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This morning, perusing X while sitting on the throne, I saw the thread below about the new smart home collaboration between Apple and LG Electronics — details here.
The thread, by prolific Apple leaker @pdfu, shows several short, illustrative videos of the smart home products developed by the two companies. (Note: The source of the videos is unclear. @pfdfu, who’s leaked a lot of details gleaned from Apple’s beta code, is usually forthcoming about sources — but not in this case.)
One surprising thing about the products shown — and we really don’t know if the renders are genuine or not — is how pedestrian they look.
Yeah, the smart deadbolt lock hides a physical keyhole behind the keypad (which swivels up and out of the way to reveal it), but others have done this before.
Otherwise, these sadly look like me-too products. Where’s the Face ID/Touch ID? What about a cool touchpad ID ring?
Plus, LG has a horrible reputation for spying on customers with its current smart home stuff.
It looks in this case like LG is handling the hardware, while Apple (hopefully) does the software and integration. Let’s hope to God this isn’t another Motorola ROKR.
Also in today’s newsletter:
Even though I have little desire to fix my Apple Watch, iFixit’s repairability score is an important metric of the device’s ability to be not just repaired, but reused and recycled. Shame it’s not budged much with the latest models.
ChatGPT for Mac just got an interesting update that makes AI-powered meeting notes much more agentic.
🔥 DEAL OF THE DAY: I’d love Anker’s new 25W 3-in-1 wireless charging station, but there’s no way I’m paying $230 for it. Luckily, it’s almost half off during the Amazon Prime Big Deals sale. Same for the company’s cute but powerful Nano Smart Display Charger, which pumps out 45W and is 40% off. #affiliate
Apple won an Oscar for best sound on the hit film F1: The Movie. Now it’s trying to bring a similar experience to its regular coverage of the races.
Apple’s a laggard in AI, my a**! Back in the 1980s, the company predicted the rise of chatty virtual helpers, and then delivered one of the first within a month of the predicted date.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
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Today we are introducing the iTunes phone. This is a phone that we have worked on with Motorola that has an iTunes client in it, where you can play iTunes music that you've gotten from your CD library or bought from the online store, right on your phone. The phone is made by Motorola. We have designed the iTunes client and worked with them to integrate it into the phone. It's called the Motorola ROKR, R-O-K-R, and it's a pretty cool phone.
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