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The answer to that is right in your own comment. No one wanted that cumbersome demo ware crap. It had no utility and no value other than visual bling. The re

The answer to that is right in your own comment. No one wanted that cumbersome demo ware crap. It had no utility and no value other than visual bling. The reality is people want to live their lives freely, not tied to technology. This is something Apple understood under Ive so very well until Cook drove him out. Now I expect we will see Apple's first failure with Vision as HCI will demand a less constricting interface. AI is likely that freeing engagement paradigm, and Ive is jumping onboard there.

kmlx 3y ago
> The reality is people want to live their lives freely, not tied to technology. considering every one and their dog has a phone, the incredible rise of digital payments, more and more time being spent online, more people globally getting online, more expansive internet ever year, cars and their media systems, electric cars, all devices connected to the internet and so many other things i’m missing, i would qualify this statement as false.
- tsunamifury 3y ago
  All of these took off once the technology to use them became unobtrusive. That’s the obvious point here.
ecshafer 3y ago
When I was younger I would have agreed with you negatively, that apple hides the technology too much. But now I agree with you and think Ive and Jobs did get it on a product level. Tech should do something for you, and ideally you should not realize you are using technology. Imagine you are a carpenter, and you build houses. You only have ever used a hammer and nails for nailing. One day you get a super fancy nail gun that you adjust pressure and tweak 1 million settings and it has a lazer sight and cloud connectivity etc you would probably hate it. But if you get a nail gun that is idiot proof and works well with no tweaks you would love it. Technology exists to solve prolbems not for its own sake.
fidotron 3y ago
Yes, I think the difference is something like classic Apple viewed computers as things within a lived in external environment, classic Microsoft (Gates, at least) views the physical world as merely an inconvenience getting in the way of your connection with the metaverse, for want of a better term. The big balance to make with ambient computing is to ensure the humans using it are the entities that have agency, and they don't merely give it up to the system. Arguably things like Tiktok, Facebook etc. demonstrate people already have. There was a project in Japan called TRON, at least superficially a sort of academic/industrial operating system research effort, however, the leader used to write introductions to their annual conferences, and one of these contains a rant about why virtual reality is misguided and the internet of things is the way to go, and this is from like 1995.

kmlx 3y ago

> The reality is people want to live their lives freely, not tied to technology. considering every one and their dog has a phone, the incredible rise of digital payments, more and more time being spent online, more people globally getting online, more expansive internet ever year, cars and their media systems, electric cars, all devices connected to the internet and so many other things i’m missing, i would qualify this statement as false.

tsunamifury 3y ago
All of these took off once the technology to use them became unobtrusive. That’s the obvious point here.

ecshafer 3y ago

When I was younger I would have agreed with you negatively, that apple hides the technology too much. But now I agree with you and think Ive and Jobs did get it on a product level. Tech should do something for you, and ideally you should not realize you are using technology. Imagine you are a carpenter, and you build houses. You only have ever used a hammer and nails for nailing. One day you get a super fancy nail gun that you adjust pressure and tweak 1 million settings and it has a lazer sight and cloud connectivity etc you would probably hate it. But if you get a nail gun that is idiot proof and works well with no tweaks you would love it. Technology exists to solve prolbems not for its own sake.

fidotron 3y ago

Yes, I think the difference is something like classic Apple viewed computers as things within a lived in external environment, classic Microsoft (Gates, at least) views the physical world as merely an inconvenience getting in the way of your connection with the metaverse, for want of a better term. The big balance to make with ambient computing is to ensure the humans using it are the entities that have agency, and they don't merely give it up to the system. Arguably things like Tiktok, Facebook etc. demonstrate people already have. There was a project in Japan called TRON, at least superficially a sort of academic/industrial operating system research effort, however, the leader used to write introductions to their annual conferences, and one of these contains a rant about why virtual reality is misguided and the internet of things is the way to go, and this is from like 1995.