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logicalnoise t1_j26s7vs wrote

Congrats on buying the best vaporware of the 2010s.

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mrpoops t1_j26uyag wrote

Why build a 2000 mile long city when you can just pretend it’s there?

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squidking78 t1_j26x4rp wrote

“Country that still publicly beheads people and enjoys many other medieval practices tries to profit off tech thousands of years ahead of it”.

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Feisty-Juan t1_j26yss7 wrote

Saudis are creeping in to all our lives slowly but steadily! You see the commercials for Public.com? It’s Saudi owned and a mix of investing/ social media. But if you say something negative about the Saudi’s? They disable your account so you can’t post. But will let you keep your money in. I left .02 cents in! I’m not allowed to have a negative honest opinion well then here’s my 2 cents

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squidking78 t1_j270oln wrote

Well no one electrocutes folks anymore. And only in a small number of mouth breather states do they still bother executing people. ( which in itself, is not a barbaric thing necessarily when dealing with people who are proven mass murderers etc etc )

But nice try saying “The US is just as bad as Saudi Arabia so stop criticizing them!”

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tavok_ t1_j2738wh wrote

>Saudis take control of US augmented reality company Magic Leap

>^Kingdom's ^sovereign ^wealth ^fund ^takes ^more ^than ^50pc ^stake ^in ^the ^business

>^^By ^^Matthew ^^Field ^^26 ^^December ^^2022 ^^• ^^1:05pm

> Saudi Arabia has taken control of US augmented reality company Magic Leap, The Telegraph can reveal, as the company taps up investors for a further $450m.

> Magic Leap, which has raised more than $4bn in debt and equity funding but never turned a profit, has been developing a pair of goggles designed to impose virtual images across the real world.

> Despite raising funds from Google, China’s Alibaba and US telecoms giant AT&T, Magic Leap has struggled to turn its vision of high-tech digital glasses into reality. At one stage it was valued at more than $4bn.

> Founded in 2010 by US entrepreneur Rony Abovitz, the company made a splash in 2015 with a teaser for its augmented reality glasses that caused a surge in consumer interest in the company.

> Headquartered in Florida, Magic Leap partnered with New Zealand’s Weta Workshop, known for its motion capture work on the Lord of the Rings films, on games for its headset. Video games for its augmented reality goggles included Dr Grodborts Invaders, featuring the voice Stephen Fry.

> However, its product, the Magic Leap One, enjoyed only modest sales when it went on sale in 2018. The company cut more than 1,000 jobs during the pandemic.

> The headset's successor, the Magic Leap 2, went on sale in September this year in an effort to revive interest. The headset costs $3,299 and is mostly aimed at industry customers. The new headset is often used by businesses to visualise design or construction work or by medical professionals who can use the headset for surgical planning.

> According to delayed accounts for its European division, Magic Leap raised $150m in preferred convertible stock and $300m in debt “to date in 2022”. The funding has not previously been disclosed. It follows a $500m raise in 2021.

> During the course of its recent funding rounds, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF) took a stake of more than 50pc in the business, giving it overall majority control. The accounts said: “As of November 2022, the PIF is entitled to appoint four of the eight directors of the board of directors of Magic Leap."

> In August, it had $223m in cash and was continuing to seek further investment.

> Saudi Arabia previously led a $400m funding round for Magic Leap in 2018.

> Other tech companies are also spending billions of dollars trying to make augmented and virtual reality devices mainstream.

> Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta last year and has unleashed tens of billions of dollars on “the metaverse”, a far-out concept to create a 3D internet using immerse virtual reality. Meta intends to spend 20pc of costs next year on the project.

> Meanwhile, iPhone-maker Apple is rumoured to be working on a pair of augmented reality glasses and a virtual reality headset, which could be revealed in 2023.

> Peggy Johnson, who became Magic Leap chief executive in 2021, said this month: “At Magic Leap, we believe that the metaverse is already here, with many currently experiencing a limited view via phones, computers, and tablets. Our goal is to make our interactions with the metaverse a more natural extension of how we view and operate in the physical world.”

> Magic Leap did not respond to requests for comment.

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tavok_ t1_j274pq3 wrote

If you're blocked by the paywall, add a period after ".co.uk" in the url, so it looks like ".co.uk**.**/" and press enter. Hopefully that works for others.

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Zalanox t1_j27569y wrote

The visuals are sick! They are not on a screen, they are injected into your eyes! Only considering the visuals, could you tell at all the images weren’t real?

Edit: I was incorrect! They use wavelength display! Thank you for the info!!

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mrpoops t1_j277ys3 wrote

Oil is out. Like, long term…it’s out. It’s still what powers everything but it’s untenable. Can’t burn t-rex queefs forever, gotta move on.

Moving ground transportation to all electric…that alone covers a sizable chunk. And we’re on our way towards that already. As climate change gets more “in your face” in the next few years…attitudes towards oil are gonna take a steep turn. Like tobacco…

The saudis are buying up all the eggs and all the baskets they can afford.

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MechanicalBengal t1_j278hza wrote

I think they’ve realized that when automation starts taking hold in a big way, they’re going to have a ton of folks with idle hands… and the royal family is not looking to repeat the French Revolution.

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AadamAtomic t1_j27g15o wrote

Because the U.S loves oil and gives them ungodly amounts of money to do anything they want.

They could even crash an airplane into some Towers or something if they felt like it....

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xXSpaceturdXx t1_j27jq1y wrote

I wouldn’t worry About it, I’m sure they wouldn’t use it for anything nefarious. /S I think we need to reevaluate our trade embargo‘s or maybe filter them a little bit.

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zoolover1234 t1_j27lp1d wrote

They actually directly and indirectly invests/control many many US companies. What's the point of this news?

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DiegoGarcia1984 t1_j27omdv wrote

Cool, it’s like oil- a completely worthless or destructive investment.

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weizXR t1_j27v3g7 wrote

Can't wait until they find out what large stretches of mirrored walls end up doing in a desert..

There will be a line of burnt/melted animals along the sides of the thing -_-

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clearlynotstefan t1_j27wtti wrote

Pretty sure they used musk just to kill Twitter. That deal saddled them with so much debt that they'd collapse even with the best leadership. I can't see any reason for them to finance that deal besides to make sure that platform goes under

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__sys_out_println__ t1_j27yzn3 wrote

Also he implicitly accepted that Saudis behead people.

Plus in some states in the US, if I’m not mistaken, death penalty is given to people who have killed others or for some other horrific crimes. In Saudi Barbaria, if you say god has a lil dick you get beheaded.

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IBJON t1_j283bkh wrote

Huh. That's going to be problematic for my previous DoD contractor job where we used Magic Leap for one of our projects.

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majestic_failure t1_j284hv6 wrote

That was a really well written article honestly. No repetitive fluff, no opinion about Saudi Arabia, had all the information I felt like I wanted, and it was a really appropriate length for how much interest I had. Thanks for posting.

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nomnaut t1_j2875t0 wrote

Fuck Saudia Arabia. Come at me.

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Andyb1000 t1_j288mnj wrote

It’s a shame we’ve spent since the mid-00s in western countries demonising people receiving benefits/welfare. By mid century I believe many people will be displaced from the workforce as professions become increasingly automation.

People left the fields to go to the factories in the Industrial Revolution but the ability to create an unlimited artificial workforce is a paradigm shift we have not seen.

We need to be preparing ourselves for large swathes of the world population not working and find meaning and purpose from other activities.

I’m sure that I’ll get replies that it will take time, the US, China etc. will be first… what about the developing world… yes they will be generationally behind the curve.

Why is it important? You think places like the US has civil unrest now when people are working three jobs with no healthcare to cover rent payments? Wait until your McDonald’s is nothing more than an automated burger and fries vending machine kitchen with one or two employees to clean up and there is mass unemployment.

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Leviathan3333 t1_j28fv9n wrote

Pretty much every country in that region needs to be isolated.

Will never happen though. After seeing Qatar and the World Cup. I’ve learned our species will always do what’s fun over what’s right.

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Mcarrazz t1_j28g0c9 wrote

The HoloLens is actually very comfortable. I regularly wear it for 2-3 hours at a time. Battery life is usually the limiter there, not comfort. It’s not like wearing a VR headset, where there is a lot of pressure on your face and the screens cause a lot of eye fatigue. The Hololens is also a visor on a swivel so you can “get out of mixed reality” very quickly.

I don’t use Magic Leap, mostly because it requires a puck with a cable and a controller which don’t work for the use cases at my job. But it is used for surgery in China, and surgeons would never wear it if it wasn’t comfortable for multiple hours. Magic Leap 2 also has the best field of view of any mixed reality headset

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Mcarrazz t1_j28h44l wrote

I think the Quest Pro feels clunkier and is harder to adjust than the HoloLens. I have a big head, and I’ve struggled to adjust the front dial while the device is on my head.

The Hololens also has a top head strap that makes the weight more evenly distributed for longer use which the Quest Pro does not.

I’m not a huge fan of the Quest Pro to be honest

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Chrispychilla t1_j28iuwd wrote

What do the suddenly image obsessed overlords that own the USA want with augmented reality?

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meowtothemeow t1_j28l09x wrote

Noted, I’ll remember to not buy anything from them.

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KSRandom195 t1_j28nork wrote

Robot tax.

You have to create the incentives that discourage worker replacement with automation. A robot tax is one answer that can lead to funding a UBI

It’s a delicate balance because you want to encourage the automation but discourage full worker replacement, at least until you get enough of a robot tax you can fund a UBI for all the displaced workers.

The UBI is needed because the economy doesn’t work without the workers receiving income. So if the workers don’t receive income then they will not buy stuff in the economy, so the robots won’t be needed since there will be no one to buy the stuff they make.

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ABDULITY t1_j28o12z wrote

Whats funny is 🤣 you americans really think you're doing something with all the "fuck saudi arabia" and even worse slurs about our country and the Saudis, we have a saying in Saudi Arabia that goes like "A mountain isn't shaken by mere wind". Keep mindlessly attacking us while we watch your country and society disintegrate as im writing this.

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KruppeTheWise t1_j28povt wrote

What you need is successive waves of a virus that kills off all your weak and old, useless slaves cough citizens that expect these kinds of benefits/welfare.

Keep a small group of fit ones as your consumers to buy your yearly "upgraded" gadgets and vitamin waters and import immigrants to do the service work. As you take away the benefits and welfare, the immigrants won't protest because they never even knew they existed.

There's a fallacy that since WW2 and the short period of financial reckoning millions of military trained men returning could quietly, purposely force from their governments everything will just get a bit better by default every year. For a select few, sure, for the majority of us cost of living from groceries to housing has decimated the existing middle class and it's attainability for those trying to move up.

But lets all spend our time complaining about clickbait headlines and why my sexism/racism/ageism/incelism/disability/LGBQT2OWL is the one that deserves the most attention while they quietly undermine all of us in the underlying root cause of these issues, wealth inequality.

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Ahllhellnaw t1_j28q4qd wrote

Saudis starting to realize the Israeli strategy is the right one. Buy into every major industry, especially tech and especially in America, and let the money do the talking. It's all about the Benjamins

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KruppeTheWise t1_j28q4ye wrote

Consider the original iPhone in 2008 and the latest one available today.

Apply the same level of funding and development to VR today and 15 years from now, you'll barely be able to tell a regular pair of glasses from a VR pair.

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KruppeTheWise t1_j28qmt3 wrote

Consider in a globalised capitalist economy, every time you participate in that economy you are if not directly then indirectly increasing the wealth of those with large amounts of capital in the game.

It's like when people say "don't support Nestle don't buy these products!"

Guess what, Nestle hold billions in diversified stock options. Buying an iPhone supports Nestle. Buying a competing product supports Nestle. Not directly, but indirectly and when they make a dollar either way how exactly does that even matter?

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KruppeTheWise t1_j28r62q wrote

When you stop and think about it, a Saudi prince got the US to go in and cripple the Saudis main adversary in their region, killing hundreds of thousands of their civilians in over a decade of occupation, by killing US citizens in a terrorist attack.

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SpecialpOps t1_j28rrog wrote

If you walk through any American city you’ll see homelessness and garbage in the streets. If you walk through Riyadh you will see clean streets, no homelessness, and clean buildings with no graffiti and no street crime. People can complain like you said, it’s just wind.

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vivichase t1_j28s5uy wrote

Not the victory condition I expected they would go for, but I imagine the +25% tourism from their extensive international trade routes is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. And don’t forget the religious tourism. America hasn’t researched Enlightenment yet and may never, if things continue as they are.

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Andyb1000 t1_j28snat wrote

For me it’s as simple as charging robots the same income tax as an employee. In my work, we account 40% additional salary for “on costs”. These are typically the wrapper that goes around managing employee; employee benefits, welfare, pensions, continual professional development and professional services like HR to deal with employee issues.

Any business that goes all in on automation is already making a 40% cost saving versus us bags of mostly water.

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KruppeTheWise t1_j28w62z wrote

It's gonna be interesting to see how the hegemon survives the green transition. Maybe now we are in the information age, the world reserve currency will be used to trade microchips? I'm sure the US has no competition there....

China Raughs in South China Sea

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Versability t1_j28x5xq wrote

Amazon and Walmart are the two companies with the most employees in the entire world as far as I’m aware. It’s a pretty large margin too, as nobody but these two companies employs over 1 million people.

If automation replaced human workers, wouldn’t both of these companies have fewer workers than everybody else instead of more?

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Maetree t1_j28xluf wrote

.... Because in Riyadh they either lock the homeless people up or ship them off to a slum somewhere.

Let's not pretend it's because there are no poor people in Saudi Arabia lol

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Vyviel t1_j28ygk8 wrote

Oh this company is still around? I just assumed it was a massive scam and they ran off with all the billions invested in it lol

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lsdrunning t1_j28z0me wrote

Your country has no rivers. Or mountains for that matter. Just a desert metropolis that only exists because of modern technology and the fact that there’s oil below the same sands that can’t grow anything.

The only reason Saudi Arabia is geopolitically relevant is because of oil. Not culture. Not resources. Not tourism. Not people. Just oil and a backwards regime that will execute people for saying god has a tiny dick

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123hoe t1_j290cni wrote

They deliver with drones and some of the warehouses already are replacing sorters with robots Amazon could fully autonomize tomorrow if the govt relaxed fsd requirements and hopefully give ubi or nationalized necessities

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ecksate t1_j292qb7 wrote

It's weird how conservative politicians understand the long game when it comes to corporate wealth and power, but when an opportunity comes to sell out the countries future, suddenly they want short sighted populism that disregards fiscal conservative policies.

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SquirttleTurtle t1_j297pf8 wrote

Time to invest. AR is legit the future VR sucks ass and is for specialized applications. Miniaturized actually good AR would change the world almost as dramatically as the cell phone did

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RanCestor t1_j2992l3 wrote

Damn this is the first news I hear about magic leap and I was so excited about it.

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eatmydeck t1_j29aegn wrote

I mean while technically it makes sense with that definition, that’s not how most English speakers would use “inject”. You’d probably use “projected onto your eyes” rather than “injected into” in your scenario.

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youbetca t1_j29bipa wrote

Or implement universal basic income & raise corporate taxes to pay for it.

It should be fine for robots & AI to replace human work, and increase human leisure time.

The benefits of robots & AI shouldn’t just go exclusively to the wealthy. This is 100% going to happen and we should start getting prepared for it now.

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sl0r t1_j29i5z5 wrote

Can’t see how this could possibly be a bad thing…

/s

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EVOSexyBeast t1_j29ig6n wrote

Yes change in momentum is pressure.

Pressure is defined as force/area which is the same as momentum/area/time.

I agree injecting is not the ideal word but i feel it technically fits the definition.

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KruppeTheWise t1_j29inbx wrote

The original iPhone was an iPod with phone capabilities. No app store. If you tried to tell anyone how big apps would get in 2008, they would laugh in your face.

The current gaming and meeting gimmicks VR is viewed as are analogous to slapping a SIM into an iPod and saying here, iPhone.

The company that makes the VR equivalent of the original iPhone could end up with something worth what the current Appstore is worth, with around $100 billion gross, if they can catch that lighting and stay on top of the market.

0

Dogzilla66 t1_j29iv8d wrote

Welp, I’m not buying any Magic Leap shit then. Saudis can fuck right off and so can Magic Leap

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MrEd57076 t1_j29jxju wrote

You are trying really hard to defend nothing. If it wasn't for oil, them fools would be back to herding goats across the desert. I am looking forward to the day when technology renders them and their people, and anyone who defends them, irrelevant and puts them back where they belong. In their 3rd world cesspool with the goats as their girlfriends. Nothing in the entire middle east is worth fighting for except the oil. After that is gone, or no longer needed, they will be a forgotten footnote in history. A once was who was never respected or admired. Simply tolerated.

Edited, to take into account the douchnozzle defending them.

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jezra t1_j29lvtt wrote

With a small headset and some facial recognition, it will soon be absurdly easy for the Saudi Dictator's hit squads to identify dissidents, journalists, opposition leaders, and democratic activists.

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Lahm0123 t1_j29n8tt wrote

Now the 72 virgins are virtually real!!

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OniExpress t1_j29n9xn wrote

My dude, what green revolution? All evidence points out that the people actually in control of the situation intend to ride things out to an environmental apocalypse. The 1% are convinced that they can ride it out comfortably until after they or anyone they care about dies peacefully in a pile of hookers and blow.

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rubywpnmaster t1_j29ndxy wrote

Yes we outfitted our refineries back in the early 80s to move towards the production of heavy-sour which at the time seemed to be what the world would be mostly producing. All that easy to suck up light-sweet was already sucked up so the theory went.

Now our refineries like to have a decent amount of heavy sour added to their feed to operate at peak efficiency. Over the last decade fracking has started to produce just insane amounts of oil in the US. But because most of it is light sweet oil it sells for a high price internationally to countries that didn't invest so heavily into refining heavy sour.

This doesn't mean that we aren't using the oil being produced here... And there are plants being put up in LA specifically to refine the lighter oil.

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KruppeTheWise t1_j29rmxj wrote

I did, which is why I know the Sauds were very happy with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war and then relations deteriorated rapidly after with borders being closed, embassies removed on both side when Saddam turned on Kuwait next. It's almost like the Sauds no longer trusted Saddam to do their bidding and wanted him gone with a puppet government in place. What exactly happened again?

Maybe read up yourself.

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BrygusPholos t1_j29xcrs wrote

Sure, I would agree that intentionally disrespecting someone’s religion simply for the sake of disrespecting the religion is in bad taste. But no respectable society would make it punishable by death.

Also, Saudi Arabia takes it a step further by also punishing apostasy (renunciation of one’s religious beliefs) and heresy (expression of religious beliefs that differ from the prevailing orthodoxy) potentially with death. That means Saudi Arabia is one of the least respectful societies of religion.

Maybe you should stop shilling for that backwards regime, or at least do a better job at it.

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T8ortots t1_j29y7uw wrote

Someone in my family worked at Magic Leap. Every employee had a headset and they actually let the employees keep their headsets during the pandemic if they paid the tax, so I bought the headset from the family member for like $300. It's very cool tech and it works decently well. I never had a chance to try their newest one, but I hope they tackled some of the pitfalls of the first one. Anyways, my family member jumped ship because they could see Magic Leap was not being safe with their money. It's a good company with promising tech, but a lack of direction as it constantly shifted back and forth from B2C to B2B markets just trying to find their groove in a place where Microsoft Hololens had already shined.

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SpecialpOps t1_j29z7v4 wrote

“You fools”

Bro, I ain’t Saudi. Just a rich Jewish guy who does business in The Kingdom. I don’t care if you like what I post or not. I’ve been welcomed into their Country and treated very nicely. do I have an issue with our human rights policies? Of course. I don’t judge the people on the actions of their rulers.

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NewDad907 t1_j2a3cko wrote

Twitter, now Magic Leap…the Saudi’s love investing in underperforming tech.

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metarinka t1_j2a75rk wrote

Fun fact AR has this unsolved vision blocking paradign.

Imagine a big tablet in your hands with a full screen video playing. Your wife calls you and you look up at her.

Ok now imagine you have a table sized screen floating in front of your face and your wife calls and you are already looking up. She doesn't know you can't see her and you can't see her without pressing buttons or whatever to hide the screen. Inconvenient.

Now imagine your a 737 pilot about to land in bad weather and you get a full screen pop-up that you forgot to check the tire pressure.

If it's small you can work around it but then it's a stamp at arms length. If it's big then no one has solved when you want to pay attention and when you want to not. Typical gauges let you look down at them. At best it solves really niche things like when you want limited headsup info like a speedometer floating while you drive but that's not life changing.

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metarinka t1_j2a7e87 wrote

VC startup guy here. As alarmist as this article is written this is really more a case of Magic leap over promising and then getting taken over. They aren't doing well and their sales suck they have been at it for over a decade, it's a question on how long investor patience will last.

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cream_top_yogurt t1_j2a9oe1 wrote

It’s a little more complicated than that. We don’t NEED anyone’s oil, we’re a net exporter nowadays… but we do like stability and Saudi Arabia helps keep things stable in an unstable part of the world.

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MrEd57076 t1_j2aa7dc wrote

I edited my comment to take people like you into account. Have you ever been called a sellout? Or a traitor? Those Saudis, the vast majority anyway, would like to help wipe Israel off the map. They'd love to kill all "infidels". Particularly Jewish people. Even Jewish people who might not even call Israel home. Yet you do business with them? Pretty sad. I think the entire world should quit doing business with them and their ilk. But thats just me.

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eatmydeck t1_j2aapn8 wrote

Idk what you’re talking about, that’s what I’m saying; you wouldn’t use it that way. My point was that somebody whose new to the language might misunderstand that definition and think it fits in the context.

1

SpecialpOps t1_j2act7d wrote

Please tell me about your last time visiting Saudi Arabia. I would love to hear about your experiences there that shaped your perception of how they really are.

I’d be interested to know about your firsthand experiences. you know, so that way you could back up the things that you’re saying rather than just parrot what the media has pumped into your head.

Edit: my hypothesis is that you’ve never been and just like to armchair quarterback from the safety of your home.

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DealMeInPlease t1_j2aizqe wrote

There is a problem in that human people WANT/NEED to be doing something of value (as defined by themselves) -- leisure funded by a robot tax will create unhappy people / an unhappy society

1

MrEd57076 t1_j2aj4oe wrote

I'd be interested in talking to someone who isn't a traitorous fool. But alas, I get you. I don't have to go to Saudi Arabia to know how they are. The news covers it well. And I can read really well too. Goodbye.

4

squidking78 t1_j2as4xl wrote

Newsflash: countries have issues with other countries all the time. Now look into Iran and Saudi Arabia. Little bigger differences there.

All you’re doing is trying to defend the indefensible by trying to say “but look at all these other places that also do some less bad stuff!”

doesn’t change Saudi Arabia being deplorable. Guess when they got rid of slavery.

1

GlacialFox t1_j2bbkel wrote

>take control

You mean they bought the company? Why word it like that?

2

Caffeine_Monster t1_j2bdaoo wrote

Nah, the difference is pretty important.

Because if gov has lots of tax money, who decides where it goes? The corporation with the most lobbying power?

Ultimately the problem will be that no matter what you do, you probably won't get it right unless you effectively cap wealth (because realistically you can't make a judgement call on what is too much / too little tax).

1

Kvenner001 t1_j2bgo5o wrote

Compared to other HMDs in the high spec range they are garbage.

Magic Leap has been trying to get into the mil simulation market for years and every evaluation I have to do with them always gets low marks compared to Varjo and others that put out products. There “hand tracking” hardware is also ass. Like trying to type with each of your figures being the size of a chipotle burrito.

The industry partners I’ve worked with and for hate them, the soldiers hate them, even there own support staff dog the products when helping setup a demonstration.

4

HalensVan t1_j2blsl4 wrote

Foreign investors been doing this nonsense long before China and Saudi Arabia became the target.

1

zerogee616 t1_j2ce2v5 wrote

The first iPhone, from a UI/UX perspective, isn't really that different than what we have today. Sure, processing power, camera capabilities increased over the years, but the core product is similar in how it looks, acts and operates.

It also wasn't sold on a "It'll get better guys, I know it sucks now but you just gotta hang in there" promise, it did what it set out to do from the get-go and everybody just kept building on it.

3

zerogee616 t1_j2dtyz0 wrote

The app store has zero bearing on UI/UX. That was the result of a business philosophy decision to allow other parties on the platform. iPhones (and most smart phones in general) look, feel and control the same way, minus Apple and Android's specific differences. People liked it when it came out, basically made the playbook for smart phones and wasn't relegated to a niche product for 5 years like VR is and demand compromises from the user, because it did the job at the beginning.

I owned an iPod Touch around that time, with an app store. Minus technical capabilities, it's really, really not that much different in terms of user experience to a phone today.

1

KruppeTheWise t1_j2dwvad wrote

You're litterally arguing my point here dude. There were a host of proto-"smart" phones from the likes of Nokia (the N95 that had apps, GPS superior camera etc) Blackberry etc.

Most people couldn't see the point in them and just had a regular Nokia brick, or a Razer.

Some thought they were just palm pilots with calling ability, for nerds.

There were plenty of MP3 players too (often superior to the iPod) but they were clunky, in the case of my Creative Nomad it looked like a CD player!

What the iPod touch and iPhone did, and you're correct, is make something both usable by the average non techie person with their UI, and also a status symbol that cost just enough like a pair of Nike's to make it desirable versus being a geeks toy. So yes, the UI like you said made a big impression, but it was just a row of apps for things like calculators made by Apple the capacitive screen if anything was more important at the time. Once it was mass market enough, once enough people had the device it caused a cascade of devs to jump on the app store and the rest is history.

My point is, someone has to make the VR headset equivalent of the original iPhone, to be a desirable object the rich kids in the schools all get first, a status symbol, and then the Metaverse/VR Store etc will come alive with devs and people buying and using those apps and then we will see the real creativity and living breathing ecosystem it can become.

Meta seem to be trying to brute force the marketplace before they can get the device in enough homes or get it desirable enough, in the chicken and the egg debate they have firmly picked the egg to focus on.

I don't think you can argue today's VR headsets are N95s and or blackberries, for tech enthusiasts or business use only. People are looking at them like wow so expensive and make you look like a geek. When it flips it will be wow look, so expensive, only geeks don't have the Apple iSet whatever it will be called.

The VR headset you see your parents using, the one you see kids using at school while other kids stand around hoping to have a go, that's the one that's going to kick off the VR revolution.

−1