Technology - Google News

Are You Ready For an Alexa Robot to Follow You Around? - Gizmodo

Posted: 12 Jul 2019 07:35 AM PDT

Now imagine these, with wheels, waist-high.

Just in case you wanted a robot butler to follow you around the house, Amazon is reportedly working on an Alexa bot with wheels that can be summoned via voice commands.

The robot, reportedly codenamed Vesta, is purportedly being developed by Amazon Lab126—a research facility based in Sunnyvale, California. Vesta was initially reported on by Bloomberg last year. The report, which cited sources familiar with the product, said prototypes of the bot are about waist-high and feature advanced cameras, computer vision, and can navigate through homes like driverless cars. Supposedly, we were set to see Vesta hit the market earlier this year, but a new Bloomberg report published Friday says it's not ready for mass production yet.

That's usually a not-so-great sign for home robots—which had an awful 2018 as many buzzworthy robots like Jibo and Kuri shuttered operations. However, Bloomberg notes that the company has pulled engineers from other projects to work on Vesta. At the very least, that signals Amazon hasn't given up on a home robot making it to market. It does raise some questions, however.

Firstly, what exactly would an Alexa robot do? Other failed home bots are usually aimed at being adorable, somewhat helpful companions. Jibo for instance, could not only answer questions—sort of like an Alexa—but was also programmed to interact in cute ways, like twerking on command or scanning a room for monsters. Kuri included a camera so it could act like a pseudo-security bot and family filmographer, on top of purring when you pat it. On the other hand, Amazon has purposefully kept Alexa rather neutral in the personality department, according to Bloomberg—though you can ask her to rap, but be forewarned, the results are cringey.

The reported inclusion of wheels, voice summoning, and computer vision would seem to indicate the Vesta can follow you around, acting as a sort of mobile Echo device for rooms where you don't have an Echo nearby. Not saying that'd be dumb—but it's also sort of pointless to shell out hundreds of dollars if what you're getting is basically the equivalent of sticking an Echo speaker on a Roomba. It may not be elegant, but most people could do that themselves with a healthy amount of duct tape.

We reached out to Amazon, but a spokesperson said the company does not comment on "rumors or speculation."

Still, if the Vesta does go to market, it would have one advantage. Over a quarter of the adult U.S. population now owns a smart speaker, with 61 percent using some kind of Amazon Echo device, according to a January 2019 industry survey. That sort of familiarity, plus Amazon's deep pockets, gives it a leg up over the independent home robot ventures that have thus far failed to gain significant traction with consumers. And if Amazon can figure out how to bring the price down, then it might be onto something.

Speaking of the Amazon Echo, Bloomberg also reports we could see a new, beefier Echo by next year. The prototype is said to be wider than the current Echo, so it can include four tweeters. Audio quality isn't all that great on Echo speakers—a point competitors like Google Nest Hub, Sonos, and Apple's HomePod all like to point out in their marketing.

In any case, both rumors point to Amazon cooking up new ways to invade your home—and stay there.

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A Very Personal MacBook Pro Disaster, Part 2 - The Mac Observer

Posted: 11 Jul 2019 01:38 PM PDT

In Part 1 of this saga, I described the origins of the family 2018 MacBook Pro's failure, my reaction to that, and how it was scheduled for warranty repair.

… a 2018 MacBook Pro in my family has totally failed, a few months after purchase, via the USB-C ports. The external display flickers. External disk drives and SSDs take 20 minutes to mount, then disappear randomly. An external keyboard will work for an hour, then just quit. All four USB-C ports are affected.

Apple Underpromising and Overdelivering. Again

Appointment in hand, we took the MBP to our local Apple retail store in the mall on July 5th. Pretty much on schedule, a technician arrived and listened to the story of woe. Previously prepared was a page and a half of single-spaced notes describing the trouble-shooting process which the tech read. This detail seemed to impress him.

He booted up the FileVaulted MBP with a special key combo and connected to it with his iPad. (Bluetooth?) He observed the status of the tests not on the MBP display but on an app on his iPad.

Very cool.

The hardware diagnostic revealed nothing of interest, but the tech said that wasn't unexpected. Based on the description of all the problems with the ports and, perhaps, his sizing up of the customer's competence, he declared that the course of action would be to send it off to a factory repair center for analysis. There, the Mac is run and analyzed more thoroughly for a much longer time looking for problems. This would "take about seven days."

So far so good.

On July 9th, four days later, I got an email saying that the MBP was ready for pickup. Wow.

Back to the store on July 10th.

We checked in with the concierge—who no longer stands at the entrance. Instead he's (she's) far back into the store. I had a short chat with him. As I suspected, the concierges no longer stand at the entrance, as if guarding the door. This is a gatekeeper approach and is possibly off-putting. The concierge explained that Apple wants customers to feel free to enter the store, perhaps wander around first. This is very cool, and indicates that Apple is constantly learning.

After a short wait, the MBP was brought out along with an awesome piece of thick paper. "AppleCare Service." It listed what was replaced.

Touch ID Board
Logic Board
eDP Flex Cable, TCON to Logic Board
IO Board

Whether all those components had failed is unknown. Some parts were probably replaced as a matter of policy given the diagnostics and/or description of the symptoms. Or repair experiences with that model.

The very cordial Apple employee carefully explained that there was a new macOS on the MBP (10.14.3, which is what it shipped with), offered to help get started with the setup (declined) and that while fully repaired under warranty, this was not a "one-and-done" affair. The relationship would continue should there be any more problems.

Of course, one might claim that this goes without saying. But I appreciated that he explicitly said it. This demonstrated excellent training.

Back home, the MBP was put through a series of tests. The results will be reported in the next chapter of this saga.

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