Despite the fanfare and prolific advance sales of the Apple Watch when it was launched, many technology commentators are struggling with an existential issue: what is it?
Apple is no stranger to breaking new ground or creating wildly successful product categories in areas where big names had hitherto either failed or experienced marginal success, but there appear to be some fundamental questions about what kind of device the Apple Watch is.
On 24 March 2015 I took part in my first ever Pecha Kucha session, discussing the topic of calm technology.
Mobile World Congress 2015 is happening this week, and that means that a slew of shiny new slabs of technology will be touted with much gusto and hyperbole by their proud makers, and you can also rest assured (with a certain grim inevitably) that there will be a mountain of new accessories and companion products doing the rounds too, many of which will fall under the current buzzword du jour, "wearable".
"Wearable" technology and personal "smart" devices are seemingly ever-expanding categories of product that we are assured will fill all of the hitherto un-noticed empty niches in our lives - from health tracking to... more health tracking, but for my money very few of them are particularly compelling.
One of the things that has always sat awkwardly with me is the traditional ad agency idea of the "creative team" as epitomised by the symbiotic art director / copywriter partnership - there's no doubt that it has its place in traditional ad agency production work where the output is some variant of words and pictures (whether that be for print or TV), but in the context of a modern, digital agency it feels narrow, blinkered, and hopelessly anachronistic... yet it still persists.
Prompted by a recently-resurrected thread on Facebook from 3½ years ago, I thought I’d share a few snippets of my observations and opinions on the whole explosion of “steampunk culture” in recent years, because, well… because I can, I guess.
There’s been some interesting thinking coming out of Dan Hon’s thoroughly excellent daily email newsletter recently around what “smart” devices really are, and I’m inclined to agree with a lot of the thoughts in this particular post.
Or, are my diamond shoes just a bit too tight?
I found myself having a bit of an existential debate (with myself) this weekend — perhaps it’s just the shadow of my impending 39th birthday, but something got me thinking about what it is that I do each day, and whether it’s actually what I want to be doing.
Connected devices, the "Internet of Things", smart watches, and all that jazz.
There have been a raft of articles posted recently that have trumpeted 2014 as the year of the connected device, and yes, this is another one.
You know what? I like it.
It’s a £30 gadget that doesn’t do anything I couldn’t already do with my Xbox360 hooked up to my TV and my home network, but it’s a great bit of kit - compact, easy to set up, and easy to use.
There was a time when every developer job vacancy posted online seemed to be looking for “Rockstar” developers — fortunately it seems to have subsided a little now, but it’s still definitely a “thing” and it needs to be stamped out.