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Welcome to Pixelated episode 125. I'm your host, Will Saddleberg. This week, Abner got to try out Google's new intelligent eyewear lineup of smart glasses, co-produced by Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, and he has a lot of thoughts to share with us. We're covering comfort, controls, and of course, privacy concerns as Google does its very best to escape the terrible reputation Meta has built for this form factor over the last few years. It all starts right after this message from our sponsor, Proton. Grab your phone and take a look at your app drawer. You've probably found yourself relying on a lot of the same old apps and services that you've had since the Nexus days, and what suited you best back then might not be the right choice in 2026.
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to Proton today and save 30% on your annual subscription by heading to proton.me/95google or by clicking the link in the show notes. Thanks to Proton for sponsoring Pixelated. Gentlemen, time has come for me to join the Bespect. I am now a candidate for Google Glasses. Uh, which I don't know how I feel about it, but I'm going to take this off for now because I actually haven't seen a big reflection of myself. But perfect timing. Google's just announced their brand. Well, I guess Google, WBY Parker, and Mon Gentle Monster collaboration and Samsung is kind of we can't address my ability now to not see and Abner is kicking around in the probably the coolest get
up I've seen for a little while. It's I guess it's retro tech now. You're the only person who's used Google 12 years. You've seen this future that Google has kind of got in mind for their next generation of I'm calling it Google Apps. I don't care it. It is gonna be called Google Glass buyers. Um, tell us a little bit about your experience because obviously I'm fascinated but also kind of like where do I stand on it? I'm not sure. It is an expensive accessory. Yeah, it starts at 395. Uh that's the WBY Parker and uh 450 for gentle monster which is uh query the more fashion oriented choice versus wa wby Parker which is US only and it's a direct brand grass company for those who are outside the US well explain for me.
Yeah, but uh the launch come December 10th is just in the US and Korea which the makes sense because Samsung but these glasses they are audio only glasses they have no display they are direct Rayban competitors in that regard and uh Google is what probably two maybe 3 years um rate so to speak. Mhm. Um these to Meta's credit this form factor has been popularized and I guess Snap Snapchat too they did it with their spectacles uh and which we've not heard anything about them uh since but yeah um these are audio glasses and I guess my high level takeaway is that these are hardware wise these are the best possible form factor. Um, they're light. They kind of feel indistinguishable from regular glasses.
Um, but yeah, it all comes down to the software and the utility. I'm intrigued to hear what someone who I'm obviously I'm in the reading glasses camp now, so I don't actually wear them all the time. So I don't know how I would feel about suddenly putting like okay let me think let me put it in the perspective that kind of that I think makes more sense with for instance a pair of uh headphones or earbuds they're the kind of thing that you can wear all day you can take them out put them away um a smartwatch is probably the closest approximation to it in terms of like you put it on your wrist and you wear it all day but some people don't like that so they don't do it with glasses I guess how are we both feeling all three of us feeling about the fact that this is a
piece of technology that could potentially be like essential well it's an essential everyday item and also a piece of technology at the same time does that like kind of compute how does that feel because I know will you clearly wear glasses like is this something that potentially you're like thinking huh is this something I need or is this an extra thing that I want to in like integrate into my EDC yeah this has been a concern of mine for as long as we've kind of been talking about, you know, smart glasses certainly on this podcast at least. Um, just that the idea that, you know, I would have these on and I would get used to them and then obviously if they die like I they go back to just being regular
glasses. That's fine and all, but like do you know I can't just take them off and in the way that somebody else like you either of you really could like you could just take it off and be like, "Oh, they died. Whatever. I'll charge them when I get home from this bar I'm out at or whatever." You know what I mean? Like um and the good news is that these sound light enough that it might not matter, right? Like that was sort of my bigger concern of like am I adding, you know, especially when we're talking about this, we're we're talking about earlier uh smart glasses and really metas being kind of the only one on the market. It's like, okay, well, if I need these to see and they die, I'm
now just wearing like heavier glasses on my face for no reason. Again, not as much of a concern with this one when they're what, like 41 gram, I think, right? 40 to 44 g. Yeah, it's it's it's not bad. I don't actually I would have to look at what my what these are. I these are fairly cheap plastic frames, so I would imagine that they are much lighter than that, but that's not a terrible weight. Um, in terms of like really implementing it in my everyday carry, it just depends on it really depends on the feature set and how uh because I'm not a huge Gemini person and I'm not like a lens person. I'm not like a I never point
my camera at something and ask my phone what it is. So like I kind of need to be sold in different ways for what these glasses mean to me. That's interesting. But yeah to that point um the functionality is multi-tiered and I think the starting functionality is as headphones as always available headphones. There are two open ear microphones. Uh sorry, there are two open ear speakers. Um again, uh we have to test more how discreet it is. Like I think from far uh far away in the room, you're fine. But if there's somebody next to you, say in public transit, maybe that's um a bit more uh the sound leaks a bit more. But I think that is possibly somebody's first entry to this.
Everybody wears headphones in this day and age. uh w to rey wireless headphones and I think having headphones all the time I think that might be a step change and I think to me that is like beginning to the idea of augmented reality of augmenting your reality having audio at all times I think that could be pretty attractive to people and the other thing is there are four microphones on the grasses is and Google's very proud of this noise canceration work they've done on them. Uh for example, one of the people that demoed it uh for us, he says he wears the glasses inside a motorcycle helmet and he couldn't and when he's on calls with people, they can't tell that he's that it's one it's under a motorcycle
helmet and two that he's on a motorcycle. So I think headphones will be the first entry to that. Uh the second is the camera. Having a camera just as a camera to always take pictures. Uh and having point of view uh your first person point of view plus 90 seconds of video. I think that's powerful. And then the third thing is having all that all together as having Gemini as an assistant. Um my first thought is how obviously we've had some basic tests of uh classes with a display like I think for me that feels like this the natural that is it is a step isn't it isn't just a natural step it's just the
one that I'm most interested in. How do you think this differed in terms of like the experience than what kind of like some people were looking and wanting that LED display in their glasses. Is there enough? Is there I'm my question is there enough there for someone who is potentially waiting for that and it might be this is going to be a stock gap for a little bit until we do get them displays. Is there enough here to tide them over? No more than two years probably next year will start seeing something. I think well the thing about glasses is I probably will kind of assess too they always act as your backup glasses. You can never have enough grasses.
True. Yes. I genuinely uh there's not a work trip I've ever gone on where I don't have a backup. Even if it's two prescriptions old, something is better than nothing, right? Like Yeah. You never throw away glasses. They you throw away glasses when they break for the most part. 100 or you know I definitely I uh recycled some I donated Well, you can donate with pairs. I donated like five pairs ago now. Like I have enough where I'm like, "Okay, okay, I don't need this many backups." But yeah, to a certain extent, you're holding on to them until you're like, "No, we're good. I'm I'm there's no way I can break this many pairs." And I think that to add a note about the cases. So, um, Wie Park and Gentle Monster, they each
uh made their own case. The WBY Park one is a bit larger. The and made a plastic and the Gentle Monster is a leather s thing. Um, so I did test this. you can put your like regular glasses inside those cases to hold them. Like my plan for I think I said this last week or whenever is that I still plan to carry my regular glasses with me at all times or at least I don't know the I don't know good year maybe like say I'm going to hospital or something medical. I'm not going to wear glasses or cameras just out of peace and respect. So, that's a nice design trait about the cases that you can put regular glasses in. Um, but yeah, it's I think anyways to answer your question about the spray glasses. I think again I think it comes down to the
headphones and the camera. I think how much utility you can find from having those always available to you. I think that's like 50% of the way to uh display gra the utility of display glasses. Yeah, I'm I'm intrigued to see what it was. Obviously a test of one at IO and it definitely felt like the it definitely feels like the it is the step that maybe would make me consider a pair of glass like this. I want to I want to kind of the problem I think one of the biggest problems that we've had in the last three or four years and you kind of briefly touched on it is that we've kind of had Meta stewarding what happened with smart glasses. They were
the first to go out in front. They're the most popular brand. Obviously this is the one that I'm guessing Gentle Monster and Wobby Parker want to chase down Samsung as well. Like what in terms of your experience? I don't know if you've used Meta's Ray Bands. I have not. I've seen a lot. Yeah, I am a second generation. How do you feel? How do you feel that this has differed? Is there any question marks that potentially people would have had ahead of time that don't necessarily maybe haven't been answered yet because you haven't had enough time or things
that have been completely like concerns or not kind of stuff have been quashed straight away? Well, I think the right off the bat is that I trust Gemini Assistant much more than Meta AI or whatever they're calling it now. Um especially uh pre- Meta Muse. Um actually I haven't really heard how what people say muse is like on uh glasses but it's just from like a com the competency of having like years of Gemini voice commands of assistant voice commands I trust that more and the [clears throat] in the experience is absolutely much more integrated by the nature of Android like being the platform owner though the fact that these support iOS and the experience is pretty close is uh nothing
to sneeze at either. But I think but I think so to get onto the privacy question I think out of the gate um okay so I think the key difference between people's perception of meta right now and what Google is doing is that the name intelligent eyewear these are things that you wear these aren't like sunglasses these aren't situational they aren't activity based Google wants you to wear these the entire day either because you need grass glasses or even with clear frames, you find utility in having the headphones, the assistant, the camera. Um, so I think that's the biggest difference. And I think Meta is very much reading into the sunglasses thing as like an additive, like nobody needs sunglasses technically, but especially smart sunglasses, they're purely additive. So
I think the approach we're seeing here is that from out right out of the gate Google's vision is that these are something you wear all the time because these are just glasses and eventually you stop thinking about the smart part of it. M so instead of like just trying to I guess my interpretation is that Meta went for a specific utility with customers whereas this is more broad and I wonder I wonder how are how do you think Google are going to like and the other brands involved how are they going to market this to say people like me who don't need to wear glasses all the time like I do think like say clear frames are fine but getting into that idea of I'm going to put these glasses on that I don't technically enhance my
vision they enhance like my like I experience of technology. I feel that's a really strange how sell it's the reverse way, isn't it? It's not that you need glasses, make them smart. It's have these glasses, these are smart. Well, it's it's not all too dissimilar from selling someone who doesn't wear a watch, a smartwatch, right? Like it's it's it's another degree forward because it's on your face as opposed to your wrist. But like, you know, putting something if you're not used to having stuff on your wrist and suddenly putting something on there, it does take a little bit of time to get used to it.
Um, you know, and I even like as someone who always, you know, I typically have something on my wrist like anytime I'm testing if I'm testing two wearables at once or something like that putting something on my right wrist feels very strange, right? So amateur hour such amateur hour. I God, I just I hate I one wrist only, please. I got to have one that's that's free. Um, otherwise I feel like I'm wearing like cuffs or something. I don't know. Yeah, free and accosted by TSA for wearing three smart watches. Please get on my level. Um, but I feel like the way to get non-glasses wearers to be interested in these is to just push you're just going to have to push the features in the same way that, you know, you can sell a smartwatch
on its design and all, but you have to tell people like it tracks your fitness and it does this and that, right? like it has to get people on board with what the thing it can do actually like why you're giving part of your body to it to say it in a weird way. Um but yeah, I think it's all going to come down to features. Yeah. The utility of the features. Um okay, so 395 starting for career frames. Uh pixel watch is 399. The I want to say head since it's on your head. I think headphones either ti wireless earbuds or over the ears they're the closest anal they're the closest analogy more so than smart watches and I think that there's a
bit of a premium attached to that especially what do you think most people's at how much are most people's headphones like in the $200 range uh maybe over the years get the 300 whatever the average AirPod price is probably because I assume those are the most popular true wireless earbuds on the market So, it's Yeah, probably $100 on actually. But also, I mean, how many I think anything above 100 is probably too much cuz you got to remember how many you how many like cheap $30 wear these earbuds you can buy at Walmart, you know, like they're there. Yeah. So, I do think that the at the this $400 price, it's not like a what is it? It's not a just a impulse purchase.
It's not that I think maybe $100 off to like $299 would get it into that category, but no, it's 400. Um I again I think it just comes back to like I think there's like a bridge that you have to cross like oh these are headphones. I think I e even in Meta's advertising and I think in Google's advertising too the I have to dive more into I don't think that head smart glasses equal headphones are like obvious to people yet but I think that is like something that if you push on harder like it helps stomach uh your entry into these my other question is and I don't know obviously You've you've seen um you've seen that there's specific lenses that might have like obviously darkened lenses.
Yeah. Is there a utility here where we could potentially have clear lenses that do I is it transitions where you go in and it takes a little while to get wrong like Yeah. You know some that are pretty fast at this point. I actually think the technologies got better. I feel like that might be a way to convince say someone who wants a pair of sunglasses and the maybe the smart element of it. like was there any like obviously tell me a little bit about the designs cuz I'm I'm kind of fascinated that Google settled on these two companies of to kind of partner with as opposed to I mean let's le let's kind of Okay, I'm going to go on a tangent.
Yeah, I know. I know what they're going to say. Give Madison credit. They went with the coolest uh glasses brand. You mean they went with the Monopoly? Europe looks Yeah. But they went with the coolest brand. It won't be with the coolest brand. I can't deny. I wear Ray-B bands in general. I wouldn't get smart pair, but yeah, it's a bit disappointing that we don't have anything that kind of goes toe to toe with that, but I guess it is what it is. TBH, a legitimate concern is that this flexica is not is them buying Wii Parker. It's them buying Gentle Monster.
It is truly a monopoly in every sense of the word. They think of a glass sunglasses and that company owns it. Yeah. It's It's honestly surprising that Europe European regulators don't care about that when it's their own. Um, but yeah, it's yeah, it's honestly there's not much choice left. Um, again, that one company owns all of them and I think Meta also took a stake in them. Uh anyways um so in how they picked well I'm not sure how they picked but I think it comes down to who has retail presence like WBY Park has like 360 stores in the US Gentle Monster has like seven but I assume they're bigger in Korea. Like I think it honestly comes down to retail presence and I hope like Google Saps and whatever they're taking a stake in
Gentlemon in um both of these companies to make sure they don't get bought out. Uh but yeah, it's it come you need these are physical product. They need to be sold in stores like the sunglasses versions are a bit like yeah can buy them at Best Buy but with prescription glasses like you need uh you need that base sold out and but Google only has 11 stores and they're not going to put an optometrist in each of them. Samsung maybe has a dozen. that's that's not big enough a retail footprint to um to do prescription glasses properly. So yeah, it's I think they were kind of limited in who they could get. Yeah, it kind I do think that potentially diminishes the reach for certain people who look at it and say, "I want a specific style."
Do like because my only thought process is do does Google and Samsung just say, "We're not going to work. We're not going to like and I don't want to say hide behind these brands that make glasses. Do they just say we're going to make our own version of glasses, we're going to make pixel glasses, we're going to make galaxy glasses, which is kind of rolls off the tongue actually, but um kind of like is there an opportunity there? They already have they already have some element of uh experience in making the form factor because of Galaxy XR. Um so there is some it's not like it's without precedent. No, with Galaxy XRaw the prescription inserts they reaned on Kodak which I honestly
surprised that they still around doing things but you need a third party and I think the only company that could like go without a prescription brand is you can guess who Apple. like they're the best position on once they enter this market to ravage their retail stores and god knows they have the money to buy an to add an optometrist or a few to every single retail location but it's there is a disadvantage to Google and Samsung's play here. Yeah, I mean just because you made me think of it, I'm 100% certain that if Apple does take that on, they have to call it iOS for the software for them.
Oh yeah, I'm shake. I'm shaking my head for the audio listener. I'm shaking my head. That was so good. Hey folks, if you're enjoying Pixelated, don't forget to sign up for 95 Google Pro for adree episodes and to gain access to our weekly bonus show, Pixelated Pro. This week, as Thanksgiving approaches, Abner and I explain all sorts of holiday traditions to Damian, including my pro tip for to eat later in the night, aside from just leftovers. Plus, iPhone duos are getting returned, and we discuss the current state of foldables compared to tablets. Sign up today for just $5 per month, or about a dollar per episode at 95google.com/pro.
Well, let's spend two seconds on the name Intelligent Eyewear. I'm so disappointed they did not call it Google Lens. It's right there. Yes. Yeah, Google Lenses maybe would have worked, I think. Uh I guess I guess the brands involved wanted some sort of control over it a little bit because it's easy to sell if you then start adding Google into I mean I have no experience with WBY Parker but I know Gentle Monster in a few like high-end stores like Gentle Monster Google Lens or Google Glasses would really not work. But if you say Gentle Monster intelligent eyewear I do think that sells the
product a little bit better. Maybe I agree with you. The name is a little bit heavy-handed, but at the same time, yeah, the name technically doesn't even have it's gentle monster intelligent eyewear. It's Wie Parker intelligent I think that works. I think that genuinely works for those brands. Like if Google is those brands, yeah, I think those brands have a better uh reputation at the moment than Google does. Like I think it's like I'm not saying Google is like no enemy number one or anything, but like I don't think you know and we can talk obviously we're we're sort of leading up to maybe more conversation about the privacy elements of it, but with [clears throat] the with the current state of how people
feel about smart glasses uh largely due to uh Meta's inability to they want Okay, so just but all I want to say cuz like Google is not like they're they're not there but also like I don't think people have like super positive feelings towards Google either right now at least and so I don't think it's a bad idea to be like especially with the history of Google Glass like let's not put Google on this at least right now let's like leverage our partnerships with Gentle Monster and with Warby Parker those are brands people like especially like Warby Parker has been you know I actually don't I feel like I don't hear them on podcast as much anymore, but like they were the podcast sponsor for a decade,
right? Like they're around like they're a known commodity. I see why they're doing this. I don't think it doesn't make sense. Yeah, I can't be. Yes, we'll talk about the privacy right after, but I can't be saying this. Could Google Goggles have worked as a name? I love it. I would have loved Google Goggles. It is the worst dad joke in the world, but it would have worked so funny. I don't think so.
Cool. These are the you got to like if you want these to work, you have to lean into the fashion element. And to lean into the fashion element, you have to make I mean that's pro honestly that's probably more realistically what they talked about internally than what I'm saying is that like is anybody trying to pretend Google is like a cool company. I don't think Google thinks they're cool. Like I don't think a lot of tech brands are cool at the moment. And so like I think being like let's fashion. Exactly. But let's lean on fashion. Let's not worry about like making these too techy. I don't know. I The fact that it's just not okay. It's I kind of think they should have just called them Android XR glasses.
It's poss not cool not a cool brand or something. Think elsewhere it doesn't matter as much. But even so, if you want iPhone people to buy these, you don't want Android in it either, cuz you turn it off immediately. Android Wear was a thing for a few years in iOS. True. Why is it no longer a thing cuz nobody used it and it was bad? I think again I mean you could tie this back to how this is working with glasses like the meta glasses. They're the pervees. They're peep glasses. But it's almost a little bit like how Android has been saddled with the fact that the lowest common denominated device diminishes the Android branding. So I do think in some respects getting away from that
especially with something you wear every day and you have to rely on like at the end of the day the len the lenses are not being taken care of by Google or gentle monster or wobby park. Do they do them? They an optician. Are they technically an optician? Yes. So they Okay. So they are responsible for the lens prescription. I'm guessing gentle monster are as well then. Um, this is my lack of optician knowledge coming through. I think very much that if you tie it to the supplier of the actual optical instrument, the medical instrument, it probably is a safer play. I think I can't lie that I have seen the Ray-B bands in duty-free stores. Weirdly, that seems to be the best the place you see them the most. And they are very striking. And the fact
that they're Ray-B bands first is more intriguing to me than if as soon as I know I know it's meta, but I'm still intrigued by the design. I'm I'm I'm wondering how Google handles the roll out globally. Like obviously there's a lot of in the UK we have quite a lot of our biggest optitionian is Spec Savers, which is it's quite like a is medical. Um they have their own branding. I mean these are just cheap glasses. I can't imagine that these would work with a smart thing, but the design's kind of cool. I wonder if it they can scale this down and have it more broadly available with brands like that because right now it definitely feels as though they're targeting kind of one high-end fashion
brand and then one I guess WBY Parker see from my outside looking in are they kind of like a bit of a cool more glasses brand. Yeah, may maybe. But yeah, so the privacy thing that is the big thing. So uh I think my annoyance at Meta comes that they fundamentally they lost mobile. They don't own a platform. They don't own Android. They don't own iOS. So they're beholden to this. So in this start of the grasses race they wanted to own the next platform augmented reality extended reality virtual reality whatever they wanted to own that. And it in my opinion they have been highly irresponsible
stewards because of these privacy the these grasses these people drilling holes, people doing stickers. They have been in the news for a good year or two before I feel like Meta took action on it. Like to me the cynical take is that they don't care. They just want these out there. They just want volume. That's that would be cynical about a lot of companies. I think it's that's not cynical about Meta. That is a company that has demonstrated again and again that they do not care about user safety whe whether it's their user base or people around their user base. But like I feel comfortable saying that like we've had enough meta lawsuits at this point to grow at all cost.
I haven't seen The Social Reckoning. I'm going to watch that movie and not like it. But uh but like I mean even stuff like that, right? Like this company is not a company that necessarily cares about anything but making uh money and specifically making Mark Zuckerberg money. So like of course they didn't care. Like as long as people are buying the glasses, who cares if it's perverts? Like that's almost assuredly how they thought about it. Yeah. I kind of wonder what that does for this product going out the gate. But ABN, you said there's quite there's some privacy better privacy controls in your
experience straight away. like I it seems as though you're a lot more positive about the experience after testing these in person. Yeah, it's important that these are out the gate and just to zoom out how Google's handling the announcement that today they published a blog post about um just announcing it but they also had a second one about the privacy dedicated to privacy aspects. Um so I think the most higher level one is that there's an indicator light whenever video and audio is being recorded and saved to like Google photos or whatever app like if you take a picture if you record a video that light is always on.
Uh but the thing I want love to get your opinions on is when that video when that picture is being okay. So when Gemini is doing a visual search when Gemini is translating something that content is not accessible to you again it is not get saved in your Gemini history. it you don't get a let's say you take a picture of a car and you want to know what model and make this is um Gemini will use that answer but you won't be able to view that picture if you wanted a picture you have to manually take it and the light turns on um so what we think about that and Google the other stuff Google is doing is if um if you let's say you are translating a street sign and there's people in the background um they will
locally on your phone before it reaches the servers, it will blur people's faces. It will tune out other conversations and just focus on yours. That's part of the microphone work they did. So that they're doing all this anom anonymization on your phone um before it hits the crowd. And that is something they were really proud of like voice isolation and all that. So, so yes, the light is not on when you're using Gemini and Gemini is uh taking a picture to answer your request. I mean, to be quite honest with you, this would have been a fantastic application of highlight. If they're really proud of the highlight functionality, they should have had highlight functionality when they using Gemini. I do kind of that's the one
thing that kind of makes me feel a little bit icky about that aspect of it. I do think it should have some sort of indicator that you are taking a live image, whether or not it's a bright flash or the same as taking an image in a video that is a white light. I do feel like it could have been the Gemini colors to indicate that something is going on. I think at the same time, I guess this is where Gemini could potentially have context. So, it may know that there is somebody in the scene and show that light because it has the ability to decipher context from this from the image.
I feel like um that would been that would have been a good way to do it because obviously you may be talking to Gemini and it's just lit up for instance and that would be a bit silly because you're not taking any images, you're not doing anything like that. I this I mean not to try and give Google I'm not trying to give Google sorry discredit Google or kind of lambast them a little bit this does feel like the bare minimum that they've had to do for this launch because there are so many people out there who are terrified of say somebody learing over them and taking an image or getting a video of them in a in compromising situations. So it's good that they've addressed that by putting a light on there. And I think you said
there's some I'm reading your piece earlier. We'll get into it in a moment, but I think there's some anti-tamper protections as well, which is that I'm I think that's very good. Do I would personally like to see a little bit more in terms of like when I'm interacting with Gemini and taking photos and I think it probably could have some sort of indicator because I would feel a bit awkward using it and then turning my head because it is literally it's eye contact, isn't it? It's an eye contact game. It's not like taking out your phone, which is kind of a bit more you take your phone out. It's someone will see that they can make a decision. Glasses I'm not and I think that's probably what a lot of the concern have come from how meta have
handled things. It's so it's such a passive thing. You expect people to wear glasses in public. I expect people to use the phone. I'll ditch I'll jump out the way of somebody taking a photo at those kind of things. Whereas a like I say that always facing camera maybe a one sign posting for Gemini Live would have been quite nice. But I don't doubt they can do that. So, so that was uh before we hear real thoughts the thing so Google did consider that but the idea thinking uh from what was conveyed to me was like the idea of having multiple lights and expecting people to know that there's multiple like Yeah, that's a very good point. Yeah.
Yeah. But yeah, I guess before I share my opinion, I guess the one thing I would push back on with that is that it's like okay, but like I don't know. I guess you could have are people even going to know the difference between the light being on and the light not being on at that point? Like I guess do you know how the glasses work if you don't own the glasses? You know what I'm saying? It's kind of you will notice something flashing. Like you will notice something Yeah. For sure. But like I just I don't know. I the indicator light is a complicated thing. I It doesn't really matter to my take and I hope Oh, I hope you guys see my
perspective on this because I think it's fair. Um, there's sort of two things I guess we're talking about, right? Like it's there's Google's take on privacy and what they're doing to both improve what Meta was doing and also uh fix the public outcry of what from what Meta was doing. And then there is the public outcry, right? There's the public perception of these glasses kind of regardless of Google's privacy intentions. This is going to be its own bubble that is shaped a little bit by that but not completely, right? It's just going to be shaped by the culture and how people talk about these and think about these glasses as well.
Both of these need time for me to render a judgment is what I would say. Like this like what Google has put out in terms of how they're approaching privacy sounds about what I would want from something like this like as a bare minimum metric. Um, which is good. Like I'm saying that in a positive way. But at the same time, so much of this is how they will work that I need historical data to ensure that's how they work. Does that make sense? that there isn't a back door someone finds in that there isn't like people are look people are creative and crafty and criminals are creative and crafty and like I'm not going to like pretend these cannot be breached in some sort of way if people try hard enough like that is something that can only be
proven up through time perhaps Google has made these like offense essentially uh uncrackable we don't know yet right? We won't know until they're in people's hands for months at a time and nothing bad happens. And I think once that happens, that is what will shape column B, public perception. It needs time to adjust to that. That's sort of where I am on this. It's it's a wait and see thing because I feel like I can take Google at their word and that's that's one thing, but until it's in active use in the real world, we won't totally know what's going to happen. Yeah, I kind of feel like what will happen though is that people will migrate. If you do want to do the dodgy stuff, you will migrate to Meta's platform because obviously it's open.
You'll do that. I think that probably will happen because that's exactly that's part of time too, right? Is that like maybe none of those people buy Google's platform and therefore Google's platform is seen as the privacycentric one. But it's just it's something that I would love to fast forward like 12 months and like just know how but like just to know what is happening in 12 months from now like where like has it been like a massive success in terms of privacy elements like has have the you know AI blocked faces stuff like has that all worked out well? Has like there's been no privacy like breaches like all of that stuff. If we're talking about this sort of thing in that light in 12 months, that's a massive success and does
shape uh how I think about these glasses moving forward. Whereas like on previous podcasts, I have made it very clear that I'm I have privacy concerns about these in general. And I and even at a certain point, like if this tackles those privacy concerns to a certain degree, that's fine. But I also have concerns about how I'm perceived in public. uh not just by strangers, but even by my friends who might feel uncomfortable right now with people wearing smart glasses around them. Whe whether or not you think that's fair is one thing, but regardless, like Meta has poisoned the water to the point where people I think are a little justified right now in feeling uncomfortable. I
I don't think you should take that away from anybody. Yeah, I agree with you. I think me and Abner are in agreement with this, but I'll let him take it from me because I know he has the same thoughts as me. the okay so like zooming out five years zoom into the I feel like c always on cameras are in inevitable I that's where I think technology is going especially with AI especially with assistance but at the same time you see something like the flock push back and it's it's clear that there is that the general public at least talking from my US perspective has a line in the sand on some of this stuff I think with as seen like ironically as seen with social media it's it's the fog it's boil this is the fog if you boil
yeah the analogy but we're all tired but yeah I think well anyways that's 5 years down the road but or whatever but I think the utilities or something like what people want is okay this is the funny thing about the privacy thing people want to know who they're talking to if people that are bad faces they want everybody says They want that facial recognition, but I don't think they internalize that facial recognition. No, [snorts] you don't hear that. You don't think like I don't know if I hear it or not. What I'm saying is okay, so like my perspective on this is that to because I haven't really shared, but I've talked about this before. I guess I don't
circling back to what I said about Lens, right? I don't use Gemini that way. I don't use AI apps that way. I don't use my phone that way. And so for me, I am the person who I know Abner maybe doesn't like that much, but like I don't need the camera. Like straight up, I don't need it. And I would be more interested in buying these without them. Like I think I would get a lot more out of just audio. And I know you're going to say like that takes away so much context, but like I kind of just like Okay, we I don't remember if this was on a bonus episode or maybe before we even launched the paid tier of this show, but we at one point talked about our everyday carry items. This might have
been an early bonus episode. And we were talking about like always bringing earbuds with you. And I told you guys like I don't always grab my earbuds if I don't think I'm going to need them. If I'm just running out to the store, if I'm going on like a, you know, if I'm just walking to my friend's house 10 minutes away, I might not grab them. It totally just depends on whether I want to put that bulk in my in uh in my pocket. I've actually since upgraded, this is another thing we talked about in the bonus show, but I've I've since upgraded to uh like having like a very small sling bag, so it's a little easier for me to just keep them in there. But my dream is Yeah, exactly. But my dream is like I would be okay with just having
like my everyday headphones typically be my glasses, but I don't care enough about the camera to both one to h just have it on my face all the time. Like I as the moment feel weird about the public perception of these. Like I know I have people in my life who would be uncomfortable about it. This isn't just me assuming this. I do wonder on that though will because you kind of got me thinking there like and percolating about it. I'm kind of been of the same feeling. I understand the value of it potentially on a I see the value of the camera. It's just on a roller coaster or something like that or you want to catch a candid moment like for me it's it's not I'm just I'm not a photo taker that way either. I don't
take a lot of photos. 90% of the photos I take are of my cats. And this is the thing. I wonder if there's there's a world in which and I kind of hope that if anyone out there from Google is listening, please at least try and contemplate this. I quite like the best camera I have with me at any point in time is my phone. It will supersede any of these ultra wide. I think it's 23 millimeter or something like that. I think uh of the camera on the glasses like this. That's useful in certain scenarios. That's great. And I can get that 90-cond clip. If I want to take a picture, a proper picture, I will always either get on my phone or have my camera. 99 times out of 100, it's my phone. I wonder if, and this is
where I'm more interested, I'm more interested in the display. The display element of these glasses is where I feel like I would be, too. Okay. Navigation or um maybe getting like the real time audio and visual feedback of say live translations. Maps is a big one. I think maps is great because you know when you go somewhere and you kind of you get your phone out and you're walking like this and you're looking mostly at your phone. Google Maps is awful at this by the way. Like I don't know what happened but like sometime in the last 10 years something broke and like they just never been fixed. If I Oh god, please don't flame me for this. If I have an iPhone on me,
I open Apple Maps for walking directions because it doesn't do the thing Google Maps does that you're about to see, Damen, where it will like 100% of the time for some reason send you in the wrong direction. I don't really understand that. It's most It's mostly just I don't want to be walking around with my phone in front of I have been in groups of tech people, some of which right at this website where we are all we all have our phones out and we're all loading Google Maps to try to walk to a restaurant and we all go, "Okay, I guess it's this way." And we get like 90 seconds into walking and we all realize that despite the fact that it was it seemed to be pointing us in that direction, we actually have to
go the other way. Like this has happened. Like I don't know. I don't This is a side tangent. Obviously, I don't know what happened with Google Maps, but I would love for somebody to fix it. Is it Google Maps or is it people's GPS? Oh, that but that doesn't explain why it happens across like every phone. like none of us had the same phone and then were they all Android? I don't even think so. I think this has happened with Google Maps on an iPhone. So I don't know maybe I'm crazy but again this has happened with other tech people when we're all walking to like a like dinner. So I you know you never know. Anyway, long
this is the thing with directionalbased like input. Like I don't mind audio feedback. I'm happy with that when I'm in the car and things like that. But I think the Oh god, you're mad, man. The little visual cues and this is one thing I really do like and I've obviously I'm switch I'm wearing the Fitbit Edge currently and I've flip-flop between the Fitbit Edge and the Fitbit Air the last few weeks. When I sometimes go places, I do think should I wear the Fitbit Pixel watch, sorry, Fitbit watch. I'd love one of those as well. Um, basically I will look at my watch to get the directions or if I'm on a line, one of my favorites is whenever I go to Epha, I will be riding around on a lime scooter and uh
or a bike and my watch is just lit up with the directions. I can just glance down briefly. I know where I'm going and then you get the audio feedback in your earbuds. That's amazing. If I could have this is why I'm intrigued by the form factor, not just yet. I think soon as we start getting in displays, I will have more thoughts on this because that feel when I tested a really I think don't know if it was an early prototype. I don't know if you tested the same one. Um it was it gave you the you could kind of look down and see the mini map like you'd have like Yep. Like that to me that is the killer application. I want to test that. I want that functionality. The camera don't really care too much.
The audio feedback directions and like I say live translations. the demo we saw originally for the glasses, I guess what, two nearly three years ago now, was it before Android XR came out? I'm I'm probably erasing time there. But that felt like as soon as that becomes a potential reality, I might be on board with this. And it's something I could potentially see myself wearing on a day-to-day basis, especially during the touristy type things. Like those are the things where you want to perceive everything around you. You don't want to be distracted by your phone, your watch. you kind of have it in your field of vision and it's not too much. And I think that if from what it sounds like from what you're saying, AB, this does feel like that. I asked you briefly about
it. This does feel like that stop gap. So I'm wondering I still really wonder how long this can roll out like it is and potentially people just like me. And so we have to see the displays. We're starting to I think Meta have already done one. I mean toss that in the trash. It's not gonna no one's going to buy that. But yeah, I think um the sooner that appears, the better. In an ideal world, that's yes, that's the if I had to choose. But the thing is all the spray glasses will have a button to turn off the spray and use them as purely audio only glasses. That is that's why the work being done on these audio glasses won't go to waste whatsoever because I think Google's testing found that there are scenarios
where you just don't want to spray. I kind of question that because I think the display is there's so much utility out of that. But at the same time, I guess I can see the point like sometimes you're just overwhelmed with displays and you just audio is fine. If I couldn't turn that off in a movie theater, I'd be pretty annoying. Yeah, that would be annoying. Yeah. But I don't know. I What you So, what? Let's kind of wrap it up into your overriding thoughts then Abnner so far because I know you're the only person who's used these. I know you go to you went with Ben. I don't know if Ben had the opportunity to test them as well,
but it's it's kind of feels like and I know you are the you this has been your dream product for a long time. Does this feel like you're Google is making the steps up the kind of the highway to heaven as it were? like they're doing that right now or is it do you think that we should they should have held on a little bit longer but at the same time do you think maybe they should have waited or it's a step it's a steps and like again all this work in audio glasses it'll translate to making the spray grasses better to making the audio experience on the spray grasses better the camera the input the Gemini of it all like once get Google gets real world data from the Gemini and glasses format
after I think they'll help improve it tremendously when the next thing comes. So, in a sense that this is everything they're doing now is helping them prepare for the display glasses and that's probably when the big push will come to uh accept these. Um, but yeah, I am eager to try this. I am eager to see the work they've done on Gemini Live to optimize it for this form factor. I will be using the I It's funny. It's interesting that the idea of no longer having to use headphones or do like 90% of the time to no longer have to use AirPods or Pixel Buds. That's kind of a weird thought, but we'll see how that works.
Post world for Apple. Post earbuds world. Yeah. And I guess the again the camera I just I think you need to use it to know how useful it is to see like how instant access and to get those firsterson point of view shots. I think they are powerful. And like what's that feature on the Pixel 11 magic capture? I think that's where something like magic capture like really shines. And third, it's just having an assistant that has contacts that I do take my phone out and have Gemini add stuff to my calendar, that kind of thing. Um, so yeah, I think we are on the way there and this is a start. Um I think in terms of the hardware we have to test it more but I kind of think audio glasses are solved problem or rather like um at a high level smart glasses the
most ideal form of smart glasses is that they look like regular glasses and then they're indistinguishable from regular glasses. I think we're well on our way there and like Google like waiting two three two three years has that benefit of like iterating that hardware of Samsung being able to iterate that hardware until it's indistinguishable. So long time coming but at some point you have to start and like what the rumors of Apple's also yet by the end of next year. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, that will be the acid test. Um yeah, I guess we'll learn more in the next few weeks. I guess uh US only for a little bit. Those of us who um who are in the rest of the world, we well, we just have to sit from
the sidelines and watch. We'll get our binoculars on or watch it from afar. Um only other thing I would mention is that we haven't briefly we'll briefly talk about at the end here is that Google has finally released the pixel tag. It is available to purchase next week. So yeah, and I will talk about it next week. I'm hopefully going to be testing it in a few weeks time in the real world. My fourpack has just arrived from Google store as well. So, I'll be testing five Pixel Tags. We'll put it through its paces. Sadly, this Samsung Smart Tag 3 is not available in the UK. I don't know if it's available in the US until Q1. So, I cannot test it against I guess the de facto top dog. I as far as
I'm concerned, the Smart Tag line is the best tracker. I've not used any best trackers, Air Tag uh included in that. It's it's the best tracker I've used. Um, so yeah, we'll see how that fares and uh we'll give you some thoughts next week, but come join us on the Pro Tier. We're going to talk random stuff. Maybe a little bit of Ocarina time, maybe not too much, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who's not played it since 1998. But um yeah, come join us. It's been good fun. And I'll speak to you guys soon. Bye.
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