Rabbit R1: iPhone killer or gimmicky AI gadget?

The Rabbit R1, a brand new handheld ‘AI’ gadget was announced on 12 January this year, to excitement from some corners of the internet (and confusion from others). I preordered it the moment I heard about it. Why? My career in the software industry started fifty years ago, teaching Cobol programming for mainframe computers, and I was the second man into a startup that got venture capital to open an office in Silicon Valley all the way back in 1983. In short, I’ m a veteran who needs to watch industry trends to stay competitive.

These days, I am an angel investor and Chair of the Board of Equal Care Co-op, a tech startup with ambitions to transform social care, using a tech platform to enable care to happen without bureaucracy. I own an iPhone, an iPad and a MacBook Pro. I use them all the time, but they are far too complicated and confusing. Using an app occasionally is a nightmare, because every app is slightly different. It drives me nuts just trying to find the one I need.

The pain of juggling different apps to get your work done, especially when on the go and out and about, is no doubt familiar to all creatives. At Equal Care, imagine trying to care for someone in their home and struggling to use a smartphone to keep track of your work. If you get it wrong, you might not get paid – and you could lose track of something important, such as whether someone took their vital medication.