Apple's magic robot lamp arrives to save us all

You know how you see a concept car in a car manufacturer and you think “wow!” It's so cool! I can't wait to drive this! And then their next car comes out and that looks like a Dodge Stratus?

Okay, look, the Dodge Stratus was a beautiful car. (East Is it a beautiful car? The macalope really has no idea and it will not look for it for the purpose of this column.) But it was a modest sedan. It was not exactly a new field. Unless you do it out of the road, Jeff.

The concepts are sometimes impractical. A spatial car can look great, then you realize that these excavations make huge dead angles and a glass roof is a huge risk of security. Some changes are understandable. The changes requested by intermediate managers who think that the company should simply continue to make the type of cars it has always made, however, can suck the whole wonder of a product.

Apple recently showed a concept that macalope hopes that many will become a real product one day and, if rumors are true, it seems that it could. Nicknamed “Elegnt”, the prototype is an adorable lamp that moves in response to commands and user signals. The device can perform assistance functions – such as shining its light somewhere or projecting a video – either in a only functional way, or in an expressive way, where it stops to watch the user, dance to Music or otherwise human -type behaviors.

Apple

Presumably, these do not include those who are not desirable as incessant buzzing, the heating fish in the microwave of the break room, or, well, homicide. The video never shows the lamp brandishing a knife so … the fingers crossed.

Joking aside (don't worry, just a second), the video is quite delicious. Apple now has a real chance of taking this concept and putting it on the market without sucking all its joy. Mark Gurman de Bloomberg said for months now that Apple has been working on a desktop device that moves in response to the user but has a screen attached to an arm rather than a lamp. And although the Elegnt lamp looks like a pixar mascot, the macalope thinks that a screen will probably be more useful than a bulb.

Macalope's friend Dan Moren recently estimated on this site that Apple should kiss his strange side. Macalope agrees and it will be interesting to see to what extent this demonstration makes it a final product.

Anyone who worked there has probably heard the term “computer magic” before. “Do it with computer magic.” Oh, just like that? If it's so simple, why don't do it with managerial magicChad? That's what I thought.

IDG

IT magic is not one thing. But Apple has always succeeded by doing things that seem like magic. Swipe to unlock. The finesse of the MacBook Air. Rebuild the office.

Wait, not the latter. How did it get in there?

Apple's magic articles don't have to work well all the time, but they need to work almost all the time and in a way that surprises and delights you. For macalope money, airpods are an excellent example. Tiny headphones that automatically know which device you use and change your context for you. Not magical but quite magical.

At a time when we are constantly promised artificial assistants who will help us that we need and they do not manage to do so, Apple could well pay attention to intelligence and increase expectations On Whimsey. Make sure that is what to do almost All the time, but in a way that does not care about these few times when this is not the case. It's Apple's Sweet Spot.