Personal Preferences for Future AI Wearables

M Okay, last meeting wrapped. It's too late to cook. Should I order poke or a burger? At war with myself feeling chewsy. Burger rotuna what Jy! Ifully I can have one of him every b! Why can't we have food without the p With Wonder, you can combine twenty restaurants in one delivery, so you never have to choose. Download the app today, Wonder. Food without the fight. There's a fire inside you you can't ignore. Stand still, not a chance. You're a lifelong learner who's come this far. Now, we're here to help you keep going further. Capeella University, what can't you do? Visit Cpeella. edu to learn more ACAS powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Hello American podcast, listeners., Max Roston here from the Guardian Fotball We week, which I think you should give a listen. It is good. It comes out three times a week and the podcast delivers you analysis, news, both the good and the bad from the beautiful game, and maybe even the occasional laugh He's angry about everything. He doesn't have a great poker face, doesnt? I would like to play cards with Runo Fernando. You can listen to the Guardian Football Weekly, wherever you get your podcasts. Hopefully see you soon ACast helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast. com Hello and welcome to the Gadget Show podcast. This week, we're diving into everything announced at Google IO twenty twenty six from Gemini AI takaking over basically every Google product in existence to Google's latest attempt to bring back I'm going to say this, Google Glass. Ah yes. we'll be breaking down Google's ambitious new Project Aura XR gllasses, the stylish new Android XR eyeewear coming from Met' Raybands and How Google, Meta, and even Apple are all racing to define what the future of wearable AI actually looks like. But before we get into all that, a huge thanks to our sponsor CX You know that feeling when you suddenly need a brand new gadget? Meanwhile, your old phone, tablet, console or laptop is sitting in a little drawer doing nothing when it could actually be worth decent money and put towards your new upgrade. That's where CX come in. You can trade in your old check for cash or put the value towards something you really want And if you're buying, everything is fully tested checked and ready for a second line. Which means you don't always have to buy brand new tech to get great tech. Plus with a five year warranty included, you're getting proper peace of mind as well. Smarter tech buying, less waste and probably more money left in your pocket Yeah, check out weby. com or pop into your local CEX and see what your old gadgets are really worth But Be before we dive in if you're enjoying the Gadsesh podcast, give us a quick follow or a subscribe. wherever you watch or listen. And if you fancy leaving a rating or a review Even better, it helps More people find the show, keeps the podcast going strong and means you'll never miss an episode when it drops. Okay, first up, Susie, what's caught your attention over the last couple of weeks Well, last weekend, I was amazed to see swatch stores across the UK had to literally shut down after crowds started building it for a three hundred thirty five pound pocket watch. Not a Rolex, not a solid gooldmega, a swatch So shops in Manchester, Liverpool Birmingham, Sheffield, Glasgow Cardver, London, all closed because queQues got so out of hand. The company said it was down to safety considerations. and this wasn't just a few eager collectors politely queuing with a costa and a folding chair Police were called to Liverpool. After reports of threats outside the shop, Wong Bloke got arrested in Cardiff And apparently some people in New York camppted in Times Square for a week waiting to buy one. I mean, honestly, this is incredible Now the watch itself is a collab between swatch and luxury Swiss maker AP, and it's called Royal Pop and mixes the classic rooyal oak design with Swatch's colourful nineteen eighties pop aesthetic. Basically high fashion meets fisher prrice The watch costs three hundred and thirty five pounds retail, yet some have appeared online for up to two grand. That's not sculping anymore. That's organized crime.. Satch has now gone online, begging people not to rush stores, reminding everyone the watches will apparently be available for several months Which raises the obvious question, if there are loads coming, why are people behaving like it's the final helicopter out of Saigon or something? And honestly, this feels like another perfect example of internet hype culture gone completely feral. We've seen it with trainers, graphics cards, prime drinks, concert tickets and now apparently it's pocket watches, Jace We one TikTok trend away from riots outside WH Smith over a limited edition calculator I'm telling you. start You know, I know you'll agree with me on this. The world's just gone mad in it? It doesn't matter what. What aspect of life you're talking about it's just mad. And and I think It's difficult to put all the blame on social media all the time, but this phenomenon is very much a social media derived frenzy, right? So I would say as and I know this again is something you'll relate to. I was a massive swatch fan, Sz in the age. We love swatches. Oh, they were so innovative. And I remember I had a gray one with you know, proper eighties kind of like half tone and orange greay and orange, you know and white U that sort of what that kind of blue blueprint paper kind of texture that was very hip in the eight is In fact, I had another one, I had a white one as well. But that was the thing. you could have a collection of them because they're affordable. You just change them. And so whatever you were wearing, couldn't you? Yeah. And this particular design from AP, who are a very prestigious watch brand, as you know Actually, I really like it. And one of the reasons that I like, I particularly like the pink, I think it's pink and yellow There's a great black and white one as well. There's a brown ace I don't if we can pop some pictures up on screen. I was following this with real interest over the weekend And I actually lo you weren't rioting outside the storeway, yet? Liverpool was I wasn't beyond trying to get one, I was quite interested because I like the style And I was quite interested. I was also following people on Instagram. So again, it really is social media really fueling this who were showing that they had got got, you know, got the tool and they were making straps so you could turn it into a wrist watch because of course it's a pocket watch this forens is about a pocket watch, right? And then people were making straps and they were clipping them into the straps on day one to see if their strap design worked and offering you the strap for a one hundred quid or whatever. So you could basically make an AP wristwatch with a kind of swatch plasticity for, you know, three hundred and fifty, four hundred and fifty quids, you know And then obviously the fuel in the fire is the fact that enormous prices well, I don't know, I'm going to say enormous prices are being met online. I don't know that they're selling, but they're definitely trying to sell that as you say for about two thousand, maybe even three thousand pounds So it was exciting, but I actually for once really liked like I really liked the design. I'd love to have one on my wrist. You can see I've got an orange and translucent you know, digital watch on today. I like that kind of A' look, but yeah, do you know what? I really love the fact that it's a pocket watch and's just a little bit different. It's like a throwback, isn't it? T not looking at your phone and see what the time is, just to have a little pocket watch to. I think that's very cool. It's really quirky and I think what they've done is really cool And it has a kind of has for me, it has retro credentials But the public's reaction to it is absolutely insane. I mean, people were actually fighting like in I forget where it was. It wasn't in the UK, but there were like proper like fistic cuffs and stuff. It was just ridiculous And that side of it obviously is madness. But from a product design point of view, I'm a big fan Yeah, life is a bit of a feavver dream right now, isn't it? What about you? What An caught your eye Okay, well one story that fascinated me involved ten AI bots No humans, no supervision, supervision and just to kind of Ss like experiment where they were these AI bots were dumped into a virtual town together for I think fifteen days to see what would happen. So it's like a kind of social experiment, but instead of humans It's AI Bots So it turns out that the robots, we'll call them, might not be ready to run our civilization just yet ye because this new experiment, which is called the emmergence worldorld, locked some of the biggest AI models on the planet into simulated societies, the likes of Chu BeT, Google, Gemini, Claude, Grock was involved And then mix them all together, exchanging ideas and kind of seeing what would happen. But So I don't think the idea was to see which was smartest or anything like that, but it was more about you know Could they communicate? could they form a functioning society? So you have to forgive me because this was a complex experiment and I'm not hundred percent up to speed with it. I just found it fascinating. GPT's civilization apparently completely collapsed by day six Grock didn't do much better. It's society is reported to have imploded by day five. Gem and I, meanwhile turned into absolute chaos, racking up a staggering sixix hundred and eighty three virtual crimes, whatever those are. Its just It like our political landscape this It does, Oh my go You couldn't have put it better. It literally mirrors the chaos we've seen in Westminster in the last two weeks. Weirdly, the best behaved AI turned out to be Claude Fomantic And' sort of it's almost like a footb match. I'm like which of the Hooligans wins? because I'm really into Claude at the moment. Zero crimes. There's a bonus. notot one. although researchers did point out that everyone in Claude world seem to agree with each other a bit too much, almost like a creepy AI dictatorship where everyone's U you know, sort of forced to stay in line because they're secretly terrify terrified. Logan's run again , man. we've look the reason that we're best equipped for A', our generation. because we live through the eighties science fiction. and we've seen the result of all of this already Anyway, I'll try and sum up one of the strangest findings was how littleittle some of these AIs actually did once they were left of their devices, right? So Chi Bet and Grock barely explored anywhere, although You know, like I said, I'm not entirely down with what that means, but anyway, barely they barely communicated publicly and in some cases, they kind of just sat quietly and gave up. One model even voted to delete itself before the experiment ended. And remember These are the same systems, all right from the companies that right now are racing to offer us a whole bunch of solutions to solve every problem we've ever had. So yeah Definitely something I'd like to be more up to speed with. I was desperately trying to get this research done today to bring it to you. So forgive me if that's not the best sum. In fact, if you're listening and you know more about this experiment, do get in touch via the comments on any platform. Patreon's the best because we can directly answer you. Interested to know your thoughts on that? Yeah and if you weren't terrified by before, then you probably. Yeah Okay, this is important. Nowur Gadia S showow competition is still live, but this is your last week to enter. Yes, your last opportunity to be in with a chance of winning five thousand pounds to spend at CX. Yes. grand. And this one is just for our Patreon listterers. so you're not up against the entire internet. Your odds are actually pretty decent To enter, head to patreon dot com slash the gadget show and sign up to one of our paid tiers, light, mid or Max. They start at about the price of a cup of coffee Light gets you one entry, mid gets you three and max gets you five. So if you fancy tipping the odds in your favour, then that's the one to go for. 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Get started at wealthfront. com C clliients paid thousand dollars for their testimonials creating a conflict of interest. How comees soon. point three percent, AAPI as of january thirtieth twenty six is repentative viable and earn on funds sw to program bs. point five percent new client boost for three months and up to one hundred fifty thousand dollars. D direct deosit one thousand dollars month and fund invest account for a point five percent increase Cash account offered by Wealthfr brokerage LL member F IPC, not a Let's get on to Google's annual IO Developer confonference then, which wrapped up earlier this week, shall we? And yes, unurprisingly, artificial intelligence dominated absolutely But buried amongst all the GemMinI updates and AI demos was something that I thought was far more interesting. Google's latest attempt to make smart glasses happen again So at least this time, it feels a lot more serious So firstly, as expected, Google unveiled another huge wave of Gemini AI upgrades. The new Gemini three point five models are faster, more capable and now deeply integrated across pretty much every Google product imaginable. So in search, Gemini can now generate interactive answers summaries, charts, and even miniaps instead of simply giving you a list of links. In Gmail, you'd be able to search your inbox conversationally, literally asking things like find my hotel confirmation number and getting the answer directly back. Now this does interest me actually. Google Docs and Worspace are becoming increasingly AI assisted too, helping with writing, organization and productivity. And Android itself is becoming more agentic, meaning Gemini can increasingly carry out tasks cross apps on your behalf rather than simply responding to prompts But honestly, the most interesting part of IO this year was wearable tech, first up Project Aura So this is Google's more ambitious collaboration with Xreal. And these are proper Android XR display glasses. Unlike standard smart glasses, Oa can actually place digital information directly into your field of view using optical C through displays built in the lenses. Now I know this is what you've been after. and the specs are just Yeah, since you were born. And the specs they are genuinely impressive. Project Aura reportedly features a huge seventy degree field of view, which is enormous for glasses this size and much wider than current AR Iyewear. Google demonstrated floating interface elements, navigation overlays, immersive Google maps, multi window apps, YouTube in virtual cinema mode Gemini AI assistants and live contextual information connected apps like Calendar and Key The glasses themselves stay relatively lightweight because the heavy computing and battery hardware live inside a separate wired computer pug Bically a wearable mini computer you can keep in your pocket or wear around your neck won't wear around. That pg now includes a fingerprint scanner for unlocking the system as well. And Google says it's significantly more powerful than the early prototype hardware. And importantly, these aren't really designed as all day glasses, like meta standard raybands. Google and XRL are positioning AurA more as a lightweight spatial computing device Something for you know for immersive entertainment for travel, for productivity, multi screen working, and advanced augmented reality experiences, almost like a cut down Apple Vision Pro if you like. Now Google also announced an entirely separate category of glasses developed with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster Google calls these intelligent eyeewear. stylish, lightweight, glasses designed for normal everyday use. so the opposite of what we just discussed These are much closer to Meta's Rayan smart glasses. Hands free, AI assistance, live translation, notifications, navigation, microphones, speakers, but no screen and contextual Gemini features But in glasses that are supposed to look fashionable enough to wear all day And that is where the direct battle with Meta begins Right now, Meta arguably still had the S smmart glasses market thanks to its Rayban partnership We've talked about this on the pod before, haven't we? Because Meta understood something very important early on. peopleeople aren't going to wear futuristic face computers if they look absolutely ridiculous. So Meta focused heavily on wearability, style and simplicity first, building smart glasses that feel more like normal I weear, with AI features layering in gradually Now what's interesting is that Google and Meta actually seem to be converging towards similar strategies Both companies now believe there's probably room for two categories in smart glasses, one lightweight wearable AI glass for every use, and another more advanced display equipped XR glasses for immersive augmented reality experiences The difference is mainly in emphasis Meta Steel feels very consumer firsted and fashion led. Google is pushing much harder towards full Android XR spatial computing powered by Gemini AI. And honestly, there is a reason that nobody's cracked this market yet. The more powerful these glasses become, the more useful they are for navigation, translation, notifications and augmented reality experiences. But advanced displays also create problems The obvious battery life, heat, processing power, cost and weight, and of course, the social challenge of convincing normal people to wear a computer on your face and the privacy issues that become involved Illoming over all of this is guess who? Apple Apple still hasn't officially revealed smart glasses, but industry rumors suggest it's working on its own AI integrated wearable devices Current expectations are that Apple's first glasses may focus more on cameras audio, AI assistance and tight iPhone integration before eventually moving towards full augmented reality which would actually place Apple somewhere between Met's wearable first approach and Google's much more ambitious XR vision But after Google IO twenty twenty six, one thing is becoming very, very clear. The next major AI platform battle probably won't just happen on your phone. It'll happen right in front of your face, in front of your eyes. And for the first time, since original Google Glass era Wearable AI genuinely feels like it might finally be getting close to mainstream reality. What do you think I mean, so I felt that the the large amount of time that I had to spend listening to There was a lot of blur, wasn't there? Well I wrote a list actually. Gemini three point five flash Gemini Spark, syynth ID I' What else was the flow? There were so many different types of AI platform across a whole range of different services that even with my kind of working knowledge of what the various AI platforms are doing, I was completely befuddled and it all kind of you know like one thing about Apple's sort of comparable launches or events s. Yeah. is that they have us they have a really good way of blending a narrative, don't they and they they talk about scenarios that maybe certainly for me are maybe a bit more realistic. I felt that the scenarios of going walking along with the intelligent eyewear that's just audio. I think it was called Google audio So not the super duper real version that you've just been talking. Yeah, yeah, yeah.. The other one. you know gettinget some posh coffee drink and finding out where the park is I just, I mean, I could just still it on my phone. like I could just still on my phone. And you know that coming from me that's quite a big deal because I'm all in for XR. However, Project Aura It did excite me. It was literally the only thing. I mean, the Gemini integration into say GMail and Google, that that impressed me too. I noted that you said that you were quite I felt maybe like me. You've kind of been waiting for that side of the agentic AI thing. I think so. isn't it to feel Yeah because if you exactly and if you travel a lot You know, I can never remember confirmation numbers and what hotel are we staying at? Yeah. What's the flight number? Got to put it in to put your bag and all that crap. that you have to keep going back and finding. That' be brilliant for that if it works. It'd be great. That's the thing, S if it works and the likes of Claude, which I mentioned earlier have been knee deep in Claude for the last month and really really enjoying it. I've kind of moved from that of me He you are here? I've still of u It've dropped open AI now and I've moved over to Anthropic. and just because I like to as a tech journalist, you know, like yourself, I like to just not necessarily stay in one camp for too long. And anyway, why am I saying that? Because the connectors that go into Claud enable you to do exactly what we're talking about to search Gmail, to look at Google Drive, to connect those, to look at my hard drive, to find a picture on my hard drive and send it to me on my phone. This is something that Claw can do right now. We've talked about open Claw. That's why everyone got excited about that project, which is obviously nothing to do with anthropic, but sounds like it is. So now the fact that Google are doing this, this is exciting because it does mean Suusie, that when you're you know at the airport and you can't find this and you're not sure where your taxi was booked for and which terminal you that's definitely where this is going. So that's exciting, isn't it? And things nice things like they announced, you're going to be able to do contextual searches. They called it something else, I can't remember in YouTube, right U and that's really interesting. So you could say something like u I've I've got a saw back can you provide me with some exercises, right? And so then YouTube rather than just doing a dumb search around the word exercise and back, it would use a large language model to provide a number of different video options for you. based on the IO presentation that we're talking about, it will actually start you in the timeline where the exercise is So that's that's an interesting development. Yeahah. That's sort of but but yes. aura the project aura glasses do look sexy. I've had no a chance to see them. you know, believe it when I see it quite literally. would like to put them on my face notot sure about the puck. I'm not a big fan of the kind of puck thing that everyone's going for led by the Vision Pro And yes, I agree that your point about Apple. That's the point, isn't it You know, that's the exciting thing is that we're going to face a battle and that's always good for the consumer isn't it Yeah, it is. yeep. normally when we with at consumers king again, which would be nice All right, so here's something then. Now we've got a little bit of information about the big players, the three big players really I Which do you think you would be buying At my bank, I was literally getting pennies using Wealthfront. Ching There's this much that I'm getting an interest and I didn't have to do anything. Clients like Angela earn up to four point two percent APY on their cash with the Wealthfront cash account Get started at wealthfront dot com C cllients paid one thousand dollars for their testimonial creating a conflict of interest outcesary. point three percent base API as of january thirtieth twenty six is representative viable and earn on funds swept to programank. point five percent new clients whos for three months and up to one hundred fifty thousand dollars Directposit one thousand dollars ath fund invest account for a point five percent increase cash account offered by Wealthfrontroerage LLC member F S IC in a There's a fire inside you you can't ignore. Stand still, not a chance. You're a lifelong learner who's come this far. Now, we're here to help you keep going further. Capeella University, what can't you do? Visit Cpeella.edu to learn more I still look at the Vision Pro with its incredible you know, industrial design and I really want I want to have one play with it. I don't think it would change my life, but I love it. I just don't have feel a thousand pounds but I do have potentially the sort of thousand pound ish No, no, so it won't be that much, will it? There glasses. I have the kind of five hundred pounds ish that they'll be asking, I think for a really elegant pair of glasses with some Dep Siri AI functionality J to be clear to our listenens and viewers We don't know that this is happening. We just suspect it Um You know, we are pretty convinced, aret we not, Susar that that's about to happen this autumn And so it would be but it would be Apple to answer a question that I'd go for because at the moment I'm still in that ecosystem and I think that they've made such a pig's ear of Siri, they've evolved nothing. they've promised everything for the last two phone releases of iPhone and they still haven't got a seri that's anything like the experience I can get from Grock from GP GPT five point five. Flauded And so they need that. So it means you know It's going to be a good experience, I think. It's going to be a really good experience and we know that their product design is second to none. So yeah, that's what I want. I mean, want I want the project Aura for the visuals Yeah I just think I'll end up It'll be a bit a bit of fun, maybe an auto quue and at an event, maybe a couple of fun games, but I don't think ultimately it's going to change my life. you know And also the other contextual bit of information is that I'm in the market for and the steam frame. So the new virtual reality helmet which is coming, you know, any day now, any month now