Pleasure and Pain

Measuring the impact of new technology on human experience

Pleasure and Pain: photos by Whitney G. Hess

Nine Reasons Why I Love the Roomba

February 17th, 2008 · 4 comments so far

My manager Josh talks about his Roomba a lot. His family owns two — one for each floor of their house — and he swears it has helped to avert arguments with his wife because they no longer have to vacuum. Despite the fact that I live in a studio and basically have no excuse [...]

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My MacBook Air finally arrived!

February 8th, 2008 · 2 comments so far

I ordered a MacBook Air the day of the Steve Jobs keynote at MacWorld Expo, and today the package arrived, four days ahead of schedule.
Specs:

13.3-inch glossy widescreen LED screen
2GB memory
1.80GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
64GB solid-state drive
Built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
3.0 pounds

I also bought an external USB SuperDrive, ethernet adapter and MagSafe [...]

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Apple’s Most Notorious Flops

January 25th, 2008 · No comments yet

Failure isn’t the opposite of success. Failure is not trying at all. And no one is capable of success all of the time. With the good comes the bad, otherwise how would you be able to tell them apart?
Apple is currently seen as the most innovative consumer electronics company in the world. Their products [...]

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Ten Best Things and Five Worst Things About the BlackBerry

January 16th, 2008 · 6 comments so far

Ten Best Things about the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition:

Battery status is expressed in 5% increments, so you never have to estimate how much juice you have left
“Convenience key” can be set to open any app, or can be used to lock the device (you choose!)

Unlimited custom profiles give you detailed control of your alerts — [...]

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I bought a MacBook Air!

January 15th, 2008 · 2 comments so far

I just purchased a MacBook Air, sight unseen. Why?! Because I’m just so excited I can’t contain myself and I need to get my hands on one immediately. It’s funny, I’m not usually an “early adopter.” I still haven’t bought an iPhone because I don’t like AT&T’s service and I’m waiting for more [...]

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