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

In this episode of the Hardware Podcast, David Cranor and I talk with Marcin Wichary, design lead and typographer at Medium. Wichary is an authority on the history of keyboards, and he’s traced their development from an early period of enormous variation (when each manufacturer used to arrange arrow keys in a different way) through today’s relative stability.

Marcin Wichary on the Evolution of the Keyboard

In this episode of the Hardware Podcast, we talk with Ken Shirriff, a software engineer at Google and writer of a fascinating series of electronics teardowns. His posts on power supplies, like Apple’s MacBook and iPad chargers, offer detailed looks at how the real things differ from counterfeits. And his writeup of Apple’s remarkably complex Magsafe connector is illuminating.

Ken Shirriff on the Hidden Complexity of Power Supplies

In this episode of the Hardware Podcast, we talk with Rob Chandhok, president of Helium, a startup with a platform for connecting sensors and control elements over the Internet. We talk about the process of taking a prototype to production, and the blend of hardware and software that allows smart edge devices to last an eternity on a single battery.

Rob Chandhok on Connecting Sensors to the Internet

In this episode of the Hardware podcast, we talk with writer and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow. He’s recently rejoined the Electronic Frontier Foundation to fight a World Wide Web Consortium proposal that would add DRM to the core specification for HTML. When we recorded this episode with Cory, the W3C had just overruled the EFF’s objection. The result, he says, is that “we are locking innovation out of the Web.”

Cory Doctorow on Losing the Open Web

Manu Prakash, a bioengineering professor at Stanford University, talks about radically inexpensive microscopes and the democratization of discovery in this episode of the Hardware Podcast. Prakash’s Foldscope is a “completely functional, foldable, origami microscope.” He says that “every kid in the world should carry a microscope in their pocket,” and so far, more than 50,000 Foldscopes (the parts of which cost only $1) have been shipped to more than 130 countries.

Manu Prakash on Microscopy for Everyone

In this episode of the Hardware podcast, we talk with Carl Bass, president and CEO of Autodesk. He’s an articulate thinker on algorithmic design, collaborative tools, and the nature of craft, and we talked for nearly two hours when we visited him to record this episode.

Carl Bass on Design Tools

Coco Krumme is a data scientist who’s worked at the intersection of applied math and agriculture, and her recent “Silicon Valley Magnets” project gently satirizes Silicon Valley’s “techno-utopian mythology.” In this episode of the Hardware podcast, we talk about how connected sensors, AI, and data science are changing agriculture, and reflect on the different ways that Silicon Valley and farmers are inclined to solve problems.

Coco Krumme on Silicon Valley Culture

In this episode of the Hardware Podcast, we talk with Jonathan Bachrach, a professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) Department at UC Berkeley, and co-founder of Otherlab, a research-driven lab and incubator that sits at the intersection between software and machines.

Jonathan Bachrach on the Hardware-Software Interface

In this episode of the Hardware podcast, we talk with Chris Meringolo, an engineer at ThingWorx, and Brian Jepson, an editor at O’Reilly Media. This conversation took place during the LiveWorx 2016 conference, where the three of us presented a hands-on connected-device tutorial that we’re calling the O’Reilly IoT Learning Lab.

Chris Meringolo and Brian Jepson Share a Hands-on Journey from Idea to Prototype

Two years ago, the Othermill desktop CNC mill made machining radically more accessible. Priced at $2,200, it found its way beyond general small-scale milling and into electronics prototyping; it can mill copper away from an FR-1 PCB blank to make a circuit board. Other Machine’s latest work is the Othermill Pro, whose spindle speed and rapid movement are 60% and 70% faster than the original’s, respectively, and whose accuracy makes it possible to fabricate traces as small as six thousandths of an inch.

In this episode of the Hardware Podcast, we talk with Ezra Spier, the vice president of product & software at Other Machine Co., maker of the Othermill. Spier walks us through the development process for the improved machine and gives us an overview of the desktop prototyping market.

Ezra Spier on Desktop Milling Machines

In this episode of the Hardware podcast, I talk with Steve Ghee, senior vice president for R&D in the office of the CTO at PTC.  The conversation took place during the LiveWorx 2016 conference, where augmented reality was a major focus—especially for the role that it can play in the Internet of Things and in the enterprise.



Steve Ghee on the Future of Augmented Reality

In this episode of the Hardware podcast, I talk with Dave Rauchwerk, founder and CEO of Next Thing Co., makers of C.H.I.P., the $9 computer.

Dave Rauchwerk on Creating a $9 Computer

In this episode of the Hardware podcast, O’Reilly editor Brian Jepson and I talk about what FPGAs can do, how they’re getting more approachable for beginners, and the parallels between FPGAs and microcontroller boards such as the Arduino.

Getting Started With FPGAs

In this episode of the Hardware Podcast, I speak with Mark Wright, director of product management at Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center, and Darren Beck, author of the newly-published O'Reilly ebook "Smart Business: Gaining an Edge Through IoT-Powered Sustainability."

Mark Wright and Darren Beck on the IoT and Sustainability

In this episode of the O’Reilly Hardware Podcast, Jeff Bleiel and I speak with Chris Lirakis, senior manager, engineering of novel computing architectures at IBM. Earlier this year, the company’s quantum computing platform in the cloud, the “IBM Quantum Experience,” was opened up to researchers, scientists, and the public.

Chris Lirakis on the Promise of Quantum Computing

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.

O'Reilly Hardware Podcast

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