If you’ve been looking to buy a pair of smart glasses but have trouble choosing between Meta’s Ray-Bans and Amazon’s Echo Frames, Apple may be throwing its own pair into the mix. The Silicon Valley giant could be developing smart glasses that are similar to the former brand.
Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman wrote in his latest PowerOn newsletter Apple’s standalone smart glasses would be infused with AI, cameras, microphones and premium audio features — much like the Ray-Ban smart glasses by the parent company of Instagram and WhatsApp. The glasses would also be lightweight and heavily integrated with the iPhone, allowing users to wear them all day.
However, according to Gurman, it would take three to five years for Apple to develop its own smart glasses and bring it to the wearables market. Even so, the company is exploring ways to make it a reality.
Apple continuing its discussion of the development of its smart glasses comes amid the commercial failure of the Apple Vision Pro headset, with consumers citing its hefty $3,500 price tag, discomfort, and failure to live up to expectations of making waves in the AR/VR space. The company also tried developing AR glasses that would compete with the Ray-Ban smart glasses, but that got scrapped because the device failed evaluations, and the development team kept moving goalposts for it reach its full potential. If Apple does charge ahead in making the smart glasses that take on the appearance of Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses complete with Apple accessories and cosmetics, we may not see them until 203o.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.