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Sharp Unveils Cute Robot Phone At A Not-So-Cute $1,800 Price (60abc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the shouldn't-you-get-to-know-me-first dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Japanese manufacturer Sharp officially launched a small robot named RoboHon that doubles as an Android smartphone. The foot-tall robot phone features a two-inch, QVGA display on its back, and a 720p projector embedded in its head. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor powers the robot with Android 5.0 Lollipop running on the software side of things. It can be controlled by voice commands, allowing it to walk and dance -- features like taxi hailing and recipe assistance are apparently in the works. But here's the catch -- RoboHon costs $1,800 or 198,000 yen. If you want to have access to the 3 different voice recognition technologies found in the RoboHon, you'll have to pay an additional "small monthly fee."

21 comments

  1. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shut up and take my money.

    1. Re:Wow by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      $1800 is a reasonable price for a cutting edge product like this.
      Back in 1983, I paid $5000 for a 4 MHz PC, and I was happy to have it.

    2. Re:Wow by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      I can't help but wonder how one of these would be designed for a 6 foot tall version. Might be a little creepy.

  2. small gifts by slick7 · · Score: 1

    HAIL! Our robotic Overlords.

    --
    The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
    1. Re:small gifts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not even remotely worth the price. I'll pass.

  3. Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wake me when it gets iOS. I refuse to let a Google robot into my home.

    1. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But you have no problem with Apple?

    2. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apples main business model is selling hardware. So yes I feel safer with Mac than I do android.

  4. Points at RoboHon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Persocom!

  5. Meh by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

    I still prefer Mirai Suenaga.

  6. The name by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 3, Interesting

    TFA doesn't say what the name means, so after a few minutes on this internet thingy I find:
    The robot is named RoboHon, which amalgamates the Japanese words for "robot" and "phone" together.

    and an online dictionary gives "terehon", "terefon", "denwa" as translations of "telephone".

    So it is named "robophone", slightly mangled by transliteration.

    --
    Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
    1. Re:The name by DavidMZ · · Score: 1

      Yes, the Japanese language loves such portmanteaux

    2. Re:The name by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 1

      My problem was that my very slight knowledge of Japanese provided me with two translations for 'hon' - 'book' or 'origin'. Neither seemed to fit very well, so I didn't know if one was right (and there was some connection I was missing) or (as it turned out) there was some other source of 'hon'.

      --
      Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
    3. Re:The name by DavidMZ · · Score: 2

      That's perfectly understandable, there are many homonyms in Japanese which is very confusing for learners. For native or advanced speakers, the meaning is most of the time clear from the context, but there are times where Japanese people will actually say which word they use by saying "as in this word (that uses the same kanji)" or actually drawing the kanji in the air.

  7. As an early adopter of the Sharp Zaurus... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    All I can say is if you buy this for the USDM, don't expect Sharp Software support after the first release. They basically abandoned the US Zaurus' immediately after launch and it ended up falling to a seperate open source community to provide images for them (I believe 1-2 years later, long after they were no longer on the market.)

    Furthermore the ones that were adequate for non-PDA use (Original looked like a palmpilot with a slide out keyboard... missing the | symbol meaning it couldn't be used at the console to actually DO anything. Try viewing >1 page text files on a 320x200 screen without the ability to pipe through more or less.) were only released in japan for a 200 dollar premium over the PDA models and similiar IO issues (no onboard networking save the proprietary usb charger adapter, no sdio support, no support for mmc/sd cards over 128M, and only 2 available compactflash wifi adapters.)

    While this was a bit ranty I just wanted to point it out, since while it seems reasonably priced for an 'early adopter' project (the zaurus was 400), it is just as likely to end up a paperweight with no support if you aren't careful.

  8. I like sharp. by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

    I like Sharp. In my mind they have always made good quality, slightly off-the-wall products. There is real innovation going on at that company I think.

    I think I still have a Zaurus tucked away in a desk draw somewhere. Great product and I used it for quite a while. Sadly only had 64M of RAM which limited its lifetime a bit.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  9. Why do AFRICANS never build robots? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anybody? Any answers?

    1. Re:Why do AFRICANS never build robots? by PPH · · Score: 1

      Bad experiences with slavery.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    2. Re:Why do AFRICANS never build robots? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      This is why we need a "Dark Humor" moderation choice.

  10. QVGA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why do vendors still insist on using terminology that no longer means anything, and even when it did, it only served to confuse matters? 320x240. Yeah, a few more characters, but that actually means something. "Quarter VGA" means absolutely nothing useful. Laptops and monitors use this (probably intentionally) confusing crap as well. WTF is WXGA? How does this convey more meaning than 1366x768?

  11. Cute, but ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    .... never feed it after midnight.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.