Ged Carroll

Category: gadget | 小工具 | 가제트 | ガジェット

What constitutes a gadget? The dictionary definition would be a small mechanical or electronic device or tool, especially an ingenious or novel one.

When I started writing this blog the gadget section focused on personal digital assistants such as the Palm PDA and Sony’s Clie devices. Or the Anoto digital pen that allowed you to record digitally what had been written on a specially marked out paper page, giving the best of both experiences.

Some of the ideas I shared weren’t so small like a Panasonic sleeping room for sleep starved, but well heeled Japanese.

When cutting edge technology failed me, I periodically went back to older technology such as the Nokia 8850 cellphone or my love of the Nokia E90 Communicator.

I also started looking back to discontinued products like the Sony Walkman WM-D6C Pro, one of the best cassette decks ever made of any size. I knew people who used it in their hi-fi systems as well as for portable audio.

Some of the technology that I looked at were products that marked a particular point in my life such as my college days with the Apple StyleWriter II. While my college peers were worried about getting on laser printers to submit assignments, I had a stack of cartridges cotton buds and isopropyl alcohol to deal with any non catastrophic printer issues and so could print during the evening in the comfort of my lodgings.

Alongside the demise in prominence of the gadget, there has been a rise in the trend of everyday carry or EDC.

  • Things that caught my eye this week

    House music producer Roy Davis Jr put together an amazing mix for Phonica Records and I have been vibing off it for most of the week.

    Roy Davis Jr for Phonica Records

    An old, but good music video put together by my long time colleague Haruka. It’s a mix of found footage and painting done on 16mm film.

    Gates to the city by Haruka Ikezawa

    I’m not so sure if it was the best portable stereo; but the JVC / Victor RC-M90 was an archetypal boombox of the 1980s beloved by hip hop fans and gadget lovers. Techmoan does a good tour of the device. What’s interesting is how quality seems to have reached a peak in the late 1970s, early 1980s in hi-fi equipment. Quality seems to have declined as more overseas manufacturing was undertaken by the Japanese brands.

    If you are buying a major Japanese brand like Sony etc; try to buy a ‘Made in Japan’ product is still a great rule of thumb. More gadget related posts here.

    Leo Burnett did a great advert for McDonalds. It tells the story of story of a single mum trying to get her son into the Christmas spirit. However, she faces an unresponsive child; until his inner child wins out. The Drum did a walk through of the ad with the creative team who worked on it at Leo Burnett here.

    Leo Burnett for McDonalds UK

    Finally, the IPA did a three hour webinar A New Way to Track Consumer Demand, that is now available online.

    Finally Sony launched the PlayStation 5 in the UK this week. As I write this, there is a strong secondary market at three times the original retail price of the consoles. They’re the hot item for Christmas.

    This was supported by buzz marketing with a takeover of London Underground signs at Oxford Circus station. The square logo (all the shapes are from the PlayStation controller) contrasts with the closed Microsoft store behind it.

    Social media spread images of the signs and it was all very nice. I think part of its success was the counterintuitive aspect of a stunt in a high footfall area in central London – during the COVID19 lockdown, when other brand marketers are spending their budgets online…

    playstation5 taken by Ian Wood
    London Underground sign photo by Ian Wood

    Bonus content: Clifford Stott is an expert in policing. He walked away from a Hong Kong government review into the 2019 protests. He goes into failings of the review and everything that went on in this report: Patterns of ‘Disorder’ During the 2019 Protests in Hong Kong: Policing, Social Identity, Intergroup Dynamics, and Radicalization by Clifford Stott, Lawrence Ho, Matt Radburn, Ying Tung Chan, Arabella Kyprianides, Patricio Saavedra Morales.

    He talks about his findings with the Hong Kong Free Press.

  • Humaning marketing + more

    Mondelēz International, Inc. – Announcing Humaning: A New Approach to Marketing – Humaning is a unique, consumer-centric approach to marketing that creates real, human connections with purpose, moving Mondelēz International beyond cautious, data-driven tactics, and uncovering what unites us all. We are no longer marketing to consumers, but creating connections with humans – no I am not wiser than when I started reading this as to what humaning actually is. More marketing related posts here.

    The Three Eras of 32-/64-Bit Embedded CPUs – EE Times Europe – Arm’s responses to the RISC-V phenomenon could have come straight out of the dominant player’s playbook, under the chapter heading “When you’re spooked.” First, it released marketing collateral attempting to generate fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about RISC-V, which merely served to help inform the industry of the existence of RISC-V (IBM’s FUD campaign about minicomputer vendors achieved much the same effect). Second, Arm waited to see if the RISC-V startups ran out of money. To Arm’s surprise, the emerging RISC-V vendors were beginning to win customers with low-end processor IP cores, as customers finally saw an alternative to Arm, at least at the low end. More venture capital (and corporate VC) investment flowed toward RISC-V. Companies like Western Digital heavily backed it. To make matters worse for Arm, Softbank seemed to demand that Arm raise prices for its low-end M-class processors. That apparent misstep drove further business away from Arm and toward RISC-V. Now, more Arm customers are reviewing the value their long-term supplier offers for the money.

    Once a household name, Chinese maker of copycat Nintendo consoles driven to bankruptcy – bye bye Sabor

    Introducing a total online advertising restriction for products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) – GOV.UK 

    SoftBank in talks to sell Boston Dynamics to Korea’s Hyundai | Techinasia – SoftBank’s second major sale in just two months, following its divestment of UK-based chip designer Arm Holdings to computer hardware giant Nvidia in a US$40 billion deal. SoftBank had acquired Arm in 2016 for about US$31.4 billion in cash

    Project MUSE – The Authoritarian Assault on Knowledge – Journal of Democracy – interesting stuff here on China’s influence on university campuses around the world

    Beijing’s Erosion of Hong Kong’s Freedoms Has Been in the Works for Years – Pro Market 

  • Internet of Bodies

    Internet of bodies or IoB is a term that I first heard as The Internet of Bodies – a RAND Corporation report into internet connected devices that

    …monitor the human body and transmit the data collected via the internet. This development, which some have called the Internet of Bodies (IoB), includes an expanding array of devices that combine software, hardware, and communication capabilities to track personal health data, provide vital medical treatment, or enhance bodily comfort, function, health, or well-being.

    RAND Corporation
    The Internet of Bodies

    RAND Corporation were interested in the internet of bodies because of the complexity of the area. There are benefits which are well documented by others. However there are also ethical considerations around:

    • Data use by commercial organisations (advertising, health insurance, pharmaceutical industry)
    • Misleading product claims around product efficacy
    • Privacy risks
    • Data security risks
    • Underdeveloped and complex regulatory environment

    What the Internet of Bodies covers includes:

    • Fitness trackers
    • Fitness software running on smartwatches or smartphones and device sensors
    • Connected health devices: insulin pumps, pacemakers
    • Patient adherence apps on smartphones
    • Patient diaries about their condition

    The report came to a number of conclusions including:

    • As 5G, Wi-Fi 6, and satellite internet standards are rolled out, the US government conduct research projects to better understand any potential issues that might emerge
      There is a challenge that needs to be addressed to replace earlier generation devices and services with poor information security practices. The issue of cybersecurity needs to have more attention paid to it, right from the beginning of IoB product development
    • Device makers should test products and services for vulnerabilities often, and devise methods for users to patch software.
    • Data transparency and protection regulations need to be revisited to take account of materials received from the IoB
    • As with any new sector, a tighter regulation is required to prevent false or misleading product claims

    More jargon related posts here.

  • Calvert design & things that caught my eye this week

    Margaret Calvert at the Design Museum: signs in tune with their times | Financial Times – Calvert was responsible for signage across all aspect of UK life. Her work also influenced traffic signs across the former British Empire including

    • Hong Kong
    • Mauritius
    • Pakistan
    • Singapore
    • United Arab Emirates

    It has taken decades for Margaret Calvert to get the full recognition that she deserved. Calvert defined the design language of the UK I have lived in. It created a system and common sense in modern life. It is quite shocking that sexism held back recognition of Calvert’s full role in it.

    Hong Kong protestors built small brick arches to slow down police vehicles. At the time I didn’t understand why; but the Design Museum has explained it – Brick arches – Design Museum More on design here.

    Growing up in the 1980s the immortal letters DX7 seemed to be in every music performance. It’s sound is iconic.

    Jalopnik partners with an automotive engineer to try and work out how the Changli electric vehicle is made for a ludicrously low price. The design process is fascinating. Don’t let the toy town aesthetics of the vehicle fool you. A lot of thought has done into the vehicle. In particular there were some really interesting engineering hacks in the product design that other automotive designers could learn from. Despite all the talk about China automating and using robotics on the shop floor, the vehicle has got a fair bit of manual work in the manufacturing process.

    Record marketplace Discogs celebrates 20 years online here: Discogs 20th Anniversary: Thank You for 20 Years! Discogs has completely shaken up and democratised record collecting. Knowledge that used to be hard earned is now a couple of clicks away as Discogs is part eBay and part Wikipedia.

  • Things that caught my eye this week

    Positive Brand Friction is a report that looks at the impact of customer experience on brand and how to get the best benefit out of it in the long term. The report was launched by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) at the Effworks Global Conference.

    Positive Brand Friction identifies a number of factors that increase the complexity in customer experience:

    • CX is usually designed around business functions rather than the customer
    • Ownership (but not necessarily responsiblity) falls under different business functions. Collaboration and swift decision making become even more important
    • The conflict between identifiable efficiency gains through cost reductions versus more variable returns through effectiveness and value-growth focus
    • Investment differences between operating expenditure (OPEX) and capital expenditure (CAPEX). This can make it harder for marketing to deliver long term value where OPEX is reduced

    Positive Brand Friction identifies four areas of focus for organisations and their agencies:

    • Experience intelligence / measurement. Measurement, insights and reporting system to discovers places where the experience can be improved
    • Collaboration rather than individual ownership of the experience. This also results in a customer focused culture
    • Evolving to get the right balance of positive brand friction without impacting on customer effort
    • Marketing growing into its role as the experience leader and influencer balancing customer and business value

    More here.

    Kazakhstan gets their reputation work in to balance the new Borat film on Amazon Prime Video. Rather than righteous indignation, they’ve respun Borat’s catch phrase and put together a number of short spots that challenge viewers expectations of Kazakhstan.

    Big Daddy Kane is one of the unsung heroes of hip-hop, Micro-Chip put together this great essay on him. Take out 15 minutes and give it a read: Big Daddy Kane’s Voice is an Instrument – Micro-Chop. 

    I happened to come across this Doug DeMuro video reviewing the BMW X5 M Competition. I haven’t suddenly turned into a car nut, but I found DeMuro’s dive into the unusual aspects of the driver experience was fascinating. What becomes apparent is how much digital has become part of the car. Look at the remote finger-twirling gesture control to alter audio volume at 7:00 in. It all feels very laboured compared to other digital products and too feature heavy.

    More on design related content here.