Apple Pulls Some Features From Rumored Smart Home Robot [Updated]
Apple has scrapped some of the features that it had planned for its rumored smart home robot, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
"I'm told that Apple has pulled some bolder features from the device that could reappear in subsequent models," wrote Gurman, in his Power On newsletter this week. However, he did not reveal any of the specific features that were pulled.
Apple made this decision in order to get the tabletop robot "ready faster," according to Gurman.
Last year, Gurman reported that Apple was developing a tabletop robot with an "iPad-like display" attached to a "robotic limb." At the time, he said that Apple was aiming to announce the device as early as 2026 or 2027.
The tabletop robot would be primarily controlled with Siri and Apple Intelligence, according to Gurman. He said the device could respond to commands such as "look at me," which would position the screen on the user's face during a FaceTime video call. The device would also understand different voices, he said.
The robot would be a higher-end version of Apple's rumored smart home hub, which Gurman expects to launch "by the end of this year at the earliest."
The original version of this article contained some inaccurate details that have since been corrected.
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