Check out Even Realities G1 glasses
Out of nowhere is the most interesting pair of smart glasses that are for sale.
I got my pair of G1 glasses this week. After writing My Pile of Unused Devices, I was prepared to be disappointed. But I’m not. In fact, I think Even Realities has done a remarkable job of making a useful pair of glasses, which I’m tempted to actually use even though I don’t have to wear glasses.
The trick that Even has pulled off is not trying too hard to deliver “real” augmented reality in a pair of glasses while still delivering useful, practical information on the glass. Here’s the best image I could find to show you what you see with the glasses on. It’s a terrible image, but you should get the idea. The glasses have small, dual micro LEDs to show text that hovers a couple of feet in front of your eyes. Text! Not graphics.
That’s what makes it useful. The glasses can deliver text that informs the user, including turn by turn directions, explanations of what you’re looking at, calendar and text notifications, and so forth. You can talk to it to ask questions of its AI. You can play music or listen to podcasts. The kind of stuff you might want to do when you’re walking around or even driving. This isn’t a full-on review, so I haven’t stress tested it and don’t know how well the AI works, but the speech to text is pretty good for note taking and asking questions. (I can’t find a legitimate review to share with you, but do check out Even’s own video. It’s charming.)
The only real usability issue is that you have to raise your head to see the text display. It’s not totally natural. When I configured mine, I managed to make it so I have to look at the ceiling to get the display. I’m pretty sure I can reconfigure to get the display by just raising my head a little…
The glasses are $600, with no subscription. So, if you’re like me and enjoy buying new gadgets to stay on the front line, I’d recommend buying these. (And, yes, they will supply prescription lenses if you do actually need to wear glasses.)