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I 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

I 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 ago
Aren'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 ago
  That's a fair point. I guess you could argue these aren't smart glasses at all.
- numpad0 6y ago
  And aren’t those “smart earbuds” just Bluetooth headsets?
  - deelowe 6y ago
    Alexa requires specialized hardware for the voice recognition.
    - mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
      How is what it requires different from the microphone in a typical headset?
gffrd 6y ago
I'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?
- paulpan 6y ago
  I'm wondering too...it's just earbuds in a different form factor right? I guess it's one less device to carry but would be concerned about the weight and battery life. The appeal of Hololens and rumored Apple Glass is that they offer augmented reality capacity. Aka layering useful information onto an existing field of view. Google Glass back in the day also offered that - perhaps ahead of its time given the technology constraints at the time.
- donavanm 6y ago
  The alexa and bose offerings are pretty similar from what I can tell. Functionality wise its not much more than BT headphones with mic and some limited surface controls. The benefit to both is the open ear audio. They dont impede sounds around you. This may be important to you if you need spacial awareness for things like sport and navigation.
  - gffrd 6y ago
    What's interesting is that there's nothing preventing hardware companies from making open-ear audio headphones, right? I'm starting to think beyond the "I already wear glasses anyway" use case, these may be targeted for industrial applications where (1) some form of eye protection is mandated, (2) spatial audio context is critical, and (3) having a personal device (phone, watch) is either frowned upon or not allowed. While living in NYC, I observed that the Apple Watch's most aggressive adoption was among people whose jobs didn't allow access to phones on the regular—think restaurants, service industries, etc. The value wasn't that it was a watch, it was that it _wasn't_ a phone. I wonder if a similar reality isn't also true of product categories like these …
- michaelmior 6y ago
  I wear prescription glasses already so the appeal for me is no different from that of earbuds except that I wouldn't need a separate device. They would simply replace something I already wear.

Ajedi32 6y ago

Aren'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 ago
That's a fair point. I guess you could argue these aren't smart glasses at all.
numpad0 6y ago
And aren’t those “smart earbuds” just Bluetooth headsets?
- deelowe 6y ago
  Alexa requires specialized hardware for the voice recognition.
  - mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
    How is what it requires different from the microphone in a typical headset?

gffrd 6y ago

I'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?

paulpan 6y ago
I'm wondering too...it's just earbuds in a different form factor right? I guess it's one less device to carry but would be concerned about the weight and battery life. The appeal of Hololens and rumored Apple Glass is that they offer augmented reality capacity. Aka layering useful information onto an existing field of view. Google Glass back in the day also offered that - perhaps ahead of its time given the technology constraints at the time.
donavanm 6y ago
The alexa and bose offerings are pretty similar from what I can tell. Functionality wise its not much more than BT headphones with mic and some limited surface controls. The benefit to both is the open ear audio. They dont impede sounds around you. This may be important to you if you need spacial awareness for things like sport and navigation.
- gffrd 6y ago
  What's interesting is that there's nothing preventing hardware companies from making open-ear audio headphones, right? I'm starting to think beyond the "I already wear glasses anyway" use case, these may be targeted for industrial applications where (1) some form of eye protection is mandated, (2) spatial audio context is critical, and (3) having a personal device (phone, watch) is either frowned upon or not allowed. While living in NYC, I observed that the Apple Watch's most aggressive adoption was among people whose jobs didn't allow access to phones on the regular—think restaurants, service industries, etc. The value wasn't that it was a watch, it was that it _wasn't_ a phone. I wonder if a similar reality isn't also true of product categories like these …
michaelmior 6y ago
I wear prescription glasses already so the appeal for me is no different from that of earbuds except that I wouldn't need a separate device. They would simply replace something I already wear.