I mean these kinds of “AI companions” are grifts anyway. They won’t take off because they are a solution looking for a problem. They aren’t as affordable as the entry level HomePod/Amazon Pod/Google Home units, so they can’t be bought as a “why not, and it’s a speaker anyway” type thing. They don’t have any secondary functionality you don’t already have in your phone.
And if that’s not enough, you can bet your cute arse on that Apple and Google are both working on bringing LLM functions into their assistants, basically making these units obsolete.
The moment that these companies decide that they can’t afford to pay for servers and API subscriptions anymore, the service will die and you’ll end up with a colourful brick. Don’t buy these things, they’re unfinished and will die within a year or two.
That wouldn’t surprise me. I think there’s a Siri shortcut for integrating with ChatGPT. It’s not the most elegant of solutions but it works well enough. I’m quite sure that this year we’ll see whatever Google and Apple has cooked up in terms of machine learning integration into the operating systems. Likely a flagship feature of the new Pixel phones, and definitely a significant Siri update on iPhone, probably along with some gimmicky feature to sell the new 16 Pros.
At that point, who is going to care about these devices?
The ultimate issue is exactly what you said; phones exist. I’m not carrying another voice assistant around when both Siri and Google Assistant can be installed on my phone.
Based on MKBHD’s review this whole product category definitely screams “solution in search of a problem”
Yeah, build this into a watch or Earbud that I already have on person for other reasons but gives me hands free access to a decent AI when I don’t have my phone on me, and I might have some interest.
Rabbit has a SIM slot. I think the idea is that once its software gets better, it will be able to be a replacement for a phone for people who just want to quickly do simple things. Its battery seems to be pretty rubbish, though, and for now, the software is not nearly good enough.
But you can literally buy a cheap android phone for less than this device that does everything it does (and might do some day), maybe even better. Why buy a strange and unfamiliar form factor, when most people are comfortable with a smartphone already? They can just choose not to interact with anything other than the assistant if they really want to, and still be better off.
I agree, fairly gimmicky, but I do like the idea of being able to press a single button to ask a quick question. I like my meta glasses for the same reason, but they need some improvement, and quite frankly, I’d like them a whole lot more if they were from someone other than meta. Also, I like the smallest of it. If I could get away with carrying just a tiny box, sometimes I’d do that. The software on it needs to get much better, so hopefully, they stick with it.
On Pixel (but probably also other phones) you can press and hold the power button to summon the assistant. Put chatgpt or whatever as your assistant and you have a rabbit equivalent with one button summon.
Great point! Here are samsung instructions for this.
Download chatgpt from play store (ensure its by open ai and not a scam app). Set it up and make sure you have access to the voice feature
Download good lock from galaxy store (NOT play store)
In the good lock app, In the “life up” section, download the “RegiStar” module.
Open the RegiStar module and click the “side key press and hold action” setting. Turn it on
In the options underneath, choose “open app”. Then scroll to the chat gpt app in the list, and click the setting icon next to the name. Then click “voice”.
Now you should be able to long press the side button to directly access the chatgpt voice assistant.
The rabbit is also just an android apk. You could literally install the rabbit on a cheap phone if you’d like. It’s beyond useless.
What someone needs to do is put something similar into something all cutesy like a Furby, and sell it for kids. Just a $100 wifi only PG rated thing that can do some fun stuff. It wouldn’t change the world, but it could run a few years of actual profiting and not feel like a rip-off.
Like, I can imagine a world where a smart watch replaces my phone for day to day stuff, but that’s because I’m in that weird space where I prefer a laptop for almost anything serious, but still appreciate the convenience and functionality of remaining connected wherever I am, even if I’m on the move.
But another device I need to keep in my pocket? What’s the point?
In addition to being able to run the exact same thing on that phone you already have, too.
Their device does not have any specific hardware for their usage. Even if Google and Apple don’t bring any improvement to their own solution, soon enough someone is bound to just provide an “assistant AI app” with a subscription, proxying openai requests and using the touchscreen, camera, micro and speaker that are already there instead of making you buy a new set of those.
Yes, there is. And yes, it would be huge. I know a lot of people that are staying away from all this as long as the privacy issues are not resolved (there are other issues, but at this point, the cat is out of the bag).
But running large models locally requires a ton of resource. It may become a reality in the future, but in the meantime allowing more, smaller provider to provide a service (and a self-hosted option, for corporation/enthusiasts) is way better in term of resources usage. And it’s already a thing; what needs work now is improving UI and integrations.
In fact, very far from the “impressive” world of generated text and pictures, using LLM and integrations (or whatever it is called) to create a sort of documentation index that you can query with natural language is a very interesting tool that can be useful for a lot of people, both individual and in corporate environment. And some projects are already looking that way.
I’m not holding my breath for portable, good, customized large models (if only for the economics of energy consumption) but moving away from “everything goes to a third party service provider” is a great goal.
In the early days of laser development, it was seen as a solution seeking a problem. A few decades later, it actually turned out to be really handy, but it would have been tough to sell this idea to anyone before that. Imagine how hard it is to find funding for research that solves a problem that doesn’t exist.
They’re a solution looking to solve a problem that already has a well established better solution. The modern smart phone and voice assistats have been around for 14+ years…
For all these Ai devices can currently accomplish, our budget $200 phones can do an unmeasurable amount more.
If anyrhing, they should be focusing on the voice assistant aspect - “Hey google, add nearest gas station to my trip” “Here’s a list of gas stations (I know you’re driving but please review this list and select one using the tiny select button)” {presses button} “Please enable location data analytics to continue”
The article also calls this a “leak.” Is it really a leak if it’s in the insider Windows build that Microsoft makes freely available to anyone who wants it?
I’m pretty sure you can turn these off with local group policy. And if you can, I’m sure someone will make a script to do it for you.
Personally, I set up AD for my own devices a long time ago, when I got pissed off about Windows 10 rebooting my PC while I’d stepped away to eat dinner and killing everything I had open. So I also use it to set group policy to turn off things like this. But this is far overkill for the average person.
DNS based ad blockers (I run one, it’s great, highly recommend) can’t block something if the address is both legit and also serves ads. For instance, if MS used the same domain name for updates and windows key validation as it does for ads, you’d quickly run into an issue. Especially if (please don’t read this MS), they required validation on every boot, then replied with a payload combination of a the ads and a “yea you’re legit and can boot”.
Also, MS could easily (and has) coded some processes to not lookup DNS addresses in things like LMHOSTS or HOSTS, they could just as easily bypass DNS itself. They certainly have plenty of public IPs they could have a process submit to the network stack.
DNS based blocking only works for regular DNS requests.
At this point, any app that wanted to bypass that could use DoH/DoT+ECH to completely bypass your DNS and thus the blocking it provides. With these tools, all you’d see is an outgoing TLS connection to a remote IP; all other data is encrypted.
If I implement my service to use the same underlying IP address for the primary service/critical access that I use for advertising services (e.g., I put a load balancer and have Windows Advertising integrated with Windows Update via the same IP addresses), you can’t block the IP without breaking Windows Update.
That’s worse for other ingrained systems, e.g., a news app that actually has to send you content could do this instead of using separate IPs for the advertising service, and then if you want to use their service you have to accept the advertising packets.
If you’re relying on DNS for your blocking as well, it’s entirely possible to distribute the IP address information without ever involving DNS by syncing up the appropriate IPs out of band on some built in IP addresses hard coded in the binary (plenty of things do this sort of thing already for security purposes, they want to minimize the risk of a local DHCP server handing out some garbage DNS record and sending you a virus via their update mechanism).
I could go on.
Do yourself a favor and learn a bit more about how this shit works lest you look like an idiot.
Don’t be a dick; especially if you don’t know what you’re talking about. Thanks.
Clicking a checkbox in a settings menu is so complicated, though!
Simpler to install Linux, a whole new operating system, and try to figure out how to either run your Windows apps there or find new equivalent applications to use.
Until it turns itself back on during an update. Or hey implement another version that has its own off switch buried somewhere, etc.
It’s bloat and hassle.
You shouldn’t have to do maintenance on a brand new Windows install. Set preferences and install apps? Sure. But expecting everyone to go through a checklist of shit to turn off? Nah. That’s user hostile and so tedious.
Checklists and debloating procedures like that can feel like something an expert would do. And can feel like what a good computer user should do, but that’s a limited mindset that is a niche among all Windows platform users.
Warning, car analogy:
Imagine if you bought a new car and had to scrape a bunch of advertisement decals off it. And you have to remove unneeded features like spoilers that are dragging you down. Oh, and randomly in the middle of the night the dealer tracks your car down and applies new decals that you will want to scrape off your windshield when you get a chance.
I've worked with a Linux installation that had plenty of bloat and marketing by default too, I spent a fair bit of time combing through it turning off stuff I definitely didn't want. Whether it "should" or "shouldn't" doesn't change that it is.
Imagine depending on a company giving you the privilege of turning off ads in the operating system you paid $100USD for.
MS can get bent, I’m sick of advertising. Read the news, ads, watch any video without Adblock, ads, go out in public to enjoy a day out with my family, ads on every road and square foot of space. Now they want to put ads on the main menu of an operating system I only use to for relaxation and entertainment, but they were oh so kind to give me the option of turning them off for now. I’m not waiting for them to decide to remove the option, I’m going to remove myself from the equation.
I already gave these greedy bastards my money, I just want some peace and quiet while I relax, but that’s too much to ask for these days.
Additionally, there has been an option in the settings menu since Windows 10 to disable Microsoft fucking with the start menu and settings “app” like this.
I would be shocked if it doesn’t also handle whatever this shit is.
That full screen win 11 thing had me going for a while until I noticed the "opt out" button. When an OS starts to become obtrusive, I start to look for alternatives. The primary reason I use Windoze is because of gaming and most of that is through Steam. SO, now that the Steam Deck has pushed some great improvements in gaming on Linux, Linux MINT may be in my near future.
I already use open office on my home machine instead of the MS Office I have to use at work.
Highly highly recommend Nobara over Mint if you’re primarily going to be gaming. It’s a fork of Fedora by Glorious Eggshell Eggroll (the guy behind Proton-GE), who himself works for Redhat.
It. just. works.
v40 should be out within a week or two of Fedora 40 dropping on the 23rd.
That’d be doable. A lot of people would recommend installing it to a separate drive so that windows cant try overwriting boot partitions or anything. Also If its anything like standard fedora I’m sure that windows will still show up as a listing in grub so you won’t have to switch boot drives in the bios constantly
Interesting how long will it take for Microsoft to notice people are angry enough to try Linux to loose their dumb policies and their intrusive changes a little.
There are some good advancements on the free desktop in general, that’s not only around gaming. Fingers crossed it gets good enough for at least some people to stay when there’s an influx of angry Windows users.
Let’s he honest - Windows is not going anywhere anytime soon and it will keep dominating for years to come, no matter how intrusive and anti-consumer it becomes. That doesn’t mean we can’t have competitive system with significant user base (around 10% of desktop market would probably be just enough)
Linking your account stores your activation key on your account. For most people, this means they never have to bother with programs like Magical Jelly Bean and writing the key down somewhere only to be lost.
Using a local-only account doesn’t increase your ownership in this case.
The cloud is just someone else’s computer. If we could normalize people holding their own data, that would be fantastic. I get that your grandma has a hard time backing up to multiple locations (and testing her backups). Convenient? Definitely. I just don’t think your average person understands the ramifications of trusting these for-profit monopolies with complete control of their data. It seems like a magical refuge to far too many.
First, isn’t the operative problem “for-profit monopolies”, not “cloud data storage”, as in, it just needs to be state-owned and open?
Second, in the vast vast vast majority of cases, people don’t care because if someone stole all their online data, the problem would not be the data stolen. It’d be having to set up a new account as the password got changed, getting the card blocked and getting a new one, etc. It’s like a wallet being lost, it sucks and is annoying but we don’t all glue the wallets to the inside of our pockets just to prevent that. Meaning, even given knowledge of the issue, most would say the downside is not an actual downside to them given the convenience and the time it saves. (That’s why it works in the first place, mind you)
Microsoft, probably: “StartAllBack? Nope, ya little twit, you will use our start menu AND YOU WILL LIKE IT! No installing any of that crap on your our computer!”
Apparently it’s not that the software is broken, it’s that the software being installed breaks Windows Update. There are reports from people that uninstalling StartAllBack, updating the OS, then reinstalling it back (renaming the install executable first) works fine.
As much as being affected by this is frustrating to me (though this is all happening still on the dev channel, so for me it’ll be a problem for the future), I understand Microsoft’s rationale here. They can’t be expected to support every third-party tool that can break the OS, and it’s known that both ExplorerPatcher and StartAllBack relies on many hacks using undocumented APIs to work.
In the last few decades that I’ve been using Windows, I never felt compelled to use shell replacements or customizations - the default experience always worked fine for me with a few tweaks. So, if anything I’m more frustrated at Microsoft that I’m forced to use StartAllBack, because MS went and removed options from the shell that existed forever and always took for granted, and then some.
They can’t be expected to support every third-party tool that can break the OS
They don’t have to support it. They just have to let it break. It is your PC. They can issue notifications to their system and add these apps to their troubleshooter as possible conflicts.
What they abso-fucking-lutely cannot be allowed to do is to decide what software you’re allowed to run on your PC. This is a dangerous precedent and a slippery slope.
Hmm, interesting, do these all have explorer integrations? I know even a couple year’s old SolidWorks PDM does not work with Windows 11 because of the way it integrates with Windows explorer. a couple of the other apps there modify/integrate into explorer as well.
Ok, so a newer version should be fine I guess. If that’s the case, the title should be: “If you’re still running these prehistoric software, Windows won’t be able to update“
That was a weird article. The simplest fix would be to keep your apps updated.
Although, in typical MS style, the error message will probably be either vague and cryptic or otherwise completely useless. If you stumble upon an update problem like this, troubleshooting it doesn’t sound fun.
I use AtlasOS tweaks with Windows 10 and my system never suggests an upgrade to Windows 11 although updates and MS Store works fine. AtlasOS is the thing that make Windows at least usable.
Thanks, I can’t access this site, because it says I have to diseable my adblocker, my adblocker is off on this site, but I don’t feel like deactivating the other protections. Suspicious if a page requires you to enter naked. in Make use of the same thing happens, with the same reasons for not trusting.
That works, but if you do not have an alternative when it is not the case of tabloid articles, you can use the archive.org / archive.is / ghostarchive.org method. And there are many extensions that allow opening current webpages directly from there.
For me personally, I like having my taskbar at the top of the screen. MS removed the ability to change the position of the taskbar in W11. It does a lot more than that, potentially giving you an almost XP like experience if that’s what you want.
If you thought the 12 to 16GB of RAM offered with most flagship Android devices today is enough
You're wrong, I thought 6 to 8GB of RAM were enough. I'm still rocking my OnePlus 5, and seeing their last few years I don't think I'll get another OnePlus smartphone.
If you need more RAM on a smartphone than on a laptop, you're doing something wrong. You can't solve everything by just adding more RAM
I don’t know what games people are buying but I’m having a blast. This is more referring to the average top budget game or most marketed game than anything else
Clearly game journos and I are playing different games because things are great so long as you drop AAA (garbage) and multiplayer FPS (cheating).
GPU prices are a bit stupid but I have been playing/buying with a new rule lately and it’s great: if it doesn’t play well on the Steam Deck, I just don’t buy it. Problem solved.
It’s so rare that a game that even needs a better card comes up it’d be hard to justify a new card even if prices were normal. I feel like I play maybe one game a year that makes me consider upgrading.
Title needs to be “AAA Gaming is getting worse every year”.
I’m getting tons of fun out of smaller games.
The problem with AAA games is that we are going through a period of consolidation and contraction. This is just a normal business cycle and we’ll be back to companies throwing money at games in a few years. I’m reminded of an old comic (I think Far Side in the 90’s, but I can’t find it at the moment) which has a class staring at a black board with the following:
Business Strategy 101:
Convince Microsoft you are a threat
Accept their buyout offer
This has all happened before and it will all happen again. I doubt we’re staring down another video game crash like the 80’s, but things may slow down for a bit and we may go through a period of the major studios putting out more shovelware. Eventually, the economic situation will rebound and so will AAA games.
I think it’s more likely that a new batch of AA studios take the crown of leading the industry. All the mega corporate publicly owned old guard will continue to cannibalize themselves into irrelevance.
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