I have been defending my favorite piece of personal technology to colleagues for decades. The ancient tube amplifier that warms the music I enjoy at home is simple, beautiful and, in my ears, produces the sweetest sounds.
Admittedly, it is archaic and maybe that is part of the charm. But in spite of the vast advances in audio over the years, I have never lost my affection for my old class-A amp.
Well, I'm sad to report there is a new love in my life. I listen to a lot of online music at work, and after experiencing Pandora.com I've had a musical epiphany: I've become more interested in accessing an endless supply of high-quality music than listening to a severely limited supply played through an extraordinary system. Frankly, I have come to the point where I just want to be surrounded by great music with as little effort as possible.
So I get the fears of the literati who worry their armchair habit with a traditional newspaper, magazine or book will be supplanted by the new wave of ice-cold e-Readers. When the devices first hit the market four years ago, I got to play with one of the earliest models and was completely under-whelmed. Clunky and decidedly unsexy, it was like playing "Pong" after being raised on the Xboxฎ.
This year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showcased numerous new variations on this theme from a wide spectrum of manufacturers. While they have improved, particularly for reading books, the developers who seem to be only looking to replace ink and paper with bits and LCDs aren't getting it. In an era of unlimited news outlets, why would I simply want to walk around with big hunks of the New York Times or the Washington Post downloaded daily to my e-Reader?
The reason I have fallen for technologies like Pandora.com is that they do all the work for me. I only have to tell it what I like and then using propriety smarts, it goes off into the infinite and finds and plays music that matches my personal interests.
Rather than focusing on the delivery mechanism, we need to do for information and news what Pandora and other similar services have done for music; make it much simpler and more enjoyable.
So don't lament the seemingly inevitable loss of the feel of newsprint between your fingers, start imagining a new technology that keeps you plugged into the best information with little or no effort on your part. In fact, if done right, the Internet and e-Readers will provide new profitable channels for gifted writers and extraordinary work. Apple's iTunes has opened markets for talented new emerging artists by showing that we would rather take a small risk on new songs for $1.29 then plunk down $16 for a CD that contains mostly filler.
If engineers and computer scientists can produce an e-Reader that intelligently filters vast amounts of information and provides each of us with a personalized, high-quality daily news product loaded with all the bells and whistles, then we all win. If not, then we might be looking at the eight track player of the information age.
So let's quickly get past this "gadget" phase of e-Readers, and start developing the intelligent services that we really need.
Think of it as an epiphany for the print world.
Geoffrey C. Orsak, Ph.D., is dean of the SMU Lyle School of Engineering. He can be reached at dean@lyle.smu.edu.
By experimenting with the photovoltaic reaction in solar cells, researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough in energy efficiency that significantly pushes the boundaries of current commercial cells on the market.
In a world that's going green, industrial operations have a problem: Their processes involve materials that are potentially toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive. If improperly managed, this can precipitate dangerous health and environmental consequences.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
3 
