8 ms·
It's the “hardware”, stupid
- turtleyacht 1y agoSomeday, it won't be a device; it will already be in the air.
- ge96 1y agoCould be a plot device, nanites that only certain people's genetic lineage can control, they wave their hands and the swarms of nanites move like waves as if they were a mage casting a spell
- worthless-trash 1y agoI can't identify your voice spellcaster,try retraining your voice model in the Home app, checking that your correct account is linked, and ensuring the app and device firmware are updated
- ge96 1y agoYour subscription has expired
- saltcured 1y agoThis leads to nanite drone warfare and nanite allergy seasons and all the other craziness in the Diamond Age...
- nightshift1 1y agoA bit like the Transcendence (2014) movie.
- ge96 1y agoFunny full circle, Humane AI pin vs. the sixth sense demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrtANPtnhyg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrtANPtnhyg
- starky 1y agoThe article buries the lede on the only point that matters with these "AI" hardware devices. They need to solve a problem their customers have, and all the devices these companies have released so far don't do anything that a smartphone can't easily do.
- andai 1y agoFor me the interesting part was that OpenAI's only viable option for a mobile OS is Android, while Google is their main competitor.
- dylan604 1y agoWhy is that interesting in why would it matter. Many competitors to Google use Android on their devices. Why would this be different?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- ElijahLynn 1y agoWell, I wouldn't put it past that. It could literally feed Android into an llm context window and probably redesign it to be even better and it already is. Android still has weird laggy jumps and just is not that smooth. Even on the new pixel devices.
- fwip 1y agoIs this... a joke?
- ElijahLynn 1y agoWhich part are you referring to? Creating a new OS from an LLM or that Android still isn't smooth in 2025?
- jasonthorsness 1y agoI don't wear glasses but that's the primary form factor I can imagine. Already socially and legally acceptable, non-audible communication channel plus low-volume audio, points in a direction that generally matches attention. And pre-AI investment in augmented reality has given it a head start.
- fishmicrowaver 1y agoWhat's happened between the failure of Google Glass and now? People not wanting to be creep shotted in public was one of the major reasons it got pulled, as far as I recall. Have people just gotten over it or what?
- jasonthorsness 1y agoIt was early. Social acceptance will happen like it did for phones (although I still get weirded out looking at a bus full of people all staring at a device).
- pjc50 1y agoSocial acceptance for panopticon glasses is going to be very weird.
- NoraCodes 1y ago... why? I imagine most of them are doing the same activity as a bus full of people reading the newspaper or a magazine, just with new forms of media...
- saltcured 1y agoAs an older person, I have to say that it feels palpably different to me. Old time buses with people reading felt a little more like some 80s buses full of people with Walkman headphones. The material was a bit of a performance of "I'm minding my own business". A modern environment with people grafted to their phone apps feels more than that. It sometimes feels more like the movie cliche of an opium den. Here, people aren't just signalling the idea that they are minding their own business. They really are lost in their own world of addiction. A circus clown could ride down the aisle juggling flaming bowling pins and these phone users would not even know.
- ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago> No matter how beautiful its design, it's meaningless without the software to back it up. Word. I worked as a software developer, for hardware companies, most of my career. Most of the upper management came from hardware, and consistently treated software as an afterthought. That may change, this time. Different breed of top managers.
- bee_rider 1y agoIt’s weird because in a hardware company the software becomes a cost. In a software company the software is a magical money printer with zero unit costs.
- ryandrake 1y agoHardware companies treat software as if it were just another line item on the BOM: Like a screw or gasket. Just source this "software thing" from the cheapest bidder, and spoon it into the product on the assembly line somewhere towards the end. That's all hardware companies see. They don't see a software as an ecosystem, as an enabler, as a future way to deliver more and more value. It's just a costly part number that you assemble onto the product.
- upboundspiral 11mo agoNvidia would like a word. If a hardware manufacturer releases software and creates a strong bedrock for others to build on their work then its clearly a strong asset. Granted, this is not at all easy to do, and initial investment into it may be large, but when it works it pays off immensely.
- bee_rider 11mo agoNvidia has definitely earned a word, but I think they fit here actually—do they make much money on software? They do have a little portal with some programs for sale. But, like, CUDA is zero-cost for users. All the work put into CUDA is purely an investment in enabling people who’ve bought their hardware.
- rs186 1y agoI wish more people pointed out the obvious when the Vision Pro hype was everywhere on HN. > The crux of the problem was clear: these devices were captivated by "technical possibilities," but failed to address "user problems." Hmm.
- accrual 1y agoTo me, the wild part is the Vision Pro has the hardware to be something people could potentially use daily, especially with the new M4 update. Someone might prefer working in a virtual space rather than on a physical display depending on their situation. But it seems high cost, the walled garden, and inability to compute directly on the headset limits its appeal. It needs a Mac tethered to it despite its powerful SoC.
- layer8 1y agoM5. And it’s still uncomfortable to wear for most people.
- _vaporwave_ 1y ago> The iPhone wasn't successful because of its beautiful design. It was because it packed everything we needed every day—phone calls, music, internet, photos, maps—into a single device. Have to disagree here. There were many devices before (and after) the iPhone that offered this package but it stands above the rest because of its design and polish.
- worthless-trash 1y agoI think it was mostly the marketing.
- rocketvole 1y agoI've seen this argument thrown around but I'm not sure I understand how it holds up. Why didn't android just completely copy apple's marketing, then? What did apple do differently,marketing wise, that android couldn't emulate?
- spogbiper 1y agoThere is some value to the idea as Apple was a single manufacture with a somewhat high end image vs Android being on every random company, some who were decidedly budget/low end. So we seem some real tacky advertising for Android devices vs more polished ads for iPhone. But there is more to the story than just this factor
- squeaky-clean 1y agoTheir whole marketing campaign was basically "You've never seen anything like this before, no one has made a phone capable of all this". You can't really copy that marketing if you're the second company making such a product unless you want to be laughed at.
- IcyWindows 11mo agoThey had a deal with AT&T with a data plan that no one else could get. It made every other what phone useless in comparison.
- proee 1y agoI would love to know if Ives was truly foundation to the iPhone, or if he was more given the overall idea and polished it with the final look/feel (which is also important). Who was the exact individual that had the vision for glass multi-touch screens and sick gesture like effects (scroll). Perhaps the team just sat around a table and came up with the vision. Or maybe it was Jobs, but clearly there were some good visionaries in the company. I think the proof of Ive's excellence will come out of this next OpenAI project. If it's something lame, then I will assume his impact at Apple was overrated. If it's a jaw-dropper, then maybe he really is the cat's meow.
- gmm1990 1y agoI think he could have been instrumental to the iphone (not saying he was or wasn't) and whatever he tries next is a complete flop. The ability to be successful is contextual, and great artists can produce mediocre art.
- bee_rider 1y agoDid iOS actually invent the idea of scrolling with a gesture? I could have sworn it already existed at the time. Like panning over a map on a GPS… The momentum on iOS is nicely tuned though.
- HeyLaughingBoy 1y agoI know mouse gestures existed previously because I remember someone on /. talking about them circa 2000 and I had to look up what they were. But I don't remember what they were being used for.
- overvale 1y ago> Ultimately, the answer is simple: reinventing AI is essentially reinventing the smartphone. I don’t think this is true at all. The smartphone is not some kind of endgame device after which there is no future. No more so than the train was the endgame of transportation. Why are we limiting our imagination about the future to only include what is true today?
- layer8 1y agoOn the other hand, a mobile AI device will only become really successful if it can replace the smartphone, and we aren’t anywhere close to that.
- overvale 1y agoI don’t agree with that. I see people carrying around iPads, clipboards, physical books, sheets of paper, paper notebooks, dedicated cameras, even walkie talkies. All of those people have smartphones in their pockets as well.
- jimbokun 1y agoAI obviously doesn't need a dedicated hardware device to succeed. It's having massive success already as people access it from any of the devices they already own. Smart phone, laptop, headsets, VR goggles, AI can work with all of these just fine. I think part of Apple's struggles with AI is they can't find a way to tie it to their hardware in a differentiating way. Since it's so cloud based and there are few compelling use cases for running worse models locally, "AI" works just as well on any device.
- fmajid 1y agoMore like: it's the stupid hardware
- 0xbadcafebee 1y agoKind of weird that nobody's talking about getting rid of the hardware? An ESP32 that streams compressed audio over a mobile connection is all you should need to replace the "smarts" in a cellphone. Have a remote server do it all, and the local device is just a glorified mic and earbud. Give me a clickwheel and an audible user interface and I can do 90% of what I use a computer for.
- brendoelfrendo 1y agoBecause that sounds terrible? What would I use this for? Reading email or browsing the internet? I can read faster than an AI can dictate to me. Though I'm sure I could adapt somewhat, as I understand that people using screen-readers are already able to use them quite quickly, I don't really want to. I can't play my favorite games via an audio interface, I can't watch a movie, and just about any attempt at using such a device for work would be compromised by the knowledge that I'd be able to do the same thing more efficiently with a keyboard. Heck, just the idea of verbalizing commands means I probably can't use it for work outside of an office, because I can't exactly go around in public verbalizing company information every time I need to get something done on the go.
- galaxyLogic 1y ago> iPhone wasn't successful because of its beautiful design Relatively speaking I think that gave it an edge which helped make it successful. I don't think Apple products in general have the best most usable designs, but they do have the most beautiful, most stylish most sophisticated-looking designs. People want that because a device like phone is part of their identity.
- macNchz 1y agoTotally. In a world of pretty ugly flip phones and Blackberries, the minimalist early iPhone designs definitely looked cool at the time, and were attention grabbing to a degree. I think it definitely kept that edge for some time against early Android phones, which weren't necessarily as attractive.
- ElijahLynn 1y agoyeah, the Macbook for example, looks pretty, but its sharp aluminum edge cuts into my palm when I use the track pad, so I have black electrical tape on it so that it is functional. Which destroys its beauty. I'd take an aluminum router to it if I could, but it is a work laptop (on lease). And unfortunately I can't use a Linux laptop here otherwise I would...
- nancyminusone 1y agoWell, "the hardware" is also so locked down that even if a third party has a great idea of something to do with it, they won't be able to.
- jdthedisciple 1y agoOff topic, but why does the site load a gazillon different fonts? https://static.cafenono.com/fonts/font-face.css https://static.cafenono.com/fonts/font-face.css
- vivzkestrel 11mo agowhy doesnt OpenAI use Fuchsia OS if Android is a competitor? maybe build something like Rosetta 2 for porting Android apps and running it over Fuchsia