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Show HN: AI toy I worked on is in stores

(www.walmart.com)
156 points Sean-Der | 10 comments | 12 Oct 25 14:15 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom

Alt link: https://mrchristmas.com/products/santas-magical-telephone

Video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z7QJxZWFQg

The first time I talked with AI santa and it responded with a joke I was HOOKED. The fun/nonsense doesn't click until you try it yourself. What's even more exciting is you can build it yourself:

libpeer: https://github.com/sepfy/libpeer

pion: https://github.com/pion/webrtc

Then go do all your fun logic in your Pion server. Connect to any Voice AI provider, or roll your own via Open Source. Anything is possible.

If you have questions or hit any roadblocks I would love to help you. I have lots of hardware snippets on my GitHub: https://github.com/sean-der.

1. fukka42 ◴[13 Oct 25 22:23 UTC] No.45573970[source]▶
> Generous Talk Time: 60 minutes of talk time included, and additional minutes are available for purchase for extended holiday entertainment throughout the season

So the thing costs a 100 dollars and then you can only use it for an hour before needing to pay more?

replies(3): >>45574034 #>>45574042 #>>45574116 #
2. guywithahat ◴[13 Oct 25 22:31 UTC] No.45574034[source]▶
I could see charging after some point, but 60 minutes is a remarkably short talk time. Yesterday I had a 60 minute phone call about bike tires with my dad; if a child has any interest in the phone they'll burn through the 60 minutes
3. turtletontine ◴[13 Oct 25 22:32 UTC] No.45574042[source]▶
I think the bet is that kids are quite good at begging and pestering their parents to spend money on things, and kids will want to talk to Santa for more than 60 minutes. Just my guess
replies(1): >>45574298 #
4. rideontime ◴[13 Oct 25 22:42 UTC] No.45574116[source]▶
Imagining the parent who could barely afford this only to discover that it dies after an hour of usage unless they keep feeding the meter is making me very sad.
replies(2): >>45574220 #>>45575695 #
5. teaearlgraycold ◴[13 Oct 25 22:58 UTC] No.45574220[source]▶
TBH I kind of doubt this is the kind of toy a kid would request. It feels like something a parent with extra disposable income would buy so they can record a cute video.
replies(2): >>45575495 #>>45575687 #
6. hattmall ◴[13 Oct 25 23:08 UTC] No.45574298[source]▶
Idk, I feel like the overlap of kids that want to talk to Santa and have the attention span to play with a single toy for 60 minutes is narrow. I'm a lot more concerned with Santa promising gifts that don't arrive!
7. ◴[14 Oct 25 02:06 UTC] No.45575495{3}[source]▶
8. nkozyra ◴[14 Oct 25 02:39 UTC] No.45575687{3}[source]▶
Not to get all luddite but can't you just have a relative answer the phone at another house? Assuming they're mentally fit you can rule out hallucinations, at least.
9. phyzix5761 ◴[14 Oct 25 02:40 UTC] No.45575695[source]▶
If you're in that position as a parent please save your money for more important things than an AI Santa Phone.
replies(1): >>45578480 #
10. rs186 ◴[14 Oct 25 10:53 UTC] No.45578480{3}[source]▶
You can't have expectations of people of how they plan/spend their money, especially the kind of parent who regularly shops at Walmart. The parent may not be look carefully enough about $1/min price tag after the initial 60 minutes (which is way too expensive).

I would rather see this product (and additional minutes) being much cheaper, and honestly, not sold at all. I bet that there is another product that is 5x if not 10x cheaper that sells "taking to Santa" service on a phone which will make plenty of kids happy enough.