China’s Alibaba brings removable batteries to the smart glasses race

Chinese tech elephantine Alibaba entered the AI-powered smart glasses race connected Thursday with the release of its Quark headsets successful China. Notably, the batteries tin beryllium swapped retired for each time usage unlike competitors. 

Alibaba said the Quark AI glasses travel successful 2 variants, the S1 flagship and the “lifestyle-focused” G1, successful aggregate colors and lens types. Prices commencement astatine 3,799 yuan ($537) and 1,899 yuan ($268), respectively. The main quality are the lenses, Alibaba said, with the S1 utilizing wide micro-OLED displays. 

Both person bony conduction microphones, built-in cameras, and a “swappable dual-battery system” that “delivers up to 24 hours of artillery life.” They’re powered by Alibaba’s AI exemplary Qwen and a linked app, meaning they tin beryllium controlled via dependable oregon touch. 

Alibaba said the glasses volition beryllium integrated with its apps similar Alipay and Taobao, arsenic good arsenic euphony streaming platforms similar QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music. They’ll beryllium capable to supply services similar on-the-go translation, instant terms recognition, navigation support, and gathering transcription.  

International models volition beryllium disposable adjacent year, according to Bloomberg, but those markets haven’t been identified.

The glasses people an effort to ace the marketplace for AI-powered wearables tech companies stake could beryllium the adjacent large user gadget. Meta, with its Ray-Ban glasses, is the wide leader, but others similar Apple, and immoderate Sam Altman is processing with Jony Ive, are rushing to drawback up.