Iterate Weekly - Issue 181
This week we're talking about my impressions of Gemini Live, The Great Evernote Reboot, Hologram doctors, Kim Kardashian's Cybertruck, and "Slow Productivity"!
Welcome to issue 181 of Iterate Weekly.
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Thank you as always for reading!
Early impressions of Gemini Live
One of the big highlights of using my new Pixel 9 Pro has been checking out the new AI features.
While the camera stuff is fun, I don’t see myself using it all that much. I don’t often feel the need to manipulate an image to add a person who wasn’t actually there. And AI generated wallpapers are only fun for so long.
No, I’d say the most exciting AI feature available with the new phone is Gemini Live. For those who haven’t been following, Gemini is essentially the new virtual assistant that Google is pushing on its devices. Yes, the original Google Assistant does still exist, but they’re slowly encouraging people to switch over to its smarter sibling Gemini. They’re also apparently so desperate to get people to use the app, that its exclusivity for Gemini Advanced users on Pixel 9 lasted only a few weeks. Now Gemini Live is freely available for all Android users to start playing around with. And Google is eager to start gathering this data.
Gemini can do all sorts of fun things, but maybe the thing that feels most futuristic is being able to have a natural conversation with it. Even when this live demonstration didn’t go flawlessly at the #MadebyGoogle event in August, it still felt like the future. Every company is just trying to replicate the relationship between Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson in the movie “Her” and Gemini Live may be the closest thing we’ve seen yet.
Yep, you can pick your Gemini Live voice from several options. I was actually surprised that none of them really gave off that Scarlett Johansson vibe (unlike OpenAI’s offerings). It took me a long time to finally settle on “Pegasus: Engaged • Deeper voice”. None of the voices really connected with me, but I thought Pegasus has been pretty solid.
So what do I think? The technology is pretty remarkable. It feels incredibly natural and I was very impressed by how Gemini was able to grasp all of the context in my sometimes rambling responses. I still feel a bit self conscious talking to an assistant all day, but Joaquin Phoenix felt the same way at the beginning of “Her” didn’t he?
The big missing piece right now is the ability for Gemini Live to interface with different apps. It can really only respond back to you with its voice right now. But ideally, I’d want it to respond by sending me an image or emailing me a recap of our conversation, etc. For example, Gemini and I had a very detailed conversation about creating a logo for my fantasy football team. We talked through the name of the team and all the nuance I wanted in the logo. Gemini could describe to me how the logo looked in great detail but it couldn’t actually send me a file or show an image on screen.
Once this gets figured out, the technology will be so much more useful. All of the great examples of image editing and generative AI that Google shows off in its commercials, could be made even easier by just using your voice. I think that could potentially save people lots of time and catapult Gemini from a party trick to an essential productivity companion.
🎓 Education/Productivity/Work
The Great Evernote Reboot
Who else out there used Evernote religiously for years?
Yep, I’m sure I’m not the only one. And I can’t be the only one who really hated the fact that the app was seemingly neglected by its new owners. It went from the biggest name in productivity to somewhat of an afterthought in no time at all.
The latest episode of the Vergecast dives deep into the story of Evernote’s demise and how it’s looking to make a comeback.
Evernote was one of the first productivity apps to really nail the whole cross-platform synchronicity thing. I remember being blown away when I could type up long form notes on my computer and then instantly make edits to the same note on my phone. It’s stuff that we obviously take for granted now, but it was a big deal back then.
My whole life was saved in Evernote. Personal, professional, creative, serious, silly, anything my brain could come up with usually ended up inside the app with the elephant logo. And to be honest, I never really found a worthwhile replacement. Or at least not one that has stood the test of time.
Take a moment to check out the Vergecast and reminisce about the Evernote glory days. Here’s to hoping that they can actually figure out a way to become relevant again in a very crowded market of cloud-based productivity apps.
♻️ Health/Environment/EVs
Hologram doctors are finally here
Finally, here is a great use of hologram technology!
We all thought that holograms would be everywhere by now right? The Tupac hologram performance blew our minds way back in 2012 and I really expected more by now.
But behold, holograms are coming to a doctor’s office near you! Or maybe they’re just coming straight into your home.
The goal is to get top notch health care to people who live in far flung rural locales. Rather than taking the long journey into a city, they can just catch a glimpse of a doctor in a hologram phone booth sorta thing. This specific example is best reserved for serious cancer treatment for patients who can’t get to the country’s finest hospitals located in metro areas. This technology may be a bit overkill for your basic runny nose.
While video medical calls have become mainstream, there is something more substantial about seeing a doctor in three dimensions on a giant screen. It gives more gravitas to the appointment rather than looking at a grainy video feed from a laptop in bed.
If the technology works, I can see this being used in plenty of other industries. Business meetings, family gatherings, virtual weddings? Who wouldn’t want to be a hologram rather an just another square in a video call?
🛍 Grab Bag
Kim Kardashian mods her Cybertruck
I won’t pretend to know a whole lot about Kim Kardashian.
I wasn’t aware that she has a fleet of vehicles that are all painted gray. And I didn’t know that she is apparently a major Tesla Cybertruck fan. But here we are.
The point of the story is that Kim has done some custom modding to her truck that has caused people to take notice. She painted her Cybertruck gray to match her other vehicles. While that doesn’t sound novel at all, it’s a pretty big deal since the natural finish of the vehicle is stainless steel which isn’t easy to paint. Most Cybertruck modders go the route of applying colored wraps to customize their ride. Just last week I saw a lovely light green wrap on a Cybertruck that caught my eye. But no, that won’t do for Kim Kardashian.
The paint job is obviously custom and comes from the folks at Platinum Motorsport Group who shared the images on their social media channels. I kinda wish it was a more interesting color but it takes skill to paint a surface like that. And the rims might be the most impressive part of all. I’m still not sold on the aesthetic of the Cybertruck, but I do appreciate the quality work here.
💬 Quote of the Week
"In art, the obvious is a sin."
-Edward Dmytryk
📕Content Review
Slow Productivity
A while back I mentioned that I had picked up Cal Newport’s latest book “Slow Productivity”. And I joked that I was reading it very, very…slowly.
And I’ve finally come to the end of the book and it was worth the wait. Lots of good tidbits to take from this. Just a few quick highlights.
-Working at seasonal paces should be the norm for knowledge work. We aren’t robots and shouldn’t be expected to give the same output 365 days per year. It should be more than acceptable to have slow days, weeks, or seasons to recharge throughout the year.
-People should be encouraged to say no to more work. Not every knowledge worker needs to say yes to every project, proposal, or opportunity that comes across their desk. Less can certainly be more and there should be no shame or judgment in that.
-Newport talks about obsessing over quality but maybe not in the way that you’d expect. It’s obviously important to take your work seriously and to give it your best. But it’s also an essential skill to know when something is good enough and move on. Obsessing over quality doesn’t mean procrastinating in the name of perfection.
Like most of Newport’s work, I think this one should be on every knowledge worker’s reading list this year. Go check it out for yourself (ideally at a leisurely pace) and draw your own conclusions if you’d like.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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