221–230 of 234 posts
Why is everybody in here being such an asshole to this company? Has the HN culture seriously changed this much? Is the lockdown just pickling everybody's minds? They're trying something. If you don't like it, give constructive criticism, but this hostility is unhelpful and unwelcome. >Why is it a Samsung device? I worked on a startup which was a video chat project similar to this with a different target. We also used…
> Sidekick is a new hardware device […] So your "new hardware device" is a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) with a stand, isn't it? What's your motivation to offer hardware instead of selling the Android app separately as well, so customers could use it without the hassle of getting hardware shipped?
I was really split on mentioning this but I picked up Camo after reading it mentioned on HN somewhere: https://reincubate.com/camo/ It’s yearly subscription software but doing the app route you mentioned. Grabbed a little iPhone camera mount clip for like 10 bucks and it’s really something.
This feels like bit of a knee-jerk reaction to the sudden shift towards remote only work. Don't get me wrong, I like the premise as I've definitely felt disconnected from my team recently, but I don't think this quite solves the problem. If it did we'd just sit in a Google Hangout meeting all day. We (and I imagine a lot of others) have already tried this and it didn't work. No one can really put their finger on why,…
> This feels like bit of a knee-jerk reaction to the sudden shift towards remote only work. This isn't a super new thing, though. There have been a number of companies in the past 5-10 years that offered similar functionality without the hook of having a separate device (Sqwiggle, pukkateam, sneek, etc).
I had only tried Pragli and it is underwhelming. Too much cpu usage even after they removed snapshots of you. The Spotify integration is te one nice feature none of the others have.
Thanks for the names of apps. Going to try the latter two.
Not to be confused with the other hardware device named Sidekick that connects remote people together. https://www.gsmarena.com/t_mobile_sidekick_4g-3874.php / https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/sidekick
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I wasn’t going to say anything but I got triggered by your last paragraph. I don’t come to HN to read glowing reviews of barely launched startups. There’s plenty of that out there if you’re looking for it and it all sounds the same anyway. Success porn crap. I come to HN to see if other people like me think something is a piece of shit or if it’s actually decent, and why. If everything that comes through here got two…
You’re creating a false dichotomy between “two thumbs up” and “piece of shit”. There is an in between. There’s a LOT of in between. The commenter here is asking for constructive criticism, not a pandering two thumbs up. We can do better than “piece of shit”.
1. Privacy concerns of an always on device in the home.
2. Removing the benefits of remote working such as flexibility.
3. Increased company/management control over employee actions and movement.
4. Overcharging for an existing device plus an app and calling it "new hardware".
Not sure why any of these are not valid criticisms. In fact it seems you are the one taking an extreme position simply because you don't like the criticisms.
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Please don't fulminate like this on HN. You're breaking the guideline against shallow dismissals, as well as this one: " Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. " Nobody's talking about imposing this product on anyone. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
That's fair, in hindsight it's a lot harsher than it felt writing it.
I also feel that some corporate muckety-muck is going to see this and foist it upon their workforce, further subjugating them under the guise of collaboration and togetherness. Luckily, I work someplace that doesn’t do that to its employees but many are not that fortunate.
I’ve been testing out a similar software only service (no hardware) and it’s a neat experience.