Nothing like my Sinclair ZX80 Kit. Now that was fun. And learned basic and assembly language.
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'BOSEbuild Speaker Cube' Teaches Kids How to Build Their Own Bluetooth Speaker
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This is cool. I remember a middle school class where we built wired speakers with a 3.5mm wire. That was fun.
We need to encourage any type of engineers. This country is in sad shape right now when it comes to engineering talent. Of course part of that is management related as an experienced engineer will often send his children in a different direction.
In any event this is a welcomed if not a somewhat expensive effort on Bose's part. I do hope the initiative is successful and that they continue with other products. Sadly Apple has seeming totally abandoned the hardware side of education. The more opportunities that can be had for Children's education the better, Bose can't do it all alone.
Looking back, I got sucked into the Heatkit world and while never going into electronics directly career wise, that technical exposure has helped me throughout life. We need to turn our youth around and get them in touch with the world around them. They literally seem to be completely disconnected from how things work these days.
I've got it on pretty good authority (from folks that have taught in China for years) that they don't spend much time on critical thinking or problem solving either. Following instructions, memorizing facts, current practical applications of those facts, yes. Applying those facts to drawing larger conclusions or bypassing facts to look at why those facts are the way they are? Eh, not so much.
So you know, pros and cons, balance in everything, yada yada. Each way is okay BUT WITH OUR POWERS COMBINED...!
This is great. American kids need as much exposure to science and technology as possible. Internationally, the USA ranks below average in math and barely average in science. This puts us behind the likes of Estonia, Macao, Vietnam, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia. For a country with our wealth and resources, it's an embarrassment. We pay someone $33 million dollars a year to throw a baseball but my kid's teacher makes less than a thousandth of that and needs to go to Goodwill to buy clothes.
Your kids need to get used to this kind of thing, because Trump is bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US. So instead of being a white collar professional making 6 figures your kids can earn a barely living wage assembling electronics.
I do agree that US education needs a massive kick in the butt, been there for a month during a student exchange (coming from Germany by the way, where I grew up and still live).
However, axing "feels" as you refer to it so inappropriately, is the wrong thing to do.
Glassed Silver:mac
My first electronics class we built a speaker from a tin can lid, a Chinese food soup container and a magnet. It taught proof of concept very well. It was mostly all scraps.
It is sad that there aren't more kids wanting and asking for things like this Bose speaker kit - but I think it will take more companies doing similar things, to drive kids toward something more than just consuming electronics. What's great, and clearly Bose has recognized this, is that kids already have super powerful computers in their pockets (and hands) and with apps and BT or other wireless connectivity, the ability to go beyond the iPhone is already there.
Is high school like that now? We didn't have that except for one class in 12th grade that I kinda slept through. I'm only first experiencing it in college with these darn breadth requirements.
[doublepost=1467407912][/doublepost]It's cool, and I like that Bose is catering to education, but I think $10 of electrical equipment is equally educational, if not more. I had fun playing with lightbulbs, motors, and water electrolysis when I was 5 years old.
Cool80's are back. But back in 80's it would look nicer and cost less. I was inspired at first but after seeing what the finished product looks like... No, thanks. Could be much better, shame on BOSE.
But the idea of such kit is great, glad to see it's being resurrected.
Seriously doubt it and where is the shame in this? As one who cut his teeth on a Radio Shack 101 experiment kit (basically a bunch of .10 wires and .20 diodes, capacitors, and transistors encased in a $5 box then sold for $80... that's $80 in 1980 dollars) then "graduated" to HeathKit kits I have to say the Bose kit looks pretty sharp and reasonably priced by comparison. And no soldering -- mom's gotta love that!
I've owned both, and everything you're saying *may* and can *ONLY* apply to the older Monster-made Beats. The new Apple-owned Beats are far better than Bose - they make my since now sold Bose AE2's feel like a lower quality product, and the sound of Beats does indeed sound better than the AE2's I had.
Only thing Bose has going for them is noise cancellation, and OK sound quality on their higher end cans. But the build quality of the Beats is the exact opposite of what you describe; thick metal, metal joints, high quality plastic, and plush, long lasting ear cups. I've had my studios for over a year with no degradation, while my Bose AE2's were the ones that were flaking and had ear cups falling apart - with only a couple years of ownership.
EDIT: I was possibly WAY too harsh and a little off base here; I have heard the Bose QC25's and they sound phenomenal. I just had a bad experience with a Bose product recently (but eventually got properly taken care of by Bose) and was a bit aggravated and it bled through here.
Bose really does make excellent sounding and well built products. I'm seriously considering a set of Companion 5's (again).
This whole educational thing Bose is doing is very, very cool.
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Although I think the idea behind the speaker kit is great and it looks pretty slick, it's a little pricey. To be fair, it's not designed to be a one-and-done project, but $150 is on the outer edge of the envelope. The good thing is STEM is a hot area now. Amazon has an entire market dedicated to it. https://www.amazon.com/STEM-Toys-Store/b?tag=macrumors-20&ie=UTF8&node=11021999011Seriously doubt it and where is the shame in this? As one who cut his teeth on a Radio Shack 101 experiment kit (basically a bunch of .10 wires and .20 diodes, capacitors, and transistors encased in a $5 box then sold for $80... that's $80 in 1980 dollars) then "graduated" to HeathKit kits I have to say the Bose kit looks pretty sharp and reasonably priced by comparison. And no soldering -- mom's gotta love that!
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They do get points for effort, and I hope they continue. But, at $150, I'd be much more strongly tempted to put half that much into a Raspberry Pi and the various bits (keyboard, power supply, cables, etc) to get it running. Opens a whole world of programming, and fiddling with hardware.Cool
But the idea of such kit is great, glad to see it's being resurrected.
BTW, if you haven't ever visited adafruit.com - take a look, there are so many cool hardware projects out there to work on these days.
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That is pretty awesome - didn't know Amazon had a special section - may have to do some shopping for my niece.
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All the cool kids are learning how to (or getting back into) soldering these days.And no soldering -- mom's gotta love that!
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You know, you're not supposed to completely offload the responsibility of educating your children onto St Peters, Weston-super-Mare and Repton.
Shades of the old "Visible V-8" I built years ago for friend.It's held together by plastic clips and meant to be assembled and disassembled multiple times. Pretty safe to say the sound quality is going to reflect that. I really don't think the purpose of the product is sound quality. More of learning tool. But you're right, it's pretty slick. If you have interest, Amazon has an entire section of STEM toys like this cube: https://www.amazon.com/STEM-Toys-Store/b?ie=UTF8&node=11021999011
I picked up this for my 10 year old daughter for a summer project for us to do together.
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I had a pair of 501's last almost 30 years, and I picked them up used. I finally got rid of them when I decided I didn't like the look although they worked fine.
Headphones seem cheaply made. I had some QC's whose earpieces covers fell apart after a few years, but to Bose's credit they replaced them with a newer model for $50. I have some Sennheisser's now 9MX550's) that I like but the head piece's cover is coming apart so I am looking at thief new momentum 2's with Bluetooth. They seem rather well made.
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Seriously doubt it and where is the shame in this? As one who cut his teeth on a Radio Shack 101 experiment kit (basically a bunch of .10 wires and .20 diodes, capacitors, and transistors encased in a $5 box then sold for $80... that's $80 in 1980 dollars) then "graduated" to HeathKit kits I have to say the Bose kit looks pretty sharp and reasonably priced by comparison. And no soldering -- mom's gotta love that!
I remember those kits. I recently found a radio I built and installed in an old cigar box...
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Politics aside, your post doesn't make sense. Maybe you can explain to me how manufacturing jobs reduce the need for white collar professionals?
The whole "manufacturing jobs" debate is about the lack of diversity of job positions for low or moderate skilled people. Just as it's a restaurant district serving only steak and potatoes wouldn't be successful, a healthy economy needs jobs for all education and skill stratum. Not everyone can land a 6 figure professional job even today. It's why $100K income puts one in the top 15% (not that that is a lot of money in the cities where they are making that income).
So your snakiness about this kit is way off. In truth it might light a spark that motivates your kid to actually engineer something, not just put Wire A in Slot B, which in turn might get him into a good school so he can make a great salary.
This is NOT "building a blue tooth speaker". After a kid assembles this thing he will STILL not know how a bluetooth speaker works" It is like "building a PC" where the person simply buys a computer board and attaches it to the inside of a metal box. He is just doing screwdriver work using "magic parts". Kind of learning to be a chef while "cooking dinner" by placing the dozen pizza in the microwave.
The goal is over ambitious. You have to know quite a lot before you can understand how a BT speaker works. At least a 4 year engineering degree to start. There is a LOT going on, radio modems antenna theory, serial protocol anyhow music is stored in compressed files and linear motors reaction with a magnetic field of a permanent magnet and how the speaker cone reacts to the air pressure of a sealed container, resonance and so on. That's a lot and certainly to much to try and teach but this product does not even skim over ONE of them, they just do a simple mechanical assembly.
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No. The best system (best for the US that is) is to, yes, have a full range of jobs, but ship the lowest paying jobs to China and keep the higher paying ones here. Really, let's say they DO move a Tennis shoe factory to your city. Would you or anyone you know want to work there? Just think, you'd live in poverty at minimum wage with zero ability to ever move up and work at sewing the same two parts together every working day for the rest of your life. Be happy those jobs are in Asia and not here.
There will always be enough work for those with low skills. Houses need cleaning, trash has to be emptied and burgers need to be sold. What is needed is better education and lower barriers to getting it. (especially the lower barriers)
look at the German example. They offer free university education to anyone who can get into the university. And free technical training too. You might argue it is expensive to do this. BUT, think how much more income the educated person makes over his lifetime. At least $1,000,000 more money over a 40 year career and this means he pays more income tax. At least $100,000 more in taxes over his life time. Public schools, even here in the US don't cost $100K. So the German government actually takes a good profit by offering free education.
The $1M estimate is actually quite conservative, so the government likely makes even more profit. I'm not even counting the fact that the government has to pay less assistance (rent subsidy, food stamps, free school lunches and so on)
The goal is over ambitious. You have to know quite a lot before you can understand how a BT speaker works. At least a 4 year engineering degree to start. There is a LOT going on, radio modems antenna theory, serial protocol anyhow music is stored in compressed files and linear motors reaction with a magnetic field of a permanent magnet and how the speaker cone reacts to the air pressure of a sealed container, resonance and so on. That's a lot and certainly to much to try and teach but this product does not even skim over ONE of them, they just do a simple mechanical assembly.
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No. The best system (best for the US that is) is to, yes, have a full range of jobs, but ship the lowest paying jobs to China and keep the higher paying ones here. Really, let's say they DO move a Tennis shoe factory to your city. Would you or anyone you know want to work there? Just think, you'd live in poverty at minimum wage with zero ability to ever move up and work at sewing the same two parts together every working day for the rest of your life. Be happy those jobs are in Asia and not here.
There will always be enough work for those with low skills. Houses need cleaning, trash has to be emptied and burgers need to be sold. What is needed is better education and lower barriers to getting it. (especially the lower barriers)
look at the German example. They offer free university education to anyone who can get into the university. And free technical training too. You might argue it is expensive to do this. BUT, think how much more income the educated person makes over his lifetime. At least $1,000,000 more money over a 40 year career and this means he pays more income tax. At least $100,000 more in taxes over his life time. Public schools, even here in the US don't cost $100K. So the German government actually takes a good profit by offering free education.
The $1M estimate is actually quite conservative, so the government likely makes even more profit. I'm not even counting the fact that the government has to pay less assistance (rent subsidy, food stamps, free school lunches and so on)
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While it has advantages it also tracks kids early in the educational process so if you are in the non-uni track you are out of luck if you want to attend a uni; at least that was the system a number of years ago when I lived there.
I'm speaking only of the final external design of the speaker. As a kit it's great. But why not allow a kid to build a cool looking BOSE speaker? Right now it looks when finished like a very cheap chinese something. I think too many things are dumbed down these days. It could look way better and I don't see any reason why not.Seriously doubt it and where is the shame in this? As one who cut his teeth on a Radio Shack 101 experiment kit (basically a bunch of .10 wires and .20 diodes, capacitors, and transistors encased in a $5 box then sold for $80... that's $80 in 1980 dollars) then "graduated" to HeathKit kits I have to say the Bose kit looks pretty sharp and reasonably priced by comparison. And no soldering -- mom's gotta love that!
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I can only welcome them and also hope they will release more things like that. Thank you for the link!
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Those robots build moon rockets. Artists paint pictures of the moon.
I want to go to the moon. I already know what it looks like.