Facebook’s Ray-Ban Stories Smartglasses Get a Tiny Bit Smarter
Facebook made its smart glasses finally do something smart by allowing them to show off some useful information.
Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Ray-Ban, announced in a Facebook post that the company would be adding a significant update to the Ray-Ban Stories glasses it introduced last year. The functionality of making phone calls, as well as sending and receiving messages via WhatsApp read out loud, is set to be rolled out as soon as possible. With the help of Ray-Ban Stories, Zuck has promised that another update to Messenger and WhatsApp will be released “soon.” That update would bring voice-activated message replies.
Look at this “cool” guy. Credit: Facebook
It is important to point out that at launch last year the glasses as they existed just weren’t really “smartglasses” in any sense of the word and were not really marketed as such. It was possible to take pictures and videos with the onboard camera, as well as play podcasts or music with the terrible speakers that were mounted above the ear instead of inside it (so any person within six feet of you could hear what you were listening to). However, other than that, they were essentially just Ray-Bans that cost $300, and that’s about what they were.
In your opinion, does this newest update justify a purchase any more than it did before? As far as I know, I have no idea. You can decide what you want to do with that. You should be prepared for the possibility that people will look at you as a kind of mega-creep if you choose to walk down the street with sunglasses with cameras attached to them pointing in their direction.
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