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Snaps latest augmented reality glasses have a completely new but still very oversized design, larger field of view and all-new software that supports full hand tracking abilities. But the company is only making the fifth-generation Spectacles available to approved developers willing to commit to a year-long $99/month subscription to start. Its an unusual strategy, but Snap says its taking that approach because developers are, for now, best positioned to understand the capabilities and limitations of augmented reality hardware. They are also the ones most willing to commit to a pricey $1,000+ subscription to get their hands on the tech. Developers, explains Snaps director of AR platform Sophia Dominguez, are the biggest AR enthusiasts. Theyre also the ones who will build the kinds of experiences that will eventually make the rest of Snapchats users excited for them too. This isn't a prototype, Dominguez tells Engadget. We have all the components. We're ready to scale when the market is there, but we want to do so in a thoughtful way and bring developers along with our journey. Snap gave me an early preview of the glasses ahead of its Partner Summit event, and the Spectacles dont feel like a prototype the way its first AR-enabled Spectacles did in 2021. The hardware and software are considerably more powerful. The AR displays are sharper and more immersive, and they already support over two dozen AR experiences, including a few from big names like Lego and Niantic (Star Wars developer Industrial Light and Motion also has a lens in the works, according to Snap.) The glasses To state the obvious, the glasses are massive. Almost comically large. They are significantly wider than my face, and the arms stuck out past the end of my head. A small adapter helped them fit around my ears more snugly, but they still felt like they might slip off my face if I jerked my head suddenly or leaned down. Still, the new frames look slightly more like actual glasses than the fourth-generation Spectacles, which had a narrow, angular design with dark lenses. The new frames are made of thick black plastic and have clear lenses that are able to darken when you move outside, sort of like transition lenses. The fifth-generation Spectacles are the first to have clear lenses.Karissa Bell for Engadget The lenses house Snaps waveguide tech that, along with Liquid Crystal on Silicon micro-projectors, enable their AR abilities. Each pair is also equipped with cameras, microphones and speakers. Inside each arm is a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Snap says the dual processor setup has made the glasses more efficient and prevents the overheating issues that plagued their predecessor. The change seems to be an effective one. In my nearly hour-long demo, neither pair of Spectacles I tried got hot, though they were slightly warm to the touch after extended use. (The fifth-generation Spectacles have a battery life of about 45 minutes, up from 30 min with the fourth-gen model.) Snap's newest AR Spectacles are extremely thick. Karissa Bell for Engadget Snap has also vastly improved Spectacles AR capabilities. The projected AR content was crisp and bright. When I walked outside into the sun, the lenses dimmed, but the content was very nearly as vivid as when I had been indoors. At a resolution of 37 pixels per degree, I wasnt able to discern individual pixels or fuzzy borders like I have on some other AR hardware. But the most noticeable improvement from Snaps last AR glasses is the bigger field of view. Snap says it has almost tripled the field of view from its previous generation of Spectacles, increasing the window of visible content to 46 degrees. Snap claims this is equivalent to having a 100-inch display in the room with you, and my demo felt significantly more immersive than what I saw in 2021. The fourth-generation Spectacles (above) were narrow and not nearly as oversized as the fifth-gen Spectacles (below).Karissa Bell for Engadget It isnt, however, fully immersive. I still found myself at times gazing around the room, looking for the AR effects I knew were around me. At other points, I had to physically move around my space in order to see the full AR effects. For example, when I tried out a human anatomy demo, which shows a life-sized model of the human body and its various systems, I wasnt able to see the entire figure at once. I had to move my head up and down in order to view the upper and lower halves of the body. Snap OS The other big improvement to the latest Spectacles is the addition of full hand tracking abilities. Snap completely redesigned the underlying software powering Spectacles, now called Snap OS, so the entire user interface is controlled with hand gestures and voice commands. You can pull up the main menu on the palm of one hand, sort of like Humanes AI Pin and you simply tap on the corresponding icon to do things like close an app or head back to the lens explorer carousel. There are also pinch and tap gestures to launch and interact with lenses. While Snap still calls these experiences lenses, they look and feel more like full-fledged apps than the AR lens effects youd find in the Snapchat app. Lego has a game that allows you to pick up bricks with your hands and build objects. I also tried a mini golf game where you putt a golf ball over an AR course. Niantic created an AR version of its tamagotchi-like character Peridot, which you can place among your surroundings. The interface for Snapchat's AI assistant, MyAI, on Spectacles.Snap You can also interact with Snapchats generative AI assistant, MyAI, or paint the space around you with AR effects. Some experiences are collaborative, so if two people with Spectacles are in a room together, they can view and interact with the same AR content together. If you only have one pair of Spectacles, others around you can get a glimpse of what youre seeing via the Spectacles mobile app. It allows you to stream your view to your phone, a bit like how you might cast VR content from a headset to a TV. The new gesture-based interface felt surprisingly intuitive. I occasionally struggled with lenses that required more precise movements, like picking up and placing individual Lego bricks, but the software never felt buggy or unresponsive. There are even more intriguing use cases in the works. Snap is again partnering with OpenAI so that developers can create multimodal experiences for Spectacles. Very soon, developers will be able to bring their [OpenAI] models into the Spectacles experience, so that we can really lean into the more utilitarian, camera-based experiences, Dominguez says. These AI models can help give developers, and ultimately, their end customers more context about what's in front of them, what they're hearing, what they're seeing. Is AR hardware about to have a moment? CEO Evan Spiegel has spent years touting the promise of AR glasses, a vision that for so long has felt just out of reach. But if the companys 2021 Spectacles showed AR glasses were finally possible, the fifth-generation Spectacles feel like Snap may finally be getting close to making AR hardware thats not merely an experiment. For now, there are still some significant limitations. The glasses are still large and somewhat unwieldy, for one. While the fifth-gen Spectacles passably resemble regular glasses, its hard to imagine walking around with them on in public. Then again, that might not matter much to the people Snap most wants to reach. As virtual and mixed reality become more mainstream, people have been more willing to wear the necessary headgear in public. People wear their Apple Vision Pro headsets on airplanes, in coffee shops and other public spaces. As Snap points out, its Spectacles, at least, dont cover your entire face or obscure your eyes. And Dominguz says the company expects its hardware to get smaller over time. Snap's fifth-generation Spectacles are its most advanced, and ambitious, yet.Karissa Bell for Engadget But the company will also likely need to find a way to reduce Spectacles price. Each pair reportedly costs thousands of dollars to produce, which helps explain Snaps current insistence on a subscription model, but its hard to imagine even hardcore AR enthusiasts shelling out more than a thousand dollars for glasses that have less than one hour of battery life. Snap seems well aware of this too. The company has always been upfront with the fact that its playing the long game when it comes to AR, and that thinking hasnt changed. Dominguez repeatedly said that the company is intentionally starting with developers because they are the ones most ready for a device like the fifth-gen Spectacles and that Snap intends to be prepared whenever the consumer market catches up. The company also isnt alone in finally realizing AR hardware. By all accounts, Meta is poised to show off the first version of its long-promised augmented reality glasses next week at its developer event. Its glasses, known as Orion, are also unlikely to go on sale anytime soon. But the attention Meta brings to the space could nonetheless benefit Snap as it tries to sell its vision for an AR-enabled world.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/snaps-fifth-generation-spectacles-bring-your-hands-into-into-augmented-reality-180026541.html?src=rss
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California has given the go-ahead to a landmark AI bill to protect performers' digital likenesses. On Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2602, which will go into effect on January 1, 2025. The bill requires studios and other employers to get consent before using digital replicas of performers. Newsom also signed AB 1836, which grants similar rights to deceased performers, requiring their estates permission before using their AI likenesses. AB 2602, introduced in April, covers film, TV, video games, commercials, audiobooks and non-union performing jobs. Deadline notes its terms are similar to those in the contract that ended the 2023 actors strike against Hollywood studios. SAG-AFTRA, the film and TV actors union that held out for last years deal, strongly supported the bill. The Motion Picture Association first opposed the legislation but later switched to a neutral stance after revisions. The bill mandates that employers cant use an AI recreation of an actors voice or likeness if it replaces work the performer could have done in person. It also prevents digital replicas if the actors contract doesnt explicitly state how the deepfake will be used. It also voids any such deals signed when the performer didnt have legal or union representation. The bill defines a digital replica as a computer-generated, highly realistic electronic representation that is readily identifiable as the voice or visual likeness of an individual that is embodied in a sound recording, image, audiovisual work, or transmission in which the actual individual either did not actually perform or appear, or the actual individual did perform or appear, but the fundamental character of the performance or appearance has been materially altered. Meanwhile, AB 1836 expands Californias postmortem right of publicity. Hollywood must now get permission from a decedent's estate before using their digital replicas. Deadline notes that exceptions were included for satire, comment, criticism and parody, and for certain documentary, biographical or historical projects. The bill, which protects not only SAG-AFTRA performers but all performers, is a huge step forward, SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told the The LA Times in late August. Voice and likeness rights, in an age of digital replication, must have strong guardrails around licensing to protect from abuse, this bill provides those guardrails. AB2602 passed the California State Senate on August 27 with a 37-1 tally. (The lone holdout was from State Senator Brian Dahle, a Republican.) The bill then returned to the Assembly (which passed an earlier version in May) to formalize revisions made during Senate negotiations. On Tuesday, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher celebrated the passage, which the union fought for. It is a momentous day for SAG-AFTRA members and everyone else, because the A.I. protections we fought so hard for last year are now expanded upon by California law thanks to the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom, Drescher said. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/california-passes-landmark-regulation-to-require-permission-from-actors-for-ai-deepfakes-174234452.html?src=rss
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An annual membership to Dashlanes premium password manager is on sale for just $39, which is a discount of more than $20 and a savings of 35 percent. Just use the code SEPT35 at checkout. The company says this is in celebration of something called Cyber Security Awareness Month, which actually doesnt start until October. Its always nice to see a festive new holiday on the scene. Anyways, this deal is for the premium plan, which includes unlimited password and passkey storage. Users also get phishing alerts to stay on top of attacks, dark web monitoring and more. The plan even comes with a VPN, which Ive found particularly useful for watching my stories when in another country. Dashlane found a place on our list of the best password managers. We admired the robust suite of features and noted that some of these tools, like password storage, are even available with the free plan. We also called out the secure sharing functionality, with password sharing baked right into the system. Its also available for plenty of platforms, including macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and other browsers. Theres one major platform missing, however, which could be a dealbreaker for some. Dashlane doesnt support Linux. Theres also the issue of an annual subscription. Theres no telling how much itll be next year, though switching password managers isnt as tough as it used to be. Theres a free plan if the price shoots up too high. The deal ends on September 22. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/get-one-year-of-dashlane-premium-password-manager-for-only-39-172851487.html?src=rss
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