Being a fan of all things mechanical and analog, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I immensely appreciate watches. I particularly appreciate the work of Grand Seiko watchmakers. I have struggled to embrace the Apple Watch fully, as I like wearing my beloved Grand Seiko. None of my friends have such problems — they are all in on Apple’s wrist computer. And like everyone else, I thought Apple Watch would impact the watch industry, but I didn’t see this twist in the tale.
I have been in Silicon Valley long enough to see it transform from a group of outlier revolutionaries to play-safe career chasers. Recently, I have watched arrivistes who, if not in technology, would be running a penny stock brokerage based somewhere in Long Island or producing B-movies, living on the edge of Hollywood. In recent times, the near-zero interest rate fueled a boom in technology, making everyone look like a genius, forgetting that the rising tide lifts all wrecks. Of course, some have become self-proclaimed faces of Silicon Valley.
There is a common thread in the torrent of words that have followed the announcement of Apple’s Vision Pro headset — it portends a dystopian future and social isolationism. Most, if not all, picked up on the idea that we might retreat into a social cocoon and become more detached from human-to-human interactions.
Apple kicked off the 2023 edition of WWDC, its developer conference, with a 2-hour long keynote that saw the company announce the next versions of its five operating systems( iOS, watchOS, iPad OS, tvOS, macOS), three new Macs, including the highest-end Mac Pro, and most importantly, a new “mixed reality” platform, Vision, that includes a new OS and a $3499 headset, Vision Pro.
Forget all the other announcements, the only real reason to pay full attention to Apple’s WWDC keynote was the launch of the new mixed–reality platform. I have already shared some thoughts on Twitter, but I wanted to recap and distill my big takeaways from the keynote.
“Some of the smartest people in technology say they are worried that AI is worse than pandemics and nuclear weapons. What I worry about is not AI extinguishing humans, but our humanity. And that’s the real risk of this new wave of “AI” — we become more reliant on machines than ourselves. With machines taking … Continue reading Your Weekend AI Reader
Janko Rottegers, a former colleague, writes a newsletter focused on the cord-cutting phenomenon. In the latest edition of the newsletter, Lowpass Janko argues that Apple’s new mixed reality glasses, rumored to be announced next week, will disappoint. And that’s okay because it’s “worth remembering that many of Apple’s best-selling products initially started out slow.”
I agree with his reasoning, but I go further in history. The rumored headset’s arrival is less Apple Watch or iPhone. Instead, it is more akin to the iPod. Just as iPod wasn’t the first nor the last, it arrived at the right time to jump-start the mainstreaming of the anywhere, anytime convenience of “digital music.” Apple’s headset could do the same for a different kind of digital content, as I point out in the latest issue of my twice-a-month newsletter (sign-up if you haven’t already)
I explain why this device should exist and what will be its true killer app, which continues to elude other entrants in the “mixed reality” business. The article continues here.
If you go to Amazon.com and type “Traffic,” you will find three top listings. There is a book, Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt, about how we drive the way we do. Read it. Then there is a listing for a movie starring Michael Douglas and Benicio Del Toro. If you have not watched it, then watch it. And then there is a … Continue reading Ben Smith’s Traffic
WordPress, the open-source blogging software, is twenty years old. The software’s first official release (WordPress 1.0) was made available on May 27, 2003. I had been using the software for a little longer when it was still in alpha. In 2004, I switched my old website to WordPress, becoming the first major blog to embrace … Continue reading Wow, WordPress is 20
Did you know that 10.08 million new tracks were uploaded to online music streaming services in the first three months of 2023? That’s 120,000 new tracks every day, according to estimates from Nashville-based Luminate, a company that tracks music industry data. At this rate, we are looking at 43 million new tracks into the services by the end of 2023. In comparison, they saw 93,400 new tracks being uploaded daily in 2022, or roughly 34.1 million tracks. In 2021, that number stood at 30.5 million new tracks.
