Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
What is one of the hot , most interesting wandering twist around at the moment ? It’sRay - Ban Meta , smart glasses that not only look slap-up but work really well too .
They ’re suitably incognito yet still highly functional , giving you a reason to wear them all the clock time if the mood takes you . Plus , they have AI — the self-aggrandising feature beloved by tech firm at the here and now — built aright in . So , where was Google ’s contender at Google I / type O ?
A tease and nothing more
Eagle - eyed viewers of the keynote presentation who were not put to sleep by the endless productiveness AI demonstrations may have caughta glimpse of a brace of sassy glassesat one compass point . During theProject Astrademonstration , and after using a speech sound to show off Astra ’s capabilities , a Google staff member casually picked up a pair of ordinary - face meth , put them on , and then continued the demonstration .
The presentation switched to an in - somebody viewpoint as if we were look through the trash and exploring Project Astra using voice . It looked very cool , except it was plain not a “ real ” product demonstration . The smart glasses were never given an introduction , and we never saw the somebody really using them , only wearing them for a moment in a lilliputian picture - in - picture windowpane . But it suggest at what Google thinks is possible with fresh glasses and Project Astra in the time to come .
That was it . A nictation - and - you - missed - it tease of a Cartesian product that we have to take is only a proof - of - concept and does n’t in reality exist . Butwhydoesn’t it exist ? Aside from the on - screen icon indicate Gemini was take heed , suggest the smart glassful are envisage with some type of display , it did n’t do anything the Ray - Ban Meta ca n’t do , and these are uncommitted to buy today , while theAI feature article has been available to all owners in the U.S.for most a month .
Wasting the opportunity
TheGoogle I / O 2024 keynotewas packed full of AI demonstrations , mostly facilitate by a smartphone or a computer , but only lacking of any dedicated AI - centric hardware to fire up our resourcefulness . Yet Google pioneer the smart - glasses wash more than a decade ago when itintroduced Google Glass , a product so entirely ahead of its time and so misunderstood that itwas vilifiedto the pointwhere it was cease . Times have changed , though , and what was unsufferable then is n’t so knotty anymore .
A modern interpretation of Glass with Gemini integration and a greater awareness of seclusion seemed like a terminated no - brainer for Google , and the 2024 I / atomic number 8 keynote was the prime metre to introduce it . Yet the best Google can get by was a abbreviated tease with absolutely no further discussion of it afterwards . Brushing the sassy trash under the rug or withstand back on apportion more because it ’s still early days ( for some unknown reason ) seems pointless when it so evidently wanted the great unwashed to find them . Otherwise , why gravel to put them into the demonstration in the first place ?
The hassle is , Meta is out there today proving that smart methamphetamine hydrochloride are a fantastic wearable for AI , and it ’s not the only one . Soloshas a kitchen stove of impudent glasses built around ChatGPT , andBrilliant Labs ’ exciting Frame sassy glassesare now reaching the faces of keen early adopters .
That ’s all before turn over smart glasses with AI capabilitiesfrom Oppoand app - base AI - first platforms that cultivate with smart glasses likeXRAI . There ’s a wad happening with smart glasses today , but Google is all lacking from any of it .
Missing the boat
This is n’t the first time Google has demo a pair of concept smart specs during Google I / O ’s keynote and then promptly ignored them always . In 2022 , it exhibit how lively arranging through smart glassescould exchange people ’s life history , and it was both an inspiring and exciting glance of the hereafter . Where are those smart drinking glass with that capability today ? Who cognize . Perhaps Google sprinkle off and reused that old prop for the Project Astra demo , as they certainly are n’t on sales event .
The dilatoriness on Google ’s part over creatingexciting computer hardware for its AIis a serious job , as others are out there capitalizing on all this now , with XRAI ’s AI subtitling and interlingual rendition feature being a choice illustration . Google is n’t Apple , and it ca n’t ride back and let others try out and then come out with its own interpretation . The Pixel Watch proved it , as the first edition was a poor smartwatch with an unimaginative figure thatreally come too tardily . While the continuation improved thing a lot , it ’s still the same on the outside , and other brand areeither far aheadoralready moving on .
What Google does ( or used to do ) well is push boundaries , and it needs to do that with its AI ironware now , not in several years ’ fourth dimension when its competitors have already done it all . It seems to have draw a blank how to have merriment and is so catch up in making AI “ helpful ” that it has lose batch of how to make its package innovationsenticing . A twain of saucy glasses would have done just that , and frustratingly , I think Google knows it , as it slipped that half - hearted teasing into the keynote .
Buy Ray-Ban Meta instead
Google ’s lackadaisical approach to smart specs , and indeed any consecrated ironware that show off the unbelievable potential of Gemini and AI , is give its contender the edge , and that ’s the biggest problem of them all . It had a braggy chance to reclaim its position as a bright - glasses innovator ( andan XR innovator , too ) at this year ’s I / O — all while exorcising the devil that still haunt Glass all these eld after . But , instead , it chose to pretend they ’re still tech coming in the future .
I ’m here to differentiate you this is n’t right , as you’re able to buy the superb Ray - Ban Meta smart glasses today , and they ’re not a concept or beta test , butan everyday usable productyou’ll lovemaking — utter with AI smarting right there at your fingertip . They will bring in and excite normal people to AI ’s potential far more than yet another AI - beget sum-up of an email or PDF , which just is n’t the “ wow ” import Google seems to think it is .
Maybe Glass will return with AI in 2025 , but base on the situation today , I ’m more interested in seeing what Google ’s competition will be doing with AI hardware next year . Considering we ’re talk over Google here , not a party that has never innovate before , that really should n’t be the case at all , and it highlights what a misstep it made at I / O 2024 .
