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If Mark Zuckerberg has his way, in a few weeks you could be talking to a friend wearing Meta’s new “display” glasses (you might call them augmented reality-lite glasses). All of a sudden, your friend will get a glazed look in their eyes and their fingers will start twitching. “Oh no,” you’ll realize. “They got just a text and now they’re responding.” If that sounds like a better experience than what we are all used to now—where friends whip out a phone to respond to a text in the middle of dinner—then you’ll appreciate what Zuckerberg outlined at Meta’s Connect conference on Wednesday night.
But for others, the glasses could make an annoying problem even worse. The glasses, going on sale in a couple of weeks for just $799, will have a display in one lens that shows text messages, phone calls, images, etc. In his presentation, the Meta CEO claimed that the “promise of glasses is to preserve the sense of presence that you have when you’re with other people,” something he said we have lost “a little bit with phones.” He’s right about that—who hasn’t had the experience of their spouse complaining that you’re not paying attention because you’re looking at your phone? But the glasses, as demonstrated by Zuckerberg, may prompt even more complaints.
At least everyone around you can tell when you’re looking at a phone. It’s going to be more annoying if you realize the person you’re talking with appears to be focusing on you, but actually isn’t. It will be like chatting with someone and then realizing they’re listening to someone else through their earbuds. That’s just one of the flaws evident from Meta’s glitchy presentation on Wednesday night. What that presentation also made clear is that manipulating the glasses with your fingers is going to take a lot of getting used to. And we’re not talking about the learning curve we all had to undertake when the iPhone came out and we had to learn how to type on a glass keyboard rather than on the BlackBerry’s physical buttons. (For more on the new glasses, see our discussion today on TITV).
Still, kudos to Meta for moving the ball forward on a new piece of technology. But if you end up buying a pair of the new glasses, brace yourselves for some awkward moments with friends, family and coworkers.
Nvidia’s Intel Play
Is Nvidia’s $5 billion investment in Intel the start of Intel’s comeback? One precedent could be Microsoft, which in 1997 invested $150 million in a then-near bankrupt Apple, whose cofounder Steve Jobs had just returned to the company and was trying to save it.
Not only did Microsoft put cash into Apple, the two companies agreed on a tech and product deal under which Microsoft would commit to continuing to offer versions of its Office suite and other Microsoft software tools for the Mac. Apple ended up becoming a colossus, as over the next few years it expanded its product lineup to include the iPod, followed by the iPhone. The rest is history.
It’s unlikely the same thing will happen with Intel, which long ago fell behind rivals like Nvidia and TSMC. Firstly, Apple was led by Jobs, a product genius who had a strong personal motivation to rebuild Apple. Intel doesn’t have any such person. Moreover, Nvidia’s main reason for doing this deal is surely its desire to win credit with the Trump administration.
One thing is for sure: Nvidia is already in the black on the investment. It is paying $23.28 a share, and news of the deal sent Intel shares soaring 23% to $30.57. All in all, Nvidia may end up being a bigger winner than Intel.
In Other News
• Microsoft will spend $4 billion in the next three years to build a new data center in Wisconsin as it races to meet demand for servers that power AI applications, the company said Thursday.
• Deliveroo CEO Will Shu will step down from the company after DoorDash completes its acquisition of the European food delivery company, he said in a statement Thursday. The roughly $4 billion deal is expected to close in October.
• China’s tech giant Huawei Technologies unveiled on Thursday a three-year roadmap for its artificial intelligence chips designed to challenge Nvidia’s stranglehold on the market. The roadmap is the latest example of China’s effort to reduce its dependence on American semiconductor technology.
• Shares of cloud security Netskope rose 18% above its IPO price on its opening day as a public company, closing at $22.49. The firm priced its IPO at $19 per share.
Today at The Information’s TITV
Check out today's episode of TITV in which the CEOs of Docusign and CLEAR share exclusive details about their new partnership together and how signing documents with selfies is the way of the future.
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