Muse Gadgets

Muse Gadgets gadgets.muse.ai

Muse gadgets are open source devices you build yourself. Program an off-the-shelf ESP32 board or set up a Raspberry Pi with our SDKs, then connect Muse to your displays, buttons, sensors, actuators, and whatever else…

143 points•anant•about 8 hours ago•68 comments•

#muse #gadgets #muse gadgets #devices #source #program #shelf #esp32

68 comments

bartwr26 minutes ago

I'm generally skeptical and critical of most things that Meta is doing ("fool me once...") and I definitely won't trust them enough to use their agents and give them any more data than I already do, but this is a super cute and fun idea!

I love microcontrollers and DIY IoT as a hobby, a huge fan of ESP32s (so affordable and perfectly packaged in ready-to-use boards), and I can see how such easy, vibe-coded projects can inspire more people and show them how easy it is to get started with them today. (I remember my first experiments with microcontrollers and DSPs at college in 00s - the nightmare of even just flashing those devices, not to mention the almost-prohibitive cost to get them and the sometimes required JTAG programmers I faced in Poland... My BSc thesis project was reduced in scope a few times because my professor couldn't get some purchases and shipments approved on time)

A toy with not much value? Sure. But who cares, it's fun and inspiring! They even recommend vibe-building so that the user doesn't need to download or configure SDKs. Awesome stuff for complete beginners to this area.

Over a decade ago, I could see Google releasing such a whimsy, hackersy fun toy project. Sadly, not anymore... (Saying this as a former Google employee in 2017-2022, witnessing in person the sad, gradual change from hacker culture to corporate culture)

belvalabout 5 hours ago

I'll go against the grain and say that I like this, I genuinely don't think this is anything but some internal team being excited about their product and giving you some firmware to connect stuff to their agents. Meta the trillion dollar company will not move at all from this.

zitterbewegungabout 4 hours ago

This looks exiting for tinkerers. This feels like the early days of voice assistants again except it’s more AI driven this time.

ORDINAND_PIZZAabout 3 hours ago

yes, but:

why build here? why should we grow our gardens in this factory farm?

if this muse gadget seems so cool, why not make your own?

don’t outsource your curiosity to people like this, they do not care about you, your family, or your livelihood. they want to control you; this is their toy that they made for you to become fascinated by

paul79867 minutes ago

Indeed and Ai keychain voice assistants can double as a home Ai smart speaker and also conversing with it via earbuds when out and about.

I was a bit shocked last week to see Zuckerberg announce the Muse Charm keychain as that's what I suggested and blogged about in August (submitted my blog post here then).

https://ryanspahn.substack.com/p/openais-rumored-speaker-bel...

pj_mukhabout 3 hours ago

I want a red light/green light for my Office Desk.

Red meaning "I'm working on something important. Disturb only if emergency"

Green being, "I'm scattershot, come hang"

This is the perfect platform for stuff like this.

taneqabout 3 hours ago

If you mean a physical light, you can buy light switches and coloured bulbs from a hardware store.

vascoabout 4 hours ago

It won't move because anyone with a brain won't use this, but I was also surprised at how many people put Bezos-listening devices in their own home.

zmmmmmabout 6 hours ago

The general theme of meta's approach across the board here is interesting - basically, they are trying to win in part by taking risks others aren't willing to. I can imagine they saw that all the success is coming so far when a someone is willing to cross a boundary that wasn't previously thought acceptable - from releasing ChatGPT in the first place, to things like OpenClaw.

So now they are actively distributing SDKs and to let people "hack" custom hardware integrations to their already risky AI agents unleashed on the general public. Giving agents abilty to control things in the physical world - what could possibly go wrong?

But here we are: so far the story is pretty much 100% "fortune favors the bold", and Meta is leaning into it.

com2kidabout 3 hours ago

It is weird, a year and a half ago I wrote a blog post (https://meanderingthoughts.hashnode.dev/lets-do-some-actual-...) basically describing a lot of what Muse does, except all hosted locally. I included a section about using hardware around the house to enhance AI agents.

When the initial Muse launch happened, my first reaction was "wow this sounds familiar."

Now the HW side of things is announced.

To be fair, this is all obvious stuff that should be done. The key is who can pull it off. It has been pointed out many types that technically Muse is nothing new, some combination of Gemini products can already do it. The counterpoint being that packaging and branding make a product.

I am kind of sad that desktop computer use ended up being the way to go instead of hooking into mobile phones. Mobile phones allow for a lot more potential integrations with day to day life, plenty of services now days are (sadly) only available through a mobile app.

NetOpWibbyabout 3 hours ago

I think if someone can bring the Jonathan Computer and a mobile device that connects with that ecosystem, will be going towards a future we all want.

Modularity, connection, and true ownership.

ForHackernewsabout 4 hours ago

Meta has never created anything successful since getting lucky with Facebook. Instagram and WhatsApp were acquisitions. Facebook Phone, the Libra shitcoin, and Metaverse VR were all flops. Jury's still out on the much-maligned "pervert glasses", but maybe those will sell.

Now they're trying a new thing. I don't know if it's so much "being bold" as flailing around for some new thing. They really desperately want to own a "platform" like Microsoft, Apple, or Google.

zmmmmmabout 3 hours ago

I don't totally disagree but I think you understate the level of competence needed to integrate and make successful the acquisitions. And they navigated the valley of death from desktop to mobile. And Threads is an interesting example everyone ignores that is 100% in-house and has actually established a strong user base. At very least, Meta has avoided the fate of so many others that came before - Yahoo, MySpace, etc and in part that is because Zuck made big bets at the right time that many people thought were insane (buying WhatsApp, Instagram etc).

mococaabout 4 hours ago

In Brazil we say “shoothing all way around”

jasonjmcgheeabout 3 hours ago

This and the Meta VR stuff - I would be all over it if it weren't Meta. It's objectively cool tech.

But you're handcuffed.

NetOpWibbyabout 3 hours ago

I second this. Zuck gives me the ick, like that corpo villain in Ready Player One.

He wants to own the future for the sake of money, not because he wants to improve lives or entertain folks.

Zambyteabout 3 hours ago

I can see the VR stuff, but why this? It seems like anyone bold enough to hack on local hardware would have no trouble working outside Muse as an ecosystem.

everlastingemaiabout 2 hours ago

Yeah that is what bothers me. I can't get Muse in Australia anyway (could probably VPN I guess) but would be keen when someone else more reliable/trustworthy.

bauerdabout 7 hours ago

A Meta ecosystem is definitely not coming to my household.

everlastingemaiabout 2 hours ago

agreed. I only have Facebook and that is out of necessity. I never post on it.

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