Imran Chaudhri
@imranchaudhri
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Designer & Inventor of things like the thing you’re holding. Co-Founder & Chairman of @Humane (https://t.co/oo6Vs0lQx3)
San Francisco, CA
Joined March 2009
in 1995, while interning at apple, i bought a NeXT cube for $150 at stanford surplus. while designing mac os X with steve, he liked to tell us how the NeXT was better. so i started bringing in my cube to win arguments by showing him that things weren't as good as he remembered.
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this happened so often that it got to the point where if he walked in and saw the cube in the room, he’d just let it go. still the best $150 i’ve spent. happy 20 years mac os x!.
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a few fun facts to celebrate 5 years of #AppleWatch . here’s a photo taken of the team on launch day, that’s me in the centre. (the beard ages me but my wife @bella_bongiorno won’t let me leave home without it)
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the rumours are true. the smartphone is dead. and coming next year from @Humane, the world’s first device built from the ground up for AI.
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i created the solar watch face as a way for muslims observing ramadan to quickly see the position of the sun and for all to understand the sun's relationship to time. #RamadanMubarak
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it took us a while to get to today. now that we’re here, we can’t wait to show you what the next few years will be like @Humane —exciting times!
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cosmOS running gpt-4o + gemini on ai pin at the same time. “wrappers” are for hip hop
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here’s a reproduction of my original sketch for the home screen. the shape of the circular icon was driven by the clock that lived in the centre of what i originally called the dock. the crown gave the home screen a dimensionality, allowing you to scrub through layers of the ui.
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cosmOS 1.2 on ai pin . new website, new update, new price. remember that i love…to build.
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the butterflies in the motion watch face were shot and animated by @zuckermanstudio. none were harmed, they had already passed. andrew just gave them life. here’s the blue 🦋 he lives with us now:
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for iphone 1:. the original mac,.blade runner,.2001: a space odyssey,.sony walkman TPS-L2, .braun ET66, .the concorde, .massimo vignale, .henry dreyfuss, .apollo 11, .the beatles,.warp records,.NASA,.polaroid,.arthur c. clarke,.eero saarinen. among others….
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the first batch of ai pins started to leave the factory this past monday. here’s the first pallet loaded onto the trucks. a big moment that's been in the making for quite some time. this journey, filled with challenges, learning curves, and perseverance, wouldn't have been
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my first prototype was built on a 6th gen nano strapped to this band. i had just wrapped up ios5 and took it down to show the ID team what notification centre and siri was – and what it could be in the future. i never got to share it with steve. we lost him right after ios5.
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13 years ago today when we announced the iphone - i chose to walk through sf to the launch event at moscone center - wanting to observe and commit the world to memory, as i knew things would never be the same.
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the indisputable product of the year was the mask. no other product category in our lifetime was adopted as quickly, by so many people, in such a short time. designed and created by everyone, everywhere. .
What's been your favorite product of 2020?.
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yes it’s tiny but no pocket needed.
2. Humane’s wearable AI device. Humane revealed a wearable AI device designed to replace smartphones at a recent TED event. It appears as a tiny black puck that slips into your pocket, takes over your phone, and employs AI to update you on your day.
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we all deserve better.
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an inside look at ai pin, as we head to #CES2024 (sound on). a ton of technology in a small package. a lot of industry firsts. all beautifully crafted and rigorously tested. 2024 will be the year of ai hardware, and we knew this moment was coming when we started building 5
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10 years can feel like a long time, or like yesterday. for me, & i'm sure for others that learned from steve, today feels like yesterday. i didn’t have the closest relationship with steve. we didn’t socialize, we didn’t travel. we just had serious conversations & made things.
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i‘ve always loved straps that were uncomplicated, the mechanism for the loop watchband was an evolution of velcro speedmaster straps worn by apollo astronauts.
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my conceiving and leading the design of iOS7 was the hardest. we designed and implemented the future direction of iOS in under 7 months. we had an impossible time constraint, but it was critical to show the world that a post-steve apple could still be relevant and take risks.
@imranchaudhri What’s the hardest design challenge you encountered at apple?.
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when i buy things on craigslist…
want to hear about these chairs? . in sept 2020, @imranchaudhri saw these Bouroullec chairs on craigslist for $250/piece. turns out a local biz school had 4 floors of designer furniture & 3 days to get rid of it all. our office was furnished for a few thousand dollars in 1 day!.
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gotta start somewhere.
On this day in 1976: Apple released its first computer, the Apple I.
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first lightning storm i’ve ever seen in san francisco. everything’s fine 👀
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digital touch was originally called E.T. for electronic touch. i called it that for its potential as a new form of emotional connection. the drawing “ink" was inspired by my graffiti days. the ephemera was designed to communicate transmission while making it guilt free.
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so the real story is that steve’s brief for ipad was: “i want a single piece of glass i can use to read email on the toilet. ”.
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the great sufi muslim poet rumi once said: . “when you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy”. as a sufi muslim, i practice living from the heart and looking for joy in all that exists.
Inside the dissolution of Apple’s legacy design team
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{HumaneOS} 😉.
we need a name for this new computer interface of telling computers what you want in natural language and them doing it. any ideas?.
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while i can’t confirm or deny anything in this video 🤐— i can confirm the passion is 🔥 and you can’t deny the team at @Humane is 🤯.
not often do we see a tech company like @Humane come into existence. here's my new video!. i put together everything I could find about this secretive tech startup (that has hired 60 former apple employees). Beyond the iPhone: what is Humane?.
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nothing to see here….
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the design team at @humane is growing!. i’d love to hear from anyone passionate about building an impactful and exquisite future through industrial, product and interaction design. DM your story and portfolio*. *privacy respected, creativity encouraged.
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shipping is always cooler than launching. march 2024 📦.
We are thrilled to announce that Ai Pin will start shipping in March 2024. All of us here at Humane can’t wait for you to experience your Ai Pin, the world’s first wearable computer powered by Ai. We’re incredibly grateful for the enthusiasm and support, especially from our
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initially, i didn’t realise that the people you create with are just as critical as what you are creating. my deepest & most meaningful work has been done while building some of my deepest & most meaningful relationships. when you focus on these partnerships, you create magic.
@imranchaudhri What’s the most surprising realisation you’ve had about creating products?.
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aye eye oh yes.
Introducing CosmOS: an AI operating system built for a universe of connected devices
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ai pin users rave about our language interpreter. using it in your own voice? that’s magic. this feature’s something i’ve been passionate about since we unveiled it @TEDTalks last year. thrilled to announce: it’s hitting ai pin in a few weeks. our team made a fun video to show
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big news. even more massive, massive, thanks to everyone who believes in us and this team 🙏🏽.
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testing video, vision and notes all at once, in version 1.1.4
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“what you seek, is seeking you”. congratulations @samsheffer, thrilled to be on this journey with you 🙏🏽.
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". the heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. less sure about everything. it freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life”. -steve jobs. it is nice to have company.
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so many more lessons learned & not forgotten for all of us who had that kind of relationship with him. 10 years on, i still get excited to show him something new. the student & the teacher. always listening & learning. still inspired. still excited. thank you, still. 🙏🏽.
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i don’t think i’m ready… are you?.
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ai pin is screen-free, hands-free, and app-free. the future of computing is less manual and more automatic. it’s not only faster; it’s set to get even faster and more capable over time. using it provides a level of presence and freedom unmatched by any other computer.
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still really pumped about this. shipped a few 1.0's but this one hit different . so. wanna to do something for a few of my twitter friends and family — DM me for a discount code for 17% off anything you want on (supplies are very limited as our CFO.
the first batch of ai pins started to leave the factory this past monday. here’s the first pallet loaded onto the trucks. a big moment that's been in the making for quite some time. this journey, filled with challenges, learning curves, and perseverance, wouldn't have been
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Amazing video demonstrating the AI Pin was recently posted on the @Humane discord by @imranchaudhri. The video speak for itself. Happy thanksgiving! Join the Discord:
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here’s a little thing most people don’t know. the hearts in the imessage send effects, the apple watch, and even digital touch were all designed as “gifts” for @bella_bongiorno. #HappyValentinesDay
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this is not the future.
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can’t wait to share what’s next. until then, there’s this….
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@joshm i totally get where you're coming from, and i share a lot of your sentiments. it’s much of the why we started humane back in 2018. we were adamant about developing ai hardware driven by a new kind ai operating system that seamlessly integrates with both devices and the cloud. it.
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thanks @BeckyQuick & @andrewrsorkin for having @bella_bongiorno and me on @SquawkCNBC this morning. got a chance to show a few things off-air, here’s that photo, becky —.taken with ai pin!
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we think very deeply about everything. so honoured to be able to make this film with friends and people that have inspired me to make great things. watch the film here:
“Change Everything”. A film created by Humane. Watch it on Directed by Ryan Staake. Music: “Everything” by @Nas.featuring @KanyeWest & @TheKingDream, courtesy of @MassAppeal
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eid mubarak to those celebrating today! wishing you a joyous and luminous year ahead and next. 😋.🍽.
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bas & i spent 6 months on scrollbars for aqua, the new Mac OS X. we wanted to communicate more about the content below the fold & explored hundreds of animations, constructions & behaviors. we landed on a simple animating texture which remained until i redesigned them for iphone.
@imranchaudhri What feature/design took the most time to perfect and why?.
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many years in the making, thrilled for this new chapter.
We're thrilled to welcome Rubén Caballero to the Humane team as Chief Engineering & Strategy Officer. Read more on the blog:
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it’s about time.
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deeply saddened, no words. thank you for shattering barriers with such grace. you changed the game @virgilabloh.
LVMH, Louis Vuitton and Off White are devastated to announce the passing of Virgil Abloh, on Sunday, November 28th, of cancer, which he had been battling privately for several years.
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🙏🏽🙏🏽 thank you @GregWilliams718 & @WiredUK for having @bella_bongiorno and i at #WIREDSmarter to talk about how to make technology more human
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so excited to rep with @GK3 at this year’s config . thanks for the invitation @figma. see you there!
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love finding treasures like this while organising the office. the original macintonish sales brochure from 1984:. "wouldn't it make sense to teach computers about people, instead of teaching people about computers?". still such a powerful and important take.
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👳🏽♂️🙏🏽👩🏼.
today. feeling very grateful for health and growth and our unstoppable team @Humane and of course for my forever strengthening partnership with @imranchaudhri . looking forward to what’s ahead.
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he appreciated debate & didn’t mind being wrong because he too, was learning. always learning. that’s what good teachers do. i helped him see that helvetica wasn’t really ever going to go away & eventually he let me use it on the iPhone.
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he inspired me i to go to india for the first time & spend time there alone like he did when he was younger. i taught him to to incorporate “that’s tight” in a design discourse. he showed me what it meant to care about customers and to push things forward, in the right way.
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that screen-free life. .
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i leave you with the words of my mentor, who i believe got that too:. “i didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. ”.
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so in the end, steve did get his piece of glass so he could read email on the toilet. (we all did).
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went into the garage looking for toilet paper, came back with an idea. .
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so great to see so much ❤️ for the watch. i didn’t work on all of it of course and the pic isn’t the entire team. it’s not possible to name or show all. interested in seeing some of their names? feel free to explore patents for some things i worked on:.
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AI is going to change everything. excited to talk @BoF’s #BoFVOICES about how we @humane are building for AI.
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feeling a bit nostalgic today. #askmeanything about anything i’ve created or worked on and i’ll tweet the answers to my top 10 favourites tomorrow.
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i didn’t think people would strap the original ipod to their arm & go running. felt it was too bulky; i was wrong. i thought people would really take to the ipad home button gestures ken kocienda & i developed for iOS 5 as the home button was too loud. we were years too early.
@imranchaudhri Happy birthday!!.What projects were you most skeptical about through their inception that ended up being successful? And the reverse: any you were convinced would work, but ended up not?.
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massive thanks to @guyraz for having @bella_bongiorno and me on the @howibuiltthis podcast — so special to open up and delve deeper into our work on a platform we’ve always admired. if you’d like to give it a listen, our episode is available here:
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as a designer, i know that joy is a precondition to inspired work. that the love that goes into creating something will be felt by people that use it. this has been a part of everything i’ve ever made. it’s what i will always seek. because joy is how creativity is set alight.
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classic steve.
(1) steve carefully chose the le corbusier chair that was used for the event. there was a sea of LC2 armchairs and each was carried out so he could inspect it in the stage lighting. did it have the right coloring? was there wear in the right places? did it have the right sit?.
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great design forms its roots in conversation and that dialogue is where design transforms from an idea to reality. having the right people in the conversation is critical and @andy_matuschak was always a pleasure to have in the room.
@sashadem Legitimate peripheral participation was also key. Especially as a total design noob, it was so valuable to simply be in a room with people like @imranchaudhri—not necessarily contributing to a design but merely trying to interpret what he was saying into something implementable.
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if we ultimately end up in a place where the smartphone is the pinnacle of human to computer interaction, i believe that means we’ve failed.
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the morning of the iphone keynote freddy anzures and i walked to moscone so we could observe & remember the world before it changed. i haven’t realised the total impact, apple was just the start. i care deeply about how we communicate & connect & it will always be part of my work.
@imranchaudhri When did you finally realize your total impact on the technology climate and changing how the world communicates today??.
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