even though it seems like a small matter — just a wireless headset — the device could fundamentally alter the way people interact with machines, and with one another.
He is talking about the Apple Airpods. It’s another article that to me suggests that we are asymptotically approaching a vision that I proposed in 2001, in an essay I called Headsets.
“Web-enabled cell phones were dubious in concept.” Win some and lose some in that forecast.
The complement of the tinfoil hat from 1927. The tinfoil protected the population from electromagnetic interference in a short story. The earphones reshape the inputs to pleasant. Add in the eye goggles then we get blind people flailing at the night.
“The PC platform has reached its limits. As I expected, the Palm-thingy fad seems to have crested. Web-enabled cell phones were dubious in concept and worse in execution.”
What seemed to have happened is that tablets and web-enabled phones hit the market before the hardware and ecosystems were ready for them. The wireless data networks weren’t really there yet and the devices were still slow and expensive with low resolutions and lacking important features (cameras, GPS, finger-friendly operating systems). The same was true of ebook readers, which were has-beens before the launch of the Kindle. And streaming video-on-demand (I know somebody who worked for a startup in that domain in the early 90s — of course , it went under long before streaming video became viable).
So what other technologies that have been prematurely launched (only to fail and be written off) and are due for a future comeback when conditions are right? Google glass? Smart watches? Perhaps autonomous vehicles will be in that category soon?
I’m not sold on the headset/airpod idea, though. For the most part, hearing+speaking seems a fundamentally worse interface than vision+touch/typing (much slower, not as rich, and much more infringing on others) . People in public places with blue tooth headsets carrying on loud remote conversations is already a thing, and it’s quite annoying. If it were universal, it would be horrible. But, of course, I may be as wrong about that as Arnold was about PCs, pad thingies and web-enabled phones.
My wife likes the ability to talk into her smart watch to send text messages, mostly because with two small boys her hands are full (and the children have a tendency to knock her phone onto pavement when given the chance). Google assistant is pretty powerful and getting better, but I still can’t bring myself to use voice commands unless I’m driving. Then again, my parents and brothers use Alexa in place of light switches and TV remotes now.