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Forward-looking: Apple has long called itself an innovator when it comes to tech products, and one current project it's working on certainly sounds like a first. According to reports, Cupertino is developing what is essentially a tabletop robot that combines an iPad-like device with a mechanical arm.
According to Bloomberg's Apple expert Mark Gurman, Apple has a team of several hundred people working on the device. It features a thin robotic arm that moves the iPad-like screen around, with actuators tilting the display up and down and spinning it 360 degrees.
The device is designed mainly as a smart home command center, though it's also a videoconferencing machine and remote-controlled home security tool, according to insiders. Running a customized version of the iPad's operating system, Gurman says the product would offer a twist on Amazon's Echo Show 10 and Meta's discontinued Portal.
Apple's intention is for the device to be primarily controlled by voice using Siri and upcoming features in Apple Intelligence. It could respond to commands such as "look at me," by repositioning the screen to focus on the person talking, which would be useful during video calls. It could also understand different voices and focus on whoever is speaking.
The project – codenamed J595 – was approved by Apple's executive team in 2022 but has only started to ramp up its development in recent months. Apple hopes to debut the device as soon as 2026 or 2027 and aims to get the price down to $1,000.
Apple, of course, isn't afraid to slap a huge price tag on its products, as shown by the $3,499 Vision Pro. The company will no doubt be hoping its table/robot/iPad experiment proves more popular, especially when it costs a thousand dollars.
Some Apple execs were understandably concerned that people wouldn't be willing to spend so much on a tabletop robotic device, and by the staffing resources required to build its software, but CEO Tim Cook and Apple's head of hardware engineering, John Ternus, are both said to be backing the project. It's currently under the sole responsibility of Apple's vice president of technology, Kevin Lynch, who oversaw the self-driving car project.
Apple is making this push into robotics as it looks to boost its revenue and find more areas to implement Apple Intelligence. The device is also something that its engineers can focus on following the discontinuation of long-running efforts to develop a self-driving car earlier this year.