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Today — 6 December 2025Main stream

Industry Leader Shares Why Ethereum Price Will Reach $12,000

6 December 2025 at 10:00

Industry leader Tom Lee has shared how the Ethereum price could reach $12,000 within the next few months. He based his prediction on the Bitcoin price action and how ETH could match the flagship crypto on a potential run to the upside. 

Tom Lee Explains How The Ethereum Price Could Rally To $12,000

Speaking at the Binance Blockchain Week, Tom Lee predicted that the Ethereum price could reach $12,000 as Bitcoin rallies to $250,000 within the next few months. He explained that ETH can reach the $12,000 target if the ETH/BTC ratio returns to its eight-year average of 0.0479. Lee described this potential rally to $12,000 as a “huge move.”

Tom Lee further predicted that the Ethereum price could reach $22,000 if the ETH/BTC ratio gets to its 2021 high of 0.0873. He added that he believes Ethereum will become the future of finance and the payment rails. As such, Lee predicted that the ETH/BTC ratio could reach 0.2500, sparking an Ethereum rally to as high as $62,500. In line with this, the expert declared that ETH at $3,000 is “grossly undervalued.”

Ethereum

Tom Lee also remarked that the bigger the base, the bigger the breakout for the Ethereum price. He noted that ETH spent years building a similar base to its current price action before the move from $90 to its previous all-time high (ATH) of $4,866. The expert added that if the pattern plays out again, the next leg could be larger than what people expect. 

It is worth noting that Tom Lee is the chairman of BitMine, which is the largest Ethereum treasury company. According to Strategic ETH Reserve data, the company currently holds 3.73 million ETH, which is just over 3% of the altcoin’s total supply. Lee remains bullish on the Ethereum price, despite his company holding an unrealized loss of $3.3 billion of their ETH investment. 

A Rally To $62,000 Is “Ambitious”

Market commentator Milk Road described Tom Lee’s Ethereum price prediction of $62,000 in a few months as being ambitious. The platform stated that an ETH/BTC ratio of 0.25 has never happened. The highest it has ever gone is 0.15, and that was during the 2017 supercycle, which makes it less likely now, given that market conditions have changed. 

Tom Lee had based his Ethereum prediction on Bitcoin hitting $250,000, which Milk Road also described as an issue. The market commentator noted that BTC would need to surge 177% from current prices to reach this target. The last time this happened was in 2020 when it surged from $7,000 to $19,000 during the “peak mania.” Notably, BTC didn’t record a 100% gain even when the Bitcoin ETFs launched last year. 

At the time of writing, the Ethereum price is trading at around $3,000, down over 4% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum

U.S. Army to buy new XM1208 cluster munition

6 December 2025 at 08:03
The United States Army is seeking potential U.S.-based producers for a next-generation 155mm artillery projectile designed to replace aging stockpiles of Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM). A sources sought notice, released by the Army Contracting Command-New Jersey on December 5, outlines the service’s effort to identify qualified manufacturers for the XM1208 Advanced Submunitions projectile. According […]

US Seeks 12-Year Sentence For Terraform Labs Co-Founder Do Kwon

6 December 2025 at 00:00

Do Kwon, the troubled co-founder of Terraform Labs based in Singapore, is facing a possible 12-year prison sentence in the United States due to his role in the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin, which resulted in significant losses within the cryptocurrency market.

Do Kwon Seeks Reduced Sentence Of Five Years

Bloomberg reported that in a court filing late Thursday, US prosecutors described the Terraform Labs co-founder’s fraudulent actions as “colossal in scope.” 

They emphasized that his “misleading statements to customers” triggered a domino effect of crises across the crypto landscape, culminating in the downfall of notable entities such as Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX.

This comes amid a regulatory environment that has grown increasingly lenient under the Trump administration. In late October, President Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who had been convicted for failing to uphold proper anti-money laundering measures.

In a recent court filing, Terraform Labs co-founder expressed a desire for a reduced sentence of five years. His legal team asserted that he has already “suffered substantially” for his actions, noting that he has spent nearly three years in detention conditions described as “brutal” in Montenegro. 

Kwon’s lawyers argued that a five-year prison term would be sufficient and that the prosecutors’ recommendation of 12 years is “far greater than necessary” for justice to be served.

Potential For Sentence Transfer For Terraform Labs Co-Founder

Initially, Kwon pleaded not guilty in January to a nine-count indictment that charged him with securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. However, he changed his plea in August to guilty for conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud. 

During this change, Terraform Labs’ leader acknowledged that his actions included making “false and misleading statements” regarding the restoration of TerraUSD’s peg in 2021, admitting, “What I did was wrong.”

As part of his plea agreement, Kwon has consented to forfeit $19.3 million and some properties. Prosecutors have chosen not to demand restitution for the millions of investors who collectively lost $40 billion, citing that calculating individual losses would be too complicated.

Kwon faces charges in both the US and his native South Korea, where prosecutors are also pursuing a lengthy prison sentence potentially reaching up to 40 years. 

He was arrested in Montenegro in 2023 while using a fake passport, and following a protracted legal battle, he was extradited to the United States in January after spending nearly two years in a Balkan jail.

US prosecutors have indicated they would support Kwon’s opportunity to serve the second half of his sentence in South Korea, provided he adheres to the terms of his plea deal and qualifies for a transfer program. Kwon is scheduled for sentencing by US District Judge Paul Engelmayer on December 11.

Terraform Labs

When writing, Terraform Labs’ native token Luna Classic (LUNC) saw a 75% increase in response to Do Kwon’s probable sentence, trading at $0.000050 and placing it at the helm of the market’s top performers on Friday. 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com 

Yesterday — 5 December 2025Main stream

$62,000 Ethereum? Tom Lee Revives Bullish Call For 2026

5 December 2025 at 21:00

Tom Lee has reiterated one of the most aggressive Ethereum targets in the market, telling attendees at Binance Blockchain Week on 4 December that ETH could eventually trade at $62,000 as it becomes the core infrastructure for tokenized finance.

“Okay, so let me explain to you why Ethereum, now that we’ve talked about crypto, […] is the future of finance,” Lee said on stage. He framed 2025 as Ethereum’s “1971 moment,” drawing a direct analogy to when the US dollar left the gold standard and triggered a wave of financial innovation.

Lee’s Thesis For Ethereum

“In 1971, the dollar went off the gold standard. And in 1971, it galvanized Wall Street to create financial products to make sure the dollar would be the reserve currency,” Lee argued. “Well, in 2025, we’re tokenizing everything. So it’s not just the dollar that’s getting tokenized, but it’s stocks, bonds, real estate.”

In his view, this shift positions ETH as the primary settlement and execution layer for tokenized assets. “Wall Street is, again, going to take advantage of that and create products onto a smart contract platform. And where they’re building this is on Ethereum,” he said. Lee pointed to current real-world asset experiments as early evidence, noting that “the majority of this, the vast majority, is being built on Ethereum,” and adding that “Ethereum has won the smart contract war.”

Lee also stressed that ETH’s market behavior has not yet reflected that structural role. “As you know, ETH has been range bound for five years, as I’ve shaded here. But it’s begun to break out,” he told the audience, explaining why he “got very involved with Ethereum by turning Bitmine into an ETH treasury company, because we saw this breakout coming.”

The core of his valuation case is expressed through the ETH/BTC ratio. Lee expects Bitcoin to move sharply higher in the near term: “I think Bitcoin is going to get to $250,000 within a few months.” From there, he derives two key ETH scenarios.

First, if the ETH/BTC price relationship simply reverts to its historical mean, he sees substantial upside. “If ETH price ratio to Bitcoin gets back to its eight year average, that’s $12,000 for Ethereum,” he said. Second, in a more aggressive case where ETH appreciates to a quarter of Bitcoin’s price, his long-standing $62,000 target emerges: “If it gets to 0.25 relative to Bitcoin, that’s $62,000.”

🔥 TOM LEE CALLS FOR $62,000 $ETH

“I think Ethereum’s going to become the future of finance, the payment rails of the future and if it gets to .25 relative to Bitcoin that’s $62,000. Ethereum at $3,000 is grossly undervalued.” pic.twitter.com/VydvLou9IE

— CryptosRus (@CryptosR_Us) December 4, 2025

Lee links these ratios directly to the tokenization narrative. “If 2026 is about tokenization, that means Ether’s utility value should be rising. Therefore, you should watch this ratio,” he told the crowd, arguing that valuation should track growing demand for ETH blockspace and its role as “the payment rails of the future.”

He concluded with a pointed assessment of current levels: “I think Ethereum at $3,000, of course, is grossly undervalued.”

At press time, ETH traded at $3,128.

Ethereum price

Far-Right Extremists Have Been Organizing Online Since Before the Internet – and AI Is Their Next Frontier

5 December 2025 at 06:44
12/5/25
EXTREMISM
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How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? That’s a question policymakers and watchdog organizations confronted as early as the 1980s and ’90s – and it hasn’t gone away.

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How to Grow and Care for Anthurium Houseplants

5 December 2025 at 17:30

Anthurium houseplants produce long-lasting, colorful spathes in shades of red, pink, white, and coral that can persist for weeks or months. These tropical plants require less maintenance than most flowering houseplants and adapt well to indoor conditions. Learn how to grow and care for anthuriums in this guide. Read more.

The post How to Grow and Care for Anthurium Houseplants appeared first on Gardener's Path.

XRP ETFs Are About To Hit $1 Billion – Here’s How Much Is Flowing In Daily

5 December 2025 at 16:00

XRP ETFs are on the verge of hitting a significant milestone, with total Assets Under Management (AUM) approaching the $1 billion milestone. Since the launch of its ETF last month, hundreds of millions of dollars have been flowing in daily, making XRP the most successful new ETF entrant of 2025. 

XRP ETFs Close In On $1 Billion

XRP ETFs have continued to experience skyrocketing growth and institutional demand, now rapidly closing in on the $1 billion inflow milestone. Over the past two weeks, all five XRP ETFs have recorded over $984.54 million in cumulative net inflows, just $15.46 million away from $1 billion. This explosive, accelerated growth has effectively solidified XRP’s position as the third-largest crypto ETF, behind Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Data from Sosovalue reports 15 consecutive days of positive flow, with the XRP ETF recording its highest single-day inflow on November 14 at $243.05 million. Over the last two weeks, all five XRP ETFs, including REX-Osprey, have seen notable inflows, reflecting growing institutional interest and demand. 

XRP

According to crypto enthusiast @NADZOE93 on X, XRP has become the third cryptocurrency ever to surpass the $800 million ETF inflow threshold. She noted that while Spot Bitcoin ETFs reached this cap in just two days after their launch, Ethereum ETFs took 95 days. This officially positions XRP as the second-fastest crypto to hit the $800 million inflow mark. 

Notably, strong inflows in the XRP ETF began on November 13 with the launch of Canary Capitals XRPC. A week later, Bitwise introduced its own XRP ETF, followed shortly by Grayscale and Franklin Templeton debuting their funds. Since then, investments have continued to pour in, with $26.17 million flowing in just yesterday alone, bringing the total to $887.12 million after 15 days of positive flow. 

Crypto market analyst Neil Tolbert shared additional insights on the XRP ETF performance on X this week. He noted that five spot XRP ETFs are currently trading, with a combined $995 million in Assets Under Management. Canary Capital’s XRPC stands at the top of the market with $358.88 million, followed by Grayscale’s GXRP with $211.07 million, Bitwise’s ETF at $184.87 million, Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ at $132.3 million, and REX-Osprey at $108 million. 

Tolbert has stated that more ETFs are reportedly in the pipeline, with institutional demand set to grow as traditional finance takes notice of XRP. With the race to a $1 billion inflow milestone heating up, XRP ETFs have already surpassed those of Solana and Dogecoin

Institutions Accumulate Over 400 Million XRP Through ETFs

Institutional demand for XRP is reaching new heights as data from ETF tracker XRP Insights show that a whopping 425.76 million tokens have been officially locked. This surge in accumulation comes as the five currently launched XRP ETFs collectively reach $984.54 million in AUM.

This large amount of XRP held in ETFs shows how quickly institutions are adopting, as investors increasingly seek regulated, transparent ways to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies. Analysts have also warned that if ETFs continue to absorb XRP at such a rapid pace, it could trigger a supply shock as the number of tokens in circulation declines.

XRP

NASA Wins Second Emmy Award for 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Broadcast

5 December 2025 at 14:56

3 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)

NASA’s broadcast of the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse has won an Emmy Award for Excellence in Production Technology.

At the 76th Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards on Dec. 4, in New York City, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the win. Walt Lindblom and Sami Aziz accepted the award on behalf of the agency. For the broadcast, Lindblom served as the coordinating producer and Aziz served as the executive producer.

“By broadcasting the total solar eclipse, this team brought joy and wonder for our Sun, Moon, and Earth to viewers across America and the world,” said Will Boyington, associate administrator for the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Congratulations to the production team, whose efforts demonstrate the hard work and dedication to the sharing the marvel that makes our solar system something we strive to understand.” 

NASA’s live broadcast coverage of the 2024 total solar eclipse was the most complex live project ever produced by the agency. In total, NASA’s eclipse broadcasts garnered almost 40 million live and replay views across its own distribution channels, including on NASA+, the agency’s free streaming service. Externally, the agency’s main broadcast was picked up in 2,208 hits on 568 channels in 25 countries.

“Our unique place in the solar system allows us on Earth to witness one of the most spectacular science shows nature has to offer. NASA’s production team captured the action every step of the way across the path of totality, including the rare glimpse of the Sun’s corona,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters. “Congratulations to the NASA team for successfully showing the 2024 total solar eclipse through the eyes of NASA for the whole world to experience together.”

The broadcast spanned three hours, showcasing the eclipse across seven American states and two countries. From cities, parks, and stadiums, 11 hosts and correspondents provided on air commentary, interviews, and live coverage. Viewers tuned in from all over the world, including at watch parties in nine locations, from the Austin Public Library to New York’s Times Square. An interactive “Eclipse Board” provided real time data analysis as the Moon’s shadow crossed North America.

Live feeds from astronauts aboard the International Space Station and NASA’s WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft were brought in to provide rare and unique perspectives of the solar event. To make this possible, NASA deployed and enabled 67 cameras, 6 NASA Wide Area Network control rooms, 38 encoders, and 35 decoders. The team coordinated 20 live telescope feeds which represented 12 locations across the path of totality.

NASA’s eclipse broadcast won another Emmy award earlier this year at the 46th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards for Outstanding Live News Special. Additionally, the show received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Show Open or Title Sequence – News. NASA’s eclipse communication and broadcast efforts also won two Webby Awards and two Webby People’s Voice Awards.

For more information about NASA, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov

Abbey Interrante / Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
301-201-0124 / 202-358-1600
abbey.a.interrante@nasa.gov / karen.c.fox@nasa.gov

💾

On April 8, 2024, North America's last total solar eclipse until 2045 moved across the continent. It made landfall in Mexico, crossed the United States from ...

Ethereum Spot Volume Weakens As Futures Take Control Of Price Direction

5 December 2025 at 15:00

Ethereum has retraced from the $3,240 level and is now testing the $3,150 zone as support, a key area that traders are closely watching. Bulls are attempting to defend this level after a modest rebound, but uncertainty remains high as the market tries to establish direction following weeks of volatility and aggressive selling pressure. While some analysts view this consolidation as the early stages of a recovery, others warn that ETH may still be vulnerable to deeper pullbacks if momentum fails to strengthen.

According to top analyst Darkfost, Ethereum’s recent price action is being shaped by a notable shift in market structure. Over the past few days, spot volumes have continued to decline, even as the price attempted a small recovery. This weakening in spot activity reduces the impact of actual buying and selling on the underlying asset, making futures markets increasingly influential in dictating short-term price direction.

As Darkfost explains, when spot volume thins out, futures often become the dominant driver of volatility. This dynamic can accelerate both upside and downside moves, depending on traders’ positioning. With Ethereum now sitting at a critical support level, the market awaits clearer signals to determine whether this rebound can evolve into a sustained recovery or merely represents a temporary pause in the downtrend.

Futures-Driven Momentum Raises the Stakes for Ethereum

Darkfost expands on this dynamic by noting that when spot volumes weaken to the extent seen over the past few days, the risk of heightened volatility increases sharply. Thin spot liquidity means fewer buy and sell orders are available to absorb sudden moves, allowing futures-driven momentum to exert an outsized influence on price. This environment often produces sharper swings and rapid directional shifts, as leveraged traders and algorithmic strategies dominate short-term market behavior.

Ethereum Spot Volume Bubble Map | Source: CryptoQuant

For now, the futures market is tilting upward, providing a constructive force that is helping Ethereum hold above the $3,150 support zone. Darkfost emphasizes that this upward pressure from futures could work in the bulls’ favor, as volatility—if it expands to the upside—may push the spot market to follow the same trajectory.

In other words, a sustained futures-led rebound could act as the spark needed for a broader recovery, especially if spot buyers gain confidence and begin re-entering the market.

However, this setup cuts both ways. Without stronger spot participation, any reversal in futures positioning could quickly translate into accelerated downside pressure. For now, Ethereum sits in a delicate phase where volatility is both a potential catalyst and a potential threat, making the next few sessions crucial for determining the market’s short-term direction.

ETH Weekly Structure Holds Key Support

Ethereum’s weekly chart shows a market attempting to stabilize after a steep downturn from the $4,500 region. ETH has rebounded toward $3,140, reclaiming its 100-week moving average (green line) — a historically important support level that often defines the boundary between mid-term bullish and bearish phases. This bounce signals renewed demand at a critical zone, especially after the strong wick rejection seen near $2,700, where buyers stepped in aggressively.

ETH consolidates around key level | Source: ETHUSDT chart on TradingView

However, Ethereum still faces meaningful resistance overhead. The 50-week moving average (blue line), now hovering near $3,400–$3,500, has flipped into resistance and remains the next major hurdle for bulls. A successful reclaim of this zone would materially improve ETH’s technical structure and open the door to a challenge of higher levels. Until then, the weekly trend remains neutral to slightly bearish.

Volume offers an encouraging signal: the recent rebound occurred with a noticeable uptick in buying activity compared to prior weeks, suggesting strengthened interest at these lower levels. Yet the broader structure shows a pattern of lower highs since August, meaning ETH must demonstrate follow-through to avoid slipping back into deeper consolidation.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com

eSIM adoption is on the rise thanks to travel and device compatibility

5 December 2025 at 12:27
As a technology, eSIM has been around for a decade now. However, global eSIM adoption was around 3% last year and will only cross 5% this year. Despite these figures, analysts, eSIM-providing startups, and investors are bullish about eSIM's upward trajectory, largely thanks to travel.

❄️ Blockchain for Food & Pharma Supply Chains: Ensuring Cold-Chain Compliance

By: Duredev
5 December 2025 at 11:40

In the food and pharmaceutical industries, quality and safety are critical. A minor lapse in temperature can spoil vaccines or compromise food products, leading to costly recalls, wasted shipments, and loss of consumer trust.

Blockchain for Food & Pharma Supply Chains: Ensuring Cold-Chain Compliance

Traditional supply chains often rely on manual tracking or fragmented software, which makes real-time monitoring and compliance challenging.

Duredev provides blockchain in supply chain solutions that combine IoT sensors with secure ledgers. Every temperature reading, location update, and handoff is recorded immutably, giving businesses full visibility. Companies can prevent losses, reduce delays, and gain trust from partners and consumers globally.

🧊 The Cold Chain Problem

Maintaining strict temperature and humidity controls is essential for sensitive goods. Even small deviations can cause:

  • ❌ Spoiled vaccines or medicines
  • ❌ Food waste and product recalls
  • ❌ Regulatory penalties
  • ❌ Loss of consumer trust

With blockchain technology for supply chain management, IoT sensors log environmental data directly on the blockchain, creating a secure, tamper-proof record. This ensures shipments stay compliant and can be verified instantly by regulators, importers, or auditors.

💊 Blockchain in Pharma Supply Chain

Pharma supply chains are highly regulated, requiring complete visibility from manufacturer to end user.

Using blockchain in pharma supply chain, businesses can:

  • ✅ Track medicine batches in real time
  • ✅ Authenticate drugs to prevent counterfeiting
  • ✅ Provide regulators with instant audit trails
  • ✅ Automate compliance reporting

📌 Example: During global vaccine distribution, IoT devices integrated with blockchain allowed real-time temperature tracking. Regulators could verify compliance immediately, reducing spoilage and protecting public health.

🍎 Blockchain for Food Traceability

Consumers demand transparency about where their food comes from, and regulators require proof of safety.

Blockchain for food traceability enables:

  • 🌱 Farm-to-fork visibility of every shipment
  • ⚡ Faster recalls by identifying affected batches immediately
  • ✅ Verification of ethical sourcing (organic, fair-trade, halal)
  • 🔍 Consumer trust through QR codes revealing the product’s history

📌 Example: Walmart, Nestlé, and Carrefour piloted similar systems, allowing customers to scan a QR code to see harvest dates, storage conditions, and shipping routes — all recorded on-chain.

🔗 Integration with IoT and Smart Contracts

The full value emerges when supply chain in blockchain is combined with IoT and smart contracts:

  • IoT Devices: Capture real-time environmental data
  • Smart Contracts: Trigger alerts if conditions deviate
  • Cross-Border Compliance: Automate customs checks and certifications

If a shipment exceeds safe temperature limits, smart contracts can immediately alert stakeholders, preventing losses and delays.

Learn about our Logistics & Cold-Chain Services for global operations.

🌍 Global Adoption and Future Outlook

Leading companies worldwide are adopting supply chain management and blockchain:

  • Pharma companies use blockchain in pharma supply chain to prevent counterfeit drugs
  • Food exporters implement blockchain for food traceability to meet strict import/export rules
  • Logistics firms invest in blockchain IoT supply chain platforms to manage complex trade routes

Duredev helps companies stay compliant, reduce losses, improve efficiency, and build trust globally.

Conclusion

Cold-chain compliance is one of the most critical challenges in modern logistics. With blockchain technology in supply chain management, businesses can ensure product safety, prevent losses, and maintain regulatory compliance.

From vaccines to fresh produce, combining IoT, smart contracts, and blockchain supply chain transparency enables safer, faster, and more reliable supply chains.

Duredev empowers companies worldwide to streamline operations, protect shipments, and deliver products safely and efficiently.

The future is clear: whether it’s vaccines or food, blockchain in logistics for pharma and blockchain for food traceability powered by Duredev forms the backbone of modern, trusted supply chains.

Contact Us to discuss your supply chain needs today.

🔗 Important Links


❄️ Blockchain for Food & Pharma Supply Chains: Ensuring Cold-Chain Compliance was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Where the hell is Samsung's Ballie robot?

5 December 2025 at 10:11

Another CES is nearly upon us, another year where we’ll see new gadgets aplenty from giant companies and tiny ones you’ve never heard of. And the not-so-secret secret of CES is that many of these things never make it to market — but usually it isn’t things companies like Samsung show off. But here we are, nearly six years since Samsung first showed off its Ballie personal robot and it is nowhere to be found.

For those who may not recall, Ballie is an adorable circular robot that can putter around your house and project things onto the floor and wall. It’s kind of a virtual assistant on the go. Samsung first revealed this tiny robot at CES 2020, but it was more of a prototype than something anyone expected to purchase. And then there was a global pandemic and we all sort of forgot about weird ball-shaped robots for a few. But Samsung triumphantly unveiled a larger and more refined Ballie at CES 2024, saying it would be on sale that year! 

Well, that didn’t happen, but a year later Ballie was back at CES again. Samsung promised it would go on sale in 2025, and followed up with a press release this past April saying it was on track for a summer launch in Korea and the US. As far as I can tell, that’s the last we’ve heard of it. 

But with CES looming again, I can’t help but feel like Samsung will roll Ballie out once more, trying to sell the dream of a cute robotic companion who just gets you. I spent some time watching Ballie do its thing in a carefully controlled demo at CES 2024, and I can’t say I was overwhelmed by its purported usefulness or thought there’d be much of a market for this thing. I now can’t help but wonder if Samsung has data backs up my intuition. If this thing was going to sell like gangbusters, it likely wouldn’t be subjected to such a long and public gestation period. 

It reminds me a little of one of my favorite Samsung gaffes, the Galaxy Home smart speaker. It was announced at a time when Apple and Google were challenging Sonos and Amazon with voice-activated speakers of their own, moving Siri or the Google Assistant from your phone to a more omnipresent place in your home. 

The first rumor of the Galaxy Home happened way back in 2017, and the speaker was officially revealed and briefly shown off by Samsung in August of 2018. My immediate reaction was that this product made very little sense for both Samsung and potential customers — Bibxy sucked, and there were plenty of speakers with better voice assistants. Apparently, Samsung agreed. After multiple years of vague commitments and references to the Galaxy Home, Samsung just… stopped talking about it. Oddly enough, a Galaxy Home Mini speaker was briefly released in South Korea, part of a promotion for people who pre-ordered the Galaxy S20. But I don’t think you could ever just walk into a store and buy one, and the larger Galaxy Home never materialized at all. 

Ballie isn’t quite the abandonware situation that the Galaxy Home was, at least not yet. After all, it’s only been about eight months since Samsung dropped that press release claiming it would arrive soon. The company has definitely pushed Ballie in a more public way than the Galaxy Home, making it a little harder to just drop entirely. Maybe we’ll see a revamped Ballie with even more weird tricks next month, or maybe we’ll just get another vague promise that it’ll arrive in 2026. After failing to deliver two years in a row, though, I’m not going to expect Ballie to show up as a real product until I can punch in my credit card and pre-order it... not that I’d do that anyway. Ballie needs to show that it’s a lot more than a cute rolling robot before Samsung gets my cash. 


This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/where-the-hell-is-samsungs-ballie-robot-151112829.html?src=rss

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