Apple Pushes Ahead with Tabletop Home Device in Shift to Robotics | Hacker News Reader

Apple Pushes Ahead with Tabletop Home Device in Shift to Robotics

bloomberg.com

37 pointsmfiguiere52 comments

Probably a good time to be reminded that Apple (and many others) seed fake projects to those under NDA to sniff out leaks.

Is it really that unrealistic to think that Apple might want to sell their own version of a Nest Hub?

On its own, no. With a robot arm, yes. The idea sounds absurd (at least what I could read of it before the paywall). Either it’s fake, or Apple is so desperate to innovate that they lost touch with reality and how real people actually live. At best this sounds like a little skunkworks project just to see how something like that could work, not something with hundreds of people driving toward a release.

Where would a robot arm with an iPad on the end be a better solution than Vision Pro?

> Where would a robot arm with an iPad on the end be a better solution than Vision Pro?

On my kitchen counter, where I currently have an iPad Pro that is stationary and I wish nearly every day it would follow me as I move about the kitchen whilst cooking.

I’ve seen demos of people using the Vision Pro while cooking. It seems better. Timers could be places in space about the pots on the stove, the user can interact with recipes or whatever when their hands are dirty, and they probably wouldn’t tear up while cutting onions.

A robot arms will only move so much, I don’t see it being able to follow someone around a kitchen.

I have a Vision Pro, and have tried it in the kitchen. It's too cumbersome and too visually distorting.

Speaking for myself, I don't need something that follows me all over the kitchen, just something that adjusts to my movements in a somewhat confined space. Center Stage already does this fairly well when FaceTiming.

The iMac G4 was basically an iPad on a robot arm.

...basically

I’d love an iMac M4, just the new M4 chip in the G4 body, with an updated display.

I don’t think a robot would add much to the package. It was perfect as it was.

Meh, I don’t like all-in-ones. I loved my iMac G4 at the time but there’s now no reason to tie your computer into your display permanently.

At least back then screen technology was moving so fast that you could maybe justify that waste. If you bought an iMac G4 and then your next computer was an Intel iMac you would be getting a major screen upgrade.

But now I’d say that the average person doesn’t really have any great need to buy a new display until it physically stops working.

This is the old "homepod with a screen" rumour rehashed. According to those rumours Apple has been looking at putting a screen on the HomePod, and has commented publicly in the past about competitor offerings being enhanced if they had included a screen. Those competitor offerings now exist and we can see how they work.

The issue here is that Apple largely make products which reapply their existing subscription services into a new format thus growing their revenue. Google's Nest Home Hub follows this formula too, it delivers Google's services onto a screen in a place which makes consuming these services convenient. Whereby using those services Google earns revenue and the user is further entrenched into Google's ecosystem. Secondly a user may also be encouraged to upgrade to a YouTube subscription for a better experience.

So while there is nothing stopping Apple from producing similar hardware, what Apple lack here are subscription services that aren't already being served by the HomePod.

One might answer that the obvious use for this device is FaceTime and AI. However Apple currently monetises neither of these and for the types of general AI requests that such a device would handle, Apple currently engage OpenAI.

I'll give this rumour credibility if Tim Cook starts dropping hints about it; like he did repeatedly for the Apple Watch, Apple Vision Pro, and Apple Intelligence. Until then it's just another Bloomberg Apple article with no substance - of which they have many, most famously with "the big hack".

I don't have access to the full article, but ... it's basically just a screen that can swivel to follow you? That doesn't sound particularly exciting, interesting, or useful.

> The company now has a team of several hundred people working on the device, which uses a thin robotic arm to move around a large screen, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

the tabletop part is what sounds limiting. but if it could follow you around the house, that could be useful

Uhh. I like being able to walk away from things. I do not need my devices following me when I poop or go to bed.

So don’t buy it?

Worry not. I won’t buy any device that follows me automatically.

Don't ever get a cocker spaniel then

Or a Catahoula.

I recommend getting doors, it's very effective at preventing entry of unwanted objects.

Tell that to these ants.

pretty sure you would be able to turn that feature on and off

I'm not being snarky, but I genuinely can't really imagine why.

I guess if I'm walking around the house doing chores while I'm watching TV or on a video call with someone?

Otherwise, it seems like it could be cheaper to just install multiple terminal screens in your house connected to a hub that's aware of where you are.

'alexa, where did i leave my keys' ?

Don't most people have an Alexa pod in most rooms they're in?

...no?

If it could follow me around the house, then it would be nearly AGI, because it would have to pick up all my kids stuff. That would be useful :)

Isn’t that what the Vision Pro does? It’s a computer with a screen that can come with you around the house and the windows can be wherever the user needs them in space.

Maybe it’s not an iPad type device, but more of a next gen monitor stand for the Pro Display XDR. Instead of moving it with your hands, maybe it will have little motors to move it around where the user wants. The stand is already $1k, what’s a few more.

I might be wrong but it sounds just like a shot at Google Nest Hub or Amazon Echo Show, the latter of which has had a motorized rotating screen for a few years now.

Calling it a tabletop home robot instead of a "HomePod with a Screen" or an "iPad on a Swivel" really sets a different expectation, though.

Could be a Double Robotics clone instead of having an arm https://www.doublerobotics.com/

If it does have a large arm, could it fold clothing? If not, hard to think of a killer app. Maybe they expect to pivot.

Haven’t we tried the home robot screen-helpers enough already? We don’t want it unless it does the dishes better than a dishwasher.

Can’t we just focus on iterating Apple Vision Pro? I still think there’s a ton of potential there.

This is just Jeebo. Seems a bit tacky for Apple, but if Apple did it it would work and be well supported. People would want to buy it.

I think Apple has too much money. We need some DOJ investigation for monopolistic behavior like yesterday.

The device could respond to commands, such as “look at me,”

It doesn’t seem very robotic.

I'm the robot now

tabletop arena interface coming soon i hope.

"bot, prepare lunch".

[loads ingredients on table].

[selects from proffered menu].

lunch is prepared.

next comes an overhead rail for transit to various stations.

"They told me never, ever, EVER to disengage myself from my management rail, or I would DIE. But we're out of options here, so get ready to catch me on the off chance that I'm not dead the moment I pop off this thing."

I want them to make a clothes-washing-and-drying device that has a hopper you throw dirty clothes into and when enough clothes are in it, it turns on and then they come out on other end hung up dried, neatly on a clothing rack with no creases or wrinkles (but done through steaming not through an iron). So from dirty to hung-up with no manual human steps.

We recently have had the technology to do this (I helped on a household robotics project last year where folding cloth was a task). As a ADHD afflict, I would love nothing more, but I didn't see a way to do it affordably. I fully expect it within a few years, though, perhaps with RFID tags for folding and cleaning instructions.

Robot, please separate clothes by size and gender.

Robot: Please upload your pronouns first

> hung up dried, neatly on a clothing rack with no creases or wrinkles

That is a surprisingly difficult thing for a robot/machine to do, with the SOTA still requiring speeded up video in demos for clothes folding. The difficult part is I the digitizing and manipulation, so hanging it on a hangar with robot arms is approximately as difficult.

i think the most diffuculty would be the task of prepping a crumpled up ball of several articles of clothing, to ready for folding, individual articles, and all whilenot tearing it to rags.

perhaps if the clothing was hung to begin with rather than hoppered.

a piece of clothing hanging straight would be easier to fold, but the entire scheme would require more space for typical laundry loads.

The dishwasher is slower than hand washing but it still mostly eliminates the task.

The SOTA is about 2-3 minutes per clothing item. That's pretty slow, but more than fast enough - who generates more than 1 dirty cloth per half hour? Besides, the critical source of latency will be washing and drying either way.

It's quite do-able, but the home-sized folding robots from a few years ago were too expensive. They do such a small part of the laundry task that they're not useful.

The industrial-strength laundry folding robots do work.[1] But that's for hospital laundries that need to clean and fold thousands of scrubs per day.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpTuwKu5fY0

How about if you just hung it up dirty, and it went through a supercritical CO2 cleaner, and then transitioned to a clean section of your closet?

Hang up dirty version is a good incremental product.

https://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/air-dresser/air-d...

"What if there were a sauna...for your trousers?"

interesting, this seems like it would remove less dirt/soot from clothing perhaps? Is there a reason they only say sanitize but not clean?

Panasonic made a concept that is something like this.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn5iV0MLUi4

many are working on this. companies that do laundry for a living will be the prime users.

Another device for the e-waste pile. I'd rather pay for working software than another iDevice.

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