Linked List: November 13, 2011

Sunday, 13 November 2011

The Think of It Versus the Feel of It ★: Yours truly’s keynote address from last month’s Çingleton Symposium in Montreal.
Nest and the Apple-ification of the Thermostat ★: Erica Ogg on Tony Fadell’s appearance at GigaOm RoadMap last week:

Fadell looked at an industry that was badly in need of innovation. Not just in the technology under the covers, but in terms of usability and design. “Thermostats looked like PCs from the 90s: square, beige, nothing innovative, and very expensive,” he said. So when he was contemplating home heating and cooling, he wasn’t inventing something new so much as rethinking and improving an established product — much like he did with the iPod in 2001.

Here’s how he consumerized an otherwise boring, staid product.