Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Jony Ive's Latest Project Could Be an AI 'Phone' Without a Screen
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
They did that with the iPod Shuffle 3rd gen and it flopped. No buttons or screen 🤣
I had a shuffle. Great device for working out, walking, etc. when you just wanted to play a playlist. Sometimes less is better.
Ha ha, yes... We think you're going to love it. We simply call it "Apple Air".
Another ‘let’s throw AI at something, and see if it sticks’ moment.
My GD refrigerator won’t survive the pointless battle at this rate. ‘Yes Alexa (let’s face it, Siri doesn’t pull any weight), I do need more butter, uhh, thanks…I was planning on using olive oil’.
My GD refrigerator won’t survive the pointless battle at this rate. ‘Yes Alexa (let’s face it, Siri doesn’t pull any weight), I do need more butter, uhh, thanks…I was planning on using olive oil’.
Another “humane” iteration… not even funny atp.
Edit: venture nature for such “innovation” is painfully obvious and arguably fraudulent. Which is kinda underwhelming as general but again shows that a slow and sure approach from apple still wins at this stage.
Edit: venture nature for such “innovation” is painfully obvious and arguably fraudulent. Which is kinda underwhelming as general but again shows that a slow and sure approach from apple still wins at this stage.
Last edited:
I reluctantly agree that it was time for Sir Johny to leave but for different reasons.
The argument that he only wanted to make everything thinner is not fitting Apples current direction which is exactly that…
I was hoping Apple would get more experimental again and try something bold. So far I have not seen it. Quite the opposite, seems very backwards looking if you look at things like the Apple TV remote.
Keep creating things no one is asking for Apple keep, they will end up in the dark pit like the overpriced Vision Pro
OpenAI is considering acquiring the AI hardware startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to a new report from The Information. The deal could be worth at least $500 million.
The venture, known as "io Products," is developing AI-powered devices that could include a "phone" without a screen and other AI-enabled household products, according to people will direct knowledge of the talks. That's despite people close to the project apparently insisting it is "not a phone."
Ive and Altman began their collaboration more than a year ago, focusing on creating voice-enabled AI assistants. The project is still in the early design stages, with no finalized product concepts yet.
The venture is being funded by Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective. The startup currently employs a small team that includes former Apple designers Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, who previously worked with Ive on the iPhone.
Instead of a full acquisition, OpenAI and the hardware startup are also discussing partnership options. If acquired, OpenAI would gain not only the technology but also the engineering team that has been developing the device, according to the report's sources.
The deal structure reportedly involves io Products employing engineers to build the device while OpenAI provides AI capabilities and Ive's LoveFrom studio contributes design expertise.
An AI hardware venture would put OpenAI in more direct competition with Apple, despite their existing partnership announced last June where Apple's Siri assistant uses ChatGPT for certain queries.
The AI voice assistant market is becoming increasingly competitive, with OpenAI, Meta, Google, Anthropic, and xAI all developing voice capabilities for their text chatbots. OpenAI launched a voice mode for ChatGPT last year, allowing customers to engage in spoken conversations with the chatbot.
Ive left Apple in 2019, where he served as chief design officer before founding his design firm LoveFrom. He continued to work with Apple as a consultant through LoveFrom until 2022, when the partnership officially concluded.
Article Link: Jony Ive's Latest Project Could Be an AI 'Phone' Without a Screen
Is it just me or is Jony Ive looking more and more like Len Grossman from Tropic Thunder?
OpenAI is considering acquiring the AI hardware startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to a new report from The Information. The deal could be worth at least $500 million.
The venture, known as "io Products," is developing AI-powered devices that could include a "phone" without a screen and other AI-enabled household products, according to people will direct knowledge of the talks. That's despite people close to the project apparently insisting it is "not a phone."
Ive and Altman began their collaboration more than a year ago, focusing on creating voice-enabled AI assistants. The project is still in the early design stages, with no finalized product concepts yet.
The venture is being funded by Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs' Emerson Collective. The startup currently employs a small team that includes former Apple designers Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, who previously worked with Ive on the iPhone.
Instead of a full acquisition, OpenAI and the hardware startup are also discussing partnership options. If acquired, OpenAI would gain not only the technology but also the engineering team that has been developing the device, according to the report's sources.
The deal structure reportedly involves io Products employing engineers to build the device while OpenAI provides AI capabilities and Ive's LoveFrom studio contributes design expertise.
An AI hardware venture would put OpenAI in more direct competition with Apple, despite their existing partnership announced last June where Apple's Siri assistant uses ChatGPT for certain queries.
The AI voice assistant market is becoming increasingly competitive, with OpenAI, Meta, Google, Anthropic, and xAI all developing voice capabilities for their text chatbots. OpenAI launched a voice mode for ChatGPT last year, allowing customers to engage in spoken conversations with the chatbot.
Ive left Apple in 2019, where he served as chief design officer before founding his design firm LoveFrom. He continued to work with Apple as a consultant through LoveFrom until 2022, when the partnership officially concluded.
Article Link: Jony Ive's Latest Project Could Be an AI 'Phone' Without a Screen
I think they will attempt ear buds, with an always-on assistant — given OpenAI’s obsession with Her
That’s a fair point. But in order to get MacBooks as thin as he wanted, lots of sacrifices needed to be made. With iPhones, the only sacrifice is really battery life. And all this talk about the new 5G modems and a “vapor chamber heatsink”, I think we’re going to be very surprised by better life the next couple years.
I don't know what annoys Jony more. This picture, or that ghostly hand that always follows him around!
A separate device is necessary. 
Ios and android marketplaces gate keep innovation. Apple and Google can block your app if it competes with native functions.
Every product update weds to be submitted for approval. Thus stifles innovation. Not to mention the 30% commission.
Ios and android marketplaces gate keep innovation. Apple and Google can block your app if it competes with native functions.
Every product update weds to be submitted for approval. Thus stifles innovation. Not to mention the 30% commission.
Tim Cook fired Apple's most valuable employee, Scott Forstall, and couldn't retain Apple's second-most valuable employee, Jony Ive.
Without Steve Jobs to keep Ive's worst tendencies in check, Ive made awful design choices (for example, the notch, camera bump, rounded corners on displays, butterfly keyboard, etc.). Cook was incapable of doing what Jobs did because Cook is a beancounter who can only do the mediocre McKinsey-like and Goldman Sachs-like tasks he learned in his MBA degree program.
Without Steve Jobs to keep Ive's worst tendencies in check, Ive made awful design choices (for example, the notch, camera bump, rounded corners on displays, butterfly keyboard, etc.). Cook was incapable of doing what Jobs did because Cook is a beancounter who can only do the mediocre McKinsey-like and Goldman Sachs-like tasks he learned in his MBA degree program.
Last edited:
Ive needed to leave, with or without Fotstall. Ive and Forstall hated each other so much that they refused to be in the same room, or attend a meeting where the other was present.
You're absolutely right about Ive needing Jobs to keep him in check.
And you're absolutely right about Forstall and Ive disliking each other so much that they refused to be in the same room.
Jobs was able to lead in that highly unfavorable situation and make Forstall's software design and Ive's industrial design work together synergistically to create the greatest personal computing products in history. Cook was unable to lead in that situation, and the proof of that is that he fired Forstall and couldn't hold on to Ive.