Even if this year is no reason to celebrate, there have been some bright spots in the world of technology. We admit this with much disgust: NFTs kind of won this year. You have taken over. Reddit’s day traders also deserve credit for the way they’ve managed to manifest GameStop’s slogan, “Power to the player.”
Also (and this is perhaps the most painful to admit) the Metaverse (sorta) hit the market this year. At least in relation to our lexicon, with mentions of the word has exploded since Mark Zuckerberg uttered it along the way Announcing a plan for a richer VR and AR focused world. Perhaps the people between “Metaverse” and “Multiverse” became like in Dr. Confused about Strange in the Multiverse of Madness?
Aside from the things we like to hate, there are also some products this year that we really liked. Apple continued to impress with its M1 chips and, more importantly, gave users the option to fix their own devices (kind of). Google’s very first mobile chip enabled smarter experiences on the latest Pixel phones, showcasing the company’s AI and software capabilities at a competitive price. As we continue to be bombarded with depressing news every day, it is worth taking the time to ponder this year’s victories, no matter how small they are.
Noam Galai via Getty Images
NFTs
2021 was not a quiet year, so NFTs deserve approximate praise for securing a spot on the highlights role. NFTs, or Non-fungible tokens, are an attempt to create an immutable digital asset in an environment where this was difficult in the past. For industry advocates, this is a way of forcing a kind of scarcity on digital artifacts that are not so easily scarce. Anyone can right-click and save a picture of a monkey in sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt. But only those who have paid a lot of money for the NFT can call themselves “owners”. As Nietzche didn’t say, NFTs are the agreed lie suggesting that people respect the owner of the certified copy of something more than anything else.
So far, the biggest and most notable moves in the NFT space have been in the art market, with pieces being bought and sold at staggering numbers. On March 11, digital artist Beeple Everydays: The First sold 5,000 Days Christie’s auction house for $ 69,346,250. These large sums of money are justified, according to some people, because they believe that NFTs will become the new crypto, with everyone trying to get on board before they grow up. After all, there are plenty of people who got rich during the Bitcoin boom and want to keep growing their fortunes, while some laggards are now hoping to get on the next big thing downstairs. Others suggest that the big trend in NFTs right now is helping people move large amounts of Money around away from the auspices of regulators.
The NFT market is so full of speculative money that it is normal to have questions. One recently Harvard Business Review Article talks about how trade cannot work without “clear property rights” that NFTs help enforce. The question also arises as to whether NFTs could enable more reliable and secure ticketing and authorization systems? In all honesty, personally I am not convinced by the argument that NFTs offer property rights, as they don’t necessarily give property rights to the buyer.
These questions will be worked out over the next few years, however, and only when the speculation has subsided will we see if NFTs have any residual value. And, hey, not every deeply tech-savvy cryptographic proof of ownership gets their own SNL sketch shortly after their breakthrough into the mainstream, right?
– Daniel Cooper
Mark Zuckerberg didn’t invent the term, but from Renaming of Facebook as “Meta”, he helped spark a wave of interest in the metaverse. Originally a dystopian view of cyberspace via Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, the Metaverse now represents the next big online gold rush. You can think of it as the logical progression over mobile internet, a world where our online experiences can easily switch between multiple devices. And finally, it could be something that we interact with through AR and VR glasses.
Be clear we don’t have a precise idea yet what the metaverse will be. The renaming to Meta could easily be seen as a way for Zuckerberg to live up to his responsibilities as a leader. to withdraw a fundamentally broken social media company. But other companies have been exploring this idea for years: Microsoft’s HoloLens has proven surprisingly useful for business and frontline workers, and it is Core to mesh, the company’s ambitious solution for virtual meetings. The Borg-like Google Glass has been widely ridiculed, but its failure hasn’t stopped Google from thinking about it its role in the metaverse, either.
Maybe it takes a killer new device like that Apple’s legendary AR glassesto bring the metaverse into focus. Or maybe it’s moving towards wearables – a category of devices that are useful to some people but not necessarily essential to all. Either way, it’s something that will be tied to 2021 forever.
– Devindra Hardawar
Home fitness technology is here to stay
With the pandemic keeping many of us indoors and out of the gym, companies like Peloton, Apple, Tonal, and even Amazon have been able to drag us into new fitness habits and equipment.
Apple
Meanwhile, major gyms and gyms like Equinox, Soulcycle, OrangeTheory, and F45 have modulated their online services (while some were built from scratch). Many companies have expanded the repeatable class options or added live lessons, leaderboards, and more to keep members fit – and to pay membership dues.
COVID-19 provided an opportunity to change our exercise habits and reduce the cost of the gym. Why pay $ 50 for a high-intensity interval training gym membership when I can track myself? Apple’s Fitness Plus courses, SharePlay with my friends and jump into my own shower for just $ 10 a month?
Of course, the comparison isn’t oranges for oranges, and despite cheerleading peloton coaches and form corrections from gym coaches via live video streams, it’s very hard to get the level of awareness gained through personal training. That’s probably one of the reasons why home exercise injuries have never been so high. The Wall Street Journal reported that post-exercise emergency room visits increased more than 48% from late 2019 to late 2020, according to a survey by Medicare Advantage.
However, just like traditional gyms when the pandemic first broke out, these companies need to figure out how to keep their customers.
Tonal
Tonal is a “Peloton for Weight Training” product that Engadget tested in 2018. When our usual bench presses and squat racks became locked up in gyms for the past year and a half, Tonal saw the demand for his resistance training system rocket. Sales more than eightfold compared to the previous year. To keep these new customers, the company recently launched live classes for Tonal owners, with direct feedback from trainers and classes that are reportedly calibrated for each user.
Meanwhile, Peloton, arguably the best-known fitness company for the home, is facing stronger competition (and Litigation with) competitors and tougher business prospects. After a rough earnings report in November, the company said it didn’t expect to be profitable again until 2023. Worse still, his bike was involved in the death of a key character in the Sex and the City restart, and just like that. But the company has plans (and naughty answer). It’s built into many company fitness plans, launched its first training game, announced a Fitness camera for strength training and finally – added a pause button.
The challenge will be to keep many of us from going back to our old gyms, bike commuting, or our old, less healthy habits when things go back to normal.
– Mat Smith
