Does anyone here work with super expensive "enterprise" VR/AR? My gut instinct is that they try to make something good, realize the tech to fulfill their dream is incredibly expensive, then pivot to "enterprise" to get more funding. Am I being cynical?
My first year at Magic Leap and the opportunity ahead
41–50 of 174 posts
Re: My first year at Magic Leap and the opportunity ahead
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or are you referring to the ridiculous 12/12/2012 TEDX "talk" that Rony Abovitz performed at the Ringling College of Art, and all the FAKE and DECEPTIVE videos they posted and lied about on youtube, that tarnished Magic Leap's reputation? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8J5BWL8oJY In my mind, they're not as reputable after having given Rony Abovitz a platform to perform that "fudge". Just watch the video, if you can…
> The game they were playing (and still are) is called FRAUD. I felt so from day one. People over invested into marketing usually don't have to show much for the product.
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Re: My first year at Magic Leap and the opportunity ahead
#43I must admit I'd forgotten about Magic Leap, amazed to see they're still going and raising even more money. In my head, I always put them in a bucket with Theranos and uBeam, Startups who made product claims which experts in their fields said were not possible. I guess slick marketing wins over those doubts in some VC circles but you wonder if anyone at the early stage Magic Leap investors is getting asked tough ques…
One on my list of mind boggling "Tech 2.0" scams were:
1. Teranos
2. Magic Leap
3. Andelur Ghost
Only the last one still didn't get enough media attention. People who scored Andelur handshakes with the military & intelligence are the types who did it for Advanced Tactical Security & Communications Ltd ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651 )
Andelur is basically trying to sell the governments around the world a Chinese toy copter for millions of dollars through incredible "Tech 2.0" type marketing fudging.
One thing these fellows can do for sure is a Hollywood grade CG. I was with a company on a competing bid for border patrol drone.
Even I, somebody with quite good experience with CG, was initially fooled by their videos. Indeed, they intentionally were trying to numb your guard by showing it flying in the rain, and being sprayed by water. https://youtu.be/5xDEroiMQWk?t=100
It took me a few minutes to figure out that the rain, and water spay in their videos were also impressively disguised computer graphics.
Re: My first year at Magic Leap and the opportunity ahead
#44If you have not experienced the magic leap videos do not do it justice. Heres my video flying inside my house: https://youtu.be/Grlk03MdScQ The jaw dropping aspects: - it correctly knows when to mask for the column - it does lighting effects from the planes headlights - it does particle collisions with my furniture when it crashes - it crashes by detecting i hit the wall It really is amazing tech but it is very unpol…
That looks pretty awesome! If this is what they could do with the version 1, then v2 might turn out to be really impressive.
Re: My first year at Magic Leap and the opportunity ahead
#45> Our recent round of funding (500M) and new valuation of roughly $2 billion Crunchbase says total money raised is $3B. Is it common for companies to reach a negative valuation compared to money raised?
It's default, not just common. Anyone investing in research startup knows that there is slim chance that the company will be positive in valuation, just that the upper limit for valuation is very high.
Re: My first year at Magic Leap and the opportunity ahead
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have tried the leap in practice and the experience was significantly above what I expected. The tracking worked most of the time (how???), with occasional wonkyness. The accuracy was very good (outside of the wonks). Where it is very limited is number of applications.
What can one say? I also tried it (have always been fan of new interaction methods) and was severely disappointed. Even the "put reflective stickers on your fingers and use an off-the-shelf wiimote" had better tracking, though it is obviously less convenient. That said, I am waiting for v2 from these guys and/or anyone else.
Edit: Oops replied to the wrong comment.
Re: My first year at Magic Leap and the opportunity ahead
#47Is it just me, or is that announcement full of weirdly specific statements. Like "Magic Leap 2 will be the industry’s smallest and lightest device built for enterprise adoption", implying that smaller/lighter devices exist, just not ones specifically built for enterprise adoption.
It's not just you. They're called weasel words https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word
"Benito Mussolini was the kindest, most wonderful and generous man among all the axis leaders."
Works wonders
Re: My first year at Magic Leap and the opportunity ahead
#48‘Enterprise’ is the right market. You can afford what this costs if it saves you the consequences of doing a concrete pour wrong.
Re: My first year at Magic Leap and the opportunity ahead
#49Here we go again . . . But in all seriousness, even if they could ship something meaningful, one wonders if the brand is tarnished such that it makes sense to re-launch with fresh branding. “Magic Leap” does not conjure up positive images in my mind. Why swim against the current unnecessarily?
Most people don’t know the name Magic Leap. HN is a (relatively) small bubble. The only place where the name might have a bad effect would be in hiring or raising money. But, really changing the name would be worse in that regard as it would signal that they (Magic Leap) also thought the name was tarnished.
Re: My first year at Magic Leap and the opportunity ahead
#50Is it just me, or is that announcement full of weirdly specific statements. Like "Magic Leap 2 will be the industry’s smallest and lightest device built for enterprise adoption", implying that smaller/lighter devices exist, just not ones specifically built for enterprise adoption.
It’s a contrast against HoloLens 2.