Who Are Tech Conferences Actually For? | Episode 6

Clorama: Every year tech companies hold big conferences. giving the public a chance to learn straight from the horse's mouth ⁓ what they're building But let's be real. And more and more it seems like the presentations themselves have adjusted accordingly. Users are no longer the judge. We wait for the hype machine to tell us what to feel or what to get excited about. Or at least that's what it feels like we're being trained to do, if we're being honest. And it wasn't always like this.
Clorama Dorvilias: Hey ⁓ everyone, welcome to the existential crisis of a tech enthusiast. my name is Clorama. And Ceciliana, would you like to introduce yourself? ⁓
Siciliana Trevino: Yeah. Hi everyone, I'm Sisiliana Trevino, and I'm an XR producer, world builder, and the host of the Zero to Start Podcast. and for folks that may not know, my claim to fame is ⁓ building first of its kind interactive podcast adventure game for one of the first.
Clorama: and expanded capability on top of that.
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ smart ⁓ audio glasses by Bose AR Frames, ⁓ the ones with the speakers on the ⁓ handles here. So thanks for being with us today. Take it away. ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: Ha ha ha cool. should I should wear my meta rabbins too, huh? But mine's broken because my dog chewed on it so but it's still
Siciliana Trevino: Night. My dog ate my AI glasses.
Clorama Dorvilias: These ones it'll be like a little look like it's AI, but it's not here. This is what I was hoping they would look like. I was hoping the intelligent eyewears of the future would look more okay. Yeah. ⁓ okay, so yes, ⁓ and I'm Koram, I'm your host. so today's podcast is gonna be a little bit different than how we usually do it. normally when we talk, ⁓ we are are kind of kind of doing like a post mortem on
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ yeah, no, those are good.
Clorama: in this episode, we're reacting to the XR segment in the Google I.O. presentation. And given the greatest minds that work in these companies probably have access to
Siciliana Trevino: More fun. A little more fun.
Clorama: will say a lot about how they chose to rename their brand how they frame their use case. Now just a little bit of a disclaimer, you're gonna hear me and Ceciliana use the term use case a lot.
Clorama Dorvilias: XR industry, the state of it, and looking at it from different angles.
Clorama: you could probably make a shot game out of it, but just know you'll probably be dead by the end of the episode. use case just means what people are gonna be using product for, That's it. Okay, back to it. it reveals who they're building for, it reveals how investor incentives shape product vision.
Clorama Dorvilias: so if you haven't taken a look at the other podcasts, I encourage you guys to take a look at that ⁓ or to go check it out. We have an in-depth smart glasses analysis and from our perspective. looking at it from different angles, looking at from the cultural angle, and really asking the questions, can smart glasses overcome social challenges, let alone the resistance to it that we're already seeing today. So there's two episodes of that. And I think that would be context for what we're going to be talking about today. otherwise in this podcast, we are going to be reacting. ⁓ it won't be live reacting, it's more of like a delayed ⁓ reaction. ⁓ Having put some thought of it, we we've watched ⁓ Google this And I just want to make it clear. I did work at Google, but
Siciliana Trevino: Delayed reaction.
Clorama Dorvilias: My opinions are my own 100%. So these are my own ideas and my own thoughts as a consumer on the other side side as an XR enthusiast that I'll be sharing along with Cecilna today. ⁓ what I do hope to do is bring some context of how to look at these events. for this for this particular episode, we're gonna be reacting to what we learned. ⁓
Clorama: and what we should be excited as consumers of their product. the everyday user isn't watching these the enthusiasts, investors, content creators, media, and Probably the most closely is the competitors.
Clorama Dorvilias: An interesting fact with Google AO, the keynote, did not talk about Galaxy XR. That's the first notable thing. but they did talk about intelligent eyewear, which me and Siciliana are gonna get into. and this is essentially smart glasses rebranded. ⁓ yeah. ⁓
Siciliana Trevino: Yeah, I thought let's start right there. Like the difference between Google I.O. in their presentation around what was the thinking behind intelligent eyewear versus smart glasses? Right, like the the the branding terminology seems to be wanting to get away from the Google Glass days. ⁓ but from a creator standpoint, when anyone's or a consumer standpoint, they're not searching intelligent eyewear. They're searching smart glasses. it's not any real major classification because no one's looking for intelligent eyewear. And certainly content creators that are creating content around keyword searches.
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: are not making intelligent eyewear videos. And so I'm just curious that impacts search. ⁓ So that's just question. But let's so let's just start there. That was my first kind of ⁓ puzzle. I was like, why are they doing that?
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. So it's just Yes. So let me before we go into why they did that, because that is a big deal, it's important to acknowledge the context of what these tech conferences are for. And ⁓ we look at these tech conferences, I think we all know watching this, it's very performative, it's sometimes it feels little bit inauthentic, but this is the company's opportunity to really ⁓ inspire faith in their product and their long-term strategies to get consumers excited, to get their stakeholders excited, investors excited into what they're doing. It's a marketing vehicle for their platform, for their company that will hopefully yes impact the stocks, but mostly keep people invested in their products and spread awareness. They want hype, they want media news it, and they want it to be as positive as possible. ⁓ those that's very important to think about. So how does that change what they share? ⁓ And how do they curate it accordingly? every company will have a different strategy towards that. ⁓ something that we've seen with Meta, especially when it comes to them really leaning into the metaverse vision they wanted to show the world that they are the future technology. ⁓ possibly compensating for the the fact that their platform ⁓ was inviting those questions of whether they were future-proofed as a company. so VR, AI, the reality labs became the forefront of what the company was, outside of the Instagram and Facebook, taking a little bit of a step back. ⁓ So What did those conferences look like as a result? they were very vision oriented. They're painting the vision because it w they weren't there yet. they were trying to get us bought in to ⁓ Look what this world could look like if all of this existed. Therefore and worked Fluidly. ⁓ Yes. You need headset. You're in the world. Yes. what you would yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: And worked. of the box. ⁓ We have legs. We have legs. I think a good point though there just a good example is ⁓ a keynote presentation during one of the Connects where they announced GTA six for VR.
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm.
Siciliana Trevino: Right, that like coming soon, right? So they're building this fantasy narrative of in a perfect world, this is what's coming. This is what we wanna get you know, you should get excited about for the fall. And it's really just to drive the narrative in the press and amongst their, you know, true believers, ⁓ to go out and evangelize what the vision is
Clorama Dorvilias: Yes. Google does do a little bit of future selling as well, but they also tend to be more conservative terms of like, okay, but here's what we're really building and here's what works today and here's what we're launching today. Meta used to be like that with the headsets, like you know, here's the new headset that's coming out. ⁓ but they had different conferences for different areas of the company. so Meta Connect used to be, specifically Connect. it was everything that we're launching and yeah, it was always real time. And then it kind of shifted to exp broader to reality labs
Clorama: Think back to the most overused reference point in the entire tech industry, the iPhone moment. I know it's super cliche but seriously, this is like still every tech company's dream to try to accomplish again in these conferences. The iPhone was announced as a device would solve the problem of carrying your phone, your iPod, your camera separately. ⁓ One thing, fewer problems,
Clorama Dorvilias: As their primary focus and demonstrating to the world that they're committed to the future of emerging technology and being able to deliver that on a scaled ⁓ which we still have yet to see. so that's the context behind that. So now we go back to why did Google call it intelligent eyewear when there's so much hype around the term smart glasses.
Clorama: Now it seems like we've gone the other direction.
Clorama Dorvilias: And I think this goes back to like Apple's attempt with spatial computing. ⁓ why would Apple go with spatial computing when they're launching the Apple Vision Pro and not say VR when VR was how everyone has come to known it? Think about the branding of VR at the time that Apple Vision launched. It was associated highly with gaming.
Clorama: Every conference brings a new piece of hardware, a new accessory, a new thing to carry or wear or charge. And instead of, yay, finally, the reaction is more like, wait, how's this supposed to fit with everything else I already have?
Clorama Dorvilias: It was a ⁓ market that was ⁓ associated with Meta as a company And it didn't appeal to Apple was trying to appeal to mainstream. They're trying to sell to their consumer base. And if they were to call it VR, it would immediately become comparative to Quest, which would them at a disadvantage because they didn't have the same content offering, right? ⁓
Clorama: the largest data sets of all the planet.
Clorama Dorvilias: I think they were thinking in it from a more user centered way people will look at it a new way in order for them to be attracted to it that keeps us competitively broader than
Siciliana Trevino: It's just a way it's just a way to differentiate themselves from a VR from the category. So they're in the smart glasses category as intelligent eyewear. So and also, you know, it just it sounds w
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Well no no no it's not but what I'm trying to say is they're trying to escape the branding that ⁓ has already been set for smart glasses.
Clorama: And it reveals exactly why so many of us who generally believe in this technology are just sitting there feeling like,
Siciliana Trevino: Yes, but they're s but but they're they're still constrained by being in the wearable category. Is my so they're in a wearable category and that's called smart, right? Like smart watch, smart phone, smart you know, so but their their flavor of it is intelligence, right? So
Clorama Dorvilias: Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well yeah, but there's a reason wh I think I I yes, they're flavor they're trying to break away from smart glasses itself because smart glasses has a lot of yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: But you think they're trying to break through? You think they're trying to
Clorama: I'm Clorama, I to work inside these companies and I still believe in this technology.
Siciliana Trevino: But that's but that I mean okay, I would like to be in the room when they're discussing that because there's no way you're gonna break your it's like it reminds me of when Mark ⁓ Zuckerberg said, Well, it's not like the Winklevoss invented a chair. A chair is a chair, right? ⁓ Like the glasses are glasses, so and if they have
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah.
Clorama: I just have a lot of questions on real world direction.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah, is that that's what I'm saying? Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: If they have computing on board then they're just part of a smart wearables category. But i th their particular branding of it is like yeah, it's ⁓ it's like a family name or something. I don't know.
Clorama: And I feel like that deserves an honest conversation. Thank you for joining us ⁓ Please like and subscribe if this is content you enjoy and would love to your thoughts as well. So ⁓ let's get into it.
Clorama Dorvilias: Well, that's the thing, it's not a family name. If that was true for Google, they would have they would be calling their glasses intelligent intelligent watches, I mean, yeah. Yeah. So it's a breaks inconsistency with that. So there's a reason why they decided to be inconsistent with that. That means they're trying to escape calling themselves smart glasses. Why? Because it would make them become immediately comparative to meta smart glasses, which is once again only the thing.
Siciliana Trevino: intelligent right. Yeah, which so right w
Clorama Dorvilias: Plus they would be dragged into the branding of smart glasses, which I don't think is very positive right now. If you were to enter smart glasses right now onto Google, I think a lot of it will come up privacy risk. A lot of it will come up meta. A lot of it will come up like things that people are afraid of with smart glasses, the you know, the cameras and stuff like that, will then be associated. Yes, they would have to inherit it. So by saying intelligent eyewear,
Siciliana Trevino: The harms.
Clorama Dorvilias: It sounds less ⁓ threatening. you. ⁓ It's threatening. Yes. ⁓
Siciliana Trevino: Threatening. It's empowering and it's empowering. Like, ⁓ these will make me more intelligent.
Clorama Dorvilias: And then they get a chance to create new narratives around their glasses. It's a new, yes, it's a new language, a new now people will have to talk about their glasses specifically when it comes to intelligent eyewear. I mean, people still are gonna refer to it as smart glasses, of course. But yes.
Siciliana Trevino: Yes. New narrative. They're just ⁓ or maybe AI glasses. Or, you know, my thing was just ⁓ how hard Meta after ch changing their name to Meta, right? For the metaverse ⁓ and rebranding Oculus and ⁓ everybody Facebook would call it the Oculus. so I just so people people are gonna call it what they want versus ⁓ yeah. I got into so many weird fights about that.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah, no, that's so true. Like yeah. The goggles too. That one was really that I hated that one. That one I was like Yeah. I was like, but everyone calls it goggles. I was like, where did that come from? Who started that?
Siciliana Trevino: Nobody calls it goggles.
Clorama Dorvilias: It's almost like a like a little way of like dumbing it down. Like maybe some people were it just goggles. Yeah, exactly. Maybe that's how people are they're thinking about it or I mean when it lands in the public how they wanna interpret it is yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: I don't get to decide. ⁓ Again and that and that just goes ties right back into glass holes also, right? It was like with Google Glass, it was like the public decided what they wanted to call it and in the end it they they couldn't really overcome that. So call it intelligent all you want. But
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Yes. Yes, exactly. That's true. Yeah. See, this is another reason why I think they were trying to escape the negative branding because you just said AI glasses. Like why didn't they just call it AI glasses? everyone's starting to hate AI right now. ⁓ Right? ⁓ So this remember this is a marketing decision. I like strategically this was really smart for them. from my perspective, the intelligent eyewear is their way to have a clean slate branding. for this product offering in a landscape where saying like AI glasses or smart glasses if somebody were to Google search that, ⁓ no intended, ⁓ ⁓ might see all these negative associations that are becoming surface level conversation in the public narrative. the fears, the comparison to Google Glass, ⁓ it just kind of brings a lot of d baggage. So intelligent air eyewear to me is their attempt to have a strategic, clear, more appealing, clean slate. Do you do you feel like do you have a different conclusion that you're jumping to? Okay.
Siciliana Trevino: I agree. I agree. Yeah. It's a way to differentiate their style and approach to building these devices. it's ⁓ aspirational, right? Intelligence versus being smart. I mean, I think it's an interesting It's it interesting division and it has a lot of connotations that they're trying to get away from, ⁓ but any mainstream consumer is ⁓ not gonna pay attention to any of that. They wanna know if they can watch their favorite movies, they just wanna know what it do for them.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yes. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: They don't really care that it's called smart or intelligent. there might be some subliminal things going on, but for the most part, ⁓ again, to our point of like people are gonna call it what they want.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yes. so to the next ⁓ topic. what you just said, people care more about what it's gonna do for them. So this is what I found interesting about ⁓ I what I liked about the presentation,
Siciliana Trevino: in what other time did we see graduation speeches being booed to the degree that we are ⁓ where a tech executive goes up there and starts talking about how these graduates are gonna be building the future with AI and everyone is rejecting that. I I mean, maybe it's performative. Maybe they're just they're booing to boo and they're gonna go ahead and just take those jobs or those jobs aren't available because AI has them. I
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. I think people just don't like being told what they're gonna do or not. Like I think we live in a day where you're supposed to be able to choose whatever you want and what makes you happy. And I think it's very weird how the tech industry is being like, AI is changing everything. Learn AI now so you don't fall behind. but it's also like forcing people to feel pressure to adopt something that they don't even know why they should adopt it, and they're seeing all these jobs being eliminated because of it. And they're hearing all these narratives of how much it can be threatening to our society and it's hurting the environment, and it's in alignment with a very controversial presidential leader who is funding this crazily. people are seeing this concept of AI, the branding around it has become like it's a little bit of a for who? AI for who. We don't we don't see the tangible benefits of it in society. We see how it's benefiting these companies.
Siciliana Trevino: Well, it doesn't read to what's really happening out on the street, right? So
Clorama Dorvilias: Y it's it's that it's like it's like empathy gap. It's a little bit like doesn't say the tech industry seems a little bit out of touch
Siciliana Trevino: That's for another show. Okay.
Clorama Dorvilias: okay, well, yes, it's for another show. There you go. ⁓ the VP, ⁓ Sharam Izadi is his name, who led this presentation, he says the premise this product, intelligent eye aware, is to deliver help in the moment.
Siciliana Trevino: It's your helper.
Clorama Dorvilias: that any winners bring. It's your helper in the moment.
Siciliana Trevino: And the demo they showed was of an associate getting a coffee.
Clorama Dorvilias: They did. The youth c
Siciliana Trevino: I mean, I I and I I I was just like wow, the innovation. when you think about wha cool Google was when it first came out, like it was so different than anything you'd seen on the internet it was just a blank page and you could just search
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: To now where it's like, okay, we're gonna take all of the world's information and use it so that we can order a cup of coffee because I can't be bothered to take out my phone. To now where it's like, okay, we're gonna take all of the world's information and use it so that we can order a cup of coffee because I can't be bothered to take out my phone. And I'm not trying to be I I'm not there's an ableist component to this, right? Because there's people that cannot, you know, look at their phone or there's there's other sort of things,
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: I see how this can help people, but when you look out the window and gas prices and food prices and car prices, like Americans can't even afford ⁓ a brand new car anymore, people were buying and replacing their cars every, five, six years, 10 years. and now they they're they're outpriced. because of the political climate, because of resources are expensive, beef is expensive, eggs like a more realistic thing would be where's the place I can get the cheapest gas? ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm-hmm. Ooh, that's on point. Yes, yes. The use case that they chose definitely reveals. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: Right? Like where like you don't say that's gonna So I'm like But if but if you really wanna take me out and like be smart, why don't I have glasses that help me understand how to talk to my dog? Right? why don't I have a a ⁓ a pet translator that says, you're overfeeding him sweets or something like that. Right? Like things that can help
Clorama Dorvilias: ⁓ Yeah. Ex exactly that compelling, yes.
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ prevent calamity or harm. that was the thing that I thought I was like, wow, I I get that it's difficult to do demos like this on stage, but being sold on a future where it's like my glasses help me order coffee ⁓ not really that inspiring. It's just not a future. It's like
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: We're literally talking about people's rights are being violated left and right and ⁓ and all kinds of chaos is going on where you can't even look at the news anymore because you just can't keep up with every single dumb thing that's going on in this timeline. ⁓ And now I'm like, let me put my glasses on and order a coffee or have my glasses connected to email.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: my DoorDash account, all of these things where I'm just happily giving them all my information. ⁓ don't really know what they're gonna do with that and how they're gonna package it.
Clorama Dorvilias: yeah, like ⁓ why how did ordering coffee become the ⁓ why was that chosen to be the
Siciliana Trevino: It that's How is that?
Clorama Dorvilias: the winning use case to dis to yeah, it's not disruptive one. Number two, it doesn't translate internationally. ⁓ where I live in London
Siciliana Trevino: Right.
Clorama Dorvilias: The 10-minute walk for me and the tube stop, I pass by 17 cafes So if in my mind as a Londoner, and I feel like this is ⁓ of Londoners, I don't know what scenario would I would want to order my coffee ⁓ or on my glasses. when that'll take longer than me just going in and just whatever. Like I don't know how what advantage that's gonna bring to me. So that doesn't translate here. That works in Silicon Valley where you have to go from A to B, you're in your automobile from your home when you're meeting up with your friends to go hiking, which again, very Silicon Valley activity,
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ my god, like
Clorama Dorvilias: you have to drive on the freeway. And so being able to like, okay, find the nearest coffee, drive to it, like that all makes sense. But it doesn't translate outside of that. Points, yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: it ⁓ kinda just po it it just pops a hole in the bubble a little bit of like you guys are so into whatever world you're in that you can really see like or maybe you're trying to offer offer some kind of alternative for people that have an extreme amount of privilege, but for everyday people ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: they're just gonna be wearing them and saying, I have these glasses. if you at the launch video between Gentle Monster, which is one of the designers, and Parker will be manufacturing this. This push to like blend fashion with technology, I I get it. It's a it's a tried and true kind of ⁓ delivery ⁓ system.
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ but it's one that just reinforces ⁓ the level to which people are ⁓ valuing interactions versus real authentic interactions. Right? Like it's just they they do this ⁓ just wanna ⁓ before forget, it's just just like ⁓ the video of the glasses and there are these two designers, I think from Google talking about them and how great they are.
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm-hmm. Yeah. We'll be yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: But at the end the punchline is, ⁓ hey Gemini, who wore it better? And that to me just undermined everything they were just trying to sell about the glasses because it's not a competition, right? It's a way to connect more to the world, but only just to know who wore it better.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. ⁓ the re okay, so thank you for sharing that. on the topic of a lack of compelling use case. this is the smartest minds of the world and the the the way that they're selling the most
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ just to fall flat. But anyway.
Clorama Dorvilias: innovative technology that we're expected to become mainstream is not exactly a high value solution. ⁓ and it's ⁓ doesn't translate cross regions. ⁓ a maybe it is a little bit more of a American space, but I love what you just said. Like where's the cheapest gas station? Maybe they want to stay out of political conversations, which is fair, but Americans who are struggling through inflation times. Like not everyone wants to get a six dollar coffee, but everyone does drink coffee So I think h had they tweaked it to be like, where can I get to find the cheapest coffee? ⁓ might have emotionally appealed to a lot of people without having be controversial. ⁓ so I think you're right. I think that's something that was missing in that use case. And it was a very missed opportunity to really ⁓ really get people's attention on this talking in it that's outside already of the tech bubble.
Siciliana Trevino: whenever someone talks about the economy ⁓ and about, know, so well, the stock market's doing good, but that's not the economy, the pundits always go back to Americans or people around the world believe what's in their wallet. or they wanna avoid like ⁓ looking at what's in their wallet. And so ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Siciliana Trevino: what tool's gonna help me bridge that gap of like helping me understand better how to save money in a difficult time. ⁓ but innovation's not gonna speak to a lack ⁓ of any speak to anyone's lack, right? It's all about ⁓ and what and the tools and and ⁓ looking better, necessarily being better.
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm. Mm. Yeah. Ooh, I so this just got me thinking, why would they not have said that? I was literally thinking, ⁓ if I'm trying to get my investors bought into this technology, I wouldn't want them to know that this I don't want that people will use it to not spend as much. Yeah. Ooh.
Siciliana Trevino: You know yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's what right. You don't wanna you don't wanna point out that there's a lack. You don't wanna point out that there's these things and yet
Clorama Dorvilias: Yes. Or no, it's like not even just the lack, 'cause the lack is pointing out like you're that's that you're talking about it more from an energetic standpoint, right? Like the feeling of let's not talk about lack. You want to talk more about I'm talking about it in a way where investors might get concerned that people will now use it to spend less money. So like in terms of like it goes against capitalism. Is that what you're saying? Okay, same definition. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: Yeah. Well yeah, it's well it's it's two prongs on the same fork. Yeah. ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: Sides of the same coin. Yes. Yeah. Exactly. so that is so real. And that as a result, because maybe there is this new, dynamic of them trying to appeal to investors. And I don't want to speculate on Google's reason for why they did that. I'm just saying in general, in the scheme of things, when investors ⁓ are, keen on growing, ⁓ getting a return. ⁓ And especially if they're investing in this technology, that it's being sold to consumers as like it'll help you save money might is not may not be what investors want to hear. And the consequence of that means that compelling use cases that would actually drive more people to buy this stuff, which would eventually bring more return to investors, gets ⁓ diluted so as a result, the compellingness just doesn't It doesn't get there. It just kinda stays in this weird safe bubble. Yeah. That yes.
Siciliana Trevino: It doesn't quite land. It doesn't really land outside of that bubble of the investor speak I I can't relate.
Clorama Dorvilias: it would still be connected to your phone in the sense that I believe that sounds like there will be an app companion. and it would be hands-free help. So you can use voice commands, you can talk to it and naturally and ask it to do things. And it will have an agent, that will do the task on your phone. For example, when you're ordering this coffee, ⁓ it'll be able to go and perform the task. You still will need to go to your phone to confirm it or to add tip as shown on the in the the video. It's a little modifier So as much as hands-free, you still might have to use hands. ⁓ There have to confirm the payment add the
Siciliana Trevino: Well the well no.
Clorama Dorvilias: ⁓ so that's how they describe delivering that help in the moment through the those three mechanisms. But it is audio glasses with Gemini as the AI capability that you are listening to and you're speaking to and asking these questions.
Siciliana Trevino: and I think that's where a lot of the friction can can compound, right? Because now we have multiple devices. And I remember seeing an article around ⁓ a ⁓ a writer whose job is to review these devices, and she's like, I only have wrists.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: there's only so many things I can wear at a certain point where all of a sudden ⁓ there's just a friction of that notification coming from? And then you've gotta manage multiple devices because contrary to what we've been told, they're not gonna replace the other. They're like they're going to they may minimize their use, but you'll they'll never really go away. Like I just don't see the phone going away. ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: in a way that's that's meaningful, you'll have a much more meaningful adoption of glasses. ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: Right. And then and in Google themselves in this talk doesn't say the phone's going away. they actually say your phone is ⁓ connected to it.
Siciliana Trevino: Well it's What I mean is, okay, one particular moment in the demo where ⁓ he's tossing it to his counterpart to show how the glasses work behind stage. he's like, let me text her to ⁓ her know that we're ready for the demo. I don't understand, even though they were gonna show text in the demo, why didn't he text her with his glasses ⁓ He texted her with his phone. So he takes out his phone, he's like, I'm gonna text her right now to say that we're ready. And then you see her getting the text. But like you were wearing the glasses. Why don't you just text her with the glasses and show us how you don't have to take out your phone? Like leading into the demo. You know? So like I s
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Yeah. watching there was a there was a specific part too where he says ⁓ I'm gonna put on some music ⁓ wait it's already playing I don't I didn't get that to you I like was that a mistake or yeah
Siciliana Trevino: Right. And that's why it's h it it it it is challenging to create those authentic moments because there's the delay and the time and the way that they get the you know, the distance, whatever it
Clorama Dorvilias: Let's let's talk about the live demo. I think that's a good segue to have that. But just to make sure we land the plane on the use cases, the points of this conversation is like are the right compelling use cases? the their conferences are speaking to several different stakeholders, they're speaking to investors, they're speaking to consumers, they're speaking to mainstream. By saying intelligent eyewear, they're already trying to create a new lane. ⁓ perception wise, for this smart glasses, for conversation to happen around it. They're trying to position themselves as the more practical ⁓ solution to everyday people. However, the use cases very clearly told us they're not talking to everybody. They're not talking to the regular everyday person. They seem to be talking to people who they're not necessarily interested in getting the cheapest gas. They just want a more efficient way to meet their friends for hiking. So maybe their market ⁓ is tech workers. however many of them are left. a you know maybe a CEO base ⁓ leadership, you know, it is to people where hiking and paying for coffees and
Siciliana Trevino: Right.
Clorama Dorvilias: ⁓ where they have to is their demographic, but then it's very short sighted if that's the case, or they're probably planning to make these glasses very expensive. ⁓ that's another potential indicator.
Siciliana Trevino: But it's a it's aspirational too.
Clorama Dorvilias: the question to leave with what is the right compelling use case? ⁓ And where are they going wrong? Is the right compelling use case the things that actually speak to American needs or people's needs that's more universal, which is addressing happening in the times, being aware, socially aware, culturally aware of what's happening in the times, the kind of questions that we have asked, is it trying to find a coffee place on the way to meet up friends, or is it? ⁓ trying to find cheap deals or is there other use cases you can think of that like
Siciliana Trevino: Honestly, I think people just want to wear glasses that make them feel and look good. I that is the biggest thing. So if it helps me, you know, find my way around town, great, but it doesn't have to. And I think that's a component that maybe sometimes the technologists maybe miss, is that it's really ⁓ just wanting to be recognized as someone who has the glasses.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Yeah. Mm.
Siciliana Trevino: not necessarily gonna use them for anything other than taking calls and listening to music and being active with them, which is great, which is fun. I love I love that ⁓ feature on them. I think listening to music with glasses is awesome and then talking into my lenses and making calls. But it's more just that it's it's who they identify the brand with, right? People that are customers of Warby Parker don't really care what the glasses do.
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm, mm, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: They're Warby Parker's, right? Or It's Prada. It's Gucci. It's they care more about the label than what it does for them. other than be a signal that they identify with brand, ⁓ or or even just the stories those tell. So, when you get a luxury purse or something like that, they'll spend whatever amount of money they need to spend to feel a certain way. So I don't
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Okay. Yeah. That's actually good insight because I I'm not a sunglass person or a glasses person. I I'm very lucky that I don't have to wear glasses, but and I'm also have never been a sunglass wearer, really. So I don't understand that market. So
Siciliana Trevino: Yeah, and and that helps them, right? That's what's gonna help them is their confidence in general. So that's ⁓ okay. ⁓ I love glasses. Yeah. I I mean I'm definitely as I've gotten older I I care more about just having a nice pair of fashion sunglasses. I used to really be into fun different kinds of glasses and and just I ⁓ my favorite thing was buying gas station sunglasses. So ⁓ yeah, I'd be like, Yeah, I'd be you know when I drive it because I when I was
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Interesting. ⁓ really?
Siciliana Trevino: Going to school, I'd go drive up and down the five all the time. So I always needed sunglasses. And anytime I stopped to fill up my gas in, you know, the valley or somewhere, I'd be like, I'd be like, ⁓ let's see the gas station sunglasses. And so I would just be like buying weird random glasses for like six dollars. ⁓ but now that I'm older, I'm like, ooh, you know, I want something fancy, flashy, because
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Yeah Yeah. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: I like subtle, ⁓ maybe a little bit soft luxury, also known as quiet luxury that it's not a ton of labels, but if you just have the right colors and the right thing, you're just yeah, it's that little extra you know that you've got those glasses, There's a lot you can do with that. And I do wear prescription glasses. I'm wearing contacts right now.
Clorama Dorvilias: Do you wear prescription? Yeah. Do ⁓ you wear contacts. ⁓ do this intelligent eyewear sound appealing to you?
Siciliana Trevino: Not really because I don't wanna come to depend on something that if I go without it, I'm going to feel stupid.
Clorama Dorvilias: ⁓ dang.
Siciliana Trevino: You know, like I'm gonna come to d to rely on these glasses so much for like, ⁓ where's this? ⁓ where's that? And then if I lose the glasses, I feel like I've lost my identity. Because that's what happens when, you know, people identify with their their gear, right?
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Ooh. Yeah. ⁓ my gosh, that's so true. So now that I have a Fitbit that like counts my walks. I w you know how it you know you have to need to charge it every three days. So there are times where like I'm just charging and I'm like, ⁓ shoot, I that's when I had to go on this walk or that's when I have to do it. And I'm like, ⁓ maybe I I won't go on the walk because I can't cat track it. ⁓ Yes. Or
Siciliana Trevino: Yeah. Right. Yeah, 'cause it won't count. It won't count. Like you it's not enough that you know you did it. You wanna see like your progress.
Clorama Dorvilias: The data I want I want it to, yeah, I want it to count towards my weekly goals. I want it to show, I want proof that I did this. else it won't it doesn't look like I did much that week. And then like ⁓ I lose the excitement in the walk. I lose the motivation to keep walking, which now means like, ⁓ I've offloaded my motivation for long walking, not because of my health, to the data, just to be able to see the numbers. Yeah. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: Yeah. But that becomes They got you. They got you. They got you. No, I I think that's I think the the fear is that one you know, yeah, there's this whole perception of, ⁓ do these glasses make me look smart? There's a part of you you start to identify with your devices. Just take away your phone for five minutes, and see if you're like, something's missing. What what's missing? And it's like, ⁓ I need any more of that than I already have. And I certainly don't want to be providing any more contextual information that can be repackaged in some backdoor way and sold on the black market.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: that's what goes back to the whole root of this existential crisis of a tech enthusiast is ⁓ we love this stuff coming out. We're waiting, we're looking, we're what's this? ⁓ what's the new colors? What's the new this? And and I can't wait to get it. And I'm the first in line to get it because I can say that I got it. And that's my whole personality. ⁓ And that's okay for that's okay. ⁓ But
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: when you start to dig a little bit deeper, you're like, what are we giving up for that? And I think for me personally, it's just it's more and more to the point where I'm actually looking for, digital detoxing and and all these kinds of ⁓ interventions to to let me get back to ⁓ what's going on internally and not so reliant on
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: The way I feel people perceive me because I'm wearing a pair of glasses.
Clorama Dorvilias: Ooh, so I hate I think the nail we're hitting here is people are not asking for another new smartphone, another new intelligent ⁓ thing. We're probably hitting a place, the a point where it's getting fatiguing and we're outsourcing and these companies are trying to create a dependency on a new platform, a new hardware just to continue to for business reasons. Yes.
Siciliana Trevino: Yes. To drive market share, yeah, because they have to capture new market share. They've saturated the mobile phone market. So now we have to look for new verticals and that's just the system we're in. So
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Yeah, they're just creating new flavors of the same thing, with slight, changes that make it a lot easier because we are heavy users of this phone. So it's like well let's offload this use case for this phone and this offload this use case for the smartwatch and like this, you know, the IoT, the internet of things all over your body ⁓ with wearables. ⁓
Siciliana Trevino: That's on your face. Yeah. But but it what happens is and what we know, and so this is how we can sort of maybe predict the future a bit, is looking at the pattern of, ⁓ everyone talks about the internet is so not operable the way it was in the beginning. Like in the early days it was fun, it was something that you used in escape, and now the real world has become the escape, it seems like, from being online and and
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: online used to not have any real world impacts the way that it does now. Everything that happens online sometimes in some ways is more real than what's happening in the real world, right? The the speed at which people can get information and make decisions.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Yeah. there's a collective fatigue over being online, but we are dependent on it. So it's really hard. if there's one more new thing, maybe people are like they can't they can't do it anymore. But taking breaks, leaving like everybody's coming away, feeling like, ⁓ I want to go do analog things now. I wanna like that's become starting to become more of fashion. I think I don't know if we mentioned this before, but like people are wanting to watch VHS tapes now or things like that, or go to the right movies again. ⁓
Siciliana Trevino: Yeah. Right. They're like, I can own wait, I own this? Like I actually have a right. It there's no s
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. And that's that's not too far off to how humanity is in general. if you think about, we built houses to get out of the forest and living in the wild and now we go camping for fun. ⁓ Like maybe it's just that same thing, but in little a microcosm of that or macrocosm of that, with tech. ⁓ where tech is like, yeah, we're in it, but we need the breaks as much as possible. But dang, how much can more can we take?
Siciliana Trevino: Good point.
Clorama Dorvilias: maybe that just means you haven't heard a compelling use case. Like if you had a compelling use case, Okay. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ no, it's a lot more than that. duplication for sure because of the contextual awareness. This is what I'm saying is that like it's it's ⁓ entrenched deeper ⁓ and ⁓ that happens, ⁓ much harder to get of it is what it so that's what I mean. It's like
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah, yeah, yeah. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Once you feel like you have a a a c real life assistant who's there to deliver help in the moment. ⁓ dependency. ⁓ yes.
Siciliana Trevino: And then if I don't pay, they're just gonna unplug it and now I'm left with like a void that I have to like, yeah, then become a monk or something. Well, but to a separate point, yes, and I I hear what you're saying. So it's like when you store all your photos in the cloud, but as as my husband likes to say, he's like, Is there a price on your memories? How do you put a price on your memories? So ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: That's what I feel about global Google Photos. I'm mad I'm starting to pay for those accounts. Well, there wasn't a price before, it was free. Well, I mean I guess you had to develop you did used to have to develop your film. Like you did have to pay for every c are yeah, it was expensive to buy a camera and then you would have to pay for go to sp go to cost and then you had to wait. But then that's also meant like now you can't do anything without thinking about a phone. Like you said, like even you having experiences. ⁓ I have a great experience. ⁓ and your phone's dead.
Siciliana Trevino: How do It And you had to wait. There was the time issue. Mm-hmm.
Clorama Dorvilias: ⁓ that's what happened to me yesterday. I was at the Arsenal parade.
Siciliana Trevino: Ha ha. ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: 20% battery because I I did charge it, but I think I woke up and I think I did one of those like three hours of doom scrolling or whatever. And then ⁓ you know, you know how those go. ⁓ and then yeah, and then ⁓ enough, we have to go out to catch to to to get our seats because it's an all day like we want to make sure we have the best space and so we're outside. and I just kept forgetting to charge my phone, even though it was right, I was my I lived right next to it at like thirty second walk, but I just kept forgetting to charge it. I was like, I think I have twenty percent. That's fine. I I just won't use it. But then like
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ did one of those three hours of doom scrolling, yeah. You know those. ⁓ no.
Clorama Dorvilias: the whole day was like counting down, like, okay, I have 17% that I have sixteen percent left. it was a layer onto this whole special fun day ⁓ of my battery life. I can't upload it my content in real time One of my friends, she messaged I finally posted something at the end of the day I was finally plugged in and ⁓ she was like, I was waiting for your content all day, exactly. I was like, sorry.
Siciliana Trevino: Where's she's she's waiting? Ha ha ha.
Clorama Dorvilias: It changed how I wanted to share because I couldn't do it in real time anymore. So it was just like, Yeah, the dependency was real. And then if I didn't have my camera, what
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ okay, you here's something that would help then. Here's here's a use case is if I could bump my phone to somebody else's one or my glasses and get their power. Like if I could like if I can you can you Yeah. Can I tap my phone with yours and like the way that you jump a car, right? Jumper cables.
Clorama Dorvilias: That would ⁓ see, there you go. That is innovation. How do we get battery life? How do we get more storage? Yeah. Solar power like solar powered sunglasses. That would be innovation. Intelligence. Solar powered phones. Solar powered phones. Yeah. Let's do work.
Siciliana Trevino: That's too woke. Solar power's too woke. You can't do it. You're not gonna get funding for that. No.
Clorama Dorvilias: No, no. Okay, okay. So I guess the reason why we don't hear that many compelling use cases, or at least the comp ⁓ use cases we want, which is in conflict with what investors want, ⁓ is because there probably isn't that many sexy use cases yet. when the came out, we didn't all think we we were gonna really love social media. that didn't exist then. So maybe it's just this new
Siciliana Trevino: That just yeah. That
Clorama Dorvilias: form factor of a technology vehicle with the internet, maybe ⁓ a developer create something that changes the way we interact or connect with smart glasses a way that we can't see today. And until that happens, just another natural language assistant, which is nice to have in real time. So your chat GBT in real time, Or Claude.
Siciliana Trevino: But it's not really like to me it's just not that, groundbreaking. Although I will say, I mean, what was compelling for creating War of the Worlds ⁓ interactive podcast was this that you'd be walking by a certain area or wherever you were, you would get a ping like, Hey, do you want a discount? to try this new coffee shop? Again, it's advertising, all supported by advertising.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: it was the ⁓ misdirection, right? So you'd get this alert like,
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: Click here and then it would launch short little bite-sized games that would complete to get the free coffee. but it was also this.
Clorama Dorvilias: So the gamifying engagement for small businesses, which would be great. Yeah. Just spending and localize. Yeah. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: But we was localized, right. But and it was localized and it was a way for ads to sneak into a podcast, which isn't what anybody wants, right? but we're all used to it, right?
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. yeah. Nobody wants ads, but nobody wants to pay for things. for the most part.
Siciliana Trevino: I'll play a small fun game that tests my meme trivia to to get a free local place that's gonna support a local business.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. And then and if you don't want that, then you can just pay for a subscription, which yeah, that like the I feel like that's just the way that that's been solved at this point. okay, here's what I think would be the most exciting use case. I feel like the circle to search, which they showed about with Galaxy XR, where you can circle something and ask what that is, I feel like smart glasses would be perfect for that. And I could see that being extremely popular. We already know Google search is their thing.
Siciliana Trevino: Mm.
Clorama Dorvilias: searching and getting information, right? so I'm surprised they don't lean into this more significantly in terms of this is where I'm at. I'm on my hike, if I have to keep the hiking metaphor ⁓ example. what path is this? Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: Google's already Yeah, they ⁓ they have that on the phone, right?
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah, they have it on the phone. upload the image and ask what it is. Yeah. So that's what I'm saying. Have it on the glasses where you don't have to describe it. It just sees it. ⁓ And it's like, okay, yeah, that's this tree. Or where are you talking about that tree? How like like you know, like I feel like that to me is the Google search wearable use case, high value use case. Yes. ⁓
Siciliana Trevino: My father in law uses that all the time. All the time he's using that. You just look. Like is this mushroom poisonous? Like or
Clorama Dorvilias: You know, what hairstyle like is that called? ⁓ you know, where did she get that dress? What's who what stores that like like, ⁓ those shoes. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: Totally. Or Shazam. Actually that's I love Shazam. I would just be like, ⁓ Shazam's a song. You know, because I always take out Shazam too late. That's a real problem. It's a real problem. ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm-hmm. ⁓ yeah! That's a good one. That's another exciting use case. Like, hey, whatever whatever. What song is this? That's amazing. That's why don't they show girl, they should have they should be paying us the big bucks shouldn't they? ⁓ yeah, no, I love that. Or you're in the library, tell can you show me the review for this book? Like the one that says why ⁓ the rules of life. I'm looking at a book right now on my shelf. This is the rules of life. what's the reviews on it?
Siciliana Trevino: Yeah. I know. So
Clorama Dorvilias: ⁓ yes, this book was written. You know, like having that in real time, that is where it's supposed to be at.
Siciliana Trevino: I'd just be like, Can you read the end of this book for me? I just wanna know the end. So that would make me feel very smart.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah ⁓ yeah, all right, so okay. Yes. Alright, now to the most important part of this topic. Let's talk about the hardware. they are collaborating with three partners. So we already know there's one audio glasses out there, the competitor, which is Meta Ray Bands and Oakley. ⁓ we know Ray Bands itself ⁓ is the most popular pair of luxury sunglasses, sash glasses in general. those are specifically, yeah. Oakley is in the athletic gear and
Siciliana Trevino: They're pretty iconic. Yeah.
Clorama Dorvilias: Ray Bans is very much a fashionable, iconic, statement, but it's also very popular. ⁓ So know that, they can't double dip, These companies are competing. Google's gonna have to look for other competitive things, and I think they went the numbers game, they have Samsung, which is doing glasses, which I don't think has done glasses before, so that's ⁓ gonna be interesting. then like you said, they have Gentle Monster and Warbur Parker. ⁓ I'm not a sunglasses consumer, but please tell me, Do you think those were like very appealing companies or compelling companies,
Siciliana Trevino: I mean, Warby Parker's ⁓ disruptor in selling, I think they were primarily selling online first. ⁓ and just a lot of different styles, ⁓ they're very price friendly ⁓ for most everyone. getting market share through their price points and through their online selling. not super familiar with a gentle monster, but
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm.
Siciliana Trevino: you're Collaborating and ⁓ leveraging the best of the fashion side of glasses and looking good and feeling good. And then ⁓ adding this extra layer of like, ⁓ and now gonna intelligence to that so that you, yeah, you're getting that extra layer of help ⁓ without having to look at your phone, but also something that's identity affirming.
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: Right, with dealing with your face. And so people are very sensitive about how glasses can look, especially if you have prescription lenses. so how do want to look when they're their in in the real world? fashion does have a way of creating a tier
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. ⁓
Siciliana Trevino: Of like, okay, the haves and the have nots. I think all of these partnerships, ⁓ strategically are a good play. There's a lot of brand awareness around Warby Parker and then Gentle Monster. and competitive wise with Meta, there's word they're gonna have Prada glasses, even I think Gucci. ⁓ And for I think that's a big risk for the designer glasses. to associate their name with technology companies that can, on a dime have some bad press. Right. So let's say some real harm comes through some of these glasses and then the brand gets associated with that harm. So I think it's a bigger risk for these fashion companies to associate with adding AI.
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm.
Siciliana Trevino: But it's a way for them to participate in some of the excitement of like future forward technology. So it's smart. I mean, they can't not do it, right?
Clorama Dorvilias: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I'm sure they have contracts, like limited contracts. like one year, two years, or just this product line just to see how things go. And they could probably back out at any point if they need to.
Siciliana Trevino: Well, with Meta they bought like a stake into Luxotica. Luxotica is the parent company of Ray-Ban and all Oakley and all of these glasses.
Clorama Dorvilias: it. ⁓ yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: I they're the largest company for I think buying a stake is just to show how serious they are and ⁓ to really own the space and have a s have a real say over the decisions that the company makes blocking obviously other partnerships.
Clorama Dorvilias: Okay, so ⁓ what did you feel about the new hardware designs? I don't know if they showed all three. I'm not a sunglass consumer in general. just like I feel like they ⁓
Siciliana Trevino: But you wear yours out of convenience because you like being hands free.
Clorama Dorvilias: That was why I like the Ray Bans, yes, was because I'm an AirPod user. I don't like headphones either, like the analog headphones or the AirPods. I don't like putting things in my ears. ⁓ So I did love the meta ray bands that specifically. ⁓ And I'm a heavy camera user. ⁓ Hence why I'm complaining about have two different Google photo accounts unlimited.
Siciliana Trevino: Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay.
Clorama Dorvilias: So I paid twenty I paid forty bucks a year for both of them because I'm constantly capturing every moment of every day. especially once I got my dog. I'm pretty sure one of those accounts is just dog photos and videos. because of that, I feel like ⁓ the the gl ray bands was was a relief for me in that sense. ⁓ I could capture things candidly. And I told you It made me feel safer when I'm in public too. I can capture things in real time and it felt easy. ⁓
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ my god.
Clorama Dorvilias: So yeah, I think between all of those things, I am the user. But like I said, I'm not dependent on it. I lost my last pair last summer. I have not felt compelled to buy another one. ⁓ although I would love another one.
Siciliana Trevino: would you buy it if it was cheaper?
Clorama Dorvilias: I think if I was in the States, I would have bought it. ⁓ because I'm in London, I don't like the idea of paying the same number in pounds because then I know I'm overpaying. You know what I'm saying? ⁓ but with that said, I have people from America come visit me all the time. Like I saw my family when I was in went to Switzerland for my birthday. So I could have had them buy it for me. But I was like, ⁓ I know I know I'm gonna lose it again in three months, so it wasn't like a big deal. But I'm sure if I was in the States I would have bought it, yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ yeah, right now okay. Okay, just to piggyback on that a little bit, I when I was thinking about mass scale adoption of sunglasses, of smart glasses, at three hundred dollars, three hundred fifty dollars a price point is not necessarily something that I'm comfortable with just ⁓ using as a disposable item.
Clorama Dorvilias: and very easy to lose things ⁓ and then
Siciliana Trevino: it's a pain. It's a hassle.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Okay. So so with that said, going back to this hardware question. So I I think I like what you said about earlier too, the about the beauty of it. Like I was actually surprised they kept articulating, ⁓ it's about beautifulness, it's about beauty, it's about aesthetic. It's how do we design something that feels or expresses your you know, because that's that's the thing, right? It's expression. It's not I mean, I think some people could see it as like a class indicator, ⁓ or social class indicator, or how much but it's also like expression. Yeah, it defines your face, how does it make you look, how does it make you feel? ⁓
Siciliana Trevino: But it's But it's identity. It's it's something that affirms your identity.
Clorama Dorvilias: ⁓ and some people wanna feel or look rich and some people just wanna feel like expresses exactly this kirky look I'm going for or a smart look I'm going for. ⁓ so you know, yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: alternative look or yeah, it just it's a way to enhance, you know, what you're wearing or how you're feeling that day. It's a way to express yourself. Yeah.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. And the good news is that there are three different options. So you'll have your pick, and it sounds like they'll all do the same thing. ⁓ And the apps will work for iOS and Android. So that was nice and inclusive of them to do that.
Siciliana Trevino: So the hardware does make things more convenient, but are you more reliant in a way that without it it's going to be ⁓ a nerving or a shift, right? It'll cause anxiety. ⁓ Right, right. You get addicted to it, yeah. ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: If they do the product right, that's exactly the goal, right? That's for any product. How to make sure people don't want to live without it. So that way they could secure their business the question is, do you think this hardware is good? Do you like this hardware from that Google's offering? Okay. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: Yeah. I think it's good hardware. Yeah. I think yeah. I've been a big fan of heads up hands since the Bose AR glasses. The the only difference is the newer glasses are gonna have a visual display.
Clorama Dorvilias: 'cause to me the the designs look nice, but I don't know about how how regular sunglass people will feel. It looked small, it looked like it was just a square, like a tiny square, like The Microsoft one, the HoloLens. It looked like a square just like the HoloLens.
Siciliana Trevino: I mean I mean honestly ⁓ HoloLens, yeah. I'm probably ⁓ an outlier that regard because I just I think that stuff's gonna be super distracting. I'm more a fan of like the Bluetooth capabilities although to your point, pointing at something and saying, ⁓ what's that tree? Or identifying objects is fine.
Clorama Dorvilias: if those glasses did not come with AI or anything in it, would you still buy those glasses as one of your options? Okay, so you did like the hardware itself, agnostic of the technology.
Siciliana Trevino: Yes, I think so. Yeah. I do because and
Clorama Dorvilias: as sunglass wear or a prescription glass?
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ probably I'm more I mean, I'm probably more a a Gucci Ray Ban user than ⁓ a Warby So I think there's gonna be a lot of brand loyalty around that too.
Clorama Dorvilias: Okay. Okay. So then really okay, so this is the last part. So this is the smartwatch UI display I thought was the most cleverest thing I've seen in a long time. And I felt like that was when we talk about comparing this potential solution to other competitors right now, which is only the meta Ray Bans and I'm not sure if there's other smaller players. but Google Connecting their UI display. probably to make up for a very small screen inside the lens, to see stuff on your smartwatch, I thought was really ideal. where you have meta lens display ray bands, which doesn't have a smartwatch connection to it. The UI will stay on your glasses or your phone, you do have to wear a second if you're already a smartwatch wearer, a neural display band, which has no other purpose than to gesture for your input ⁓ to help you write and
Siciliana Trevino: Mm.
Clorama Dorvilias: ⁓ So and if you lose you have to worry about battery life on this as well. So you're charging two extra things.
Siciliana Trevino: So wait, so if I lose that, then I have to buy another one?
Clorama Dorvilias: I don't know how much it how how it feels wearing it all day. I don't know how long the battery lasts, and if wearing it all day makes sense for how much you're gonna be using the gestures because then it feels like you can't really multitask it. It's definitely not hands-free. ⁓ It's no longer a solution. I think we're asking the question, is this the r is this ⁓ going to work? Is this was this a good product? You think Why?
Siciliana Trevino: It will sort of work. It will s it will sort of work. because of the the device friction, because of the notification friction, again, I don't think they're actually gonna care what it does. They're gonna find the one feature that works for them, but the biggest feature is how does it on their face?
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: That's I that's that at end of the day, it's just gonna be Does this make me feel more confident? Because it's not gonna be a logo on the side. So they don't care about, what's making it work or do what it does. I'm sure there's segments of of population that'll be like, Google made these glasses and I'm an Android user, and so that's how they identify. But ⁓ as far as working,
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: ⁓ yeah, I think they'll appeal to people for sure. And it already is working. That's why people are pursuing it to the degree that they are, is because people already have an affinity for wearing fashionable glasses. ⁓ so that's built in.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: also for just an artistic lens, I think there's some really cool fun things that you could do
Clorama Dorvilias: the presentation was good, but it wasn't compelling. from a tech enthusiast perspective, It was interesting to s choose this different path of calling it intelligent eyewear and to try to be palatable, but it was a disappointing in the sense that the use cases still are the same. They're nothing new, they're nothing innovative, and they didn't really translate well beyond the industry. And you would think with all this time, those solutions would be more varied and a little bit more juicy, a little bit exciting, especially now. The glass smart smart glasses, intelligent eyewear.
Siciliana Trevino: more than
Clorama Dorvilias: you know, AI glasses. This has been talked about and been focused on for years now. And buying a coffee on your fight a hike is just really underwhelming that that's what it kind of came to be. ⁓ the technology itself, cool. We've seen it before, nothing ex crazy. However, I think the fun surprises and the positive things was a really innovative way of connecting ⁓ the Fitbit as an extended UI display the glasses. I thought that was cool. ⁓ I guess the next bigger question is how much will these cost and whether or not we would believe in the long-term future of these hardware where we actually see really interesting practical applications similar to what we've seen in Galaxy XR. I feel like the circle to search on Galaxy XR is really exciting. The Google Maps, like there's a lot of apps that the suite of apps that Google uses actually fares way better in the real world because that's what I'm actually using when I'm out and about, which is what glasses is going to.
Siciliana Trevino: Mm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Clorama Dorvilias: Be great on, but we didn't see anything that helps us really change our worldview ⁓ more broadly on whether or now we can see that and then that smart glasses just okay, this is definitely gonna be mainstream. That still didn't ⁓ it didn't change our perspective on that based on our last conversation about it.
Siciliana Trevino: that really spoke to me personally. Yeah. ⁓ I I these will be ⁓ more mainstream than we've seen ⁓ from like ⁓ hardware, ⁓ sure, it's just a smaller form factor. And again, you have that brand recognition of people that just wanna buy fashion sunglasses and have the added value of saying, ⁓ they're smart too but not really that being the driver of the purchase, just someone who wants the label.
Clorama Dorvilias: the jury is still out on whether smart glasses has product market fit. ⁓ think a lot of people keep narrating or talking about it in a sense of like, they have they've sold seven million units. It sells, it sells, it sells. with that's without the context that they've sold it at the same price as regular glasses, as the ⁓ dumb glasses, I guess. ⁓ and on top of that, it's we still don't know numbers, nothing has exploded yet.
Siciliana Trevino: Mm-hmm.
Clorama Dorvilias: There's a lot more concerns about it than I'm seeing positive conversations. The only positivity I'm hearing around smart glasses is from the current enthusiastic small base of tech enthusiasts who are still like, I believe, but I haven't heard anything from the mainstream that's like really excited for it. Like I like I said, I've been wearing these glasses for years now. None of my friends have been like, ⁓ I want to buy one now. I've never seen that. I have seen that with the VR headset, ironically, ⁓ but I haven't seen that with these glasses. So juries out on whether or not this is appeal or they're just gonna be as successful as AirPods, which to me is not the same as a billion users. It's more so like it you can sell it at a high price and then that cohort of of a market, like the Apple market or whatever, is it still create revenue. It's just not gonna be a a global mainstream product.
Siciliana Trevino: Which actually creates a level of opportunity if you're an entrepreneur or you're a content creator, right? To establish the the trend or to create something that we haven't really seen before that is compelling that will get other people to buy, like the killer app, right? So for the true believers and the people that have that kind of ⁓ runway, right? ⁓
Clorama Dorvilias: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: to to invest and and to try out different things, it it could be a really exciting time.
Clorama Dorvilias: Yeah. Okay, cool. Thank you so much. Another good conversation. I appreciate you, Ceciliana. Yeah.
Siciliana Trevino: Yeah. Appreciate you Clorama and all our viewers out there. Thanks for watching and it
Clorama Dorvilias: And I forgot to say this in the beginning, but if you enjoy this content and you want to hear more, or if you just enjoy watching two smart women talk about technology, or if you can relate to any of this stuff and you want to see more of it, please like, subscribe. It really helps our channel. We're we're, you know, we're not getting paid for any of this, that we don't have sponsors or anything like that, but we just enjoy sharing these insights and having a good conversation. And hopefully you take something away that's meaningful, learn something. And we'd love to even hear from you in the comments what your opinion is on this stuff.
Siciliana Trevino: We're just having a fun.
Clorama Dorvilias: ⁓ but please like, subscribe, leave a comment, engage. ⁓ yeah, thank you so much for if you stayed with us this much of the way. Thank you so much. and yeah, hope you guys have a great day, week. ⁓ you next time. ⁓ ⁓
Siciliana Trevino: Yeah. See you next time.