The creator of Roomba is back with a furry robot companion

The first “Familiar” from Colin Angle’s new startup, Familiar Machines & Magic, is a robot that is designed to live in your home and interact autonomously with family members. | Image: Familiar Machines and Magic

Colin Angle, the maker of the Roomba and the man who helped put 50 million household robots into people’s homes, is back with a new robot. But this one is designed as a companion, not a cleaner.

The first robot from Angle’s new company, Familiar Machines & Magic, is a dog-sized robotic pet that resembles a cross between a bear, a barn owl, and a golden retriever. It has an expressive face, with movable eyebrows, ears, and eyes, and the company calls it a “Familiar,” a name meant to evoke folklore around the idea of a supernatural companion. Based on a demo video I saw ahead of its appearance at the WSJ Future of Everything conference this w …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Read more @ TheVerge

Latest posts

In SpaceX’s IPO, Elon Musk is a risk factor

The SpaceX IPO is here, and it's more than just an historic public offering that could make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. It...

‘Solve all diseases,’ you say?

Let’s unpack what Demis Hassabis said at the end of yesterday’s Google I/O keynote. This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior...

SpaceX just filed for what could be the biggest IPO ever

Elon Musk's final frontier is officially open for business now that SpaceX has formally filed its S-1 prospectus with the SEC. That kicks off...

Pixelated 101: Chatting with Google at I/O 2026

Welcome to episode 101 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Abner and Damien are joined by Seang Chau and Dieter Bohn of Google...

You can now remix other people’s YouTube Shorts with AI

Google announced a new YouTube Shorts Remix feature that lets users restyle clips or even insert themselves into other people's videos using Gemini Omni....

Volvo is trying to put its EV stumbles in the rearview

Volvo once had ambitions to fully exit the gas car business. Now it's trying to keep its tenuous foothold in the EV market. It's...

Vibe coding is coming to your phone

Coming to your homescreen soon: your own app. | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge "There's an app for that" was the promise of the...

Anthropic and OpenAI take their beef to the midterm elections

Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the car crashes piling up on a daily basis at the Washington-based intersection...

Here’s everything new in Android 17 QPR1 Beta 3 [Gallery]

At I/O 2026, Google rolled out Android 17 QPR1 Beta 3 for Pixel devices to continue the fast release schedule this cycle. Read more @...

XREAL’s Android XR glasses one-up Apple’s wired battery with a controller, more [Video]

Google says the first Android XR display glasses aren’t coming until 2027, which makes me all the more excited to check out XREAL’s upcoming...