The dream of the personal machine
kylechayka.substack.com
kylechayka.substack.com
I liked the idea of making video games for a bit, until the gaming scene changed and I realized how hard it is to do anything at a pro level. But mostly, I was interested in how devices could integrate with the real world. Cold dead pixels on a screen aren't that interesting unless you're a true intellectual and have a lot of understanding of math and algorithms, probably more than average coders.
Even the early internet, and remaining unshitty forums, are mostly only interesting because there's a real person on the other end, and it gets boring again if all anyone talks about is tech with no connection to anything but more tech.
I think that's probably a lot of what happened and why the internet isn't that exciting to a lot of us anymore.
When all day is JUST phone scrolling, nobody is doing anything to write about. It's like the "AI models eating their own shit" problem, but WE are the being like the AI models and have been since 2008 or so.
Sometimes I wonder if there's something wrong with my mind, since I don't get into the really abstract stuff as much as other devs, I don't spend weekends learning LISP just for fun or writing my own sorting algorithms, everyone else seems to be motivated by logic and simplicity and ideas a lot more.
What seems more practical is cheap low power devices that connect to phones, which can be left in a backpack. Like, an EInk Pokedex that just does texts, calls, notes, and smart light control.
These devices would already be cheap and easy to make. The proof is that all they would be is cheap emulator handhelds, with different software, more interesting cases, and an ESP32 instead of whatever CPU. The cost should be like $30 for TFT ones.
GPS, a camera, a touchscreen, etc, are all not needed. You don't need a high resolution screen or real video playback. There's the phone for that. All you need is Bluetooth and Wifi, and probably NFC or perhaps even LoRa for some of the cooler possibilities.
There's a startup with a round phone.[1] But they announced in 2021, and haven't updated their web site since 2022. They need to get that out the door, make it in pink, and get it into the next Barbie movie.
ISTR another round phone before that, perhaps a Samsung, but I can't find it now.
- I have an Apple Watch Ultra (https://www.apple.com/au/apple-watch-ultra/) which has two chunky hardware buttons and a scrollwheel. That provides some good interaction opportunities.
- Modern digital cameras continue to explore hardware interfaces. I would love a ruggedised iPhone optimised for photography: thicker for better holding, battery life and to give room for a larger lens, with hardware dials and buttons for no-look photography.