Ask HN: What do people think Jony Ive is building with OpenAI?
1 retube 11 6/2/2025, 11:45:59 AM
Apparently a device distinct from a phone, and maybe not with a screen? Am struggling to conceive of functionality that could not be put on a phone, nor can imagine people would want to carry around another device. So interested in what the HN community think
Hardware-wise its got be a camera, bluetooth (pair w/ phone for cloud access), microphone. The human body doesn't offer a lot of options for stashing a dashcam. Wear around the neck, put into glasses, put it on the ear, or embed into clothing, whereas a watch doesn't work because its not facing the right direction.
Reminds me of how I think about last-mile transportation; the way the body works you can either ride something forward like a bicycle/scooter or sideways like a skateboard, you only get two options.
What other option is there that doesn't require an implant or something?
I expected something like this in cars before now. Lots of cars have an awkward and very limited version of audio controls. This could be expanded into something truly useful.
Toyota: Wipers and Lights On.
Toyota: Navigate to home
Toyota: Volume up
Instead, we get "full self driving" that requires constant supervision --- which is pretty much useless because it takes just as much effort as driving if you follow instructions or puts your life at risk if you don't.
A truly spectacular, new, must-have alternative to a phone would have to read your thoughts or something.
It doesn't seem like it's anything people would want.
We already know what good tech looks like, it's just that nobody wants to pay to make it anymore. "If it doesn't hoover up incredible amounts of data and/or become obsolete in two years, what would even be the point" is the new-tech thinking. Building what would improve peoples' lives is no longer a serious philosophical concern. Tech that distributes wealth? So yesterday. Tech that centralizes wealth while spreading poverty: now THAT'S modern.
with a heads-up interactive Hologram.
https://archive.ph/uTSJM