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Google Acquires North

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Re: Google Acquires North

#151

Post by cmrdporcupine »

robhunter wrote: post #146
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

imho it's not just the flow of investment. It's the smallness of the community. Many of the founders in the Toronto tech scene all know each other. From private school etc. At least when I was working for one 10 years ago, it all felt very incestuous and small. Also in the US there's a real sense of having to hunt and compete for talent, but at least then in the Toronto startup scene you were to feel blessed for not…

Moved back two years ago and can echo this sentiment. We raised our most recently round exclusively in the US. Will be interesting to see how COVID-19 impacts all of this given how much more remote work will be available.

Before Google acquihired my team I ended up jumping ship to a NY based company from the Toronto startup I was at. Difference in culture was night and day.

With the increase in remote work availability I'd probably hunt for work from US companies at this point rather than beg for crumbs from Canadian startups.

Re: Google Acquires North

#152

Post by 8ytecoder »

modeless wrote: post #150
baldajan wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"able to maintain their own lifestyles using grants from the Canadian government" - that's absolutely false. North/Thalmic was flush with cash for a long time, and though their Myo didn't sell "well" - it still brought in millions. Not denying the founders had lavish lifestyles, but they were running a company that raised 15M series A, and 120M series B - so that's honestly "expected". The grant I assume you're refer…

It's "expected" that founders extract millions from a failing company while employees working for years at below market salaries get nothing? I don't disagree but it's just sad. The startup lottery just doesn't make sense for employees, even early ones. Founder is the only position worth holding. Early employees need to start demanding more from their founders.

My personal experience strongly says so as well. Been a very employee at two different companies - at least one made an “exit” - only the founder made any money at all. I took a deep pay cut for two years.

Re: Google Acquires North

#153

Post by Kiro »

verdverm wrote: post #139
Kiro wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want AR glasses. I want glasses that look like regular glasses but can display stuff, similar to a smart watch.

You don't want to interact with those things using your hands or frisbee a photo to a friend, bouncing it off of a wall? (Physics applied to a UI system aware of surroundings is so much fun!)

Of course but that's a different use case and different hardware. I believe we're talking about two completely different devices and markets here.

Re: Google Acquires North

#154

Post by verdverm »

vikramkr wrote: post #53
verdverm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They seem to be targeting very different use cases. Apple looks like it's going for the everyday consumer while microsoft sees AR as a business tool. I think the everyday consumer would be willing to trade off how good the AR is for style/battery life/weight etc. Especially if apple can get around the creep factor that turned so many people off of google glass, which might require cutting out a camera or two and redu…

Yes, def, it's not so easy to sell a $3500 consumer product, but it is cheaper than a brand new full VR setup, and dare I say a far far better experience.

There is definitely a lack of good apps right now, but that will be changing. It's more the experience in HL2 that is astounding and I expect most devices to eventually adopt this

Re: Google Acquires North

#155

Post by mavhc »

syshum wrote: post #31
tazjin wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting them now is probably not a good idea, because: > The first-gen North Focals glasses won't work after July 31, 2020, but North is issuing refunds to people who bought the smartglasses https://support.bynorth.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045128691

When will people learn to not buy hardware that needs cloud support to function At least they are giving out refunds, unlike other companies that have shutdown, but still. Things like this is why I am a firm member of the selfhosted club

The 6th time it happens to them, as long as self hosting is easier

Re: Google Acquires North

#156

Post by kps »

gcbw3 wrote: post #121

Not acquihire. Employees are not moving to alphabet. North was a scam, and was about to be bought by patent trolls. This was a legal move by alphabet. They pretty much paid ransom to the North (Thalmic labs) founders to not be harassed by trolls later on. I guess it at least shows that google haven't abandoned google-glass entirely (or their legal dept doesn't know they aren't in the glass business any more, i wouldn…

> Not acquihire. Employees are not moving to alphabet.

Do you have inside information? The announcement implies acquihire. You don't explicitly say where people will be working for you if they're not going to be working for you.

> They'll join the Google team based in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada—North’s hometown and an area with impressive tech talent. We're excited to welcome our new colleagues, and committed to the growing global tech community of Kitchener-Waterloo.

Re: Google Acquires North

#157

Post by deelowe »

numpad0 wrote: post #110
Ajedi32 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't those more like smart earbuds in a glasses form factor? As far as I can tell there's no display component to the device at all, just speakers and a microphone.

And aren’t those “smart earbuds” just Bluetooth headsets?

Alexa requires specialized hardware for the voice recognition.

Re: Google Acquires North

#158

Post by gffrd »

michaelmior wrote: post #65
vikramkr wrote: post #2

I 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…

I just got an invitation today to purchase Echo Frames[0], Amazon's smart glasses. I'm a little on the fence but early reviews seem pretty promising. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Staging-Product-Not-Retail-Sale/dp/B0...

I'm curious: what's the use case you're interested in these for? And what makes these more appealing than, say, earbuds that offer the same functionality?

Re: Google Acquires North

#159

Post by baybal2 »

Kiro wrote: post #91
verdverm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't want AR glasses. I want glasses that look like regular glasses but can display stuff, similar to a smart watch.

Well, this effectively what Apple is trying to make now.

Unlike Apple, North's optics is so much simpler.

Re: Google Acquires North

#160

Post by baybal2 »

0x5345414e wrote: post #24
rattray wrote: post #14

North 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/

Funny story about the Myo. It was a promising device and seemed to me like it had great niche applications (such as medical). Founders weren't interested in that I guess and moved to smart glasses. Last summer they sold the patents for Myo to a company called CTRL Labs for about $20M. In the fall Facebook snatched up CTRL Labs for $500M - $1B, and their product description was basically that of the Myo. More info: ht…

> Last summer they sold the patents for Myo to a company called CTRL Labs for about $20M.

Holly molly! They once talked with Recon Instruments about them for a few hundred thousand bucks...

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