This year two buzzy startups have been trying to cash in on the AI craze by introducing portable devices designed to let you use AI assistant software on the go without pulling your phone out of your pocket. But if early reviews are anything to go by, neither of those companies has delivered a compelling reason for why you’d actually want to do that… and more importantly, the products they’ve rushed to market aren’t very good.
Reviewers widely panned the Humane Ai Pin in April. And while I was holding out some hope that the Rabbit R1 might be a little less awful, it seems the nicest things most reviewers can say about the Rabbit R1 are that it’s cute and its $200 price tag is a lot easier to swallow than the $699 price for the Humane Ai Pin (which also requires a $24/month subscription). But both devices have a limited feature set at launch, and many of those features don’t even work consistently.
The Rabbit R1 hardware is also kind of baffling. It has a touchscreen display, but you only use touch for the on-screen keyboard. Navigation is handled by a button and scroll wheel, but the default scrolling sensitivity settings are maddening (you have to scroll a lot to actually do anything), and aside from answering questions (sometimes incorrectly), the Rabbit R1 only lets you interact with four apps right now – and you could perform the same actions in those apps more quickly and efficiently with a phone.
Since both the Rabbit R1 and Humane Ai Pin are basically dumb terminals for cloud-based software, it’s possible that the user experience could improve over time. But right now both devices appear to massively fail to live up to the promises made by the startups that released them.
I haven’t touched a Rabbit R1 myself, but I’ve rounded up some of the first reviews I’ve seen, and they’re all bad. Like really, really bad.
Rabbit R1 reviews
- CNET: Rabbit R1 Review: This AI Device Can’t Replace Your Smartphone Apps Yet
- Digital Trends: The Rabbit R1 is one of the worst gadgets I’ve ever reviewed
- Engadget: A $199 AI toy that fails at almost everything
- MKBHD: Rabbit R1: Barely Reviewable
- PCMag: Rabbit R1 Review
- The Verge: Rabbit R1 review: nothing to see here
- Wired: Rabbit R1 Review: You probably shouldn’t follow this rabbit down the rabbit hole
- XDA Developers: Rabbit R1 review: It doesn’t really matter if it’s ready, you shouldn’t buy it
Security above all else—expanding Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative [Microsoft]
Following several high profile security breaches, Microsoft says it’s making security its “top priority… above all else” across all of its products including Windows, Microsoft 365, and Azure.
abxylute a1 Mobile Controller [abxylute]
The makers of the Abxylute handheld game console (made for cloud game streaming) have announced that their next device is the abxylute a1 customizable mobile controller with hall effect joysticks and triggers. Pricing and launch date TBA.
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The Rabbit concept would be much nicer as a smartwatch app.
I’d like to see a direct comparison of the Axysolute Controller against last year’s GameSir G8 gamepad. Especially when it comes to tablet gaming.
My approach to security.
Turn off the computer when you’re not using it.
Don’t use Windows except when unavoidable.
Use the cloud when convenience outweighs security.
Use encryption when security matters.
Assume you can’t keep the government out (don’t be disruptive).
The Rabbit R1 is a joke. The guts of it is literally the circuit board from a cheap cellphone. The software is an android app. Someone actually copied it and ran it in another cellphone. Rabbit has since pushed an update to keep others from doing the same thing. The question becomes why does this hardware exist if it can be/is just an app?
Unfortunately, all it takes for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing.
All those bad Rabbit R1 reviews can’t all be wrong – right? After seeing the outrageously high price and the cranky UI, my gut feeling was this one would flop.
“Windows is secure!” says the fox to the chicken coop (captive audience). Was security a top priority for Windows and its EternalBlue exploit (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016)?
What about Windows 10’s upcoming “pay for security” downgrade? How does this work when Windows gets its source code leaked giving hackers full access to millions of computers that no longer have security patches.
The solution they want is to just shell out more money to their industry and buy a new computer. The real only solution to using an old Windows computer is to never connect it online.
@[email protected] I’d say the Rabbit R1 is much more of a dumb terminal for AI in the cloud than the AI Pin is but this may not really work to the AI Pin’s advantage because it is questionable whether a pin on your chest and an extremely awkward to use projector with hand gesture recognition is ever going to replace a phone with a touchscreen.