Smartphones have the benefit of being well enough endowed with useful internal goodies -- accelerometers, compasses, GPS, etc. -- that they can be plied to do many things the original designers might not have thought about. Of course, we (robot and DIY gadgeteers) thought of all this stuff long ago. We've been putting accelerometers and compasses into little robots for many years, well before the dawn of the smartphone. They stole these ideas from us!
Anyway, with the hardware, coders can now busy themselves with useful applications. Maybe 99 out of 100 are useless or derivative or just plain junk. But we marvel at that 100th app that is truly innovative and handy. In a way, we've become smarter consumers because we realize the smartphone is capable of all these things, and we don't need to keep buying stuff. Why spend the money if we already have the hardware?
Only thing now is we need a smartphone that yells at you if you use it while while driving.
I see it in the opposite direction; the age of gadgets has just begun. There have been companies such as Pebble or Toshiba with their Glasses where management failed to really get the full picture of what they are up against in the market these days, but there are many areas where so called gadgets are just rockin'. Even though FitBit, which has it's own issues, bought out failing Pebble (once offered $750 mil but sold for $40 mil), FitBit is still posed to make 2.4bn this year. Also, with Amazon Echo (over 5M sold to date), Google Home, and Apple Home Kit and the like, gadgets connecting to gadgets in the home is really taking off. The whole connected car thing is just getting out of the garage and will launch another wave of gadgets connecting to gadgets. And, countries are just starting to grasp the whole Smart City concept which again will launch another series of gadgets connecting to gadgets especially in the sub-1Gig arena. I believe there are still markets that have either not been touch or just getting touched such as with elderly folks or handy capable folks that could use gadgets to make their day-to-day much easier like Purple Communications (Parallax's neighbor in Rocklin) teaming with LIFX to release "POP" to visually notify users of incoming calls. Then there is the whole Mars thing which should spur on whole new era of gadgets. I think there are many opportunities for gadget related companies to take advantage of where the market is going, or rather take the Apple approach and steer the market in their favor. Perhaps Parallax could be part of this by filling a void where the other chip companies can not focus on.
Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, once said:
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Where is DEC now?
Oh, MakerShed has a new deal offering 25% off of their kits.
I wouldn't like doing taxes without one, and I don't need an internet connection for that. I also still occasionally need a printed letter or even more rarely, a simple spreadsheet. Some people have DSLRs or other non-smartphone cameras (GoPros and such) and use Photoshop or some video editor. And of course, there's the main reason many people bought pcs to begin with: gaming. I don't play computer games, but I assume some gaming is still done offline?
No doubt there are a few other things that non-techies do offline, but probably not many.
[edit] One issue is what one means when saying "most people". CNC machines of one sort or another are getting to be more common, even in home shops. My wife is a quilter, and there are quilt design programs, as well as CNC sewing and embroidery machines. Artists find a lot of uses for computers. People control telescopes, use computers for ham radio, or watch their DVD collections. None of those things require an internet connection, though they might benefit from one.
Almost nobody wants a computer in their home. They never do any computing, never mind programming.
What billions of people have now, at home and in their pockets, is a communications device.
Perhaps something people of the time of Ken Olsen could not see happening.
I guess I just know too many nobodies.
What people have are computers that are used as communication devices. Smart phones are beyond walkie-talkies and are basically a hand held computer that folks use as a communication device including an iPad or even a smart TV. A typical home will have multiple computers, embedded and otherwise, even if they do not have a desktop or laptop. The processing power of the handheld devices have gotten to a point where they could be used as a personal computer, but there are still limitations. If the PC was dead, then Laptops and Desktops would be non-existent. Gamers still dig their over-clocked desktops as to many graphics and video folks and plenty of average Joe's and Jane's. I suppose I am in the wrong circle then.
Combine that with the fact that most people are not that great at design/creativity (although no one readily admits that) and it leaves a lot of people disenchanted. Most people don't actually need to make anything. Worse yet, most don't know what they want to make. They are lucky if they find something they like and download a design from someone else. At that point, just click and order from Ebay and you're better off.
Erco out.
I'm creative and actually build projects that could benefit from the ability to make my own parts, however I'm not willing to drop the $ necessary to get one that would be less of a headache and I still have to admit that I would hardly use it.
I recently gave away from HP PhotoSmart printer because I used it like twice a year and all the ink would dry up in between uses. Not worth spending $70+ every time I want to print. Better off taking my prints to Walgreens the few times I need to do it.
I recently gave away from HP PhotoSmart printer because I used it like twice a year and all the ink would dry up in between uses. Not worth spending $70+ every time I want to print. Better off taking my prints to Walgreens the few times I need to do it.
I've come to that same conclusion. Plus, the print quality of the professional color printers far outshines anything my HP color inkjet could spit out.
I recently gave away from HP PhotoSmart printer because I used it like twice a year and all the ink would dry up in between uses. Not worth spending $70+ every time I want to print. Better off taking my prints to Walgreens the few times I need to do it.
I'm betting HP will miss your refill orders and will be sending many (self-printed) Christmas and birthday cards in an effort to regain your patronage.
But seriously, I'm noticing an increase in aggressive follow-up "wanna buy this?" emails from Ebay and other online sellers, reminding me that I left something in my basket or just looked at something.
Big Brother is watching and reaching for your wallet!
I recently gave away from HP PhotoSmart printer because I used it like twice a year and all the ink would dry up in between uses. Not worth spending $70+ every time I want to print. Better off taking my prints to Walgreens the few times I need to do it.
I'm going on 5+ years with the same printer/scanner, bought ink a couple of times for it. Cartridges with small tanks at outrageous prices cured me of that.
Been doing greyscale printing with the help of a black ink refill kit. They supply a lot of refills in the kit, ink doesn't seem to dry up or clog the print head. Plus a cleaning solution is supplied in mine.
Color print jobs go to WM photo dept. I dont have much need for color prints. Once stuff is printed, if it isn't sent to somebody, it has to be filed. I am sitting on a ton of used paper now.
I only wish they would. Despite the fact that I used to work for HP, I can hardly tolerate them now. It all changed when they became just another purveyor of Asian PCs and peripherals. It worsened when high-margin ink became their primary source of revenue. How the mighty have fallen!
Well, my point in mentioning the Photo Printer was that, like a 3D printer, it is something I would rarely use and therefore couldn't justify the cost to have it sit around and potentially have me needing to relearn how to use it when I did finally need it. I'd rather have someone who uses one all the time make me any parts I need and trade or pay them for their troubles.
Bill & Dave, (which is what they wanted you to call them), probably are looking down at their former company and shaking their heads in sadness. They spent a lifetime creating a huge successful diverse company that treated employees as people and delivered quality products/services. Having a diverse family of products and services helped give (old) HP overall stability. When one business sector was down, usually others were doing well enough to compensate. With the breaking up of HP into ever-smaller pieces that focus on single sectors/industries, they are more exposed to any downward trend in those individual sectors and can have severe downturns in business.
Keysight currently consists of the bulk of old HP's Test & Measurement divisions. They are headquartered here in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. I worked for HP for over 20 years in the Signal Analysis division (i.e. Spectrum Analyzers, etc...) here in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park.
Agilent consists primarily of the life sciences divisions (i.e Gas-chromatographs, etc...)
NOTE: HP medical products were sold to Philips back in 2001.
Neither Keysight or Agilent or even the two current sides of HP (HP Inc. [PCs & Printers] & HP Enterprise [Servers & IT services]) have much left of the "HP way" left in them. There probably are pockets of "HP way" around being kept alive by the dwindling population of old-time employees, but they are getting fewer in number...
When ink jet cartridges get clogged it is almost always on the surface of the print head. You can let the print head soak in a puddle of isopropyl alcohol for a few hours and it will work again.
There are definitely cases where simple gadgets have proven their worth versus a smartphone. One example is instrument tuners. You can download a free tuner for your smartphone and use it to tune your guitar, so why buy a tuner? Well a tuner can clip onto your instrument and always be available. It can sense the vibrations directly (versus using a mic), and thus work in a noisy environment. You can put it out of sight, and have it available all of the time. And they are so cheap. OK maybe not as flexible in certain aspects. So good to have both. And some will want something much fancier - e.g. peterson strobe tuner.
I'm sure there are plenty of other examples where the compromises in a smartphone mean that you really want a physical gadget. Maybe it's just so you can have real buttons. Or have something that will still work in 5 years. How many people bought devices (radios, multitrack recorders,...) with iPhone docks that are now useless?
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Anyway, with the hardware, coders can now busy themselves with useful applications. Maybe 99 out of 100 are useless or derivative or just plain junk. But we marvel at that 100th app that is truly innovative and handy. In a way, we've become smarter consumers because we realize the smartphone is capable of all these things, and we don't need to keep buying stuff. Why spend the money if we already have the hardware?
Only thing now is we need a smartphone that yells at you if you use it while while driving.
I see it in the opposite direction; the age of gadgets has just begun. There have been companies such as Pebble or Toshiba with their Glasses where management failed to really get the full picture of what they are up against in the market these days, but there are many areas where so called gadgets are just rockin'. Even though FitBit, which has it's own issues, bought out failing Pebble (once offered $750 mil but sold for $40 mil), FitBit is still posed to make 2.4bn this year. Also, with Amazon Echo (over 5M sold to date), Google Home, and Apple Home Kit and the like, gadgets connecting to gadgets in the home is really taking off. The whole connected car thing is just getting out of the garage and will launch another wave of gadgets connecting to gadgets. And, countries are just starting to grasp the whole Smart City concept which again will launch another series of gadgets connecting to gadgets especially in the sub-1Gig arena. I believe there are still markets that have either not been touch or just getting touched such as with elderly folks or handy capable folks that could use gadgets to make their day-to-day much easier like Purple Communications (Parallax's neighbor in Rocklin) teaming with LIFX to release "POP" to visually notify users of incoming calls. Then there is the whole Mars thing which should spur on whole new era of gadgets. I think there are many opportunities for gadget related companies to take advantage of where the market is going, or rather take the Apple approach and steer the market in their favor. Perhaps Parallax could be part of this by filling a void where the other chip companies can not focus on.
Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, once said:
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Where is DEC now?
Oh, MakerShed has a new deal offering 25% off of their kits.
Almost nobody wants a computer in their home. They never do any computing, never mind programming.
What billions of people have now, at home and in their pockets, is a communications device.
Perhaps something people of the time of Ken Olsen could not see happening.
-Phil
No doubt there are a few other things that non-techies do offline, but probably not many.
[edit] One issue is what one means when saying "most people". CNC machines of one sort or another are getting to be more common, even in home shops. My wife is a quilter, and there are quilt design programs, as well as CNC sewing and embroidery machines. Artists find a lot of uses for computers. People control telescopes, use computers for ham radio, or watch their DVD collections. None of those things require an internet connection, though they might benefit from one.
I guess I just know too many nobodies.
What people have are computers that are used as communication devices. Smart phones are beyond walkie-talkies and are basically a hand held computer that folks use as a communication device including an iPad or even a smart TV. A typical home will have multiple computers, embedded and otherwise, even if they do not have a desktop or laptop. The processing power of the handheld devices have gotten to a point where they could be used as a personal computer, but there are still limitations. If the PC was dead, then Laptops and Desktops would be non-existent. Gamers still dig their over-clocked desktops as to many graphics and video folks and plenty of average Joe's and Jane's. I suppose I am in the wrong circle then.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
I'm creative and actually build projects that could benefit from the ability to make my own parts, however I'm not willing to drop the $ necessary to get one that would be less of a headache and I still have to admit that I would hardly use it.
I recently gave away from HP PhotoSmart printer because I used it like twice a year and all the ink would dry up in between uses. Not worth spending $70+ every time I want to print. Better off taking my prints to Walgreens the few times I need to do it.
-Phil
I'm betting HP will miss your refill orders and will be sending many (self-printed) Christmas and birthday cards in an effort to regain your patronage.
But seriously, I'm noticing an increase in aggressive follow-up "wanna buy this?" emails from Ebay and other online sellers, reminding me that I left something in my basket or just looked at something.
Big Brother is watching and reaching for your wallet!
I'm going on 5+ years with the same printer/scanner, bought ink a couple of times for it. Cartridges with small tanks at outrageous prices cured me of that.
Been doing greyscale printing with the help of a black ink refill kit. They supply a lot of refills in the kit, ink doesn't seem to dry up or clog the print head. Plus a cleaning solution is supplied in mine.
Color print jobs go to WM photo dept. I dont have much need for color prints. Once stuff is printed, if it isn't sent to somebody, it has to be filed. I am sitting on a ton of used paper now.
I only wish they would. Despite the fact that I used to work for HP, I can hardly tolerate them now. It all changed when they became just another purveyor of Asian PCs and peripherals. It worsened when high-margin ink became their primary source of revenue. How the mighty have fallen!
I can't help but think Hewlett and Packard would be very depressed at at what happened to their company.
Exactly.
Keysight currently consists of the bulk of old HP's Test & Measurement divisions. They are headquartered here in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. I worked for HP for over 20 years in the Signal Analysis division (i.e. Spectrum Analyzers, etc...) here in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park.
Agilent consists primarily of the life sciences divisions (i.e Gas-chromatographs, etc...)
NOTE: HP medical products were sold to Philips back in 2001.
Neither Keysight or Agilent or even the two current sides of HP (HP Inc. [PCs & Printers] & HP Enterprise [Servers & IT services]) have much left of the "HP way" left in them. There probably are pockets of "HP way" around being kept alive by the dwindling population of old-time employees, but they are getting fewer in number...
Much the same with me. Soak my head in alcohol and a few hours later, I'm good to go.
I'm sure there are plenty of other examples where the compromises in a smartphone mean that you really want a physical gadget. Maybe it's just so you can have real buttons. Or have something that will still work in 5 years. How many people bought devices (radios, multitrack recorders,...) with iPhone docks that are now useless?