What is the device you want, but that does not exist?
I would love the child of a Surfacebook with a Framework laptop; or A bare keyboard attached to a screen, that I could plug my phone (possibly running Phosh) and use it as a hardware for a laptop experience
I would say off only with the capability to view temps. IoT devices are shit when it comes to security and turning on remotely just scares the hell outta me. This is from someone whose whole house is decked out in IoT stuff.
Large smart appliances aren’t dumb about what they do. I have LG smart dishwasher and washer/dryer…can’t remote start any of them unless I power them on and press the remote start button and shut the door first.
If the door opens again, then remote start gets locked out again, until the remote start button gets pressed on the console.
Also, people talk shit but I love getting a push when the washer/dryer/dishwasher is done, or when the kids leave the fridge door open. And tossing a quilt/blanket/comforter in the dryer and hitting “remote start” before leaving for the day, and then turn it on to tumble a bit on your way home so you can just snuggle up with a fresh hot blanket is next-level living my man.
One thatsurprisingly can’t be solved by electric blankets, since most default to “off” when power is restored, so you can’t use them effectively with a smart plug.
Lots of appliances implement the Whisper protocol, which is like zigbee but with lower power requirements if I recall correctly. I think there’s also something about how whisper is a true mesh network whereas zigbee requires dedicated hubs.
Pretty sure Zigbee does support mesh, maybe not Zigbee direct though. Thanks for pointing out Whisper, can you please share a link to specs and an example of appliances? Somehow I seem to only find Ethereum related links.
3D printer that can print fully-populated functional electronic devices. Design or download a schematic for, say a new camera or phone, make whatever modifications I want, and just hit print!
Ooh this reminds me. A device that can run a hashing algorithm on an electronic device, to detect if even a single transistor is different than another device.
Because atomic variations are allowed, the resolution of this device needs to somehow encapsulate electronic connections and gates.
There is conductive filament but… the scale is huge. It’s also possible to etch circuits at home with e.g (can’t find name from kickstarter) etch/laser/CNC combo for about $4k but arguably if not in rush ordering online to a dedicated fab with make something way better and cheap, with multiple layers. But yes, would be neat!
I wouldn’t trust myself with a full replicator. You’re gonna have to turn on all the safety protocols, sobriety lockouts, and nutritional programmes.
Otherwise, I’m gonna start off with the intentions of designing a nice camera… and six months later I’ll be a wasted super-obese cyborg monster who’s caused half the planet to be devoured by self-replicating grey goo.
Niche, but I want it. It would look like a blank book, with pages that feel like paper. I’d be able to download whatever text I wanted, and read it like an old fashioned book. You’d be able to change the text as many times as you wanted to.
A brain implant that I can store a short memo in. I have a very bad working memory so it would be incredible to somehow store lists/numbers longer than 4 items in my head without hacking it by whispering the list to myself over and over.
Privacy-respecting thought-controlled AR+VR smart contact lenses that correct my eyesight, block out UV, can somehow project sound into my brain, overlay people’s names and basic info when I see them and don’t remember (or make me remember thanks to the brain interface), and let me browse the internet and work on stuff without using my hands because RSI :(
Alright dude, you and I need to talk about the limits of what you can do with your biology.
I’ve had and solved all of those problems via biohacking. Except for the eyesight correction (though I have found it’s affected by inflammation, hydration levels, and nutrition to a larger degree than I would have predicted).
I remember the day someone just told me “You know, you can cure plantar fasciitis. It’s not some thing you have to live with forever”. I was blown away. And they were right.
Now you’re complaining about all these things you seem to think are fixed aspects of your body, that you have to live with until technology fixes it for you, but they’re not.
FWIW Monocle is open. Lynx XR is also working toward that. SimulaVR also but didn’t try it.
PS: missed the thought controlled part… iMHO for this we need quite a few more years. Basic control sure but nowhere near what even the most basic keyboard could provide. I’d argue combining inputs, e.g controllers, hand tracking, mouse and keyboard, will keep on being muct more efficient unless there is a medical need for it.
PPS: had carpal tunnel, switch to all ergonomic few years ago, never looked back
A modern Steam Machine console/PC. I just got the Steam Deck and I love it, but it’s roughly PS4 power. I want a PS6 with the same or better SteamOS build that the Steam Deck has. I want simple modular upgradability. I want it to come with a controller that’s basically the Steam Deck without the screen, but with the comfort of a dualsense. I want to have a device that can replace both my PS5 and my laptop from 2015. I want the freedom and multitasking of PC with the standardization and comfort of console, updated to this decade.
I mean, technically you could build it yourself and just use PS/X controllers. I know it’s a lot more work than just buying it premade but at least you could fulfill your own dream in the meantime.
I’m very interested in doing that, actually! I’m not sure I could do it in a small enough form factor to be what I want without sacrificing power and risking overheating, but I could probably build something bigger that’s good to put down on the floor by the tv (no carpet).
The smartphone that I allways remember missing the most is the Nokia E7, it was such a cool phone.
The design is beautiful, the physical keyboard was amazing, sure Symbian wasn’t the fastest or the most modern OS, but with Anna and later Belle it worked well.
I remember sitting in the lobby of a hospital with my E7, I ran Putty Touch on it and was connected to my friend’s SSH server, and had connected to my irssi screen session, I had configured touch gestures to scroll in the IRC chat and to switch irssi windows based on if I swiped up/down or left/right, the physical qwerty keyboard made the phone look like a tiny laptop, and I felt like such a hacker.
I was working a job I hated, but on the way home I would watch movies on the phone, and it worked so well.
It was an awesome phone, and someone else thought so too and it was pickpocketed, a year after I got it.
A true virtual reality. Not goggles, but the kind that hooks up into your brain and consciousness. One that’s indistinguishable from real life. The kind where you can basically just live your entire life in some kind of a virtual multiplayer where quite literally anything is possible. You could be hooked up to an IV that feeds you optimal diet etc. go off the deep end if you want.
I know how it might seem crazy to see something like that as a desirable thing, but I really think it would solve many of the issues in the world. I don’t think you’re “wasting your life” if you’re being happy in a virtual world, and I don’t see a reason why you couldn’t be happy there. You could have your own private world(s) and others would have theirs. There would be public worlds also with a ton of real people aswell as AI, and people could visit your worlds aswell if you let them. Just think about the possbilities. Why ruin the planet when you can have abundance in the virtualverse.
Have you read Ready Player One? Cuz they more or less did that in the book. If not, I highly recommend it. The sequel isn’t quite as good, but was still fun.
An unbreakable device that can transport me to any world or time I want It has the be light, small, and not suspicious-looking, and I need to be able to transport the device to me at any time. The things that happen during my visits would not actually affect reality, but instead it would kind of create an alternative universe.
So if I went back in time and killed some historical figure, then returned to this reality, they wouldn’t have been killed by me. Or if I went to the fictional world of a book and killed some character, it would happen in a different reality that the one the book takes place in. (otherwise I would have a constant fear of fucking up the entire universe.)
And, of course, I would have to gain the ability to understand, speak, write and read the languages. Also I would have to be immune to diseases they spread and they would have to be immune to the diseases I spread.
Or maybe I have to be a little more humble and say that I want a robot that could clean my room and put all my items in the correct places.
A display with a transparent screen and then behind the transparent screen is an eink display.
When I wanted the eink mode the screen goes completely transparent and only uses the eink display. When I want a full colour high resolution display the ink goes black and the transparent display displays the colour content. Best of both worlds.
If transparent displays are cheap enough that they put them on fridges at the supermarket, clearly they’ve come down in costs enough for consumer electronics.
Interesting, both are sold, namely transparent screens with e.g LG and eInk monitors e.g Dasung so… could make for a cool prototype. I imagine though that studying the costs, economical and ecological, a “boring” screen might be better in most cases.
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