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Meta is adding ridiculous ‘rate limits’ and a soft paywall to its smart glasses (www.theverge.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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TL;DR: you now need to pay a $20/month "meta premium" subscription to use a 100% offline feature that runs on your own malware-ridden smartglasses.

If you don't subscribe, you can use the feature that is already included in the hardware that you already paid for 3 hours each month

The now-paywalled feature boosts the voice of the speaker in front of you, something that even low-end ANC earphones are doing now. 5 minutes of free usage per day is basically nothing.

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[–] 60 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (45 children)

It's funny, I would love to some have the novel tech they developed (HUD / display built into glasses since I'm wearing them anyways). The problem, as usual, is corps taking the piss with prices and profit then spying on you and everyone around you non-stop anyways....

I would 100% be open to some HUD glasses delivered with a FOSS OS that works completely offline and/or via your phone (but still offline). But that's seriously wishful thinking given our corporate and political overlords

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago

    If done right, this would be super useful for the visually impaired and other people with other disabilities. But the tech bros would rather have creepy filming spy glasses instead.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago (40 children)

    I can't think of anything I would want to have pop up in my view. I have a phone to hand all day, and the notifies me of important things.

    Can you think of anything that you actually want so see constantly or so immediately you can't pull a phone out of your pocket?

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  • [–] 33 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

    As someone with auditory processing disorder, the only thing i want is real-time closed captions of whoever is talking to me.

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  • [–] 23 points 4 months ago (9 children)

    I think directions while walking would be better than carrying and looking down at a phone.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (8 children)

    How fast do you walk that you need to constantly check? You can also have you phone all out instructions for the next turn.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    I'd rather just have that overlay like Google already has for walking instead of pulling out my phone every few intersections or having it loudly announce that I'm a tourist to everyone in earshot.

    Dude, you asked for examples of what people might find useful and now you're just shitting on all of them.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Yeah, and the dork glasses will most definitely won't give any weird vibes.

    Anyway, on an entirely different topic, have you ever heard the term glasshole?

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

    Unless you're actively looking for them, the raybans aren't going to stand out as smart glasses.

    Christ, I'm not here to defend meta or the assholes walking around harassing women, I'm saying there is a potential use for AR glasses.

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  • [–] -3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah, there's potential use for AR glasses, but not as a consumer item for personal ownership. They fit more in industrial settings or in specialized roles. Fuck Meta.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    You seem caught up in the Meta aspect. Take them out of the equation and it's none of your business if someone else wants a hud for any number of reasons that don't invade the privacy of others.

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  • [–] -2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    For me, this doesn't solve anything. This is looking for something to fit tech in.

    You can already do this with your phone, and it isn't like checking your phone whilst walking is going to kill you or someone else (unlike using your phone whilst driving).

    You can also use the sign posts around you, my city has more than enough for people walking to get where the need, or at least the rough area.

    You can also use headphones for the verbal call outs.

    Another alternative would be a smart watch. Loads have maps or bread crumb style maps.

    The real answers have been for more disability or accessibility not seeing Google maps constantly while walking.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago

    Big cities have started putting lighted crosswalk indicators on the ground because people are so glued to their phones they don't see them at eye level. So yes, people are stupid enough to walk into traffic while looking at a phone. Also, it is really obvious to others when you're navigating with a phone. Scammers realize you're not from the area and now you're a target because you look like a tourist.

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  • [–] 16 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Cycling navigation might be a useful feature. I don't have a phone mount for my bike and worry about the risks of damage if I did mount one.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    As someone who has used their phone and had a major accident on it with the phone mounted. I will never go with smart glasses, they were the first thing that I noticed was smashed up. My phone survived(mostly) despite the bike being a complete write off, that will happen when getting hit by a kayak at 50kmh.

    I had a Quadlock mount and just their sticker mount on the phone, you can get cases for popular phones though. I now use a Garmin computer for my riding.

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Is noone questioning getting hit with a 50kmh kayak while biking? Just me?

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago

    Hahaha, in brief. cycling out from my old seaside village, getting to the crest of a very steep hill(just shy of 20%) and get over taken by a pickup on a blind corner, thankfully no traffic coming the other way, but hit the downhill part and it is fast 80kmh speed limit down a country lane with 2 lanes of traffic. I hit about 70kmh, and the pickup is pulling away slowly.

    Then the kayak shaped missile launches out of the bed as it hadnt been secured properly. Hits the road in front of me, I try to dodge, but it slides across like it is homing in on me. On the brakes as much as I can be in the small window I had to react and drop some speed before it clobbers the front of my bike. The rest I am sure you can imagine as a bike comes to a sudden stop and I dont.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    The thing that keeps me from mounting my phone to my bike is, I’ve read, that the vibration from the bike can damage the camera in the phone.

    Also, how do you get hit with a kayak on a bike?

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    I never had any issues with the vibrations causing damage. Would definitely be something to consider, as I can see the reasoning about it damaging something like the zoom functionality. Mine was on a out front mount so maybe that helped reduce it?

    As for the kayak incident, I posted it in replay to someone else, but here is the story:

    Hahaha, in brief. cycling out from my old seaside village, getting to the crest of a very steep hill(just shy of 20%) and get over taken by a pickup on a blind corner, thankfully no traffic coming the other way, but hit the downhill part and it is fast 80kmh speed limit down a country lane with 2 lanes of traffic. I hit about 70kmh, and the pickup is pulling away slowly.

    Then the kayak shaped missile launches out of the bed as it hadnt been secured properly. Hits the road in front of me, I try to dodge, but it slides across like it is homing in on me. On the brakes as much as I can be in the small window I had to react and drop some speed before it clobbers the front of my bike. The rest I am sure you can imagine as a bike comes to a sudden stop and I dont.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago

    You might not notice your OIS is borked until you go on vacation and suddenly can't get certain pictures to focus anymore. Excessive vibration and drops can definitely damage it. Though I imagine just a basic rubberized mount would help mitigate that a lot.

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  • [–] 13 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Following recipes. These days I print them out because it's a pain constantly washing your hands to check the next step on the phone. But I'm not buying smart glasses just that. My normal glasses are expensive enough already.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    This has actually been the one thing I have been using AI for. I tell Gemini I'm going to cook some recipe and walk me through it and then ask questions as I'm going. Most of the time it does a decent job.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    For following a recipe, could you not just increase lock timer on your phone? I am also a terrible cook, and a male, so I constantly wash my hands when handling food(I am that meme).

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    I think the number of comments below you show the uses of glasses like that. I really think they would a lot of people who are disabled etc. For me they would really help me with some of my memory issues, especially since i'm looking to have a career in a genre of music where's it's frowned upon to have sheet notes

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    And I asked because I am ignorant about some of them. I also think a lot of what has been posted has been looking for a problem, not solving something.

    Needing Google maps when walking? Is honestly a terrible reason. Phones, sign posts, smart watches all already solve this.

    Someone just posted about closed captions when people are talking to them due to a disability, that's a really good reason to have some kind of smart glasses.

    For your situation, I don't think smart glasses are really the answer, and are more of a band-aid. The real answer in my mind is using the sheet notes and getting the stigma changed(but I understand that is a lot, lot, lot harder than just getting smart glasses).

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, I also try a lot to break the stigma. But I think a lot of people are ingrained in their ways and tradition and it takes more time or effort to see past it. It would also help to get a type of Shazam for the tune that's playing to know what sheets to play too.

    In any case, fair play to you for recognising there are some uses that could enable people.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    Yea breaking stigmas is always the most uphill battle. I know it is not the same, but you see a lot of resistance to better tech in cycling. Things like disc brakes which are just better(outside of the tiny minority of cases) having so much fight against them.

    I will say i am pretty opposed to the tech in many normal cases. Especially as it just seems like such a massive privacy nightmare at best. Or just shoe horning in tech for no real reason. I do think that everyone is already so in grossed in tech(I know I am a lot of the time) that they forget to just look around them and take in the world, and I think that smart glasses are that tipping point of going to far for most people.

    I am happy to see that some really good use cases have been brought up, I am not all knowing I would in fact call me ignorant about a lot of things as I can only know what I know. But almost every good(even great) reason I have read has been based around improving life and interactions for people with disabilities which I can honestly get behind.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago

    I have a phone to hand all day

    I'd like to not have a phone in my hand all day.

    I already wear glasses, I have a smartwatch. reading shit on the smartwatch is a PITA.

    Give me a monocular monochrome screen, directional audio pointed at my ear. I'd be happy.

    Give me a high rez screen so I could watch a youtube video on cooking for fixing my car while i'm doing either and I'd be ecstatic.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago* (5 children)

    Real time translation of speech or text, AR such as a guide overlay or wikipedia info box when looking at art, name tags and relationship data on people you interact with, especially if you are face blind or got like 20 different people in a treatment and support team

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago*

    Most of the uses for a HUD-IRL do not require personal ownership of the device. Like, the Louvre rented 3DSs to visitors for AR and guided visits for years. Guides and pop up info are appropriate on industrial settings, for personal hobbies it is overkill. Now, name tags and relationship data on people you interact with? weird and creepy. You mean like, for use by healthcare professionals? maybe, still no need to personally own one, and there are gigantic ethical issues to solve by having cameras constantly on during people's most vulnerable moments. For disability support, IDK, it might have uses, but it is still weird creepy and invasive, due to constant camera on and facial recognition active. You would have to trust 100% on the tech company behind it, and Meta is not exactly the most trustworthy corporation, by far.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah, the art example and real time translation are already done with your phone. Having that in your face doesn't sound appealing or necessary.

    For the face blind I can understand and be sympathetic, but for me I wouldn't want to have cameras on people constantly, or keep a database of people's information that could be leaked/lost.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Managing a phone while using a wheelchair or other mobility assistance is not the easiest, so the HUD version would be an improvement. AR glasses or HUD glasses are imho some of the most promising hardware for accessability we got now so I really hope they (the glasses) will find a niche outside tech bro or stalking spaces

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    Yeah that's a good reason. How do you interact with them them though? Cause if it is hands or voice commands I don't think I see much benefit over having a phone mounted(things are already expensive and only getting more so).

    If it is eye tracking for people who have issues interacting with a phone in other ways then, that would certainly be a huge leap forward for accessibility.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago*

    I'm a huge nerd, so I'd love a HUD like the B movie Sight Extended, gamifying my life to motivate me to mow the lawn and clean and wear pants. Sadly it seems the corps and gov will just use all this stuff to track and harvest the data from our every word/thought/blink and monetize every bit of it they can. Will likely end up more like the ad dreams from Ready Player One where ads are 90% of your vision, and they will only be used by creepy creepers for creeping.

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