Stuff - UK (2020-12)

(Antfer) #1

Devi lifting


DEVIALET GEMINI


There’s only one type of French fancy we’d recommend you stick in
your ears – and it’s got nothing to do with Mr Kipling. With their 10mm
high-excursion drivers, three levels of active noise-cancellation and an
app that takes just five seconds to ensure the tips you’ve chosen fit well
enough to provide the best possible sound, Devialet’s Gemini earbuds
are crafted with the same outlandish luxury the French audio brand
puts into its pricey Phantom speakers. There’s also 24 hours of battery
life and IPX4 water/dust-proofing, plus two levels of audio transparency
for letting the outside world in. Perhaps most crucially, though, they
present absolutely zero risk of getting buttercream in your ears.
£279 / devialet.com


A fair trilobite


FOSSIL GEN 5E


Try to tell the time on a normal fossil and it always seems to be five past
ammonite, or, if you’re really lucky, 20 to stegosaurus. But consult
Fossil’s latest Gen 5E smartwatch and it’ll tell you everything from how
high your heart rate is to when the dinosaurs died out. Oh, and what
time it is. This Google-powered 44mm wearable has lost a few features
compared to the standard Gen 5: there’s 4GB of storage instead of 8GB,
you don’t get built-in GPS, and the configurable buttons are no more;
but with the same Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor, always-on 1.2in
display, 24-hour battery and 1GB of RAM, there’s still enough there to
stop it from becoming extinct any time soon.
$249 / fossil.com


Oh no, more smart specs?
After the Google Glass fiasco you might
think they’d joined 3D TV, laser discs and
Amazon’s Fire Phone in the great recycling
bin in the sky – but Facebook hasn’t given
up on the idea just yet. Its new wearable AR
venture is called Project Aria.

When do they turn up on my face?
You won’t find these connected glasses for
sale. Project Aria is currently just a research
initiative that Zuckerberg and co hope will
help them to build the first generation of
decent AR facewear.

So this is a prototype pair?
Nope, they’re not even at that stage yet.
Facebook is dishing out ‘research devices’
to a small group of employees. They don’t
even include a display, just a camera and
mic plus sensors to capture location data
and eye movement, so FB’s engineers can
get a better idea of how people actually
move through the world. This will help them
to develop the AR aspect and make their
glasses genuinely useful.

That sounds like a good idea...
You know sarcasm is the lowest form of
wit, right? A lot of the tech hasn’t caught
up with Facebook’s vision of video chats
with lifelike avatars and real-time digital
assistants just yet, but it makes a lot of
sense to work on the foundations now.
The team of testers will also allow FB to
create virtual 3D maps, which it reckons
are crucial for location-based AR.

Wake me up when I can actually buy
some, yeah?
Well, Facebook does have some smart-ish
glasses in the pipeline to buy next year.
They won’t come with a display either,
or have any AR skills, so are more likely to
be an Insta-friendly version of Snapchat’s
Spectacles. But FB has enlisted Ray-Ban’s
help to make them, so chances are they
won’t make you look like a robo-dweeb.

WTF IS


PROJECT


ARIA?

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