We're living in pretty exciting times. AI is one of the biggest tech trends at the moment and it is penetrating a surprising amount of markets, even outside tech. Everyone is trying to be at the forefront of AI, and it's why we're seeing the interesting trend of standalone AI hardware like the Humane Pin and the Rabbit R1.
The Rabbit R1 is the focus for the day, because it just launched a few days ago, and reviews and first impressions are pouring out already. However, it seems there are certain impressions that the entire thing is an Android app running on unnecessary hardware, but Rabbit has come out with a statement disagreeing.
It Seems The Rabbit R1 Could Have Been An App, But The Rabbit CEO Disagrees (Naturally)
The Rabbit R1 launches as one of the first two standalone AI-focused devices ever. It comes soon after the Humane AI Pin launched, but at a much more affordable price point and without the need to hop onto a subscription. With first impressions coming in, we've been able to confirm something that should have been pretty obvious from the start: the Rabbit R1 doesn't really do anything that an app on your smartphone can't do better.
In fact, initial reports from sources like Android Authority seemed to prove that under all the fancy hardware from Teenage Engineering (which is admittedly very nice to look at), the Rabbit R1 runs Android and its interface is simply an Android app. The APK for that Android app was able to be extracted and installed on an Android phone.
Using this, the journalist was able to move through the interface, talk to the AI assistant, and create a Rabbithole account. That's not all the functionality of the Rabbit R1, and Android Authority even admitted that they didn't expect every single aspect of the Rabbit R1 to be perfectly replicable on an Android device. However, it does show that at the end of the day, it's really just Android, and our smartphones do things better.
In fact, Jesse Lyu, the CEO and founder of Rabbit, has argued against calling the interface of the Rabbit R1 an app. Responding to Android Authority, he said:
rabbit r1 is not an Android app. We are aware there are some unofficial rabbit OS app/website emulators out there… rabbit OS and LAM run on the cloud with very bespoke AOSP and lower level firmware modifications, therefore a local bootleg APK without the proper OS and Cloud endpoints won’t be able to access our service. rabbit OS is customized for r1 and we do not support third-party clients…
Jesse Lyu, Founder and CEO, Rabbit
In other words, he says that the Rabbit R1 is not an Android app (careful choice of language, as the Rabbit R1 is the device itself). He has confirmed that the device runs on what is essentially Android, but certain specific hardware ties will prevent ripped APKs from being able to do the same things that the R1 does.
My Opinion Is That These Devices Bring Nothing Unique To The Table
Look, I'll say it straight up: I think the Humane Pin and the Rabbit R1 are great collector's items for big fans of tech, but I don't see them being the disruptors that they think they'll be. Both of them barely do any of their processing on-device, which means you have to wait each time that they reach out to the cloud to process your request.
Sure, the Rabbit R1 can do a few things that your smartphone with its APK installed can't do. But it's hard to say that Rabbit couldn't have done the work from the very beginning to bundle everything into an Android application. There's no problem being solved that your Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy can't do better and faster, and that's what I think.
