Episode 340 – Tiny Grand Ideas

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tiny airplane
Photo by Akshar Dave 🍉 on Unsplash

Tiny tech, form of Atari 2600, Game Boy, Amazon Astro robot & phones, responsible metaverse construction, so much good tv, and amazing LEGO sets

This week’s episode is all about tiny tech.  Starting things off on the right foot with Andy rejoining Michael and Michael, the co-hosts examine a range of products and Kickstarters that are small but mighty.  There are miniature gaming consoles like the Atari 2600, and Game Boy.  Some examples of the Game Boy platform are small enough to fit on a keychain, and still play games.  Andy points out that there’s even a Kickstarter for a Game Boy productivity suite.  Andy shares several of the projects he’s been working on – check out the show notes for the details!   Michael M just couldn’t resist including the Zoolander reference to movie’s miniature cell phone, and recent trends toward smaller tech devices in general.

Continuing the conversation that has played out in recent weeks, the co-hosts discuss Facebook’s plans for the responsible build out of the metaverse using the Fast Company and Verge articles as springboards.  

On the robotic front, Michael, Michael and Andy consider the recently announced Amazon Astro home droid.  Discussing the price point for being a beta tester for this new robot, Michael R makes the point that the expense of such latest greatest tech is right around USD 1500, and notes that is what he paid for his Google Glass hardware.  The Gitamini robot is also in that range.  

Rounding out the episode, the co-hosts marvel at the veritable plethora of television shows available on so many platforms (AppleTV, Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, etc) and the challenges of navigating through them.  When a person wants to find a show to watch, the recommendation engines from each of the platforms are sure to provide ideas that keep you on the platform – but that doesn’t solve the problem.  In the US, this challenge was solved with the TV Guide magazine years ago, but that was well before cable, and all of the streaming platforms existed.  With the pandemic, it is easy to understand that people are more interested in staying at home and binge watching through seasons of content.  Being able to do so together with friends and family – touched upon in last week’s episode with the upcoming SharePlay – will help make remote watching a more social event done together instead of asynchronously.  How are you choosing what to watch, and whom to watch it with?

Last, LEGO has dropped a couple of new builds that have to be seen to be believed.  The Nintendo 64 Question Mark Block is an engineering feat, and the miniaturized (there’s that theme again) LEGO Ideas Fender Stratocaster guitar is rockin’ awesome.  Check out the links in the show notes below.

What tiny tech are you working or playing with?  Let us know over at @gamesatwork_biz ! 

Thanks for listening!

Selected Links

Gizmodo article: You Won’t Need Your Parents’ Basement for These Tiny Atari 2600 and Dance Dance Revolution Setups — https://gizmodo.com/you-won-t-need-your-parents-basement-for-these-tiny-at-1847771832 

Retroachievements — https://retroachievements.org 

Kickstarter: Thumby – The Tiny Playable Keychain — https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kenburns/thumby-the-tiny-playable-keychain 

Kickstarter GB Productivity Suite — https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gbproductivity/gb-productivity-suite 

Create a pivot table in Numbers on iPad — https://support.apple.com/guide/numbers-ipad/create-a-pivot-table-tan7f62056cf/ipados 

Fast Company article: Why Facebook’s premature talk about a metaverse will likely backfire — https://www.fastcompany.com/90681568/facebook-metaverse-zuckerberg

The Verge article: Facebook is spending $50 million to ‘responsibly’ build the metaverse — https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/27/22696578/facebook-metaverse-ar-vr-fund-research-definition 

Wired article: Everything Amazon Announced — Including a Cute Security Robot — https://www.wired.com/story/everything-amazon-announced-september-2021/ 

Jetsons —  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jetsons

Astro (from the Jetsons) — https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Astro 

Google Glass — https://www.google.com/glass/start/ 

The Verge article: Gitamini is a cute, compact, cargo-carrying robot that will follow you around like a dog — https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/22/22685649/gita-gitamini-cargo-carrying-robot-piaggio 

9 to 5 Mac article: Apple TV+ Guide: Here are all the Apple TV shows and movies available now — https://9to5mac.com/2021/10/01/apple-tv-plus-tv-shows-movies-guide/ 

TV Guide magazine — https://www.tvguidemagazine.com 

Foundation — https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/the-emperors-peace/umc.cmc.74vnbednu4gmixy6d5imxxqs5?showId=umc.cmc.5983fipzqbicvrve6jdfep4x3 

The Verge article: The beloved Babylon 5 os getting rebooted, and series creator JMS is running the show — https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/27/22696836/babylon-5-reboot-j-michael-straczynski-warner-bros-the-cw

LEGO Super Mario 64 Question Mark Block — https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/super-mario-64-question-mark-block-71395 

LEGO Ideas Fender Stratocaster — https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/lego-ideas-fender-stratocaster-21329 

Extended tiny remix links for this week

Hot Hardware article: Zanco Tiny TI Is The World’s Smallest, Zoolander Approved Mobile Phone — https://hothardware.com/news/zanco-tiny-t1-worlds-smallest-zoolander-approved-mobile-phone 

Picosystem — https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/picosystem 

Kickstarter: A Modern Take on a Classic Game for the ColecoVision & Adam — https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/8bitmilli/a-modern-take-on-a-classic-game-for-the-colecovision-and-adam?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=colecovision

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