Well… I’m not using them much anymore, except situationally. I brought them to watch my wife run a race where I was following her on a bike, so that was a natural situation where being able to take photos and videos hands-free was helpful. I occasionally use them when I walk the dog if their spot on my desk is closer to me than my AirPods.
\nBut they definitely haven’t become my “default headphones” like I expected them to.
\nPart of this is what feels like the changing oublic senitment towards Meta and/or the product category. There were situations I never wore them in for obvious reasons (for example, my daughter’s swimming or gymnastics lessons). Other situations though – the grocery store, the coffee shop, etc. – have made me feel uncomfortable in a way that is… uncomfortable. I know I’m not a creep, but the public perception matters to me.
\nIt will be very interesting to see how this product category evolves. I can see how if Apple or another company comes out with a pair that solves some of the shortcomings, I could be won back. I would be especially more likely to use a pair that had Claude (my preferred AI platform) as the default voice agent.
\n", "date_published": "2026-05-27T09:25:08-04:00", "url": "https://blairbeckwith.com/2026/05/27/meta-raybans-update.html" }, { "id": "http://beckwith.micro.blog/2026/01/11/meta-raybans.html", "title": "Meta Raybans", "content_html": "It’s really not that often that I adopt – and then successfully integrate – a new hardware form factor in to my life. Sure, gadgets come and go. When I began running more seriously I added Shokz headphones to my routine, but they’re still headphones at the end of the day. I switched out my Kindle for an Onyx Boox last year which opened up use cases for my digital reading, but… It’s still an ereader.
\nOther things – like the iPad – have been added and occasionally even upgraded, but haven’t become core parts of my routine. My iPad could disappear tomorrow and I would be, at most, mildly inconvenienced.
\nThe last example of a net-new hardware form factor that I added to my life was an Apple Watch in the mid-late 2010’s – since swapped out for the Garmin ecosystem. I managed to dodge VR headsets (easy) and smart rings (occasionally tempting).
\nWhen Meta started talking about and then releasing AI-enabled glasses, I didn’t take much note. Some of my routine podcast hosts (Federico Viticci) were fans and advocating for them, but I didn’t really see the value. Did I really need AI in my ear, and cameras on my face, for most of the day? Plus, I got LASIK almost a decade ago now and have loved every minute of not wearing glasses.
\nThen… Christmas 2025. A commitment between me and my wife to focus on gifts for the kids and not for each other. And as is so often the case, an immediate disregard of that commitment by one party. I wake up on Christmas morning not entirely surprised (curse you, shared Amazon accounts) to a pair of Oakley Meta Vanguards under the tree.
\nI was actually really excited; although I don’t find my runs particularly exciting, I’ve often toyed with the idea of creating video running content, and these seemed like a really neat and easy way to capture some footage, for B roll if nothing else. The Garmin integration allows you to ask Meta AI questions about your stats during your run, so there was – in theory – utility outside of content creation. To what extent saying “hey Meta, what’s my average pace” is easier than glancing down at my watch I’m not sure but hey… I’m a sucker for toys.
\nIn playing around with them Christmas morning inbetween the building of new toys and facilitating sharing, I started to get pretty excited – enough that I asked Kelcie to return them. I saw the light. These were great. I wanted to wear them all the time. Not just when I was comfortable looking like the terminator. I was going to exchange them for Meta Raybans.
\nThe first use case that caught my attention was simple video recording. I’ve heard the advice in regards to choosing an iPhone that when you have kids, you should just get the best cameras you can manage because your future self will thank you for all the videos you take. At the same time, I’m driven crazy by grandparents who always have their phones out, taken out of experiencing the moment by the need to capture it.
\nCameras on your face actually solve this problem. It’s easy with a quick hold of the button on the arm, or an audio prompt, to start recording. It’s unobtrusive, so I find myself capturing clips – cute conversations, impromptu games, doing chores together – that would be simply weird to record on my phone. Videos of the big soccer game are one thing, but in 20 years when I want to remember how my kids really were, I think these videos will be just as meaningful. And they’re so easy to capture.
\nBeing hands free and first-person also lets you capture videos that would be impossible on the phone, like holding my son’s hands as he practiced the balance beam he got for Christmas.
\nThe fact that Meta syncs these videos in the background directly in to the camera roll like any other photos or videos I take makes for a relatively seamless if sometimes slightly delayed experience.
\nThe next thing that caught me is sound. There was a huge step change in nearly everyone’s audio consumption with the introduction of Bluetooth headphones and eventually AirPods. Rather than wrangling wires, it was easy to have AirPods in your pocket all the time. Whereas I might normally be waiting for an appointment in silence because wired headphones were annoying, now it the barrier to listening to something for 10 minutes was much lower.
\nYou know what’s even easier than pulling out AirPods? Not pulling out AirPods. Tapping the arm to start playing whatever was playing last, or selecting something new from my phone, and just hearing it. There’s been a few situations like washing up after dinner that normally wouldn’t have been worth the scavenger hunt to find my AirPods but, if I could just listen with a tap… Oh, why not? It’s been much easier to catch up with some of my favourite podcasts and finish audiobooks 5 or 10 minutes at a time.
\nThese two use cases make up the vast majority of my value.
\nAI: I heard someone on a podcast say that the interesting thing about Meta’s glasses are that Meta wants to build them because they’re AI on your face, and people want to buy them because they’re cameras on your face. This feels mostly true to me.
\nAlthough I can see the utility of having instant easy access to AI voice chat all the time, I don’t find myself using it much. Part of this is the models – as of right now I’m a Gemini guy, and I don’t love the model Meta is using here. But part of it is that I really only situationally use AI voice chat. My most common use case is actually answering a question for my daughter, in which case I want her to hear the audio too rather than have it beamed directly in my ears.
\nLenses: The other thing I’d love to see improved is the Transition lenses, although I don’t believe there’s much that Meta can actually do about this. I had never had transition lenses before, but the idea of being able to wear them indoors and outdoors with the added utility of sunglasses was appealing.
\nThere is a benefit here, but it comes at a very real cost. The transitions are quick to respond to UV light, but very slow to respond back in its absence. Mine will turn nearly fully dark during a 30 second walk to the mailbox and back, and then take 10 minutes indoors before they’re clear again. I don’t even wear sunglasses religiously – next time I’ll go with normal lenses.
\nOther downsides like battery life and weight that I hear some others complain about don’t really bother me as a non-prescription user – I naturally take them off frequently enough throughout the day that it’s a non-issue. I have no idea what the process or quality is like for prescription lenses – I could see worlds in which that was a complication.
\nI’m really curious to see how this product category will evolve – CES this year saw the debut of a bunch of smart glasses, mostly from non-tier one brands.
\nI’ll be very curious to see what Apple’s version looks like. There’s so many unknowns right now about their AI strategy – if they really do go forward with a Gemini-powered experience as is rumoured, I would love to have Gemini in my glasses. On the other hand, now that I’ve switched to Garmin for fitness and Spotify for music, I feel less tethered to the Apple ecosystem than I have in years. If Google put out incredible glasses, would that be enough to sway me to an Android phone? It seems unlikely, but at this point anything is possible.
\n", "summary": "It’s really not that oftens that I adopt – and then successfully integrate – a new hardware form factor in to my life.", "date_published": "2026-01-11T13:40:00-04:00", "url": "https://blairbeckwith.com/2026/01/11/meta-raybans.html" }, { "id": "http://beckwith.micro.blog/2025/12/20/hello-world.html", "title": "Hello, world.", "content_html": "Hi again.
\n", "date_published": "2025-12-20T21:24:35-04:00", "url": "https://blairbeckwith.com/2025/12/20/hello-world.html" } ] }