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OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

techcrunch.com

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Re: OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

#51

Post by smith7018 »

theptip wrote: post #44
dktp wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is getting developers to create apps for a new OS nobody uses (yet). And nobody will use it if they can't have their banking app and uber on it This becomes even tougher if they go the Apple route and don't allow other phone manufacturers to use their OS. Alternatively, if they go down the Windows Phone route, we saw how that played out considering that Google _pays_ manufacturers to use Android Making OS i…

Honestly this might be less of a problem these days. If the model is that you build a good dev API and everyone points their agent at the software they need, then you don’t need the huge corporate investment in a full ecosystem. To be clear I don’t think we are fully ready for this to work. But directionally the trend looks significant.

That's unfortunately a rosy view of it. It might be easier to take source from one platform to another but that was never the issue; the issue is keeping it up to date with releases, testing it as often as other platforms, and handling user support tickets. The chicken and egg situation still applies here and companies aren't going to spend all the time and money on a new platform if users aren't asking for it.

Re: OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

#52

Post by macNchz »

ddarolfi wrote: post #41
dktp wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is getting developers to create apps for a new OS nobody uses (yet). And nobody will use it if they can't have their banking app and uber on it This becomes even tougher if they go the Apple route and don't allow other phone manufacturers to use their OS. Alternatively, if they go down the Windows Phone route, we saw how that played out considering that Google _pays_ manufacturers to use Android Making OS i…

I would be surprised if any AI forward OS is based around applications developed by other people. I imagine the OS will create the software you need. Thing's like banking apps are more difficult, but I imagine OpenAI could sort that out behind the scenes.

The idea of managing a consumer app API for which every client is auto-vibecoded to the user's preference sounds...fun.

User: Hello Uber support? Yes, the app shows my driver is in the ocean off the west coast of Africa? And his ETA is -2147483648 minutes?

Uber: Your app, your problem.

User: Hello phonebrain, can you fix my Uber app?

Phonebrain: You're absolutely right, I must have misunderstood the API docs. Squiggling... ... Shuffling ...

Phonebrain: Error, you've hit your usage limit. Please wait 12 hours, or switch to pay-as-you-go app development mode. I cannot estimate how much it will cost to fix your Uber app.

Re: OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

#53

Post by fidotron »

drivebyhooting wrote: post #49
fidotron wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android has a huge amount of battle tested stuff for running things like media codecs and GPUs connected to devices that are not rebooted for months on end by normal people. (The iPhone wasn't an entirely new OS either for a good reason). The whole vibe coding an OS might become a thing in the next few years, but you still have to QA and test it, and there simply hasn't actually been enough time for that.

Why can’t agents QA it?

Hardware is hardware. At some point you have to run and test it on the real thing, and it always misbehaves in some previously undiscovered way.

A lot of software people live under the illusion that hardware bugs don't happen, but they're ubiquitous and it's the job of firmware and OS people to reduce their impact.

Edit: I should add anyone that's worked with me knows I strongly advocate offline fuzz testing of all software components, especially to deal with unexpected states coming from the hardware side. This has proven unreasonably effective, and absolutely is something agents can help with, but they won't solve the whole problem.

Re: OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

#54

Post by fifilura »

macNchz wrote: post #52
ddarolfi wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be surprised if any AI forward OS is based around applications developed by other people. I imagine the OS will create the software you need. Thing's like banking apps are more difficult, but I imagine OpenAI could sort that out behind the scenes.

The idea of managing a consumer app API for which every client is auto-vibecoded to the user's preference sounds...fun. User: Hello Uber support? Yes, the app shows my driver is in the ocean off the west coast of Africa? And his ETA is -2147483648 minutes? Uber: Your app, your problem. User: Hello phonebrain, can you fix my Uber app? Phonebrain: You're absolutely right, I must have misunderstood the API docs. Squiggl…

Why would they rate-limit fixing their own bugs? Seems counter-productive.

Re: OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

#55

Post by fifilura »

dspillett wrote: post #36
giancarlostoro wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> though I would be surprised if it turns out not to be running Android in some form. Just yesterday I saw a post I cant recall if on here or reddit, someone coded an entire OS with Claude Code, I would not be surprised if they invest AI compute at building an OS themselves, though I'd never buy a phone from these companies. The person got it running on bare hardware. Found it: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comme…

> someone coded an entire OS with Claude Code I, as someone who would rather leave the industry than become a manager of either people or autonomous agents, or worse just a meat-based relay, am truly obsolete. Do you want fries with that?

I think of this as a baker at the nascence of bread-baking factories.

Will you operate the bread baking machine, own a bread factory ($++) or make eco-handmade artisan bread ($--).

Or do something completely different? Trade railway shares?

Re: OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

#56

Post by saalweachter »

fifilura wrote: post #54
macNchz wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of managing a consumer app API for which every client is auto-vibecoded to the user's preference sounds...fun. User: Hello Uber support? Yes, the app shows my driver is in the ocean off the west coast of Africa? And his ETA is -2147483648 minutes? Uber: Your app, your problem. User: Hello phonebrain, can you fix my Uber app? Phonebrain: You're absolutely right, I must have misunderstood the API docs. Squiggl…

Why would they rate-limit fixing their own bugs? Seems counter-productive.

> switch to pay-as-you-go app development mode

Re: OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

#57

Post by ValueTheory »

ssivark wrote: post #29
fidotron wrote: post #12

Both Apple and Google have dropped the ball enough with the state of recent releases that some iPhone-equivalent-disruption product from the AI industry is becoming conceivable, though I would be surprised if it turns out not to be running Android in some form. Putting a lot of effort into pushing complexity into software to reduce manufacturing complexity is precisely the sort of thing you worry about when you're ge…

The time is ripening to disrupt Android/iOS. The place to start would be to rethink the device around AI. No need for apps or messy integrations with third-party crap. Just a simple device with a great new UX (not typing on a touchpad!) that is slick and does a few things very well (personal agent, coordinating with your personal knowledge base, handling external communications and your interface with the world). Thi…

You want a phone that "does a few things very well" and then you list "personal agent" and "your interface with the world". This would encompass everything anyone does with a phone, except maybe interacting with creative media (video games, ebooks). That's the exact opposite of "a few things". I think you're confusing actual functionality with AI marketing phrases.

Re: OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

#58

Post by dpark »

thejohnconway wrote: post #39
ssivark wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The time is ripening to disrupt Android/iOS. The place to start would be to rethink the device around AI. No need for apps or messy integrations with third-party crap. Just a simple device with a great new UX (not typing on a touchpad!) that is slick and does a few things very well (personal agent, coordinating with your personal knowledge base, handling external communications and your interface with the world). Thi…

The problem is that although what most people use on a daily basis is small nearly everyone uses something unusual app for _something_. I think it would be quite hard to find a market large enough that didn’t include such people. There is a solution sitting there, which is running Android and having the AI run it behind the scenes I guess, but is suspect that would end up looking a lot like we have now.

This is the fundamental problem with all of these hypothetical new devices. If you assume you can come up with some new UI or innovative interaction model, maybe it’s purely voice or whatever else, then you have to ask if this could just run on a phone.

Modern smartphones won’t be supplanted by tech that could just run on a phone. That doesn’t make any sense. For any new tech to take off and replace phones, it has to provide something that isn’t simply additive to the phone. Otherwise, it just makes more sense to build it into the existing phone.

“A phone, but it has AI and no apps” isn’t even additive. It’s purely a loss of functionality.

Re: OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

#59

Post by 23sjeh »

ddarolfi wrote: post #41
dktp wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is getting developers to create apps for a new OS nobody uses (yet). And nobody will use it if they can't have their banking app and uber on it This becomes even tougher if they go the Apple route and don't allow other phone manufacturers to use their OS. Alternatively, if they go down the Windows Phone route, we saw how that played out considering that Google _pays_ manufacturers to use Android Making OS i…

I would be surprised if any AI forward OS is based around applications developed by other people. I imagine the OS will create the software you need. Thing's like banking apps are more difficult, but I imagine OpenAI could sort that out behind the scenes.

Lmao this delusional hand waving stuff is what economists do.

Re: OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

#60

Post by 23sjeh »

KaiserPro wrote: post #35
fidotron wrote: post #12

Both Apple and Google have dropped the ball enough with the state of recent releases that some iPhone-equivalent-disruption product from the AI industry is becoming conceivable, though I would be surprised if it turns out not to be running Android in some form. Putting a lot of effort into pushing complexity into software to reduce manufacturing complexity is precisely the sort of thing you worry about when you're ge…

OpenAI want to make smart glasses, but can't do that yet because its not possible. So they are almost certianly making an alexa type thing with cameras. So they can build a device capable of recording the entire context of a household.

This stuff is DOA.
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