"New Amazon Echo Frames look like a stylish Alexa on your face.
Alexa "Scratch my nose".
Smart glasses long seemed like a false dawn in the tech world. Since the death
of Google Glass, people seemed more and more reluctant to wear something like
that on their face. But much like buses, they seem to arrive in pairs. Not only
have we just had the excellent Ray-Ban styled Meta glasses but Amazon is now
launching its third generation Echo Frames, available to pre-order now and
releasing on December 7th (at least in the US).
Much like the Meta glasses, the Echo Frames aren't trying to offer Apple Vision
Pro level AR tech. Instead they are more like wearing a smart speaker on your
face. They feature full Alexa support , hands free calling and audio playback,
which considering Amazon owns Audible, could be great for audiobooks. The Meta
glasses impressed us with how little sound leaked outside of the wearer's
personal space and hopefully these can do the same. In terms of battery life
Amazon is targeting an improved six hours which would match Meta's shades.
Of course with many smart homes dependent on Alexa, this is a novel way to
control lights and more like you would with an Echo smart speaker.
It all sounds pretty nifty and feel free to call me shallow but I will always
judge smart glasses on how they look. I don't need a prescription so I'm not in
the habit of wearing glasses everyday. If I'm going to look like The Terminator
all of the time then I'm not interested.
Luckily that doesn't look like the case. Amazon has revealed a variety of
styles both prescription and non-prescription (as well as polarised variants)
and they actually look ok. Previous echo frames were not so easy on the eye and
this generation features some lively colours to choose from. Amazon is also
offering blue light filtering lenses to protect your eyes from excess screen
time, which could actually be a big selling point.
Provided I don't like Buddy Holly in them, I'm willing to give them a chance."
