Meta Unveils 'Orion' Augmented Reality Glasses

[Rogifan]

Vaporware is a term used to describe a product that has been widely advertised but has not been released to the public, or may never be released. You’re right, this hasn’t been, and likely won’t be, widely advertised.

I’d also say it’s something nobody has used. Like Microsoft Courier. https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/the-inside-story-of-how-microsoft-killed-its-courier-tablet/

 

[AndiG]

Impressive. Meta created something new instead of going the Apple way of just taking some VR glasses, adding super expensive displays, a ton of cameras, computing power and calling it „Apple Vision“ and „spatial computing“.

We will se how many years Meta can afford to drive the development and how a final product will look like. If AR will ever make it, this is how it will look like.

 

[rosuna]

Apple can place the processors in the iPhone and make smaller profile glasses than Meta. That would be really interesting. The Vision Pro -aka, a computer on your nose- is a joke, and that path will never work.

 

[cjsuk]

Looks like cartoon Woody Allen.

 

[TheAppleGuySL]

and Vision Pro is way to expensive

Each pair of "Orion" Glasses is apparently $50K

 

[JimmyHook]

It costs Meta around 10k to manufacture each pair. This is why AR glasses won’t be ready for years. The tech is here. Meta isn’t doing anything new, as many companies have similar internal prototypes. They just publicized their prototype for clicks.

Side note: Facebook is a garbage platform (like most social media dumpster fires).

 

[Aleh]

Love all the takes about Meta being lead innovators and Apple being left behind, because… *checks notes* they made something they can’t sell at all

 

[nikaru]

Meta embarrassed Apple. No matter how much you may hate Zuck and/or love Apple, this is the true.

 

[DELLsFan]

No one except Apple and Meta remembers Google Glass anymore. And yet, the seals and kids are lining up for this crap with absolutely no concerns whatsoever about their or your privacy. A sign of the times.

 

[Arran]

That's assuming that the use of these products will be mostly on the go. Quest/Vision Pro can offer complete immersion when it chooses to, while these can only do half opaque overlays like the hololens. I think VR/XR route is going to be more versatile in the long run when the hardware shrinks down.

Good point. With glasses the real world is always visible. Which is fine if you want to sit on the bus and read intermittent text messages or see sports scores on the side. Not so good if you need to study a large detailed document or watch a movie. Feels like it could be very distracting and ‘noisy’.

Edit. Thinking about it further, you could always carry a blank sheet of paper with you to stare at when you want to remove the real world from the background.

 

[Onelifenofear]

Each pair of "Orion" Glasses is apparently $50K

10K Apparenty.

 

[bigjnyc]

Something like this is way more interesting to me than the AVP. This would be the ideal AR/VR form factor imo.

 

[Graphate]

So, not for consumers? Fine with me, they look ugly. Will be interesting to see how they are perceived, esp to the “old” Google glasses.
But it is also Meta, which means you are the product…

This looks like a really impressive prototype, and immediately seems like it has more potential than Vision Pro or Quest products. This just gets me excited to see what Apple can do in this space, though it will likely be a while before we see what they are working on.

I agree it’s pretty exciting if they’re even 1/2 as capable as AVP. But compared with google glasses, these don’t have much of an improved look.

I think we’re still 10 years from glasses.

 

[surferfb]

Meta embarrassed Apple. No matter how much you may hate Zuck and/or love Apple, this is the true.

Yeah, gonna disagree with you there. We can reevaluate when this turns into a shipping product.

 

[iDento]

Can’t wait for AR to go mainstream in the next couple of years.

For now, Nope.

 

[iMac The Knife]

With all due respect (and from someone who thinks Vpro is quite great/cool myself), perhaps a little trip down memory lane will show how Apple people felt about Google Glass in general.

And there's plenty more in history where that came from.

Perhaps "ahead of their time"??? But Google seems to be in no hurry to bring them back for another try... and they would presumably have the easiest path to do so.

Very simply: I see all of these kinds of products as aiming for the same target: bigger screens on the go. You really can't make phones much bigger... so how can tech deliver bigger phones? Can a mobile tablet be made much bigger? Who wants to lug around a 24" MB? 27"? 30", 34", 40", etc?

Vpro and all googles/glasses is- IMO- another crack at trying to deliver a mobile solution to "bigger screens on the go." IMO, Vpro gets it mostly right by delivering about any size screen on demand whenever one happens to be... minus the light pollution problem, minus the fold/crease issues, minus the ever-growing weight as anything physical scales up in size, etc. They can offer BOTH VR and AR applications in the same package. Pack this one thing in the bag and all such bases can be covered (if the software will come to fulfill the potential). To someone else, folds may be the way. To someone else, some kind of rolling screen may do it. A few may actually want to carry a 30" MB or similar.

I'm just not so confident that ANY kind of glasses form factor will be IT. But I'll hope with most that somehow, some way, someone delivers something that can scratch all itches. My best guess is that is some kind of implant with no external hardware at all (goggles, glasses or contacts). And yet, that seems pretty shaky as a concept too. "We are the Borg."

I am an 'Apple person', and I stand by my comments regarding Google Glass. With Word Lens on GG, you could be looking at a sign, menu, etc. with the text in French (and other languages) and Google Glass would show you the sign, menu, etc. overlaid in English in the prism, in real time. It was unbelievable back then. I don't put any stock into Apple people who post comments like "Ewww Google", or "Ewww Samsung". Those people are locked in the Apple bubble and refuse to try alternatives. I try nearly everything when it comes to phones, tech gadgets, etc., and I only value opinions from people who do the same. Was GG ahead of its time, yes it most definitely was. But, it was amazing tech for the time and we will see an updated version of it in some form within the next decade, with far more features, power, and battery life. I cannot wait until that day comes!

 

[spcopsmac21]

I mean, the Vision Pro is accessible to people with money. Which, really, is not a bad group of folks to be accessible to. It’s a strategy that’s kinda worked for them for a few years now.

It’s not working now. At all.

Apple can’t keep app developers on board. And not a single new developer has signed on to work with the platform in almost four months.



Worked in the past.

1000000000% not working now

 

[spcopsmac21]

It’s more like a public beta or DTK. It was clearly ready enough at a reasonable enough price for a large enough group of customers to start playing around with it and experimenting. Apple gets feedback on the design and the UI. Developers can start building the ecosystem beyond apps merely ported from iPhone and iPad. Use cases can be uncovered.
It’s all preparation for a mass market version.

You have to have developers willing to invest early on to have an ecosystem robust and ready to go.

Developers do not want to work with this platform. It’s a nightmare to code in.

 

[spcopsmac21]

Apple can place the processors in the iPhone and make smaller profile glasses than Meta. That would be really interesting. The Vision Pro -aka, a computer on your nose- is a joke, and that path will never work.

Apple could have but they didn’t.
This early meta system is a prototype and will be refined year over year.

Apple doesn’t want to mess with this lower price point.

And if Apple could make something smaller they would have with the Vision Pro. But they haven’t.

 

[spcopsmac21]

Yeah, gonna disagree with you there. We can reevaluate when this turns into a shipping product.

Meta just made a product 99% of humanity can afford.

Apple made a product that 1% of humanity can afford.

You’re math ain’t mathin

 

[surferfb]

Meta just made a product 99% of humanity can afford.

Apple made a product that 1% of humanity can afford.

You’re math ain’t mathin

It costs $10,000 to make and isn't being released to consumers, so no, 99% of humanity can't afford it. And the ones who can afford it can't buy it even if they wanted to.

So again, let's talk when Meta is shipping this.

 

[Bremse]

 

[Spooner83]

I would never buy anything associated with Facebook. Garbage.

 

[flostoner]

These look like Lego glasses scaled up. Boy, they’re thick.

Lego Bricktop 🤓

 

[flostoner]