Author: Alan Oppenheimer
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Apple’s Smart-Home View Looks Familiar
Last week Apple introduced a series of smart-home products, centered around their new HomeView control hub. HomeView is a six-inch-square, Siri-enabled touch screen, which Apple bills as “a new way to enjoy entertainment, stay connected, and manage the home.” The touch screen is attached to a swiveling base, or can alternately be mounted directly on…
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Step beyond the Future of Art
Since opening in 2024, the Art Authority Museum has invited its patrons to “Step into the Future of Art.” In 2025, we extended the invitation to “Step Further into the Future of Art” with the addition of spatial scenes. Starting this week, we now invite you to Step beyond the Future of Art. And what’s…
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AFP, 1986-2026
Obituary by Alan Oppenheimer and ChatGPT In the end, there was no announcement, and no one noticed. Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) passed away last month, due to complications from Apple’s release of macOS 27. AFP was conceived in 1984. Apple was building AppleTalk, a network designed to let Macs talk to one another without requiring…
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Moving on from GPS
Some final thoughts (for now) on GPS. In talking about how GPS evolved from a Future technology at our Send-a-fax-from-the-beach party to one underlying all sorts of things today, an interesting correlation came to light: Each of Alan’s cars has had a different GPS implementation. For completeness, Alan’s first car, a 1982 Dodge Aires (K-car)…
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More on GPS
Some technologies are always coming, but never seem to get here (fusion). Some technologies are always coming, never seem to get here, and then they’re here (A.I.). Some technologies are here and evolve and improve slowly over time (TV). GPS seems to have just appeared. Of course it didn’t, and actually has a long history.…
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Send-a-Fax-from-the-Beach Party, part 4
Similar to borrowing a book from thousands of miles away, crossing the country without asking for directions would also require of number of technologies to come together. Showing the key ones off would take us, and our party, from the beach to behind the wheel of our 1990 Plymouth Laser. The Internet was the fundamental…
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Send-a-Fax-from-the-Beach Party, part 3
People may have been a bit underwhelmed by our demo of “sending a fax from the beach,” but other You Will Future technologies at our party were hopefully more interesting. “Borrowing a book from thousands of miles away” and “Crossing the country without stopping for directions” were much more demonstrable in 1993, as well as…
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Send-a-Fax-from-the-Beach Party, part 2
Our Send-a-fax-from-the-beach party QuickTime invitation, and the party as a whole, was inspired, in particular, by three questions from the first of the You Will ads: Have you ever borrowed a book from thousands of miles away? Crossed the country without stopping for directions? Or sent someone a fax… from the beach? You will. And…
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Our Send-a-Fax-from-the-Beach Party (part 1)
Most of the time we’ve found ourselves as accidental Future distributors. It’s just been a side effect of what we enjoy doing. But in 1993, inspired by AT&T’s You Will ads and the confluence of various technologies, we intentionally and literally distributed the Future, to friends and family. The You Will ads weren’t just our…
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