I'm most interested in their tablet because it runs full 98 Android, and there are good apps I use on my phone that I wish I could 99 use on an e-ink-ish display. I have similar feelings toward the [Palma]. 100 I'm not sure that [Freewrite] belongs among this new wave, because 101 they've been around for a while, but it is yet another e-ink device that 102 I want to buy. Limitless' [pendant] and Avi's [friend] strike me as 103 products similiarly oriented around the question "what if a microphone 104 was maximally intelligent?" [Spatial Pixel] gives strong 105 [tldraw]/[todepond]/[Ink & Switch] vibes, as well as relying on cool 106 projection technology that we've previously established I'm a fan of. 107 The [Oura Ring] is not as much of a general computing device as the rest 108 of these, but it has the great quality of [delivering utility] to me on 109 a daily basis while not having a screen, so it has won a spot. And 110 frankly: [Roll Call] was inspired by this very scene/movement and [was 111 explicitly] an expirement in alternative display technology! 112 113 Gruber wrote the sharpest critique of these sorts of efforts two years 114 ago when the Ai Pin was first announced, in a post entitled *[If You 115 Come at the King]*. In essence, he says that Humane's founder, Imran 116 Chaudhri, may be right that our phone addictions are sad and 117 problematic. However, he points out, people don't care. The objective 118 truth has no bearing on the fact that everyone *loves* their phone. 119 Addicts love their compulsions, even when they know they're 120 self-destructive. I agree with Gruber. But I think that the need is too 121 dire to simply give up. We need a [Pareto improvement] in our mobile 122 devices: new digital companions that are not only healthier for us, but 123 that we love even more. People won't change their behavior for abstract 124 concepts like well-being, but they will absolutely change their behavior 125 for *better*. 126 127 And something better is possible. We do not have to take the good with 128 the bad. A more humanistic future is out there: one with technology that 129 is helpful and ubiquitous but totally dissolved into the background of 130 our existence. We have designed our present, and we can design a future 131 with all of its benefits and none of its downsides. We must right our 132 priorities by building a better system on the back of the one that came 133 before. There is no area of more impact than hardware, and no better 134 time to [experiment] [wildly]. It is time to build new hardware. It is 135 time to turn our focus to the world we were given. 136 137 [There is a feeling coursing through the populace.]: https://fosstodon.org/@FIGBERT/112674073244946013 138 [Louie Mantia, Jr.]: https://lmnt.me/blog/primary-device.html 139 [Pebble]: https://medium.com/@ericmigi/why-pebble-failed-d7be937c6232 140 [Arrowhead]: https://www.arrowheadgamestudios.com 141 [@missokistic]: https://x.com/missokistic/status/796870708412358657 142 [Tim Cook]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU-SXaFpSts&t=1472s 143 [Humane]: https://humane.com 144 [Origami Computing]: https://origamicomputing.com 145 [tinyPod]: https://thetinypod.com 146 [reMarkable 2]: https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2 147 [Daylight]: https://daylightcomputer.com 148 [Freewrite]: https://getfreewrite.com 149 [Apple Vision Pro]: https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/ 150 [pendant]: https://www.limitless.ai/#pendant 151 [friend]: https://www.friend.com 152 [Spatial Pixel]: https://spatialpixel.com 153 [Oura Ring]: https://ouraring.com 154 [Palma]: https://shop.boox.com/products/palma 155 [tldraw]: https://tldraw.dev 156 [todepond]: https://www.todepond.com 157 [Ink & Switch]: https://www.inkandswitch.com 158 [delivering utility]: https://cloud.ouraring.com/docs 159 [Roll Call]: @/projects/roll-call/index.md 160 [was explicitly]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42600100 161 [If You Come at the King]: https://daringfireball.net/2023/04/if_you_come_at_the_king 162 [Pareto improvement]: @/posts/marc-tarpenning-on-innovation.md 163 [experiment]: @/posts/tangible-deliverables.md 164 [wildly]: https://teenage.engineering