I bought mine last year and use them practically everyday - mostly as headphones/microphone, but taking photos/videos ocasionally too.
While I never planned to use them as a headphones, there is something surprisingly pleasant about not needing to put yet another gadget in your ears. And the sound feels more like coming from the environment and not directly emerging in your ears. Talking to ChatGPT with Advanced Voice mode or listening a podcast during a walk or bike ride or so is a really nice experience with these. Receiving calls is fun too.
Camera is really interesting to use in some unusual scenarios, like POV view of a ballet teacher or figure skating couple performing a death spiral. I give them to try to my friends when I see an opportunity to film something like that. That's really fun and sometimes illuminating.
I briefly enjoyed playing with Meta AI. One use case was "listening the podcast, encounter unknown term or name, ask "Hey Meta, explain <word> meaning", and back to listening without even lifting a finger". But then Meta disabled it in the country I'm in (I bought it in airport in another country), so only basic voice commands are working, which is fine.
I know someone who has a pair and authentically loves them. He's blind. It's easy to pooh-pooh their utility if someone doesn't need assistance to know what's in the room with them, but hopefully we can all understand the clear value proposition for those who do.
I remember people getting beat up for wearing Google glasses in public. What a difference 10 years makes.
https://www.businessinsider.com/i-was-assaulted-for-wearing-...
Is there anyway to bypass Meta on these? Or is there an open source version in the works?
Interested to see what could be done locally with always-on visual capture + LLMs. Not interested in sending that data to Meta.
It's wild that people buy these, let alone feel comfortable wearing them. I'm already pretty strongly anti Meta, I can't imagine buying a mic and camera they control and bringing it with me everywhere.
I really wish there was an open version of these.... being all to work with chatgpt advance or send pics to Gemini would be killer for me.
I understand all the usual caveats of no expectation of privacy in public but this is very much slippery slope stuff.
Say on the metro sitting opposite someone. If they pulled out a camera and pointed it in your face you'd be offended and say something, with a camera phone you'd still probably notice if they tried to get a pic of you and most people would find it at best creepy and ask the person to stop or move away from them.
This product normalises that. Sure there are some legit use cases but I'm not consenting to you as a stranger pointing your camera in my face. You may not legally need my consent to do that but it's straight up rude to do it anyway.
Will be interesting to see how this pans out. I'm fairly placid and would probably just tut and move if someone sat opposite with these but I suspect other people might have a stronger reaction.
Breaking societal norms like this should have consequences, even if it's sanctioned by Zuck.
definitely not listening in on your phones microphone and definitely wont be watching either, but you might be interested in this cat food
Hopefully, they'll have a heads-up display soon; Nothing like driving a motorcycle and having directions upfront without needing to look down at a phone
Dumb question, what makes this "VR"?
Isn't this just a voice activated camera, in a form factor that you can wear on your head.
(Genuinely curious, not hating on the product)
Putting aside the obviously dystopian qualities of this product... I find it strange that I know zero people who own this device which has sold supposedly over a million units.
Biggest features of these is the speakers. I use mine to listen to podcasts all the time when I’m out and about. Or even just scrolling TikTok when I’m not alone. The camera has allowed me to get some great photos of my pets. The fpv video is delightful. I wish I could change the ai. I look forward to competition in this space. I think it will end up being the next smart watchesque market segment.
Know some people who have these and apparently the AI is very limited. They were standing in front of the Golden Gate bridge and the glasses had no idea what they were looking at.
I'm sure the AI will improve quite a bit but given the hype it was a surprise.
You have to assume that anyone wearing these things is filming you. It's creepy. People who use them are creepy.
"Be a good little surveillance drone and put on the glasses back on!"
- Mark Z.
This upcoming hardware claims to support an open SDK, https://mentra.glass
These glasses are somewhat trending in my country among millennials even though they aren't officially sold here.
Imma blast someone right in the face if they get up in my mug with them shits.
I own a pair and haven’t looked back. IMHO these have incredible utility and for me feel freeing. I have small kids and I want to capture those special small moments, but I refuse to pull out a phone to do so, small kids are so perceptive and they intuit something has changed when you pull out a phone to record. With the meta’s I just hit record and I don’t feel guilty or torn about recording. Granted, I don’t love how they look so I’m not always wearing them…
Seen some comments about juiced numbers, every teen interacts video first, that’s how they communicate with friends, not text, so I totally buy these numbers. Anecdotal, I’ve been to a couple of ray ban stores and staff say they sell like hot cakes and are sold out a lot of the time (obviously low production is a contributor, but point being they seem to have market fit)
Not interested until you can replace batteries.
Pretty soon we'll be walking around with electronic warfare backpacks on our backs to disable all this bullshit within 300 foot radius. I thought no one would want Zuck's ad platform on their face. Apparently I was underestimating the stupidity of the public.
Maybe Zuck can team up with Larry to complete our transition to a surveillance/police state.
It’s insane to me that anyone would do this knowing how little Facebook respects privacy.
Marketing bull*
Unfortunately not as fugly as the Felon Dump-Truck to become an instant punchable offense
Better learn to touch type or Meta will have all your passwords.
I got a pair as a gift and they've been sitting around unopened. I can't say I have any clue what to do with them—I like cheap sunglasses and I don't like talking to chatbots. I don't understand why we can't have dumb tools anymore.
I also strongly suspect these numbers are misleading. I was offered another pair for free on opening a verizon fiber account. I'm betting there's some scheme to pump up these numbers to make it look like they're catching on. Though perhaps this skepticism is negated by the increase in production.
Granted, I've seen a couple tiktokers use something like them, but I don't know what the experience is like getting that video out of Meta's grasp.
EDIT: added a couple thoughts.