I think it is a neat product with two strange limitations that I can't quite figure out:

1. No apps. This would be perfect for my kitchen but I like to watch videos, movies, tv shows while I cook. The aspect ratio is not ideal, but the fact it won't support third party apps means that is not an option. Maybe it will support Airplay video and I can cast from my phone?

2. No battery means it is stuck to the wall. They had to work around this limitation in their own (excellent) promo video by drilling a hole in the middle of their kitchen island. The device would have a lot more utility if it could be moved around a lot and then say in a base station like a Sonos Move.

Well, this is Hacker News, and you can’t even make apps for the device - there’s nothing to hack on. Of course this audience isn’t excited about it. It’s a Facebook Portal, with better privacy (at least).

At $299 they’ll sell millions of these in no time

The Apple TV is the same price

iPhones and iPads are so expensive these days that this feels like a steal

I’m buying one for my parents and one for my in-laws for Christmas. Easy $300 gift that I know they won’t have.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who will have that idea

Yeah I'm absolutely the market for this thing. We have an old Google Home that we use as a digital photo frame and Google has progressively destroyed every other piece of functionality we once used on it.

My only complaint is that a truly environmentally friendly company (like Apple claims to be!) would make this OS available for old iPads. I'm quite sure they're capable of running it (or at least a stripped down version thereof) and lots of people have old iPad Minis sitting around.

I wish there were anywhere that adults could talk about interesting stuff intelligently without a thousand stupid and/or I've-already-thought-about-this-and-the-basic-talking-points-aren't-going-to-change-my-mind arguments taking up 99% of the space.

I feel like maybe the answer is browser-integrated LLM plugins tasked with "I don't ever want to see anything having to do with this topic of argument ever again."

Agree. $300 for a speaker + home automation hub + timer + digital picture frame appeals to a lot of older people and busy parents who spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

It's definitely going to be a hit among people locked in the Apple ecosystem.

I can’t wait to get rid of the last of one retailer/tech giant’s ad machines in my house and replace it with another tech giant’s device. No sarcasm there either. Going down to one voice system across all devices available in house and out of the house, easily, will be nice.

Yes, I predict the same outcome. For one, I would buy it if I could. I don't get why people think this won't sell when Alexa has a market (and I believe that Apple can be better at a consumer device than Amazon)

This being the top comment posted mere 30 minutes after the article itself tells me the cynicism is not overwhelming.

Product is great, IMHO, but it ties a whole family to one company's complete set of Hardware, Software and Service offerings.

I feel like it may be the kind of product that makes people realize how much they had become owned by one coroporation.

Shrug

It looks like a nice device at a reasonable price. I looked at the video, but it doesn't solve any problems I have. We ban screens at the dinner table, it's for having attention for each other, not for screens. I never have to ask for a recipe for french toast, it's either in my head, or in cookbook, or written down on paper. The very rare number of cases someone loses their key, we can just look it up with Find My on the phone, it's such an irregular occurrence that it's not a hassle to find it with a phone. For random queries, phones with Siri can already listen, but the voice recognition or LLM fails on too many queries anyway not to be frustrating.

I could see it being useful as an additional control panel for the smart home, but Home Kit and the Home app are still pretty useless for the smart home. It can't even show a temperature graph or trend, let alone do many other things. So I would like a Home Assistant/Homey/whatever display (which would be possible if it supported apps).

I am sure this will sell plenty. It's an Apple device, people will just buy it for that reason, especially if it's not in the Apple Vision Pro price class. Will the get used a lot? Probably by a very small subset of people. Just like Siri doesn't get used a lot beyond setting timers when you are not in an English-speaking country, or even worse, use multiple languages in daily life. I am not in the US and most people I know never use Siri.

Aside from that most people seem to be more interested in digital detox than getting more pervasive tech in their lives.

People were cynical on here about the Apple Vision Pro as well...

A failure, just like Dropbox!

I think this entire form factor is useless when you have phones and tablets around the house. Will it sell? Probably, it's Apple. Will people use it for anything other than a clock on their counter and maybe a smart speaker? I would bet no.

A product needs to fulfill the needs of the lowest common denominator to become a hit. This does not seem to address or solve any problems of the lowest common denominator.

It is like the Apple XDR display. Cool to have, but useless in the grand scheme of things.

The audience here does not really represent the generic population.

And, as the word hit usually meant for something positive, I just wish to highlight that being a financial success does not always mean that something is sensible, worthwhile, beneficial considering the overall picture. Usually being pretty is enough.

My problem is mainly with the family dynamic in their 'film'. Nobody in that ad seems happy, they even seem to hate each other. Is this normal enough in the US that people can ignore it and focus on the product?

"No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame."