Well that's disappointing.
It seemed like they had cool products, and it's too bad to see it bought up by an advertising/spyware company with a history of killing products.
Google Acquires North
11–20 of 215 posts
Re: Google Acquires North
#12Cool, who here has tried Focals by North? I was thinking of getting them for everyday walking around and reading. My problem is I still don't understand what the interface is like. Can it project a screen to it or not? I'm perfectly happy to see a translucent IDE/browser window in my field of view.
I tried them at a pop-up the company had in SF; it was an awful experience. The employees of the pop up didn't know how to use the product, when they brought out a pair that fit my (very normal) face, I could barely see the screen on it, the interface was weird (there is a ring that you wear) and it was very buggy with ios (heard it was better with android). They said I would need to buy a pair for it to fit me and me to be able to see the screen. I was really ready for smart glasses but I can't imagine that anyone would be ready to fork over $1k for something that you can't really try out.
Re: Google Acquires North
#13I guess the competition for smart glasses is heating up - I imagine google thinks apple's glasses are coming soon and they take that seriously enough to want to be prepared to compete. It will be interesting to see how this space plays out. If it's anything like smart watches, the market is going to turn around with apple's entrance, and buying north now while they're suffering gives google the tech they need to ente…
If they are not as good as the Hololens 2, not interested. That device is off the hook good, really impressed with MS as a long time Linux user
Re: Google Acquires North
#14North was previously known as Thalmic labs, and their first product was the Myo, a gesture-based input device. More recently, they created Focals, a smart glasses product.
More on their blog here: https://www.bynorth.com/
Re: Google Acquires North
#15Sigh, all I can think is yet another promising startup vanishes into the depths of Google, never to be seen again.
Google, please stop buying companies, please learn to support your products and build a loyal customer base. You are not a startup anymore, you need to make the transformation that companies like Microsoft did, and quit moving fast and breaking things.
People don't want an agile foundation, they want a hundred year foundation.
Re: Google Acquires North
#16I guess the competition for smart glasses is heating up - I imagine google thinks apple's glasses are coming soon and they take that seriously enough to want to be prepared to compete. It will be interesting to see how this space plays out. If it's anything like smart watches, the market is going to turn around with apple's entrance, and buying north now while they're suffering gives google the tech they need to ente…
If they are not as good as the Hololens 2, not interested. That device is off the hook good, really impressed with MS as a long time Linux user
HoloLens and Focals/Google Glass aren't really comparable products, as far as I'm aware. HoloLens is meant like, mostly to be used indoors on specific purposes/experiences with a (relatively) short battery life, Focals/Glass is like a daily-wear type of device like a watch.
Re: Google Acquires North
#17I just can't see how these are better than smartwatches.
Try the Hololens 2 and you will never want to go back to the 2d again
Re: Google Acquires North
#18Sad. I have their Myo band sitting around, but the company appears to never have gotten a solid hit. RIP Thalmic/North. It'd be nice if Google was somehow prohibited from snapping up even more companies while under numerous investigations for antitrust during a global pandemic, but I think that attempted legislation has fallen flat.
Looks like North wasnt doing too well selling their tech. Would it preferable if Microsoft or Apple or Amazon or some chinese company picked them up instead ?
Re: Google Acquires North
#19Smart Glasses?! Please!
I've been waiting since forever. This is the only "smart" tech I've been so interested in. I already wear glasses, why not make them more useful?
Meanwhile watches get in the way of using keyboards and interacting with things, and you constantly take them off. Can't use them if your hand is busy either, like holding a drink. They're not as convenient as they seem.
Re: Google Acquires North
#20North was previously known as Thalmic labs, and their first product was the Myo, a gesture-based input device. More recently, they created Focals, a smart glasses product. More on their blog here: https://www.bynorth.com/
I backed the Myo, and I think I was waiting to see that killer app show up for it that I felt like actually using the thing. I don't think it ever came, despite my excitement for the concept.
Will the thing still work if I hook it up? I don't even know. As a Bluetooth device, I feel like it should be possible, but I don't know if it has any cloud service dependencies.
EDIT: Answer my own question, North's website doesn't link to https://support.getmyo.com/hc/en-us anywhere obvious, but the downloads are all there, including a zip file with all the market apps ever developed for it.