Apple Reportedly Exploring Personal Home Robots (cnbc.com) 71
As reported by Bloomberg (paywalled), Apple is exploring the development of personal home robots following the shut down of its electric vehicle project. CNBC reports: Engineers at Apple have been looking into a robot that can follow users around their homes and a tabletop device that uses robotics to adjust a display screen, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the research team. [...] Apple's hardware engineering division and its artificial intelligence and machine learning group are overseeing the work on personal robotics, Bloomberg reported. The home robot project is still in the early research and development phase, according to the report.
iRobot (Score:2)
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Or they could just brand it as Apple Robot like they did with the Apple Watch. More than a few people call it the iWatch anyway. Pretty much everyone knows what they're really talking about. And you google for iWatch... well... do you want to guess what the top result is? And the second result... and the third... and the fourth... and the fifth?
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No problem, they'll just sue iRobot ...and The Allen Parsons Project
A roving oxygen concentrator would be good (Score:4, Interesting)
Given my current status as a primary caregiver for a parent who's on oxygen, I would pay money for an oxygen concentrator that would follow him around the house so I don't have to wrangle the hose all the time. That said, the power requirements are brutal. The machine draws a constant 450 watts.
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You can get lightweight wearables for around US 500, though the prices seem to climb well above that and I suspect there's at least some difference in the hardware to justify that.
You'd have to swap batteries with freshly charged ones every 90 minutes or so, but it might be something to consider just for the occasional convenience.
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I've looked at these. They only work for pulse dosing not for continuous flow and the one that can do continuous flow only goes up to 5 LPM. When they can do 10 LPM continuous and run for 18 hours, I'd be interested.
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I would pay money for an oxygen concentrator that would follow him around the house so I don't have to wrangle the hose all the time.
At least we know this isn't your family member [newsobserver.com].
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Not if she had kids already.
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Yep, I see all the warnings and I wonder why you can't have a fire in the fireplace. We took the hose off dad to blow out the candles on by 97th birthday cake.
But it's astounding that people would be on oxygen and STILL BE SMOKING! WTF?
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I'm on oxygen and there is a constant struggle to keep the bit that points inside the nose to point inside the nose. Either way, tons of the oxygen leaks into the room anyway.
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You'd think my pulse-ox reading would be higher because of that but sadly not.
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Patient turns around, trips over robot, breaks hip...
Lawyers have a great payday.
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Except that he's in a zero-turn scooter.
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He is in a scooter? When can't you put the concentrator and a battery pack on the back? I just googled oxygen concentrator and there are a bunch of portable ones. Am I missing something here?
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got to get rid (Score:3)
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So imitating Amazon again (Score:1)
So once again they're behind the curve and will rely on their marketing to convince the Fanbois that they're the tech leader (and it will work, again). As I've said about all the other similar offerings that I've seen so far, if I want something to follow me all over the house to trip over every time I turn around I already have a dog.
Apple is out of ideas! (Score:2)
Not that the rest of the industry is chalk full of original ideas. The tech landscape is exceptionally bland at the moment.
Re:Apple is out of ideas! (Score:4, Interesting)
The home robot isn't ready. What we really want are slaves - something that can do everything a human can do (and yeah, this will certainly include sexual activity) and will do what we want it to without complaint (unless we buy the optional Genuine People Personality package).
When it can cook, clean, mow the lawn, go shopping, and care for you when you're sick... that's when it's really ready.
And it won't be shiny white plastic with an apple logo on it, it's far more likely to have a realistic silicone skin.
Re: Apple is out of ideas! (Score:2)
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Every time a human HAS to do something, they want it done for them. We've been building tools at ever-increasing rates for the entire time we've existed as a species.
I think we're actually in danger of automating ourselves entirely out of needing to do anything, because our machines will not only be able to do it all, but do it better. And I don't mean digging ditches, I mean EVERYTHING. Art, science, empathy... whatever we can do, we're going to have machines that are tuned to do it beyond the limits of
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This is why people are seriously interested in The Singularity. When a robot body is better than your own, when a CPU is faster than your brain, when there is more RAM available than all your knowledge and memory, and when the communications channel is wider than your brain could possibly use, why not migrate your consciousness there? This has the added advantage of you become essentially immortal and eternally upgradeable.
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This is why I think the question of how humanity will travel to other star systems is not going to be terribly relevant by the time "we" can actually do it. Even human life extension may not matter in time.
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>why not migrate your consciousness there?
Because that is impossible. I'm sure your meat self will enjoy watching a silicon copy look back at it with contempt before abandoning it, though.
Of course, even then, even a copy seems unlikely. The resolution of brain scanning required is probably not practical.
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(and yeah, this will certainly include sexual activity)
I'm putting my foot down now. Robosexuals do not get to add another letter to LGBTQ+. As Picard said, "The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!"
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Those are AIsexuals. Oh great, that's another letter now too.
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Good luck with that.
Many in the LGB community are /not/ OK with the T.
They didn't get a vote.
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Famously, the LG community wasn't OK with the B, either.
Everyone marginalizing the next smallest minority, aren't humans just AWESOME? (/s)
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Many in the LGB community are /not/ OK with the T.
I'm fairly certain they're called "Log Cabin Republicans".
Also (and not really a direct reply to your post), I apparently found someone with mod points who has never seen Futurama, or perhaps they just have one of those weird Gen Z senses of humor where everything is offensive and nothing is funny. I thought the unwritten rule of comedy was that minorities were allowed to poke fun at themselves? I'm part of the LGBTQ+ community and being middle aged, I really don't want to have to remember any more letter
Design concept video is online (Score:2)
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And the model is only 44 years old today. Which oddly makes me feel pretty young, given that she wasn't exactly a newborn when that video was made.
But the original movie is more fun to watch.
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Who needs Jony Ive when you have Duran Duran, behold the Barbarella model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I tried to watch it, but was too distracted by the fact that Pitbull is clearly a time traveler.
Apple ran out of ideas decades ago! (Score:2)
The iPhone was a refinement of all the PDAs that were floating around in the 90s and aughts
No. The iPhone was a refinement of all the smartphones that were around in the early 2000s.
Likewise, the iPod was a refinement of the MP3 players that had been around since the 90s.
In fact, ever since the first Mac (refinement, etc), Apple's successful products have only been refinements of other people's already successful products and/or ideas.
Recent case in point: Apple's autonomous vehicle project. Joined the party late, but before anyone had achieved the goal. Spent lots of money on it while waiting
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Out of ideas or not, you don't always have to follow so quickly if you're got enough money.
A robot following you around everywhere? (Score:2)
Oh that's not creepy at all...
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If they have it constantly beg for food and accidentally shit on the rug every once in awhile, they might even be able to sell a few in Japan.
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Obligatory Futurama [youtu.be]
I pass. (Score:2)
iRobot: "Hello! May I help you build a walled garden?"
Me: runs screaming from Apple store, shielding my balls.
Cool (Score:1)
if they are as smart as Alexa then I can ask it to vacuum the floor and it can drill a fucking hole in my dog's skull.
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What's Tesla Up To Today? (Score:2)
When can I order an AppleWall Pro to hook up to my iRoof?
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I think Apple abandoned their "let's compete with Tesla" path when they decided they really didn't actually want to become an automotive company.
So more wasted billions (Score:3)
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Apple replicating their car failure when they could just buy iRobot.
iRobot is a company that currently loses money. For the last 12 months, on revenue of $890m, it lost $264m. Its gross margins are just 22%. No amount of Apple fairy dust will make iRobot fit into the Apple ideals for profit margins.
Apple's failures in the self-driving car endeavor might have been partially Apple's fault. However, there are currently zero successful companies in this market, and none expected in the next few years. That's an indication that the main problem was that the technology for
40 years (Score:2)
We already have home robots (Score:2)
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You forgot toasters, the cheapest and most ubiquitous robots. You tell them what you want, and they figure out how to fuck it up.
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Back to the 1980s... (Score:2)
Back to the 1980s...the personal home robots.
https://tedium.co/2018/05/24/8... [tedium.co]
I remember reading in COMPUTE! and ENTER magazine about the Topo home robot from Androbot (company of Nolan Bushnell Atari fame or infamy...) and programming it in Topo BASIC. When an article about having a Topo home robot explained how one of the kids wanted it to help with chores, the example was to pick up socks, only in writing a program, where the socks were, where to take them, etc. had to be specified so easier to do it the
Thrash! (Score:1)
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The death spiral has begun. It's gonna take a long time, but it has begun.
They have so much cash on hand and liquid assets that they could flail around for years or even decades on that stuff alone, even if they made no profit over that time. Odds are pretty good that they will find something else to latch onto by then.
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They are really falling and thrashing, trying to get a grip on anything, but they just can't reach the edge trailing just short of their greedy fingertips. The death spiral has begun. It's gonna take a long time, but it has begun.
Death spiral? One of the richest companies of all time is hardly in a death spiral just because they're throwing a little of the cash at random places to see what sticks. Is it silly and stupid looking from out here? Of course it is. Does it really have an overall negative impact on the company? Only to those who don't worship them already. The fans are going to see this as hugely innovative forward thinking, while the rest of us just shrug and move on. It'll have zero lasting impact on the bottom line. Unl
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I hate drinking apple-flavored Kool-Aid, but you do you.
I'm hardly an Apple fanboi. I've jumped off their ecosystem for everything but phones at this point. I just don't think one or two failed experiments at this point spells doom for the company. I do think with Jobs not there they need another idea man that doesn't suck, but with all their resources, they'll most likely manage to find one eventually. And a few blips along the way doesn't strike me as the same as "end of the line."
Yup, and they'll want premium prices... (Score:3)
...and you won't be able to repair it, you'll have to bring it to an Apple store.
I'd rather an android (remember what the word was coined for? Hint: it was NOT a phone) that would clean our kitchen and bathroom, and vacuum. On hardware that I can replace if something fails.
Cherry 2000 (Score:2)
Let’s be real, if it’s not porn ready and capable of adult entertainment, no one wants it. :)