Hardware Lyfe

Hi – we’ve been a little distracted by the holidays and more recently, the terribly cold weather (for Texas and me—some of you are made of sterner stuff). In spite of my preparations, we didn’t have hot water for two days, but it’s thawed now with no damage. This is when I break out the… Continue reading Hardware Lyfe

Pouring concrete

Hi—I wanted to post an update earlier but holidays slowed things down. We’re in the thick of measuring out and laying down the foundation— the final hardware designs that will get produced. This is some of our most critical work, as it will be costly to unwind. It’s a fiendishly complicated multi-dimensional puzzle to balance… Continue reading Pouring concrete

That’s a zoo, not an ecosystem.

While hobbyist IoT got nerdier, consumer IoT picked narrow lanes like thermostat or light bulb and worked on experience. Unfortunately that lasted only until growth proved shallow and users had to be squeezed for more money. And now “Internet of Things” is a poisoned brand.

Rewild physical computing.

IoT used to be cool. Them were heady days, when it felt like the physical world could be reduced to just another API target. Twine raised a large amount based on that excitement.

Deshittifying the Internet of Things starts with me.

What was once a promise of technology to allow us to automate and analyze the environments in our physical spaces is now a heap of broken ideas and broken products. Technology products have been deployed en masse, our personal data collected and sold without our consent, and then abandoned as soon as companies strip mined… Continue reading Deshittifying the Internet of Things starts with me.

Pickup has an app.

Pickup may be nice to look at—who doesn’t like a cheddar wedge?—but it’s not something you’d usually interact with, by design. But the companion app is, so a here’s a preview of how it works. It’s a web app that runs on Android, iOS and desktop. The Monitor screen will by default show you all… Continue reading Pickup has an app.

Sensor power tools.

Supermechanical began in 2011 from our work at the MIT Media Lab with fun and humane physical interfaces, manifesting in Twine, arguably the first consumer IoT device—or at least the first general-purpose one, boxing up WiFi, batteries, plug-in sensors, rules-based programming and a cloud. Twine contained the seed of a good idea, that the world… Continue reading Sensor power tools.