Mattel will not sell an all-in-one voice-controlled smart hub / baby monitor, setting back the state of parenting by decades or even millennia:
Toymaker Mattel has shelved plans to build an "all-in-one voice-controlled smart baby monitor," after complaints about the device were raised by privacy advocates and child psychologists. According to a report from The Washington Post, the company said in a statement that the device, named Aristotle, did not "fully align with Mattel's new technology strategy" and would not be "[brought] to the marketplace."
Aristotle was unveiled back in January this year by Mattel's Nabi brand. It combined the smart speaker and digital assistant functionality of Amazon's Echo with a connected camera that acted as a baby monitor. But the Aristotle was intended to be a much more active presence in children's lives than an Echo speaker, with Mattel claiming it would read them bedtime stories, soothe them if they cried in the night, and even teach them their ABCs.
Mattel also appointed a new chief financial officer.
Also at Ars Technica and MSPoweruser.
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(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday October 06 2017, @04:26PM (1 child)
Millennia? You are serious? I'm not aware that the Romans had all-in-one voice-controlled smart hub/baby monitors. Indeed, I'm pretty sure the only way to monitor a baby back than was by a human nearby.
And any technology that was available before Mattel announced that device is still available. The announcement didn't make any of it disappear. Therefore even the "decades" claim is silly.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 06 2017, @04:50PM
You need to learn how to detect and process humor and sarcasm.