WWDC: Is Apple about to introduce a 21st-Century Knowledge Navigator
The pre-WWDC hardware rumor has emerged, and it seems to be the realization of an ancient Apple dream the Knowledge Navigator. Here’s what you need to know:
A long time ago in 1987, Apple created a video to promote a product that didn’t at that time exist. With the WWDC speculation being that the company is preparing to introduce a new product that kind of combines an iPad display with a HomePod speaker system, that makes use of Siri and AI, and it’s hard not to see hear the echoes.
What was the Knowledge Navigator?
In the old Apple video, the main character uses the Apple product, called Knowledge Navigator, to make calls, check messages, get help from an AI assistant, carry out research, check and make calendar dates, answer message, and more.
It even shows our planet being destroyed through climate change. Almost 40 years later, we may finally have a product that does what Knowledge Navigator was supposed to do, though the Earth is even more fried.
The video was ahead of its time and intended to be – it was a concept to show where the future of tech was headed. Quite a lot of it seems to have come true, and it is important to note that one thing that didn’t exist when it was proposed was the internet, and nor did the touch-based user interface – the video conferencing, or the AI assistant.
The tech has at last almost caught up
Now it does – and it looks like Apple is about to introduce the device as some kind of HomeOS solution, which will take the best of all its platforms and put them in a hopefully resilient computing device you can set up in your kitchen, or anywhere else in your home. (I guess this is also why Apple created that tasty Recipes service within Apple News).
This product was originally expected to appear in March but was delayed by Apple Intelligence. It isn’t likely to actually ship until later in the year, the Gurman said.
What features will it bring?
Gurman claimed you can anticipate Siri, communication and home control. You’ll get Safari, Music, Notes and other Apple apps, but no App Store (maybe). It will mainly be operated by Voice (like Knowledge Navigator).
You’ll get a 6-inch screen, speakers, camera and battery, and a lot of security, Apple widgets and Home integration with security cameras, video doorbells and video cameras. I guess but do not know that it may also integrate with Apple Intelligence and – potentially – voice assistants for more in-depth tasks.
And it was visualized quite well, I think, by Apple almost forty years ago. In his book, former Apple CEO, John Sculley, described it as:
“A future-generation Macintosh, which we should have early in the twenty-first century, might well be a wonderful fantasy machine called the Knowledge Navigator, a discoverer of worlds, a tool as galvanizing as the printing press. Individuals could use it to drive through libraries, museums, databases, or institutional archives. This tool wouldn’t just take you to the doorstep of these great resources as sophisticated computers do now; it would invite you deep inside its secrets, interpreting and explaining – converting vast quantities of information into personalized and understandable knowledge.”
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