Despite being the founder and CEO of a trillion dollar company, Mark Zuckerberg is always looking for ways for Facebook to evolve and stay with or ahead of competition. 

Which s why he currently has over 10,000 employees working on consumer hardware projects for his company. 

Well, that army of engineers and fellow big thinkers have come up with something that Zuck and company hope will be the next big thing,

In a collaboration with Ray-Ban, Facebook launchd their first-ever line of smart glasses, which start at $299, and will allow users to take videos and photos by using their voice when they are wearing them, and them upload them to Facebook.  They call also listen to music and podcasts with the glasses. 

They’re called “Ray-Ban Stories.”  Yes, that’s the name of them. And Facebook is hoping that they will be the “next big thing,” similar to what Apple did with the smartphone. 

Oh, in case you’re wondering if you see someone sporting the glasses, and you’re fearful they might be recording you there’s a tiny, front-facing light you should be able to see that signifies the glasses are in record mode. 

The glasses are going to be sold at the mall.  You should be able to find them at LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, and anywhere else Ray-Bans are sold. 

For anyone that remembers what Snapchat’s Spectacles were like, these are similar according to a reviewer from The Verge.  Although these new ones have been designed sleeker. 

The glasses have some technical power.  They come with dual 5-megapixel cameras that can record roughly 40 or so 30-second video clips or 500 photos or so on the memory clip it comes with. 

It’s voice activated, so you can say “Hey Facebook” to record a video, or just push a button on the upper right of the shades. 

The back story of how the collaboration came to be is kind of cool. Zuckerberg flew to Milan two and a half years ago to meet with Luxottica chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio, and the plan was hatched. 

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