Rabbit R1

I don't feel like there is all that much that a device like this could do for me that I can't already do with my phone. I don't get all the hype. I like my tech and all but not sure quite what all the fuss is about.

It's unlikely the founder will engage on Reddit; they prefer spending time on Discord. However, that server is so chaotic that it's hard to keep up, even for those with full sight.

Oh, and I did leave a comment on that thread.

I'm also known as kool_turk on there.

The large action model is where this thing will hopefully shine, making completely inaccessible apps accessible to us.

At least, that's the theory.

Who knows, perhaps in a few months when iOS 18 is out and Siri can do this, it'll all be a moot point.

This is an interesting gadget but I think there are 2 problems I struggle with.

Firstly, I don't know how much I would need the screen to use it - the demos all had a big confirm button on the screen. I emailed them a few months ago asking about how accessible it was and they didn't reply.

The other problem I have is the form factor. I'm already going to be carrying around my phone and I can't quite believe that I can replace it with this. So as a supporting gadget, it just doesn't feel that convenient. Contrast it with the ray-bans which I'd be happy to wear anyway. Or my Echo which I can just shout at any time in the home. Or even the AI Pin which I can clip to me, although I might end up in casualty with burns.

So it has that feeling of a gadget that I'd love to play with but I'm just not convinced I would use enough.

The one good thing is that it is crazy cheap for what it is. I'm looking forward to the reviews.

I still wonder exactly who this is for and what we would be expected to do with it. But then I lack the imagination to use apps like Pi anyway so maybe it's just me.

I think everyone is so desperate to jump on the AI bandwagon that it's being chucked at us from every single direction all the time without necessarily any thought for why. This generation of gadgets feels very proof of concept to me. A slight case of having a solution and trying to find the problem to use with it. In a year or two when the excitement has come down a touch and we have all figured out what to do with this and how to properly pay for it then we are in for some good times.

I guess the issue is, this couldn't do what it does as an app on iPhone, IOS is too locked down. By making the hardware they have complete control It's a software company, not a hardware company, I think. Gone are the days it's hardware we're buying into, exceptions might be headphones, speakers, but generally these devices are means of feeding us services, the window through which we pay... Or a gnarled hand reaches out from and drags us in...

Is it here yet? If not, try getting a refund. I honestly doubt anyone else will want it.

I don't see the point personally, it just reminds me of an Alexa with perhaps, and this is a big perhaps, a bit more computing power.

I emailed the team about accessibility but like everyone else, I didn't get a response.

Ollie, you do have a good point there. iOS probably is to locked down for this. But I still don't see the need for a device like this. Like has already been said, these devices seem to be trying to find a solution when the problem has not been clearly identified.

What exactly does this thing do that an alexa or google home can't?

The makers throw around words like large language moddle to sound impressive but I honestly don't get what's so impressive about it, it seams to grab apps or whatever you want to call them and thai them to this thing like any other smart assistant device.

They act like it's revilutionary but I don't see it.

This thing sold thousands of units because it was cheap.

MP3 players were also cheap before the iPod came along.

Right now, these so-called AI devices don't do anything that your smartphone or smart speaker can't do.

Right now, they're all talking the talk, but will they be able to walk the walk?

We'll just have to wait and see.

I didn't jump onto the bandwagon, even though the R1 will be shipping to Australia later in the year.

I'm not buying it, because it's an extra thing to carry with you, plus, it isn't accessible.

We'll see what happens in June.

Knowing Apple, it'll probably only be for their latest devices, and if you're on something like a 12, you're out of luck.

I feel like a lot of you are confused when it comes to Rabbit R1. A lot of you are saying that R1 is similar to Alexa or Google Home or HomePod. To be honest, I totally disagree and here’s why.

One, the R1 is trainable. What that means is that you can train it to do whatever you want, although this is limited at the moment.

2. it’s true that the Amazon Echo is going to have AI features soon. However, I’ve read that they’re gonna make you pay to use these AI features.

3. what I really like about the Rabbit R1 is that, for example, let’s say that I want to order something from Papa John’s. I’d say, please order a thin crust pizza from Papa John’s with pepperoni on top and add pepper and, well, you can add any vegetables you want. Anyways, it will do it for you. It will create the order and you will just have to confirm the order and it will order it for you. Within time, it will learn what you like and dislike when it comes to ordering food and it will suggest new things to try. That way, you're saving time and discovering new things depending on your taste.

Furthermore, I believe that what the company behind the Rabbit R1 has done is simply amazing. The Rabbit R1 isn’t simply just using perplexity to answer your questions. It’s also simulating or creating AI agents that can do what you want, depending on how you train it. The fact that they’ve done that on a device in a small factor such as the Rabbit R1 with really good pricing is simply amazing.

I suggest that we don’t make decisions or have early opinions about it yet, that’s a no to self by the way to. However, I feel like that compare to the AI pin by humane, this is going to be much much better!

Yes, because this one doesn't literally burn you.

Speaking of being burnt by the AI Pin, they're apparently working on a fix for that.

I'm in both Discord communities, and the Rabbit Discord is quite chaotic.

Chaotic, as in it's really hard to keep up.

You can't search for something because when a message comes in, you lose focus.

I get the feeling that there are also not many visually impaired people engaging with them in these communities.

Even email support for Rabbit directs you to Discord.

That's all well and good, but not everyone has, wants, or feels comfortable using Discord.

They said the R1 doesn't currently have a screen reader, nor did they say when it will even have one.

I mean, it took until the PlayStation 5 before it had a proper screen reader, and the Switch doesn't have one; not sure if the Switch 2 will have it.

But I'm getting off track, so I'll stop before I go off on a tangent.

It wasn't that long ago that I would have thought a screen reader on a games console was a bit of a waste of time. I remember when it was announced that the PS5 had one and I thought that's great, but what am I actually able to do with it? I still don't think it would be worth a purchase even though I was a keen gamer before my sight went.

On the other hand, the Rabbit is a device that feels so perfectly suited to blind people - it's mainly audio based like a less convenient but otherwise super-charged Echo. The benefits to us seem really obvious to me. And the touch screen is likely a very tiny part of what it offers, but unfortunately a crucial one.

So I feel less inclined to let them off the hook. It is disappointing when you see something like ChatGPT come out and it seems like the future is here and look at this thing made by the most intelligent minds in the world universe. And you get button button button.

I guess if you are in this world then that sort of thing seems so foreign that it probably doesn't enter in the discussions at any level but it feels like these are all problems that have been solved already, so why are they still there?

I'll freely admit that the ps5 doesn't have tonnes and tonnes of games we can play, there's The last of us series, spiderman 2, mk1, god of war ragnarock, and some others I think, and TLOU and MK1 are the only fully playable ones, spiderman 2 is doable with a bit of pacients, and god of war ragnarock is sort of accessible but the menus don't speak.

Over all I'm glad I have a ps5 to play TLOU 2 and will be buying 3 when it comes out in a couple years but won't miss it when/if I sell it.

As for the screen reader? Honestly, it's great! I'd say every menu speaks, not every game menu; the devs have to program that themselves, but every console menu, it's really good and I can't wait to see what the ps6 has to offer.

That's interesting but I can do that with uber eats.

The only use I can think i'd get out of this would be something like teaching it to click on not intrested in youtube for me but it probably wouldn't be able to do that and plus, saying something like rabbit click not interested every time would get very tedious.

I don't mind talking to my devices but I do feel that limits things in a way, for example; I probably wouldn't be able to explore youtube using this and if i could, i'd probably not be able to explore it as well as a computer screen reader could.

OK I know this is totally off topic but.... what? Spider man 2 can be played without sight??? I played the first one when I could see and it was great. I tried Miles Morales but my sight wasn't up to the task so I stopped the second I got into the open world.

Are you telling me I could actually play the game by myself all the way through?

Bearing in mind I am a lazy gamer - is this only for the blind elite?

Sorry I don't think there's anywhere else on here I can post this.

On the subject of the rabbit, I would be curious to know how accurate it is. If I ordered a particular type of pizza and a herd of elephants ends up on my doorway then... well, frankly count me in.

I've not beaten it completely but a couple of blind people have, the thing is; if you're lazy; you probably won't like pressing l or r3 a lot which is what you need to do to have the camra face the right way.

this video should help you out, it's brandon coll (superblindman,) playing spiderman 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOJGvrrSJCA

The video is long; (4 hours,) and he doeshave more of them on his channel, you have to press enter on the live tab and h down until you find the one you want.

He is playing the game so there will be a lot of spoilers but it might be cool if you don't want to play it and want to hear the accessibility in action.

Pm me here if you want to know more, we can't chat more than this or the mods will tell us off :)

So just to clarify, you can order anything from Uber Eats using your voice I don’t have to scroll through different restaurants to find what you want and get to the restaurant and order from there?
I’m being serious because I’ve been using oats and I haven’t seen an option where it lets you Order something with one click

I wouldn't get a PlayStation 5 just for a handful of games. The same goes for Xbox.

R1 has potential, just not in its current state.

The way they present their large action model is like handing your phone to your friend and asking them to do a certain task for you.

I think if I were these companies, I would have held off until I was able to deliver what I promised, rather than announce to the world, "This is what we're planning on doing, but it won't be ready until 6 months later.

So, if your friend has your phone and is scrolling through the menus and tapping on things, they would ask you a whole bunch of questions.

"What topping do you want on your pizza?"

"What size drink do you want, etc., etc.?"

In theory, the R1 should also do this using voice, but in the presentation, I think those prompts popped up on the screen.

If they could come up with an interface that's entirely operated by voice, then technically, you wouldn't need a screen reader because you could then just ask it to read the screen to you. And if you have options to choose from, you could ask it to number them.

Then you would simply have to say, "Pick option 3," kind of like the voice control that's in iOS.

So, all that's left now is to somehow make the keyboard terminal and the viewfinder for the camera accessible.

Speaking of the R1, here is a review from the same guy that said the AI Pin was "The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed... For Now."

This one is titled... "Rabbit R1: Barely Reviewable."

The review is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddTV12hErTc

It goes for about 19 minutes, and the reviewer says something in there that I'm sure we can all relate to.

I'm going to paraphrase because I don't remember the exact wording.

### The Changing Product Landscape

Basically, in the past, companies would make a product, then sell it. These days, products are made, and they improve over time.

So you're basically paying for a crappy product at launch, full price mind you, and hoping it will improve over time.

This also includes games.

If you still want to watch the review, go ahead, but the reviewer doesn't really put the Rabbit R1 through its paces, because this thing is basically, to quote the reviewer, "AI in a box."

Personally, I'd rather wait for these devices to mature, and who knows, by then, the tech giants would have caught up.

I'm glad I didn't buy this thing, the speaker sounds terrible, and I thought you'd get around it using your voice but nope, you need to scroll.

Also the amount of emails we've sent with nothing back should tell you exactly what their company thinks of us.

I'll be staying away from this one.

I'll give these AI startups one thing, and that is they push out updates when they are ready.

There's no need to wait an entire year for a major software update.

If these tech giants are serious about embracing the whole large language model, large action model thing, they really need to stop releasing major updates once a year.

Otherwise, you're going to be playing this constant game of cat and mouse.

If Rabbit actually got their head in the game, they could easily give these smartphones a run for their money, and they may do so, just not in its current stage.

I got an email the other day saying my R1 is in the warehouse. "That's nice," I thought, and went on with my day.
As I've mentioned before, I was happy to get the R1 free with a year's Perplexity Pro, so at this point, it feels like a 'sunk cost.'
Not sure what to do with it when it arrives? Landfill, I suppose.

I just have to keep telling myself 'this isn't the most expensive lesson I've learnt in my life...' I still feel like an idiot!

Still shrinkk-wrapped over there, on the side. I suspect it will stay there until I eventually toss it in the recycling.

You have, without a doubt, the most sophisticated paperweight. Ever.

Stand proud!

If you're familiar with the process, you can actually 'free' the Rabbit by installing Android on it. There are videos showcasing the R1's capabilities when running Android. I'm not an expert in this area, and I don't use Android myself, but I wanted to share what I've discovered. The hardware might not be entirely useless after all.

So is this totally dead in the water?

I did hear that there was a server farm somewhere running Selenium or some such and just loading up web pages and clicking buttons and the large action model was basically a fraud. I've no idea if this is true or not.

Or is this because there is no accessibility in it so it's useless for us in particular?

Is there no chance of redemption for this rabbit?

As the Vergecast just reminded me - I do at least own a Teenage Engineering product now.