Exciting news for those enough who are 40+ and spend too much time in front of a computer screen: a Finnish startup called IXI is promising to end the era of clunky bifocals and the ‘head-tilt’ struggle of progressive lenses, replacing them with a pair of glasses that focus as naturally as the human eye using a combination of infrared eye tracking and liquid crystal-transparent indium tin oxide glasses
Subscription based? Why would something like this even have internet connectivity in the first place, let alone a subscription?
Bold assumption on my part here, but why would the manufacturer of such a juicy target for tracking not make it with connectivity? Something like this would be monetized and milked for advertising and subscription revenue on principle alone. Eye tracking technology that determines vision clarity based on where the user looks is but a small skip and a jump from advertising based on where the user looks.
ETA: Per the first line of the article, the company is backed by Amazon.
Ah the it for sure will be as slimy as possible. I hope people just wouldn’t buy it then. Not too sure how much people outside tech nerds like you and me even care about this stuff, but I saw when the Oura ring came out, a lot of people were put off because it is subscription-based. I hope the enshitification hits hard enough that people move to more freedom/privacy/security respecting products.
Sadly tech security, privacy, and freedom are not a focus for most people. Just gotta keep doing what you can personally do to make it better.
That shouldn’t matter. This is a huge gripe I have with FOSS in its current state. Most of the freedom/privacy/security respecting apps are not noob friendly. They are designed for tech bros and you have to download them from a git instance or F-Droid. Freedom is a human right. It should not be gatekept to the technology savy.
This is why I love the Signal Foundation. They have truly beautifully written software and they have easy to follow UX. Anyone can enjoy the added benefits to their freedoms, security, and privacy without ever having to think about it.
Fully agree
Future versions won’t focus properly unless you look at an Amazon ad for 60 seconds. No closing your eyes or looking away. The glasses can tell if you’re paying attention.