Foundation Nation
Foundation Nation
S5 - E8: The Art of Lego and the Future of Augmented Reality with Apple
Ever wondered what it takes to be a Lego Master, or how a simple plastic brick can outperform gold as an investment? Buckle up for an enchanting behind-the-scenes look at the Brick Alley meet-up in Port Orchard, where we rubbed shoulders with the brightest brick builders, including the champion of Lego Masters season four. Discover the intricate world of competitive Lego building, and delve into the unexpected financial wisdom of stashing away those Lego sets. Plus, we examine the miniature marvels that are Lego minifigures, focusing on the charming evolution of the tiny plastic kids that populate our creations.
Switching from bricks to bytes, get ready to have your mind expanded by Apple's latest venture into augmented reality with the Vision Pro Glasses. We weigh the pros and cons of this hefty investment, breaking down the features and potential use cases like transforming your home office into an AR wonderland or taking on collaborative engineering feats remotely. As Apple leaps beyond the iPhone, we ponder the future of tech innovation and how it continues to shape our world. Join us for a journey through the playful and the practical in this episode full of visionaries and vision.
Hello and welcome to Foundation Nation. I'm your host, matthew Cote. Today on the podcast we're going to talk about some interesting recent goings-ons in our beautiful state and maybe even a few things going on in this amazing round thing we call home.
Speaker 2:Hello, welcome to Foundation Nation. I'm Matthew Cote, your host, along with co-host Jay.
Speaker 3:Hi, my name is Jay Salmi, owner of Jay's Technology Solutions. Matt, let's start the frivolity.
Speaker 2:Frivolity. So what's been going on?
Speaker 3:We had some fun over the weekend. What did you do? We got to go to Brick Alley in Port Orchard and meet five Lego Masters, and one of them was actually the winner of Lego Masters season four.
Speaker 2:So what's Lego Masters?
Speaker 3:It's a whole bunch of teams getting together and building Lego spur of the moment. They don't even know what they're building until moments before they have to build it. They have a certain amount of time to build it and win that round, so they have.
Speaker 2:How do they receive the Legos? Is it like?
Speaker 1:under it's Lego, but they receive it.
Speaker 2:It's all right there. So it's like they're standing in front of a hidden box or something.
Speaker 3:No, no they get told a theme, oh, a theme Like, let's say, one theme was volcanoes. Okay, right, and all the Lego brick is there for them. They just have to go and grab it and bring it back to their table. And it's teams of two and they build an epic design.
Speaker 2:And this guy consistently won and he was the champion. Is it elimination rounds? They're elimination rounds, so his team never lost.
Speaker 3:His team actually won one of the rounds where his creation is actually forever put into a video game. Oh, okay, so it's like a little RC car, and the one that he made in real life got digitized and put into a video game forever.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, it's actually a choice. That's cool. Do you get monies, or is that the reward?
Speaker 3:They win money at the end. Was it $100,000? You know, split between the two, oh, between three people, two people, teams money at the end. Um, was it a hundred?
Speaker 2:thousand dollars. You know, split between the two, oh, between two, three people, or two people, two people, teams of two, teams of two, okay, yeah, so it's him plus one him, christopher and robert. Yep, so what was? What are the? What's their background? Um?
Speaker 3:you know, I I don't remember everyone's background, okay, um, I can be wrong, but I think chris works at maybe microsoft, I think, okay, um, don't quote me on that. Or he did something for them for a little bit. I I can be wrong, but I think Chris works at maybe Microsoft, I think Okay, don't quote me on that. Or he did something for them for a little bit. I remember him mentioning something about Microsoft, okay, but he's a business guy and, oh man, he's very charismatic, so you listen to him talk and you just listen, listen, he's fun to listen to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, yeah, he's got a YouTube channel Duck Bricks, duck Bricks, yep, oh cool, what is that? Duck like quack, or just like they're coming at you and look out.
Speaker 3:Well, Lego was one of their very first Lego designs was a wooden duck Of wood. Yeah, oh, I didn't know that that's cool. All those years ago, back in the last century, I remember playing with the logs those are lincoln logs.
Speaker 2:Oh, lincoln's logs, that's not lego.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's different, they link yeah that's to an extent, yeah, a little notch on the end what does lego stand for is an acronym I don't remember right now, oh okay that's interesting.
Speaker 2:I mean it's got a pretty interesting history, got a massive history. Yeah, I mean it's been a big following, very powerful product.
Speaker 3:It appreciates more than gold. Oh really yeah.
Speaker 2:Hmm, like just the stock itself, no, the actual product.
Speaker 3:I bought some motors and receivers and controllers that were being retired. I purchased them right before being retired and, let's see, it was back in October or something like that I sold them for a 325% profit.
Speaker 2:Wow, why'd you sell them Didn't need them, I bought them strictly for an investment.
Speaker 3:Oh for that reason yeah, I only had them for like two years. Wow, why'd you sell them, didn't?
Speaker 2:need them. I bought them strictly for oh, for that reason, yeah, I only had them for like two years.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:Go, lego Go. Yeah, you know the Lego guys, the little people, minifigs, minifigs, yep, have they been the same more or less dimensions ever since, or were they ever bigger? Some are bigger, some are are smaller, depending on what the actual character is yeah, I feel like sometimes the they're a little their, their bodies change a little bit slightly um you know, if it's a child minifig, then their legs don't bend. Oh, shorter that oh, that'd be cute yeah, I don't think I've seen a child one before.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah we have lots of sets at our house and we got lots of ones with the shorter laces or a kid or whatever, yeah, oh, okay, I think I want to bring one next time.
Speaker 2:I want to look at it. Okay, a kid one that doesn't have bendy legs? Okay, I don't think I've ever seen that.
Speaker 4:Okay, I think we'll work on that foundation nation is proudly sponsored by jace technology solutions. Call jace technology solutions at 253-376-7579 for all your computer repair, it and network solutions so something I wanted to talk about was ais.
Speaker 2:There's there's a lot of AI things going on, and Apple's taking a little humble approach at launching its newest device. Oh yes, what is it? The Vision Pro.
Speaker 3:Vision Pro. Yes, it's similar to a VR headset.
Speaker 2:Okay, describe it to me. What does it look like?
Speaker 3:Imagine a ski mask.
Speaker 2:Okay, right, just thicker ski mask, obviously heavier, you mean like a ski mask, like jason, no, no ski mask like you're going skiing, oh okay, no, down the slopes.
Speaker 3:You know a ski mask just right over your eyes. Oh, the goggles, the goggles, yes, sorry, ski goggles, ski goggles my apologies.
Speaker 2:All right, yeah, so ski goggles.
Speaker 3:They're thicker, a little bit heavier. Tons of sensors and cameras on it, okay, and I actually went and demoed one okay what was the? Experience like I was concerned, just like with vr for me I get motion sickness oh yeah, nothing like that.
Speaker 3:why no motion sickness or nothing? They have done such an impeccable job at the refresh rates and the latency being so, so small, yeah, that when you were looking through it because you don't see out the vision pro with a clear glass, you're seeing an image of what's in front of you. Oh, okay, so there's cameras projecting the image of what's in front of you. Yeah, live, live feed right, you know, on the screen that's inside the, the, the vision pro. Okay, and um, I couldn't even tell.
Speaker 2:You couldn't tell that you were looking at fake, that I was looking at a video. It looked like normal, right.
Speaker 3:Wow that that I was looking at a video. It looked like normal, right. Wow, that's cool and it was absolutely amazing. I never felt motion sick. I never felt nauseous like I would with vr. That's why I don't have vr, right it. I can't. I can't handle that. You get dizzy. Yeah, and there's a lot of people out there like that and while experiencing the vision pro, they have these certain things that immerse you into a video or a picture or whatever, right, right, you know how. On a computer, you have your desktop background, right, yeah, picture of whatever you want. Yeah, right, you just throw a picture up there and that's your desktop background. In Vision Pro, your desktop background can be fully immersive, and what I mean by that is one of the backgrounds that they had. You show or had you experience was in a mountain with a lake. Okay, you're literally right on the edge of the lake, like about ready to step into the water, uh-huh, right, and it looked so real I literally felt like I could touch the water or the rocks.
Speaker 2:So all your sensors were going off.
Speaker 3:It was crazy how real it was. It literally makes 3D movies look like garbage. Wow, it was so impressive and as you turn your head, you still see it.
Speaker 2:So what's the primary purpose or function of this thing?
Speaker 3:it's actually it's actually a wearable computer, okay, so you can still do facetime, you can still do zoom, you can still do word excel emails, surf the internet, all that. Yeah, you can actually hook up a keyboard, but they show you how to use finger gestures and voice control. Okay, search for stuff Super intuitive. Oh, wow, took me less than half a second to figure it out. Wow, she actually had the person that was demoing it for me. She had to tell me to slow down so she can get through her spiel and show me what I'm supposed to be doing. Oh, yeah, yeah, but it was so intuitive. You don't really, yeah, because you know you're just you're slowing. I was slowing down so she could show me more specific things that weren't necessarily as obvious, right?
Speaker 2:When are they, when are these things coming to be? You can buy them.
Speaker 3:They've already started? Oh, okay, yeah, that started earlier this month, is it them? They've already started? Oh, okay, yeah, that started earlier this month, is it? How much are they? Depends on what size of hard drive.
Speaker 3:Oh, sure, how much storage you need, right? Um, if you get the one terabyte and you need the um glasses you know they're, if you wear glasses like I do. Oh, prescription, yeah, you get a prescription lens that gets put in there. It's magnetic, so you can change it out and so you can actually have other people in your household use it, just by changing out the lens. Oh, okay, and it's magnetic, so it's super quick and easy.
Speaker 3:Okay, but for me, if you did the one terabyte and the prescription you're looking at, a little over four grand, four grand, but it's an Apple product. Yeah, sure, their products are expensive, but their support is amazing. Yeah, because you can't I don't know of anywhere else you can buy a computer from and then I'm saying this without a warranty or anything, right, and go back in three months and saying, hey, I have this issue and if you take it to the Apple store, nine out of ten times they're able to fix it right on site. And then they go. Okay, have a good day. Okay, have a good day. Yeah, there's no charge for it, so sometimes that extra expense is worth it. Apple's pretty superior. Yeah, and being a guy that works on Windows PCs, I do agree with that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do these things. I mean, are they for kids or adults? I mean, what's their primary client? Or who are they for $4,000, who are they targeting to buy these things?
Speaker 3:I haven't seen or noticed really what their primary target is. That I've really have a perception of. But when you think about it, if you have a home office, imagine being able to work at home and walk around your entire house and still work. Sure, from your computer, because you're wearing it, you can put all these screens up in AR, augmented reality, basically in front of you, and then if you need to start walking or do something else, you just start doing that and everything goes transparent and you see the real world around you and you take care of what you need to and then when you want to go back to work, you just go back to work wherever you're at.
Speaker 2:I feel like I've heard about Boeing starting to do stuff like this, right? Well, you've got the company.
Speaker 3:You've got the Microsoft HoloLens that has been around for a while, right, lots of companies are using HoloLens because same style of technology. But the HoloLens is a clear goggles. Oh, okay, so there's no cameras and stuff. It's not fully enclosed. Okay, so you see everything like like my glasses I have on right now. Sure, but then the hollow lens projects. Information on that clear glass lens.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:Instead of being like an augmented reality, right. So you're seeing it live. It's on the lens, in front of you.
Speaker 2:Okay, so it's like overlapping reality, right.
Speaker 3:Okay, same theory, just applied differently. Okay.
Speaker 2:And I mean I'm just thinking of some of the purposes. If you could have engineers in the office and then technicians out in the field, you know, walking around saying, hey, this is what's going on on this plane or this job, or whatever, the engineer could like live, you know, talk to them, and without having to, because I know a lot of engineers in the world they don't, they're not on site, you know they're. A lot of engineering is done remotely. You know, oh, I've a lot of engineers in the world. They're not on site. A lot of engineering is done remotely.
Speaker 3:Oh, I've dealt with lots of them.
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, so having to have some eyes and ears in the field like that would be pretty amazing. Four grand for a company, that's reasonable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not too bad For a kid no way, no, no, not really for a kid. And like, let's say, you do foundations right, matt, that's your primary company, that's what you do. Imagine being able to collaborate with someone in Germany about a new foundation equipment to hold up the house or to lift the foundation Right, equipment to hold up the house or to lift the foundation Right, and you're, you can redesign it together in real space and virtual space at the same time, so you can have a product right in front of you, person in Germany, and you say, oh no, let's change this, they'll change something Visually, you can see what they changed and go, that works. But what if we change this angle? Just this much? Ah, okay, right, and you can. You can manipulate that same object in real time, virtually right, right in a digital space. It's actually uh, it's a, it's a nice thing, it really is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's interesting because the I mean I know Apple the phone is the same, the phone is the same, the phone is the same and nothing's really changed. So coming up with a new product is probably pretty important to them.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah, the iPhone has stayed the same concept, but they've increased the hardware software made it more complicated do more stuff, because the iPhone 15 now will take oh, what's the term?
Speaker 3:they use Basically 3D videos, immersive videos, and you can view that on the Vision Pro as if you were still there. Oh, sure, okay, okay. So they actually showed a video when I did the demo of someone taking a video on an iPhone 15 Pro and then I got to watch it and it was a birthday cake Kid blowing out a cake and everything, and I felt like I'd just grab a piece and start eating it. It was crazy, amazing. So what are you thinking? Buy, don't buy, depends on your use. Okay, right now I don't have an immediate need, but I do want one eventually because it'll free up my desk. Oh, okay, you know what I do, matt. It'll free up my desk. Oh, okay, that's. You know what I do, matt, especially a lot of the remote meetings and the remote support where I need to log into computers and take care of stuff.
Speaker 3:Oh sure yeah yeah, being able to do that and not have to be tied to my desk or tied to my iPad or tied to my laptop. Yeah, and I could just do it as I'm walking around, because there's so many times when I got to do updates and scan for viruses and malware and stuff and I start that scan and then, if I got nothing else I'm working on, I'm just sitting there waiting. Sure, yeah, well, if I'm wearing the vision pro, I start all that stuff and I walk around, get myself some water, grab a bite to eat, and it's there in the background and when, when I see it's done, then move on.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, that is it for today. So I guess it's by don't buy, buy maybe, buy, maybe, maybe.
Speaker 3:Well, for someone like myself, it's by it's just a matter of when when. So everyone's got to actually figure out their need and if it's really worthwhile for them, got it. I always suggest go and play with the device before you buy it okay, all right, well that that could be a.
Speaker 2:A maybe we'll. We'll have to see if I want to play with a four thousand dollar piece of sunglasses I guarantee you you will be will be amazed.
Speaker 3:Blow your mind, huh. I went in watching already videos about people showing it and I was like, okay, this will be okay. And then as soon as I took it off, I'm like I don't want to take it off. That's fun. It was absolutely amazing. I could almost smell the mountain air and smell the rain that started falling.
Speaker 2:Well then, I think everybody should go try it at least. At least try it yes.
Speaker 3:Even if you don't have an iPhone or an iPad and you have Android. I feel sorry for you, but go and demo the Vision Pro. It is amazing.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, that's another episode. Thanks for talking about that. I'm going to say bye from underneath the SeaTac Airport and we'll see you on the next show. Have a good one.
Speaker 4:Matt Foundation Nation is proudly sponsored by Jace Technology Solutions. Call Jace Technology Solutions at 253-376-7579 for all your computer repair, it and network solutions.
