Ray-Ban and Facebook Ray-Ban is hoping to fix all of these design issues with their new smart glasses called Ray-Ban Stories launched in partnership with Facebook. The classic Wayfarer’s get a technological upgrade with a discreet camera that can take photographs and videos through voice command or with a touch button on the temples. Ray-Ban Stories glasses also have speakers that let you listen to music in lieu of earbuds.
As with most things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. To preserve their awesome performance, avoid getting them dirty in the first place. Avoid any harsh chemicals in general, as these can destroy the clearness of these lenses. Use filtered or softened water if you live in a hard-water area. This prevents suspended particles in the water from scratching your lenses.
Its popularity was only amplified when some of the brand’s collections were featured in the 1969 film, Easy Rider. Today, Ray-Bans are still one of the most popular luxury eyewear brands in existence. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation.
These are meant to be used with a phone nearby, but they could be stand-alone camera-glasses for a few hours, too. The glasses recharge using the included case, using a clever magnetic contact hidden in one of the glasses’ arm hinges. While the glasses themselves provide only a couple hours of battery life, the included charging case provides roughly a day of use, Facebook says. In addition to coming in several styles and colors, they can be made as sunglasses or untinted lenses, prescription and even progressive lenses.
The multiyear partnership with EssilorLuxottica that Facebook has announced, which starts with these more basic glasses, clearly strives towards far more advanced stuff. Blending of virtual and real with embedded displays, spatial audio. Facebook’s bound to keep blurring the lines between privacy and your data as the hardware gets more complex, and so are other manufacturers of AR devices. A shutter button is on one arm, right above a touchpad that controls volume and can be tapped to answer calls and play/pause.
Crucially, that extra weight is distributed well, and both of us remarked that it was easy to forget you were wearing tech-laden shades. CNN Business Senior Writer Rachel Metz tested the new Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses. She tried to use them clubmaster to photograph a slice of pizza, but couldn’t capture the whole thing. Yet while a selling point of the glasses is letting you stay immersed in a moment while capturing it, I often had the opposite experience while taking still photos.
While they lack AR, the technology that overlays digital content on the physical world, Facebook says it eventually plans to embed that functionality. You long-press the button to take a photo, and a shutter sound comes through the built-in speakers to indicate a photo has in fact been snapped. Press quickly on the same button and the glasses start recording a 30-second video. You can also walk around saying “Hey, clubmaster Facebook” and speaking your capture commands if you have no shame whatsoever. The videos are crisp and stable (even if they’re square); the photos, which are only captured after a maddening half-second shutter lag, measure 2,592 by 1,944 pixels, with plenty of room for editing. All images and clips export into Facebook’s View app using the glasses themselves as a temporary Wi-Fi hot spot for faster sharing.
Both collections feature a variety of lens shapes and temple designs to fit any style. Alternatively, the Wayfarer has a simple, retro design that can work with just about any style. Its basic black body with black lenses and extended end pieces have now been imitated by hundreds of other manufacturers. Nonetheless, the original Wayfarer is a classic look that cannot be replicated.
The use of Facebook Assistant for voice command-powered capture is totally optional. You can view and delete your voice transcripts, and you always have the option to turn off voice storage and/or Facebook Assistant in Settings. As an all-day wearable, the Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses need to be ready when you are. That’s why they come with a specially-designed portable charging case, so you can easily recharge your glasses — and keep them protected — while on the go. A fully charged case gives you an additional three consecutive days of glasses use.
While I didn’t expect much when it comes to audio playback, the Stories surprised me with sound that was good enough for listening to light tunes or podcasts. I could see them being particularly useful while jogging or biking outdoors, where you want to maintain situational awareness. During the day, I’m never too far from my wireless earbuds, but being able to get a bit of audio from my glasses in a pinch could be genuinely useful. Keep an eye here for more details on regular software updates as we continue to improve the experience over time. Through design iterations, months of planning, and international collaboration between our teams at Facebook and EssilorLuxottica , we were able to pull it off.