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The Rabbit R1 is probably running Android and is powered by an Android app

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171–180 of 309 posts

Re: The Rabbit R1 is probably running Android and is powered by an Android app

#171

It sounds like this product isn't where it should be, and likely shipped too early. That said long term I want them or others to succeed. The last thing I want (and most others should want) is a world where only Apple and Google are the only ones hosting mobile AI products. As any phone OS integrated Apple AI or Google AI will beat out any shipped apps store AI app long term. If a new hardware form factor is the way…

> If a new hardware form factor is the way to break that duopoly then I wish them all the best. The only real allure of a separate device, for me, is isolating the bot from my data. I don't want it reading my emails and notifications and who knows what else. I suppose you could also market this for kids but they didn't go that route.

That is my thought as well. But then, wouldn't it be better to get a separate cheap phone and install ChatGPT or Claude on it?

Purely from a hardware perspective, a phone has all the sensors, chips etc needed for AI applications, so I'm puzzled why Humane and Rabbit thought that a standalone device was a better idea.

Re: The Rabbit R1 is probably running Android and is powered by an Android app

#172

This product feels like it is ahead of its time. Local processing will be readily available eventually. Better solutions for display of information and ingest of local data.

Local processing will also be available on your phone. A separate device for this makes no sense in any universe.

Re: The Rabbit R1 is probably running Android and is powered by an Android app

#173
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter thread on rabbit's founder and his previous involvement with NFTs that he scrubbed: https://twitter.com/Andyparackal/status/1785676408280498655

Pikachu's everywhere were shocked. This is just the same guy, over and over. If he isn't too old, I bet he was into dropshipping too. Always on whatever new grift, always ready to start selling shovels to gold miners. I wish people were smarter about this stuff.

building a hardware company and shipping thousands of devices doesn't seem like a get-rich-quick grift to me. There are a lot of things rabbit can do that you couldn't do on an app since they own the hardware. Just shipped it too soon.

The product is definitely not super appealing to me yet in the current state.

Re: The Rabbit R1 is probably running Android and is powered by an Android app

#174
post #87

Doesn't surprise me. In my opinion, many companies try to achieve outrageous premiums by taking the route of teen engineering (the originator of hype). In addition to rabbit, there is also a series of nothing products. This doesn't convince the tech fetishists. In fact, I think te's contribution to music is very limited, even harmful, especially when I see the latest Yamaha even imitating te, which feels a bit funny…

I don't like most of TE's output but the OP-1 is definitely innovative.

Apparently, TE knows this Rabbit person's background as we are talking about millions dollar business. TE's values here are questionable when they decide to go with this guy.

As for OP1, packaging a tape effect when it can't produce good sound quality is a fraud. Sampling from FM? Check Klaus Schulze.. Music startups can certainly innovate, such as Roli (Seaboard and Rise), moog. make noise. Open source monome. and, to my sorrow, Émilie Gillet (Mutable Instruments). TE's innovation in music itself is far inferior to them. If you praise te, I think it is unfair to other people who are obsessed with technological innovation.

I have always felt that TE is a electronics company with no innovation in hardcore technology. The appearance and packaging are different from previous ones, but there is not enough practical integration. Of course, this is just my personal opinion. If you disagree, you can write down your opinion. Thank you.

Re: The Rabbit R1 is probably running Android and is powered by an Android app

#175

It sounds like this product isn't where it should be, and likely shipped too early. That said long term I want them or others to succeed. The last thing I want (and most others should want) is a world where only Apple and Google are the only ones hosting mobile AI products. As any phone OS integrated Apple AI or Google AI will beat out any shipped apps store AI app long term. If a new hardware form factor is the way…

Their product doesn’t make any sense besides as an app. No one is going to carry a separate device around when your smartphone can do everything it can better. The chatGPT app on the iPhone already does everything the rabbit does better. They offer nothing.

The ChatGPT app requires a subscription, and offers no "Large Action Model" behavior (i.e. API tie-in to perform actions on other apps like Spotify/Doordash/Uber/Midjourney). The former is a nice bonus (10 months of ChatGPT $20 sub = one time purchase price of Rabbit R1), the latter has the potential in its fully realized form to make Rabbit infinitely more useful as an assistant.

Re: The Rabbit R1 is probably running Android and is powered by an Android app

#176
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're forgetting the app automation features (that currently don't work well).

Nothing about those features is specific to this device. OpenAI can do it in their app, or Google/Apple as a built in phone integration. In fact those companies have more data, more compute, more experience and more end users which matters a lot for AI. And most importantly, OpenAI/Google/Apple can basically get app developers to add any missing details into their apps. Rabbit can't.

>OpenAI can do it in their app, or Google/Apple as a built in phone integration

Have they done so or described any upcoming plans to do so? Rabbit is doing it now.

Man this site is so anti-hacker it's insane. Probably because it's 90% big tech employees that are actively hurt by startups shaking things up. Should be renamed

Re: The Rabbit R1 is probably running Android and is powered by an Android app

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a rushed/unfinished product, I'd be highly skeptical if there was any form of security. Might get implemented once someone abuses it.

> As a rushed/unfinished product What led you to believe it was rushed and/or unfinished? I agree with the sentiment that it's a _bad_ product with _bad_ choices and _bad_ strategy. It was likely caused by shitty ZIRP-era "MVP product without the 'viable'" mentality, rather than caused by rushing an unfinished product.

> What led you to believe it was rushed and/or unfinished?

The very feel of every demo and the product itself

Re: The Rabbit R1 is probably running Android and is powered by an Android app

#178

As others have commented - this is unsurprising - and makes a lot of sense from a technical perspective. Don't see this as scammy at all. And as for the product - the main qualm seems to be the lack of utility vs cost - which again does not seem scammy to me.

It’s not that it being based on android is the surprising part, it’s that they designed and sold a physical device which could be replaced with an app on the hardware you already have. The whole device seems to be “it’s Siri but as a standalone device” and since you still have to take your phone with you, it seems to provide no value.

It can do a lot more than ChatGPT's app, let alone Siri which can do even less.

Re: The Rabbit R1 is probably running Android and is powered by an Android app

#179
post #25

the same is true of oculus quest devices. the choice of under the hood operating system really only matters to developers, otherwise why wouldn't you build on aosp? the real value is in how it functions in the life of the users. if they put a new llm based shell on top and built a new app ecosystem for it that makes users happy, then they've done something useful!

The hardware of the quest provides significant functionality. What did the hardware on the R1 provide that isn’t on a phone already?

It's cool. Would not have been as cool as an app

Re: The Rabbit R1 is probably running Android and is powered by an Android app

#180
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason was mentioned in the article: After all, the Rabbit R1’s launcher app is intended to be preinstalled in the firmware and be granted several privileged, system-level permissions — only some of which we were able to grant — so some of the functions would likely fail if we tried And the statement from Rabbit in the article says essentially the same: rabbit OS and LAM run on the cloud with very bespoke AOSP an…

Are these privileged system-level permissions in the room with us now? What specifically are they?

why are you so incredulous that android might have some annoying privacy restrictions that a custom AOSP can sidestep? I would google rabbit's reasoning for this but I don't care enough
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