Smart glasses long seemed like a false dawn in the tech world. Since the death of Google Glass, people seemed more and more reluctant to wear something like that on their face. But much like buses, they seem to arrive in pairs.
Not only have we just had the excellent Ray-Ban styled Meta glasses but Amazon is now launching its third generation Echo Frames, available to pre-order now and releasing on December 7th (at least in the US).
Much like the Meta glasses, the Echo Frames aren't trying to offer Apple Vision Pro level AR tech. Instead they are more like wearing a smart speaker on your face. They feature full Alexa support , hands free calling and audio playback, which considering Amazon owns Audible, could be great for audiobooks. The Meta glasses impressed us with how little sound leaked outside of the wearer's personal space and hopefully these can do the same. In terms of battery life Amazon is targeting an improved six hours which would match Meta's shades.
Of course with many smart homes dependent on Alexa, this is a novel way to control lights and more like you would with an Echo smart speaker.
It all sounds pretty nifty and feel free to call me shallow but I will always judge smart glasses on how they look. I don't need a prescription so I'm not in the habit of wearing glasses everyday. If I'm going to look like The Terminator all of the time then I'm not interested.
Luckily that doesn't look like the case. Amazon has revealed a variety of styles both prescription and non-prescription (as well as polarised variants) and they actually look ok. Previous echo frames were not so easy on the eye and this generation features some lively colours to choose from. Amazon is also offering blue light filtering lenses to protect your eyes from excess screen time, which could actually be a big selling point.
Provided I don't like Buddy Holly in them, I'm willing to give them a chance.
