A vision of the next generation tech

It was just another day at our usual hangout at Kowdiar Coffee Day – a bit of banter and a few cups of coffee. Our mixed crew of engineers and artists, students and interns, settled into the familiar rhythm of weekend chatter.

Then Frazan Khan, who runs a digital marketing outfit, rolled in – curly hair bobbing – looking perfectly normal behind what appeared to be standard specs. Nothing unusual for a popular cafe – until he dropped the bombshell: “Look, I’m wearing the Meta Ray-Ban AI glasses.”

If he hadn’t revealed it, no one would have noticed, as it looked similar to any other black frame at first glance.

Suddenly, questions fired like rapid-shot espresso: How’s it performing? What’s it actually for? Heavy? Expensive? One by one, we became impromptu beta testers – streaming music, making calls, filming videos, snapping photos.

A collective taste of technology the world had barely begun to digest.

The real impact wasn’t in what it could do – the surprise was how normal it looked. No bulky Star Trek nonsense from early AI prototypes. No geeky headset vibes like Apple’s Vision Pro or Meta’s own Quest disasters. Just pure Ray-Ban DNA – sleek, compact, unapologetically stylish.

Loud and Clear: But here’s what had our eyes popping – the audio clarity. Whether streaming Spotify or taking calls, you get razor-sharp, earphone-quality sound while the person inches away hears nothing. (Someone half-jokingly suggested mass-producing these for café loudmouths who think speakerphones should be like community radio.)

Even after dark, photos and videos matched smartphone expectations. Only a tiny blinking light betrayed the recording function – raising privacy questions that, frankly, smartphones have already normalised us to ignore.

We were hooked. Khan, clearly loving his role as tech evangelist, revealed more – these glasses can read text, ping Meta’s AI platforms Llama for answers, and whisper solutions directly into your ear. (Don’t get clever ideas about exam halls, though.)

Despite being an AI powerhouse, prescription lenses slide right in – no compromises.

Then the revelation hit us – while we’re fumbling with our phones to make a call or access AI, Khan’s got functioning AI literally on his face. And the trajectory is obvious – every app crowding our phones could migrate to this new platform perched on our noses.

New Vision: Ever since AI became tech’s holy grail, analysts have been speculating about the smartphone killer. The pretenders arrived with fanfare – Humane pins, Rabbit devices – wearable assistants promising everything your phone could do, and more.

They flopped spectacularly. Hype couldn’t save them, despite big names and bigger promises. So what wins? Zuckerberg bets everything on Meta Glass.

“Personal devices like glasses that understand our context because they can see what we see, hear what we hear, and interact with us throughout the day will become our primary computing devices,” he wrote in a recent blog.

His vision of “personal superintelligence” will supposedly “improve all our existing systems” and “enable the creation and discovery of new things that aren’t imaginable today.”

What those things are remains mysteriously undefined, but he keeps invoking this “superintelligence” that will launch “a new era for humanity.”

Costly Pursuit: And Meta is not holding back, despite companies like OpenAI, Google and Claude racing ahead in the contest for AI supremacy. According to the latest figures, Zuckerberg’s push for research and hiring top talent has been expensive – Meta’s cash balance has dropped 30 billion US dollars (or 40 per cent) in the first half of this year, as its spending on AI skyrocketed.

But as the company’s revenue keeps showing exceptional growth, there are no alarm bells on Wall Street – yet. Meta is convinced that the next computing platform will be eyewear, and it is planning more models in collaboration with companies like Oakley and Prada.

The numbers back this confidence – Meta dominates smart glasses with over 60 per cent global market share. Since launching in October 2023, its 299 US dollar Ray-Ban Meta glasses have moved over two million pairs, with sales tripling in the first half of 2025 alone.

EssilorLuxottica, which owns Ray-Ban, is equally gung-ho about it. “We are leading the transformation of glasses as the next computing platform, one where AI, sensory tech and a data-rich healthcare infrastructure will converge to empower humans and unlock our full potential,” EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Milleri and deputy CEO Paul du Saillant said in a joint statement.

Chinese Deluge: Success breeds imitators – following Meta’s breakthrough, nine new AI smart glasses models had entered the market by late 2024, mostly from Chinese companies. Baidu’s Xiaodu AI glasses, Loomo, RayNeo V3 and Looktech all positioned themselves as Ray-Ban Meta killers, promising better batteries, superior cameras and lighter frames.

Last month, Alibaba also joined the crowded market, releasing its version called Quark. It will use Alibaba’s proprietary Qwen large language model (LLM) and its AI assistant, Quark, and will be in shops by the end of the year. The company says its gadget will help the wearer compare the price of a product with similar offers on Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Taobao, make payments via its affiliate Ant Group’s Alipay, and offer real-time language translation and meeting transcription.

Nothing surprising there – once you’ve tried Meta glasses, the possibilities become crystal clear. Meta glasses showed us that you didn’t need phones for calls, music or AI conversations. When everyday apps like food delivery and online payments join the party, smartphones risk becoming expensive paperweights.

The speed at which technology is reaching us is what’s truly staggering – Meta launched Ray-Ban glasses less than two years ago. Now they’re available at the local mall for 30,000 rupees. Meta’s 499 US dollar Oakley variants dropped last month, and could be soon available in India.

What started as curiosity over a friend’s new gadget has revealed the contours of our digital future. We’re no longer waiting decades for science fiction to become reality – we’re living in the early days of what could be the most significant shift in personal computing since the smartphone itself. And it could arrive as quietly as a pair of ordinary-looking glasses.

Skyroot is on a rock and roll

It was an event that lasted less than two minutes, but the impact of Skyroot’s successful static test firing of the rocket’s Stage 1 solid fuel booster is a milestone in India’s private space industry. The 11-metre-long monolithic solid rocket motor is India’s largest privately built rocket stage – and it has passed with flying colours. The 30-tonne beauty can generate nearly 1,200 kN, which means it produced enough thrust to take a rocket up 50 km into space during the first phase of the journey. This clears a major hurdle for Skyroot’s plan to send the first privately developed Indian rocket to the orbit. The startup can then provide on-demand and customised launches for global small satellite operators, both in India and worldwide.

If you are an innovator and a space enthusiast, Nasa has a Rock and Roll challenge for you. It is calling on the public to help shape the future of lunar exploration by designing the next generation of wheels capable of navigating the moon’s harsh terrain. It has to be a lightweight, flexible and long-lasting wheel and tyre system capable of withstanding the rugged lunar landscape – marked by extreme temperatures, craters, boulders, steep inclines and ultra-fine, abrasive dust known as regolith. (Sounds almost like roads in Kerala.) Anyone can join the contest, and if you think you are up for the challenge, here is the link for more details.

Clean bowled by tech

While all eyes were on Indian cricketing heroes who pulled off a dramatic win to level the series against England, we were also following was the kind of technology being used by Fox TV during the matches. While social media has been filled with praise for Indian cricketing heroes who pulled off a dramatic win to level the series against England, what we were following was the kind of technology being used by Fox TV. In an astounding piece of analysis, they compared the bowling action of Jasprit Bumrah – whose run-up was clocked at 16 km/h – with Australian bowler Pat Cummins, who steams in at 23 km/h. Using an analysis tool that captured 250 frames per second, they found Bumrah was faster despite his slower run-up. Storytelling in cricket has come a long way from the days when a radar gun was used to measure the speed of a bowler – with rapid advances in camera technology and artificial intelligence now enhancing television coverage, reports Fox Cricket. Former England captain Michael Vaughan says such analysis will change the way coaches look at fast bowling.

Question of a grave error

Former CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta set off a storm of protests when he did a podcast on gun violence. He interviewed an AI avatar of Joaquin Oliver, one of 17 people killed in the Parkland school shooting in 2018. Oliver’s parents created the avatar using materials their son had written, said and posted online, father Manuel Oliver told Acosta. He clarified he is not trying to bring his son back to life, but enjoys hearing his child’s voice again and believes the avatar can help the gun reform cause. The interview drew strong criticism, and Ren LaForme, managing editor of the Poynter Institute, said: “This isn’t just a high-profile misstep – it’s part of a larger, ongoing conversation about AI’s potential and risks in journalism. As it seeps into more and more aspects of our daily lives, it’s up to society to collectively decide where it’s appropriate and where it isn’t.”

Three bolts and no jolts

This bit is just for the video linked here. Apparently, the saying “lightning never strikes twice” is a myth, as a Chinese driver of a BYD car in Beihai city can vouch. A dashcam caught his SUV taking three hits in seconds – turning it into a rolling light show. Thanks to the Faraday cage effect, the bolts skittered away, leaving the driver cool, calm, and un-zapped. Two scorch marks on the roof were the only souvenirs. The driver stayed safe inside the vehicle and emerged without any injuries, reports Interesting Engineering.