It's great that umbrellas can now contain more toxic chemicals, rare minerals and disposable batteries, but can we also please make it depend on an app and a paid subscription, contain an AI assistant that tells you whether it's raining, and report in real time on all your movements and conversations?

As someone who also makes weird shit. The media have their weird obsession with everything being practical.

Most of the time, the people making these are doing it purely for the amusement/challenge of it. Think of it as art, not product development.

not a fan of over complicated solutions that are worse for the environment simply to save very little effort

Can’t go outside, my umbrella is charging.

You know what else you could use with two free hands? Use one to hold an umbrella. Seems a bit much for most people. Still cool though.

I feel like someone is following me.

Same problem with heavy, gusting wind that a hand-held one has. It would be bobbing all over the place. Where I live we only get rain with wind making standard umbrellas almost useless.

Fun to mess around with, great for views and clicks, but not practical at all.

But backpack umbrellas already exist and require no batteries or connection

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

"AND SO YOU SEE, IT'S JUST SO CONVEN...I SAID...WAIT WHAT?"

Edit: it is neat, just being around this in public would be annoying lol

all this makes me think of is XKCD's "what if you used a laser to vaporize the rain around you?"

I’ve been thinking, the next big personal electronics shift on the level of smartphones will probably be some kind of drone. I don’t think an umbrella will do the trick, but there’s definitely something to this general idea — something that automatically follows you and acts as an extra appendage.