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Great.

Just remove one of those zeros, and I’ll consider it!
 
.Yes great, but it will end up costing a lot of money, Apple is hungry to sell new products in order to sustain.
I think with a device like that, it must be able to be movable and hang on the wall. I can see it in a household of 5, mom, dad, two daughters and a son, they all want to use it.
 
Isn’t a basic iMac like $1200? What could this do that an iMac couldn’t? I guess it could have a HomePod built in, but it also likely wouldn’t have a 24” screen. $1000 seems way too much.
 
This is very confusing if true. What does the robotic functionality add to a tabletop smart home hub?
 
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Make it cute, weird and fun – give it a robot pet personality and this could sell really well.
Together with AI Apple could make this a platform for a virtual pet/friend/AI therapist. If executed well I can really see good potential here, similar to how the Watch defined their own product category and found its use case over the years.

I think you're confusing Apple with Steve's other company:

 
Obviously this isn’t going to happen and is just blog filler fluff (MG, not MR) in a dry season ahead of iPhone launch. How funny that would be tho… Then Silly Siri would have animated dumb responses like a frustrated CP30 lol… whipping around senselessly uttering nonsense in response to a simple command like “house lights on”. I wonder what fun robotic gestures would accompany “I’m having trouble accessing the the porch light”
 
Can we please just get a new iPhone Mini and iPad Mini?

How about making things that real actual customers are currently asking for?
At this point, it seems pretty clear that customers are not asking for an iPhone mini. This hypothetical robot, we don’t know.
 
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I can only think of people with disabilities who might need an iPad on a robot arm. I am perfectly able to grab my (actually, my daughter's) iPad and use it. However, I prefer to just use my iphone mini. It's my #1 device. If Apple wants my money, a new mini should be on the market when my 13 mini breaks down or when Apple decides to stop supporting the 13 mini. So far my mini is going strong. I really don't want anything bigger. Actually, a bit smaller would be very welcome though. I'm certainly not interested in a folding phone.
 


Apple is moving forward with its project to develop a tabletop robotic device, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.


HomePod-G4-Feature.jpg


MacRumors rendering of a similar device based on the G4 iMac

The device would feature a large iPad-like display mounted on a "thin robotic arm" that would allow the display to tilt and up and down and rotate a full 360º, and it would serve as a "smart home command center," a videoconferencing machine such as for FaceTime calls, and a home security monitoring tool.

The tabletop robot would leverage Siri and Apple Intelligence, allowing it to respond to an array of verbal commands, recognize different voices, and automatically orient the display to face users in the room.

While Apple has been toying with the idea for some time, Gurman says Apple has recently prioritized development of the device, putting it under the purview of Kevin Lynch, Apple's vice president of technology who has overseen such projects as the Apple Watch and Apple's defunct self-driving car venture.

Apple is now looking to launch the device as soon as 2026 or 2027 and is aiming to get the price down to around $1,000, though plans may change as development proceeds.

Article Link: Apple Aiming to Launch Tabletop Robotic Home Device as Soon as 2026 With Pricing Around $1,000
I wish that we weren't forced to see this horrible rendering of a Frankenstein's Monser ABBIE-NORMAL HomePod-iPad creature-bot! This concept as presented is just so very unappealing. LOL, I'm sure someone can do better than this?
 
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I don’t see the use case except for a way for those in the family without iOS devices to take part in a FaceTime video chat or control aspects of a smart home. I can see a use case for giving kids / baby sitters / visitors a way to turn smart devices around the home on and off but I’m not about to pony up a grand for that. Buy the cheapest iPad you can and set a few around the house without a passcode if they need a UI instead of asking Siri to turn the lights on or off.
 
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