Hopefully the clients get much better. I convinced a few friends to get on Matrix last year… and… boy… it was a terrible experience. Everyone ended up going back to Discord and they probably won’t trust another recommendation from me.

How much did you ask for?

I hate websites with low contrast text.

The problem with dumb phones is that the entire world pushes people towards smartphones. For a lot of adults, it’s really hard to move to a dumb phone.

Have a security system for your house? Need an app. Router? App. Bank? App. Payments? App. Doctor appointment check in? App. Texting? WhatsApp. Fucking menus? App. Refrigerator? Believe it or not, also App.

My bank is so shitty that sometimes the website doesn’t work, but their mobile app does.

You can’t always opt out of using an app. I tried setting up my new ISP’s router last week and it required an app. No other way to do it.

Currently, I’m thinking something like the Jelly Star might be the best compromise. Has maps and other tools, but the tiny screen prevents them from trapping you.

What are your thoughts on the Unihertz Jelly Star?

Even now they’re already leveraging their OS-level control. The Android Authority guys said in their report, “the Rabbit R1’s launcher app is intended to be preinstalled in the firmware and be granted several privileged, system-level permissions — only some of which we were able to grant”. I don’t work at Rabbit, so I don’t know exactly what modifications they’ve done to their AOSP fork, but they’re doing something.

If I had to guess, I’d say they’ve messed with the power management of AOSP and probably the process scheduling somehow? I say this because the Rabbit R1 is hands down the fastest way to access an assistant that I’ve used. I have a ChatGPT shortcut on my homescreen of my Pixel 8 phone and the ChatGPT app is constantly killed in the background, so often times I go to access the assistant but I have to wait for an app to load. The R1 is instant.

And that’s without counting the time it takes to face or fingerprint unlock the phone, then tap an icon.

No, I would have not paid $200 if Rabbit was an app. I have ChatGPT and Perplexity on my phone, I don’t like the experience compared to the R1. I paid $200 for the end to end Rabbit experience.

Btw, I get that some people don’t mind unlocking their phone, tapping an icon, waiting for it to load, asking a question, then getting an answer. That’s fine. If you’re happy with that experience, then the Rabbit R1 is not for you.

there’s nothing the rabbit device does that couldn’t be done via an app

Currently, the Rabbit does 2 things for me that can’t be an app on my phone.

1. It’s not my phone. I value this enough to pay for it. I spend more time than I would like on my phone. I’m happy when I can use another single purpose device to help me stay focused.

2. The push to talk hardware button has been more pleasant for me to use than the ChatGPT shortcut on my Pixel phone.

In the end, the ChatGPT + Perplexity in a box fills a space in my life that I can’t find anywhere else—given my criteria.

I understand your criteria is different and you value different things. That’s ok. It just means this device isn’t for you.

Lol. “Why are you all happy?! Stop having fun!” I bought it and I’m satisfied with it. If you don’t see the appeal, that’s ok. Just don’t buy it.

It needs to be separate hardware because Google and Apple have a strangle hold on their respective OSes. No way in hell Apple/Google would give a random app deep integration with AI. Although not currently present, it seems like Rabbit (and Humane) want to give a ton of control over the system, data, and apps to the AI.

We know it’s just ChatGPT (and Perplexity). That’s why we bought it. It’s just a fun frontend for a chat bot. That’s like the main point.

I like the infinite battery life wired headphones have.

If you don’t do anything except use it like Google, then you only get improved search results. But the other features like lenses, site ranking, URL rewriting, question mark instant answers, and document Q/A make it way more worth it to me.

Unfortunately, I bet these guys don’t care. I used to work at a company you might have products from and I would constantly hear “Hey, we’re a business” as an excuse to degrade the user experience. :(

I have a WebOS TV and I absolutely hate how slow it is. Turning on takes a long time. Selecting apps takes a long time. Flipping channels takes a long time. Did we forget how fast TVs from the 90s were??

I second the Supernote!

I also own a Remarkable, but after they removed features and began charging a subscription to re-enable the existing features, I looked elsewhere.

The Supernote has been great! Way more features than Remarkable. You can sync locally or in the cloud. The pen never needs replacing. I got used to the feel and prefer it over Remarkable’s screen now. Plus the devs are open about their roadmap and regularly listen to feedback. And they have NO subscription!