The Dawn of Innovation!
I have closely observed a different kind of integrations evolving in the consumer electronics domain. Take iPad for example. Most of the people involved in its product engineering have experience in Automobile Engineering. Today you talk about extrusion, milling and drilling in the CE products! Right now, its pioneered by Apple of course! iPod was extruded. There is a lot of drilling in the aluminium Mac Air. And you will see milling as the major engineering exercise in iPad. It’s fascinating, isn’t it! There is even internal “Heat Flow” analysis which takes care that your product doesn’t get fried up!
Automobile engineering will extrude consumer electronics to such an extent, that those who have automobile product engineering will soon become the most sought after resources in CE industry. Here you talk about heat flows, CNC milling processes, extrusion, sand blasting, moving components and what not!
One of a very brilliant Automobile Engineering concepts coming in Adam itself is a rubber gasket design to absorb the shock and pressure which will be there on the cover glass protection screen. When I was doing my bachelors, I observed a lot of iPhone screens getting damaged. Being a mechanical engineer myself, it was evident that to absorb shock and pressure, something should be done for the outside edges. Then there was the observation of the front and back glass panes on your cars! And viola! The solution was already there! You will find a smartly designed rubber gasket protecting! the top glass screen.
It is really amazing when you realize what you learn in one field of engineering getting beautifully implemented in the other. I have met a few engineers developing world-class products in the last few months and I have learnt a lot from them. The way an Automobile engineer looks at the CE product manufacturing is completely different. And believe me, they are the ones who know how to design a product which gives you the ‘feel‘!
You will find many (older?) products designed for functionality. NOKIA, I believe will be the pioneer in this category. Designed with best of the features, all necessary functionality and easy to use. Because they have a point here! To give a ‘feel’ you need to take away functionalities (the reason why there is no I/O ports in iPad). How many products were used to made of metals? But that’s the philosophy with which the products were designed earlier.
As more and more products will be made of metals, material and metallurgical engineering will have the most of the fun. Imaging the next generation of product made specifically to give you a 18 degree celsius feel! Imagine the body designed which change colors with external temperature! Wouldn’t it be fun that we can create a “Drum Application” where drummers can practise on the screen of Adam! The time is about to come. It’s nearer than we think. The dawn of innovation is here!
So where are we?
Extremely sorry to all those who were waiting patiently. Things really got busy here.
Lot’s of good stories to share, but heck NDAs!
Lot’s of ‘extremely exhaustive’ content coming your way! We want to make Adam a universal device which can give you access to a lot of different kind of content, and that is exactly where we are working right now. Have done few collaborations on the content front which will be beneficial for all. Being a student myself, I am personally working to make the lives of all students pretty easy when it comes to getting educational content on the device and that too, at a competitive price.
iPad will be launched today! Waiting eagerly for one like you all. Have ordered for one to understand did we miss anything? Or is there something we should learn or improve upon? They are genius when it comes to streamlined interactions. “One store to rule them all!”. But then a different app for books? May be more for comics, newspapers, magazines? Let’s see.
We are doing some innovation on email front as well. Business people will love it. It will give you an amazing freedom which we never had.
Wish I could share more on the names of the companies we are working with. There will be announcements soon. We will soon be announcing the Application Competition Soon. Developers of already exiting application will have a lot to earn as well.
We are also into lots of University Collaboration as well. Developing technologies with them, for them, for the open communities, and we are open to lot more to work closely with. “They will be the first ones to get early access to the devices as well.”
So, are the stories of product delays true? To be frank, I can’t say about other companies. But we want to go ahead only with Flash availability. As soon as the stable Flash is there, there will be two months of testing and we will hit the stores. Also to remember here is the marketing strategies of our partners aka Telecom Firms. It depends a lot on them when they want to hit the markets. We have seen different strategies for different players. Some want to give you Adam for Thanksgiving, some for summer holidays, some when you start a new year at your schools. So, it depends.
Again, apologies for those who were waiting for some information on the blog. It is due to “your” support that a 24 something like me can do something this big.
Warm Regards and Love!
Where did it all start anyway!
Let’s see how far can I go back!
Out of my college, and I wanted a device to browse internet everywhere, anytime. I wanted to read news, stay up to date with all possible RSS feeds. Read random books, manage my finances. Write blogs. Chart out plans. But this is not what I wanted when I was in college. There I wanted to read economics. See how reactions take place. Design machines in 3D. Design a robot which can be controlled, programmed. Take photographs, edit them, share them. Stay in touch with friends. Send them messages. Watch serials.
And in school, I wanted to paint, I wanted to learn how to play music. How to create toys with smaller elements. Sit back on bicycle and tell my mom, I am coming home, cook aloo-gobhi for me! Do homework quickly. Watch all possible serials on Discovery Channel. Junkyard Wars was my fav, along with Extreme Engineering. Follow cricket like mad ox. Collect photos of cars, scientific innovations. Write stories!
But the actual fun, was when I was a kid. I wanted to be an astronaut one day, and the other, a cricketer. Then I will wake up and tell my mom, I will be a scientist, and then suddenly the PM of the nation. I had dreams that I will fly, touch moon and travel faster than light. Kept wondering, how gravity works, and followed butterflies.
And like everyone, now I am none of them.
Life moved faster than I thought. I still remember my dreams of actually landing on Mars! Life is too harsh. It stole my childhood dreams. As a kid I was unaware of destiny. Unaware of work to live concept. Thought, that everyone can be happy, learn whatever they want. And may be this is where I was nurturing this dream.
Doesn’t matter if I am not able to realize my dreams. I can do something for everyone else out there. Do something for a kid to learn music, challenge gravity. Let students see reactions, smile in awe when they look at such wonderful engineering creations of man. Let engineers test their concepts. And let people like me spend time in communication. One device which can help many without telling them it’s helping. One device which quietly slips into their lives and becomes their best friend. Their personal diary. The window to look at their kids out there in some unknown land.
A device, just to realise dreams!
Clarification
This small post is just to clarify that we tried to work with NID, Bangalore for User Interface study, but it did not go anywhere even after spending 6 precious months. The effort failed to get anything done. Several reasons can be pointed out here. People involved took UI design for OS too easy, like a website design, insufficient guidance from faculty involved to guide students.
No doubt the students there are excellent, but as I observed at IIT as well, there is a huge gap in training, teaching and guidance. This might be my personal observation or opinion as well.
I was disappointed to read in many newspapers and blogs that NID is the one behind the effort which we are placing in designing the UI and ID, which takes away the credit from the actual people who are behind it. One of the best people we have is Makrand Kulkarni, who has spent nights in his lab designing the ID for us. Hat’s off to the people we are with us. But as I believe, one day everything will pay off.
Experience is the king!
While at CES, I got some time to go out and see “The Phantom of the Opera”. I have no inclination towards Operas neither I had seen one before. Yet the combination of the words Phantom and Opera was intriguing enough for me to go there and say “let’s check it out”.
It is a dream of every artist to see the eyes of people glowing big while appreciating their art. And there is nothing which can beat the feeling at the instance when they realize that they have actually surpassed all the expectations of everyone. I know, it’s a dream statement. But that’s how I would have felt had I been the director of such a show.
The sets were fabulous, and there was one for every instant. You could see the effort which went into the details. There was water on the stage. There was fire in the air. And there was excitement in all of us. For those few lucky ones who directly sat below the chandelier, knew that they were just cms away from wonderful death when it actually fell over them. Everything was in front but no one could believe that there is yet bigger set coming up!
And I haven’t even started speaking about the story! And actually that’s the whole point. Every story is great if the orator decides. Experience is the king in the end. Unless you can feel it, unless you don’t believe that you are the protagonist, that you, yourself is the theme, there will no difference, no love, neither any accolades.
I might be raw, but I know what I want. I know what people want. And I have got some time. My aim is more than just beating the best. I have a vision. Of unification of different mediums, of convergence, and of being the genesis of a revolution where experience is the focus and not the content.
My first target is the Digital Publishing Media, which I think has been left out. There is no other way in which we can engage people in all the 4 domains, text, images, videos and interactivity! And I believe there will be a new class of people dedicating their careers in developing exactly this kind of new experience. New, because now the front pages will be videos stopping at Kodak Moments, because now you can ask the characters in the comics to tell you their history, because the stories are always updated, and because never before there was a seamless flow of knowledge and thought.
The transition is going to come soon. And like the Phantom of the Opera, there will be many beautiful upcoming unknowns. And the best part! I am also one in the Audience but get the chance to set the actors free to unfold the story!
100 comments