By Nic Lindh on Monday, 08 September 2014
[Post-keynote update] Well, I’m certainly no Nostradamus. Sigh. And effing U2 to rub salt in the wound. [/Update]
As usual this time of the year, the nerdosphere is all-aflutter with predictions about tomorrow’s big Apple event, with the most common speculation being two new, larger, iPhones and the long-awaited and mysterious wearable device.
(As an aside here, kudos to Apple for their Kremlin-level security—apart from the predictable iPhone parts from the supply chain, nobody has anything concrete…)
But take a step back and think about Apple’s core competency: Find a technology that’s out there and has the potential to become huge but is mired in neckbeardery.
The first home computers—huge potential, but required soldering; the first PCs—huge potential, but required mastery of command-line arcana to accomplish anything useful; MP3-players—huge potential, but required headache-inducing amounts of technical jiggery-pokery to get your songs actually on to the devices; smartphones—huge potential, but required endless patience and button-mashing to accomplish magical things like syncing your contacts.
There’s a massive market out there ripe for exactly this kind of swooping in and making the technology useful and attractive to normal people: Home automation. The technology is out there, it’s just hidden in needless complications and über-nerd-think. Make it usable by—and attractive to—normal humans, and there’s billions of dollars to make as well as the opportunity to improve peoples’ lives.
Plus, think about it: Apple built a house by the conference center. Hmmm? Might that be useful to show off their home integration technology?
Or, I could end up looking like an idiot tomorrow…
Let’s talk about how fun it is to have a go-cart people mover.
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The Internet tells Nic to install Ubiquiti gear in his house, so he does, and now he has thoughts.
What I wish I’d known when I started podcasting.
Nic reports his experiences so far with voice computing from Amazon and Google and is a bit mystified at the reaction to Apple’s HomePod.
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A concise guide to getting started with podcasting, including equipment, editing, mic technique and hosting.
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Car nerds are dealing with some cognitive dissonance as car technology changes.
The Oasis is Amazon’s best e-ink reader to date, but it’s not good enough for the price.
Nic buys an Amazon Echo and is indubitably happy with the fantasy star ship in his head.
The problem isn’t ads. The problem is being stalked like an animal across the internet.
The DS416j is a nice NAS for light home use. Just don’t expect raw power.
The Core Dump is moving to GitHub Pages. This is a good thing, most likely.
Thoughts on Apple Watch after half a year of daily usage.
Predictably, the Paris attacks brought the anti-encryption crowd back out of the woodwork. They're at best being willfully disingenuous.
Things to consider when planning to build a site on a compressed time table.
Nic provides some basic not-too-paranoid tips for securing your digital life.
Installing Jekyll on an EC2 Amazon Linux AMI is easy. Here are the steps.
After wearing the watch for over a month, Nic has thoughts on its future. Spoiler: Depends on how you define success.
Turns out “it's just a big iPhone” is a stroke of genius.
Some technical terms still confuse people who should know better, like journalists.
How to host a static site on Amazon S3 with an apex domain without using Amazon’s Route 53.
People fear change, so new technology is used as as a faster version of the old. This makes technologists sad.
Nic provides a lesson plan for teaching total beginners HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Nic loves his Pebble and looks forward to the Apple Watch, but realizes he’s in the minority.
Nic loves books, but he loves their content more.
Nic is worried about the fragile state of our technology and thinks you should be as well.
Nic tries to understand the WATCH. It doesn’t go well.
Nic is frustrated with his Kindle and would love to see Apple make an e-ink reader.
Nic delves into the shady computer enthusiast underworld of the Hackintosh.
On the Mac’s 30th anniversary, Nic reminisces about his first.
The iPhone was announced Jan. 9, 2007. It now occupies a huge chunk of Nic’s life.
Nic is very impressed with the speed of the iPhone 5S and iPad Air.
Nic tells you how to find a theme for your new site.
Nic buys a Nexus 7 to test the Android waters.
All Nic wants for WWDC is sync that actually works
Nic is ecstatic about the backlighting on the Kindle Paperlight, but Amazon has made some strange design decisions and there’s a display hardware flaw.
Nic makes a new ebook and is dismayed by the sad state of ebook publishing.
One of the equivalences of haircut and clothing on the Internet is your email address.
Nic outlines some of the risks of ceding comments on news stories to Facebook.
Nic is bemused by the sturm und drang surrounding the iOS-ification of Mac OS X.
Web publishing used to require heavy-duty nerditry, but no longer.
Nic is creating an e-book. He shares what he’s learned so far.
Nic really digs e-book readers. No, seriously, he really digs them. And you should, too.
The future and now of personal computing is appliances. This post parses why you shouldn’t worry about it.