Live data from Hacker News

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

androidauthority.com

51–60 of 309 posts

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

#51
post #39
post #35

Too much VC money into a gazillion startups without proper management. What can go wrong? This is the result of tech cultism and lack of proper production standards. Design Thinking is like some form of forbidden knowledge today. So much “disruption” with no clear product use case. AI is the new dotcom boom. 190 percent hype. 10 percent actual implementation. The startups have expectation to capitalize on testing wit…

Building a physical product, launching, getting feedback. They’re in the arena and regardless of how bad the initial offering is it’s more than sitting on the sidelines demanding Skunk Works from others.

Jerk knee reactions. Typical for HN from 2015 onwards.

There was a time when here knowledge and experience did not hinder the new ideas at all. My entire career was a result of this process in early 2008.

Today we live in inflated VC realm of promises, big statements and low delivery. It is not about demanding on a side lines.

Some of us still produce quality by following the proven methodology from the past. To push to market R&D projects and demand applause is pathetic. And no. There is no place for PC in this. It is about time to wake up from the AI Utopia. And the cleansing process is going on as we speak. Corporations reached the limitation of participation trophies and DEI agenda.

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

#52
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't make it a scam though, just a waste of money. A scam would be something like, you order it and what turns up is a photo of the device with a QR code on the back linking to a download for the app.

the line isn't that clear cut. broken promises that create a sale could certainly be construed as 'scammy'.

I don't know too much about this product - did they promise not to run it on Android?

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

#53
I'm interested in a device like this for my sight impaired older relatives. They struggle with smartphones and would benefit from a single purpose device with big obvious UI elements. Not sure they are the target demographic for the R1 but I can see v3 (R3?) being pretty useful. Maybe sell a case that looks like a tea cosy and ditch the orange first though

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

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scam is they are selling it as anything other than "phone with fewer features"

Are Android tablets a scam too?

No, because the title is honest. An Android tablet means exactly that. An "AI Assistant" does not. That implies it's something much more than it is.

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

#55
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scam is they are selling it as anything other than "phone with fewer features"

That’s not a scam, either. They’re not being dishonest about what the hardware really is. They’re probably at least being unrealistically optimistic about the future software, though.

Yes they are. It's not an AI assistant. It's a smartphone with fewer features and slightly different form factor.

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

#56

That makes me feel better about the whole project. If they were wasting their time developing a new OS from scratch instead of working on the programs running on it, I'd think they're nuts. I bought an R1 during the first pre-order and it arrived a couple days ago. In it's current form, it's not the AI from the movie "Her" that's going to manage your life for you. It's neat. It's a cool little toy that does interesti…

And the main question remains unanswered: why do they sell a whole device rather than an app?

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

#57

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.

Nobody was going to pay $200 for that app w/ 85 gazillion LLM wrappers already out there, so they need some other form factor to get traction.

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

#58
post #56

That makes me feel better about the whole project. If they were wasting their time developing a new OS from scratch instead of working on the programs running on it, I'd think they're nuts. I bought an R1 during the first pre-order and it arrived a couple days ago. In it's current form, it's not the AI from the movie "Her" that's going to manage your life for you. It's neat. It's a cool little toy that does interesti…

And the main question remains unanswered: why do they sell a whole device rather than an app?

The eye catching hardware is what made this project interesting. Would we be talking about this at all if it was just an app?

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

#59
post #58
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the main question remains unanswered: why do they sell a whole device rather than an app?

The eye catching hardware is what made this project interesting. Would we be talking about this at all if it was just an app?

So it's not really something intended to be efficient and useful, it's a conversation piece.

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

#60

I ordered one since it cost exactly as much as a 1 year stand-alone perplexity license that it comes with. I don’t know how they can possibly make money with this but i’m looking forward to having a new toy on my desk and I really like the teenage engineering vibes of it.

Not just the vibes, they worked together with teenage engineering on it
Post reply on HN