alt Hacker NewsI don’t really understand why we need this. Why another screen? iPhones, iPads, Mac’s and now another one for the kitchen.
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I gave up with these questions, some people will consume and buy anything offered to them. I know obese people who do 0 sport and 0 effort to improve yet buy $800+ apple watch ultra for """health""" reasons...
Make it shiny enough, give people an easy way to rationalise the purchase and they'll buy your shit.
How many people carry their laptop around and put it on their kitchen counter when they cook?
Their video ad wasn't convincing either. It was about a family chatting in the kitchen and using the device in the middle of it.
It seemed incredibly fake to me, and I couldn't identify a single interesting use case.
Because they want to get every single friction out of your life.
It's not designed as a product you need. Neither is iPad or Apple Watch.
This would actually be helpful in the kitchen for following recipes, but the screen is too small.
One personal use case is I have my home set up with smart lights. My family can control the lights from our phones, but friends and extended family cannot. Having a dedicated device like this gives others the ability to control home automations too.
You may not need it but the fruit factory does need it, if only to sell more fruit machines.
unless you are not into home automation you cannot understand how useful this is. Years ago I bought a slightly broken Ipad Pro just to hang it on the wall and control my lights. But I agree the screen size is not right. I cant do shit besides listening to music
> Ask Siri AI to recommend a new coffee shop
that’s why, obviously!</s>
Because they need new customers.
>Why another screen?
One of the motivations is to have a "master controller and dashboard" for the (smart-) home that's conveniently always attached and connected to the house itself.
Consider that many houses already have wall-mounted control panels in the main hallway or kitchen for the burglar alarm or thermostat. Replace that with an all-in-one smarthome touchscreen that configures the same security system as well as everything else ... HVAC, lights, blinds, door cam video feed, etc.
Examples of that concept from other home automation companies such as Crestron, Savant, Control4, etc:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Crestron+home+touchscreen+ho...
https://www.google.com/search?q=Savant+touchscreen+home&tbm=...
https://www.google.com/search?q=Control4+touchscreen+home&tb...
Apple's product marketing pages for HomeView at the moment don't heavily promote the idea of customized programming for home automations (HomeKit API) to compete with Crestron/Savant but many observers think Apple wants to expand into that space. (https://www.apple.com/home-app/)
A lot of homeowners don't want to be locked in with Crestron/Savant. Yes, Apple is itself also a "walled garden" but it's a more palatable lock-in situation than the ridiculous re-programming fees that Crestron dealers charge for every little change.