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Adafruit’s Limor Fried Wants To Make People Comfortable With Their Electronics, Inside And Out

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Recently, consumer electronics have tended to be more about closing things down then opening them up, but New York-based Adafruit is working to help reverse that trend, and to make it so that people aren’t afraid of what’s inside their devices, and instead become more comfortable with electronics components and the concepts behind how gadgets actually work. Adafruit founder and CEO Limor Fried was on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt NY today, and talked about how her company is going about achieving that goal.

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The mission helps the company generate revenue, by priming an audience early on to become buyers of the components, DIY kits and open-source devices Adafruit sells through its online store. The key is to start young, Fried says, and to take advantage of urges that children already have around exploring their environment and the things around them.

“At a certain age, they just want to be comfortable with it, and everyone here probably liked to take stuff apart,” he said. “That’s how we learn, we take stuff apart and then we learn from them. That’s how software works, too.” With software, we pull apart the code to find out how it’s put together, she said, and we should be doing the same thing with hardware.

“We open the box,” she said, referring to our instincts when young. “The gadgets you have now, tablets and smartphones, theyr’e not easy to open anymore, so we provide that.” The idea is to make sure that if the need to break something down and repair it does arise, we aren’t afraid of it, and we don’t feel like we need eight years of specific education just to replace a broken capacitor.

Adafruit recently launched a video series for children called Circuit Playground to help familiarize them with electronics at a very early age. The company also put out a coloring book for electronics, which you can print out and use under a creative commons license. This is designed less to provide a rigorous early-age electrical engineering education regimen, and more to help get kids comfortable with terms, designs and shapes early on so that they’ll find it easier to pursue that kind of formal training later on. Basically, it’s about planting the seed for a generation of makers to come.

Asked about Adafruit’s identity, and whether it’s an educational organization or a business, Fried said her company is an ‘educational, tutorial company” that then has essentially a gift shop at the end. The model works in the same way that art supply stores functions; you could technically make your own paint, she says, but most people don’t because it’s easier to buy. Budding electronics hobbyists can likewise build their own PCBs, but they instead turn to supply stores and pre-fab components like those supplied by Adafruit. But in the end, the emphasis is on education and open source.

Fried envisions a world where people treat hardware the same way they do software, by mostly leveraging open source tools to quickly start up their own companies. But that change represents a major shift that will require fundamental changes in how we think about hardware, and Adafruit is trying to bring that about starting as early in our educational lives as possible.

Inside Look: Robot Combat League

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Author: Tech Blogger

Robots bro. Robots.

Inside Google’s quest to build the Star Trek computer

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Author: Jon Daniels

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A lot of companies are invoking Star Trek these days, from Makerbot’s Replicator to the Tricorder Project, but Google seems to have taken it one step further. In Slate, Farhad Manjoo delves into Mountain View’s preoccupation with the omniscient, disembodied on-board computer that’s been a Trek hallmark since the ’60s. Apparently Google has adopted the computer as an ideal of human-computer interaction for Search. So far, the result is an increased emphasis on speech recognition and machine understanding — the skills a computer would need to carry on a conversation — as a way of expanding what a search engine can do. It’s a striking example of pop culture influencing modern tech, and good context for whatever’s unveiled at Google’s…

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Tales From Inside The Bitcoin Bubble

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Author: Stefanie Jenkins

Last week a Bitcoin was worth $ 100. Yesterday: over $ 200. Today: ?

Yesterday, on Reddit’s /r/bitcointip, a subreddit dedicated to the bot service that allows redditors to easily “tip” or transfer bitcoins to other users, an anonymous Redditor under the moniker “bitcoinbillionaire” gave away an estimated $ 13,627 in Bitcoins during a surprise charity spree. While it's uncertain if the indiscriminate donations were a joke or an elaborate act of trolling (at one point during the spree the benefactor even exclaimed “I am bitcoin!”), the money was undoubtedly real.

One recipient of the random cash, a Redditor who goes by “karelb,” posted yesterday that she “wish[ed] for the price to crash” and minutes later recieved a $ 20 BTC (or $ 4680 USD) tip from “bitcoinbillionaire”.

“I have no idea who he was, what he liked so much about my frankly stupid comment and I was frankly quite shocked,” Karelb, a computational linguistics student from the Czech Republic told BuzzFeed. Karleb, who has already used some of the money to buy a mobile phone, noted that, while she’s a casual early adopter of the currency, she's worried about volitility. “I think that if it should work as a currency, it should be *stable* and not grow this fast. I actually think that if it will crash, people will stop taking it as an investment and start taking it as a currency again.” Shortly after our conversation, Bitcoin's value fell by nearly half.

This morning BuzzFeed also spoke with a source at a popular Bitcoin-based online retailer who noted the site has been putting up “some pretty insane numbers” over the past few days and is looking to expand its staff to meet demand. While the employee wouldn't comment on exact figures, anecdotal evidence based on a dollar counter on the site's homepage shows a near $ 100,000 increase in store purchases in less than 24 hours. When asked if that was representative of the retailer's current numbers, the employee described the estimate as “somewhat accurate.”

Speaking on his own behalf, the employee was bullish on Bitcoin's valuation and extremely supportive of the currency's rise. “I don't believe there will be a crazy crash where it goes to $ 9 or $ 24 dollars,” he said. “I see a rise to about the $ 400-$ 500 mark and then a dip of about $ 50 here and there. I don't think its anything people should be afraid of.”

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Japanese mobile boss claims he’s already patented the tech inside Google Glass

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Author: Margo Tipton

Patent filings, we don’t take so seriously. One of Japan’s richest men, with the potential to call on an army of lawyers to defend what he claims is his invention, we probably ought to. Masayoshi Son, the billionaire (and philanthropic) CEO of SoftBank, has given a two-hour speech to his shareholders about his technological predictions for the next 30 years, and about halfway through he describes a familiar idea: augmented reality glasses that can understand what a person is saying and provide subtitles as a visual overlay. At one point, he specifically mentions protecting the concept:

“By the way, we’ve already taken out a patent on this — translation glasses with captions.” (1:22:49 in the video at the source link.)

We think we may have found the patent application in question, submitted in 2010 by SoftBank Mobile Corp. It does show a translation function similar — but not totally identical — to what’s been shown off in a recent Project Glass promo video, in which a guy translated his own words using Google’s specs. In any case, the whole patent system is so esoteric that it’s impossible to predict what ideas will clash and what won’t, but it’s worth bearing in mind how Masayoshi Son first became rich: he sold a translation device patent to Sharp for $ 1 million. What are the odds on that?

Filed under: Wearables, Mobile

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Via: DVICE, Ubergizmo

Source: SoftBank, Ekouhou patent filing (Japenese)

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TC Makers: Inside Will Rockwell’s Steampunk Workshop

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Author: jos

Hidden amidst the winding pathways of Llewelyn Park, New Jersey, America’s oldest gated community, steampunk designer Will Rockwell is building a future that never was. He began his career as a TV producer but he always loved to tinker with metals, leather, and wood – the three components of good steampunk. After building a set of Rocketeer-style USB keys, friends turned him on to Etsy. He opened a shop and almost immediately was flooded with orders.

These designs are a labor of love for Rockwell who scours the junkyards of New Jersey for cool odds and ends. He has two workshops, one in Pennsylvania and one in the basement of his 1912 home.

Rockwell doen’t expect to get rich with his hobby but he’s doing well, nonetheless. His unique style, nautical-themed designs, and electronic additions to his devices meld the modern and the mysterious in a quirky way. My favorite project? His electric guitar outfitted with wild effects and knife switches, although his handmade USB keys are still amazing.

Will is definitely following the maker spirit and is even making a little money. His world is one of the imagination, full of undersea starships and steaming hard drives run by pistons. It’s enough to make you think you’ve stumbled upon the world of Captain Nemo via the Jersey Turnpike.

TechCrunch Makers is a video series featuring people who make cool stuff. If you’d like to be featured, email us!.

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Apple Patents A Convertible MacBook Design, And Street View Navigation That Can Go Inside Buildings

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Author:

A couple of new Apple patent applications published today (through AppleInsider) demonstrate how the business may be thinking of taking on current advancements from various other big tech companies with comparable, however various designs. The first is a filing that describes a convertible MacBook design, with a touch-sensitive display that separates from the base. The second is a approach for browsing a Street View-style view of virtual maps, full with a twist that permits it to go inside structures, too.

The first design for a convertible MacBook could look familiar, since it actually resembles a great deal of designs available from Windows device makers, and some previous Android tablet designs. The screen removes from the keyboard and body section, which isn ’ t in itself awfully one-of-a-kind, however the display in Apple ’ s version communicates with the brains in the base by means of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and various other wireless interaction process, implying all the significant computing work is still dealt with by the generally found GPU and CPU. The screen itself is touch-sensitive, however doesn ’ t serve as a standalone tablet in quite the exact same way it does in some new Windows device designs.

The display also can charge wirelessly by means of the same kind of tech made use of in induction charging, drawing power from the base. What Apple explains right here isn ’ t a lot a convertible tablet, however even more of a MacBook with a display that resolves the clumsy problem of how to utilize touch effectively on a note pad by allowing it to briefly come off the base for even more ergonomic touch-based communication. Apple has discussed how touch doesn ’ t work on a typical computer system kind consider the past; this is one method around that.

An additional patent application published today might give an idea as to where Apple is goinged with Maps. It describes a navigation method for a Street View-style appearance at the world from the point of view of somebody walking the roads themselves. The distinction in between Apple ’ s patent and existing Google Street View navigation is that Apple ’ s is motion managed, treating the environment as a panorama, which can be navigated based on movement diagnosis from onboard device sensors to let an individual really experience a virtual “ walk ” through the roads of a city.

There ’ s been little proof to recommend Apple is deploying technician to collect its own Street View-style images for Apple Maps therefore far, however another current development a minimum of makes good sense offered the context of this patent. Apple just recently got indoor mapping business WiFiSlam, and this patent likewise explains utilizing the system to map and navigated indoor environments, too, so that individuals can go “ inside ” choose structures. It was originally submitted in September of 2011.

Both these patent applications seem more like Apple hedging its bets than reflections of any instant upcoming products, based upon recent reports. However they likewise address issues that could become or are already competitive sore spots for the business, so there ’ s still a good possibility we might eventually see them make their method to shipping products.

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Watch this: live-action ‘Aperture R&D’ series takes you deep inside the labs of ‘Portal’

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Author: Tiffany Shoman

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If you call yourself a gamer, odds are fairly good you’ve played through one or both of Valve’s acclaimed Portal games. If so, perhaps — in between solving those mind-twisting puzzles — you’ve wondered what life would be like working inside Aperture Laboratories. A new Portal 2-inspired web series from Wayside Creations aims to satiate your curiosity.

Aperture R&D goes inside the cold, unwelcoming halls of the research facility, following a pair of scientists as they strive to earn the distinction of Lab Team of the Month. Even losing an esteemed colleague to a turret laser doesn’t dissuade our protagonists from pursuing the prize. Episode one contains some nice references and callbacks to Valve’s inventive series, and the acting…

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Why does Apple’s Lightning to HDMI adapter have an ARM computer inside?

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Author: Stefanie Jenkins

lightning av adapter cracked open panic

Panic Software, purveyor of Mac OS X applications, was curious why its Apple’s $ 49 Lightning Digital AV adapter wasn’t performing very well. The picture quality was lacking, displaying odd video artifacts and failing to output full 1080p video. So Panic cracked open the case, and what should it find… but a tiny ARM computer chip inside. It’s got an Apple logo on top, and markings indicate it might have 256MB of memory within.

Why does the adapter need a processor, though? Panic Software’s theory is that the device actually delivers video via AirPlay streaming. Your iOS device would compress the video, than the adapter would decompress it and deliver it to an HDMI-equipped TV. The video artifacting, a common issue with video processed…

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Facebook’s main app for iOS adds free voice calls inside North America

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Author: Stefanie Jenkins

Facebook has been spreading voice messaging throughout its mobile apps for awhile, however it’s clear the Palo Alto team is no longer delighted leaving communication to tinned speeches. Following a quiet rollout of live voice calls to Facebook Messenger previously in the year, a version 5.5 update to Facebook’s core iOS app is providing social networkers a similar possibility to speak with each various other totally free. The only terms are that users have the bandwidth to burn and live in either the United States or Canada. Otherwise, the interface and functionality are dead ringers for the Messenger equivalents we attempted in January. There’s still no word on when full voice calls will reach Android or various other platforms, although they normally get function parity prior to too long.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet, FacebookCommentsSource: App Shop

Posts Tagged ‘inside’

Adafruit’s Limor Fried Wants To Make People Comfortable With Their Electronics, Inside And Out

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