What can nearly a few billion dollars buy you these days?
A company that makes smart — though not necessarily smartly designed — glasses, if their current valuation is to be believed.
Magic Leap One Creator Edition, a pair of augmented-reality glasses, appeared on Magic Leap’s website on Wednesday.
The first physical product from the mysterious, extremely well-funded and somewhat beleaguered startup, the steampunk Magic Leap One will allow users to interact with “lifelike digital objects that coexist in the real world,” whether you’re shopping, web browsing or teleconferencing.
A combo of eyewear, a battery pack and a controller, the set will ship in 2018. No price was listed at launch. Since details are still scarce, we can’t offer an opinion on whether Magic Leap’s glasses will bring AR to the masses. But the peanut gallery at Product Hunt has more than a few concerns about the design.
Their critiques:
“For magic leap [sic] to justify the hype and it’s [sic] valuation it has to be the OASIS.” – Chris Herd
“Looks like something ‘Riddick’ would wear.” – Rick Kats
“It’s got a steampunk look going on. It’s a bit jarring to be honest. I don’t know whether to like it or hate it. If the AR is solid, great – but this could be a bigger product design fail than Google Glass.” – Eric Miller
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