Smart glasses are a touchy category right now. Even if you’re using them responsibly (i.e., not recording people without their knowledge), lots of people are going to assume you’re being a full-blown glasshole anyway—sometimes with dramatic results.
The companies selling said smart glasses are abundantly aware of that perception problem, it would seem, and are now giving potential and current customers options to dumb down their smart glasses and avoid the pitfalls of being accused of glassholism—or at least ways to obscure the smartness for a time. Solos is now selling a “privacy kit” that can modify a few aspects of its AirGo V2 smart glasses that officially launch today for $299. The idea is that, with the kit, the glasses will be better suited for situations where walking around with a computer on your face is frowned upon or just outright not allowed. The Solos AirGo A6, a lighter, camera-less pair of smart glasses, is also being launched. © Solos The kit includes a few things, and not all of them are about the camera. There’s the ClearView Temple, for example, which is a transparent temple you can swap in, allowing you to see into the sides of the smart glasses. Solos says this mod “lets people know there are no electronics inside.” Smart glasses, for context, are often thicker on the arms where companies store important components like batteries, though the thickness depends on the glasses and whether they have cameras, speakers, and/or displays.
