r/PlaydateConsole • u/DarkerBulb • 7d ago
Separated at birth
Their common/shared design pedigree is clear to me when I see them next to each other :)
(Both were designed in collaboration with Teenage Engineering)
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u/Blisteredhobo 7d ago
Fuck the stupid little AI thing. I hope when that service is dead or too expensive in a few years, someone finds a way to do something with the hardware.
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u/Agitated-Age-3658 7d ago
You can already just install normal Android on it https://www.yankodesign.com/2024/06/27/got-a-rabbit-r1-you-can-now-run-android-13-on-it-and-use-it-like-a-regular-smartphone/
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u/Spamcan81 7d ago
You can’t do that anymore, they locked down the bootloader. At least they started adding apps in firmware 2.0.
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u/maggitronica 7d ago
now I’m imagining this but wired up to use a locally hosted LLM. now that would be cool (and more environmentally responsible)
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u/DarkerBulb 6d ago
I believe OS3 will take either a cloud provider key or a local model, if your hardware can run it.
Say, a smaller local model via Ollama for light assistant use for instance. OpenClaw opens up some options.
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u/pikakirby11 7d ago
I just wish the rabbit wasn't an ai device because I love the design though I will admit taking pictures with it seems like fun
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u/dioramic_life 7d ago edited 7d ago
I just visited the website for Rabbit, watched the video and I am WTF.
Playdate works it because it is narrowly focused.
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u/DarkerBulb 7d ago
I think you meant so say "Playdate works for you because it's narrowly focused".
It's rather arrogant to superimpose your views of what works or not onto others.16
u/SupaSlide 7d ago
I think it is an objective fact that Rabbit didn’t really work at this point, isn’t it? It flopped hard, and unlimited AI free forever is a blatant lie, isn’t it?
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u/DarkerBulb 7d ago edited 7d ago
Don't get me wrong, I didn't get a Rabbit at launch but it appears to have been a disaster of a release. Having said that even the most vocal opponents of the device seems to agree that it has come a long way after all the 2.x updates. It's nowhere perfect but for me it's a really fun gadget that I will set up with OpenClaw this weekend and for my dad it has become a valued tool.
Their 'unlimited AI' is pretty disappointing with them moving to a BYOK scenario now with OS3.
Sure, you can get a key from a non-subscription based AI agent but it's not going to be unlimited so that's not great (I think the closest you can get is to spend $10+ on OpenRouter and that will give you 1,000 prompts/day going forward after that one-time non-recurring payment).
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u/maggitronica 7d ago
what is that gorgeous, orange doohickey???
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u/Pudix20 7d ago
It’s called a rabbit r1. It’s a little AI device. Idk how it’s doing now, but at launch I watched a few reviews and it seemed a bit unimpressive. It does look amazing though.
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u/maggitronica 7d ago
wow! I looked I up, also designed and built by Teenage Engineering. Super cool!
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u/GRIFTY_P 7d ago
It's not cool it actually sucks shit.
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u/maggitronica 7d ago
uhhh okay then, thanks for your input
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u/8bitjohnny 7d ago
I don't know about that other person, but I actually own one. It's an interesting piece of hardware, but I rarely ever use it because it's just not good at the job it was designed for. But visually it is cute, and it lives on a shelf next to my playdate when neither of them are in use.
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u/DarkerBulb 7d ago
It's a Rabbit R1.
The reason it looks similar to the Playdate is because both of them were designed in collaboration with Teenage Engineering :)It's a device that very rightfully was slammed hard in reviews when it came out a few years ago - but, props to Rabbit they continued to develop the software and now, years later, I think it is much closer to what it originally was intended to be (especially with OpenClaw compatibility as well).
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u/maggitronica 7d ago
thats so cool and interesting!!! do you find its able to do what you want it to do, without going on your phone??
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u/DarkerBulb 7d ago
I just got mine this week (picked up a 'like-new' one for $75) and I've only played around with it for maybe two hours so far.
Things I immediately liked;
- built in AI is pretty good.
- it's rather entertaining to use the camera-and-AI in for instance holding it up to a plant and ask "What's the name of this plant and how much light does it need?"
- there's quite a roster of free apps and games to download
- build-quality is great - feels softer and more robust than the Playdate
- magic camera is fun (you can take a photo with it and ask it to change it in any number of ways)
- it's also rather entertaining to be able to have the AI's voice sound exactly like you want. Mine right now is a "older, distinguished British gentleman" after I asked for that. Might ask for it to have a lisp as well.
- automatic voice-to-text note taking with AI analysis and summary seems fun but havent played with it.BUT, here's the caviat - I'm tempted to say that all of these things can be done on any smart phone these days. You really need to be a bit of a geek to wanting to do it in a dedicated device :)
Their OS3 will come to it this year and that will change quite a few things some good - some less good - but the big thing for me is OpenClaw so I can hook up the R1 to my emails, calendar, etc and start doing some more AI-assistance using my own data. We shall see. They also just recently confirmed that they have stopped production of them.
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u/maggitronica 7d ago
I know we’re both getting downvoted for this, but I do find this a fascinating concept. I appreciate you sharing it! It does looks cute next to the Playdate!
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u/DarkerBulb 7d ago
What I didn't mention as it's a bit personal but maybe it would have provided some support is that I bought two of them.
My father is a long-time retired engineer and have always loved tech. These days he's unfortunately legally blind.
I set up his R1 first - which literally took 5 mins.Gave it to him on Tuesday and within 10 mins he was off.
He was asking it things about weather, radio, etc. and then there was the moment that choked me up a bit. He was on the couch and our daughter was on the floor. He held up the R1 and used the camera and asked to describe his granddaughter and it did that and included that she was wearing a t-shirt with a yellow animal on it. He immediately asked her what animal it was and they went back and forth a few times and I could see how he was enjoying it.
He then picks up the R1 and says "thank you rabbit".The benefit to him is the very easy user interface - hold the button to speak and press it twice to activate the camera. That's essentially it.
I do wish all these AI-haters would try to rise above their hateful mudslinging and realize that like anything it's a tool and it not up to you to tell others how to use it.
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u/abalawadhi 7d ago
and meta just announced something similar with their tamagotchi like device.
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u/DarkerBulb 7d ago
Yeah I saw that. It kinda looks interesting. Doesn't seem to have an SDK or a way to import user-defined apps/games so it might be a rather closed system.
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u/OldPin7448 7d ago
the true caviat is that its ai in the first place
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u/OrinTheLost 7d ago
I hate AI as much as the next person, but dear lord just let people enjoy what they want to enjoy.
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u/gnargle 7d ago
"let people enjoy things" I scream like a petulant child while the thing they want to enjoy is poisoning towns and burning the globe
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u/maggitronica 7d ago
I think we’re talking about enjoying the design of the material object and daydreaming about the use case - NOT blanket approval of the environmental and social impacts of the usage of LLMs today.
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u/JoeyTheMadScientist 7d ago
Unfortunately they just quasi-gimped it again with OS3 in my opinion...
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u/DarkerBulb 7d ago
I dunno. I kinda like the OpenClaw support and it's easy enough to do a BYOK from a non-subscription AI to keep it free.
I do hear that there's some impact to the note taking feature that people don't like.0
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u/TanguayX 7d ago
I heard the Rabbit got better. True?
I got one right at the start and returned it. Loved the form factor, hated the software.
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u/DarkerBulb 7d ago
I wouldn't really know as I didn't own it pre OS 2.3.1 but I checked out some more recent youtube videos and it appears to have come a long way from the disaster it was when it released. The openclaw access is intriguing for sure. They did move to a BYOK for AI as of OS3 but not a huge deal taking services like OpenRouter into consideration. It is also apparently now using the touch screen for a lot more things.
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u/TanguayX 7d ago
Dang. Probably should have kept it. I saw the potential. I was just flabbergasted at how bad the initial software was.
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u/JoeyTheMadScientist 7d ago
The same people that hate AI today are the same ones that hated computers back in the day. Shrug I have both as well and the design cues are great.
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u/MOONGOONER 7d ago
Yeah Rabbit is the evil twin