Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by hyperbovine 26 days ago
Wow this crazy -- "Built-in Pomodoro timer" means they are literally replacing a $5 plastic tomato-shaped mechanical timing device with something that costs $220 and features WiFi and app integration. What could be more antithetical to the original pomodoro ethos, I don't know. It's like an episode of Silicon Valley.
2 comments
dylan604 26 days ago
If that's crazy to you, let me introduce you to Juicero: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juicero
link
jjkaczor 26 days ago
Am so "teh old", that honestly - I can't say whether or not that product was worse than the "CueCat":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat

(Naw - the CueCat was better, at least it was a generic barcode scanner)

link
dylan604 26 days ago
I love that Belo was so involved in this epic failure. They are one of those large media companies I love to hate on. It probably helps to be a Dallas native to have that sentiment though
link
vel0city 25 days ago
CueCat was just ahead of its time. These days scanning graphics to load links is quite common. I see QR codes and similar all the time.
link
dylan604 25 days ago
Part of the success of QR codes is the ubiquity of the device to scan those codes. CueCat needed a wired device which is not something as easy to use as a wireless mobile device.

So yeah, ahead of its time to be sure

link
vel0city 25 days ago
Fully agreed.

Plus, CueCat used some dumb proprietary encrypted tag format that needed to go to their servers to look up the code as they thought the marketers would want to pay for their codes.

Too early. Too proprietary. Too greedy.

link
jonah-archive 25 days ago
This teardown and commentary remains a favorite of mine, really worth reading through: https://blog.bolt.io/juicero/
link
dylan604 25 days ago
"high-voltage custom power supply that converts 120V/240V AC line voltage to 330V DC power for the motor and 3.3V/5V/12V DC for the communications board"

When I read that, my brain flipped thinking surely that has to be a typo. Then, "he motor is seemingly custom to account for the exceptionally high rated power (stalls at 5A at 330V DC, which is hard to believe, possibly even a misprint on the motor casing)"

So if it's a misprint on the motor, they designed a power supply for something totally unnecessary. Otherwise, if it's not a misprint, that's one helluva motor

link
zhovner 26 days ago
Can you name the pomodoro timer that support Matter?
link