This article is a goldmine lmao, but my favourite might be
There are no wake words so it’s not always listening, […] it doesn’t do anything until you engage with it, and your engagement comes through your voice
🤔
You press the button and then talk to it
They just need to make a version that looks like a Star Trek communicator badge.
Engage.
sounds straight out of The Onion
Also requires 25/month subscription and you sacrifice privacy of all your shit lol
What’s your phone bill?
That said, this is gimmicky as fuck and won’t go anywhere.
My phone would absolutely not be replaced by this device and thus I’d be stuck paying two phone bills. No thanks.
I guess the point was lost on you.
lost on me too
Jesus… you’re already paying more than $25/mo for a device that invades your privacy.
My phones Degoogled :)
6€
Notice that in the video in their webpage they clearly state that you can “engage” with it by voice, touch, or gesture. But somehow it doesn’t have constantly on sensors? It’s also a subscription service on top of the $700 or else it is just an ugly useless clothes pin. And it can’t be tampered with or it disables itself and has to be reactivated by them. So, no right to repair. This is vaporware.
There’s no constantly on sensors, just a microphone… A microphone is not a sensor, right? right?
Yet one more thing I’ll avoid like the plague (together with tiktok, temu, anything apple or tesla, the list keeps growing)
The projection stuff looks sooo gimicky and terrible to interact with. There’s also no way people will be talking out loud to interact with their messages and emails. This is essentially a bluetooth headset repackaged. This is not going to do well at all
Yes, I haaate voice activated stuff. Sometimes, dictating a text is nice. In the right surroundings where no one has to hear me over-pronouce every syllable. In a car is the best spot for this.
But the vast majority of the time, I’d rather wait until I can type or whatever.
Are you crazy?!? It has AI in the NAME! It’s a gold mine! A GOLD mine!
Kramer, is that you?
GIDDYUP!
Good thing it creates a bubble of sound so no one will hear your confirmation email for 2.5 liters of water based lube.
I got that reference!
So the thing laser-projects onto your hand as a screen. Does this mean we can now expect cellphone assholes to blind us with lasers by dropping their hands while it’s still projecting?
And a bodycam that is on 24/7 that, unlike cops, you can’t turn off at convenient times, and is constantly reporting to a centralized corporation. I’m sure it’s not going to be another step on the privacy hellscape that is technology right now.
No way is something that size transmitting video all the time, or even processing it on board to upload summaries. The battery would last about an hour
It’s supposed to be feeding an AI assistant, so it can try to anticipate your needs based on context. It might not be continuous, but it has to be intermittent potentially to be available at a moment’s notice.
Someone clarified replying to my comment on another post that it’s not supposed to be recording 24/7 (although details on activation are fuzzy).
That being said, if a friend starts wearing this around then I’m cutting them out of my life.
It’s a big hell no
According to the article (if you’d bother reading before commenting) it doesn’t record all the time and when it is, a little light on it would flash.
But seriously? You actually think that little thing could handle non stop video recording and storage without going dead every like 2 hours?
Not only did I read the article, I watched the original reveal during a ted talk six months ago and read the press releases then. They touted an AI assistant that would be context aware and anticipate the user’s needs, and evolve with the user. They faced backlash on social media then. How does an AI predicts your needs unless it’s listening and watching everything you do? Not just the camera but access to all your digital data as well. This new video is just to announce when it will be open for pre-purchase. But the led indicator and the “it won’t be listening to wake up” was added to address the criticism.
I see why they are “former” Apple designers.
So Google Glass in a worse form factor?
Unrecognized hand detected, device locked. Drink verification can!
It’s a long shot, but there might be a niche for this thing among the people who are tired of being over connected. There’s a mild resurgence of dumb phones for the same reason. They absolutely have to nail usability though. If the user has frustrating interactions with it and think to themselves “This would have been easier on my phone” then they’ve basically failed, especially with that hefty monthly fee.
I won’t be a customer, but I wish them luck.
there might be a niche for this thing among the people who are tired of being over connected.
My brother in Christ, this thing is meant for set and forget on the user’s chest.
You can’t doomscroll and consume endless content. There are no apps. You can only communicate with known contacts. There is no screen to separate you from the real world. It’s a dump phone plus a digital assistant in a novel form factor.
brave of you to assume that digital assistant would ever leave you alone.
The design is very human.
Very easy to use
Doa imo. Absolutely pointless given existing tech and it’s price and subscription.
It’s not out of price for first adopters. What are you talking about? This is not replacing your phone.
I don’t know what people are smoking here but this is about the price that I was expecting for this device. I was actually expecting around the range of Google Glass, so this is actually cheaper. You guys think that leap forwards in tech should come at the price of a Big Mac and be accessible to everyone.
We should rather discuss the UX, usability and tech itself rather than focusing on an inconsequential price point. If it takes off and there is a mainstream version then we can talk market pricing.
leap forwards in tech
It’s a shitty smartphone without a screen.
The first PDA was the Newton, total disaster. The first cellphone weighed 2 kilos (5 pounds). The first VR didn’t have gyroscopes.
Give it time. It might be the next 3D TV or it might become something. Too early to tell.
“The thing marketed as a smartphone replacement isn’t meant to replace your phone!”
O…o
Make it a Starfleet badge and I’ll take one!
I really don’t know what to think of this thing. It’s a bit like a combadge from Star Trek with a camera and small monochrome projector. I like the idea behind it, handling most of the utilitarian features smartphones bring without the games and social media distractions. The AI stuff is neat, but I don’t know how well baked any of it is and that’s really going to be what makes or breaks something like this.
Price is a bit high, and I don’t know how I feel about the subscription–I guess it’s not bad if you think of this as a full cellphone replacement, but that’s a tall order with something this new and dorky. There’s probably a 90%+ chance this becomes short-lived vaporware/abandonware, but who knows. I’d love to see something succeed that gets people’s faces out of their cellphones and back to interacting in person more.
This comment summed it up well…
For all the reasons that this might not take off, what a thrill that people are trying something new–and it looks really nicely designed too.
I think this is easy to dismiss at first glance, but I genuinely believe they’re trying to think about a new mode of interaction. The idea that “the computer will disappear” is probably accurate in the long term. Except for content delivery (reading, photos, movies), most tasks we achieve via computers and phones do not strictly require a screen. It’s probably a good thing if computers did a better job of getting out of the way, and stop so loudly disrupting human interactions.
Whether this will be the solution is unclear; the privacy/creepiness angle is still real with an outwards-facing camera. Latency and battery life limitations might be too significant. The cost will be a non-starter for many (it is for me).
But I’m still impressed because there was a vision here. The conversational interface has never worked before for many reasons, but that does not mean it cannot work in principle, or that the ideal implementation would not be spellbinding. I’m glad they’re trying. Also, the laser display is neat!
I just don’t know how you can get past the privacy aspect, I don’t trust ant company as far as I can throw them privacy wise.
They really said, “let’s build a product around the feature that everyone disables first as soon as they get a new phone”, and are trying to sell it with a straight face.
The concept has potential but the pricing is way, way off.
Firstly, don’t charge a price for the device. People already have phones and aren’t replacing them with this.
Also, wtf are they thinking with $700?!!! The thing is a bit of plastic, battery and tiny motherboard. That’s like €50 tops.
Secondly, charge $30 a month subscription only. Breakdown: $10 a month for the SIM, $5 a month for the device, €15 a month for R&D/marketing/staff/profits. Total €30.
Of course they would need to sell millions to make it worthwhile, but at least they’d stand a chance.
WAN Show gon be lit
