Chapter 6
Elegant: In a World of Flashing 12s
An Amazon subsidiary called Lab126, which designed the Kindle ebook reader, says on its website: “We want the devices we design and engineer to disappear as you read … .”
Barnes & Noble's response with Nook: “Books don't have buttons … so we felt that was not only an authentic place to be but also great competitively against the Kindle”—which has a keyboard.1
Microsoft says in a product announcement: “With Kinect, technology evaporates, letting the natural magic in all of us shine.”
Bose says about its VideoWave Entertainment System: “No clutter, no confusion.”
Not just in reading and entertainment, we are seeing technology simplification even in more complex areas. Siemens Healthcare, in introducing its MAMMOMAT Inspiration Mammography System, emphasized its light panel, which provides a warmer environment for the patient by illuminating soft, pastel colors.
The De Dietrich DTiM1000C 90CM Induction Hob features multiple inductors beneath the ceramic glass surface. Should you move any of the pans, the hob's automatic pan detectors ensure that the temperature of the pan remains constant, wherever it is moved.2
Technology “disappearing” and “evaporating” … welcome to the new age of minimalism even as technology proliferates around us and our old VCRs continue to flash 12s.
To emphasize that minimalism, as we described in Chapter 1, we have folks like Kelly Sutton who are aggressively trading digital technology for physical assets: “I ...
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