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Comment by eps | Hacker News Reader

Hardware is now a blank canvas for the software to flourish. Not really a bad thing.

Plus there's still Teenage Engineering if you want things that look nice when powered off :)

I think the slabness of form that inhabits current design is a great opportunity. I see it as way to embed sophisticated technology that a small firm could never develop on our own. I’m optimistic that very unique form factors catering too hyper specific tasks is right around the corner. I’m 1991 BSID graduate from the now defunct University of the Arts. I feel technology is finally achieving the promise of the 1990’s promise.

There is no software to make the design beautiful if the device is on standby on a desk. It’s just a blank rectangle.

The real question is why don’t more mainstream electronics look as creative as teenage engineering?

The kind of designs that (e.g.) Sony was selling on the scale of millions in the early 2000s were incredibly unique and eye-catching.

Sony S2 Sports WM-FS566

Sony Sports Walkman D-SJ01 Portable CD Player

Just to name a couple.

Teenage Engineering sells toys to rich people. Their products are all less functional than a budget laptop with some software. I love the TE design and products but it's pretty obvious why not everyone is doing this. They are selling a voice recorder that costs more than an entire iPhone which has a voice recorder app preinstalled.

A device which just provides a blank screen for the software to take over can perform the task of many single purpose gadgets, often even better. It just isn't as fun.

Well, the TE's audio recorder is very expensive, but comparing it to the iPhone's voice recorder is ridiculous, at least compare it to a semi-pro or pro field recorder.

As far as I can tell, the only thing the TE product does that your phone doesn’t is record from multiple external mics at once. Almost everything in the marketing page would work just as well on your phone though.

That's a big 'almost'. The number of channels you can record is a pretty important feature on a field recorder. What I mean is that it makes no sense comparing it to an iPhone. You could compare it to a pro field recorder, that's cheaper than an iPhone, and the features are more comparable.

I eye the TE TP7 on my desk. I use it most days. Its design speaks to my millennial taste like candy. Sometimes I just hold it in my hand like I did with my Walkman or discmans of my youth. I admit some of the yarning is for nostalgia. Yet, surely task specific devices can offer better utility than single screen slabs in certain cases.

Pales in comparison to the Nagra IV-S.

https://www.nagraaudio.com/product/nagra-iv-family/

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