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The O'Reilly Hardware Podcast is hosted by Jon Bruner and David Cranor, and focuses on the people, ideas, and technology that we feature at the O'Reilly Solid Conference (solidcon.com). We explore topics related to the Internet of Things, hardware, software, manufacturing, and the blurring of the physical and virtual worlds.

O'Reilly Hardware Podcast

Fashion, function or just a fad? Wearable technology is getting huge amounts of attention from companies of every size and stripe. Consumers are slapping on fitness bands, experimenting with smart watches and trying on jewelry that syncs with their smart phones. Christina Mercando, CEO and co-founder of Ringly, which fits in the fashion/jewelry segment of wearables, joins a16z’s Chris Dixon in a discussion about this emerging technology segment. What is working today, and where things are headed in wearables.

a16z Podcast: The Wearables Session

O'Reilly's Mary Treseler chats with Microsoft designer Cindy Alvarez about how design is changing, how the approach to design at Microsoft is changing, and user research misperceptions and challenges. She also offers advice to those who are insisting all designers should code.

Design is How Users Feel When Experiencing Products

Messaging app WeChat tells us a lot about mobile and business in China. In a recent deep-dive primer on the WeChat phenomenon, a16z partner Connie Chan analyzed WeChat and the notion of app-within-apps, payments as a gateway drug, platforms vs portals, and what happens when utility is more important than being "social". Wired senior writer David Pierce also describes the power of conversational messaging as the main interface, further arguing that “A great messaging app could be to the web browser what the browser was to the internet before it.”

So what happens when a messaging app essentially becomes an operating system for our lives? What conditions made the mobile, business, and cultural environment in China so ripe for a phenomenon like WeChat? How does voice change everything? And, let's face it, what are the tradeoffs users (both consumer and business) as well as developers may have to make when one app does in fact rule an entire ecosystem? Connie and David discuss on this episode of the a16z Podcast. Plus what happens to loneliness, work-life balance, and more.

a16z Podcast: Messaging As the Interface to Everything

Can digital work fight poverty? Can companies be profitable and also do social good -- especially in a society where the proxy for value is capital and much of that value accrues to platforms? And finally, what's the difference between a mission-driven and 'social' entrepreneur?
 
Samasource, a nonprofit that uses technology to connect marginalized people around the world to digital work, is one attempt at answering those questions. In this segment of the a16z Podcast, we talk with founder and CEO Leila Janah about employment of all kinds -- from sweatshop work to the gig economy to remote work. Janah also argues what the nonprofit world should borrow from for-profit startups -- including attitudes around failure and better measures of success.

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The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.
 
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.

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a16z Podcast: Connecting People with Digital Work, the Gig Economy, and More

O'Reilly's Mary Treseler chats with Suzanne Pellican, VP and executive creative director at Intuit, about three core principles of design thinking and about Intuit’s journey to become a design-driven organization.

Reconciling Design Thinking With the Craft of Design Doing

Ben Einstein chats with David Cranor and O'Reilly's Jon Bruner about critical issues for hardware startups.

Ben Einstein on Accelerating Hardware Startups

O'Reilly's Jon Bruner and David Cranor chat with Brady Forrest, vice president at Highway1, and Renee DiResta, vice president of business development at Haven, about hardware startup success stories, pitfalls, and best practices.

Brady Forrest and Renee DiResta on Advising Hardware Startups

Joe Biron, VP of IoT technology at ThingWorx, on how the IoT entails a flexible platform approach to accommodate new applications that haven’t been conceived yet.

Joe Biron on Whats New About the IoT

Katie Dill on designing for seven billion people, hiring good people, and the triforce.

Airbnb's Design Approach

Mike Kuniavsky, a principal scientist in the Innovation Services Group at PARC, on designing for the Internet of Things ecosystem and why the most interesting thing about the IoT isn’t the “things” but the sensors. He also talks about his deep-seated love for appliances and furniture, and how intelligence will affect those industries.

Mike Kuniavsky on the Tectonic Shift of the IoT

Our guest on this week’s episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast is Robert Brunner. Brunner was director of industrial design at Apple from 1989 to 1996, overseeing the design of the PowerBook. He was the chief designer of Beats by Dr. Dre, the design-driven line of headphones that Apple acquired for $3 billion last year. And he’s the founder of Ammunition, which has worked with startups and large companies on a wide range of innovative consumer products.

Robert Brunner on Designing and Building Great Products

This episode of the Hardware Podcast features Jon Bruner's second discussion with Joe Biron, VP of IoT technology at ThingWorx, a PTC business that offers a platform for rapid deployment of Internet of Things applications.

Joe Biron on IoT Platforms

In this new episode of the Hardware Podcast, David Cranor and Jon Bruner talk with Roger Chen, formerly a principal at O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, O’Reilly Media’s sister VC firm.

Roger Chen on Hardware and Robotics Startups

David Cranor and Jon Bruner talk with Matthew Berggren, who at the time the interview was conducted last December was senior director of product at Supplyframe. (Berggren is now director of Autodesk Circuits at Autodesk.) Their discussion focuses on the need for abstracted modules and better metadata in electronics.

Matthew Berggren on Making Electronics Accessible

The New Hardware Movement at CES 2016

David Cranor and Jon Bruner talk with Sanjit Biswas, founder and CEO of the industrial sensor company Samsara.

Sanjit Biswas on Industrial Sensors

In this episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast, Jeff Bleiel and I speak with Gilad Rosner, a privacy and information policy researcher, and the founder of the Internet of Things Privacy Forum.  Rosner is also the author of the recently-published free O’Reilly ebook, “Privacy and the Internet of Things.”

Gilad Rosner on Privacy in the Age of The Internet of Things

With interest growing in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)—witness Amazon’s recent addition of AWS EC2 instances that include dedicated FPGAs—this episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast looks at what FPGAs are and how their capabilities are different from microcontroller boards (such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi).Jeff Bleiel and I speak with Ryan Cousins, co-founder and CEO of KRTKL (pronounced “critical”), the makers of Snickerdoodle, a board that’s based on an ARM/FPGA hybrid chip.

Ryan Cousins on Field Programmable Gate Arrays

In this episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast, Jeff Bleiel and I speak with Niko Triulzi, co-founder and CTO of AE Dreams, the makers of the children’s product Turtle Mail, a wooden mailbox with a WiFi-connected thermal printer inside. Triulzi explains the hardware and software workings of the device, which enables parents, relatives, and friends to send a message from a computer or mobile device. The child then receives the message, which is printed from the mailbox.

Niko Triulzi on IoT Toys

In this episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast, Jeff Bleiel and I speak with Joel Johnson, co-founder and CEO of BoXZY, a startup that makes an all-in-one desktop CNC mill, 3D printer, and laser engraver. We discuss the BoXZY device’s software and hardware, including its CAD/CAM software (Autodesk’s Fusion 360) and controller board (Arduino Mega), as well as its shield, steppers, and firmware.

Joel Johnson on Desktop Fabrication

In this episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast, Brian Jepson and I speak with Mike Vladimer, co-founder of the Orange IoT Studio at Orange Silicon Valley. Vladimer discusses how Internet of Things devices could benefit from connectivity options other than those provided by well-known technologies (including cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth), and explains the LoRa wireless protocol, which supports long-range and lower-power applications.

Mike Vladimer on IoT Connectivity

O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators. At O’Reilly, a big part of our business is paying attention to what’s new and interesting in the world of technology. We have a pretty good record at having anticipated some of the big technology developments in recent history. For instance, we launched the first commercial Web site, GNN, in 1993; we organized the meeting at which the term “open source” was first adopted; we were early investors in Blogger, which helped launch the blogging revolution; and more recently, our Web 2.0 conference launched a world-wide meme. We call this predictive sense the “O’Reilly Radar.” And while we’re certainly not always right, we are, at least, good at making interesting guesses.

Our methodology is simple: we draw from the wisdom of the alpha geeks in our midst, paying attention to what’s interesting to them, amplifying these weak signals, and seeing where they fit into the innovation ecology. Add to that the original research conducted by our Research team, and you start to get a good picture of what the technology world is thinking about.

Brady Forrest and Renee DiResta on Advising Hardware Startups

O'Reilly Radar