May 18, 2025

Web and Technology News

Samsung’s cute Ballie robot arrives this summer with Google Gemini in tow

Samsung's Ballie will go on sale in the US and South Korea this summer, the company announced today. What's more, through a partnership with Google Cloud, the diminutive robot will ship with a Gemini AI model. 

Samsung didn't state the specific system that powers Ballie, but in combination with the company's own proprietary language models, it says the robot has multimodal capabilities, meaning Ballie can process voice, audio and visual data from its sensors. According to Samsung, Ballie can also manage your smart home devices and even offer health and styling recommendations, if you're inclined to seek that type of advice from a robot.    

Samsung has yet to announce pricing for Ballie, though with the uncertainty around the Trump administration's recently announced tariffs, you can't blame Samsung, can you? The company first demoed Ballie in 2020. The robot has gone through a few iterations since the then, with the version you see above first demoed at CES 2024. Samsung said then Ballie would arrive sometime in 2024, but last year came and went without the robot hitting store shelves.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/samsungs-cute-ballie-robot-arrives-this-summer-with-google-gemini-in-tow-133658886.html?src=rss
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Apple’s pay later approvals could depend on previous Apple purchases

Apple will rely on your previous purchases and spending habits to decide how much it will lend you for its upcoming “buy now, pay later” service, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apparently, the tech giant intends to evaluate your eligibility based on your purchases at its retail stores, your App Store transactions and even the peer-to-peer transfers you’ve made using Apple Cash. 

Whether or not you’ve applied for an Apple Card in the past will also reportedly factor into the amount the company will lend you, along with your spending habits using any other card linked to your Apple Pay. The company will take which Apple devices you own into account, as well, Bloomberg says. Apple Financing, the subsidiary the company established last year, is expected to be in charge of conducting customer background checks and loan approvals. 

The tech giant first announced the “buy now, pay later” functionality for Apple Pay at its WWDC event in June 2022 with the intention of launching it later that year. While Apple didn’t explain why it didn’t arrive with iOS 16 like it originally intended, Gurman said at the time that the delays were caused by “fairly significant technical and engineering challenges in rolling out the service.” To test the feature, Apple reportedly gave its retail employees access to it for their own purchases. In Gurman’s latest report, he says testers have been seeing loan approvals for as much as $1,000. 

When it first announced the pay later offering, Apple said it will give you a way to split the cost of purchases into four equal installments that you can pay over six weeks. That’s a short amount of time, but you at least won’t incur any additional interest or fees. The company reportedly plans to offer another option later on that would let you pay for larger purchases over several months, though that one will charge you interest on top of the base amount. 

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