I recently had the opportunity to put my Rabbit r1 through its paces during Web Summit in Lisbon, and I wanted to share my real-world experience with fellow r1 users.
Conference recording & transcription
During Web Summit, I primarily used the r1 to record and transcribe presentations and panel discussions. Here’s what I found:
Pros:
- Recording functionality worked smoothly
- Battery life held up well during the recording sessions
- The high-level summaries generated in the Rabbit Hole were quite useful
Areas for improvement:
- The detailed transcription quality wasn’t up to par
- I got better results by downloading the WAV file and running it through Google’s Gemini Pro via AI Studio
Exploring Lisbon with the r1
After the conference, I spent a few days exploring Lisbon. Having visited before (last year with my main camera), I decided to experiment almost exclusively with the r1 this time. I was particularly interested in seeing how it would analyze different scenes and translate them into pixel art.
I’ve included my top 5 favorite images below. For those interested, I’ll be posting more in the dedicated thread.
What fascinates me most is how the r1’s scene analysis and pixel art generation creates unique interpretations of familiar landmarks. It’s a completely different way of capturing memories compared to traditional photography.
I enjoyed using this a little like you would with an analog camera - taking photos and reviewing them much later. The delayed gratification added to the experience. The only downside was that images in the rabbit hole sometimes failed to load on mobile, forcing me to either refresh the page or leave and return to the journal. This user experience could definitely be smoother.
I will be taking the r1 with me on more trips to get these shots.