Rabbit R1 Proves That Hacking Your Tech Is More Fun Than Using AI Tech

Key Takeaways

The Rabbit R1 launched with fanfare but was deemed gimmicky, leading to investigations and a questionable founder’s past.
Users have hacked and modified the device to do more than intended, like installing Android and bypassing Lost Mode.
Researchers are jailbreaking the R1 in unique ways, with one exploiting the USB bootloader. The device failed to live up to the hype.

The Rabbit R1 launched to an immense amount of fanfare, followed by reviews outing the product as little more than a tech gimmick. Things shortly went from bad to worse for the company, as multiple independent investigations into it raised some eyebrows about the founder’s past. With a questionable history in the crypto industry, there wasn’t much less to really save the Rabbit R1.

While those who have the device can still use it, since then, there’s been a lot of work put into hacking them and modifying them to do things that they simply weren’t built for. The Rabbit R1 proves that hacking your devices is way more fun than using them for the AI stuff that they were advertised for.

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It works pretty well

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To kick the list off of the crazy things people have done with the Rabbit R1, YouTuber HowToMen installed Android on his Rabbit R1 and got it working fully. The Google Play Store works and features like GPS do as well. It’s not the most useful from a practicality standpoint, but then again, the Rabbit R1 isn’t really, either. At least this way, you can turn it into a pocket emulator capable of running some older systems.

This is probably the coolest project that people have done with the Rabbit R1, but it’s also surprisingly one of the most useful. With 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a MediaTek Helio P35, it’s really not that bad all things considered. It certainly gets the job done, and arguably a lot better than some budget Android smartphones would.

People found out how to bypass lost mode

Rabbit responded by removing the entire settings app in an update

One of the genuinely great features that the Rabbit team introduced for the R1 was a Lost Mode. You can navigate to the Rabbit website and mark your R1 as lost, where it will then display your contact information so that if someone finds it, they can reach out to you to find out how to get it back to you. Once you get it back, you can then mark it as found, and the device will unlock again.

However, as it turns out, Lost Mode is incredibly easy to get around and can be done in under a minute. This is because Lost Mode still enables settings access so that you can connect it to Wi-Fi, as otherwise, it may never be able to exit Lost Mode again. Users discovered they could get out of Lost Mode, making the whole thing kind of useless, especially if the device was stolen. The Rabbit team responded by removing the settings app, but users found out how to get it back on the device. It’s been a constant cat-and-mouse game between the developers and users, and it’s been fascinating to watch.

Researchers have been trying to jailbreak the R1 in unique ways

One researcher opted to attack the SoC instead

David Buchanan, one researcher, has created a web-based application to jailbreak the Rabbit R1 without unlocking the bootloader or making any persistent changes to the storage. By exploiting the USB bootloader mode, which accepts unsigned images, Buchanan developed a custom Download Agent (DA) payload. This payload installs hooks to substitute a custom boot image after the system verifies the original image, granting root access without altering the device’s internal storage. This method creates a tethered jailbreak, allowing for deeper modifications of the stock firmware while maintaining the appearance of a secure boot process.

Modding tech is fun, especially to get additional uses out of it

The Rabbit R1 never really lived up to the hype

Despite the hype of the Rabbit R1, it never really lived up to expectations. It’s a cool product as an idea, but in execution, it’s not incredibly useful. Not only does it seem to struggle with a lot of the basics, it’s capabilities mimic those of the smartphone you carry with you on a daily basis. On top of that, the application integrations are nothing special and leave a lot to be desired.

As a result, the most fun that people seem to be getting out of the Rabbit R1 right now is for modding and research. On the surface, there’s not a lot you can do, but when you start to take it apart and mess around with it, it becomes a significantly more interesting product. I love seeing some of the stuff that people have done with it, and booting Android on it is both hilarious and, surprisingly, practical.

On top of that, it’s a learning experience too, and these devices are a great way to learn how computers can work at a lower level and how you can mess around with them. The Rabbit R1 is an incredibly interesting device not because of what it does out of the box, but because of the things you can do with it. And finding those things out will be some of the most fun you can have with one.