In another significant leadership reshuffle at Apple, a little-known robotics team will soon move from AI chief John Giannandrea’s oversight to John Ternus, Apple’s senior VP of Hardware Engineering, according to a new report Thursday.
This shift follows last month’s decision to remove Siri from Giannandrea’s responsibilities after concerns about execution on product development.
Everybody loves Pixar’s beloved toy-lamp mascot, Luxo Jr., right? Apple just made a new lamp-like robot prototype that looks super similar. The iPhone giant’s machine learning research team developed an expressively social robotic prototype in desk-lamp form, according to a recent paper, blog post and video.
The new robot could figure into rumored plans for a robotic home hub — and it could reshape how we interact with smart home devices.
Teams in Cupertino are working on Apple personal home robotic devices, including a mobile robot and a table-top device with a moving display, according to a new report.
These early efforts toward Apple robots could constitute future revenue sources now that the Project Titan car sits on the scrap heap.
Want a fun STEM toy that will teach a child to build robots and write code? This palm-size DIY robotic dog is just the thing. Like a palm-size version of Boston Dynamics’ creepy robotic creations, Petoi’s robot dog Bittle can walk, run, climb and perform any trick a kid can code or download.
It’s a perfect project to get your favorite youngling interested in coding and robotics. And right now, the Bittle robot dog kit is on sale for just $299 (regularly $329).
Robotics startup Anki, which graced the stage at WWDC in 2013, has closed up shop. The company previously raised more than $200 million in funding, but it had seemingly burned through the money.
Anki revealed this week that it will lay off its entire staff of almost 200 people. The startup previously enjoyed acquisition interest from the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Comcast.
The Cult of Mac store added a raft of awesome new gear, gadgets and apps this week. And below we’ve gathered some of the very best of the bunch for your weekend shopping pleasure.
We’ve got a bundle of Arduino tools and lessons, a powerful app for turning Apple Mail into a productivity platform, a full terabyte of cloud storage, and a fighter-jet-style head-up display for your car. Most of them are discounted by more than 80 percent. Read on for details!
Apple has added yet another wicked smart talent to its ranks recently by hiring famed robotics expert Yoky Matsuoka.
Yoky was working as the head of technology at Nest before joining Apple. She was also one of the co-founders of Google’s X Lab and is a MacArthur genius award winner.
My dog has a new archenemy, and its name is Botvac.
Neato’s tiny automated robotic vacuum stirs my dog into a fit of worried anger every afternoon I send it out for a round of sweeping and vacuuming. It’s so magical my dog doesn’t trust it.
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords. Mostly because I’m too lazy to be bothered with tasks like vacuuming.
SuitX, a company driven to lower the cost on bionic technology to help people walk, won a prestigious robotics competition that will help it fund a pediatric exoskeleton for children with neurological disorders.
Last week started with SuitX debuting an exoskeleton for $40,000 and ended Saturday with a $1 million prize in the United Arab Emirates AI and Robotics Award for Good.
Guests of the boutique Aloft Silicon Valley hotel might be a little surprised to see its newest employee.
It might be his height or his odd way of moving around, or it might be the basket of towels where its head should be. But mostly, it’s going to be weird because the new guy is a robot, and that’s just inherently strange at this point in history.
LAS VEGAS — Remember Anki, the little iOS-powered toy car app that Apple brought up on stage for its World Wide Developers Conference last year?
We got to catch up with them at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show to talk about the app, the AI-controlled toy cars, and how they’ve created the latest must-have toy gadget with Apple’s help.
Earlier this year, the leader and visionary behind Android, Andy Rubin -—the man Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once called an “arrogant f***” — stepped down as head of Google’s mobile OS. What’s he been doing since?
Well, if there’s any accuracy to claims Rubin ripped off Apple to make Android, then this time, it looks like Rubin intends to steal inspiration from Skynet. Rubin’s latest project for Google? Frickin’ robots.
Siri’s got a ton of talents. She’s an amateur movie critic. She knows all about robotics. Plus, she’s pretty decent at her main job as a personal assistant.
Siri’s never been a great comedian, and whoever was put in charge of making Siri more witty and conversational is just making her look more dorky. Now whenever you ask Siri to tell you a joke, she replies with, “Get Siri-ous. Ha ha!” The joke is bad enough, but the little “Ha ha!” at the end makes Siri sound like some high school nerd at open mic night. Hopefully Tim Cook and the gang will teach Siri some better jokes before WWDC 2013.
Source: Reddit
I’ve waited over two decades to own a real robot. It was one of those silly childhood dreams to own something straight out of Terminator that obeys commands, spies on people, and rains down havoc if need be. Even though we’re in the year 2012, we still haven’t managed to create affordable robots, which is a pretty big letdown if you ask me. Thankfully, we’re getting closer, and playing with the new Parrot AR. Drone 2.0 has given me hope that the toys of the future are going to kick some major ass.
