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Facebook and Ray-Ban have been working on a pair of smart glasses for a long time now. The much-awaited smart glasses, Ray-Ban Stories, were finally announced yesterday. These smart glasses can capture photos and videos and even listen to music or take phone calls. Ray-Ban Stories is priced at $299 and will be available for purchase in 20 style combinations online and in select retail stores in the US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, and the UK.
The smart glasses come with a 5 MP camera that can capture photos and record up to 30-second videos via a physical button or Facebook Assistant voice commands. According to Facebook, LED lights in the glasses to light up to let the person know that the user is taking a video or photo. Ray-Ban Stories also comes with built-in open-ear speakers and three microphones for making calls and recording videos. “Beamforming technology and a background noise suppression algorithm provide for an enhanced calling experience like you’d expect from dedicated headphones,” states Facebook.
The smart glasses can be operated via the new Facebook View app, available on Android and iOS. It will let users share content on apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, and more. The app will also let users save the content onto their smartphones in the camera roll and edit them.
According to Facebook, “Ray-Ban Stories are available in 20 variations, in classic Ray-Ban styles — Wayfarer, Wayfarer Large, Round and Meteor — and five colors with a range of lenses including clear, sun, transition, and prescription, so you can choose the style that’s right for you.”
In terms of privacy, users will view and delete voice transcripts and turn off voice storage and/or Facebook Assistant in Settings. Facebook assures that the videos and photos are encrypted on the smart glasses. Additionally, only one Facebook account can be linked to the glasses at a time. If the glasses are lost, and someone tries to pair them with a new account and a new phone, the data on the glasses will be deleted automatically.
