Apple possibly considering Meta Ray-Ban like glasses

But that's mainly because I just brought an external hard drive, the t9 for anyone interested, and am very happy with it.

I honestly am not that interested in phone companies anymore, I used to be but now apple and android are kind of neck and neck when it comes to accessibility in my oppinion, so I don't care much foreither of them.

Also I just find the apple glasses to be clunky when it comes to accessibility, oh I'm sure they work well enough but I already have some issues with my rists, so pinching the air and all that doesn't apeal to me at all.

If it's a one-off purchase or a monthly subscription of about £20 which is what I pay for ChatGPT then maybe, but they would have to be able to OCR pages from documents and recognise street signs. Built-in maps would be nice too. What I really want is glasses with BeMyAI or Aira's AccessAI baked in. Something like the Seleste glasses would be far too expensive at about £40 a month. I wouldn't get the Meta Rey-Bans at the moment because they can't seem to do everything I want even though it would be a one-off purchase.

I was super excited about the Solos Ergo Vision - with GPT4o. But what happened to all that? I see Open AI have moved on to a new family of models, so I wondr if we will ever see that 'her' from the demos.

I have the Meta Ray-Ban glasses, they are great, but they don't do everything. Glasses that do everything are almost possible,so it is v frustrating.

The Meta glasses would be enough to make me Queen in the kingdom of the blind, but they are not quite the Jesus product I am waiting for!

If Apple do make some kind of Meta Ray-bans competitor then I would be very excited. Much as I love my Ray-Bans, it seems that accessibility is almost an accident, whereas you would expect it to be something Apple carefully considers. So, absolutely yes please! The more competition in this space, the more likely we are to get the solution we have all been hoping for.

Yes they make stuff but it doesn't interest me that much anymore.

There's only so far a phone can be pushed and I don't care about the car or whatever they're making in the next 10 or so years.

It'll be nice to read about but honestly? I'd not be surprised if I stick with my IPhone 13 until the support ends in 4 years from now.

Apple's AI is going to have to do something groundbreaking to impress me to have me update before then.

We already have apps like Seeing AI and BeMyEyes so I wonder if with the AI stuff they'll come up to that level, I'd be surprised if they pass it honestly but we will all see.

2027? Seriously? I believe the glasses space would have been really opened up by then. I mean, there's a meta connect event towards the end of this month during wich they'll supposedly announce interesting stuff; then there's the Google Astra project; and then there're small, exclusive players like Solos, about whom we might even not be aware of at this point and then there's samsung if what this article says can be believed.

Yes, I had heard of the solos glasses with ChatGPT. I'm looking on their website, but I can't find a price tag for them. I wonder if there's a demo somewhere. At the moment these seem more promising than the Meta ReyBans.

I remember hearing this rumor several years ago. If Apple came out with smart glasses that were less than $1000, or even better, less than $500, I'd buy them in a heartbeat. I just don't feel comfortable giving money to Meta, and as much as I think the Envision glasses would meet my needs best, they're just too expensive, so I'm choosing to wait a while longer to invest in smart glasses, in hopes that Apple will make a pair that can both meet my needs and not break the bank.

I would buy Apple smart glasses if they had as good image description and text recognition as ChatGPT.

After getting my raybans, and using them loads for about a month, I've not touched them. They are a novelty, at best. Into the draw of fallen tech they go...

I think if apple get into this space, they will have to make them as invaluable as all their other personal products, airpods, iphone, apple watch, in that you will never leave home without them. Aside from content creaters, I don't think the meta really do a great deal that can't be done better using a phone directly. This will be what apple are looking to bridge. They don't make gadgets, they make indespensible life products.

I can't say I didn't enter into 'trof of disillusionment' myself, but I don't think it is as deep as yours.. I think the key is to keep them on and to get used to needing them.

I don't know about you...but I'm used to not being able to see. I have arranged my life to suit being blind and being on my own.

So if I have the glasses on all the time, I can check a date on something in the fridge, make sure socks match or that I'm not about to have kidney beans on toast for lunch!

They do those things as well as Seeing AI and do it more easilly to.

The problem is getting to the point where I have the glasses on when I need them. I think they need to be next-level good for that to happen. So lets hope GPT5 or o2 or whatever comes soon.

So I was under the impression that the Vision Pro, was, the Apple version of Meta Raybans, and so on. is this not the case?

With regards to Meta Raybans, how are you all finding lining up your shots with a camera in the upper left or right corner? Genuinely asking here. . .

Finally, kidney beans on toast for the win! 😇

Hi,

I was also looking forward to the solos airgo vision but after reading this review of the solos airgo 3 it looks like they have a lot of work to do before the glasses become practical usefull:
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/solos-airgo3-smart-glasses

Well, I think the vision pro is a bit more advanced,, hardware wise, but yeah, they're both their flagship glasses.

I think the reason apple is making these glassses is because they want more money, of course, and they're much cheeper so I believe they think people will buy them and use them more.

Thanks for posting this review. Well I definitely won't be getting these now. The ChatGPT integration isn't even online! And so many other issues.

As they currently stand, I'd say Vision Pro and Meta Ray-bans are nothing like each other in terms of use cases.

The Vision Pro would replace your monitor. You wear them indoors, presumably for work or for watching movies or whatever. Unless you are planning to rob a bank,, you aren't going to wear them outside the house. They are a very heavy-weight solution.

On the other hand, the Meta Ray-bans are entirely meant for wearing outside. They are small, light and don't look out of place. They are for adding to your experience of being out and about. They are audio only. So compared to Apple things they are closer to Air Pods or something.

I know that they are intending to add AR so I'm sure they won't stay an audio only thing forever. But I think they are successful because people would wear them anyway even if they did nothing, and they don't get in the way.

If Apple are entering this space, then I don't know if the glasses become an extension of the phone like the Meta Ray-bans, but presumably less likely to be locked into a single app. But I think they are less likely to be a fully fledged computer on your face and more a way to interact with what's around you. Unlike the Vision Pro where you are always looking at a screen, even if it is projecting what is in front of you, I would expect these to have you looking straight at the world, possibly with something superimposed on top.

As for taking photos, you don't get any audible help, but it is more natural to point your head at something than it is to angle a phone correctly. I have no problem taking a photo of something making a noise. I think also sometimes you kind of know where something of interest might be, and it's easier to just fire off a few photos without the hassle of having to take the phone out. It has a very wide angle so if you are in vaguely the right direction, chances are you will capture what you are after. I'm hardly a professional, but for the purposes of taking some photos from time to time when I'm out, it suits our purpose nicely. (Our purpose mainly being for my wife who used to complain that I never took photos, but also sometimes to feed the AI and see what the hell was going on somewhere). If I'm somewhere I do just occasionally take a few random shots to see what ends up coming out and sometimes that ends up being a good thing.

I'd also say it's fairly easy for a sighted person to know if you are facing the right way. A few times I've taken a photo of my wife and she has told me where to adjust my face which she couldn't do with a phone. I can also just tell them to WhatsApp her the photo so she can check it on her phone if she wants.

Similarly for videos, plus the sound is very good and records in stereo.

The Meta Ray-Ban glasses are just sunglasses - I use them like that most of the time. Now and again a voice tells you yu have a message, you can ask the voice to tell you the message and reply.

Then there is the invisible mobile phone! You can just ask the voice to call someone and it does. You can even, on a WhatsApp, press a button and the person you are talking to can 'see' through your eyes - just like magick!

And if you hold somehting up in front of you, with the right spell, the voice will tell you what it is, the use by date, or if it matches.

These are all great experiences, but just as with the Seleste glasses, there really is someting magical about having the camera on your face. we can all point our phones at things and use Seeing AI, but being able to 'Look and Ask' is cool! And all for £300 - guess that is why they have sold more than a million pairs!

All I really want is the ability to put the iPhone camera on my face. If Apple then just built a tiny touchpad on the side where I could add a shortcut for something like Be My Eyes or such, that would be game changing. I wouldn't even care if I still had to wear an earbud. In fact, I might prefer it.

Thanks everyone for the explanation. It seems like Meta Raybans are close, but not quite, there, just yet. Would kill for something a little more, not necessarily integrated, but maybe more immersed into Apple's ecosystem.

You mentioned taking pictures with the help of your wife. Here is what my wife and I do when she wants me to take a picture of her in the picture.

We switch the camera mode to use the rear facing camera. That way, when I point the camera at her, she is viewing the screen and can tell where I am pointed and how I have the picture framed. That works very well for us to set up the picture with her in it and have me take the picture.

Hope that helps.

--pete

I've gotten better at this, but at first, I was always a little off... too far to the left or right, not exactly in front of the camera. Some sighted family members oriented me to exactly where the camera is, and that's made a difference in my accuracy. It's so much easier taking a photo with glasses than with my phone's camera. Just a few days ago, I wished aloud that the Metas would have access to something like BeMyAI to get more thorough descriptions. Today, BeMyAI is being incredibly brief with its descriptions, so that wish is presently on hold, Lol. I do like the ability to call someone on Messenger so they can see through my glasses' camera and either offer walking directions or help with tasks the AI apps aren't cooperating with.

I am so very tempted to get myself a pair of Metas. 🙌