Are you gonna get some Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses? (or do you already have 'em)

[Mike Blakesley]

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses to me are one of those gadgets I would love to mess with but can't really see myself wanting to wear them all day.

I first got glasses when I was about third grade or so. I hated them with a passion. Sure I could see better, but I looked like a dork. So much for ever getting laid in high school. My glasses should have been registered as a birth control device.

Things have sure changed in that area....some of the girls who work at the Roxy (teens) are upset when they have an eye checkup and are told they DON'T need glasses. These kids actually WANT to wear glasses.

Me, I was super glad when I started adulting and decided to ditch the glasses and get contact lenses. I still wear contacts to this day. I hate the ritual of having to put them in, but they stay in all day until I go to bed. The idea of wearing glasses just depresses me.

Now here comes the "smart glasses." The best feature of it seems to be having your camera at the ready at all times. I'm not sure how you take a picture, but you can take pics and video with ease, I guess. The AI features seem cool, but I'm dubious about how it would work in real life. In the ad, it has the person saying "Hey Meta, how do I make espresso?" and the glasses answer it. In real life, I'm sure it would be "Hey Meta, how do I make espresso?" "I'm sorry, I didn't hear that, please try again." "Hey Meta, how. Do. I. Make. Espresso." "The expressway is two miles to the south, take the next right." etc. Do we really want to live in a society where everyone is trying to yell instructions to their glasses all the time?

I've also read that the glasses are kind of heavy and thick compared to regular glasses. This might be the biggest hurdle of all. People are used to glasses weighing next to nothing.The human nose is not really designed to have a half pound of glass and plastic straddled over it all day. So I can see why this would be a big turnoff for some, especially women.

I never thought the Apple Watch would take off because it was kind of big and clunky. And it still is, but they are everywhere now. So maybe ten years from now we'll all be walking around sporting sleek Ray-Ban Meta Glasses Version 8. Who knows?

What's your take?

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

My take? Not only no, but hell no.

It is bad enough that we have "smart" phones that track and monitor everything we say, do and places we go. Now we've got these glasses (connected full time to Meta, the lovely company of Facebook) which has been the worst example of social media run amok.

Why allow an outside company with such a stellar record of morality, privacy and good judgement {/sarcasm} direct, full personal POV access to my life. Fuck that.

[Ed Gordon]

See review here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes-...lasses-review/

The sunglasses come with an arguably fatal flaw—one that I personally experienced. You see, as much as I loved these sunglasses, they do not come with any on-device location tracking. If you drop them in your Uber and accidentally walk away, only to discover five hours later they’re missing (like I did), you have no recourse to track them. And in almost every scenario, wherever you’ve left them, unless a good Samaritan finds them, you’ve just lost your $300 Ray-Bans. In my case, the Ray-Ban Metas only a few weeks in my possession (about a month).

The camera and audio are good, but the battery only lasts four hours and take an hour and a half to recharge, My phone is a better alternative for my needs,

For an amusing review of other new technology, watch the video at the link below. CAUTION: "adult language"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuuSoRI8tPc

[Randy Stankey]

Why does everything have to be connected to "the cloud?" I call bullshit! No, you do not need to be connected all the time! PERIOD!

I like having information, files and pictures at my disposal, ready to use when I need them but I do not need 24/7/365 access, worldwide. I don't want it.

Remember! The term "cloud" means "somebody else's computer." Would you put your personal files, pictures and information on somebody else's computer? NO! Would you put your data on a computer owned by somebody else you don't even know? Not only no but, in the words of Samuel Jackson, "HELL NO!"

I have my own NAS device on my own home network that I can access but nobody else can unless I let them. If I need/want to share that information with somebody else, I can transfer it to my iPhone, my iPad or e-mail it to them. For larger files, I can use my file sharing account and send people a link to it.

My information is MY information and nobody else's. I have the EXCLUSIVE right to decide what, who, when and where it gets shared with others. That is 100% my right, no ifs, ands or buts, ironclad!

Encryption? Bullshit! There is no such thing as unbreakable encryption. There never has been and there never will be. As they say, locks only keep out honest thieves. The same goes for encryption.

I'm not saying that the cloud is bad. I'm not saying that sharing information is bad. I'm not saying that encryption shouldn't be used. I am saying that it is MY choice to do with MY information as I see fit and NOBODY else has any say in the matter.

That's why I just have no interest in buying a half-assed copy of the original, "Google Glass."

Word!

[Frank Cox]

I've often thought that it would be nice to have some kind of glasses that allow you to visualize a computer monitor somewhere in your field of view. You could place its apparent distance from your eyes anywhere from six inches to to six feet and therefore have it fill your field of view or just occupy one corner.

People seem to think that smart glasses need to talk to you and everything else. I just want a virtual monitor.

[Ed Gordon]

I asked Google AI "is your information private on the internet?"

The answer:

image.png
Yea, right. I have read privacy policies for every website I have visited and have opted out of data sharing.

[Ryan Gallagher]

The partnership with Ray-Ban says it all. It's a luxury commodity for now, even if it worked well and was useful. Not marketed towards me or others in my income brackets.