twald

I’ve worked with many “Mittelstand” companies in Germany—often fourth-generation family businesses. Time and again, I’ve seen how the board and CEO go above and beyond to ensure their employees are taken care of, in both good times and bad. And when you talk to people working there, you can feel this mutual sense of loyalty reflected in their words.

I’m not saying this is common in the tech industry at all, but I can confirm that loyalty between a company (and yes, I’m deliberately using company over people here) and its employees does exist—on a broader scale and in the most positive sense. This doesn’t mean that hard, economical decisions don’t need to be made or that people live in a cloud of blind loyalty.

But there’s a lot of beauty and wellbeing in this dynamic, if you’re willing to explore it—and it’s definitely something I personally strive for.

Same!!

Very useful. Thank you! I’d suggest to place the time above the slider. I’m left handed and I’m covering the time when I adjust the slider.

Ah. Thanks Zach! Just changed this.

Thank you! We'll make changes asap.

:) Thank you!

Thanks for sharing! Do you plan to add this to the menu bar in the future?

Ehm… side note… The notes look gorgeous

Thanks :) Appreciate it

Yes, you can hook it up to IFTTT and trigger IFTTT commands

We'll ship Alexa out of the box but we're open to other speech services as well. Here is a quick overview of the dev platform (still work in progress): developers.senic.com

Hey. Tobias, one of the founders here. Happy to answer any questions!

I'm really happy this topic is getting some traction. Human well-being should be the non-negotiable constraint within the design process.

I understand the argument that people should be able to manage themselves but human nature is not that simple. People are never told that they are about to use a drug that has been proven to have addictive effects.

Receiving a like on facebook releases dopamine the same way smoking, drinking alcohol or gambling do. All fine in the right amount but dangerous when taken beyond a certain point. One of the problems for example is that people tend to use these substances more under stressful situation like studying for exams, dealing with a problem in your relationship, etc.

Seriously. I've been following this project for a while. Sooo good!

hey, author here. we're thinking about sharing stories about hardware startups that decided for the local manufacturing route including price differences, manufacturing tips, gm contacts, etc. If somebody is interested or wants to get involved, please send me an email: [email protected]

fully agree on every point

hey, author here. - the assumption that china is cheaper - the assumption that cost savings trumphs all - not being exposed to what is possible locally - a hype around making something abroad

You can't be possibly talking about a light switch, right? :) That's exactly what I'm talking about. I want something as simple as a light switch to control the colors of my lifx, Hue or control my sonos speakers.

You're right. I'm going to talk about them in particular in a follow up post. I wear a pebble as well and I used to use it to control volume. I see smartwatches taking a big place in smart homes. Our issues were that they were not a shared control, you still had to use vision as your primary sensor input, battery life, screen size and problems with connectivity. But I'm confident some of these issues will be resolved soon.

I agree. And that's exactly one of the big changes that are happening. Prices for hardware components and manufacturing are dropping and we now have the ability to think about more suitable interfaces. I stopped using my lifx after a week because I did not have a fast and simple interface to control them.

Hey, one of the founders here. When we talk about integrated, we're talking about sensors integrated in the materials like tables and walls around us. It does not mean that all of these components should be integrated in one device. I did not phrase this well enough. Thanks!

I agree that we want a centralized intelligence. I personally don't want to carry my smartphone around all the time though. We can't we use what's around us like glass, tables walls or use small projectors that track your positioning?

We have a few products in mind that would instantly add value. Think about your feet or objects and surfaces around you like a table. Why not use them? Why not blend technology into natural things that use more senses than just your eyes and a reduced form of haptics.