I understand the existential problem that Meta faces here, but those forces have created a worse product.

As a Meta Ray Ban owner my biggest takeaway is that these glasses shouldn't have a CPU. They should be a dumb camera, mic, and speakers for my phone.

Interacting with Gemini on my phone would be the ideal product here, but of course that means Meta doesn't reap any of the data rewards.

So of course, since they don't make the phone in your pocket, they're strapping a device to your head and everyone pays the price of a big battery, CPU, and RAM in a sunglass form factor.

They're a remarkable product, but again, "dumb" glasses that just serve the I/O directly to your phone would be an incredible product. I wish Google or someone else would make them.

There’s a Chinese AI glasses brands (Solos) that integrates with ChatGPT and I’m wondering if simply being paired with a better AI model will make it significantly more useful. One thing Meta seems to be completely ignoring up until now is Asians and Asian markets (lack of low bridge fit models, lack of translation features for any Asian languages despite ChatGPT being state of the art at it).

I'm with ya. Meta is making these to get your data, not really to make a compelling i/o-enriched pair of glasses.

The changes to their privacy policies plainly show the bait-and-switch.

Amazingly, I agree with you. But the average HN user does not understand the market and regular users' demands. It's been repeatedly demonstrated in the past too.