Hello! Hope you had a good week. I did, though I spent a bit too much of it thinking about Perv Technology—AKA glasses and earbuds with cameras—and whether Google Glass poisoned that well for everyone.
Then, the first installment of Ask Joanna, where you send questions and I attempt answers. Reply to this email and we might answer it in a future edition. And finally, Chumby! Remember the Chumby?! If you do, congratulations, it’s probably time to schedule a colonoscopy.
The hottest tech of the summer? Perv tech. Yes, as in tech for perverts.
“Perv glasses” has become a popular online nickname for Meta’s smart glasses, largely because of exactly what we explored in our investigation a few months ago. People (fine, mostly men) are hitting on women while wearing the glasses—and sometimes trying to hide the recording light or the fact that they’re recording at all.
Then this week, Apple’s rumored camera-equipped AirPods leaked and the internet gave us: PervPods. I desperately wish I could take credit, but that one belongs to the very online masses. Apple declined to comment on the leak.
The whole thing feels like a flashback to the days of Google Glassholes. As you can see above, I am still a proud owner of the failed tech. You’ll remember Glass failed for a few of reasons. Sure, the technology wasn’t great, but there was a bigger problem: People thought you were a Glasshole for wearing a camera on your face. In public. In private. Basically anywhere other humans existed. People actually made and hung these signs in public places.
Now, more than a decade later, we’re right back in familiar territory. Meta’s glasses have developed their own stigma—and in some ways, the problem is even worse than it was for Google Glass, for two reasons:
The camera you don’t notice.
The Meta glasses look like regular sunglasses. These leaked camera-equipped AirPods look like regular AirPods Pro. They may even just be the next version of AirPods Pro.
M.G. Siegler made a great point in his Spyglass newsletter this week: Both Meta and Apple may hope to avoid the Google Glasshole problem by making new technology look like something we already know—not something that makes you look like an…asshole.
Aesthetically, that’s great. From a privacy perspective, it’s part of the problem. You may not realize the person wearing perfectly normal-looking glasses—or AirPods—has cameras pointed at you. And sure, there might be a tiny recording indicator on the Meta glasses, but even when that light hasn’t been drilled out or otherwise obscured, it can be pretty damn hard to see.
(Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has reported that the cameras on the AirPods are low resolution and won’t have the ability to take photos or video. They will just be able to be used to show Siri things. We’ll soon find out. Or in 2027.)
The surveillance hangover.
The current backlash to mass surveillance and Big Tech is real. Look at what’s happening with Flock cameras across the country right now. Communities are pushing back over privacy, sloppy data-sharing policies and a lack of meaningful oversight.
Look at the protests over data centers, too. When I talk to people who are resistant to AI—or just to more tech in general—I often hear complaints about a lack of control and trust.
And take this study the Pew Research Center released this week. The majority of adults under 30 (55%) say they’re more concerned than excited about AI. That’s not a small share.
So against this backdrop, introducing AI wearables with cameras that don’t really look like cameras feels like…potentially not a great thing. The tech industry may have solved the Google Glass design problem. I’m not sure it can ever solve the real Google Glasshole problem.
Googling your name can be fun, until you find your address, phone number and relatives just a few blue links down. Data brokers collect and sell that personal information, so you are at greater risk of scams, phishing, identity theft, harassment and doxing. Fun times.
DeleteMe is a hands-free subscription service that finds and removes your information from hundreds of data brokers and people-search sites. Because listings can reappear, DeleteMe keeps monitoring and removing them throughout the year.
I especially appreciate the emailed privacy reports I receive about myself and my spouse. They show me the exact numbers of what was found and removed. DeleteMe has specialized in personally identifiable information (PII) removal for over 15 years. Plus, the company has privacy advisors (real humans!) to help with custom requests. Imagine that: humans helping humans in 2026!
Get 20% off at https://joindeleteme.com/NEWTHINGS and use code NEWTHINGS at checkout.
CREDIT: Lamptech
WHY, WHY do so many essential gadgets (TVs, routers, etc.) have those damned red/blue LED lights that are like searchlights in a dark room? They're everywhere and they keep me up at night. I realize some of them tell you the thing is working but most of them are not necessary. It's like some tech bros said, yeah, this little blue light is cool. Sigh. —Gary Korotzer
Gary, that is a great question! We went looking for papers, experts, anyone who'd studied this and what we found is that the first LED indicators weren't for tech bros. They were for repair technicians.
Monsanto (which made gadgets before doubling down on agrichemicals and getting acquired by Bayer) started mass-producing small red lamps around 1968. In a later product catalog, the pitch was "diagnostic lights on printed circuit boards and panel lights.” Basically, little red dots that lived inside machines so a technician could tell which board had died. You can see one of the first red LEDs made by the company here.
Adele and I have searched for the moment LEDs made the jump from inside electronics to blinking at us all the time, but we couldn’t find a definitive answer. The reason for the transition is pretty obvious: LEDs are a cheap and easy way for a gadget to tell you its status. They are tiny, use little power and can last a long time—or at least as long as the device does.
Sure, I guess you could argue that our smartphones and apps could tell us that info now. I guess my best answer to you, Gary, is it’s time to get some black electrical tape and cover those suckers up. Sleep well!
CALLING ALL OLD THINGS AND ASK JOANNAS!
Got an old gadget, software box, cable, remote or some other ancient piece of tech collecting dust? Send it our way! Just reply to this email with your name, a photo and a few lines about it.
And got a tech question? Send that too! We’re starting to feature select ASK JOANNAS in Friday’s newsletter.
Name: Jim McNamee
What's your old thing? Chumby
What year is your old thing from? 2007
Why do you love your old thing? Chumby was a cute little touchscreen in a beanbag (with a hidden button on top) that displayed widgets. We mainly used it to see the local weather and also made our own widget to show what was playing in the house on iTunes. Kind of a precursor to Google Home and Amazon Echo. It had a built-in FM tuner, two USB-A ports on the back and a headphone jack...but we never used that stuff! Still, it was a cool ahead-of-it's-time gadget that was also, as I said, cute!
Correction: Wednesday’s newsletter incorrectly identified Reddit CEO Steve Huffman as Scott Huffman. We apologize to all, but specifically Steve.
Fun Fact: Red LEDs have come a long way from their humble beginnings in the 1960s. Now, red light is being used in $400 face masks to stimulate collagen. See Wirecutter’s picks here.
This newsletter was written and curated by Joanna Stern and Adele Lowitz.
|
