5 Best AI-Powered Companions In 2022

People seem to be a bit too concerned about AI and its hazards. But they don’t realize how much it is already present in our lives. People were also very concerned when Facebook was shifted to the Metaverse. 

However, AI plays a major role that is largely invisible with various customer service chatbots and other services. AI is in our mobile devices and computers these days. Many people love interacting with AI as it is getting smarter and more advanced. 

If you want a simple and cheap way to get in on the AI action, here are the five most interactive and smart companions that will make your life more convenient than ever. These robots can provide company for long boring days during isolation or working from home.

Best AI-Powered Companions

  1. Vector 2.0 

The Vector 2.0 is the best robot companion with Alexa inbuilt. It comes with advanced robotics that gives it a personality by sight, touch, and sound. 

Void recognition powers it, and it will answer your questions. It can also take photos for you and can time dinner. Moreover, it can also display weather and do much more. Sending voice commands to it is a simple job using inbuilt Alexa. 

It comes with an uprising platform using wifi. Therefore, he is always learning and updating his skills and various features. It comes with a powerful battery. The best part is that it comes with an easily accessible battery that you can replace. 

Furthermore, it has a better camera resolution, thanks to its inbuilt 5 MP camera facial recognition. Therefore, it can recognize pets and even know when you smile. 

  1. Amazon Astro

Amazon Astro is a household robot that monitors your home in your absence. It comes with inbuilt Alexa and comes with a 6-month free-of-cost trial of Ring Protect Pro. With this trial, your assistant can save videos in its cloud storage for up to 60 days and even more with an upgrade.

The robot comes with intelligent motion thanks to its advanced navigation technology. Therefore, it can find its way around the home pretty easily. It can go wherever you want it to go, and you can stay connected even when you are not at home. 

You can conveniently manage it from your phone using the Astro App. You can even customize it with different compatible products. It comes with a detachable cup holder, and it can carry other items such as a Ziploc container, the Omron BP monitor, and Furbo Dog Camera that can toss treats to your pet. But you will need to accessorize the robot separately. 

  1. SunFounder PiSloth

SunFounder PiSloth is an AI programmable root for Raspberry Pi, and it can dance and avoid obstacles. You can also follow an object, provide you with background sound, and use sound effects. So, it is a top choice for kids and adults and is a versatile AI robot. It is a bionic robot and has a solid aluminum alloy structure. 

It can talk, dance, and even express its emotions, such as excitement and happiness. You can program it with 22 different actions, and it can stomp, swing, and moonwalk. It can send and receive ultrasonic signals with sensors as per your needs. You can use these signals to measure distance and proximity detection. 

Its eyes are a pair of send and receive ultrasonic sensors which you can use for obstacles avoidance and distance emergent along with proximity detections. Even beginners can program the proximity kit, and it is pretty easy to use. 

More traditional users can use Python for proximity detection. You can also find a variety of high-quality tutorials available online, and users can acquire the name of different skill sets for robotic programming. 

  1. Mibro Bold Really Rad Robots

This little friend can play, talk and prank with you, and it can turn your boring lonely life into a fun time. It comes with a new gold look and different gold accessories. You can find it and laugh at its jokes or give it different commands. 

It has a mouth that is as sharp as its looks. You can also use it to spy on your friends along with your family. So, you can be sneaky and send in your little spy friend. You can conveniently listen to the secrets from other rooms. 

You can also play tricks on your friends and prank them with this golden little friend. It comes loaded with fifty different functions and various paired sound effects. It is small in size and relatively easy to operate. 

  1. LivingAI EMO

This AI-powered desktop pet is pretty cool with a personality. It has multiple sensors and features cutting-edge technology. The AI robot can explore the world independently, and it can also react with more than a thousand body and face movements. 

It can cheer you up with your favorite music and dance moves. You can play online games with it. Moreover, it can wake you up and turn the light on. 

You can take pictures with the inbuilt HD camera and use its inbuilt voice assistant for commands. 

Since it is equipped with a touch sensor on its head, it can feel your touch like a pet. It can recognize you, and it also knows your name. 

Final Word

AI-powered companions are great for dealing with loneliness and social isolation. Even if you are not dealing with these issues, these AI friends are great to show off your buddies to your family and friends.

AI can be pretty awesome, and it is getting advanced over time. You can program your bots according to your requirements and have as much fun with them as possible. 

*Please note that there is a possibility we make some profit from any sale of one or more of these products. This helps us continue to create great content for our readers.

Code Crew is For the Children

Jamal O’garro has a sharp haircut. He’s hamming it up with the group, and he’s in his element. I’ve come in a little late and am a little frazzled because I had to go through a security check point because apparently, the UN is an international airport. As I make my way to a free seat, no one is annoyed or cares for that matter. It’s a pretty open forum and I immediately feel at home.

Code Crew is a group of individuals from diverse backgrounds all learning to code together. Jamal and Felicia O’garro founded Code Crew when they themselves decided to switch careers and learn to code. Felica tells me that they were hit hard by the recession of 2008 and they struggled for a while to make ends meet. They thought about going back to school to acquire their masters degrees but it was a pricey move and one with no guarantees. “Learning to Code was free” Felica mentions, and there were no barriers to entry. They learned to code together, studying from sun up to sun down at the library and watching tutorials on YouTube. Now they’ve both got jobs as engineers. They started Code Crew officially in 2013 though they were hosting meetings the year before. It was initially a means of getting together with other folks who wanted to learn how to code. They first met up at coffee shops, but pretty soon their Meetup Group grew and they needed a larger space. Now, they’ve been invited to speak at the UN for NYC Code Camp an open source conference held at the UN Headquarters here in NY. They’ve also been to the White House because of their commitment to making sure everyone has access to education around coding. They’ve made sure that all of their classes are affordable and in many cases even free so anyone can come and learn if they want to.

During the class at the UN, I was pretty lost, but I don’t have the keene sense of dread that I did in my computer science classes at University. It’s all good – no one is judging me. I have no assignments, and everyone who is there wants to be there. I can ask questions if I want and I don’t feel like anyone will judge me if my question is elementary. A fun, affordable, reputable coding class? I’ll definitely be back.

Growing Herb the Lazy Way

If you’re like me and you’re a guy who would actually like to do some home gardening, but are entirely too lazy for such an enterprise – don’t despair! Click and Grow is a new startup with some pretty decent funding that aims to change all that. It’s actually pretty simple. It’s much like a chia pet from the 90’s but actually useful. Just add water,plug the incubator in and there you have it!

It’s going to be sold at just under $300.00 which seems a bit pricey for me. However, if you are going to make heavy use out of this thing, I can imagine it paying for itself in about a year or two. Where things get confusing is the type of dirt that’s used. It’s “proprietary nanotech Smart Soil growth medium”. Now, I’m kinda partial to straight-up dirt so I do have my eyebrow raised on this one. I still feel like the stuff is natural enough not to have to be too skeptical, but I would like to know what was in this fancy dirt.

That aside, they’ve been invited to be apart of the Y Combinator program which is notoriously hard to get into so kudos to CEO Mattias Lepp and team for such an innovative product. I wish them the best. And yes – I did ask about it’s ability to grow weed and they haven’t provided an answer just yet. (Disclaimer: I do not promote, nor do I condone the recreational use of weed) If you’re interested – the full press release is below:

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The Robot War of Your Dreams!

So, I was checking out one of the coolest mech robots in the world that you can currently purchase and own called the Kuratas and realized that the American company MegaBots Inc. has just challenged them to a duel! I immediately recognized them from last years comic con as they were raising money via kickstarter. Having seen the MegaBot Robot myself up close and personal, it looked really cool. However, honestly, I really do like the Kuratas better. It seems to have a bit more style and functionality. Watch the owner and CEO of Kuratas Kogoro Kurata talk massive amounts of smack in the video below. Either way, when both creators suit up, it will be a must-see for all robot heads!

Source[the verge]

Audio-Technica Sonic Fuel In-Ear Headphones Review

Win a pair!

I had the pleasure of checking on a unique pair of headphones for the past month and below are my thoughts. Initially, I thought they were just a regular pair of mundane in-ear buds like many you can from other headphone manufacturers like Beats, Sony, or Bose. Honestly, I wasn’t that wrong, but I wasn’t right either…

The Good:

Customobility. I feel like I made that word up, but I don’t care. Long story short, for being a really simple pair of in-ear headphones, they offer quite a bit of customization options. Not just the size of the ear tips either which come in XS, S, M, and L. But the eartips actually swivel. This is important because this is the main reason why I’m not such a big fan of in-ear headphones. I can never quite get the earbuds to sit comfortably in my ear and these swiveling tips really helped. Another big deal was the “c-tips” that kind of hook onto the curvature of your ears. They also have different sizes here as well so they’ve got most ears covered. I was a little skeptical at first, but they did go a long way in providing comfort and for stopping the headphones from completely dropping out of my ear every time I turned my head. Lastly, they have some cool colors. I got a white pair and I’m giving away the red pair. Check out details below.

The Bad:

The mic wasn’t very convincing and I ended up not using it at all. Granted, I live in NY and there is always tons of ambient noise so this is a factor. But if you are in a busy city like me, you may end up having to take the headphones out and speaking into your phone normally.

The “c-tips” I added to “The Good” section because they were useful. However, if your jogging, working out, riding in a packed subway, or doing any other activity that causes large movements they really didn’t help as much as I’d like. The cord would get trapped on my bag or jacket button and would plop right out of my ear. Now this is more of a mark against cord based headphones in general than a knock against Audio-Technica. I really don’t see this problem going away for cord-based headphones.

I did like the volume notch on the side of the mic, but it was really easy to move so every time I’d start my music, the volume was either too low or too high because the notch wasn’t where I left it. I advise caution here.

Summary:

A cut above the rest I’d say, but not by leaps and bounds I’m afraid. If you’re just looking for some inexpensive headphones that will take you from point A to point B I’d say these are a good choice since they offer better than normal comfort and versatility. Sound is not going to be ear melting and there really aren’t any other features that will fulfill your wildest audiophile dreams. You’ll need to come out the pockets a little more if you want that, but they are a great middle-of-the-road headphones for a normal commute.

Win a Pair!

I do have an extra pair sitting here and I’d love to give it a way. Just write in the comments, tweet, facebook or other social media that you see this post on why you need these headphones before March 31st. I’ll get in touch and send them over!

“Romo” The Not-So-Creepy Personal Robot

Behold – the thingamajig you’ve all been waiting for. Since the movie Short-circuit came out, I’ve always had a fascination with sentient robotic beings that would do obey my every command as it’s benevolent emperor. Alas, robots came and went none really getting the obedience thing quite right and then out pops “ROMO”. Using your iPhone as it’s brains, you can command it wherever you are via an internet connection. The robot will stream video via the iPhone camera. You can even take pictures as demonstrated in the video below.

Break Dancing Robot

What’s really fascinating is how the robot reacts to the user. It’s programmed to respond to how close or far away you are from it and it will move accordingly which humanizes it a bit. I can think of at least a dozen use cases for this little bad boy like attending meetings for me for one! The best part is that Keller Rinaudo, CEO and Co-Founder of Romative, the company that makes Romo, is promising this robot will only cost $150 bucks. Sign me up! If we can get our hands on a demo unit, I’ll let you know how it works in person.

Hilarious Toshiba Electronic Torture Tests

Ever wonder what would happen if you ran 4kV through a Toshiba laptop? Me neither, but the dudes below tried it and it totally does NOT end up the way you think it would. Check out the video below to see what happens!

There are also a few more videos of these guys torturing other Toshiba products to the our delight. What’s really cool is that they don’t pass all the time, but it’s really interesting just to see what happens when you let’s say…put a large screen TV in a sauna. These and other profound questions to such mysteries can be answered with a simple click of the mouse button below! Let us know which was your favorite! Mine was the voltage test.

Monster Truck : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlAVTsRxtzA

Car Wash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRwuYp71j0M

Steam Room: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vAXSvWmRUI

Paint Mixer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEUJ123DuRo

Galaxy Nexus 4 Now Available in Playstore (For Limited Time We Presume)

Hey folks – quick heads up that the Galaxy Nexus 4 which has been totally sold out for the last month is now available in the Google Playstore. If you were thinking of picking one up, I’d head over there and put your order in real quick before it becomes too late! I put in for one myself and the site is saying it ships in 1-2 weeks for both versions (8G and 16 G). This is Google’s latest in the Nexus Series, and it comes with the vanilla (raw) version of Google’s latest mobile OS Jellybean. Are you getting one?

IncubateNYC Aims to Help You With That Business You’ve Been Thinking About

If you’re like me, then you’re always looking at start-ups lamenting about how you came up with the idea for the mp3 player back in high-school and someone stole your idea. We have tons of ideas, but don’t quite know how to bring them forth into reality – be it funds, or drive, or whatever stands in the way of a good idea’s fruition. Well keep reading, I have good news for you.

I spent some time with Brian Shields, Co-Founder of Incubate NYC. Incubate is a program developed by Brian and Marcus Mayo to help those of us with brilliant ideas to take said idea and give birth to it in reality. It’s a start-up   program specifically designed for first time entrepreneurs. When I spoke with Marcus, he told me what makes the program unique is the support system that comes along with being in the program. Being in the fox hole so-to-speak with others can be profoundly helpful. Seeing how someone else solves a problem can be helpful to you or vice-avers. He also mentioned that three main keys to the success of a particular project are getting started, knowing what to focus on, and sticking with it.

The program is a 5 week “Bootcamp” – which is basically workshop to refine your business ideas and concepts. However, what’s cool is that the program doesn’t stop there. Once the bootcamp is finished, graduates still have access to the Incubate NYC resources and community. It seemed quite unique to me, and I’ll update you guys once I’ve gone through it.

You can follow them @incubatenyc or check them out at www.incubatenyc.com