For those who don't click through the Sony link:
-The display looks like the Terminator's point of view, but simpler and in green.
Do you like Google Glass, but wish the $1,500 headset was more cumbersome, less discreet, and a little easier on the wallet? Well, Sony has just the thing for you (and perhaps only you). The Japanese electronics giant has announced an augmented reality headset that will ship in March. Dubbed SmartEyeglass, the nerdy-looking …
When the phone is in your pocket, nobody can tell whether you have a top-of-the-range iPhone or a cheapo Chinese Android; with these wearables, any potential robber will be able top pick out their marks with ease.
Perhaps the pint is to make them fugly, so that they aren't desirable to the criminals.
Sorry, got a bit distracted by Apple getting a patent for what appears to be just a ripoff of Cardboard. Is having the phone slide in from the side enough to preclude prior art?
Or is it because the Apple version will be constructed using brown envelopes of used bills left lying around the USPTO?
It's like a 70s rock band who keep on bringing new stuff out in the hope of recapturing the glory days - but have left all their talent in the past.
It was only 15 years ago that Sony were leading the world with tech innovation - I've still got a house full of it - stuff like the Vaio picturebook, and later the quirky but tiny (by the then standards) UX180 PC, and what about the UX50 handheld - amazingly ahead of it's time.
Then there wasGlasstron VR specs done right with great optics, and the combined tiny PC and video camera combined, etc. They were on a roll.
But by 2003 or so, there were already signs they'd lost it - the first to deliver solid state 'mp3' players - BADGED as 'mp3 compatible' but actually atrac players - and you had to convert all your mp3 to atrac via sonys crap software...
There started the demise of sony..
They continued the memory stick nonsense, totally lost the consumer audio market, stopped innovating with PCs, and even managed to start installing boot-kits.
Only a company truly and completely broken could have let a product like these glasses get to production - the video is so utterly utterly terrible it's hard to watch. How bad can management be when not one can stand up on seeing that and say 'you're joking right - that is the worse piece of shit in my life'
Sony are no longer guilty of the sins you have highlighted.
These days they make some of the best Android phones (very good battery, microSD card support), some very good cameras, televisions, and their PS4 console is more fit-for-purpose than its competition. They still release some well polished and innovative products.
Sony aren't the only company to pull out of the PC market. The home audio market has also changed shape, with docks and networked systems supplanting traditional hi-fi separates. Sony still make some dedicated audio players, and some good balanced armature / hybrid earphones.
>Only a company truly and completely broken could have let a product like these glasses get to production
The video was aimed at developers, and the goggles are largely intended for environments where eye protection is more important than fashion - i.e workshops and sports. This is a far more sensible approach than Google's desperate attempts to make their Glass product acceptable in social settings.
As developer units, they are effectively a form of prototype - looks aren't crucial. Sony can't be arsed to deal with the social backlash that Google's Glass has generated, so are pitching these differently. The applications they used as examples are just that- the idea is to see what developers come up with.