someone who's doing some things
At times wonderful, and at times totally frustrating too. That’s technology, my experience of it anyway. I do a lot of stuff with technology and I suspect I will continue to do that.
I think I’ve probably posted all of the individual posts I’m going to now about the Play Space. It was an amazing day and I think it well really well overall. Hopefully we’ll do something like this again in the not too distant future.
If you want to see all of the post about it you can click on the tag SoundLab (just click here).
There’s been a couple of kickstarter projects that have been interesting but so far neither have delivered the goods. I’m still hopeful that the smart strap idea will deliver some really interesting possibilities and make the Pebble into more than just a smart watch and more of an IoT device.
I think next year will be a bit of a make or break time for the Pebble.
I didn’t manage to get the Mag Pi magazine with the Zero on the front cover, I wish I’d paid more attention to that. I will pick one up at some point. It is a very impressive achievement to get a unit like this out for just £4. It gives me a bunch of ideas of things that I might (with enough time) be able to do with it.
Probably it’s a project for next year though.
One of the things I wanted to do in 2015 was a lot more automation and getting things to work by themselves. Largely that hasn’t happened. However, there are reasons, the main one being that for the most part I haven’t had the need for it. This opens up a bigger question about technology though. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who was telling me about something cool he could do with his new phone. It was cool, but when I asked him if it was something that he’d actually use, he said no.
That started me thinking. How many times to we (I) think that a thing is cool and would be really useful only to find that actually, whilst it is a cool use of technology, it is in fact a use that we (I) have no real need for. So in actual fact, it isn’t so cool after all. I’m starting to find this a lot these days. Things I thought I’d use or assumed I’d use are actually just cool, or fun, or more often both, but fundamentally, not of any practical use after all.
It’s a shame, but I’m beginning to start questioning myself when I look at a new app, or gadget or whatever, and say, would I really use this? Would it just collect dust? Would it end up taking up time and effort to show me that I’m not going to find it very useful? This is starting to happen more and more. In many ways it is a good thing though. It means I will waste less time and effort, but it’s also a bit sad. Sometimes it’s nice to play with cool stuff just for the sake of it, and now, I find myself just asking, why?
I really do like Wojta a lot. It’s such a cool and simple way of turning a short piece of text into sound and then sharing it. Simple, effective, quick. There aren’t many apps that you can say that of. It does what it says it is going to do, and it does it.
I also like how Intermorphic have just kept making it better and better, and I’m sure they’ll continue to do that too.
It’s been such a long time that I’m beginning to question whether I heard it correctly or rather read it correctly. But I’m sure I did. I’m sure that Pebble said that that was something that they were working on ages ago, but so far, it hasn’t arrived unless I’ve missed it. What would I use it for? I don’t know to be honest, maybe nothing at all in the end, but I’d like to have the chance to play around with it.
This is now a near complete collection! I do love these little PDAs. They’re so special.
I’ve known about SubPac for some time. I think I saw them at a Roli event I was speaking at last year. I thought it was a great idea but I’d never had a chance to try it out, that is not until the SoundLab Play Space event. I have to say that I was really impressed with it. It feels amazing, totally amazing. I think it’s really had to put into words what it’s like as it is really a feeling and an experience and as such it’s difficult to translate it into words.
However, if you ever get a chance to try one out then I’d strongly suggest you do.
I’ve been playing around with this hardware and iOS app for a little while and it’s really good. It works just so well with my Ukulele. I wanted to do some work around creating soundscapes using my Ukulele and iOS effects apps and this has done completely what I needed.
I’ll be putting together some sound samples from this soon, so you’ll be able to hear what I mean.
I’ve mentioned the Ototo a number of times before, I’m a fan. I really like it. I think that Ototo is a really useful, and a really fun piece of equipment. So it was great to have the Ototo from Dentaku at the SoundLab Play Space. As usual we got it hooked up to a bunch of fruit, which, whilst fun to play with, kind of doesn’t show just how much it can do.
Personally I think that the Ototo excels when used with its interesting range of sensors. Of course, the other thing that you can use the Ototo with is conductive ink. Yep, that works, and works well too. I should post some of the interactions that are possible using the Ototo, and will do soon.
I don’t know what Dentaku have planned for the Ototo, but I do hope it keeps going and moves forward. Anything else would be a shame.
I am Ashley Elsdon 