Time for an update to the controversial Meta Smart glasses.
Meta is up to no good (IMO) on this latest move.
When I bought my Meta Rayban Gen 2 glasses I was sold on various features such as language translation, high definition video recording, AI, and enhanced audio spoken in noisy environments with noise cancellation.
The video recording was limited to 3 minutes, but 5 minutes was promised on the next update.
The reality-
After 6 updates still no 5 minutes recording. Enhanced speech and noise cancelling never worked. AI was pretty good but often was in error. But I purchased these mostly for video recording when out and about The quality of the video was very good, however it had this flashing strobe light that when others would see it they would act strange and even complete strangers would come up to me and wonder why my glasses were flashing. The LED strobe was so unpopular that many companies came out with attachments that would effectively hide or reduce the light brightness.
Just recently Meta announced a major change to their Smart Glasses offering. First of all, it is reported that if you attempt to disable the strobe light LED they have built into the software a shut down command which will brick the electronics. I don't know if this is true but that is what some who have the new update have reported. The 5 minute recording time does not work in HD but only SD video. But here's the big change-
Meta has decided to eliminate the enhanced audio & the AI feature which never worked anyway. Instead the use of Smart glasses will be limited to 6 minutes a day unless you subscribe to Meta for an additional $20 a month. Even the $20 will limit your use to 15 hours and when you hit that Cap, you will have to wait until the next month to use your Smart Glasses again. Keep in mind, these are all features you paid for when you bought the Meta Rayban Smart Glasses.
So, OK, I was scammed by Mark Fukuberg and paid big money for these. They have been sitting in the drawer for over 6 months. Since I surgically removed the LED, I shut down the updating to prevent Meta from destroying them. I'll keep them as a backup but soon the AI will be limited to 6 minutes a day.
Instead, another company, ROKID, introduced their Smart recording glasses that are far superior to the Metas. They also have the display in the glasses but it is green color only. I did the Kickstarter deal and got them early. After 2 software updates, they added image stabilization, the ability to stop the LED strobe light, swapping batteries while recording and auto download to your iphone near by. They also can shoot video in horizontal format although only at 2.5K, not 4K. Meta is only vertical. The video clip length is 10 minutes. Nice the recording time is displayed in the glasses when I look down, so it doesn't affect my forward vision. It has flip up polarized sun glasses too.
Meta Rayban Smart Glasses became the industry standard, mostly due to Meta's massive advertising campaign. However, owners quickly saw they were being given a bunch of false ad claims of features that just do not work at all. I like the concept of camera glasses and the features of Smart AI features. But the competition is the way to go. Meta glasses was my worst new product purchase in several decades and it keeps getting worse.
I'm also a huge fan of the Meta Quest 3 and use them daily. Every update the capability keeps getting better. Strange these are from the same company run by the same CEO.
