Apple has teams investigating a push into personal robotics, a field with the potential to become one of the company's ever-shifting "next big things," according to people familiar with the situation. Engineers at Apple have been exploring a mobile robot that can follow users around their homes, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the "skunkworks" project is private. The iPhone maker also has developed an advanced tabletop home device that uses robotics to move a display around, they said. Though the effort is still in the beginning stages -- and it's unclear if the products will ultimately be released -- Apple is under growing pressure to find new sources of revenue. It scrapped an electric-vehicle project in February, and a push into mixed-reality goggles is expected to take years to become a major moneymaker.

Apple recently made a new hire that would suggest that its secretive Project Titan is shifting gears from researching electric cars to self-driving ones, Bloomberg reports. Project Titan's newest team member is Dan Dodge. Mr. Dodge founded QNX, an operating system company BlackBerry acquired in 2010, which developed the navigation and connected device system currently used by Volkswagen and Ford, among others. He will be joining Apple's car research and development team lead by Bob Mansfield, another recent hire. Apple hasn't completely abandoned efforts to design an electric car. In the future, it could decide to partner with another company to produce parts, while Apple provides the software.