Apple Launching Robot Virtual Companion in 2027

[Le0M]

I've watched the "Apple-Pixar-style" lamp video, and honestly, it's the most interesting device Apple has been working on in the last decade.
Yes, more interesting than Apple Vision.
I don't know... I just have a particular feeling about it.
I'm honestly really looking forward to it.

 

[Radin.Y]

Apple Robot, what's my name? Apple Robot's reply: "Domino's Pizza is 3.7 miles away, I think"

Mine half the time asks “who’s speaking?” Once I say my name, it says “hello!!!” 🤦‍♂️
Telling me how far Domino’s is is at least somewhat informative!

 

[russell_314]

The device features a 7-inch iPad-like display mounted on a movable arm that can rotate and extend around six inches in any direction, allowing the robot to reposition itself to face whoever is speaking. Some people at Apple apparently refer to it as the "Pixar Lamp."

I think Apple is on to something here. Imagine this for video calls when you’re doing something that requires both hands.

That’s as far as I’m going with my comment, but I think people will figure it out 😂😂



I didn’t read five pages of replies here so apologies if someone already pointed this out 🤦‍♂️

 

[GermanSuplex]

Just what everyone was hoping for.

 

[Donkey Man]

Am I the only one who absolutely doesn't see the point of such a device?

What was the conversation about this device like within Apple? "We nailed it, this iPad on a very short swivel arm that has a fixed location in the room is the next iPhone! People may already have an iPad in the room, and they may also always have their iPhone on them, but what they do not yet have is another screen that is fixed to one place and one place only - it's revolutionary!"

It seems as if Apple keeps trying to force new device categories but can't really come up with anything truly great.

Apple is lost, and trying to develop everything at the same time to see if anything sticks.

Just like the pre-SJ, Copland/OpenDoc/everything else times.

 

[Donkey Man]

Am I the only one who absolutely doesn't see the point of such a device?

What was the conversation about this device like within Apple? "We nailed it, this iPad on a very short swivel arm that has a fixed location in the room is the next iPhone! People may already have an iPad in the room, and they may also always have their iPhone on them, but what they do not yet have is another screen that is fixed to one place and one place only - it's revolutionary!"

It seems as if Apple keeps trying to force new device categories but can't really come up with anything truly great.

Apple is lost, and trying to develop everything at the same time to see if anything sticks.

Just like the pre-SJ, Copland/OpenDoc/everything else times.

 

[Selena Agna]

It could interrupt a conversation between friends about dinner plans, say, and suggest nearby restaurants or relevant recipes.

Quiet, machine spirit!
No technology is allowed to speak unless spoken to.
And I will never speak to you!

 

[svish]

Waiting to see how Apple will price this. First and foremost, Siri needs to be in a much better form for this to be useful. Think by 2027 it should be possible.

 

[freezelighter]

In Asia, humanoid robots have been implemented in almost every process since 2023.

Anyone who only watches YouTube from the sofa or the toilet gets just a tiny glimpse of what daily work and infrastructure actually look like there.

By 2027, most management and operational tasks will be handled by AI-driven robots – and Apple will launch a talking lamp.

 

[Pezimak]

This all reminds me of this film if you ever have seen it? Great horror SciFi from back in the day. Apple appears to have seen it lol.

 

[JoeSilver]

This is clearly an answer to the mysterious OpenAI device announced by Sam Altman and Jony Ive some time ago. The non-wearable, non-screen, non-phone... "thing" that they are making

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Steve brought us Siri.

He didn't. The reveal of Siri and the 4S was Tim Cook's first time presenting. Steve definitely had some involvement, but I think when Apple was making a go/no-go decision a month before with Siri, I doubt Steve was heavily testing it and decided himself it was ready to present.


And Siri wasn't horrible at its debut - it was passable at that time. Not great, but competitive. Over the next few years it was absolutely left behind by the competition. And instead of improving it, Apple decided to blindly ship hardware with a greater focus on Siri, totally ignoring how embarrassingly awful she was becoming.

 

[AppleTO]

I bet internally at Apple there is a horrible rift between the hardware and software/admin teams. The hardware teams come up with all this neat powerful stuff, but then the software teams refuse (or are not permitted) to do anything with it. It must be super frustrating for them.

Boardroom meeting:

Hardware team: We’ve put together an iPad mini with OLED, FaceID, and ProMotion. Costs are within parameters. Significant weight reduction as well.

Software/Admin team: No. And make sure the screen still tears a little. We need many little things to push people to spend significantly more on the Pros.

 

[Asthmatic Kitty]

It could interrupt a conversation between friends about dinner plans …

This sounds like a great idea, not annoying at all.

 

[3xBoom]

I stopped using voice on chatGPT to avoid being annoyed by constant interruptions despite specific instructions and the introduction of a code word... I guess it is really hard for LLMs to distinguish when a person is trying to think, choose a better expression/word or just pausing for whatever reason. I don't need another significant other...

 

[iPhoneFan5349]

No thank you...

Bleh ...

I can't believe this sort of stuff is "the future".

You probably were of the ones that believed the internet was just a fad

 

[Populus]

The most upvoted single posts with no text in this article are priceless and made us laugh. Please don’t moderate them as “frivolous posts”. MacRumors sense of humor is one of the reasons I keep coming back.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

The fact that they sold over 500,000 [AVPs] at $3,499 in THIS economy is impressive as hell.

The crazy part is, the $499 Quest 3 is estimated to have sold a little over 1 million since it launch.

Yup. While the Quest 3 is one or more steps below the AVP, it's still decent for what it does, and at least partly competitive in the features that overlap between the two products, so I'm skeptical whether significantly dropping the price of the AVP has been the missing factor in achieving big sales numbers, as counter-intuitive as that may sound.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Wow that’s clearly why they published that research video in Jan! The expressiveness looks incredible. YouTube link isn’t original source, that’s on the apple link.

https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/elegnt-expressive-functional-movement

I guess there would be a market for "expressive" robots like this, but my guess is the market is larger for robots that fade into the background as much as possible so they're not always distracting users with fake, superlative expressions, "emotions", and movements.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

A stationary robot assistant is not interesting. When it can walk around and do laundry, they'll actually have something.

Baby steps: first the baby can't walk, but it still learns and grows and can do a few things. Later it figures out how to walk. We already have walking robots, but I don't think Apple will have anything equivalent for some time.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

This is clearly an answer to the mysterious OpenAI device announced by Sam Altman and Jony Ive some time ago. The non-wearable, non-screen, non-phone... "thing" that they are making

But with a screen!

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Until I find out what the multi-user story is for this thing, I find it kinda underwhelming.

How well does it handle a family of two adults and two kids using it?

Hopefully Apple won't expect everyone in a household to have one, for them to work properly. "You get a robot...and YOU get a robot!" (though not free as Oprah would have done)

 

[GioGiusi]

Baby steps: first the baby can't walk, but it still learns and grows and can do a few things. Later it figures out how to walk. We already have walking robots, but I don't think Apple will have anything equivalent for some time.

The first one to put out a literal C3PO that can do laundry wins the race.

 

[victorvictoria]

There's a reason they kept shutting off C3P0 to have serious discussions.

View attachment 2537263

The THOUGHT they were shutting it off…

 

[Thunderbird4]

Very funny, but our gang here is missing the point of an Apple robot in a room on a table. It’s a very good one indeed, with applications many are just not seeing. The article does not point out the best case scenarios for such a device, where iPads or iPhones simply don’t work well.

My 95 year old father would love this device. When I call him, he can’t answer his phone, he needs ridiculously invasive Alexa to allow me to drop in.

With this device on a table in the same room, he could speak to it for FaceTime drop ins from me or siblings. It’s a wonderful device with many applications such as helping our older community.