Meta's latest stab at augmented reality is "Orion"

[boingboing]

Originally published at: Meta's latest stab at augmented reality is "Orion" - Boing Boing

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[Otherbrother]

@boingboing

these AR glasses were, according to The Verge, supposed to be on sale by now. However, Meta pumped the brakes on their release: Orion was deemed too complicated for consumer use.

Where are you getting that? The article in The Verge (along with other reporting) clearly says that the decision to shelve this as a consumer product was mostly due to the cost to build, which is currently about $10k per unit.

[Mel_J]

From Jim McFadden

[Otherbrother]

Jim’s first article, I think? I hope he’s a real person.

[west]

It’s spelled, O-N-I-O-N.

[danimagoo]

Here’s what the article at the Verge says:

but decided not to because they are too complicated and expensive to manufacture right now.

So, there’s room for interpreting that sentence in two ways. It could mean that the glasses are too complicated, and that they are too expensive to manufacture. Or it could mean they are too complicated to manufacture and too expensive to manufacture. I think the intention was probably the latter, but the former is consistent with the grammar as well. It’s a poorly written sentence. Our new contributor clearly used the former interpretation, with an implied “for the consumer.”

[Bunbain]

@boingboing

made of magnesium, which is lighter than aluminum and used for evenly distributing heat

Eyeglasses that get hot on your face? Where do i sign up?! /SARC

ETA:

@boingboing

Meta wants the most is for their glasses to one day supplant the place smartphones currently have in our lives

Yeah, a place I’ve been walking back as the Internet continues to fester.

[Otherbrother]

@danimagoo

Here’s what the article at the Verge says:

but decided not to because they are too complicated and expensive to manufacture right now.

I think that this other quote from the story is more relevant and pretty unambiguous:

As Meta’s executives retell it, the decision to shelve Orion mostly came down to the device’s astronomical cost to build, which is in the ballpark of $10,000 per unit.

@danimagoo

Our new contributor clearly used the former interpretation, with an implied “for the consumer.”

And I maintain that that’s not really a reasonable interpretation based on the information in the article. Especially since he said

@boingboing

Orion was deemed too complicated for consumer use.

and there’s nothing in the article that even implies that that was the reason. The word “consumer” only appears once in the article, and it’s not in that context.

[sandrodacruz]

25 years ago, Boing Boing would be giddy with exitement about grabbing a pair of these, hacking them and getting Rudy Rucker to code up psycadelic automata that would let you hold conversations about Frank Zappa with your furniture.

These days, Boing boing just gives a long world-weary sigh and says ‘Another way for the super rich to repress us… AS USAUAL’

Anyway… HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY EVERYONE!!1

[danimagoo]

@sandrodacruz

These days, Boing boing just gives a long world-weary sigh and says ‘Another way for the super rich to repress us… AS USAUAL’

The cynicism has come from experience. It wasn’t that long ago that even here on BB, a lot of people thought Elon Musk was awesome. Then we learned.

[robertmckenna]

And 25 years ago people would have been working out how to do cool things. Now they are only looking for ways to drive more retail opportunities their way and ensure you don’t see anything they don’t want.

Tech firms are dystopian nightmares and the bros at the top are utterly evil.

[gracchus]

Until someone can get through the increasing thicket of DRM and countermeasures that devices like this are loaded with, then hack them, and put open-source firmware that doesn’t mine our private lives for ad and engagement dollars, I’m not interested in them and neither is any Happy Mutant who’s familiar with Zuckerberg.

[sandrodacruz]

Of course your right, tech firms are absolutely dystopian nightmares. Always have been.

The bros were always looking for a way to make a buck. The freaks were always looking for a way to steal their shiny new stuff and have fun with it.

Contemporary tech bros like to pretend they’re the freaks, like their predecessors would pretend to be surfers or rockers or hippies.
I’d love to think we can stay as cynical about their plans as we always were, but retain some of that optimism that maybe we can fuck up their plans, and have fun doing it.

[sandrodacruz]

You can jailbreak the crap out of the meta VR headsets, and get android running easily (sorta open source?)
Its a nice bit of subsidised hardware for the taking anyhow. Unsigned code all the way.

I mean, yeah, you have the age old problem of being seen with a piece of facebook hardware. But thats why amusing stickers were invented…

[anon61221983]

Because it IS a way for the super-rich to suppress us.

@sandrodacruz

but retain some of that optimism that maybe we can fuck up their plans

That would require there being hope of actually regulating Silicon Valley in a meaningful way. Biden did good by appointing Lina Khan to the FTC… but there is a lot of work that needs doing, and we need people tech firms who believe in actual freedom and human rights rather than enriching themselves at our expense.

Big things need to change for us to drop the cynicism.

[sandrodacruz]

@anon61221983

Big things need to change for us to drop the cynicism.

I absolutely respect that. It’s a hard path taken, and I admire your mental fortitude.

Me, im not strong enough to fight AND be cynical.
I need the hope, I need the sunshine and rainbows and stupid doodles in the margins.

[gracchus]

I get where you’re coming from, but you’d have to go back at least 15 years to see that hopeful take on a consumer gadget at this stage of development. That’s how thoroughly the big social media platforms have poisoned the field.

Cory’s or Xeni’s take would have been even more pessimistic than Rob’s. Meanwhile, those Authors who still cling to the Californian Ideology know deep down that it’s now about the greedy capital-L and not the fun small-l Libertarianism and won’t write about this item at all.

Once the device is fully working, jailbroken, and still has some use after it’s freed, that will be the occasion for Boing Boing to publish a “Wonderful Things” piece on it. Right now, though, a cautionary article is what should be expected.

[Loudmouth]

At a conference I attended last year, a start-up demonstrated a beneficial application pitch for AR that has a ton of potential—though not much of a self-sustaining revenue stream: here, a land developer is planning to turn your neighborhood of rancheros, the childhood home of your grandpa, where you are now raising your own children, into a logistics hub that will cater to our Amazon’s, Monster’s, Walmart’s, Pentair’s, Caterpillar’s…. Put on these glasses, look across the street, and see how that developer will transform your neighborhood streets into trucking routes walled by warehouse facades and adorned with truck dealers and repair centers. Take them off and put them back on, notice the slight orange tint in your new sky? Here you go, put on this mask, inhale, and learn how this economic improvement will smell.

[robertmckenna]

I had a colleague doing cool things with AR and education 15 years ago when we worked in Ed tech together. She’s gone back to designing and making stuff, I to being a librarian more or less full time.

Everything isn’t shit, just everything they touch is shit. While we used to believe that we could use technology differently and make the world better the purpose of a system is what it does, and it makes the world worse. Also masters’ tools and masters house.