Robot or Not?
Hosted by John Siracusa and Jason Snell
Jason Snell asks John Siracusa to rule on the meaning of various words and concepts. It’s not just about robots anymore.
Have a question for John? Email robot@theincomparable.com.
295 Homepods and Other Robots (or Not)
In a rare timely episode, John and Jason discuss a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that Apple is designing a series of robots, including a “robot” that sits on a table and moves its display around, and a “robot” that follows you around your house folding laundry, reminding you of your mortality, and possibly running a viral campaign for Apple TV+ shows.
Previous Episodes
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August 19, 2024294 Double Space
Listener Daniel would like John’s blessing for his practice of putting two spaces after every sentence he types.
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August 5, 2024
293 Severe Weather
Listener Arne received a severe weather alert for a fire. Fires are very bad, but are they weather? Are some natural disasters weather, and others not?
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July 22, 2024
292 Tea
Is “truffle mushroom tea” just a soup? Did a fancy New York restaurant play a trick on Listener David and his wife? And what is tea, really?
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July 8, 2024
291 Hawaiian Shirts
Are Hawaiian shirts just fun to wear, or are they cultural appropriation?
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June 24, 2024
290 Airport Wheelchair
Listener Erik sent us this video of self-navigating wheelchairs in the Miami Airport. Does the Roomba Rule apply?
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June 10, 2024
289 Vending Machine
Friend of the show Frank is seeking to delineate when something is a “vending machine” and when it’s just a machine that vends.
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May 27, 2024
288 El Camino
Thanks to Friend of the Show Casey, we’re talking about weird cars and car classes again.
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May 16, 2024
287 Autonomous Excavator
Listener Ivan sent in a link to an autonomous excavator that assembled a six-foot wall out of rocks. Is it the Roomba of construction materials?!
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April 15, 2024
285 Theme Songs / Skip Intro
We follow up on some feedback about our theme songs, and theme songs in general, while taking on whether we use the Skip Intro button when we should be listening to TV theme songs.