Ask HN: Most overhyped technology of 2016?
What do you folks think is the most over-hyped technology out there today. Is that self-driving cards, video chat apps, VR, bots? The barrier to entry into tech has dropped quite a bit lately, and a lot of "stuff" is being pumped out from every corner of the net. I am oversaturated and wondering how others are feeling.
37 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 90.4 ms ] threadI'm not saying he doesn't do some cool stuff, but everything he does gets talked up like it's the second coming.
EV's would not be a thing right now if it weren't for Tesla, and the other co-founders would've failed if it weren't for Elon.
The hype is real.
Hyped or not, the privatization and commoditization of space travel is new and interesting.
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.
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 quite reached the point where VR can compete with a 4K monitor on a gaming PC or even the level of immersion of a gaming console on a TV.
Edit: or actually, a better use case...how about a quadriplegic that can no longer walk or move around easily?
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.
1. Microsoft awesome way cheaper than apple
2. Amazon .. None of my friends will ever buy anything over the internet...
3. Google Cool..but nobody will click on those tiny ads.
4. Facebook kinda dumb why not use email.
5. Twitter the dumbest thing I've ever heard of
6. Uber seem useful but I'd never used it.
7. AirBnb just plain creepy...
8. snapchat, Instagram, tinder ... don't you already have facebook?
I would take my predictions with a grain of salt... but I don't really get AI bots? Sure they could work someday just not sure how you get a break out company from it.
AirBnB is at least as useful as Uber if you travel. I've used it for multiple trips in five countries now and always had a good experience - the accommodation is always what was advertised, the user interface is easy to use (especially when in a country with a foreign language), and the pricing has always been competitive. I do have concerns about the impact of it on locals but I'm also not sure that AirBnB is exerting more pressure than many places have always had from other factors (tourist towns always have a balance between tourist prices and locals trying to make a living - more often than not that balance tips in favour of the tourists).
It likely varies depending upon the market.
Yes, sure. The bitcoin innovation was solving the duplicate transaction (or spend) problem in a trustless network. In a private blockchain you have trust between the nodes so this innovation does not apply.
> Also did anything similar to blockchain (distributed decentralized information store) exist earlier?
Yes, databases supported this configuration before and the idea of smart contracts predates Bitcoin. Also, there are a lot of articles before Bitcoin about secure transaction logs.
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.
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.