Apple moving forward with iPad on a robot arm as your next smarthome purchase

AppleInsider

Apple's search for new platforms is continuing, with its work on a home robot effectively combining an iPad with a robot arm.

The plan puts an iPad-like display on a robot arm

Following the introduction of the Apple Vision and the seemingly failed Apple Car project, Apple is always looking out for new money-making projects to develop. While it has expressed interest into creating robotics for the home, the first offering could end up being a more advanced form of smart displays already on the market.

Development teams are now reportedly working on a device that uses a robot arm to move around a display, according to sources of Bloomberg. The screen, which can spin around and tilt thanks to various actuators.

The apparent intention is for it to be a central smart home command center, which could also be used for video conferencing. Controlled via Siri and Apple Intelligence features, it will understand commands such as "look at me" to reposition the screen, and to change a camera's focus.

Current expectations are for the device to be introduced by 2026 or 2027. It's planned to have a price tag of $1,000.

A new major project

Allegedly codenamed J595, it was approved for development by management in 2022, but only ramped up development in the last few months.

That team now consists of "several hundred people" working just on that device.

Despite apparent internal concerns that consumers wouldn't buy a robotic device like that, as well as the resources required to make software to drive it, the effort had some major backing. Apple CEO Tim Cook is apparently in favor of it, as well as head of hardware engineering John Ternus.

It is currently under the eye of Kevin Lynch, VP of technology and previously overseer of the Apple Car and health software engineering projects.

Rumor Score: Possible

Read on AppleInsider

rmusikantow

I can't think of one reason why I would want to buy this.

chasm

Might be very useful for some folks with disabilities, deskbound execs who do a lot of Zoom (et al) conferencing, or rich people who like to read in bed.  

But surely if this became an actual product, Apple would just sell the robot arm by itself with a way to connect an existing iPad/iPhone/small screen?

emeeme

so it’s an imac with a more flexible arm?

eightzero

rmusikantow said:

I can't think of one reason why I would want to buy this.

[looks around to find a reason to have this]

Nope.

Kinda reminds me of the dish washing soap commercial: "what does the dishwasher actually *do*?"

entropys

The next Pixar iMac. A homage. That said, if it has behaviour (the robot bit) like the old time Pixar IMac ads, well in real life that could be a bit creepy.

dewme

chasm said:

Might be very useful for some folks with disabilities ...

Absolutely, not to mention older folks who are trying to live independently with minimal outside support. I would expect that it could be summoned to come to the person in need based on voice recognition, a fall detection event from an Apple Watch, emergency alarm (smoke, CO, etc.) going off, etc. Of course it would need to be able to navigate throughout the home and know to get out of the way of the user so it doesn't present a trip hazard or block access to doors or escape routes. Integration with interior and exterior HomeKit/Matter cameras, e.g., "show me the front door, emergency contacts via phone, fire, police, rescue, etc., would be a given. A lot of older folks have pets and would be comforted by knowing where their AirTag'd pet is at all times.

This sort of thing wouldn't be a replacement for those in need of 24x7 home health care but it would definitely be a great help for those who only receive intermittent or infrequent outside home health care support. Being able to summon an iPad-on-a-Stick to where it can be used is very useful,, even if it will only be used to initiate FaceTime calls.

When I first saw the headline for this article I was thinking, like many others, that this was kind of silly. But once you connect all the dots and consider how an autonomous iPad-on-a-Stick could provide a very useful set of capabilities that address very pragmatic concerns it doesn't sound silly at all.

Xed

rmusikantow said:

I can't think of one reason why I would want to buy this.

I can't think of any reason that 'I' would need this based on the articles I've read, but let's not forget that we also don't know anything about the actual product. As always, I'll wait until Apple announces and demos a product before I make a determination (this also goes for established products).

entropys

I’d believe USD$1k for the arm alone. 

it would be cool if it could be applied via VESA mount to any display with camera.

nubus

entropys said:

I’d believe USD$1k for the arm alone.

Add wheels for the usual $699.

Alex_V

This is, evidently, still a thing, I first saw this concept more than ten years ago:
https://www.doublerobotics.com/

Pema

Every week Apple is flailing about for some other bond headed hardware. Short of Steve Jobs Apple is really 'dancing in the dark': 
1) Apple Car - we all know what happened with that. But to save face on the billions of dollars, resources and time wasted we are led to believe that Apple was able to salvage some bits of the effort to morph into other Apple products. Like the trillions waste on moon landings to give us teflon. 
2) Apple Foldable Phone - what a totally useless and pointless nonsensical idea. Like self-lacing sneakers. 
3) Now we have the iPad on a Robot - you have to wonder whether this is an early April Fools 2025. 
4) Not to mention the egregious waste of time and money on scraping stale data, aka AI. I wonder how long this foolishness will continue before someone wakes up and says, hey, the king has no clothes and the whole kit and caboodle blows up like the dot.com bubble. 

Why doesn't Apple invest in the best possible piece of technology for this year and the rest: SECURITY. Everyday you read about someone, or some organisation getting scammed. Apple is already well-versed in all things Security - Build on that to foil the hackers. That would be money well spent than chasing rubbish that turn into dust. 

Xed

Pema said:

Every week Apple is flailing about for some other bond headed hardware. Short of Steve Jobs Apple is really 'dancing in the dark': 
1) Apple Car - we all know what happened with that. But to save face on the billions of dollars, resources and time wasted we are led to believe that Apple was able to salvage some bits of the effort to morph into other Apple products. Like the trillions waste on moon landings to give us teflon. 
2) Apple Foldable Phone - what a totally useless and pointless nonsensical idea. Like self-lacing sneakers. 
3) Now we have the iPad on a Robot - you have to wonder whether this is an early April Fools 2025. 
4) Not to mention the egregious waste of time and money on scraping stale data, aka AI. I wonder how long this foolishness will continue before someone wakes up and says, hey, the king has no clothes and the whole kit and caboodle blows up like the dot.com bubble. 

Why doesn't Apple invest in the best possible piece of technology for this year and the rest: SECURITY. Everyday you read about someone, or some organisation getting scammed. Apple is already well-versed in all things Security - Build on that to foil the hackers. That would be money well spent than chasing rubbish that turn into dust. 

There are a lot of argumentative fallacies in your post. I just to keep my post short, it ignores all the duds under Jobs and makes an odd leap at the end that seems to imply that because of this robot arm rumor that Apple doesn’t invest anything into security.

AppleZulu

This is yet another example of the parable of the blind men and the elephant, where a group of blind men who come across an elephant for the first time in their lives and learn to imagine what they've found by touching it. Each one feels a part of the elephant, and collectively they come up with a description of a robot arm with an iPad.

kdupuis77

rmusikantow said:

I can't think of one reason why I would want to buy this.

Mr. Howard Wolowitz has entered the chat...

gatorguy

Belkin DockKit....

tht

Yes, DockKit seems to be a precursor to this product, if this product ever ships. Seems a rather limited accessory opportunity here. So, its primary purpose seems to be for telepresence-like video conferencing, a kitchen display, or any situation where the user is mobile in a room, but can't touch the computer. 

Not much there imo. Not enough sales, not enough revenue.

I do wish they entered the EV business. They probably were just never willing to go through the capital expenditures of it, and they couldn't find anyone to sink billions of dollars to do it for them. At the scale they likely would have wanted, probably $10b to $20b. Probably thought Tesla had it locked up, but as it turns out, there is a window still and Tesla is vulnerable.

Sedans and trucks with solar PV and V2G. A moped with interchangeable battery cells. A bicycle using the same battery cells, but fewer. Like with AI/LLMs and crypto, full self driving seems more like wishful thinking from the investor class than useful products.

programmer

The article says nothing about a device which is mobile.  It describes an iPad on an arm, presumably with a heavy base or mounting bracket. 

I don’t see myself wanting one of these either, but I think there is a potential here, if the device’s movement is done well.  There is an opportunity to imbue a device with a kind of personality that we haven’t experienced before, outside of movies.  Right now all of our devices are inert and static, with the only “motion” being animations on a glowing screen.  Having a device able to articulate its own “head” has the possibility to imbue it with a life-like nature.  A non-mobile device avoids a whole host of problems.  This sort of animatronic movement has mostly been limited to cheap kids toys with silly canned movements.  A purposeful, solid, near silent motor device which you want to interact with for other reasons (i.e. HomeKit, Internet access, etc), and it uses motion to smooth the interaction… that could be compelling.  

Consider that the voice interactions are going to become much more conversational.  Say you’re moving around your kitchen talking to it about a recipe you’re cooking, and it can track you so you can always read the screen.  Or maybe you’re on FaceTime while you’re moving around, and it stays pointing toward you.  Rotates/tilts its screen slightly like a dog when it doesn’t understand your question or instruction.  Nods or shakes its “head” to emphasize its audible answer.  

Plenty of ideas to explore, and the way we get to the future is by trying some of them.  Over time devices will become more sophisticated.  You don’t leap into the robot market with the ultimate personal servant on the first go.  Trying things that make people go “wut?” is how you find the next paradigm shift.  Robotics is a potentially interesting and large market, nobody really knows what direction it’ll eventually go in, and this seems like an interesting first toe in the water for Apple.  I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

jellybelly

Pema said:

Every week Apple is flailing about for some other bond headed hardware. Short of Steve Jobs Apple is really 'dancing in the dark': 
1)…
2) Apple Foldable Phone - what a totally useless and pointless nonsensical idea. Like self-lacing sneakers. 
3)…
4) Not to mention the egregious waste of time and money on scraping stale data, aka AI. I wonder how long this foolishness will continue before someone wakes up and says, hey, the king has no clothes and the whole kit and caboodle blows up like the dot.com bubble. 

Why doesn't Apple invest in the best possible piece of technology for this year and the rest: SECURITY. Everyday you read about someone, or some organisation getting scammed. Apple is already well-versed in all things Security - Build on that to foil the hackers. That would be money well spent than chasing rubbish that turn into dust. 

2) a foldable flip style hone with an outside screen would allow two or more people to have a conversation in two different languages. 

As an example: As one person (say my neighbor) speaks in Spanish, it’s transcribed to text on his side of the phone stood in an a flipped up L shard formation.  He sees the transcription in Spanish.  On my side, I see the English translation and it is spoke to me in his voice.   I reply in English, which is transcribed for my screen in English, while on his side he sees it written in and hears it in Spanish. The increasing speed of hardware and AI for contextual meaning including idioms, will make it comfortable to have a conversation despite our two different languages.  

Hardware wise, it’s now done with one phone with the phone handed back and forth.  It could be done with two phones but only with the same software/ AI and speech transcription.  Many of my conversations are with someone with no phone or a less expensive phone incapable of the task.  

You could do this with an existing form factor of a non-foldable slab phone but there doesn’t seem to be a profitable multi-use case for a double sided phone screen.   On fold phones, most all have had an outside facing screen.  

Beyond the neighbors example, I see many more use cases in business and government (eg public safety, international relations on non critical discussions.  Tourism would be a great use case—a huge use case. 

4) AI is really in its infancy. As AI progresses, I’m sure we’ll be enjoying its augmenting our abilities to more quickly retrieve or calculate information and at a private usage level where it’s on device and encrypted , it will be very pleasant to use within even a year.  Imagine a session oriented Siri session where you get to correct your input or further refine your request with Siri staying engaged in the context of the conversation.  Since it’s all local, you can offer access to your calendar, reminders, contacts and selective heath information whereby Siri gives a much more appropriate response, also able to take into consideration the same private data about you. You then have more compute power and data in the next level on private cloud compute.  You only go out to a third party LLM with your permission when you might have a tougher challenge NOT involving private sensitive data.  

I will have a prediction that by March 2025 that all the announced features and then some will be operational and quite pleasant to use.  And within a year, 2026, we will be wondering how we did without AI assistance. AI advances seem to be on a six month clock compared to yearly releases of chips.