The MacRumors Show: Apple's Next Big Thing – Robots?

[macabrumorsab]

I do think robots are going to be a big thing in the future but i'm thinking 20-30 years from now.

AR/VR headsets could be the next big thing in the next 5-15 years. Don't give up on the Vision headsets... Put out a model that people can actually afford??

Robotics can be a long-long term goal but Apple should focus on the headsets.

I agree with the next big things, but I think you are very pessimistic regarding the expected timeframes.

The robots don’t need 20 to 30 years. Samsung’s “Bot Fit Wearable” is rumoured to be released end of 2024/early 2025.

AR/VR headsets are the next big thing, but they don’t need 5 to 15 years. You can already buy today what Apple may build in a few years. The Xreal Air 2 Pro does not need any complex technology to simulate an artificial and laggy “see-through”: you simply see through the glasses and if you wanted it “covered”, you would either choose from one of the 3 dimming levels achieved through an electrochromic film, or if you wanted it even darker, you could still put a cover on it. I can’t wait to see what the Xreal Air 3 has to offer.

 

[macfacts]

Why cant apple make an mackbook air as thin as a Google pixel book.

 

[backdraft]

Either a late April fools prank or reading in between the lines an Apple Dishwasher aka smart appliances to take Samsung on?

 

[ThisIsMike]

Juuuuuust saying. 😎

 

[SoldOnApple]

A robot that can cook and clean would be worth a fortune. And at least organise clutter. No way Apple could keep a project like that a secret though.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

It’s funny that just a few years ago prominent people were still talking about a Turing-passable robot as being indefinitely far off in the future. Just a couple decades ago I bought an Omnibot to fulfill my childhood dreams of having an android buddy. It still hasn’t died, but I sort of like that within its short plastic toy lifetime, it’s about to be replaced along with our workforce by the real thing. Exciting times. I didn’t get to live through the moon landing, the sexual revolution, the Beatles or Led Zeppelin, but at least I’ll get to live through Ai & robots obliterating our medieval societal structure & replacing it with wide open opportunities to try alternative ideas & new models.

 

[iBug2]

Finally, iRobot

 

[ChrisA]

I've been looking into this idea of a domestic robot for years, it is a REALLY HARD problem that is just beyond the current state of the art. In other words, no one knows how to build one yet.

Some of the ones that have been built are just like what we saw in the article. Basically an "iPod on wheels". Thies robots are useless, no one has an issue with moving their iPods around the house, so why build a self-moving iPod?

The current kind of AI is a LMM that is trained to predict words. and it good at it. But a useful domestic robot needs to plan and execute actions and it has to act with minimal supervision.

Today the ONLY task that the AI can do is "follow the owner around" while (mostly) not bumpping into stuff or running over the cat. Apple proposes the following task because it is the only task they can do, not because anyone wants it.

What people want is to say "Robbie, robot, please fold the laundry then clean the bathroom, and by the way if Amazon delivers that package, bring it inside for me." Until this is possible, they will not sell many robots.

The trouble is that Apple is very poor at original and fundamental research. Apple is good at polishing other peoples ideas and makeinmg them well designed. What is needed is more basic research into AI to get ot to the next big thing after the current LLMs. Google is much better at this than Apple. But Google is not quite so good at producing it after it

 

[Hellokittystampmyfacein]

They can’t even get Siri right

Not only that Alexa that used to be great is now garbage

 

[appleph]

No thank you. Please fix the voice recognition system on macOS like allow user to set predefined phrases that would be used when a phrase is uttered, instead of trying to guess everything from its entire vocabulary without any context what so ever.

 

[Mega ST]

Robots would make sense to connect them to the Vision Pro. At least for entertainment purposes. Check the floor under my bed for hidden monsters and such. And next a portable brain powered by Siri?

Looking at it from my perspective: I would like a small ultraportable macOS netbook with apple silicon. Smaller than the smallest MBA (which is great BTW) and no need for a full size keyboard but still with a physical keyboard.

 

[Onelifenofear]

I don’t buy it. If only due to the complexity of them. Apple have done everything to minimise complexity of Devices.

I can see their future in VisionOS progressing to mainstream to
smaller Visions
to
Apple Glasses with waveguide direct To eye light displays
to
Display contacts
to
direct brain interfaces.

It sounds like sci-fi… but all of these exist now.

The device that can do this first, without a “neural net” will kill off phones / tablets / computers and large screens as we know it . Compute power may remain in phone ( even with a screen ) or a home computer that you access wirelessly… and they will continue to upgrade yearly so they can be sold.

 

[Baretta]

Hey Siri get me a roll of toilet paper...

I don’t understand what toilet is in the paper. Shall I look for it on Apple’swebsite ?