Meta has just rolled out a new feature inside of their AI smart glasses, their meta Raybans that can now help you hear conversations better. This is a really interesting feature in what I believe is the next hottest product. I think there's been a lot of products out there that have, you know, essentially said that they're going to replace the smartphone. We had the humane pin earlier this last year that was like a penny clip on your shirt, had a projector on your screen and they're like, never take your smartphone in your pocket.
You do everything on this device. We had the rabbit R1 that flops humane. Obviously one bankrupt Amazon recently purchased a company called B, which I bought one of them and tested them. It's like a wristband that records your conversations and gives you notes and helps you with stuff.
None of these devices have been very hot topics in my opinion. None of them have have taken off nor do I think they'll continue to take off as replacement to an iPhone. The form factor that I 100% think will win is glasses and right now meta is leading the way in this probably because Mark Zuckerberg wasted, you know, billions and billions of dollars on, in my opinion, wasted on the Oculus and on VR, which is a cool technology, but I just don't think it's going to seem to mass adoption. I think Apple learned that the hard way with their Apple vision pros.
But I think Zuckerberg stumbled upon an incredibly winning form factor, which was glasses. There is a speaker right next to your ear. There's a microphone embedded into them. They have a camera right on the front of them and the lens of the glasses will eventually be able to have projected augmented reality stuff on the screen.
So you can read books or watch movies or see things on your lenses in front of you. So everything kind of the Oculus and the Apple Vision Pro theoretically could offer you, but in a very small form factor that is that people are used to wearing already. So you don't have to put a giant mask on your ski mask on your face to use the technology. So I think this is going to be a winner.
I want to break down the new feature here because I think this is really interesting. But before I do, I wanted to mention, if you want to try all of AI models, I mentioned on the show, including meadows, which has a bunch of really cool new models, a bunch of really cool open source models. If you want to try to lead us from OpenAI and Google and anthropic and Grok and 11 labs for audio and a ton of cool image generators, go check out AI box. AI, this is my own startup that I built for $20 a month.
You access to all of the top models in one place. You don't have to forget where you put stuff. You don't have to open a hundred tabs. You don't have to pay subscriptions to a bunch of different models.
$20 a month. You get access to everything. So you can go check it out. It is AI box.ai.
There's a link in the description. All right. Let's get back to the story about meta. They just announced this update to their AI glasses and essentially it's going to allow you to hear people talking better when you're in a really noisy environment.
I think we've all been there, whether you're on like a train or just a really noisy crowd. Some next to you is talking. You can barely hear what they're saying. It's kind of embarrassing when you have to keep asking them to repeat themselves.
Initially, this feature is going to become available on the Raybann meta and the Oakley meta HST and smart glasses just in the US and Canada. In addition, they are getting another update that lets you use Spotify to play a song that matches what's in your current view. This is kind of like a funny gimmick, but I think it highlights a really cool feature, which is that you can play Spotify on your glasses and listen to music on Spotify. I think you might be able to also pair with Bluetooth headphones if you want to do that.
But otherwise, it's kind of interesting because on the one hand, I think meta does a pretty good job with the speakers inside of these glasses, not being too disruptive to other people around you because a frame of the glasses is resting right on top of your ear. It's real close to your ear, but at the same time, it is a speaker playing out loud. So I think they do a great job to make it not too annoying for people around you, but you probably, if you're playing Spotify, you want to have some headphones in as well. So if you're looking at an album cover, though, for example, this is a great example of when this new Spotify use case would be.
If you're looking at album cover, the glasses can play a song by the artist. Or if you're looking at a Christmas tree with a pile of gifts, you could play holiday music. So in one way, I think it's sort of like cheesy of the feature. As if I'm going to look at my Christmas tree and then all of a sudden, I want it to start playing deck of the halls.
But sometimes I'm like, hey, I do want some Christmas music. It would be nice if I didn't have to search for Christmas music. It would be nice if I was just like, look over my Christmas tree and just play some music that plays music like what I'm looking at. Essentially, it's like a faster way of getting what you're trying to see.
So as a gimmicky feature, I don't think it has a lot of sticky value, but if it reduces friction, and I'm like literally looking at the beach and I'm like, play some music like this, and starts playing the beach, boys, I'm like, cool, this is what I would have wanted, or I'm looking at a Christmas tree, it starts playing Christmas music, I'm like, this is what I would have wanted. If it reduces the friction, I mean, how many do I type out a specific playlist or song, then yes, I do think that's awesome. How good will it be, I think, is really what is going to determine if this is a good tool or not. But some people really do like music inspired by certain things, and recently I had a family member that's a dentist, and for his birthday, his wife was asking everyone to submit a song that reminded them of him.
And so I was looking up, I was trying to find a bunch of funny songs about dentists or something, and Chatchupi was really doing me dirty, was not giving me any good recommendations. My brother ended up finding a whole bunch of hilarious ones, and submitting them all. And so anyways, I wish I had gotten better recommendations, but Chatchupi didn't give them to me. And so it made me think, you know, it really all depends on how good the am-hodel is that recommending.
If Meta could solve that problem, then I think it would be a great tool. If not, it could be a flaw. So it all depends on that. The conversation focus feature, though, that I think is probably a lot more practical.
They just announced, they actually announced earlier this year, but it's getting rolled out. It uses the AI glasses, open ear speakers, and it's going to essentially amplify the voice of the person you're talking to. So they say that the smart glasses wearer is going to be able to adjust the amplification level by swiping the right temple of the glasses or in the device settings. So this is essentially going to let you set the level, make a really precise match your current environment.
So if you're in a busy restaurant, a bar, a club, a train, or anywhere else, whoever you're looking at is going to amplify what they're saying, but not the ambient sound of the room around you. Honestly, this is a really, really cool feature when you're in noisy environments. How well this works, I think is going to definitely need to be tested just like their Spotify feature. However, I will say that the idea of using this to help with hearing is not just something that Apple's working on.
Apple's air, or Meta's working on. Apple's AirPods already have a conversation boosting feature that's designed to essentially help you focus on the person you're talking to. They'll make that person a little bit louder. And I think even like Apple's, you know, their latest AirPods Pro models have added support for like a clinical grade hearing aid feature as well.
So there's, you know, a lot of people are kind of working on this, but I think these obviously are the first glasses that are going to embed this feature. And I do think this has got a lot of great use cases. I think it's limited to the US and Canada right now. The Spotify feature is anywhere that's, you know, English is spoken.
So basically every like many, many places, this is going to be a new software update that's going to come and you'll be able to use it. I think right now you have to join a weightless to get approved. It's going to roll up to everyone later. But regardless, I mean, I think this is a good idea of what is coming down the pipe, what we can expect from the Meta Raybans and just like another really insane use case.
I think translating other languages, I think amplifying the voice of the person you're talking to. These glasses, I think, are going to be one of Raybans and one of Meta's biggest sellers. And of course, they're doing it with Oakley as well. So it's not just Raybans, but I think this will be one of Meta's biggest sellers.
And it probably will make Zuckerberg back all of the money that he lost on the Metaverse that I just don't think is too much of a happen in place these days. All right. Thank you so much for tuning into the podcast. If you enjoyed the episode, if you learned anything new and interesting, make sure to leave a rating review on the podcast.
It's not just helps more people find out, find a show. It boosts me in the algorithm and helps us show out a lot. So if you want to say thank you, that would be the best way to do it. Drop some stars on Spotify on the About tab or yeah, leave a review over on Apple.