I had never heard of it. From wiki
The Ai Pin is a wearable device, meant to be attached to the user’s shirt at chest level. It is a voice assistant and cellular phone, equipped with a camera, and a limited monochrome “screen” that’s projected onto the user’s hand on demand. The user mostly interacts with the device through a small touchpad, and also hand gestures when the projection screen is active.[15]
The Ai Pin has received generally negative reviews, praising its product design but criticizing the limited battery life and how easily the device overheats in just a few minutes.[23][24] The New York Times reported that due to overheating problems, Humane executives would use ice packs to chill the pin before previewing it to investors or partners.[14]
The Verge wrote, “After many days of testing, the one and only thing I can truly rely on the Ai Pin to do is tell me the time.”[23] The review from Inverse stated that it “is slow to answer even basic questions.”[24] Fast Company noted that “Almost everything about the pin was a UX disaster for reviewers.”[25]
What the hell does hp see in this?
If nothing else, the list of customers who were interested enough to spend money on such a product might be valuable to them.
10,000 buyers. Yeah, no.
Even it was much higher, yeah no.
IP hoarding of products that may potentially be produced. Millions of dollars aren’t a pocket change, but if anyone’s going into this wearable AI bullshit, HP’d make a hole in their pockets. It’s a low stakes conservative gamble ‘just in case’.
I have a hard time seeing much patentable. They can’t just patent ‘wearable pin’, it has to be much more specific.
Probably not the product itself, they might have patented some underlying technology they spent time researching to make this viable.
Sigh. I know it’s not the product, I know HP bought the IP. i can’t see how there is any significant IP from this company in development of this product.
it has to be much more specific.
Nintendo enters the chat
It has AI in the name.
Yep!
All the tech companies are invested in AI, and it’s gloriously expensive to do from scratch. Instead, they’ll drop $100 million to “stay relevant in today’s climate” without doing any work.
Also “H” “P”
Nothing, and that’s why they are shutting it down. You should read the article, HP’s comments on what they get from the acquisition are directly quoted in it.
Seriously?
Ok:
What the hell does hp see in IP in this?
Again, also nothing. Here, I’ll just quote the quote for you.
HP says the acquisition will bring Humane’s “engineers, architects and product innovators” to a new team called HP IQ, which it describes as an “AI innovation lab focused on building an intelligent ecosystem across HP’s products and services for the future of work.”
They don’t care about the IP or the hardware. They wanted the talent.
Again, seriously?
Today’s discontinuation announcement was brought about by the acquisition of Humane by HP, which is buying the company’s intellectual property for $116 million
The article says they bought the IP. For someone so snarky you sure have it wrong. Now with a merger of fucking course you get employees with it, that’s how it works. But Mr snark, the article says they bought it for the IP.
But let’s talk business. Now what’s a cheaper way if you want the employees? You offer them a job. Costs nothing. Most would be happy to take it. How many staff were even left, after the obvious product failure, layoffs, and the best people seeing the writing on the wall and leaving. You’re gonna pay what at least a cool half million per employee? Talk about a finders fee, instead of just offering them a job.
Can’t wait to see how you try to snark your way out of that. I probably won’t respond, not worth it when you act like that.
Didn’t mean to be so snarky mate. Have a good one.
Probably a new smart way to force sell you printer ink.
P.S. buy a Brother printer instead
Lol
Internet of things == internet of trash
Don’t buy shit you cannot own
Or as I like to call it, the internet of stings.
Richard stallman
IoT can be great. The key is, as you pointed out, to actually have personal control over it.
It also has to account for WAF (wife acceptance factor). If it doesn’t fail gracefully to a dumb version of itself, it’s not to be trusted
users will lose access to essentially all of their device’s features, including but not limited to calling, messaging, AI queries and cloud access. The FAQ does note that you’ll still be able to check on your battery life, though.
OK that is just fucking hilarious…People will literally be stuck with a battery monitor which only purpose is to monitor it’s own battery.
“What is my purpose?”
“To monitor your battery”
“Oh my god”
People with a burn out
HP, which is buying the company’s intellectual property for $116 million… Humane was seeking a $1 billion buyout
🤣 🤣 🤣
‘I’ll give you tree-fiddy’
-HP, probably
HP. Now there’s a company with an eye for the future! 🤭
I’m betting on IBM!
What’s good for Chrysler is good for America!
That still seems like a wildly high buyout.
Even 116 mil is too much for this trash product.
They’re not buying the product, they’re buying the IP. the article literally says that HP doesn’t give a fuck about the product/HW
If HP does anything with that IP they will 110% find a way to make it even worse.
HAHAHA the device will be able to check its own battery but do nothing else. Amazing
They worked before? Not what I heard.
I think the article says they will work less than before.
They’re gonna suddenly be too light to use as a paper weight? 🤨
[The Humane AI team will form an] AI innovation lab focused on building an intelligent ecosystem across HP’s products and services for the future of work
Hope they like figuring out how to sell printer ink
“It’s like chatgpt but it only prints replies on physical paper so it’s a premium experience, and the ai is expressive so it will use delightfully colorful, full page background images for its replies.”
It prints in white text on a black background
And yet still refuses to print when the cyan cartridge is low.
The pin will be reconfigured to notify you when you need to buy more ink.
Me: “Hey, HP Assistant, why is the black-and-white page not printing?”
Printer: “Our cutting edge AI predicitive algorithm forecasts increased yellow ink usage in the future, so please renew your subscription now.”
I’ve been in an acquisition like this. I feel for anyone who has their startup work dismantled by an acquisition just looking to hire and squash their product.
The product was a failure long before HP got anywhere near it
Yeah, that’s sad, but in this case the product itself squashed the startup, not HP.
The was always the fate of this horrible product. Do the rabbit r1 next.
Rabbits can at least be jailbroken so won’t be turned into paperweights when their company shuts down.
LOL they actually managed to scam HP and let them hold the bag
I thought the rumors last year were just a meme, because HP is the expert in wasting millions in failed acquisitions
How would they spend all that money they made by scaming people with their printer business
I thought dick measuring contests in legal courts was the go-to “I have so much money and I don’t know how to spend it!” of big companies
distant Zitron laughing
My man is going to get a permanent desk at TrashFuture if this keeps up.
inb4 they release their new “Humane by HP” line of printers. They have only one button, which summons the new HP printer AI.
Founders were looking for a 1bil payout 😂. they settled for 116mil 🤯…
why would anyone pay for a company that flopped so fantastically? this makes no sense at all…
Patents. Its always patents.
There is probably some IP there that can make printers worse for consumers too.
Crazy that they got 116 millions for that.
Oh good, more useless e-waste.
Everytime there is a new technology everyone rushes to cram it into literally anything. Like when Bluetooth came out. Or the first apps, blockchain, etc. It’s honestly sickening in my actual stomach. Big or small e-waste for all.
