'Apple Glass' Rumored to Start at $499, Support Prescription Lenses, and More

[sbuntin]

"The glasses will start at $499 with the option for prescription lenses at an extra cost"

If that turns out to be true I might be tempted.

Assuming it doesn't add too much weight or reduces visible over my normal prescription lenses.

I have two bets:
a) the prescription option will be astronomically priced. Think $399 for basic lenses just to start. Another 400 for progressives, 200 for AR coating.
b) Prism won't be available.
c) Progressives may not be available.
d) Getting lenses anywhere else will be unsupported.

Oops. I can't count.

 

[chasonstone]

I’m so interested in these

 

[Detnator]

This isn’t innovative nor a new idea or concept ...google glass?

...and people said exactly the same thing about the iPod, iPhone, iPad, Watch, etc.

You really have no idea what Apple does do you.

 

[JosephAW]

Powering a small device for long periods of time has yet to be solved. It might be time to look at fuel cells or more likely inductive powering for future low power technology devices.
Possibly a coil worn at the vest or collar, or clothes manufactured with incorporated Qi type fabric weave to power low power watch, buds and glasses in the near future.

 

[magicmarker18]

They stopped with the "i" marketing for new products when the Apple Watch came out... don't get your hopes up.
And Jon Prosser is a very prominent leaker with crazy sources really high up the chain, believe what you hear. And the thumbnail is fake, its going to look like regular glasses as not to scare off the average consumer.

that’s be a use every damn company started to use the i moniker! iHome?iDrive?...for sure some small ass company registered that name already and wants millions for it. I mean even the iPhone was taken by Cisco already.

 

[JosephAW]

I always liked this concept video of AR glasses in the future. The good and the bad of this type of future.

 

[magicmarker18]

Everyone complains Apple doesn't innovate anymore, and then when we finally hear about something that's new and innovative and people complain that it'll be a flop. it's Apple... they don't do flops, think about it...

I guess you forgot google made some glasses before? Apple doesn’t innovate or take risk and spend billions on research and development anymore...they’re taking the safe route by seeing if those product can get popular then they’ll make some and give it to they’re loyalist...surface pen anyone? Type cover anyone? Surface tablet anyone? Galaxy watch anyone?

 

[sbuntin]

I think the only viable option would be for the lenses having a special surface on the backside used for a HUD style projection.

Prescriptions can vary by such a lot of factors that Apple doing the logistics isn't really an option, so they would need to partner with some lensmaker or better just put out a definition on how that surface has to look. You would than go to Apple, buy the basic glasses and then have an optician replacing the lenses.

Everything else would end up in a similar quality as the reading classes you can buy in a supermarket -> useless for those really need classes.

Good luck getting an optician to make those lenses unless it's something Luxxotica carries. Apple will have to play middleman here, I think.

 

[Detnator]

Is this really a possibility?
Maybe for quick messages, but for writing a document, it would have to block a large part of your vision.

Yes and no... As you say (quoting you continued below) if anyone can do this right, it will be Apple, just like they did with MP3 players, smart phones, etc. Apple wasn’t the first with any of those but they were the first toget it “right” and make it mass market.

At the very least they’ll make it so it doesn’t block any more of your vision than a phone or laptop screen does already and there’ll be some way of turning it on and off on the fly similar to how we effectively do that now when we look up from the physical screens we all spend so much of our lives looking at now.

Maybe they can do better than that even... think about how we focus our vision. We can still see through a slightly foggy or dirty glass window or whatever. Our eyes blur the dirt/fog to see beyond it. But we can then focus on the window and our eyes and brain blur the reality beyond it and it doesn’t interfere with our perception of the details on the glass. Normal glasses wearers among us now do the same thing.

Now also consider: Fighter jet helmets have tech in them that read their wearer’s eyeballs and follow their vision to assist with targeting etc.

This thing could potentially do stuff like that to read our focus and fade in and out the info on them accordingly. Or something like that. That stuff is technologically possible now (though not sure if it’s possible yet in a device as lean as these would be). That would be the kind of innovation that counts as “doing it right” and the difference between these and just any other AR/VR glasses (Google glass and other stuff that others will no doubt come out with before Apple).

If any company can make something useful from this is Apple.

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I guess you forgot google made some glasses before? Apple doesn’t innovate or take risk and spend billions on research and development anymore...they’re taking the safe route by seeing if those product can get popular then they’ll make some and give it to they’re loyalist...surface pen anyone? Type cover anyone? Surface tablet anyone? Galaxy watch anyone?

MP3 player anyone? Smart phone anyone? etc.

Oh... wait...

 

[Abazigal]

I guess you forgot google made some glasses before? Apple doesn’t innovate or take risk and spend billions on research and development anymore...they’re taking the safe route by seeing if those product can get popular then they’ll make some and give it to they’re loyalist...surface pen anyone? Type cover anyone? Surface tablet anyone? Galaxy watch anyone?

Are we forgetting how badly google glasses flopped?

It's precisely because Apple takes the time to work on their products that we get the refined user experience that we do. Compared to phones where the entire screen goes black from a grain of sand.

 

[Jyby]

Science Rules!

 

[return2sendai]

Didn’t see this coming!

 

[Jyby]

Science Rules!

 

[TJ82]

@Jy I'd prefer that over having a hardware packed module on the frames themselves.

Ultimately I'd just want them to be streamed to from my phone. I guess you could do it 3 ways, stream from phone, from watch or have a clip on module.

Anyone know what the bare minimum componentry required is to have a device which is streamed to? Trying to work out if it's even possible to have a fully discreet pair of smart glasses.

 

[H2SO4]

Big difference between those things and having people pointing a hidden camera at you any time they look in your direction.

I mean the ones that go down the privacy line all the time and still use the above examples.
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Just because Google tried something and failed miserably doesn't mean Apple developing the first successful mainstream product in this medium isn't innovative.

As has been repeated a million times: There were MP3 players before iPod, smartphones before iPhone, tablets before iPad, and smartwatches before Apple Watch. Yet these were all innovative products.

So were the ones that came before. I'd say the first ever MP3 player was arguable as innovative as the iPod. Branding also has a key part to play.

 

[wigby]

I'll give you that most people don't know, but millions of people do. Some people will even intentionally dance around the vehicles, just because they know it's recording.



Apple cares about the privacy of their customers. They don't care about the privacy of everyone else. If they did, they'd include an LED indicating when the back camera is on/recording.



Uh, what? Nothing magical has happened in the past 50 years leading to younger people not needing glasses anymore. Some people need them, some people don't.



The system would be opt-in. If you give consent by gesturing to the camera, it'll record without blurring. Otherwise, you'll be blurred. I figure recording would be like with dashcams - recording is always happening, constantly rewriting a ~minute long loop. The user doesn't initiate recording - the user initiates preserving the past minute so it doesn't get written over again.

When people hold up a phone, the assumption by everyone is that they are probably recording so you don’t need an indicator. Apple could put an indicator on Glasses but since we’re commenting on a rumor that claims that Glasses uses LIDAR and no camera, that seems unnecessary by all standards.

 

[subjonas]

How are people comparing this to Google Glass? That was only a heads up display. Apple glasses will be augmented reality—way way more advanced and potentially useful.

 

[ValO]

Everyone complains Apple doesn't innovate anymore, and then when we finally hear about something that's new and innovative and people complain that it'll be a flop. it's Apple... they don't do flops, think about it...

I agree, and when it launches, Apple is still not innovative , according to the “haters “. Google, MS, etc were first.

 

[Booboolala2000]

They could’ve been more unique with the name because now it looks like they’re copying Google. Exciting stuff though.

Aren't they copying Google Glass? Augmented glasses of six years ago.
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How are people comparing this to Google Glass? That was only a heads up display. Apple glasses will be augmented reality—way way more advanced and potentially useful.

No, Google Glass had input as well.
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I agree, and when it launches, Apple is still not innovative , according to the “haters “. Google, MS, etc were first.

Well Hololens is legit augmented reality. Will be interesting to see what these do beyond maps and notifications, and some games.

 

[0924487]

I guess you still need a pair of regular glasses for exams and changing rooms and such. /shrugs

 

[Geurt]

This can become huge. Competing with e.g. bulky Microsoft Hololens 2, but running on the extreme power of their iPhone processor capability. That is a true unique selling point making these things very accessible once you go Apple, and in a compact format as the processing is not fully done by the glasses. The glasses seem to be the eyes, and the iPhone the brain 👍. All these efforts in producing their own chips makes more sense day by day...

I hope for self-tanning glasses, I could use some projected navigation on a sunny day in my car

 

[TomOSeven]

A small step for technology, but one giant leap towards a total dystopian nightmare.

Complete and utter surveillance, everywhere and always, and we're even paying for it. Well done.

Really looking forward to my glasses making me watch 30 second ads, too.

 

[Defender2010]

Maybe I’m blind, but I don’t see what the use case is for these? Is it notifications? I guess AR, but give me an example, please.

Read the thread did you? Plenty of examples.

 

[ds2000]

Hello to readers of this thread ten years from now.

I remember the same being said about the watch. I'm on my second one and I see more and more every day

 

[simonmet]

I couldn’t be less interested in putting generic technology from a major global corporation on my face.

I’m not interested in the watch either. I don’t need it, and despite their best efforts in promoting customisation with bands and stuff; they have no personality.

People say the watch is popular, and relative to the competition it is, but it’s by no means as widely adopted as smartphones. I hardly ever see people wearing one, and I live in a wealthy and diverse part of inner Sydney. It’s not like smart phones where literally everyone has one, with at least half being iPhones.

Apple does a good job of marketing to people with a high disposable income, many of whom need constant retail therapy and distractions from their work life. Even still, I see this being even less successful than the Apple Watch.

Do people really need and want to be constantly connected (physically) to technology? How hard is it to reach for a phone, tablet or laptop? At least you can put those devices away.