Obviously, this
is not what such a device will look like, but, for whatever reason, I like the design of this better than drawings of an iPad stuck to a HomePod. The arm is two thick and bulky, but I can envision this thing following one around a room on a FaceTime call or I could watch the game while cooking (which I do very poorly!). 
As to the utility of such a devices (rumored to cost ~$1,000, I’m not sure. 
Would you consider spending a $1,000 for such a device?
I prefer the bottom photo, it seems more elegant to me.
For $1k, I wouldn’t buy one. I’d want to understand what the use case was before even considering it.
Likewise. I already spend a boatload of money on Apple devices e.g., I have nine HomePods and six Apple TVs.
+1
A self driving car, the Vision Pro, and now an iPad that tracks you? None of these appear to have mass market appeal.
I’m waiting for the voice- and gesture-based interface used by Tony Stark.
In one scene from Iron Man 2, Tony says to the computer, “JARVIS, can you kindly vacuform a digital wireframe? I need a manipulable projection.” Immediately JARVIS begins the scan.
And Jarvis helpfully adds:
What is it you are trying to achieve, sir?
See What Sci-Fi Tells Interaction Designers About Gestural Interfaces — Smashing Magazine .
But Apple are usually willing to play the long game.
The Apple Watch was a slow burn as has been the HomePod
That has worked well for them in the past but now Mark Gurman is saying:
we are entering a time with Apple where they are not coming out with these mass consumer hot products anymore
And Apple is at least two to three years behind Google in AI.
Again, Apple doesn’t (usually) react to what the Shareholders want, it sticks to it’s long term objectives. I don’t have the quote to hand, but Tim Cook once told a Shareholder to sell their stock if they expected short term gains over long term progress.
In some ways, Apple is behind in AI, but Apple hasn’t always been first to market with new products, but they usually come out best or at least level with the competition.
This has been in hardware, but it’s sort itself out with Maps, iCloud, Apple TV+, and Apple Music where it’s up there with the leading contenders in Quality at least.
I think Apple should just follow Googles lead with the Pixel and make a speaker dock.
I traded in an old 9th gen iPad when they were doing a great trade in promo and got a Pixel Tablet for free. I like being able to just grab the tablet when needed but have a media device with decent speaker the rest fo the time. It works well enough.
I don’t there there is a need for a HomePod with a screen.
Yes, and that’s Artificial Intelligence as we know it today. AI likely will turn out to be something quite different from what we imagine today. Somebody, maybe Apple, is getting ready to leapfrog everyone with a less earthbound idea of what Artificial Intelligence really is.
If Apple are making robot arms they can definitely make me an e-ink device 
I’m perhaps just not being very imaginative but I don’t really see how this is different to having a really good monitor arm. Granted, you have to move them yourself with your own limb of choice, but are people really moving so much whilst in one location that they want the arm to shift about on its own?
100%. I remain eternally disappointed that Siri isn’t like the ship’s computer on Star Trek (although it is starting to feel a bit closer to that).
All I know is what has been reported. Apple abandoned its car project to focus on AI about six months ago. And Apple has been using the Google Cloud Infrastructure to train and serve AI.
Apple has been using AI/machine learning to design and improve their cameras, etc. for years but ChatGPT appears to have caught them by surprise. They do not have the massive AI data centers of the competition and I’m not sure how useful their on-device approach will be compared to the consumer, and business, solutions coming from other companies.
Apple definitely has the mindshare of the public. Perhaps Apple Intelligence will be enough to keep their customers amused.
I agree, Generative AI is the Buzz at the moment.
Apple has it’s own datacentres, but also uses GCP and AWS to deliver it’s services, so lack of Datacentre capacity isn’t an issue.
I think that Apple’s targeted use of AI (assuming it delivers) will be far more useful than generative AI in the longer term, even if it’s smaller scale.
Where Apple has seemingly shot itself in the foot is in it’s stingyness of Memory in devices which means that they’re severely limiting the audience for their services to iPhone 15 Pro and beyond on the phone.
Always interesting how when Apple copies someone else, they get praise with no criticism.
When Amazon shipped a creepy Amazon show screen/smart speaker on a swivel motor that followed you around, purportedly to make Zooms easier, they were massacred in the press and geek communities.
Not interested. I’d much prefer they build out more iPad accessories and lean into what’s possible there. So, a speaker dock with an arm that allows me to attach my iPad and charge it? Yeah, that would be useful. And perhaps such a device could be modular in the sense that a changeable magnetic plate could be ordered to match different iPad models. 11" and 13" Air, previous iPad Pros as well as 11" and 13" M4 iPad Pros.
They’ve showed a real lack of imagination in terms of iPad accessories: Pencil, Smart Folio, Magic Keyboard. That about sums it up. I think their interests would be better served by increasing the value of the iPad ecosystem with more accessories.
