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Pepper the robot gets a job at Pizza Hut
SoftBank's Pepper robot has been gainfully employed in the past, but it's apparently ready for a new career in the food industry. Pizza Hut Asia is partnering with MasterCard on a trial that will use Pepper for orders and information in restaurants by the end of 2016. Once you pair your MasterPass account, you can do everything from paying for your meal to asking about the calorie count. It's not necessarily as quick as ordering directly from your phone, but a demo (below) suggests that it's fairly painless -- it's easy to see the humanoid helper taking some of the load off of Pizza Hut's staff. Let's just hope that it fares well in less-than-ideal conditions.
Pepper the robot is opening up to Android
SoftBank's Pepper robot is about to get a lot more developer-friendly. The Japanese firm announced today that it'll be opening up Pepper's tablet to Google's mobile OS, in the hopes of spurring on its capabilities with new apps, Bloomberg reports. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son initially wanted to keep Pepper's entire platform closed, and it took a loss on every $1,800 robot it sold to drive its cost down. Unfortunately, despite selling around 10,000 units, developers have been slow to bite.
Trim this 3D-printed bonsai tree by hand, just like a real one
Bonsai trees are cool. But Nendo is cooler. Pair the Japan-based design studio with a future-centric baby tree, and you've got something. As phone carrier Softbank launched its own crowdfunding site, amid a sea of products we've already heard about, the design firm's Creative Director Oki Sato took to the stage with something actually intriguing: a plastic bonsai tree that you can prune -- or even print a finished article.
The robot revolution starts with data entry and small talk
Pepper the home robot is looking for work. According to SoftBank, the Japanese company behind the humanoid bot that looks like a friendlier version of an anime villain, this is the year that robots start working for us. That said, businesses are keeping tasks simple. Easy, uncomplicated, dull, simple. So far Pepper has made its way into 500 companies. This week I toured Pepper's early career options.
Pepper the robot is going to staff an entire phone store
Kicking off an event that showcases Softbank's Pepper robot working in a business environment, the Japanese phone carrier says it's going to test it out for itself, announcing a Pepper phone shop staffed entirely by its robots. According to the company, you'll be able to sign up to a phone contract with the robot. (In fact, that's apparently the robot on the left's role; in the middle is the store manager and on the right is "time killer" Pepper.) That sounds both incredible and hugely suspicious, but I'll have to wait until the end of March to check it out for myself.
Sprint faces 'thousands' of job cuts and price hikes
SoftBank, Sprint's Japanese parent company, made a ton of profit over the last three months, but not as much profit as people were expecting. That's largely due to it having to carry Sprint on its back, since the network has gone from plucky bronze medalist to sitting in the doldrums of fourth place in America's hotly-contested carrier wars. In order to try and reduce the amount of red printer ink that Marcelo Claure (pictured, right) has to buy, SoftBank has ordered a "sustainable run rate reduction" of more than $2 billion. In other words, the company is about to have to learn how to do a lot more with a heck of a lot less cash.
Pepper the companion robot has a lot of growing up to do
The robot revolution is coming. But instead of death machines dragging us off to work in their plutonium mines, we'll get helpful little friends like Pepper from SoftBank and Aldebaran. The little bot was built to be a friendly and helpful companion in stores and homes. It reacts to your emotions, offers hugs and high-fives and answers at least some of your questions. In fact, the demand for Pepper is so high that the first 1,000 units available in Japan sold out in a minute. But after sitting down with it for a quick interview, it's apparent that you shouldn't fire up the credit card for a domestic android just yet. While it's programmed to be charming and witty, there are still some bugs that need to be worked out. Right now, talking to Pepper is a little like talking to a two-year-old that's been handed four Red Bulls and a box of chocolate.
One of Japan's lovable store robots was drunkenly punted
Just one month after Hitchbot was brutally attacked in Philadelphia, a shop assistant robot in Japan has also suffered the wrath of angry humans with a grudge. According to Japan Times, a drunken 60-year-old entered a Softbank store and, after an angry exchange, punted one of the company's cute Pepper robots. The kick-happy individual may not have thought too hard about the unit's humanity (or otherwise) but it's another in a growing list of anti-robot acts. A recent Wired piece points out that people's fears about futuristic AI stealing our jobs might be unfounded, since more people will be required to maintain our new overlords. As for the victim in this incident, Pepper's family have asked for privacy, but Japan Times believes that the robot is currently moving slower than normal, and may have suffered damage to its internals. Aww.
Robot autopsy shows Pepper's head may be replaceable
Don't worry, the gruesome image (above) of SoftBank's Pepper isn't part of Elon Musk's robot takedown plan. It's actually a teardown by Japanese website Nikkei showing exactly what makes the emotion sensing 'bot tick. The head came off the body easily enough, but Pepper probably won't get an "easily repairable" score as Nikkei's technicians had to drill to get it apart. Once it cracked the cranium, however, it confirmed that yes, Pepper has Intel inside -- an Atom processor, to be exact. The site theorizes that since the head detaches easily from the body, SoftBank might let users upgrade just by dropping in a new one with a different CPU.
SoftBank's cutesy Pepper robot sells out in one minute
If you always wanted a robot butler to greet guests, amuse kids or be a live-action version of Cortana, you're way too late. The Pepper robot that does all that sold out exactly one minute after it went on sale in Japan on Saturday, according to manufacturer SoftBank Robotics. The company built a modest 1,000 units for its Japanese consumer launch, selling it for $1,600 with a monthly $200 fee. The 4-foot robot is not designed to fetch you drinks or do other manual work, but rather to listen, read your emotions, then respond appropriately. It can also sing, dance and tell (corny robot) jokes.
SoftBank's adorable Pepper robot goes on sale this Saturday
Japanese robot Pepper is ready to unthaw the hearts of any consumer who wants one. Maker Softbank said that it'll go on sale June 20th through a partnership with China's Alibaba and Foxconn Technology. As a reminder, the 4-foot humanoid 'bot is designed communicate realistically and even read your body language and tone of voice. It also "enjoys" human contact via touch sensors in the head and hands, and can detect you with an array of high-definition cameras, depth sensors and microphones. The manga-like eyes follow your movement, and the wheeled body -- which moves fairly gracefully -- is driven by 20 motors.
Softbank prices its Pepper robot out of some developers' pockets
Softbank's adorable robot may be short and cute, but it'll still cost the price of a secondhand car to bring one into your home. The Japanese network has revealed that the first Pepper devices on the market will cost just over nine grand to buy. Similar to Google's Glass Explorer project, Softbank will sell the first proper production run of 300 units to developers in the hope that they'll build apps for the automaton.
IBM's Watson taking crash course in Japanese for SoftBank
IBM's publicity-loving supercomputer Watson has a new job in Japan for wireless carrier SoftBank doing... something? Its job description is vague so far, but first it'll need to learn Japanese, no small feat for a machine that has remained mostly occidental so far. Watson is first and foremost a cognitive computer designed to parse language and find relationships between huge amounts of data. That means in order to help SoftBank -- which has divisions around the world, including Sprint Nextel in the US -- it'll need to get a better grasp of the language and culture in Japan.
Pepper, the humanoid robot, wants to sell you a Nescafe coffee machine
Softbank's Pepper, the robot with a line in cheesy jokes, hand gestures and oddly expressive poses is branching out from offering awkward banter to smartphone shoppers . Now, ahead of going on sale early next year for roughly $2,000, it's looking to help sell coffee machines in department stores like Bic Camera across Japan. A Nescafe spokesperson told CNET Japan that the robot will be able to bore you reel off the special qualities of Nescafe's capsule machines, as well as offer up quizzes and games -- presumably to distract younger, less caffeine-focused shoppers. It's just a shame it's not hooking up with a Poursteady just yet.
Yup, robots are coming to take our retail jobs, too
Elon Musk may be terrified of self-controlling robots, but the retail industry is clearly hoping they'll save cash in the long term. Nestle, for instance, has purchased 20 copies of Softbank's Pepper robot as the new spokes-droid for its food business in Japan. If successful, then the food manufacturer could have up to 1,000 of the cute yet disturbing devices pimping Nestle vending machines across the country. It's not just limited to robot-friendly Japan, either, since Lowe's has announced that it's hired a robotic employee to help customers find stock in its San Jose Orchard Supply store. The OSHBot comes with a pair of displays, one to bombard you with offers and another to let you video conference with an in-store expert hiding in the back. That said, it's hard not to be concerned for all of the workers who could be handed a pink slip in favor of the Terminator's doe-eyed cousin.
SoftBank puts $250 million toward joint movie venture with Legendary
Just days after reports circulated that SoftBank was looking to nab DreamWorks so it could tap into the movie biz, the company is investing elsewhere. Today, the Japanese outfit announced that it's forming a "strategic partnership" with another film studio: Legendary Entertainment. SoftBank is putting up $250 million to back the endeavor, aiming to push the movie maker's content over the web and on mobile devices -- focusing on the China and India markets in particular. If you're in need of a refresher, Legendary is the muscle behind films like Man of Steel, The Dark Knight Rises, and Inception. Variety reports that SoftBank's talks with DreamWorks stalled during the course of discussing a rumored $3.4 billion acquisition deal.
SoftBank wants to break into movies by acquiring DreamWorks
SoftBank may have already bought both a major mobile game studio and one of the US' largest carriers, but it apparently isn't done expanding its turf just yet. Both Hollywood Reporter and the Wall Street Journal claim that the Japanese carrier is now in talks to buy DreamWorks Animation, the movie studio you likely know for How To Train Your Dragon and Shrek. Reportedly, SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son wants to wield exclusive content as a weapon against rival mobile networks. While the sources aren't diving into specifics about the potential partnership, it wouldn't be surprising if you could eventually buy Sprint phones that come bundled with DreamWorks' latest flicks.
Sprint names wireless sales veteran Marcelo Claure as its new CEO
There were murmurs that Sprint was about to shake up its leadership, and today it's official. The carrier has named Marcelo Claure, the head of wireless distributor Brightstar, as its new President and CEO. He'll take over from Dan Hesse on August 11th. The company doesn't have a direct explanation for the change, but it does allude to refocusing now that its attempt to buy T-Mobile has gone awry; while it would prefer "industry consolidation," it's only concerned with self-improvement in the short term. How Claure will fare isn't certain. He's known for his entrepreneurial skills and has been involved with Sprint's board for months, but this will be his first time running a provider. He'll have to get up to speed quickly if he wants to reverse the company's ailing fortunes. [Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
Sprint's proposed T-Mobile buyout now faces a competing offer from Iliad
Sprint isn't the only company hoping to shell out billions for the privilege of scooping up T-Mobile's US branch; according to the Wall Street Journal, a French company called Iliad wants in on the action as well. Iliad, which owns a mobile operator in France known as Free, recently made a bid to counter the reported $32 billion offer T-Mobile is already entertaining with Sprint's parent company Softbank. The terms of the deal are unknown, and it's unclear how Iliad can pay for such a transaction, since its market value of $16 billion is merely half of what Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son is putting on the table.
Are you ready for your first home robot? Meet Pepper
The path to mainstream home robots is strewn with the battery-drained corpses of AIBO and lesser-known, Dalek-esque robots like Wakamaru. But now Japan's SoftBank, flush from the purchase of Sprint, has introduced its robot game changer, teaming up with Aldebaran Robotics (the team behind NAO) to make sure it gets it right. This is Pepper-kun. He's adorable... and a bit of a ditz. Is it finally time, like it was for the home PC, for the home robot revolution?
