Tech’s New Trend: Ugly Spectacles

It’s that time of year again—when geeky men stand on stage wearing ugly glasses. Last week, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel gave a detailed demonstration of his forthcoming Specs augmented reality glasses, which were first unveiled in June. This week, it’s Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s turn. Meta holds its annual Connect conference, where it shows off new hardware, with Zuckerberg’s keynote scheduled for Wednesday. And you can bet he’ll be on stage wearing at least one pair of glasses.

The Information has already scooped one of the possible announcements—about a camera-free pair of smart glasses to go on sale in October. According to our story last week, by my colleague Jyoti Mann, Meta will also unveil new AR glasses. Here’s a question, though: What happened to the AR-like glasses that got so much attention at last year’s Connect?