Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans • Hacker News Board

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#241

Post by russdill » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #88

adam_fallon_ wrote: post #75

I sort of always knew it was the job of VCs to hype up their portfolio, but i've never seen it as bare faced as when Benedict Evans was shilling Magic Leap saying things along the lines of "Magic Leap was the coolest thing I'd seen since the iPhone. It's now much cooler than that." and "I’ve had the Magic Leap demo. It was worth going to Florida for." Well that looks a bit silly now doesn't it.

Supposedly the magic leap demo was actually cool and used different technology than the eventually crappy hardware they ended up sort of shipping. I think they couldn’t get it to a place where it could be small enough to be useful? Hopefully when Apple ships AR hardware for real it’ll be what it should be. Magic leap will be kind of like General Magic or the creative nomad jukebox - right idea but too early with hard…

When you can control every element: lighting, view angle, distance, background, etc, you can hide a ton of fatal flaws.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#242

Post by notJim » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:16 PM UTC

tomcam wrote: post #92

adam_fallon_ wrote: post #75

I sort of always knew it was the job of VCs to hype up their portfolio, but i've never seen it as bare faced as when Benedict Evans was shilling Magic Leap saying things along the lines of "Magic Leap was the coolest thing I'd seen since the iPhone. It's now much cooler than that." and "I’ve had the Magic Leap demo. It was worth going to Florida for." Well that looks a bit silly now doesn't it.

Hey, Florida is a pretty interesting place!

Yeah, Florida is nice! Good weather, nice beaches. They even have bioluminescent organisms there!

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#243

Post by blueboo » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:17 PM UTC

xiaolingxiao wrote: post #8

They're exploring a sale valued at $10B, but it's doubtful who would have the appetite to buy it at this valuation. Google declined a follow on round recently, Apple has been developing their own tech for years, and Facebook has quietly stepped away from AR/VR. Magic Leap is reminiscent of another company with "Magic" in its name: General Magic ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Magic ). They both made a product…

> Although I personally never bought into the hype of Magic Leap in particular, they did inspire a whole generation of developers in a way that hasn't been done since the release of the original iPhone

What on Earth is this claim? What XR developer was inspired by Magic Leap in any way other than the encouragement to bilk VCs out of their money?

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#244

Post by driverdan » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:24 PM UTC

adamc wrote: post #129

three_seagrass wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the segway solution. Cool tech that solves a problem which doesn't really exist.

Kind of like VR for games? Which I have yet to meet anyone who uses...

Have you actually played any VR games? It's not perfect yet but it's good enough. They're quite fun. They're still niche because they require hardware and space.

Many people, like you, don't get it until they try it.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#245

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:24 PM UTC

snovv_crash wrote: post #162

e-_pusher wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you are claiming that Facebook has stepped away from AR/VR. I know that Facebook is still hiring quite heavily in the Seattle area for AR/VR HW roles.

Facebook/Oculus is also heavily recruiting in Zurich.

I guess "heavy" is subjective. But they're also recruiting in LA.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#246

Post by ericd » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:25 PM UTC

semerda wrote: post #199

ahupp wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair to the Segway, there's a remarkable number of self-balancing one wheel scooters on the street in SF these days (well, a few months ago). And I think you can trace all of those back to Segway. Sometimes v1 doesn't quite do it.

Unlike Magic Leap, wasn’t Segway the first personal transporter with self balancing technology? Ie. Setting a new bar. Hence others followed from that new standard. I’m not aware of Magic Leap setting any new bars.

From what I've heard, the Beast did set some new bars.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#247

Post by eximius » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:26 PM UTC

Balgair wrote: post #172

tmh79 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They weren't selling a fantasy, they were selling real tech. Their block has been "consumerizing" it. My understanding (from sources who have experienced the demo) is that their first demo was BONKERS. They projected light right onto the users eyes, so instead of having a AR heads up display, you had a light beam projecting images into your eye so they could add elements into your field of vision and make it look lik…

> They projected light right onto the users eyes, > they couldn't get that demo into any sort of a state where it could be commercialized Dear Lord! I would hope that they couldn't get that out. Putting lasers directly into your eye sounds like a perfect recipe for large scale disaster. I don't care how many people say it's safe or how many papers there are out there on it, all it takes is a few microseconds of error…

Most new tech is of this form. https://www.bosch-sensortec.com/news/smartglasses.html uses something like <5uW or something crazy low. If the hardware caps out at a safe power, you'll probably be fine.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#248

Post by simonh » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:26 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #88

adam_fallon_ wrote: post #75

I sort of always knew it was the job of VCs to hype up their portfolio, but i've never seen it as bare faced as when Benedict Evans was shilling Magic Leap saying things along the lines of "Magic Leap was the coolest thing I'd seen since the iPhone. It's now much cooler than that." and "I’ve had the Magic Leap demo. It was worth going to Florida for." Well that looks a bit silly now doesn't it.

Supposedly the magic leap demo was actually cool and used different technology than the eventually crappy hardware they ended up sort of shipping. I think they couldn’t get it to a place where it could be small enough to be useful? Hopefully when Apple ships AR hardware for real it’ll be what it should be. Magic leap will be kind of like General Magic or the creative nomad jukebox - right idea but too early with hard…

I think Apple are shipping their AR hardware, mostly anyway. The iPhone and iPad are it, modulo enhancements like LIDAR. I really don’t see Apple bringing out a headset. I’m not even sure it’s a technology problem. People just don’t want to walk around with cameras and LIDAR and goofy goggles on their faces, not at Apple scale anyway, possibly ever. It’s a fundamentally flawed concept. Specialist applications sure. Mainstream, one in every home? I don’t see it.

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#249

Post by majormajor » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:26 PM UTC

alephnan wrote: post #163

save_ferris wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo is a well-established company with a solid platform for its Switch that sells millions of units. They've been doing this for a little while longer tbf. I get the sense that "shifting focus" means that Magic Leap were so focused on the hardware that they didn't really think concretely about bringing a viable platform to market, or something like that. I just don't understand how a company raises that kind of…

Nintendo's never competed with other gaming platforms on a technology basis, and they've shown novel experiences can be adapted from less edge bleeding technology. Thread from earlier this month: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22791300

"Never" is a strong word. This article that popped up here recently is one counterexample: https://copetti.org/projects/consoles/nintendo-64/

Re: Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans

#250

Post by mlazos » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 9:30 PM UTC

This is the modus operandi of every startup. Consumer products look great and can really wow people until you realize all of the money is in enterprise. This is why enterprise is always the largest business segment of large software companies - corporations have way more money than individuals and will provide recurring revenue.