What’s next for the Lego smart building?

The most interesting story in CES this year It was just a small package of technology. One way to look at it The new smart brick from LEGO It’s like the Raspberry Pi, an infinitely recombinable gadget with endless hacking potential – it can be anything in the best way possible. Another way to look at it is as a crushing blow to creativity, a new way to break or ban things, and an insult to everything we love about Lego. Maybe it is both. Or somewhere in between.

on This episode of vertcast, Edge‘s Sean Hollister Explains how the Smart Brick works and why this little box looks so complicated. Explains why Lego might want to make a Smart Brick Open platform And all the reasons you might not. He also tells us about him Some demos He saw the new device and whether or not Lego had made something creative.

after that, PlatformCasey Newton joins the show to talk about productivity. We’re still in New Year’s resolution time, with everyone trying to get more work done, and Casey has put more thought into his systems than most. Explains how he organizes the information he is interested in, and why Capabilities It’s his app of choice, and how he makes sure all the things he saves won’t disappear forever. Casey too Cloudcode recently converted And he has some ideas on how to help everyone get things done.

Finally, David answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about e-readers, and what you actually get when you trade in your old device for a newer one. The answer is a lot… not that much.

If you want to learn more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started: