'BOSEbuild Speaker Cube' Teaches Kids How to Build Their Own Bluetooth Speaker

[usarioclave]

This is a nice kit, but the magic for this stuff is in the software and box. As someone said, you should be able to mess around with different enclosures and see what happens.

Plus, it's a BT speaker, so they should ship code so you can mess with, uh, I mean, adjust the sound. You can do a lot of processing and make up for a poor enclosure. Ideally they'd also have some kind of frequency analyzer, so you can see how various combinations of whatever interact.

Without that you might as well just buy a used speaker on ebay and give it to your kid...which is how I learned how to reassemble stuff: by taking things around the house apart and putting them back together.

 

[SeattleMoose]

I love this. We need more radio shack, Heathkit, like stuff brought back so kids can actually see how all this stuff works. Else, they turn into like/Emoji junkies and their brains remain soft without being pushed/developed. But hey, I guess everyone gets participation awards....

 

[CarlJ]

I love this. We need more radio shack, Heathkit, like stuff brought back so kids can actually see how all this stuff works. Else, they turn into like/Emoji junkies and their brains remain soft without being pushed/developed. But hey, I guess everyone gets participation awards....

I am not a fan of participation awards, but remember, back in the day (depending on the day), comic books, rock & roll, TV, and video games were each held up as the thing that was going to cause the downfall of civilization. I think we'll survive emojis.

My 5yo niece is going to get exposed to some of this soon (Little Bits, or Snap Circuits, or similar), and she's gonna love it. As an aside, the "Maker Community" is getting to be a huge thing. Check out adafruit.com and the whole community around the Raspberry Pi and Arduino. It's a fun time to be alive - in some circles, at least, learning and experimenting and building things is cool again.

 

[wesk702]

They've had this in China for a while now and even have them for toddlers. They call it work.

 

[Risha Rommi]

it seem very cool

 

[RightMACatU]

LOL @ "This is more than just a speaker – it’s a journey."
That's what happen when we start running out of smart things to say about something

 

[burne]

Insert joke about lousy BOSE build quality.

Bose isn't bad according to the consensus, it's overpriced for the quality it offers. You can buy similar specs and quality and even brandname and packaging for a lot less money.

 

[MH01]

A great idea, but this is also teaching kids/parents that a $20 kit costs $150 cause of Bose branding. The quality is going to be much better than a $20 kit . Though this is an example of say apple or Bose etc doing a raspberry pi, it would cost $200 +
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They're just trying to prepare our kids for the realties of the future job market in a global economy.

They are teaching our kids the absolute entry point for a speaker is $150.....well played Bose

 

[Nunyabinez]

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.

I think this a actually a very cool thing. My son and son-in-law are both mechanical engineers and I agree that something like this would be great for getting someone interested in how things work. So, I actually wasn't trying to be snarky about the product itself.

You are right that my post was really taking advantage of something that had nothing to do with politics or economics, just to vent.

My venting is around people who lament that we have exported job overseas and think that the jobs that left us were high paying, interesting jobs. They were not. There were the most awful, monotonous, low-paying jobs.

My point was that these are the jobs that you wouldn't want your children to have because they suck something awful.

It's the same argument about illegal aliens stealing jobs. They didn't take the jobs that educated americans are fighting for, they took the crap jobs that no one else wants to do. BTW, I am at the same time a strong believer that no one should be here that didn't come here legally, period.

And don't tell me that they are keeping low skilled people from finding jobs. I guarantee you that everyone in this country could easily find a job if they wanted to. The issue is whether they can find the job that they want at the pay that they desire. And I personally don't believe that illegal aliens, or exporting manufacturing jobs overseas ends up actually affecting that for most people.

I don't want to get in an argument with you, as I find myself generally agreeing with your viewpoints here.

 

[ignatius345]

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.

Please go.

 

[calderone]

This is pretty clearly a play to get the Bose name buried into children.