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Google Acquires North
- vikramkr 6y agoI guess the competition for smart glasses is heating up - I imagine google thinks apple's glasses are coming soon and they take that seriously enough to want to be prepared to compete. It will be interesting to see how this space plays out. If it's anything like smart watches, the market is going to turn around with apple's entrance, and buying north now while they're suffering gives google the tech they need to enter the market again for smart glasses once apple makes them "cool."
- verdverm 6y agoIf they are not as good as the Hololens 2, not interested. That device is off the hook good, really impressed with MS as a long time Linux user
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoHoloLens and Focals/Google Glass aren't really comparable products, as far as I'm aware. HoloLens is meant like, mostly to be used indoors on specific purposes/experiences with a (relatively) short battery life, Focals/Glass is like a daily-wear type of device like a watch.
- verdverm 6y agoYou can use HL2 out doors and with an extra battery, you could get a full day. I'm seeing 3 hours of usage. What the HL2 has is the first good interface to AR/XR with incredible touch, hand tracking, and situational awareness. All AR will end up like this. It's so much better of an experience and designed to share with friends.
- vikramkr 6y agoThey seem to be targeting very different use cases. Apple looks like it's going for the everyday consumer while microsoft sees AR as a business tool. I think the everyday consumer would be willing to trade off how good the AR is for style/battery life/weight etc. Especially if apple can get around the creep factor that turned so many people off of google glass, which might require cutting out a camera or two and reducing functionality
- verdverm 6y agoYes, def, it's not so easy to sell a $3500 consumer product, but it is cheaper than a brand new full VR setup, and dare I say a far far better experience. There is definitely a lack of good apps right now, but that will be changing. It's more the experience in HL2 that is astounding and I expect most devices to eventually adopt this
- brutus1213 6y agoHololens 2 is decent display but the software development is atrocious. Can't believe MSFT engineers would ship this. They seem to almost require Unity to do anything in 3D/world space.
- verdverm 6y agoConsidering what else gets shipped is it so surprising? I haven't gotten into the programming deep yet, I hope you are not right for my sake :]
- Kiro 6y agoI don't want AR glasses. I want glasses that look like regular glasses but can display stuff, similar to a smart watch.
- verdverm 6y agoYou don't want to interact with those things using your hands or frisbee a photo to a friend, bouncing it off of a wall? (Physics applied to a UI system aware of surroundings is so much fun!)
- Kiro 6y agoOf course but that's a different use case and different hardware. I believe we're talking about two completely different devices and markets here.
- verdverm 6y agoCurrently, but I everyone who's tried it is blown away by how good it is. So yes, they are different devices, but I fully expect there to be huge demand, that most smart glasses will have hand tracking, and that the end of the smart phone is without doubt. BTW, the HL2 was design for sharing and privacy from the get go. It is after all the basis for next gen military helmets
- wyldfire 6y agoThose sound ludicrous -- are you describing a real product in this space? OTOH I think real subtle hand gestures could be a great input mechanism. The interface used by the now-abandoned "Soli" might be worthwhile. Voice interaction seems very tedious and embarrassing to use in public.
- bhandziuk 6y agoIf it's anything like using a phone it's going to be a huge pain the rear to interact with others in any meaningful way. Just sharing a link is by far the easiest way to share anything with anyone. I don't want some fancy NFC, proximity sensing, bluetooth activating mumbo jumbo. It might be cool but it's not useful.
- bserge 6y agoI guess they're waiting until they improve their lock-in stuff. Can't have something open now, Google is big, they can flex their muscle. Just like Facebook and the Oculus products :/
- csunbird 6y agoI wonder if they are going to make the glasses work with prescription glasses.
- chillfox 6y agoThis has been the greatest mistake of past smart glasses attempts as far as I can tell. There is a segment of the population who are not only ok with wearing glasses, but used to it. But do they ever make a product that works for us? no. I tried Google glass back when Google brought it to a local IT conference and was told that a prescription version was unnecessary because it could be adjusted. It couldn't be adjusted to work for me, and even if it could have then I would still need prescription glasses to see everything else.
- michaelmior 6y agoI just got an invitation today to purchase Echo Frames[0], Amazon's smart glasses. I'm a little on the fence but early reviews seem pretty promising. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Staging-Product-Not-Retail-Sale/dp/B07W72XKPJ https://www.amazon.com/Staging-Product-Not-Retail-Sale/dp/B0...
- Ajedi32 6y agoAren't those more like smart earbuds in a glasses form factor? As far as I can tell there's no display component to the device at all, just speakers and a microphone.
- michaelmior 6y agoThat's a fair point. I guess you could argue these aren't smart glasses at all.
- numpad0 6y agoAnd aren’t those “smart earbuds” just Bluetooth headsets?
- deelowe 6y agoAlexa requires specialized hardware for the voice recognition.
- mandelbrotwurst 6y agoHow is what it requires different from the microphone in a typical headset?
- gffrd 6y agoI'm curious: what's the use case you're interested in these for? And what makes these more appealing than, say, earbuds that offer the same functionality?
- 6y ago
- kungato 6y agoI think that still a good indicator of what the smart glasses might show is to look at smart watches and how bad they are. They haven't refreshed the chip for more or less 8 years.
- coldtea 6y ago>I imagine google thinks apple's glasses are coming soon and they take that seriously enough to want to be prepared to compete. Like the half-hearted, and ultimately abandoned attempts they did for ultra-portables, wearables, tablets, etc? They even seem to lose interest in Android... I wonder why they even bother...
- mleonhard 6y agoBecause those projects keep a lot of talented workers away from competitors.
- lachlan-sneff 6y agoI think this is a pretty solid acquisition by google. I have doubts that the tech from North will be able to match the tech in the "upcoming" apple ar glasses, but things will probably eventually match up, like Android and iOS.
- lordnacho 6y agoCool, who here has tried Focals by North? I was thinking of getting them for everyday walking around and reading. My problem is I still don't understand what the interface is like. Can it project a screen to it or not? I'm perfectly happy to see a translucent IDE/browser window in my field of view.
- tazjin 6y agoGetting them now is probably not a good idea, because: > The first-gen North Focals glasses won't work after July 31, 2020, but North is issuing refunds to people who bought the smartglasses https://support.bynorth.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045128691 https://support.bynorth.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045128691
- verdverm 6y agoThey had something on their website about a gen 2 coming out this year. Maybe that's not the case anymore?
- syshum 6y agoWhen will people learn to not buy hardware that needs cloud support to function At least they are giving out refunds, unlike other companies that have shutdown, but still. Things like this is why I am a firm member of the selfhosted club
- 6y ago
- corobo 6y agobyenorth https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/
- vikramkr 6y agoI don't know if it really fits the spirit of the site if this aquisition is explicitly for the people and patents, they announce that the product is shutting down at the same time, and are giving out refunds. The spirit of ourincrediblejourney always felt to me more of when a company puts on a show at acquisition talking about how the acquisition will allow for all sorts of new growth and opportunities and then a few months later the service gets quietly shut down.
- ladyanita22 6y agoI just can't see how these are better than smartwatches.
- verdverm 6y agoTry the Hololens 2 and you will never want to go back to the 2d again
- morelikeborelax 6y agoIt's early but imagine a world where your vision is enhanced with overlays and information about your surroundings. Where your task cna be visually aided. Where sight disabilities can be corrected. This has been military, sci-fi and video game HUD territory for so long, but that can change.
- TheTrotters 6y agoThree more to go.
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoSad. I have their Myo band sitting around, but the company appears to never have gotten a solid hit. RIP Thalmic/North. It'd be nice if Google was somehow prohibited from snapping up even more companies while under numerous investigations for antitrust during a global pandemic, but I think that attempted legislation has fallen flat.
- bilal4hmed 6y agoLooks like North wasnt doing too well selling their tech. Would it preferable if Microsoft or Apple or Amazon or some chinese company picked them up instead ?
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoMicrosoft or Apple or Amazon would all be preferable to Google, actually, yes. Good ideas go to Google to die.
- HJain13 6y agoLike Youtube, Android, Firebase, etc?
- modeless 6y agoWhat's the rumored price? They reportedly raised $200M. Employees get nothing, I'm guessing. Well, a secure job at Google is a decent consolation prize, at least.
- 0x5345414e 6y ago$180M from what I read. Seems they were acquired because sales were almost non-existent and they were running out of money.
- lozaning 6y agoYou had to show up in person to their store in Vancouver to actually buy them didn't you? IIRC the price point was on the right side of a pay-day impulse buy, but Im not going to spend the money to get to vancouver to spend that money.
- Kiro 6y agoComing from industries where RSU and stock options are unheard of (read: most industries outside tech) "employees get nothing" seems really foreign. It's nothing I would ever expect regardless of price.
- amscanne 6y agoMany of these employees were likely working for below market salaries after being sold on the high potential value of their options. I'm not arguing anything about whether this is right or wrong (particularly in this case), but I believe this is also uncommon outside of tech. There are probably more analogous situations in e.g. law or sales, where you still have a clear employee relationship with the company but compensation is may not be a vanilla salary.
- dbish 6y agoIf you're working at a startup you have (usually) taken on risk + a lower salary in exchange for ownership, so it is expected and disappointing when a sale gets nothing for employees. If they are paid market rates with stock/options not part of their compensation that would be different
- jlarocco 6y agoWell that's disappointing. It seemed like they had cool products, and it's too bad to see it bought up by an advertising/spyware company with a history of killing products.
- bilal4hmed 6y agodont worry soon your options will be Apple or Alibabe/Huawei.
- verdverm 6y agoMicrosoft is in the running as well with the most advanced device available today. This could be the one chance to get back into the consumer market if they have the desire.
- vikramkr 6y agothe products are already killed as a part of this acquisition. Google must think the market is worth pursuing if they're willing to dish out $180 million for the company, but considering they simultaneously announced the end of all product sales and no more focals 2.0, this is pretty clearly an acquisition for the patents and talent. They were already close to running out of money. https://9to5google.com/2020/06/25/alphabet-north-focals/ https://9to5google.com/2020/06/25/alphabet-north-focals/
- sprayk 6y agoThey are also bricking the devices at the end of July
- rattray 6y agoNorth was previously known as Thalmic labs, and their first product was the Myo, a gesture-based input device. More recently, they created Focals, a smart glasses product. More on their blog here: https://www.bynorth.com/ https://www.bynorth.com/
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoI backed the Myo, and I think I was waiting to see that killer app show up for it that I felt like actually using the thing. I don't think it ever came, despite my excitement for the concept. Will the thing still work if I hook it up? I don't even know. As a Bluetooth device, I feel like it should be possible, but I don't know if it has any cloud service dependencies. EDIT: Answer my own question, North's website doesn't link to https://support.getmyo.com/hc/en-us https://support.getmyo.com/hc/en-us anywhere obvious, but the downloads are all there, including a zip file with all the market apps ever developed for it.
- matznerd 6y agoI used it for presentations and liked it conceptually because you would be able to advance the slides with the flick of a wrist and without having to hold a clicker. The problem was that it would always unlock from hand gestures and the software was glitchy. Still, it had a lot of potential.
- 0x5345414e 6y agoFunny story about the Myo. It was a promising device and seemed to me like it had great niche applications (such as medical). Founders weren't interested in that I guess and moved to smart glasses. Last summer they sold the patents for Myo to a company called CTRL Labs for about $20M. In the fall Facebook snatched up CTRL Labs for $500M - $1B, and their product description was basically that of the Myo. More info: https://betakit.com/ctrl-labs-acquires-norths-patents-for-myo-armband-technology/ https://betakit.com/ctrl-labs-acquires-norths-patents-for-my... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21058975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21058975
- 6y ago
- DiabloD3 6y agoSigh, all I can think is yet another promising startup vanishes into the depths of Google, never to be seen again. Google, please stop buying companies, please learn to support your products and build a loyal customer base. You are not a startup anymore, you need to make the transformation that companies like Microsoft did, and quit moving fast and breaking things. People don't want an agile foundation, they want a hundred year foundation.
- chimerasaurus 6y agoDisclaimer - I’m a Googler. As a counterpoint, Cloud has acquired several companies that haven’t disappeared; rather, are fairly foundational in the portfolio: - Cask (now Cloud Data Fusion as a product, CDAP as an OSS project) - Looker - Stackdriver
- sidcool 6y agoFirebase?
- lowdose 6y agoIsn't Looker a talent acquisition for Data Studio?
- chimerasaurus 6y agoNo, they are quite separate.
- macNchz 6y agoStackdriver did not disappear, but having used it daily for the past 4 years and witnessed its painfully slow and buggy migration into the GCP admin, I can't say it's a product that has visibly gotten much love. We kept using it for some things out of inertia, but I can't say it ever impressed me.
- three_seagrass 6y agoHow so? I've only ever used it on GC, not pre-acquisition.
- Slackwise 6y agoSmart Glasses?! Please! I've been waiting since forever. This is the only "smart" tech I've been so interested in. I already wear glasses, why not make them more useful? Meanwhile watches get in the way of using keyboards and interacting with things, and you constantly take them off. Can't use them if your hand is busy either, like holding a drink. They're not as convenient as they seem.
- verdverm 6y agoA few more years will see good options. The HL2 is the experience, but not the form factor
- wuunderbar 6y agoThink the watches are primarily suppose to be used on the go. Like working out, walking around town or glancing at while driving. Not sitting at a desk with a Mountain Dew in one hand and your mouse in the other. Synced desktop notification or smartphone on a stand seems like a better option for that.
- Slackwise 6y agoWorking out is bike rides for me, so that means taking my hand off the bars. I mean, in comparison to a phone, what does the watch offer when you're lifting? How will you dismiss a notification? What's the real difference between just picking up the phone or having the phone or a tablet mounted somewhere you can see at all times? I do a lot of walking downtown and half the time I have a cup of coffee in my hands or something else. Responding or interacting with the watch becomes impossible without two hands or I guess talking into it. You need two hands to use a watch: one to bring it your face, and the other to interact with it. Believe me, I want to use a smart watch; it feels like every kid would have wanted one back in the day. But when you think about them, they're not as useful as they seem due to many factors, and I think most people get that, because you don't see many people wearing them. They're definitely still a niche product. But how many people wear glasses? What if they did more than help you just see better? How many people might drop contacts for that value, even? (Some people wear glasses over contacts purely for fashion.) You don't have to do anything to see information in your always-present glasses, and you only need one hand to operate them. Alternatively, a mic would be closer to your mouth so that's more functional than bringing your hand to your face to give commands as well.
- latenightcoding 6y agoThalmic Labs/North helped to normalize the act of exaggerating the capabilities of your tech, lying to investors, raising millions of dollars and pivoting to something completely unrelated. We have to stop celebrating tech companies that are able to raise millions of dollars and still fail to deliver.
- vmception 6y agoThat's because they were in the business of selling shares, and now they sold them all. This story is as old as America itself. The bank that is now JP Morgan Chase, the sixth largest bank in the world, was started by Aaron Burr's fundraise for a ripoff water supply system in Manhattan. He collected $2mm, used $100,00 on the stated purpose and the rest to start a bank. These are our role models, where the point is to get money by any means and try to make a profit on that before needing to forfeit the money or your freedom.
- fludlight 6y agoMore info on the water company: https://institute.jpmorganchase.com/about/our-history https://institute.jpmorganchase.com/about/our-history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Company https://www.jstor.org/preview-page/10.2307/25096785?seq=1 https://www.jstor.org/preview-page/10.2307/25096785?seq=1
- trimbo 6y ago> Among its founders are Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Talk about co-founder infighting!
- reaperducer 6y agoThis story is as old as America itself I think you means "This story is as old as Canada, itself." North was Canadian. Also, the story is older than America. It goes way back to medieval Europe, at least. Possibly farther back than that in the Middle East, but that's not an area of history I know much about.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- swagonomixxx 6y agoSmart glasses were a gimmick back when they were first designed and implemented in the 60s/70s, and they will continue to be a gimmick, especially if G takes them on. Nothing against North in particular, I just think that it's a recipe for disaster to have every minute of a human's waking life tracked by Google. Color me a cynic, but I'm not optimistic about the future of this technology, especially in the hands of big G.
- bserge 6y agoI just hope it can be reprogrammed with custom firmware by some great people. My Oculus Go is ancient, but it does way more than it was supposed to thanks to some smart hackers.
- sprayk 6y agoEverything they did was closed source, there wasn't even ever an official SDK for others to make apps for it. I don't see there being enough of them out there for the intersection of "have a pair of Focals" and "can reverse engineer an app & device that talk over bluetooth" for this to end up anywhere close to Pebble/Rebble. And I think a custom firmware is basically out of the question. That's not to say that I wouldn't love to see either of those happen. I'd be willing to donate my soon-to-be-a-brick Focals to someone that has a history of reverse engineering weird embedded ARM devices. Ideally you'd get it before the end of July so you can have a hope of sniffing bluetooth traffic.
- nradov 6y agoI was hoping that North would license their display technology to someone that would build practical smart sunglasses for endurance athletes. There are a few heads-up display products available now for cyclists but they are all flawed in various ways, and there's nothing that works for runners. Unfortunately I don't think Google understands or cares about the sports tech market. From a customer perspective I would pay $1000 today for a pair of smart prescription sunglasses that could link to my fitness tracker as an ANT+ extended display and show a few key data field including speed, distance, heart rate, and power. That would be super helpful for racing and structured training.
- chillfox 6y agoAnd I could use a pair that could display some data from AvPlan EFB while I am flying, but everyone wants to chase general purpose instead of starting with a niche and then growing it.
- 87er43 6y ago> We call this ambient computing. Wow, it sounds like "IoT" is getting a makeover. Will this become the new more palatable vogue term for total immersion in corporate-owned wireless electronics?
- mcintyre1994 6y ago> Lastly is our appreciation for Focals 1.0 customers who share our vision of everyday smart glasses. We are winding down Focals 1.0 and we will not be shipping Focals 2.0 From the blog at bynorth.com ... I guess that's one way to show your appreciation!
- typenil 6y agoLooks like North is heading South.
- dorianmariefr 6y agoMARCH 19, 2020: North Wearables Looks for a Buyer While Cash Is Running Out https://outline.com/aKLaPA https://outline.com/aKLaPA (from Bloomberg, just without the paywall)
- sprayk 6y agotl;dr what do I do about recycling my Focals, ring, and case, given the difficulties a generic e-waste facility will have in removing the highly integrated batteries from the Focals and case? Also, if you have a startup making pretty, highly integrated devices, please have a plan for recycling your devices when they inevitably turn into bricks. I was a little surprised to hear that the acquisition is going to turn my Focals into a pair of chunky-looking, prescriptionless eyeglasses, and the carrying case into an alcantera-lined brick. I would like to recycle these, but I'm not sure how. The post-acquisition FAQ only seems to cover what's happening to their products/services, how we're going to get refunds (wasn't expecting that), and how to wipe my Focals. My main concern in recycling these is the highly integrated batteries. The Focals, the ring, and the case all have batteries that I can't access and can't see, and I don't see too many screw holes (though I admittedly haven't looked). Given what I've seen of e-waste recycling processes, I don't see anyone taking the time to carefully opening these up to get the batteries out, and I doubt they would try cracking them open like a crab to get at the battery, given the risk of possibly breaking a battery or cutting onesself on something sharp. Ideally, I would be able to just ship them my Focals and they would take care of recycling properly, but providing instructions on how to remove the battery or the types of facilities that would be capable of recycling these things would be a start. Also, I'd like to make a request of all of you: if you are or are ever involved with a startup that is making pretty, highly-integrated devices, please have a plan on how to recycle your devices when they inevitably turn to bricks. Hell, make it part of your acquisition message so customers won't just throw them in the trash (or blindly throw them into the single-stream recycling expecting it to get handled there and have it end up back in the trash) and dump more lithium into landfills.
- weregiraffe 6y agoHow can you buy a cardinal direction?
- pacetherace 6y agoSo we have a new king in the North
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- returningfory2 6y ago> We are winding down Focals 1.0 and we will not be shipping Focals 2.0, but we hope you will continue the journey with us as we start this next chapter. Isn't this just a classic acquihire? I'm sure it will be on Our Incredible Journey soon.
- partingshots 6y agoThis acquisition along with the Fitbit deal sets up Google perfectly to dominate the health wearables market.
- kojeovo 6y agoI'd love some smart glasses for running / cycling. No need to look at handlebar for stats / gps would be huge
- tomschlick 6y ago"Dominate" for 2 years until it doesn't have billions of users and they drop it into the google mass grave.
- lawrenceyan 6y agoIsn't the Fitbit acquisition being contested currently due to privacy concerns?
- partingshots 6y agoI highlight the Apple Watch’s FDA approval as a medical monitoring device as a counterpoint. This was in 2018. Wearables for health have been approved, legally speaking, already for some time now.
- lawrenceyan 6y agoFair point. I didn't realize the FDA had already started looking at the wearable space in such detail. Pretty forward-looking / perceptive of them.
- gcbw3 6y agoNot acquihire. Employees are not moving to alphabet. North was a scam, and was about to be bought by patent trolls. This was a legal move by alphabet. They pretty much paid ransom to the North (Thalmic labs) founders to not be harassed by trolls later on. I guess it at least shows that google haven't abandoned google-glass entirely (or their legal dept doesn't know they aren't in the glass business any more, i wouldn't doubt it)
- kps 6y ago> Not acquihire. Employees are not moving to alphabet. Do you have inside information? The announcement implies acquihire. You don't explicitly say where people will be working for you if they're not going to be working for you. > They'll join the Google team based in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada—North’s hometown and an area with impressive tech talent. We're excited to welcome our new colleagues, and committed to the growing global tech community of Kitchener-Waterloo.
- jaakl 6y agoThat’s the public message. Their HR will probably cherry pick some, sometimes even such scammers happen to have not yet corrupt talent. Other than that the IP situation would be the only sensible explanation of this deal.
- jl2718 6y agoDo you think the dollar amount is real? I often see massively inflated numbers that represent the amount a company is going to invest in e.g. their own product division that will contain the acquired IP. It’s in everybody’s interest to inflate the numbers.
- didip 6y agoI cannot imagine North has something that Google doesn't already have. Strange buyout decision in my opinion.
- 1023bytes 6y agoNorth bought the Intel Vaunt IP and improved it, so they actually do have some very impressive tech.
- catsarebetter 6y agoNot brave enough to say it to my friends but I would really love a pair of smart glasses
- dbish 6y agoIt sounds great, and I've used a few, but you can't realistically walk around wearing them in the current form without people looking at you odd. It's not worth what they offer to be that much of a negative focus (see glassholes commentary for examples). I love new tech, but I won't touch smart glasses until you can't tell they are smart glasses. The Focals were closer but still very clearly weird looking and bulky when worn
- liminal 6y agoAlways a bit sad when Canadian companies get acquired by the US behemoths
- elevenoh 6y agoWill they keep most of the North team @ the google Kitchener-Waterloo location?
- theodric 6y agoI look forward to everything North ever was or did being chucked down the memory hole in 3-10 years, as is tradition
- cs-szazz 6y agoIf you look at what they've released, it seems this was the best outcome. I don't know if Focals 2.0 were ever going to see the light of day, and Focals 1 plus the Myo weren't exactly a hit. I do feel bad for the employees whose options are now worthless though, and even worse if they'd already exercised them.
- subsubzero 6y agoI think the biggest problem with smart glasses, (AR tech) is the battery/power system. A family member worked at a defunct AR eyeglass maker and mentioned that point. Magic leap is in that space also and their solution was a huge battery pack(hip mounted) with a chord attaching to the glasses. His company had the power supply near the ear(it was smaller but didn't have enough juice to last hours). These examples(north glasses) seem pretty simple with just basic info being piped out, the two examples I mentioned above you could play movies and watch detailed realistic meta scenes imposed on reality. If power can be figured out in small form factor the end results could really be incredible. After trying out the demo AR glasses to my family members company(5 years ago) it was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen and felt like sci-fi come true.
- gdilla 6y agoI think the biggest problem is the social cost. They weren't called glassholes for nothing. Maybe the stigma will be over with better use cases, like filming the police when in public.
- mft_ 6y agoMy recollection is that the ‘glasshole’ thing was down to a combination of the perceived privacy intrusion of the glasses bearing a camera, the significant cost of the early editions, and a broader anger (at roughly the same time) directed at big tech companies in SF. Interestingly, there didn’t seem to be a similar backlash against the Snapchat smart glasses which came later, despite their raison d’etre being photos/video. (Cheaper? Better marketing? Or different time/social context?) Anyway, I don’t think it’s a given at all that smart glasses will always come with a social stigma - they probably won’t, as long as the original Google Glasses missteps/bad luck is avoided.
- paulpan 6y agoGood point on the battery life. One mitigation would be allowing quick (wireless?) charging from existing devices like smartphones, but there would still need to be a minimally viable battery life. Example is the first Apple Watch that targeted a day's worth. I imagine system performance would be another early issue. Again in the example of first Apple Watch, it was nothing more than a display to render the paired iPhone's content. It wasn't until the 3rd generation that it became more standalone and able to function without a "co-device". Come to think of it in the case of the rumored Apple Glass, its rollout/development might be similar to that of the Watch. First couple of generations are heavily, if not entirely, dependent on the iPhone for data processing. But eventually it'll come into its own - thanks to the strength of Apple's custom silicon development.
- ejz 6y agoIn addition to everything below, a great way to expand their Canadian presence to get around problems with American immigration laws.
- philsnow 6y ago> 10 blue links on a PC are they blue because they're all from advertisers?
- s3r3nity 6y agoJust more proof that Google needs to acquire companies to compete: - Phones? Google buys Motorolla and HTC's smartphone division. - Watches? Google buys Fitbit and Fossil (the smartwatch side) - AR? Google buys North I don't know why Google's Product team gets the prestige it does, when the last successful product it _didn't_ buy was GMail.
- m0zg 6y agoGoogle has failed to compete in all three of those things (in terms of hardware), so maybe they need to stop trying the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result.
- touchpadder 6y agoFuck Google
- dang 6y agoCould you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?