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Echo Frames – Eyeglasses with Alexa
- WaxProlix 7y ago"Google Glass, but only the creepy bits."
- chipperyman573 7y agoIt doesn't have a camera, which imo was the creepiest part
- ihuman 7y agoI thought the camera was the creepy bit?
- rtkwe 7y agoI remember the camera being the bit that got everyone the most skeeved out over Google Glass. Also it standing out so much made it too odd and obvious. These scan a lot more like plain old glasses.
- WaxProlix 7y agoYeah, this has fewer sensors, but is 100% still a monitor-the-world-and-phone-home device. Glass delivered a lot of additional functionality via the camera and AR capabilities. It was glib, but still- much of the utility is gone, leaving more or less just a monitoring device.
- rtkwe 7y agoYeah it removes a lot of the utility, though I'd say Glass wasn't an AR device really at least not in a real useful sense. To me AR requires placing the visuals tracked in the environment not just in a little display like Glass did.
- egypturnash 7y agoAwesome! Now Amazon can listen in on my conversations even when I’m away from home! And as a bonus they can hear everything anyone I’m near says, too!
- fortran77 7y agoObviously, this isn't the product for you. I just filled out their application. I can't wait!
- p7IDD243 7y agoHe raises a good point though because even if it's not a product for some people, they will still have their data harvested without consent as a result of talking in proximity of a person wearing one such pair.
- egypturnash 7y agoShe. :)
- tantalor 7y agoDo you carry a phone?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- johnisgood 7y agoPerhaps he just does not want to use one more spy device. :)
- egypturnash 7y agoShe. :)
- 7y ago
- okmokmz 7y agoWonderful, now my data can be harvested wherever I go instead of just in the privacy of my own home
- bdcravens 7y agoYou don't have a smartphone?
- squeaky-clean 7y ago> You don't have a smartphone? Not one developed by Amazon. It's not fair at all to say a microphone in an iPhone is equivalent to a microphone in an Amazon device.
- OrgNet 7y agoApple keeps recordings for 2 years, how long does Amazon keep theirs?
- squeaky-clean 7y agoI agree with you on the point you're getting at. Really anything that can be potentially logged due to a bug or accessed by a human may as well be considered the same as perpetual, in my opinion. The difference is I trust Apple enough to turn off Siri on my phone and feel safe nothing is being broadcast online or stored locally for another app to access. Is this guaranteed? Hell no. I also don't read the source code of every open source program I use (and even if I do I'm aware people exist much smarter than me who can obfuscate their malicious code). Apple's business strategy, their history of actions, and their security system make me feel confident enough in _assuming_ my voice never reaches their servers and cannot be turned in by an app without explicit permissions. That last bit is also important. Like the Android Facebook background audio "bug", even if it is really a bug, to me it's no different. Lastly even if Amazon were trustworthy about not listening when they say and not accessing voice data they shouldn't, I don't trust the platform very much. Quick idea, can you create a multi-turn alexa skill that after the first turn pretends Alexa is finished but it is actually actively recording and waiting to fake a response to "Alexa! <do other skill>"? Personally I don't know, don't have the source to check, and I wouldn't really believe any amazon engineer coming in here and saying "It's impossible to exploit". (Even if my 5 minute idea is impossible multiply that times thousands of malicious people spending much longer trying to exploit it) edit: Don't mean to imply an Apple is impossible to hack or exploit. Just that they take a more active stance and have the history to back it up.
- rwmurrayVT 7y agoUhh.. I would love to have been involved in the product design meetings for this one. The problem with Google glass was just the camera! We can do it better!
- BaconJuice 7y agook so let's hear it then? How would you do this better? very curious to know.
- ceejayoz 7y ago> How would you do this better? A set of Apple's AirPods do everything this can do, far less obtrusively, and cheaper even.
- qroshan 7y ago1) I already wear glasses, and I hate earbuds. This product suits me perfectly. 2) Amazon also released earbuds.
- BaconJuice 7y agoExactly. My question for OP was not an attempt at being passive aggressive. I'm actually curious to know what he could do better in that product meeting as he stated. I'm just trying to think what would a better way for Amazon to bring Alexa to people in a more convenient way and can't think of anything else from what they are doing. Just curious to know what OP has to say.
- angry_octet 7y agoI hate talking to people who have their airpods in, in fact I require them to take them out if they are the one wanting my time.
- BaconJuice 7y agoyou are aware that they released that as well right?
- kissgyorgy 7y agoI immediately thought one use case where this might be extremely handy: for stock brokers.
- dEnigma 7y agoI don't understand why it has to be glasses, when the important bit is just a microphone and speaker, and there is no display capability. Would something like AirPods work just as well? According to the website the glasses are light-weight, so they can't hide huge amounts of battery-storage in them either (unless they're not being entirely truthful). edit: Okay, I just saw that they have Echo Buds too. So I guess this is only for people who already wear glasses, or prefer them for some reason.
- derision 7y agoThey just announced Echo Buds as well, which is exactly that https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F6VM1S3/ref=ods_gw_fnn_xpl_dt_atf_shov_pt_en_0925?pf_rd_p=d1850fba-bf7a-4b5c-8952-f505fad79e33&pf_rd_r=CE25W7EX405HCV5BKXA5 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F6VM1S3/ref=ods_gw_fnn_xpl_dt_a...
- baby 7y agoWeird that they went with intra earbud, these don’t fit on me and I suspect a lot of people have this issue since AirPods are not intra
- markdown 7y agoOT but I love the way they showed the noise cancellation feature on that page: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/merch/2019/ONTHEGO/19951312/03_dt_eb_1500x540_1x.mp4 https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/merch/2019/ONT...
- calvinmorrison 7y agoAre these not just bluetooth headphones that have glasses? "A single charge delivers a day of intermittent usage at 60% volume. Intermittent usage includes 40 Alexa interactions, 45 minutes of music, podcast or other audio playback, 20 minutes of phone calls, and 90 incoming notifications over a 14-hour period. Alternatively, a fully charged battery will last up to 3 hours of continuous audio playback at 60% volume. Actual battery life will vary depending on device settings, features utilized, environment and other factors. Fully charges in about 75 minutes."
- elektor 7y agoAre there any legitimate glasses with a camera instead of a microphone?
- ben174 7y agoI'm assuming this uses some sort of bone conduction to allow you to hear alexa without having to have earbuds, but still keeping it quiet to others. I wonder how well it's implemented.
- ArmandGrillet 7y agoThey use regular speakers that are supposedly only sending the sound down (more info in The Verge's hands-on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCKstxDONWI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCKstxDONWI )
- css 7y agoLike the Bose that came first, these are not bone conduction, just speakers aimed into your ears.
- screaminghawk 7y agoI'm really conscious of sharing half my conversation with something. I don't even like talking on the phone in public. Not a fan of all these devices that are only powered by voice. I really wish Google Glass had been a success.
- big_chungus 7y agoBecause google is so much more trust-worthy about privacy?
- baron816 7y agoGross
- markstos 7y agoI'd rather they worked on making regular prescription eyeglasses and frames less expensive. That would help a lot more people and could still be profitable considering the huge markups on frames now.
- kodachi 7y agoI'd rather see easy to use 3d printers and good designs that you can buy yourself and tweak if you want to.
- sannee 7y agoPrusa did this way back: https://twitter.com/josefprusa/status/425772744777940992 https://twitter.com/josefprusa/status/425772744777940992 Unfortunately the source code disappeared from thingiverse...
- sannee 7y agoYou can literally buy prescription glasses (including the lenses) for like 20$ on AliExpress. How much cheaper would you want them to be?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- kodachi 7y agoTo all the people who don't like/freak out about their data being harvested: would you use such a device, if it is completely open (both hardware and software) and the data is under your control?
- cheald 7y agoI'd be much more inclined to, yes. The "Tony Stark" fantasy is a neat one - it's just heavily tempered by the reality of how much data and control we're letting out of our control.
- kodachi 7y agowe are letting out of our control because it's more convenient. Nowadays to truly own your data, you have to go to great lengths, but the solutions are arriving, but probably not for the mainstream consumer any time soon.
- crooked-v 7y agoSame answer here. The only company I'd even think about maybe-sorta-kinda trusting with this kind of device would be Apple, and that's only because they've put a clear priority on making more and more stuff happen on-device and on not selling info on what happens off-device.
- bhauer 7y agoDefinitely. If it's harvesting data exclusively for my own use, then it's working for me rather than against me, or at least rather than treating me as merely a vessel from which to collect data. Devices such as these and "smart speakers" are sold at a loss because their lifetime value to the vendor is in gathering and analyzing data. They are attacked more emphatically than smart phones by privacy enthusiasts because they are so grossly unbalanced when comparing end-user value versus their cynical treatment of users' data interests. A smart phone can have its "smart agent" features disabled and remain a highly valuable device to its user. But if you take away the smart agent feature from these more recent "smart" devices and you're left with an inert brick.
- 7y ago
- Someone1234 7y agoWhat's the value proposition relative to the alternatives? It is adding weight, complexity, and limiting choice to your eye-wear while effectively doing a similar thing to half a dozen wireless earbuds already on the market. It isn't really comparable to Google Glass, because Google Glass used projection onto the glasses themselves (creating a unique value). Plus Amazon are trying to integrate with the US's predominant eye wear monopoly (via insurance/out-of-network frames) instead of just bypassing it and producing the lenses themselves. So you're paying $179.99 for empty frames and then untold amounts for the actual lenses, and trying to ingrate with an insurance system that's designed to benefit only Luxottica (via their stranglehold of both insurance companies AND lens producers).
- echelon 7y ago> US's predominant eye wear monopoly (via insurance/out-of-network frames) > an insurance system that's designed to benefit only Luxottica (via their stranglehold of both insurance companies AND lens producers). How is this a thing? Couldn't a startup come in and trounce them by offering $10 frames and lenses? The optics aren't that complicated, and frames are... plastic?
- colechristensen 7y agoEvery optic has to be custom fit to a frame grinding the frame’s shape around the individuals specific fit. This also already exists with companies like zenni optical.
- windsurfer 7y agoStartups do all the time via the internet, and they are growing, but the issue is getting involved with insurance companies and optometrists. It's not as complete a monopoly as one may be led to believe, but Luxottica still does control a large portion of the market. See https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/does-luxottica-own-80-of-the-eyeglass-industry/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/does-luxottica-own-80-of-t...
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
- losteric 7y ago> Now you can hear notifications and alerts, turn on compatible smart lights, or call a friend, all without pulling out your phone. They’re designed to keep you in the moment—so you never miss one. wow, I just had to laugh at this marketing-speak... "designed to keep you in the moment with even more distractions"
- allenu 7y agoMy regular glasses already keep me in the moment by forcing me to toggle a light switch with my finger. This marketing is such nonsense. They're really reaching to find some utility in something that provides very little.
- trenning 7y agoAmazon has invested billions into the Alexa platform. It's staggering how many people work in the Alexa org. Now they have to try and make some money from all this investment because nobody is replacing their echo every year. They've basically become a parody of themselves trying to dig themselves out of an 'AI' platform that never materialized into much more than hands free timer and audio player. Their way to turn a profit is to shove it into every consumer device they can before consumers realize they don't need 15 different devices to turn on the lights.
- Analemma_ 7y agoIt must drive Amazon and Apple crazy that each has what the other needs. Amazon has a voice assistant that works perfectly, but doesn't have a device ecosystem so it can't have access to any of the data it needs to be truly useful (your calendar, email, etc.). Apple has the device ecosystem, but Siri is hot garbage. It's an interesting dilemma.
- onion2k 7y agoNow they have to try and make some money from all this investment because nobody is replacing their echo every year. I find it very hard to believe Amazon ever planned to make money on the hardware. Alexa is a convenient user interface for subscriptions to Amazon services (Music, Shopping, Fresh, etc). Putting the tech in to more things is an attempt to remove any barrier to buying other stuff from Amazon.
- ProfessorLayton 7y agoRegardless of the value proposition of this product, can we take a moment to appreciate that these glasses have way more going on in them while also costing about the same as luxottica frames? What a racket
- JohnJamesRambo 7y agoI hadn’t even thought of that haha. Overpriced plastic nonsense.
- j88439h84 7y agoThey are a loss leader. Luxottica isn't taking your data or embedding you into an ecosystem of products.
- onion2k 7y agoI doubt Amazon make much profit on the hardware, but they probably don't make a loss. Luxottica just make a ludicrous profit on glasses.
- darepublic 7y agoEventually this will evolve into a system where you can just think of what u want and an AI assistant will go and do it for you, optionally presenting results within your field of vision, or if you're not an oldtimer, directly to your brain
- seph-reed 7y agoSomething about half-wit apes using incredibly intelligent tech weirds me out. On public transit, I see a lot of gormless slack-jaws hulking over tech that is mind-bogglingly complex. It feels like mixing eras. I can only imagine what it'll be like when the unmoving low-end of society gets access to tech like that, just to continue pursuing their trivial aspirations.
- michaelmior 7y agoHow do you believe you can identify that someone lacks intelligence by looking at them? I would think that would at least warrant a conversation first.
- seph-reed 7y agoYou can't. You also can't prove this isn't a hallucination, or that gravity will work tomorrow, or that you won't win the lottery. But statistically speaking, an average person is smarter than half the people around them. An especially smart person is smarter than even more than that. I'm by no means cruel to people I find unintelligent, but I that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to be tired of them, or that I have to do a little song and dance about how great they are just because I haven't done a thorough investigation into their mind yet.
- michaelmior 7y ago> But statistically speaking, an average person is smarter than half the people around them. This is assuming you believe that a global ordering of intelligence is possible. Personally, I disagree with this belief since there are many different dimensions of intelligence. (It also assumes whatever global measure of intelligence is used is normally distributed, but that's a separate consideration.) I wasn't suggesting you were cruel, although I think it's unfortunate to applying the terms "gormless" or "slack-jawed" to a person one has never met.
- benawad 7y agoIt would be cool to be able to attach it to different frames. The default one looks low quality.
- pkaye 7y agoIt would be nice to have hearing aids based on this concept. That way you can hide a nice microphone, larger batteries and a better DSP chip.
- geggam 7y agoSo if google glass people were glassholes what do we call alexa people ?
- inscionent 7y agoEcho face?
- itcrowd 7y agoGood: Echompanion (this list is more difficult) Bad: E. Choli, Echocentric, Echoterrorist, Echromancer, Echoroomer, Echommercial, Echo-kroach, Echonvict
- codq 7y ago‘Lex Wads
- undefined3840 7y agoI’d question why someone would get this over Alexa-powered earbuds. The obvious benefit is this is “always on” your face and earbuds that are only on X% of your waking day, but at least when you are alone it seems like most people would wear their buds/headphones enough of the day where no one would really feel like they would need it in their glasses over headphones. Headphones are also an easier sell to a wider population of users since they’re relevant to all vs a subset of people who need or want to wear glasses.
- reaperducer 7y agoMaybe for people who already wear glasses, but are unable to wear earbuds? Whenever AirPods come up in discussion, there are plenty of people on HN who say they don't fit right, or are worried they'll fall out while exercising. Maybe that's the audience? Or maybe people who can't wear buds at work? Yeah, I'm not really sure what huge market there is for this product.
- a0zU 7y agoI really don't understand why anyone would want any of these new Alexa products, your phone has all the same capabilities and it only takes an extra 4 seconds to pull your phone out and talk to Siri or Whichever other voice assistant you prefer.
- crooked-v 7y agoAlso, if you have the new Airpods they can already do 'Hey Siri' even with your phone in your pocket. I suspect the draw here is intended to be for people who already wear glasses all the time, but I personally would trust Amazon exactly not at all with that kind of omnipresence.
- kodachi 7y agolike in video-games, latency kills the experience. You want to have the lower latency from where you want something (e.g. listen to music) and when it actually happens.
- colechristensen 7y agoI’m not willing to carry around a corporation controlled microphone on my face. The only voice recognition I am comfortable with would run on open source software on hardware I owned and physically possessed. I have looked and this doesn’t seem to really exist.
- mackrevinack 7y agoapart from snips? https://snips.ai https://snips.ai
- narak 7y agoDirect competition for https://www.bynorth.com/focals https://www.bynorth.com/focals. Not sure how North (fka Thalmic Labs) competes?
- 1023bytes 7y agoNorth Focals are technologically far ahead with the projection display
- newsbinator 7y agoThese look interesting. If they had some kind of dev kit, buying them would be a no-brainer for me.
- sdinsn 7y agoThose have a display though
- bearcobra 7y agoNow that you don't have to go to a showroom to get them, I'm super tempted to try these out. Anyone have any experience with them?
- TallonRain 7y agoI have a pair. They’re pretty neat and my general take on them is that they show some great promise for the principle of the technology and North’s implementation works as advertised. I particularly appreciate the notifications and ability to make some quick text messages with it. I look at my phone a bit less now because of it, which is nice. I’m mildly skeptical of the ring controller and I have had a couple of them break on me. However, their customer support has been great and they replaced them immediately with no problems whatsoever. Overall though it’s pretty solid and I sometimes catch myself missing the ring if I’m not wearing it, but that might just be my fidgeting habit. North definitely sold me on the concept and I’m looking forward to more advanced implementations of the technology going forward. I’m not completely sure if I would recommend any of these glasses products coming out (like from Amazon or North or Facebook) to my friends at this time, but if you’re curious about them or if you like having the cutting edge, then they’re absolutely worth a look at least. If anything, the display will be a cool thing to experience if you haven’t seen it before.
- ttul 7y agoLiterally my first thought was, "is this a repost from April 1st?"
- outworlder 7y ago"Eye"glasses which do nothing related to your eyes. At least Google Glass had a display. Can I just have a display? Pretty please? Doesn't have to be high resolution, it doesn't have to have much intelligence other than connecting to my phone. We just need magic-mirror-like glasses that don't look like you have been captured by a Borg cube.
- mackrevinack 7y agoa display seems like the only way to go with something like this. having a camera is too invasive but having only audio seems like it would be very limiting. at least with a display you can have a conversation with someone while you glance at it but having to listen to 2 things at the same time isn't something most people can do intel's glasses seemed like the best compromise but it's been years since they announced them so I'm guessing it was only some sort of concept
- bdcravens 7y agoOne thing that seems to be lost here: this is an early-adopter product. It's entirely possible this is little more than an R+D product subsidized by those who want to participate.
- joeldg 7y agoI'm sure these will ship before the Vue glasses I ordered from kickstarter...
- jedberg 7y ago> And with no camera or display, you stay in the moment. In other words, no one will ban you from their bar like they did when you wore your Google Glass.
- codq 7y agoThat was Molotov’s, my neighborhood punk rock bar in SF. I was so proud after that happened.
- MadWombat 7y agoGlassholes, but without the glass. Coming to you soon!
- fortran77 7y agoSo just "holes"
- Causality1 7y agoI might be interested in these if they offered bone conduction speakers like some sunglasses, since "bone conduction glasses with prescription lenses" isn't a product anyone has yet successfully launched. >Amazon open-ear technology directs sound to your ears and minimizes what others can hear. That just sounds like bullshit-speak for "earbuds hanging outside of your ears".
- j-walker 7y agoPeople with small bluetooth speakers strapped to their head blasting music for everyone to hear... great.
- zkid18 7y agoLiked the way Amazon shipped this product. It’s definitely a prototype of mature version of smart glasses which can provide some useful insights about customer behavior.
- savanpatel 7y agoPretty much useless device.
- fooblitzky 7y agoYou'd think in 2019 that they could think of another use besides managing a shopping list for the woman.
- dingo_bat 7y agoAre women not allowed to manage a shopping list in 2019?
- hourislate 7y agoIf anyone visits Japan, I highly recommend visiting http://www.fournines.co.jp/collections/2020/ http://www.fournines.co.jp/collections/2020/ The Frames are absolutely the best I have ever seen in my life. They can get expensive but absolutely worth it. Got a pair of these that are made of titanium. They are so light you forget you even have glasses on. http://www.fournines.co.jp/products/detail233.html http://www.fournines.co.jp/products/detail233.html They may have a shop in California.
- Analemma_ 7y agoYou don't necessarily need to go to Japan, there are a couple of different Japanese brands of titanium frames and most high-end glasses stores will have at least one. I've got a pair of Waza frames, and as you say: expensive, but highly recommended. They're basically weightless.
- pacomerh 7y agoI have never seen anyone say "Hey Google, Hey Siri, etc" in public, don't think this product will do well
- codazoda 7y agoI work at a tech firm. We use these tools fairly regularly. Often, someone will ask a question the other person doesn't know the answer and will turn around and ask their phone. Works pretty good much of the time. I'm still not sure how useful the frames will be, but I can see a few uses for them, especially on my daily commute.
- ec109685 7y agoI guess I am old. I would just use browser.
- autoexec 7y agoI hear both occasionally being shouted out from TV and radio commercials at any nearby devices. I have no idea if that actually activates the devices in people's homes though. It seems like it would be extremely invasive if it does (which I realize might be not matter much to people who install that stuff in their homes in the first place)
- Traubenfuchs 7y agoDon't worry, they got this issue covered! https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/2/16965484/amazon-alexa-super-bowl-ad-activate-frequency-commercial-echo https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/2/16965484/amazon-alexa-supe...
- GenerocUsername 7y agoThese seem terrible
- bawana 7y agotoo much. alexa should stay on the phone. putting alexa on watches, eyeglasses, bicycles, cars, etc..is like trying to make other good things TOO ubiquitous. Imagine toilet paper packets for your purse, your wallet, your car, your office.. Promoting certain activities steals time and space away from other more appropriate activities.
- dudew 7y agoI wonder if Amazon reached out to Bose on this to collaborate.
- angry_octet 7y agoNo one seems to be addressing the fact that these frames are just damn ugly. Luxottica, while a profiteering monopoly, at least has a zillion different styles. And would you spoil the look of your $500 glasses with some clip on doodad?
- unityByFreedom 7y agoIs there a way to use bone conducting headphones with Alexa, such as the Trekz?
- yalogin 7y agoAmazon is now throwing Alexa at the wall to see what sticks. I don’t see how this made past the initial pitch.
- noitsnot 7y agoBose has had glasses like these in Best Buy for maybe six months. Granted, not integrated with Alexa. Coincidence? It might cost them relatively little to produce and take a shot here.
- paul7986 7y agoYeah i agree after trying Bose's smart glasses I felt like why wouldn't i use this/they are better then just regular eye or sunglasses. Regular glasses you can not listen to music through, take phone calls, hear pertinent information about your surroundings, etc. I feel smart glasses will be bigger then Apple Watch/smart watches and almost as big as smart phones. Most people wear eye or sunglasses already.
- yalogin 7y agoYou read my post wrong. I don’t like them. I wouldn’t have funded them at all. In fact I wouldn’t even have entertained a prolonged discussion on them, they just don’t make sense the way they are released.
- paul7986 7y agoCool but they are going to be as big or bigger then the Apple Watch. Go try a pair on ..why wouldn't you wear these glasses vs. just regular seeing or sunglasses?
- dj_brown_sugar 7y agoDidn't they already throw stuff at the wall with the Echo Clock?
- pdkl95 7y ago>> Gargoyles represent the embarrassing side of the Central Intelligence Corporation. Instead of using laptops, they wear their computers on their bodies, broken up into separate modules that hang on the waist, on the back, on the headset. They serve as human surveillance devices, recording everything that happens around them. Nothing looks stupider, these getups are the modern-day equivalent of the slide-rule scabbard or the calculator pouch on the belt, marking the user as belonging to a class that is at once above and far below human society. [...] The payoff for this self-imposed ostracism is that you can be in the Metaverse all the time, and gather intelligence all the time. ~sigh~ Snow Crash - like 1984 - was a warning, not a manual for building the future. > Echo Frames are designed to protect your privacy. That page is careful to always say "protect your privacy". The privacy of everyone else in range of the microphone apparently isn't even worth mentioning. That responsibility is implicitly (and silently) pushed onto the user.
- XorNot 7y agoI mean that's true of the phone in your pocket today, what's your point?
- pdkl95 7y agoThe only phone I own[1] doesn't fit in my pocket. Yes, modern "smart" phones have similar problems, but this thread is about Amazon's new eyeglass-style microphone+speaker. [1] https://www.cdw.com/product/att-trimline-210-corded-phone/3043715 https://www.cdw.com/product/att-trimline-210-corded-phone/30...
- nexuist 7y ago> That responsibility is implicitly (and silently) pushed onto the user. ...As it should be? I don't want my technology to make privacy choices for me. I'm not putting down hundreds of dollars to have some algorithm baby me into complacency. The possibility of being recorded in public has been obvious since the introduction of the microphone, and essentially expected in the smartphone age. What difference does it make if that microphone is on my glasses rather than in my pocket or on my wrist? The golden rule applies: Don't talk about things you want to hide in public. I'm not saying "you have nothing to worry about if you have nothing to hide" - I'm saying "if you have something to hide why would you announce it out loud amongst strangers?" That's just bad opsec and, yeah, it's on you to police what information you release when you're surrounded by people who listen. Smart devices or not, that's a basic responsibility anyone owes to themselves and the people they're talking about.
- orliesaurus 7y agoLooks just like Bose frames. I haven't used Echo Frames but I own and have used the Bose frames and constantly pair them up with Google Assistant on my phone. Here's a few opinions on my experience: - The glasses look bulky but don't feel it - The sound system is pretty decent, I can listen to music and take phone calls and the audio will be crystal clear - I don't like the fact that if I raise the volume everyone can hear what I am listening to, this is particularly bad for phone calls but even when listening to Google Assistant giving me the weather forecast rundown can become a problem for others around (not me obviously - but people who think I just have really loud invisible headphones in my ears) - Battery life can be better, it's not terrible but it's still a bluetooth device that needs to be in touch with your phone to work so it's not too bad ultimately! Depends how much music you will listen to.. - Lack of camera sucks hard: I could think of 200 use-cases for having a camera, instead I have to raise my phone and use Google magic glass to scan QR codes or to translate text. Shame :( - Did I mention they just look bulky? Overall they're nice and rather useful in some very specific situations, I love biking with them (they're protecting my eyes from UV properly according to Bose) and I love going for walks around the park wearing them - but only when I am alone and not too many people around so I don't look like I've got bees in my ears. Yes the buzzing can be annoying for people who walk beside you. (Or maybe that's a good thing, if you don't wanna hear your friend complain about how the price of their favorite beer went up another half a dollar here in Austin. /sarcasm)
- puranjay 7y agoI was gifted an Alexa and disconnected it after the first day. Whatever minor convenience it offers aren't worth the massive privacy risks. That's what bothers me so much about all these gadgets and apps. They don't even offer anything revolutionary. Just a handful of gimmicks and evolutionary improvements to things you could already do. Yet people are happy giving up their privacy for it. It's not that hard to add tasks to your to-do list manually. Or to switch on your table lamp by hand.
- friendlybus 7y agoSame with my family members getting google home products. Never switched on. I think people tolerate phones and computers because they are isolatable objects that are meant for work. The further this stuff steps into family life and real life relationships (not just narcissistic projections on facebook/ig pages), the more people don't want it.
- retrocryptid 7y agoSadly, I don't think we could allow these at my workplace. We sometimes discuss secret things.
- mcemilg 7y agoWhy not just headphones but glasses?
- nocoder 7y agoReminds me of Tilly from Paper Menagerie!!
- Kiro 7y agoAnother thread full of unsubstantial negativity and jokes. If I wanted to read comments like this I would go to reddit.