Ask HN: Is Magic Leap just vaporware? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is Magic Leap just vaporware?

I call it "struggleware."

Some of their tech is awesome (as confirmed by friends who have tried it), but they are struggling to solve the final technical issues and get it to market.

It's not technically vaporware, it is more like "Duke Nukem Forever"-ware.

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_Forever

Not even that really. They got series A funding in 2014. Releases this August. That’s less time than most Rockstar games.

Yeah, but they’re delivering something so far from what was promised to get funding, and from the bulk of their patents that DNF is a better comparison. They promised the world, photonics magic, and they’re delivering a strikingly sub-par HoloLens.

Correct. The 2.3B in funding (according to Crunchbase) was for something completely different.

You may notice that nearly half their funding was gained in the last year, well after the existence of their current product.

This is a silly question. It just passed through the FCC and is launching next week.

And it's so ugly it will become abandonware real soon.

I watched the livestream they did on twitch demoing some of their libraries and it looked terrible.

The AR mapping looked like what snapchat had a year ago.

The more appropriate question is "Is Magic Leap's Virtual Retinal Display just vaporware?"

The Magic Leap One does not fulfill the brand promise that garnered the company all the VC it has. That would make it vaporware.

Lots of confusion over this device, which can be chalked up to all the FUD spread around about it. Nearly half the 2 billion they got was in the last year alone. Investors like Google have been there since day one and not left.

I suppose it is possible that the Magic Leap One could be providing cover for another thing they are working on.

I threw mine out in garbage couple of yrs ago. Haven't followed up with it since then.

How did you get one a couple of years ago? Are you talking about the same thing?

Oh sorry. I was talking about leapmotion.

I get the two confused a lot of the time as well. It always seemed like shocking branding to me.

I guess at this point leapmotion is far enough in the past that it's meager ripples have basically vanished.

I also bought one of those. Goodness, how far from the marketing that was.

Honestly, I'm embarrassed I was taken in by the hubris, a little thought about how practical it would be should have been enough. The later firmware did improve it, but sitting waving hands is so inefficient. Hey ho.

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