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mkesten's review against another edition
3.0
Enchanted Objects opens with a curious contradiction: one the one hand, mobile phones and tablets are rapidly devouring many of the devices we've had in our homes and offices over generations, including the piano, the paintbrush, the copier, and the bankbook; on the other hand, the steep drop in the price of networkable sensors are proliferating across the landscape in ever greater numbers, numbering in the billions and soon trillions. These sensors are allowing us to gather ever greater amounts of data about us and our environment. What fewer objects we need will be quickly absorbed into a global brain. The sensors will make us more connected, perhaps more efficient, and most certainly more surveilled. It may feel a little lonelier in the house, but that is an illusion. Or is it? Author David Rose, an inventor, teacher, and entrepreneur seems happier with the promise of these networked systems. He builds them, and helps connect the dots.
jakeyjake's review against another edition
4.0
The kind of book you can skim. Inspiring connected device concepts and themes from the MIT media lab folks.
laurab2125's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would -- it was a fun, easy read and interesting, to boot. Of course, I'm a techie, so this was right up my alley, but I liked reading about his view of the future of the Internet of Things.
karang's review against another edition
2.0
A couple of chapters in, the book is extremely mundane and boring. It almost feels like the author forgot to write with a human voice.
ncrabb's review against another edition
2.0
This will be an unfortunately short review. Essentially, this is the author’s perspective of how our world will look over the next few years with regard to how we interface with seemingly ordinary things.
I guess I was turned off by the book because of what I saw as an obsession with things visual. Lots of space given to heads-up glasses, all kinds of razzle-dazzle screens, even digital signs. In all fairness, he does give a parenthetical tip of the hat to braille in signage in the short section on digital signs.
The guy clearly has the street creds to write this; I’m not doing it justice. I wish someone else would read this and perhaps do a more even-handed job than I’ve done. It’s just that somehow it already feels outdated to me; I kind of yawned my way through much of it. I hope your experience hugely differs from mine; indeed, I’ve no doubt it will.
I guess I was turned off by the book because of what I saw as an obsession with things visual. Lots of space given to heads-up glasses, all kinds of razzle-dazzle screens, even digital signs. In all fairness, he does give a parenthetical tip of the hat to braille in signage in the short section on digital signs.
The guy clearly has the street creds to write this; I’m not doing it justice. I wish someone else would read this and perhaps do a more even-handed job than I’ve done. It’s just that somehow it already feels outdated to me; I kind of yawned my way through much of it. I hope your experience hugely differs from mine; indeed, I’ve no doubt it will.
tkadlec's review against another edition
4.0
Rose's book is a very clearly organized look at how widespread and cheap computing could impact objects from our everyday lives. Much of his ideas are tied directly back to abilities from science-fiction and fantasy, which does offer an interesting perspective. The book doesn't quite get into the underlying design principles enough for my taste (it's aimed at a more general audience I'm guessing) and there are certainly a few gimmicky examples, but overall it does get you thinking about the potential of the "internet of things" in a different light.
devon_marie's review against another edition
3.0
This book was pretty good. I was really engaged with the first half of the book, but somehow for me it dwindled the more I read. Within a couple of pages towards the middle of the book I hit an incorrect assumption and reasoning about music, which soured me a bit as I read. I found myself much more interested in the theoretical, the overarching theme, and less so in the down-and-dirty getting it done portion. I didn’t read the last 100 pages or so.
For the record, the portion I found troubling was about musical instruments. Rose makes the point that brass instruments of old were just pipes, creating a wide range of flexibility and musicality that we had to slightly sacrifice in order to have the convenience of valves. He makes this point by comparing a trombone’s ability to play a wide range of varying notes versus the limited set on a trumpet. This isn’t true, as musicians will quickly jump in. Not all (and in fact, I’d argue most) old brass instruments were like the bugle - stuck playing partials in one key. Adding valves dramatically INCREASED the possible musicality, opening the instrument up to the full chromatic range in all keys.
Outside of this major error, the book is good. Lovers of technology will enjoy it, especially if you like getting hands-on.
For the record, the portion I found troubling was about musical instruments. Rose makes the point that brass instruments of old were just pipes, creating a wide range of flexibility and musicality that we had to slightly sacrifice in order to have the convenience of valves. He makes this point by comparing a trombone’s ability to play a wide range of varying notes versus the limited set on a trumpet. This isn’t true, as musicians will quickly jump in. Not all (and in fact, I’d argue most) old brass instruments were like the bugle - stuck playing partials in one key. Adding valves dramatically INCREASED the possible musicality, opening the instrument up to the full chromatic range in all keys.
Outside of this major error, the book is good. Lovers of technology will enjoy it, especially if you like getting hands-on.
justintspencer's review against another edition
5.0
A delightful vision for how technology can be integrated into our life and world to make things more whimsical and unobtrusive.
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