This is awesome. Open source to create customizable services without being tied to commercial services. I just hope there are other options to tunein for audio streams.
Backed this project years ago. Nice that it finally will be shipped. I hope the voice can be changed because I'm sure this will creep out my girlfriend and is not gonna be used otherwise.
given that it is designed to be a thing that sits in one place forever i expect this would be a job for, like, mounting tape or something i youre worried about a beast knockin it over
We did perform drop tests up to 3 feet. The Mark II performed well. We dropped it on all 4 corners, and all 6 faces. The only damage was an internal rib but it was still functional. That being said, I would not try to replicate at home :)
How much control do we have over the "tell me the news" feature? Ideally, we would be able to give it our own feeds or RSS or Feedly. If it could read my Feedly headlines, that would be amazing.
Hey, currently asking for the news pulls from short form bulletin broadcasts, eg hourly radio news. For this you can add your own custom url if your preferred news station isn't yet supported. Reading headlines from a text based RSS feed is certainly something that could be added in the future too.
@@MycroftAIForEveryone Cool thanks. Yeah RSS would be ideal. If it can atleast read the feedly "today" feed, that would be incredible. News buffs love Feedly. I think most importantly if you can add multiple url feeds, that would certainly be the most ideal situation for news buffs especially for those of us who read, listen and watch international news sources from numerous regions around the world. Thanks. Keep up the great work!
Does Mycroft support Server/Client configuration so that i can use a microft server with various clients like tablets, other computers etc. ? Or is mycroft a standalonesystem ?
Imo, it has potential. I don't like the hyper stylized, smooth honey voices of competing products. (they sound like impending doom in a sci-fi AI-gone-rogue horror show to me) This sounds more like a real person. In fact, unsure if the name is an hommage, but it wouldn't be out of place to get the real Jarvis voice on this. Paul Bettany is a friend of Johnny Depp's, so I feel he is just crazy enough to do it. But I imagine it would be a lot of work to model his voice.
Wonder why they didn't put it on a base which houses the speakers and port with an adjustable swivel screen so one could set the screen at a convenient angle. It could be sat on a sofa end table or shelf or mounted under a cabinet. That would have really set it apart!
I'd have to check in with our industrial design guru but fairly sure that would add a lot of cost and complexity to the build. Moving parts always have a much higher chance of failure too. Maybe with the Mark 3? :D
you don't want it to look too much like the imac g4. (even though I would love to see it) I don't imagine apple has changed it's position on open-source, let alone regarding hardware.
You SHOULD register the device on your servers otherwise it not work? There is the need to do this more than once? What happens if you shut down your service?
You can spin up your own server- it is also open source. But by the end of the year we expect to have a developer (read: early beta) version of completely offline functionality working. This is useful if, for example, you are using it for home automation and your ISP is unreachable.
We are currently working on serverless functionality. Also, there is third-party software you can run- forked from our codebase so they are independently maintained. As someone who has had my work burried after acquisitions due to company "strategic" changes, I am very keen on ensuring the Mark II and our work on the core software has a long life.
It is fully open source.. so if you or a buddy are good at coding.. the options are limitless. That said. This thing is ready to go out of the box, sort of a boot to operation alternative to the github servers :) Happy to see this open-source AI movement really taking off. The easier it is for the average user the more we should see this thing advance and evolve :)
Hey there, do you mean for peripherals or for power? The IO ports are directly from the Raspberry Pi 4 which is why there are the 2x USB 2.0 and 2x USB 3.0. We also haven't seen any specific need for a USB-C port and it would be more expensive and add complexity to the build overall. I can see USB-C as a common power plug for devices that require charging as quite important, however for products that are continuously plugged in this seems far less important, but interested to hear what others think about this?
I just.....I just can't get past the appearance :( I can't bring myself to spend that much money on something that looks like this. I don't want to be negative, I think this represents a future I'm very excited about.. I'm just being honest there's exactly 1 reason I haven't ordered one 😢
Hey, we've definitely heard a split between those that love it and those that... don't. We changed the design for a few reasons - primarily because the original hardware we had proved completely unreliable which is what sent us back to the drawing board. This new design also has the benefit of waaaaay better audio output courtesy of the audio chamber embedded in the base.
Před rokem+2
I agree. The plastic box seems a bit cheap and flimsy. It would be nice to have something a little more polished or less obviously plastic.
@@MycroftAIForEveryone I appreciate you guys, and thanks for spending the time to reply to me. Even if this is not my particular cup of tea I am still very excited about your progress. Keep up the good work!!
@ Yes, it is plastic, but it is *not* flimsy. IMHO in-person it feels like a quality, solid product. But as for aesthetics... people like what they like- no argument there. (Michael, CEO)
Před rokem+2
@@MycroftAIForEveryone Thanks for the reply, Michael. I love what you do as a company. It is doing good for voice assistants.
This is already way to complex. I hate products that require activation. Why can't you just turn it on, give it your wifi details and then you are good to go. Activation is never for the customer, its always for your benefit. I really want an Alexa type device that I can use locally, play local music, ask it questions without any of that going back to you. I want a virtual assistant that is mine, not yours. I had Alexa and Google home but they are just corporate snoops. Maps, weather etc. is obviously useful but I don't see why you have to be logged in to anything to do that.
Hey Daniel, I just replied to another similar comment of yours but to extend a little on the specifics here - I can definitely understand your skepticism. Our backend provides a few major functions: 1. Cloud based Speech Recognition - currently local STT just isn't good enough - but that's something we're working on right now. 2. Access to paid API's like OpenWeatherMap and WolframAlpha. There are some free tier API's out there but we are well beyond the scale where we can use those. You can generate your own API keys but this is beyond what most average users are willing or able to do so by default we provide proxies to those services through our backend. 3. Simpler device and Skill configuration - this is the easiest to move on device, we just haven't prioritized it yet since 1 & 2 have been blockers to having a completely local experience. Honestly #1 more than #2. But this is what we're working on currently, and aiming to have at least a usable test image out by the end of the year that would enable you to use Mycroft without sending a single packet to a Mycroft server. Previously decent Text to Speech also required a cloud based service, but our new Mimic 3 TTS engine means that is no longer the case. You can now have a high quality neural TTS voice generated faster than real-time on a Raspberry Pi 4. These are not simple challenges, but we're ticking them off one-by-one!
Hey there, we've seen other video's out there, but we wanted to have a straight forward video of what to expect when you pull it out of the box as well. We've also been focused on getting these out to community members so professional reviewers who expect freebies haven't gotten their hands on them yet.
So I think the dirty little secret here is EUs are basically funding mycroft to develop for enterprise and that's kinda Sh*tty to build for enterprise off the backs of individuals. 1. This device is WAYYYYYY too expensive. You can buy a whole computer, tablet, or smart phone for 499 and get way more functionality. 2. The Anemic (sub 100) skills available for the mycroft means the device can't DO anything. Of the skills that DO exist, they are gimmicks (Which I suspect is part of why this is JUST an unboxing and not a demo) 3. I think now that there is a stable hardware and software platform Mycroft should consider building skills for popular open source or self hosted projects (Nextcloud, Emby (I know), Plex, GitLab, etc) to attract users. I also don't see why 350$ can't be the price to work down from.
I have well over a dozen Alexas throughout my house, about 5 with displays, about half a dozen Google Homes with 3 with displays, and about 4 Meta Portals. They're all pretty good but have different strengths and weaknesses. Bit unusual I admit but I'm mostly interested in how I can integrate them into my Home Assistant/Node-Red. Alexa is great at sending commands to custom automations, communicating between rooms and making landline phone calls. Home is pretty great for making announcements from Home Assistant, playing music and videos from CZcams. And using Meta Portal as a just a voice assistant is a waste, my Portal+ is very nearly a powerful ChromeOS PC that runs webapps, with bluetooth mouse & keyboard and it's easily rotating display, I do a lot of coding in VS Code with it & other webapps. But the one area that I can't use any of these products directly for is to directly integrate with certain devices at my home. I notice this thing has USB ports on the back, something you don't see in other products (well, some may have one but you can't use them for much) I have two digital scales with USB ports, for weighing very different sized things, or receive measurements via from my laser measurement tool and remember it all for me. Perhaps I have fixed cameras for taking product photos and I can just tell it when to take a shot. USB scanners, specialized printers (would LOVE to just tell an AxiDraw what to write or draw), and the list goes on. Being able to turn any of these devices into fully voice controlled would be pretty amazing.
if the 3+ delay between hey mycroft and the beginning of listening to the utterance didnt exist. i'd use this. But its ENTIRELY too damn slow to be of any use for impatient people. This is 2023, there shouldnt be as long of a delay as there is. it literally makes no sense.
This is awesome. Open source to create customizable services without being tied to commercial services. I just hope there are other options to tunein for audio streams.
Backed this project years ago. Nice that it finally will be shipped. I hope the voice can be changed because I'm sure this will creep out my girlfriend and is not gonna be used otherwise.
I have been waiting for an unboxing video! Keep up the good work!
nicely done. what kind of 'drop tests' where done on it? it seems the plastic shell would crack after a few cat swipes or dog tail swipes to the floor
given that it is designed to be a thing that sits in one place forever i expect this would be a job for, like, mounting tape or something i youre worried about a beast knockin it over
We did perform drop tests up to 3 feet. The Mark II performed well. We dropped it on all 4 corners, and all 6 faces. The only damage was an internal rib but it was still functional. That being said, I would not try to replicate at home :)
@@peenworm life , uh, finds a way
@@MycroftAIForEveryone is that average kitchen counter height?
@@l0gic23 Yes, for the US it is. We just remodeled our kitchen :-)
How much control do we have over the "tell me the news" feature? Ideally, we would be able to give it our own feeds or RSS or Feedly. If it could read my Feedly headlines, that would be amazing.
Hey, currently asking for the news pulls from short form bulletin broadcasts, eg hourly radio news. For this you can add your own custom url if your preferred news station isn't yet supported. Reading headlines from a text based RSS feed is certainly something that could be added in the future too.
@@MycroftAIForEveryone Cool thanks. Yeah RSS would be ideal. If it can atleast read the feedly "today" feed, that would be incredible. News buffs love Feedly. I think most importantly if you can add multiple url feeds, that would certainly be the most ideal situation for news buffs especially for those of us who read, listen and watch international news sources from numerous regions around the world.
Thanks. Keep up the great work!
Yeah, I would love some RSS compatibility.
Does Mycroft support Server/Client configuration so that i can use a microft server with various clients like tablets, other computers etc. ? Or is mycroft a standalonesystem ?
it sounds dead inside even compared to siri, and it has an accent.
other than that it looks amazing.
Imo, it has potential. I don't like the hyper stylized, smooth honey voices of competing products. (they sound like impending doom in a sci-fi AI-gone-rogue horror show to me) This sounds more like a real person.
In fact, unsure if the name is an hommage, but it wouldn't be out of place to get the real Jarvis voice on this. Paul Bettany is a friend of Johnny Depp's, so I feel he is just crazy enough to do it. But I imagine it would be a lot of work to model his voice.
My god that voice.... why is he so evil?! He reminds of cabal from Tiberian sun.
Wonder why they didn't put it on a base which houses the speakers and port with an adjustable swivel screen so one could set the screen at a convenient angle. It could be sat on a sofa end table or shelf or mounted under a cabinet. That would have really set it apart!
I'd have to check in with our industrial design guru but fairly sure that would add a lot of cost and complexity to the build. Moving parts always have a much higher chance of failure too. Maybe with the Mark 3? :D
you don't want it to look too much like the imac g4. (even though I would love to see it)
I don't imagine apple has changed it's position on open-source, let alone regarding hardware.
I would like to connect Mark II to my Mycroft server for voice processing. :) I already have a VM running Mycroft server.
You certainly can do that- it will require a little code tweaking, but if you've set up a home server already you've clearly got the ability.
You SHOULD register the device on your servers otherwise it not work? There is the need to do this more than once? What happens if you shut down your service?
You can spin up your own server- it is also open source. But by the end of the year we expect to have a developer (read: early beta) version of completely offline functionality working. This is useful if, for example, you are using it for home automation and your ISP is unreachable.
@@MycroftAIForEveryoneI'm just discovering this software and hardware. Was there any progress on this? Somewhere I can follow?
Is the site offline?
Does this thing have a drop in feature like Alexa? If your company goes under what do we do about it connecting to the servers?
We are currently working on serverless functionality. Also, there is third-party software you can run- forked from our codebase so they are independently maintained. As someone who has had my work burried after acquisitions due to company "strategic" changes, I am very keen on ensuring the Mark II and our work on the core software has a long life.
It is fully open source.. so if you or a buddy are good at coding.. the options are limitless.
That said. This thing is ready to go out of the box, sort of a boot to operation alternative to the github servers :)
Happy to see this open-source AI movement really taking off. The easier it is for the average user the more we should see this thing advance and evolve :)
Very Nice Only Problem Turkey I'm Turkish And The Dollar Rate Is Very Chamfered 1 Dollar 18 Turkish Lira
you can put SPANISH ?
Not available anymore?
Seems like the development ceased last year. Unfortunate.
720p? What year is this?
Why not usb c?
Hey there, do you mean for peripherals or for power?
The IO ports are directly from the Raspberry Pi 4 which is why there are the 2x USB 2.0 and 2x USB 3.0. We also haven't seen any specific need for a USB-C port and it would be more expensive and add complexity to the build overall. I can see USB-C as a common power plug for devices that require charging as quite important, however for products that are continuously plugged in this seems far less important, but interested to hear what others think about this?
@@MycroftAIForEveryone i mean for the power, with usb outlets everywhere now there is no need for a useless brick
I just.....I just can't get past the appearance :( I can't bring myself to spend that much money on something that looks like this.
I don't want to be negative, I think this represents a future I'm very excited about..
I'm just being honest there's exactly 1 reason I haven't ordered one 😢
Hey, we've definitely heard a split between those that love it and those that... don't. We changed the design for a few reasons - primarily because the original hardware we had proved completely unreliable which is what sent us back to the drawing board. This new design also has the benefit of waaaaay better audio output courtesy of the audio chamber embedded in the base.
I agree. The plastic box seems a bit cheap and flimsy. It would be nice to have something a little more polished or less obviously plastic.
@@MycroftAIForEveryone I appreciate you guys, and thanks for spending the time to reply to me. Even if this is not my particular cup of tea I am still very excited about your progress. Keep up the good work!!
@ Yes, it is plastic, but it is *not* flimsy. IMHO in-person it feels like a quality, solid product. But as for aesthetics... people like what they like- no argument there. (Michael, CEO)
@@MycroftAIForEveryone Thanks for the reply, Michael. I love what you do as a company. It is doing good for voice assistants.
$500? hahaha you're joking
1:40 no USB-C in 2022? D:
Hi Max, there are 2x USB 3.0 ports, but not any direct USB-C
not needed
𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙢 😞
This is already way to complex. I hate products that require activation. Why can't you just turn it on, give it your wifi details and then you are good to go. Activation is never for the customer, its always for your benefit. I really want an Alexa type device that I can use locally, play local music, ask it questions without any of that going back to you. I want a virtual assistant that is mine, not yours. I had Alexa and Google home but they are just corporate snoops. Maps, weather etc. is obviously useful but I don't see why you have to be logged in to anything to do that.
Hey Daniel, I just replied to another similar comment of yours but to extend a little on the specifics here - I can definitely understand your skepticism.
Our backend provides a few major functions:
1. Cloud based Speech Recognition - currently local STT just isn't good enough - but that's something we're working on right now.
2. Access to paid API's like OpenWeatherMap and WolframAlpha. There are some free tier API's out there but we are well beyond the scale where we can use those. You can generate your own API keys but this is beyond what most average users are willing or able to do so by default we provide proxies to those services through our backend.
3. Simpler device and Skill configuration - this is the easiest to move on device, we just haven't prioritized it yet since 1 & 2 have been blockers to having a completely local experience. Honestly #1 more than #2.
But this is what we're working on currently, and aiming to have at least a usable test image out by the end of the year that would enable you to use Mycroft without sending a single packet to a Mycroft server.
Previously decent Text to Speech also required a cloud based service, but our new Mimic 3 TTS engine means that is no longer the case. You can now have a high quality neural TTS voice generated faster than real-time on a Raspberry Pi 4. These are not simple challenges, but we're ticking them off one-by-one!
why are you the only person showing unboxing videos if you actually shipped something? Where are the third party reviews?
Hey there, we've seen other video's out there, but we wanted to have a straight forward video of what to expect when you pull it out of the box as well. We've also been focused on getting these out to community members so professional reviewers who expect freebies haven't gotten their hands on them yet.
Everytime I read Mycroft, I see Microsoft… I think I am dyslexic
I read minecraft
available in amazon?
So I think the dirty little secret here is EUs are basically funding mycroft to develop for enterprise and that's kinda Sh*tty to build for enterprise off the backs of individuals.
1. This device is WAYYYYYY too expensive. You can buy a whole computer, tablet, or smart phone for 499 and get way more functionality.
2. The Anemic (sub 100) skills available for the mycroft means the device can't DO anything. Of the skills that DO exist, they are gimmicks (Which I suspect is part of why this is JUST an unboxing and not a demo)
3. I think now that there is a stable hardware and software platform Mycroft should consider building skills for popular open source or self hosted projects (Nextcloud, Emby (I know), Plex, GitLab, etc) to attract users. I also don't see why 350$ can't be the price to work down from.
I have well over a dozen Alexas throughout my house, about 5 with displays, about half a dozen Google Homes with 3 with displays, and about 4 Meta Portals. They're all pretty good but have different strengths and weaknesses. Bit unusual I admit but I'm mostly interested in how I can integrate them into my Home Assistant/Node-Red.
Alexa is great at sending commands to custom automations, communicating between rooms and making landline phone calls. Home is pretty great for making announcements from Home Assistant, playing music and videos from CZcams. And using Meta Portal as a just a voice assistant is a waste, my Portal+ is very nearly a powerful ChromeOS PC that runs webapps, with bluetooth mouse & keyboard and it's easily rotating display, I do a lot of coding in VS Code with it & other webapps.
But the one area that I can't use any of these products directly for is to directly integrate with certain devices at my home. I notice this thing has USB ports on the back, something you don't see in other products (well, some may have one but you can't use them for much) I have two digital scales with USB ports, for weighing very different sized things, or receive measurements via from my laser measurement tool and remember it all for me. Perhaps I have fixed cameras for taking product photos and I can just tell it when to take a shot. USB scanners, specialized printers (would LOVE to just tell an AxiDraw what to write or draw), and the list goes on. Being able to turn any of these devices into fully voice controlled would be pretty amazing.
Don't email me again.
if the 3+ delay between hey mycroft and the beginning of listening to the utterance didnt exist. i'd use this. But its ENTIRELY too damn slow to be of any use for impatient people. This is 2023, there shouldnt be as long of a delay as there is. it literally makes no sense.