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Rabbit R1 AI box revealed to just be an Android app
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 03 May 2024
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They have thought of a specific design for the device using its own interaction modality and created a product that is more than just software.
Therefore don't get why people refer to it being just an app? Does it make it worth less, because it runs on Android? Many devices, e.g. e-readers are just Android Apps as well. If it works it works.
In this case it doesn't, so why not focus on that?
The point being, they are charging 200 bucks for hardware that is superfluous and low end for an incomplete software experience that could be delivered without that on an app. The question is, are you going to give up your smartphone for this new device? Are you going to carry both? Probably not.
"It can do 10% of the shit your phone can do, only slower, on a smaller screen, with its own data connection, and inaccurately because you have to hope that our "AI" is sufficiently advanced to understand a command, take action on that command, and respond in a short amount of time. And that's not to even speak about the horrible privacy concerns or that it's a brick without connection!"
Everything about this project seems lackluster at best, other than maybe the aesthetic design from teenage engineering, but even then, their design work seems a bit repetitive. But that may be due to how the company is asking for the work. "We wanna be like Nothing and Playdate!!" "I gotchu fam!"
To address your point about e-readers, they have specific use cases. Long battery lives, large, efficient e-ink displays, and the convenience of having all your books, or a large subset, available to you offline! But when those things aren't a concern, yea, an app will do.
Like with most contemporary product launches, I simply find myself asking, "Who is this for?"
They've said they are working on integration with other apps, and have said the ultimate goal is the AI could create its own interface for any app. I dunno if that's gonna happen but if it did it would be closer to an actual assistant, imagine "rabbit, log onto my work schedule app and check my vacation hours" or "rabbit, compare prices for a SanDisk 256 gig memory card on Amazon, eBay, and Newegg".
More than likely it'll just fuck it all up but that's the dream I think.
I mean I have an eReader but most of the time I'm too lazy to go find it and my Kindle app works just fine. I am eyeing those eink phones though...
It's an experimental device and by buying it you invest into r&d. It's not meant to replace a smartphone as of now, but similar ones eventually will.
My point stands, because they are offering a completely new (but obv lacking) experience with novel design solutions. What they made is a toy, which is not really unusual for teenage engineering. But if they do as they did with other devices in the past this thing might actually rock in the future. They are not inexperienced and usually over super long support for their devices.
TE is way older than Nothing and Playdate btw...
This is laughably untrue. By buying this you've proven to them that their marketing oriented approach to product development is correct, and that customers will throw away good money on half-designed, disposable shit.
By the looks of this shitty project, they spent most of their money on design idiots that think they're the next coming of Steve Jobs, and blathering marketing morons that think if they say AI and "the future" enough that it doesn't matter that the products they actually deliver are half-done, also-ran, clout-chasing garbage with hardware from the clearance section of Alibaba.
No, they won't. Because it's just a shitty downgraded smartphone controlled by a super shady company with massive security and privacy concerns.
Why even try to sell me another device though?
Anything and everything this square does, my phone can do better already and has the added benefit of already being in my pocket and not a pain in the ass to use.
Because, you know, technological development? Someone has to fund R&D, because it's not cheap. And in 10 years everyone will have similar ai-enhanced devices. No one thought smartphones will make it back in the days as well. And I'm already looking forward to the time when I don't have to look down anymore to get information
In 10 years (or actually 0 years because it's already kinda true) people will have an AI enhanced device... And it'll be their phone.
Also, you're arguing something I'm going to name the inevitability fallacy (for my own amusement). It's not inevitable that everyone will have one of these particular type of devices in the same way it wasn't inevitable that everyone would start watching 3d TV in their houses.
This is just another in a long line of things that supply side economics driven companies are trying to sell us. There's next to no need or demand for this thing, and there's no guarantee that there will be.
No, they're not.
An ereader is a piece of hardware that has a distinct purpose that cannot be matched by other hardware (high quality, high contrast, low power draw static content). Some of them do run Android, and that's a huge value add. But the actual hardware is the reason it exists.
This is just a dogshit Android phone. There is no unique hardware niche it's filling. It's an extremely obvious scam that is very obviously massively downgraded in all of value, utility, and performance by being forced onto separate hardware.
my honda is just android software, if thats the only part you look at too.
This is more like someone offering a "brand new method of personal travel" to replace your car, but it turns out that it's just an old Honda with only one seat, a fuel tank that only holds 10L, and a custom navigation app. There's nothing it does that your Honda can't do better, and you won't want to replace your Honda with this.
true but we all have tons of successful devices that are secretly like this, smart doorbells and flood lights and watches etc. we also have all seen terrible ones. its the implementation that isn't magical.
What's your problem with smart dildos?
No it's not. Your Honda has several different computers in it, only on of which is likely to be running Android.