Iterate Weekly - Issue 186
This week we're talking about color Kindles, luring remote workers to Tulsa, Rivian lets you give your EV a costume, Hallmark's Christmas Experience and "Your Future Self"!
Welcome to issue 186 of Iterate Weekly.
Let’s just jump into the good stuff shall we?
Thank you as always for reading!
🖥️ Tech
Amazon launches a color Kindle
For years, we’ve just excepted that our Kindle e-readers would offer up a simple black and white paper experience. And that seemed just fine! Most of our books don’t need to be in living color.
But now Amazon has announced that they will be offering up a new line of Kindles that include an option that will present your books in full color.
And just to be clear, this isn’t a full-on tablet that will play all of your apps on a color screen like a Kindle Fire. Instead, it will use the same e-ink experience that we’ve grown to love on our Kindles, but now it will be able to display colors as well.
You can see the example in the image above. Personally, I don’t read a ton of books with colorful illustrations (and if I do, I just opt for the paper versions) but this could come in handy. Specifically, I love the idea of seeing the cover art in full color. Reading books on Kindle often makes me feel disconnected from the actual cover art. I don’t have the same recollection of the title and author when I’m reading on a kindle. Maybe this knowledge would stick with me better if it was available in vivid color.
Sure, this is also obviously great if you’re reading graphic novels or comic books as well. Although, I’d probably opt for an e-reader with a taller aspect ratio if that were me. The other key thing is that this color treatment shouldn’t have a big hit on battery life or the reading experience of normal black and white text. There could potentially be some issues with larger images loading on the screen, but I’ll reserve judgment until I see it in person.
I’m pretty content with my current generation Kindle PaperWhite, but maybe I’d give this a shot if a trade-in deal was offered.
Anyone else interested in a color Kindle?
🎓 Education/Productivity/Work
Tulsa figured out a lucrative way to lure remote workers
The city of Tulsa, Oklahoma is sharing some successful data on its program to lure remote workers to the city.
Tulsa offered up a $10,000 incentive for people to relocate to its city and remain for at least one year. The thought process was that the influx of new workers would benefit the city far in excess of that dollar amount.
After five years of data in the program, roughly 75% of the transplants have remained in Tulsa. That’s not too shabby! That means there must be more benefit to living in the area well beyond the financial gains. And it’s a win-win program for the city too. Plenty of new tax revenue has been generated and the remote work transplants claim to have saved on average $25,000 in housing costs compared to their previous locations!
A few other US cities have implemented similar programs in the past few years and I’m curious to hear if their findings are similar. If this program can be easily replicated (maybe with differing levels of financial incentive) it could really reshape the housing landscape in our country.
How much money would incentivize you to move to a new city with no connections?
♻️ Health/Environment/EVs
Rivian lets you give your car a costume
This story is perfect as we head into Halloween!
How is this possible you might ask? Well it won’t really change the full exterior of your car, but it will give them a new software skin visible across the various screens. Want your car to look like Kitt from Knight Rider? No problem! Would you prefer some retro doodads to make your console look like the DeLorean in Back to the Future? It can do that too!
Well, that’s basically the only two options right now but it’s still pretty neat. I love the idea of offering up seasonal software easter eggs (or jack-o-lanterns?) of sorts on our vehicles. Why shouldn’t our car’s software be able to get an aesthetic refresh from time to time?
Kudos to Rivian for making automotive software updates super fun!
What other car characters would make sense to install via software update?
🛍 Grab Bag
Hallmark’s Christmas Experience
Yes, we’re still bracing for Halloween but that means that Christmas is just around the corner!
And if you’re a fan of Hallmark’s wonderful Christmas movie offerings, this year the company will be offering up a whole new way to experience the holiday. Yes, it’s called the Hallmark Christmas…Experience!
It’s an in-person gathering in the company’s Kansas City home that aims to bring all the holiday cheer from their movies into real life. It will look somewhat similar to the rendering above. Imagine many large Christmas trees along with cute little villages and ice skating rinks. While Kansas City will hopefully get some of the real stuff, there will undoubtedly be plenty of fake snow as well.
The experience will run for several weeks this holiday season and should be a driver of tourism to the mid-west city. Also of note is a special football-themed movie that will be debuting this season that stars members of the Kansas City Chiefs football team.
This is a big season for both Hallmark and the Chiefs. Any football fans or rom-com fans ready to make the pilgrimage to the Hallmark Experience this year?
💬 Quote of the Week
"Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city."
-George Burns
📕Content Review
Your Future Self
This week I’m recommending the book “Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today” by Hal Hershfield.
And yes, I get it. That title sounds like the perfect AI generated self-help book title. Even the image of a cracked egg on the cover makes me cringe a little bit.
But this book is filled with lots of great info about how to set yourself up for success in the future. It mostly examines our relationship with the future. Who do we actually see in our mind when we picture ourselves ten, twenty, or fifty years into the future? Will we be more likely to achieve our future goals if we can better relate to this future version of ourselves?
It’s kinda like a time traveling sci-fi book mixed with a self-help book I suppose. Yes, there are obvious things like eating better and investing for retirement now in order to benefit yourself later. But I was more intrigued by some of the other case studies in the book like the example of people writing letters and recording videos of themselves to be released to their family in the future upon their passing. Kinda creepy, kinda futuristic, but definitely thought provoking.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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