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p/northYour smartest pair of glasses
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Sam Legge

Focals by North - Glasses with a holographic display only you can see 👓📲🤓

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Focals are custom-built glasses with a transparent holographic display only you can see. Focals let you see and respond to texts, get turn-by-turn directions, check the weather, request an Uber, talk to Amazon Alexa and more — all without looking away from your surroundings or calling attention to yourself.

Pre-order now: shop.bynorth.com

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Amrith
Sam Legge
Maker
Here all day answering questions about our new product Focals! 👓
Social Suite
@d0b0 are these actually real? Looks like something out of a science-fiction movie.
Sam Legge
Maker
@socialsuite definitely real
Social Suite
@d0b0 can they also record video? That would be icing on the cake.
Sam Legge
Maker
@socialsuite No camera on these bad boys ⛔📷
Daniel Sandoval
@d0b0 will there be an option to have the display on the left lens? As a person who's partially blind (in my right eye), I rely on my left eye for pretty much everything. In the past, I've seen AR products with a reliance on the right eye's peripheral vision... I have a feeling I'm not the only person with a fault in that part of my eye-sight and would love if one of the customization options was to choose which lens is the "smart" one.
Sam Legge
Maker
Also psst... we're hiring, hit me up if working on smart glasses gets you excited beyond belief 😉
Ali R. Tariq
@d0b0 congrats on the launch! Looks super slick. How is By North affiliated with Thalmic, if at all?
Sam Legge
Maker
@alirtariq It's the same company - we rebranded from Thalmic Labs to North this morning 🚀
Ali R. Tariq
@d0b0 woah, big day all round! Congrats and here's to new beginnings!
Sam Legge
Maker
@matdak25 sent you a DM :)
Ryan Hoover
We need a pair for the PH kitty, @d0b0 😉
Sam Legge
Maker
@rrhoover we gotta get the kitty sized then 😺
Kris Braun
Feels like this can deliver on the promise of smart watches to provide less disruptive notifications. Despite it being less conspicuous, I still find it disruptive when people I'm meeting with start interacting with their watches. Is there an easy to engage silent mode?
Sam Legge
Maker
@krisabraun We have a really simple and easy to access do-not-disturb function for just this reason 🔕
Kris Braun
What is your vision for apps and integrations? How controlled or open will the ecosystem be?
Sam Legge
Maker
@krisabraun we have much more to share on this, just not yet. Stay tuned!
Ryan Hoover
@krisabraun @d0b0 any teasers? The platform opportunity here is what I'm most curious about.
Sam Legge
Maker
@krisabraun @rrhoover no teasers as of now, but I too am very excited for the platform opportunities here. More to come in the future.
Skylar Shapiro
I AM SO EXCITED TO ORDER MINE.
Sam Legge
Maker
@skylar_shapiro happy to have you join us!
Emily Hodgins
Wow super interesting! @d0b0 when can we expect to be able to purchase the glasses in the UK?
Sam Legge
Maker
@ems_hodge 👋nothing to share about international expansion right now but we'll be opening more stores in the near future. We'll keep you posted!
Emily Hodgins
@d0b0 a good excuse for me to come to Brooklyn or visit @lanre__akin in Toronto!
Sam Legge
Maker
@ems_hodge @lanre__akin very near future, stay tuned!
Anthony Da Mota
Looks nice. But what about the battery life? What are the specs? Does it support Android and iOS? We totally need more informations 😃
Sam Legge
Maker
@akdm_ Check this site out with all the tech specs https://www.bynorth.com/tech
Anthony Da Mota
@d0b0 Thanks Sam! I couldn't find that page 😉 Do you know if there's a way to try it in France or in the UK?
Sam Legge
Maker
@akdm_ Nothing to share about international expansion right now but we'll be opening more stores in the near future. We'll keep you posted!
Karan Ganesan
@d0b0 so no more development of Myo the arm band ? Is their no future plans for Myo ?
Tom Bielecki
This has potential, if they can extend the functionality through a developer ecosystem etc, but even Apple Watch has had difficulties getting big brands on board. The only thing close to a killer feature I currently see is having a shopping list in front of your eyes. The key ring prevents you from using it while cooking or heavy exercise etc. I don't know if this is just the marketing spin, but the current product doesn't jump out as being a "must-have" product functionality-wise. It's disappointing that there are only a couple basic utilities, which are already adequately useful with other (cheaper) wearables. Maybe everywhere-access to Alexa is the thing to lean on. But I love the vision in the blog post of giving you superpowers, I just don't see it yet. Show me how this fits into my life and how nothing else on the market can do what this does.
Sam Legge
Maker
@tombielecki Thanks for the feedback Tom!
Kaivalya Gandhi
@d0b0 Looks like a scene from a Kingsmen movie... Amazing to see it as a reality now! 🙏 🙌 Curious - what's the ring for? (next to the glasses in one of the stock photos)
Sam Legge
Maker
@kaivalyagandhi That's Loop, it's a small ring with a 4-way joystick that lets you interact with Focals!
Chris Buttenham
Congrats on the launch guys! This feels like the right progression from Glass.. super exciting! Judging by the site + Alexa integration these won't be tied to any particular OS? Ps. love the new name 😉
Sam Legge
Maker
@chrisbuttenham We learned a lot from watching and using Glass and we've made some very deliberate decisions based on those learnings! In terms of OS, works with both Android and iOS. PS. Thanks, we do too 🤓
Gary Miller

A THOUSAND DOLLARS (and that's just to reserve!) for a device that tells you the time, and other stuff that you can get looking at the phone you already own.

Pros:

discrete

Cons:

Very expensive

Matt Gardner
Happy to see these release!! Hoping there's a back-ally Waterloo showroom I can check them out in ;)
Stuart Arsenault
"There when you need it, gone when you don't" 🙏🏼
Raad Ahmed ⚔
so cool! Any idea when you'll have prescription lens ready to ship?
Sam Legge
Maker
@r44d Shipping prescription as well as round frames in 2019!
Alex Davies
When will notifications for other applications be available? Was it a conscious decision to leave out social and email notifications made because the volume of these people get every day, hour, or even minute get would go against Focal's philosophy of being unobtrusive tech ‘designed to be off’? Would it feasible to make a whitelist of important email senders and social contacts you'd want to appear on your Focals? Although I haven't used Alexa in Canada, my understanding is that its functionality in Canada is much more limited when compared to Google assistant or Alexa in the US. For Canadian users, isn't this going to make our Focal experience not as good as US users?
Sam Legge
Maker
@alexbdavies Alexa functionality is mostly at par now for Canadian 🇨🇦users with a couple small caveats. We are working actively to make sure this is fixed 😃. In terms of notifications, we have included smartphone notifications in the experience but are very focused on figuring out ways to enable a more "present" approach to how you consume and deal with your important apps and services. More to say here in the future!
Matt Lubner
I hope they integrate speech-to-text, as that would be a transformative feature to those suffering with hearing loss.
Sam Legge
Maker
@mattlubner Definitely have leveraged the power of voice-to-text in many places on Focals. Help me understand how this will help those with hearing loss? I'm assuming you mean that it would be helpful to convert what people are saying to the user into text? If so, that is different then how Focals currently work.
Matt Lubner
@d0b0 Correct, exactly. That kind of assistive feature would also be very useful in loud places (such as a restaurant), and even more useful if the text could be translated on-the-fly. Imagine being in another country where the Focals wearer doesn't speak the language. Being able to maintain eye contact with others in those scenarios would be a much better experience than looking down at your phone for the translation. I would be interested in learning more about how Focals work, from a technical perspective.
Moody Mattan
@d0b0 we create all sorts of immersive content at BrandXR. How can we start building experiences for Focals?