Amazon announced a heap of devices last month, including five new Echo smart speakers, more Ring smart home security, new Alexa commands and a “smart ring” it’s calling Echo Loop. But the new Echo Frames smart glasses ($180) with always-on Alexa voice control are what’s drawing the most attention from gadget lovers and privacy advocates alike. Echo …
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This story is part of The 2010s: A Decade in Review, a series on the memes, people, products, movies and so much more that have influenced the 2010s. When I hustled out of CNET headquarters in San Francisco on May 26, 2010, and slipped into a rental car with two of my co-workers to head to a meeting across the …
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Standing in a demo room that overlooked the Space Needle at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, Alexa hardware executive Miriam Daniel smiled as she encouraged me to stick a pair of Echo Buds in my ears. The space was noisy and chaotic, punctuated repeatedly by Alexa chiming in with different responses. I tapped the side of the earbuds twice, then suddenly there …
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Amazon is entering the smart glasses field with the Echo Frames, the company announced at its Alexa event on Wednesday. The Echo Frames are part of Amazon’s “Day One Editions,” a program for experimental products that are complete but offered with limited availability, Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services, said at the event. The smart glasses don’t …
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Apple’s rumored venture into smart glasses did not come to fruition at the Apple iPhone 11 Pro event on Tuesday, but they’re still an imminent possibility, as code found in the upcoming release of the company’s iOS 13 mobile software suggests. On Twitter on Tuesday, developer Steven Troughton-Smith pointed out that the iOS 13 beta now contains StarBoard frameworks, Apple’s shell system for …
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The next time you want to watch Netflix in bed, imagine putting down your phone and putting on your sunglasses. TCL, a Chinese company that makes great value TVs, brand new phones and other things with screens, created a prototype for smart glasses that will let you watch movies, play games and even see the content of your phone. Naturally, …
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If you’re looking for a new, weird thing to do with your next phone, consider hands-free use. Google’s upcoming Pixel 4 is going to throw a hands-free twist to its front-camera array: In addition to facial recognition, it’ll sense motion and hand gestures. This technology, originally called Project Soli, uses radar to detect 3D movement in space. And that’s in addition …
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VR and AR headsets are going to be powered by phones, via USB-C, in the near future. At least, that’s Qualcomm’s plan. And those headsets could be a lot more capable than you might expect. Eye tracking, full 6DoF positional tracking like Oculus Quest and even controller-free hand gestures are part of the picture. Qualcomm already announced USB-C compatible VR and …
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It’s 2019, and guess what? Google just unveiled its newest version of Glass. It’s not made to be a widespread consumer product, but there are business users who will care. And the latest Glass Enterprise Edition 2, with key upgraded specs, shows where most smartglasses are at. You might remember Glass as a strange 2013 footnote, but Glass has stuck …
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Google’s AR-enabled Maps app was first teased at last year’s I/O, introducing a fox that helped you find your way when you held up your phone to look at the world. Google Maps’ AR walking navigation feature is now available to anyone with a Pixel phone, but the fox is gone. The reason is related to the ways Google is …
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