Apple Testing Four Smart Glasses Styles Made of High-End Materials

[iphonephoneboy]

Phone.Watch. Glasses. Ring. We are all part of the experiment. Enjoy or don't. If the glasses were under $1000 with prescription options, I'd try them, and just as I quickly tired of the ugliness of the watch, if the glasses are all hype, and Apple Intelligence continues to be as unintelligent as it currently is, then no. I will move on. I purchased the first iPhone sold on day one, customer one. It was a technology rush. It was the future. Glasses are not, just another product to try. I await tapping the chip in my forehead for all the info I need but do note expect it soon.

 

[Lioness~]

If this means that Siri will guide you through what she sees, I’ll arrive to my appointments a month later, at earliest.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I'm a teacher. I see students wearing them sometimes. I also see a lot of content being created with them on socials. But that's just circumstantial. The numbers definitely show substantial growth:

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/smart-glasses-market-report#:~:text=Historical Range: 2021 - 2024,Market Size: USD 2,463.6 Million

We have a state-wide bell-to-bell ban on phones here, and the glasses typically fall under that.

They do any kids school, anyway, along with smartwatches.

I guess they are out there..but I'm not any less creeped out about them than I was by glass holes.

 

[boswald]

We have a state-wide bell-to-bell ban on phones here, and the glasses typically fall under that.

They do any kids school, anyway, along with smartwatches.

I guess they are out there..but I'm not any less creeped out about them than I was by glass holes.

It's probably for the best. It's hard enough to keep kids' attention without phones sucking up what's left.

 

[UltimaKilo]

Please stop. Smart glasses are so stupid. Focus on building AR glasses when the tech is ready, which won’t be before 2032 (at the earliest) and don’t poison the market like they did with VR.

 

[Longpig]

If you thought FAANG datamining is bad now, just wait until these will become emdedded in society.

Just stop it already – nothing good will come of tech companies trying to monetise our eyeballs even further. banray.eu

 

[NastyMatt]

This is a tech space I am really interested in at the moment, there's a lot in the space but the ones I like the look of are the Even Realities (G2's I like the look of). Why? No camera. They are discreet and won't make the people you speak to uncomfortable (that you are filming them).

If Apple can bring something out that has no camera and has software that is better than the ER's I'd be very keen to try. Conversation mode and teleprompter are 2 apps instantly I'd use.

 

[citysnaps]

what’s the point in these exactly just to take photos lol

Where was it said they're just to take photos?

From the story:

"The glasses will tightly integrate with the iPhone and Siri, and they will use computer vision to interpret the user's surroundings and feed contextual awareness into Apple Intelligence."

I can see all sorts of applications beyond "just taking photos."

 

[HazeAndHahmahneez]

It says high-end, not new.

As a fountain pen enthusiast I know that old plastic materials such as celluloid and, to a certain extent, ebonite and Bakelite, are considered more desirable than modern plastic resins. Celluloid in particular, for its transparency and the possibility of creating colourful patterns. However celluloid is no longer used today, which makes vintage fountain pens more precious (but it’s also flammable: films, which were made of celluloid, were always a liability for cinema theatres).

Haha I read your post and the whole time I’m thinkin, “inglorious bastards”

Speak for myself only, it makes me feeling quite uncomfortable, if someone talks to me when he wears glasses with camera; and worse is that the glasses look like normal ones and no visible indication that the camera is on or off.

Yeah I can see a lot of fights happenings because of these recording glasses, especially should they really become popular because of Apple…I trust Apple to implement the best privacy features possibl…imagine if you wear these glasses though and it makes being recorded by other glass wearers far more difficult…wow.

This could be cool if dont right. Fears about being recorded are kinda overplayed here as everyone has a cell phone capable of doing this already. I hope it provides some cool features. 🙂

The big difference is phones aren’t being held in a recording way 24/7 the way glasses do if worn…

Great. And they do... what?

I thought the main draw was seeing Apple stuff on a screen but maybe this first gen is light on that?…to me yeah thats what has me interested and obviously future versions can do movie theater mode games concerts sporting events etc

Question is (with all of these glasses) ... where is full day battery going to come from? I know Apple claims a few days on the Apple Watch, but if I used my watch to record some sort of exercise then a few days never happened.

Yeah I think you’re the first person that ive seen post how amazingly efficient workout tracking is at decimating the Apple Watch battery percentage, I thought I was the only one…best way to combat that is do a workout however long don’t even think abt it then just toss it in a charger once completed and your heart rate is gone down some..but still I wonder what is it abt workout that destroys the battery so much? Gyroscope and heart rate monitoring are always on anyways right?….

Smart glasses will never take off if cameras are involved. Creepy AF.

Idk, this younger generation is pretty much “whatever” abt privacy and companies like you-know-who tracking them…at least that’s my impression, what do I know?

Waaay back in the day I used google glass. There were a lot of limitations, even by 2015 standards. But what made it a real value was the display.

AI is the wrong focus and is ultimately a solution desperately seeking a problem.

95% of the use case for AI is as the Brits say Pure Bollocks! NO ONE is going to want an AI prattling useless internet trivia about their surroundings all day every day. Few people are going to engage the mythical AI Siri to “do stuff”.

The real “cart before the horse” problem with AI assistants is hundreds of billions are being spent to create an experience that will be slightly useful to a few people a few times a week.

What the eyeglass device needs to be is Apple Watch with a camera. They can even call the operating system iEyeOS.

If Apple can make their glasses with a good quality camera, an on lens display and at least 12 hour battery life I’ll pay a substantial price for it. If it is just a camera linked to Siri I won’t give it a second glance.

PS as far as the article goes with the vertical camera - AVP spacial recording is vertical format. I would be shocked if their upcoming glasses didn’t do spacial recording as well. And yes. We all know the orientation is vertical because some old fossil VP takes pictures of her grandkids in portrait mode.

Yea glasses like the watch…make them USEFUL…a crazy must have feature would be seeing through walls lol

If Apple could add tech into the minimalist frames that Steve wore, that would be impressive.

View attachment 2622078

It’s such an obvious but brilliant move…any idea the brand of his famous glasses?

Please stop. Smart glasses are so stupid. Focus on building AR glasses when the tech is ready, which won’t be before 2032 (at the earliest) and don’t poison the market like they did with VR.

I mean honestly, Apple seems like such a big company, they could easily work on one without impeding the development of the other, I would assume!

 

[code-m]

Ok this is going to be…hmmm…for lack of a better word…huge.

Wearable have to balance size, weight and style. It’s very tricky given people have different body frame shapes and sizes along with personal preference.

With watches you can have oval, round, square or rectangle. Then comes the weight of the accessory. Watch bands are an easy swap and sell. Battery life is another factor for some.

There is a reason why jewellery and personal body accessory industry is a multi-billion dollar annually industry.

 

[Tim Jobs the 2nd]

I can't wait to get a pair of these. I was tempted by the Meta ones but when I heard Apple was making their own, I decided to wait.

 

[Rogifan]

I see the Vision Pro going the way of the HomePod and MacPro. Soon Apple won’t talk about it any more and it will quietly be discontinued.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I know some folks want to be notified of everything. Not me, but the few types of notifications I allow to pass through to my watch are nice because I can tell at a glance if I want to do anything about it.

That said, I don’t need anything popping into my field of view for that purpose. I don’t personally have much use for “smart glasses.”

Sure - several apps I have notifications disabled in Settings. But if I get an email, or a text message - I want to see it (at least the first few lines) so I can decide if it's something that needs immediate attention. Watch handles this pretty well right now, but since I'm already wearing eyeglasses 🤔 I think that could really work!

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Question is (with all of these glasses) ... where is full day battery going to come from? I know Apple claims a few days on the Apple Watch, but if I used my watch to record some sort of exercise then a few days never happened.

Apple doesn't claim "a few days" on any Apple Watch, other than the Ultra if it's on low-power mode. They claim "up to 42 hours of normal use" and up to 72 hours (3 days) in low power for the Ultra 3. I easily get 48 hours even with daily workouts on my U3.

Of course the difference with eyeglasses is - no one* wears them while they're sleeping. So it's a perfect opportunity for daily charging!

*I'm sure someone will chime in claiming to wear eyeglasses while sleeping. You're waaaaay at the far end of the bell curve, my friend.

 

[Mr_Ed]

Sure - several apps I have notifications disabled in Settings. But if I get an email, or a text message - I want to see it (at least the first few lines) so I can decide if it's something that needs immediate attention. Watch handles this pretty well right now, but since I'm already wearing eyeglasses 🤔 I think that could really work!

I’m sure it will come down to personal preferences and tolerance levels. I wear eyeglasses as well but I just can’t conceive of a world where having things randomly appear in my field of view vying for attention/focus with the real world is good for me.

 

[1rottenapple]

Apple is developing at least four different styles of smart glasses, and the company is betting that their superior design will set them apart from rival products, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says that Apple's latest designs are made from a high-end material called acetate, which is "more durable and luxurious" than the standard plastic used by most existing brands. In Gurman's words, the designs in testing include:

• A large rectangular frame, reminiscent of Ray-Ban Wayfarers
  
• A slimmer rectangular design, similar to the glasses worn by Apple CEO Tim Cook
  
• Larger oval or circular frames
  
• A smaller, more refined oval or circular option

The designs will be instantly recognizable as Apple – what the company refers to internally as the "icon" – and they are set to come in "many" color options, says Gurman, with black, ocean blue, and light brown currently being explored.

The glasses will tightly integrate with the iPhone and Siri, and they will use computer vision to interpret the user's surroundings and feed contextual awareness into Apple Intelligence. Meanwhile, the the camera system currently being considered is described as "vertically oriented oval lenses with surrounding lights," which contrasts with the circular design seen in Meta's Ray-Bans.

Apple is expected to unveil smart glasses as the end of 2026 or early the following year, with the actual release occurring in 2027. The glasses are said to be part of Apple's broader AI wearables strategy that also includes new AirPods with cameras and a camera-equipped pendant.

Article Link: Apple Testing Four Smart Glasses Styles Made of High-End Materials

Its good way to practice assertiveness.

Hey Take off your Privacy stealing glasses.

 

[1rottenapple]

Speak for myself only, it makes me feeling quite uncomfortable, if someone talks to me when he wears glasses with camera; and worse is that the glasses look like normal ones and no visible indication that the camera is on or off.

I don't want these in the gym. smh

 

[Londo Mollari 2]

It says high-end, not new.

As a fountain pen enthusiast I know that old plastic materials such as celluloid and, to a certain extent, ebonite and Bakelite, are considered more desirable than modern plastic resins. Celluloid in particular, for its transparency and the possibility of creating colourful patterns. However celluloid is no longer used today, which makes vintage fountain pens more precious (but it’s also flammable: films, which were made of celluloid, were always a liability for cinema theatres).

Because nickel allergy is common (+20% in U.S.), and because titanium and carbon fiber are expensive, cellulose acetate is a common frame material for vision-correcting eyeglasses. It is a nylon-based plastic material made from plants, first used in eyeglasses frames in 1940. I’ve been wearing these “high-end” frames since I turned six in 1953. Strictly speaking we should call them “high-head” because that’s where most of us wear glasses. Only cheap drug store sunglasses have plastic frames made from petroleum-based nylon pellets. They’re brittle and not adjustable. Bakelite and cellulose nitrate AKA Celluloid were replaced by cellulose acetate and nowadays are banned everywhere because they are flammable.

 

[d-klumpp]

upcoming glasses didn’t do spacial recording as well. And yes. We all know the orientation is vertical because some old fossil VP takes pictures of her grandkids in portrait mode.

You had me, until your distasteful ending. The problem with a lot of tech is that it's designed by people too young to see real need and market potential. So real tech opportunities are wasted because too many things are developed by the young for amusement of the (dumb) young masses, instead of helping those that need help. Once you're older yourself or are caring for aging parents, you'll constantly be saying, "I wish there was a device that..." BTW, I thought young TikTokers were driving the strange, vertical video format. We Boomers know how to orient a camera.

 

[Zacharybinx34]

What do they do?
Can they display text? I could see that usable for live speeches if so.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

No, it's not the same. You can tell if someone has their phone out and taking video, most of the time. Glasses are on all the time, and can easily record without any indication whatsoever.

I don’t know. Someone could be in a crowd a few metres away taking pictures without you knowing.

With zooms being what they are, people don’t have to be in front of you to take your picture. Plus: if there is a company that wants to prevent creepy picture taking, it will be Apple.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

I don’t know. Someone could be in a crowd a few metres away taking pictures without you knowing.

With zooms being what they are, people don’t have to be in front of you to take your picture. Plus: if there is a company that wants to prevent creepy picture taking, it will be Apple.

Crowds you can't do a lot about, unless it's a private business or residence. In smaller groups, meetings, one on one, you absolutely can.

If someone I'm taking with is wearing them, I'll ask them to take them off, Apple or otherwise.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

Crowds you can't do a lot about, unless it's a private business or residence. In smaller groups, meetings, one on one, you absolutely can.

If someone I'm taking with is wearing them, I'll ask them to take them off, Apple or otherwise.

Which is fair enough to ask. 👍🏼

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Which is fair enough to ask. 👍🏼

I'm not going to be an Ass about it. Just politely ask, at least for now.

I've not seen or been around anyone wearing the one that are currently on the market, as far as I know.

 

[Dirk Pieters]

I'm not going to be an Ass about it. Just politely ask, at least for now.

I've not seen or been around anyone wearing the one that are currently on the market, as far as I know.

Me neither. No one in my close circle of family, friends or fellow IT nerds has even mentioned glasses.

To be honest, they would have to add some serious value to even consider them.