Photo by Michael Martine, Lanzarote 2014

This week’s episode is chock full of AR & AI deliciousness, tasty jams, amazing UI/UX, expansive oceans and deserts.  Let’s dive right in!  

First up, the latest Apple Event has been announced, and will take place in a virtual way on Tuesday, 15 September, and the invitation for “Time Flies” leads the co-hosts to speculate on the content of the event, as one is wont to do in such circumstances.  The augmented reality logo is a nice touch.  Speaking of cool AR examples, Ian Hughes shares a tweet showcasing a couple of incredibly complex reflective and matte AR surfaces.  

Switching to the auditory front, Michael and Michael appreciate the newly announced Bose earbuds which feature the ability to adjust the amount of noise cancellation, and especially the fact that they go up to 11 levels.  Also for those that are looking to step up their home office video game, the new Sennhieser microphone fits in neatly with high end cameras to capture sound in higher fidelity.  

In the user experience interest section this week, we have a couple of compelling entries, first up with the meta-example of the Podfeet Podcasts downloadable ebook replete with podcast audio focused on the MacOS command line.  This is a very cool way to link the written and spoken content together in a comprehensive way.  Then, the example of the Winamp Skin Museum gives a glimpse into how people remixed the user interface in so many creative ways that you’ll just have to check it out for yourself.  The Google Magenta Lo-Fi player would have fit in here quite nicely.

Continuing the nostalgia triggered by the Razer Respawn chewing gum for gaming, Michael and Michael reminisce about other kinds of gum, that don’t have such special properties, and remember Andy Piper’s gift of mana potions a decade ago that was supposed to have such special focusing properties.  

The Scott Pilgrim game is coming back and Doom is ported (this time) to a pregnancy test.  On the near horizon is a new expansive cinematic take on Dune, the desert planet, which stands in stark contrast to the the Beyond Blue game where you are nearly a ‘first person diver’ exploring the oceans for different kinds of marine life in a serene manner.  

Enjoy the episode and let us know what you think in the comments below!

Selected Links

Six Colors article: Apple fall event happening September 15 — https://sixcolors.com/link/2020/09/apple-fall-event-happening-september-15/ 

The Verge article: Apple hid an AR Easter egg in its September event announcement — https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/8/21427378/apple-ar-easter-egg-september-event-announcement-time-flies 

Check this out @GamesAtWork_Biz 🙂 https://t.co/A6FTAlSn4y— Ian Hughes/epredator (@epredator) September 7, 2020

The Verge article: Bose announces $279 QuietComfort Earbuds and $179 Sport Earbuds — https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/10/21429672/bose-quietcomfort-sports-earbuds-announced-features-price