I’m not sure that the mass market shares the tech industry’s vision for smart glasses

One recent change among early-adopter circles was plain on the faces of many fellow attendees of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Maui this week: “smart” glasses with cameras, microphones, speakers and sometimes screens. But then my flights home Friday reminded me that for the overwhelming majority of people, “eyewear” means electronics-free glasses.

Qualcomm’s invitation-only conference–that company paid my airfare and lodging, as it did on my prior trips to cover it in 2021, 2022 and 2024–allowed me to get some brief face time with Snap’s Spectacles ’24, running newer software than the version I tried at last year’s summit. The event also treated me to a parade of tech execs testifying that smart glasses were the next big computing platform.

But despite all those optimistic assurances and my own earlier, brief tryouts of such smart glasses as Meta’s camera-enabled Ray-Bans and a prototype set of Android XR glasses, I remain unsold on the entire concept. So, it seems, do most customers: A Forrester Research survey released in September found that 79 percent of respondents had no interest in buying smart glasses.

On one hand, smart glasses with cameras, speakers and microphones are not particularly cheap–the Ray-Ban-branded models from the conglomerate EssilorLuxottica cost $379 and up–but perform worse than phones at taking pictures and playing audio.

Plus, they have the potential to annoy friends and strangers who aren’t keen on the possibility of surreptitious photography.

On the other hand, more advanced smart glasses with built-in displays could finally make hands-free augmented-reality overviews of the world a reality, but first somebody has to bring them to market at a not-crazy price. Snap’s Spectacles, which require a $99/month developer subscription, are not there; Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses, available starting Tuesday for $799, aren’t that much closer.

And somebody also has to solve battery-life concerns: What’s my motivation to strap a computer to my face, however stylish it might get, if that electronic eyewear will only run six hours on a charge and therefore need recharging much more often than my phone?

Meta championing this cause gives me further cause. That company has shown a history of careless indifference to the consequences of its actions, including repeated episodes of bad-faith behavior towards my own industry, that does not make me want to give it my money.

But Meta has also been so spectacularly wrong about consumer-electronics trends–topped by Mark Zuckerberg renaming Facebook to “Meta” and losing tens of billions of dollars on the delusional notion that people want to spend prolonged time in virtual-reality environments–that Zuck pushing smart glasses itself seems reason to eye the concept skeptically. Through dumb, software-free glasses.

#AndroidXR #ARGlasses #faceComputer #GoogleGlass #GoogleGlasses #Hawaii #MarkZuckerberg #meta #metaverse #privacy #Qualcomm #RayBan #smartGlasses #SnapSpectacles #SnapdragonSummit

Snap unveils Snap OS 2.0 with native browser, WebXR support, and more

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/15/snap-unveils-snap-os-2-0-with-native-browser-webxr-support-and-more/

Weekly output: Snapdragon Windows software compatibility, Qualcomm’s connected-car ambitions, Snap Spectacles ’24, Mark Vena podcast, Bluesky business plans, Qualcomm 8-core Snapdragon X Plus benchmarking, election security

Before I get to my usual list of what got published under my name this week, I need to vent about what did not get published by the Washington Post this week: the endorsement of Kamala Harris that, by multiple accounts, was quashed by imported-from-London publisher Will Lewis at the direction of owner Jeff Bezos. The insultingly vapid explanation by Lewis can only be read as Bezos attempting to grovel for a lesser spot for his businesses on Donald Trump’s enemies list.

This is a craven betrayal of the legacy of Katharine Graham, who defied the threats of Richard Nixon and his lackeys while the Post published the Pentagon Papers and documented Nixon’s Watergate crimes.

Jeff Bezos, you are no Kay Graham.

10/22/2024: Qualcomm Moves to Ease Windows on Snapdragon Compatibility Concerns, PCMag

My first post from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit covered a series of moves to address one lingering concern of that company’s rollout of fast and battery-friendly laptop processors: compatibility with existing Windows apps and peripherals. Reminder: Qualcomm covered my airfare and lodging on this trip.

10/24/2024: Qualcomm Revs Up Connected-Car Ambitions at Snapdragon Summit, PCMag

Then I filed a much longer post unpacking Qualcomm’s pitch to automakers to use its connected-car platforms. It was weird to see the only in-person endorsements from automakers in Qualcomm’s day-two keynote come from Chinese manufacturers.

10/25/2024: Snap Spectacles ’24 First Look: AR Glasses That Aren’t Vaporware, PCMag

I tried out these augmented-reality glasses Monday afternoon but didn’t have time to write about them until Thursday morning–the first-world problem of being at a conference with a packed schedule six time zones to the left of my editors.

10/25/2024: Ep 70 SmartTechCheck Moment — Ruminations on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit 2024 in Hawaii, Mark Vena

I joined my industry-analyst pal Mark Vena and other analysts Mike Feibus, Francis Sideco and Dave Altavilla to record a podcast from a lawn at the Wailea Beach Resort, Qualcomm’s venue for the summit.

10/25/2024: Bluesky Readies Subscription Option, Says It Won’t Be Like X Premium, PCMag

I hustled to write this short post from Maui’s airport before a flight to Los Angeles that I didn’t even realize would have no WiFi for most of the flight over the Pacific.

10/27/2024: Qualcomm’s 8-Core Snapdragon X Plus, Tested: A Competitive, Cheaper Chip, PCMag

The research for this post began with a benchmarking session Qualcomm hosted at IFA about seven weeks ago, after which my editor and I were respectively slammed with travel and other schedule conflicts–while, conveniently enough, laptops with these new processors had not yet shipped.

10/27/2024: Election security, Alaraby

I appeared via Zoom on this Arabic-language news channel to share some details from my experience as an Arlington County poll worker.

Updated 10/28/2024 to add a link to my TV hit.

#benchmarks #Bluesky #connectedCars #electionSecurity #Hawaii #MarkVena #Maui #pollWorker #Qualcomm #SnapSpectacles #SnapChat #SnapdragonSummit #SnapdragonX #X #Xitter

Have a look at this amazing AR skiing experience, Made by czech creative Inna Horobchuk.
She is using location triggers that creates visual guides when you ski down the mountain. Every time you reach a programmed checkpoint, the next navigational direction appears. It is created for Snapchat Spectacles.

#InnaHorrobchuk #SnapSpectacles #AR

Snap is Working on AR Glasses, Selfie Drone: Report

Snap is working on its next-generation glasses that will be able to layer Snapchat lenses (which are augmented reality effects) onto the environment without needing to use a smartphone camera, according to a new report. It has also reportedly revived its plans to introduce a selfie-drone.

According to a report from The Information, and noted by Engadget, the next generation camera glasses aren't actually being developed with the intention of deployment to the average consumer. Instead, the company is focusing efforts on developers and creators, those who currently are responsible for making the app's more popular SnapChat AR filters.

Snapchat is reportedly gearing up to officially announce these new Spectacles in May during its developer conference. Theoretically, if the glasses are successful, Snap could aim to launch more widely.

While Snap is most well-known for its social media app, the company has successfully brought hardware to market. Snap launched the Snap Spectacles 3 in 2019 and still offers them for sale today. The original Snap spectacles were a viral hit in 2016 when they launched in special pop-up vending machines in select cities. Eventually, the Spectacles became avaialble to order on Amazon. In 2018, Snap launched its second-generation Spectacles that allowed you to capture photos using the glasses.

That's not the only hardware Snap is investigating. The report goes on to say that the company is once again looking into producing a selfie drone. In 2017, Snap reportedly acquired the LA-based drone company Ctrl Me Robotics before looking at another China-based acquisition, Zero Zero Robotics. Back then, The Information reported that Zero Zero reached out to Snap for funding help, which was later denied by the robotics company's CEO.

Since then, news about Snap and drones has been largely pretty quiet, but that is apparently set to change. Snap supposedly did eventually invest in Zero Zero to the amount of $20 million, but it did not outright acquire the company. Since then, the new report indicates that Snap's own engineers have been working on developing an in-house product. It's not clear when such a drone would come to market and how it would differentiate itself in what has become a very crowded space.

#news #products #ar #augmentedreality #augmentedrealityglasses #selfiedrone #smartglasses #snap #snapchat #snapspectacles #snapspectacles3