This article was taken from the December 2014 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
If WIRED ever builds a startup, I'm pretty certain that its business model will involve auctioning the right to be Jeremy White for a day. Jeremy, you see, is WIRED's product editor, a role so perfectly designed to fulfil childhood fantasies of adult employment that not even Disney's imagineers nor Aardman's animators could have crafted such a box-office-busting starring role. Whether revving sports cars on Italian cliff roads or comparing tourbillons at the Baselworld Watch and Jewellery Fair, Jeremy is invariably first in our office to have tested the newest and coolest.
What makes him so effective in the role is his conscientious determination to cut through the vacuous marketing claims and tell the WIRED reader straight: is this the best loudspeaker, or robotic vacuum cleaner, or gaming accessory, in its field? If not, where has its manufacturer let itself down? And where does it score on the sacrosanct WIRED Test scorecard of desirability from one to ten? In truth, we tend to ignore the products that fail to excite us -- we're a positive bunch, not wishing to waste your time with sideswipes and carping. But show us a pen, or a keyboard, or a table that aspires towards metaphysical product perfection -- and wow, we will hire the world's top still-life photographers to share with you our enthusiasm.
Still, product editor is a demanding role. As you can see in this issue, Jeremy has pushed himself to the limit sourcing the freshest, most ambitious and at times most serene toys (for grown-ups as well as kids) in our annual Gear of the Year special.
If that's not enough, he's packed the DESIRED supplement with even more beautiful things to aspire to. Together with our expert design and photography teams, he's put months of work into these annual seasonal specials. Even if you're only window shopping, I hope you'll enjoy losing yourself in the results.
And, by the way, we've still to award the legendary score of ten. Jeremy's even now in the WIRED Test Lab in search of that elusive metaphysical product perfection.
Another month, another WIRED conference. Hot on the heels of WIRED2014 and WIRED Next Generation, we're about to launch our first WIRED Retail event in London on November 24 (wired.co.uk/nextevent).
With commerce undergoing such a fundamental digital transition, we wanted to bring together the bold startups as well as the adapting incumbents for an important day of networking and learning. Join us if you can.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
