Very fashionable in recent months, objects based on AI and designed to replace our phones do not seem to be unanimously accepted by the public and the specialized press.
Only a few weeks after the flop of the Humane Pin, another object based on artificial intelligence seems to be following the same direction. The Rabbit R1, a small orange case launched by the young company Rabbit, has been available for a few days on the company’s official website. While many Internet users jumped on the product in question (we are talking about 10,000 units sold when pre-orders opened), the latter would ultimately be nothing more than a simple Android application housed in a small plastic box and sold at 199 dollars.
But what is the Rabbit R1? This little box displays a little companion in the shape of a rabbit and presents itself as an alternative to our smartphones. Based in particular on artificial intelligence, the Rabbit R1 is able to answer your questions, manage your messages and emails, take photos, search the web, and many other functions already available or to come.
Unlike the Humane Pin, whose number of bugs reported upon release is still colossal at the time of writing, the Rabbit R1 seems rather stable according to the first tests in the specialist press. The object seems to be doing well in responding to users’ questions and requests.
Only problem: this object, designed to replace our phones, would in reality be a simple Android application that can be launched… On a phone. It’s the AndroidAuthority site which, a few days ago, managed to launch the Rabbit R1 on a smartphone.
Site members were then able to ask the app questions and get answers as if it were the Rabbit R1. We can then easily deduce that the Rabbit R1 would be a simple application disguised and housed in a small plastic case sold for 200 euros.
The company, however, wanted to react to the AndroidAuthority article by specifying that the Rabbit R1 was not an application, but that it was certainly possible to use it on a device other than the box sold by the company. This manipulation would, however, present risks according to the Rabbit company, which cites confidentiality and piracy problems.