2024s

Forget Apple Vision Pro – rabbit r1 is 2024’s most exciting launch yet Apple is doing everything it can to make VR happen, but a tiny startup has a better vision of the futureThe year is off to a quick start in terms of new product launches and availability, even leaving aside the usual mid-tier smorgasbord that is CES. Apple just started pre-sales of its Vision Pro mixed reality headset, with shipments beginning in early February; meanwhile Samsung debuted the next generation of the only viable iPhone competitor out there, the Galaxy S-series. Unlike the Apple Vision Pro, which looks like the lavish, over-slick encumbered bit of technology’s past masquerading as technology’s future that it is, the rabbit r1 has a pared down, satisfying economy that I think comes much closer to what future generations want from their tech. On the functionality side, Vision Pro is a an exercise in UI over saturation; the r1 aims to be as close as you can currently get to having no UI at all. Rabbit is introducing the r1 when people are already in love with AI, as the term applies to large language models like ChatGPT.