Published 30 September 2024
Co-hosts Andy, Michael and Michael are reunited and start things off with thorough discussion on the “Clark Kent-esque” Meta Orion augmented reality glasses. The Verge article on this subject brings several perspectives into focus from the cohosts. One observation drew attention to the “neural wristband” used to capture gestures like fingers pinching to represent a click. Another saw the puck as another object to keep track of, when in theory a phone may serve the same purpose to deliver the off-glasses compute power. The team drew comparisons to the Ray-Ban Meta discussed on previous episodes, and used by Andy while recording this show. While the Ray-Ban edition does not have the augmented reality capabilities, it does provide an on-the-go connection with an AI agent to ask questions. Harkening back to prior episodes, this kind of human augmentation will most certainly have societal and behavioral changes in how people interact with one another. Check out e192 from 2018 for one such example. Interestingly enough, the point of Zuckerberg and Alex Heath using the Orion glasses to play an Augmented Reality version of Pong was not mentioned on this Games at Work episode! Check out e400 for another story on AR Pong in the show notes!
The co-hosts discuss the repairability of the newest iPhone, the Halide and Panels apps before rounding out the episode with a conversation on how touchscreen kiosks have changed the nature of fast food ordering in some unexpected ways.
How do you expect new instances of AI and AR hardware to change how people interact with one another? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (our home for now) and let us know!
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Selected Links
Hardware
The Verge article: Meta’s Big Tease
@viticci yep. Also Meta admitting that they tried to make this a product but it's "years" away… is strikingly similar to Gurman's reports about Apple doing the same thing. Apple just doesn't show its prototypes.
It does make me think this is happening sooner than I expected, though.
Games At Work e192: PVP-Y with Mr. Mumbles
Games at Work e400: Quadringenti (for AR Pong)
ZD Net article: The iPhone 16 is the most-repairable iPhone yet, according to iFixit
Hackaday article: Hands-On With New iPhone’s Electrically-Released Adhesive
Ebay: Travel case for the 27” iMac
Software
9 to 5 Mac article: Halide rejected from the App Store because it doesn’t explain why the camera takes photos
The latest Halide update was rejected because, after seven years, a random reviewer decided our permission prompt wasn't descriptive enough.
I don't know how to explain why a camera app needs camera permissions.
The Verge article: Marques Brownlee says ‘I hear you’ after fans criticize his new wallpaper app
Time Flies by Koen van Gilst
The Lost Outpost blog post: The Web, made by Humans
The Lost Outpost blog post: I love the Web
Unexpected Technology Outcomes
CNN article: McDonald’s touchscreen kiosks were feared as job killers. Instead, something surprising happened
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