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Ask HN: Most overhyped technology of 2016?

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Re: Ask HN: Most overhyped technology of 2016?

#31

Post by wmboy »

Grangar wrote: post #25
DigitalSea wrote: post #4

Virtual Reality. As someone who has tried HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Playstation VR (I own PSVR) and even Samsung's foray into VR via its flagship Galaxy phones (S7 Edge) I would have to say that at present, it's still overhyped. The technology is so new that most companies are experimenting and finding their feet. As cool as VR is, the cool factor wears off very quickly when you realise that screen technology hasn't qui…

I would say it's neat. But whoever thinks this has any use outside of entertainment, in ecommerce for example, is wrong IMO.

Not even for virtual meetings for companies that have a lot of remote staff?

Edit: or actually, a better use case...how about a quadriplegic that can no longer walk or move around easily?

Re: Ask HN: Most overhyped technology of 2016?

#32

Post by knz »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #28
knz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah. We've only ever booked a whole unit for that reason .

I stopped using Airbnb when I realized that most of the units I was booking were just hotels and guesthouses, and I could get a huge discount by just booking via their own website. Especially if you are visiting a tourist town or a big city, Airbnb is generally a waste of money.

My experience has been the opposite - renting whole apartments in Copenhagen, Madrid, and London for less that I would otherwise pay.

It likely varies depending upon the market.

Re: Ask HN: Most overhyped technology of 2016?

#33

Post by thenomad »

DigitalSea wrote: post #4

Virtual Reality. As someone who has tried HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Playstation VR (I own PSVR) and even Samsung's foray into VR via its flagship Galaxy phones (S7 Edge) I would have to say that at present, it's still overhyped. The technology is so new that most companies are experimenting and finding their feet. As cool as VR is, the cool factor wears off very quickly when you realise that screen technology hasn't qui…

As someone who has changed career to work in VR (http://store.steampowered.com/app/488760 and more to come), I'd disagree with this one.

Is it early days? Damn straight.

Are some of the headsets a bit crap? Yep. TBH I'm only really interested in roomscale on the Vive right now.

Is the potential absolutely enormous? Yes. We're only just starting to scratch the surface of what we can do with this tech.

And honestly, if I was looking at this for making-money potential rather than art and storytelling, I wouldn't even be touching entertainment. Enterprise / large-business applications - conferencing, design, anything where it's helpful for a bunch of people to be able to interact physically, on a whiteboard or a 3D model, without being in the same room. That's where the initial money seems to be for a smaller business at least.

Re: Ask HN: Most overhyped technology of 2016?

#34

Post by BorisMelnik »

baccheion wrote: post #19

Virtual reality (and augmented reality), self-driving cars, bots, internet of things, assistants (Siri, Cortana, etc), Apple Watch, bitcoin..

yes to all that EXCEPT internet of things (IoT)!

One word: NEST! The NEST (or Ecobee, smart HVAC etc) is eventually going to be in every house in 5+ years.

Lightbulbs, refrigerators, smart watches, CAMERAS! alarm systems, or even frameworks (Zwave etc) - (some more than others) are all taking off at a very fast pace.

Re: Ask HN: Most overhyped technology of 2016?

#36

Post by flukus »

wmboy wrote: post #31
Grangar wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say it's neat. But whoever thinks this has any use outside of entertainment, in ecommerce for example, is wrong IMO.

Not even for virtual meetings for companies that have a lot of remote staff? Edit: or actually, a better use case...how about a quadriplegic that can no longer walk or move around easily?

Considering the state of audio/video conferencing, I have zero hope that virtual conferencing will ever be achievable.

Re: Ask HN: Most overhyped technology of 2016?

#37

Post by babyrainbow »

flukus wrote: post #2

Everything Elon Musk. Even the good stuff (power wall) is over hyped, he's a walking hype machine.

Completely agree.

I think Hype is a great force in our modern, connected, globalised world and entities like Elon Musk identify this and fuel it to their advantage, to the max.

It is the best marketing/ad delivery channel. There is ad blockers everywhere. So what is the channel that cannot be blocked and scales really well?

People talking. In other words, identify a population group that are gullible, provide stuff that can make them talk about you and your company. You got free, perpetual, scaleable, targeted publicity. What more do you need?

You just need to keep providing stuff that they can talk about. Like Hyperloop, Mars colonies etc etc. No one cares if they are bogus and wouldn't work. People have short term memory anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Most overhyped technology of 2016?

#38

Post by baccheion »

BorisMelnik wrote: post #34
baccheion wrote: post #19

Virtual reality (and augmented reality), self-driving cars, bots, internet of things, assistants (Siri, Cortana, etc), Apple Watch, bitcoin..

yes to all that EXCEPT internet of things (IoT)! One word: NEST! The NEST (or Ecobee, smart HVAC etc) is eventually going to be in every house in 5+ years. Lightbulbs, refrigerators, smart watches, CAMERAS! alarm systems, or even frameworks (Zwave etc) - (some more than others) are all taking off at a very fast pace.

The idea of the Nest systems (in a very distant way) was good. Nest itself won't be able to deliver. However, the idea Nest used to push itself wasn't a new one. It's something that's been repeating for years, that existed on display in movies, and that many (who are rich enough) already have (fully automated and "cool" home systems).

Also, the way they are implementing all of these things seem brute force, crude, and bulky. The house is a finite space filled with a specific set of things. Linking them all together (and to a central control) and having them all work together automatically seems like a very straightforward thing. So much so that many hobbyist Engineers already have their home systems working that way (and in a much more elegant and scalable way than the crap being pushed).

The only thing I'm really excited about are the LED light bulbs. Not the wireless control and programmable nature of them (though that's cool), but the range of color temperatures and intensities they make available and then the fact that they can programmatically be controlled/changed/accessed.

That is, it's cool to me to be able to buy a light bulb, then be able to link it with a clock and light sensor, then have it automatically adjust the intensity and color temperature of its output throughout the day as necessary.

But then LED light bulbs (programmable in that way, even) have been around for years.

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