Episode Summary
In this episode of The Digital Life we discuss some of the latest tech and UX news including: the Kano computer kit for kids, which encourages a childhood interest in engineering ; the unveiling of Windows 10 and what it means for the "universal" user experience; and the launch of Digital.nyc as a focal point for the Silicon Alley start-ups and venture capital firms of New York City.
Here are a few quotes from this week's discussion.
Jon on the Kano computer kit for kids:
I wanted to start out with this very exciting build your own computer kit ostensibly for kids, but also for the young at heart such as ourselves. The kit is called Kano and it was a Kickstarter project that received massive enthusiasm from the Kickstarter community. What is Kano? It is the first computer they claim that anyone anywhere can make. That started shipping a few days ago. They described their mission is to give young people a simple, fun way to make and play with technology.
I’m excited about this because it takes the Raspberry Pi and some additional pieces of hardware, puts it together in a kit in a way that an eight year old can understand and start really digging into the world of computer engineering. I know for my own sons, they’re not quite at that age yet, but what’s attractive to me about this hands-on engineering is I fully believe that engineering is going to be a key skill to have going forward, and I want my kids to be able to not be afraid of it, to not be afraid to get their hands dirty whether it’s in playing with circuit boards or writing code. I want them to be comfortable with that.
Dirk on Windows 10:
Wouldn’t it be interesting if instead of beating their stupid, same marketing advertising bullshit drum, if they just launch the damn thing and instead of already setting expectations high and under delivering as always, what if they pleasantly surprise us once? How would that change our perception of the Microsoft brand? How would that change our interpretation of Microsoft’s position in the computing ecosystem?
