This week, Norm is joined by Jeremy and Patrick Norton to talk about Space X’s rocket landing, speculate on Google’s robot plans, and debate the merits of a $300 eBook reader. Plus, we get excited about the potential of autopilot in Tesla’s cars.
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Adam embarks on one of his most ambitious builds yet: fulfil…
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Adam recently completed a build of the royal St. Edwards cro…
Making
Viewers often ask to see Adam working in real-time, so this …
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Adam and Norm assemble a beautifully machined replica prop k…
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One of the ways Adam has been getting through lockdown has b…
Making
Adam unboxes and performs a quick test of this novel new hel…
Making
When Adam visited Weta Workshop early last year, he stopped …
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Adam tackles a shop shelf build that he's been putting off f…
Show And Tell
Time for a model kit build! This steampunk-inspired mechanic…
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Adam reveals his surprise Christmas present for his wife--a …
there is a different fuse for ludicrous mode to allow more power from battery to the motors
On the subject of Vive shipping, if you query Steam Vive titles the results could imply there’s been little movement (in the realm of one shipment). It’s a little tenuous but interesting all the same.
https://steamdb.info/graph/?compare=382110%2C450390%2C412740%2C448280
It’s not a barge, it’s a ship. — Per Elon.
Space x might be a private company, but the money is all uncle sams! Elon’s true genius 🙂
Amazon does have an audible equivalent for ebooks it is called kindle unlimited.
Never found a use for Facebook. Waste of time.
Good for you Jeremy. Oculus shipping is a disaster everyone is so put off by this falling from enthusiasm to disgust. None disclosure may prevent naming the party at fault here. Nevertheless, adding 2 month to the delivery will just increase the prices on ebay. First reports of faulty Rifts (stuck colored lines on the screens) are emerging. GoerTek is the only MFG of the Rift.
Patrick Norton rocks man, can we keep him? 🙂
Patrick Norton needs to check out the Mustang Zombie 222 if he is interested in combining Classic Mussel Cars with newer electric.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjQtrysPzVI
Timestamps here: http://pastebin.com/GCwDSNd2
Can’t put them directly here because this editor doesn’t like them for some reason.
Regarding the Premium E-Book Experience, I think there is a niche market. For example, in academia people may spend 10 to 12 hours a day reading journals and LCD is very hard on the eyes compared to paper or e-ink. Especially for older people. But I don’t understand how the Kindle product would meet this market.
The Kindle device is puzzling because of the small screen combined with high price. Where did the money go to make it $300.00? 6 inch screen is useless for A4 PDFs for people who are going to be reading them 8 hours a day.
There is a recent IndieGogo for a 13.3 inch Android e-ink reader, by Michael Kozlowski, and the price is $700.00, my guess would be because of the high price of e-ink panels that are large. As size goes up, the price difference between e-ink panels and LCD panels widens. There is a Pervasive Displays e-ink panel for 10 inch on DigiKey that is about $300.00 for example, while 10″ LCDs can be had on ebay for about $60.00. But that campaign did very well in it’s funding so there must be some market.
Awesome, that’s all I can say.
Regarding the new Kindle – I admit the price is absurd but the design is very enticing. The wide, lop-sided bezel is exactly what you need for reasonable one-handed reading, and the physical page buttons is a big win. Combine that with the very clever charging cover design, and it really is, objectively speaking, a great design that does exactly what you didn’t realize you always wanted the kindle to do. The fact that the cover is magnetic makes it practically equivalent to a capacitive charge feature. Just slip the kindle back into its cover every night and leave the cover on the night stand if you like. Or leave the cover in your bag when you commute and slip the kindle out when you read.
That being said, $300 WITH advertising is borderline insulting. Why they didn’t replace the Voyage with this in their pricing scheme is a mystery to me. It’s a shame – really well thought out hardware that’s going to get missed because of Amazon completely goofing on market positioning and pricing.
I have to say, I was a little disappointed with the coverage of the Kindle in this podcast. Norm is usually a little more on the ball when it comes to knowing the specs and features and then giving some thoughtful commentary on it.
Three cheers for Patrick Norton. I’m happy to have his sanity counterbalance the Elon Musk/Tesla fan-boying that raged ever so hard in the last episode. Tesla hype makes Apple look as humble as a Tibetan Monk. A $125k car that’s not as capable as an old Subaru . . . Paying $1,000 just to have the opportunity to buy a car in two years . . . . no reviews, no tests, but hey, here’s my money.
It just seems crazy to me. Maybe I just don’t make enough money.
If Elon Musk had been able to do all of this without taking tons of government subsidies (i.e. taking someone’s tax dollars to support something he can’t use and doesn’t want), that would be one thing, but he didn’t. Combine that with the insanely petty attacking of anyone who dares to be publicly critical of Tesla (Musk personally cancelling one blogger’s pre-order) – I could be wrong, but I smell a pretty high-order con going on here. If Tesla is here and ragingly successful ten years from now, I’ll gladly eat my words, but I’m betting Musk will cash out in the not-too-distant future, make a huge personal profit, Tesla will wind up disappearing, and taxpayers will never get their money back.
Don’t get me wrong – I’d love for Tesla to succeed – I wish he had more successful manufacturing in this country. I’m just highly skeptical.
I agree wholeheartedly on there being a legitimate use case for large screen e-ink readers. Magazine formats and .PDFs . . .etc. simply don’t translate to the 6″ Kindle screen. However, $700 is a non-starter for me and, I would guess, most folks. Perhaps if they’re angling for colleges, institutions, labs, medical facilities, or libraries to buy them in bulk to stock them . . . but the average fellow can’t look at a dedicated large screen e-reader and go, “yeah, that’s an equivalent value as a new smartphone or a VR headset.”
Interesting that there are folks out there, and definitely interesting that the campaign did so well. Best of luck to them, and may their success broaden the market that more might feel inclined to enter it.
If NASA could have done it themselves for less, they would have. The term “rational economic actor” comes to mind. About time our research money started aiming higher than passe orbital flight.
No episode thus week?? 🙁
I believe Norm was gone and it appears that Will/Jeremy didn’t record anything. 🙁
For Jeremy,
Looking at the new biped robot, relating it to Google’s voice assist, self driving, and knowledge graphs. I’m concluding they are in the process of making a commercial/personal Astromech droid for everyone 🙂