[HN Gopher] Coding without a laptop: Two weeks with AR glasses a...
___________________________________________________________________
Coding without a laptop: Two weeks with AR glasses and Linux on
Android
Author : mikenew
Score : 927 points
Date : 2025-05-14 15:11 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (holdtherobot.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (holdtherobot.com)
| az09mugen wrote:
| Nice to read I'm not alone thinking of this nomadic kind of
| setup. And also I got the feedback I hoped on the Xreal Air 2
| glasses : https://eu.shop.xreal.com/fr/products/xreal-air-2
| mikenew wrote:
| Hey thanks (I'm the author)! BTW the "Pro" version has the
| electrochromic dimming, so I recommend paying a little extra
| for that unless you're really sure you're not going to need it.
|
| EDIT: To clarify, I meant the "Xreal Air 2 Pro", not the "Xreal
| One Pro". The latter are much more expensive.
| Blankono wrote:
| Your price point for the used glasses is quite lucky to just
| play around with it or using it sometimes.
|
| They cost 800 new :|
|
| 1080p is that really okay?
| growthwtf wrote:
| They are $299 on sale on the vendor website right now. I
| won't link because I don't want to promote them
| necessarily, but I think you must have seen a different
| vendor or something?
| titzer wrote:
| I also paid less than $300. OP must be referring to a
| different model.
| josephg wrote:
| Looks like they're weirdly expensive through the EU
| store. Just navigate from xreal.com - I see them for $US
| 299
| toyg wrote:
| Have you looked on Amazon? I got the One (not pro) for less
| than PS500.
| worldsayshi wrote:
| I've been thinking about using xreal glasses for coding but all
| the reviews I've seen seems to think that the fidelity isn't
| good enough for reading text for lengthy stretches of time.
| This article is the first counter argument here.
| rramon wrote:
| Might even use the phone as a trackpad/mouse for other non cli
| tasks.
| theflyestpilot wrote:
| this is rad
| gejose wrote:
| What a shame that you really can't do this using an iPhone.
| Unless things have changed recently the closest you can come to
| this is using iSH to run some linux binaries (x86_32), but it's
| quite limited last I checked.
| theturtletalks wrote:
| UTM runs virtual machines on iOS and has been around a while:
| https://getutm.app
|
| Issue is that Apple doesn't allow apps to run JIT so if you
| want the JIT version of UTM, you need to sideload or Jailbreak.
| The non-JIT version is on the App Store.
| ukuina wrote:
| Are there any OSes that have usable performance (<1min to
| boot) on iOS without JIT? I tried a few and they were
| impractically slow.
| josephg wrote:
| What's the performance penalty for the non JIT version?
| theturtletalks wrote:
| Reviews on the App Store say very slow and you can't move
| windows without waiting minutes. A Linux distro that's CLI
| only seems to work.
| rasengan wrote:
| Now that Google is rolling out native Debian with Android, this
| will only get better - in addition to Google's native DeX.
|
| I'm sooo ready for the one device life! :D
| VTimofeenko wrote:
| AVF feels a bit janky with its constant crashing on startup.
| 16GB space is a bit restrictive, though I doubt it won't be
| raised at some point.
| rahen wrote:
| You can mount a data partition inside, so the 16GB limit is
| really just for the system.
| ireadmevs wrote:
| Awesome! Regarding the keyboard I would recommend going towards
| the mechanical path. Browse https://kbd.news/ for some
| inspiration. I built a 36 keys for myself that is portable and
| very capable. You can even map keys to control the mouse and much
| more. Definitely going to keep an eye on the advancements of AR
| glasses from now on.
| mikenew wrote:
| Wow, there's some very nice builds there. I so far I hadn't
| seen anything that seemed genuinely pocket-able but there are a
| few there that look like they might work. I'd still really love
| something that can lock flat and be used on a lap, but that
| feels doable.
| evanjrowley wrote:
| I love kbd.news and was recently struck by the novelty of the
| Tackle keyboard[0]. Seems rather extreme but my first thought
| was it could be a great complement to AR glasses. The design
| could be improved with improved with some tenting, because
| those keys at the edges will be easy to accidentally trigger
| when reaching for other keys towards the center.
|
| [0] https://kbd.news/Tackle-keyboard-2549.html
| Xss3 wrote:
| I could make people SO uncomfortable if I worked as a
| receptionist with this strapped on and threw in some very
| subtle signs of enjoying it. Reminds me of the south park
| nipple twisting guy. Very cool keyboard for VR and AR
| though. Can't really think of anything better if you wanted
| to type something quick in the middle of a physical VR
| game.
| alchemist1e9 wrote:
| Anyone - I need this! or something similar as a wearable
| keyboard. Please help me.
|
| I rigged together a torso/chest mounted keyboard system
| using rugged keyboard and laptop chest harness modified. It
| actually kinda works but this Tackle keyboard would work
| really well for my use case, which overlaps significantly
| with this post.
|
| I use Viture XR glasses, similar to the Xreals in the post.
| And I have a rugged laptop in a backpack with LTE modem and
| external antenna. Then what I do is go hiking in woods and
| periodically stop and open a Ta-Da chair, which I use as a
| walking stick or carry on my back, then put on the XR
| glasses which connected to laptop just using the Viture
| HDMI adapter, open the keyboard harness, and start working,
| all terminal based work.
|
| The worst worst part of this crazy setup is the keyboard
| system. It's awkward and kinda scares other people as it
| looks like maybe I have a tactical military vest on.
| opening it up and getting oriented is like 90% of the
| hassle.
|
| Please someone help me get this Tackle keyboard. I don't
| have the physical engineering skills needed, I'm a software
| guy. DM me on reddit with same username as HN. I will PAY
| decent money to anyone who can deliver me a working version
| of this Tackle keyboard.
|
| I also own and tried tap strap and it's not viable. Keys
| needed. LLMs combined with Voice to Text is promising and
| something on software side I'm looking into actively, but I
| don't think no keyboard is a productivity retaining option
| anytime soon.
|
| I do at least 10K steps daily when I have this system
| working and my goal is to get to 15K steps and drop weight.
| My preferred environment is outdoors away from desks and
| tables and civilization.
| Ringz wrote:
| Are you Stephen Wolfram?
|
| https://quantifiedself.com/wp-
| content/uploads/2019/04/585958...
| alchemist1e9 wrote:
| Unfortunately not but ... but yes if you see me outside
| in my setup it bears resemblance.
|
| The laptop harness closes so the keyboard is strapped to
| my chest while walking and there isn't any screen as I
| use the Viture glasses as the monitor when I stop and
| work while sitting.
| stevage wrote:
| If working in cafes without annoying people is a requirement,
| mechanical probably isn't so good.
| Philpax wrote:
| You can get quiet mechanical switches that are comparable to
| laptop keyboard switches in terms of noise. There's a bit of
| art to the selection, but there are definitely options.
| joshvm wrote:
| You can get switches that aren't any louder than typing on a
| laptop, these days "clicky" is just sub-category. The low
| profile 'choc' switches from Kailh are probably a good option
| to try.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHAK1kJtMVQ - have a listen.
| Some of them are inaudible under a mic, but really you need
| to buy a grab bag and play around at home to see what works.
| rafaelmn wrote:
| I got this keyboard : https://www.keebart.com/products/3w6
| that uses mechanical low profile silent choc switches
| (Twilight Ambients Silent) and they are quieter than most
| non-mechanical keyboards. Eg. my Logitech Ergo k860, which
| uses rubber domes, is louder. Only quieter keyboard I can
| think of is my MacBook Air but even that can get louder with
| intensive typing because of a different sound profile -
| depends on how hard you bottom out - for my typing style
| chocs are a bit louder.
|
| Realistically nobody would even hear you typing on this
| unless you're in a quiet room, and there's a ton of mods you
| can do to get it quieter.
|
| Anyway if you are into solving niche keyboard use cases
| definitely look into the custom build scene, it's
| surprisingly easy to build high quality custom solutions, and
| even easier to find someone to build it for you for few
| hundred $.
| montebicyclelo wrote:
| > I really didn't want to root the phone, but nothing else did
| what I needed
|
| Shame that rooting is such a pain, and risks bricking the device.
| (Apparently Google's introduction of an anti-rollback bootloader
| this month has caused a few people's devices to get bricked when
| they tried to root.)
| hparadiz wrote:
| Seriously. Why is using your own pocket computer so hostile to
| user intent these days?
| surajrmal wrote:
| Because the world is full of malicious entities who want to
| exploit people and most people do not need root.
| ycuser2 wrote:
| That's right, but why make rooting almost Impossible? Why
| they are fighting rooting at all? They could make rooting
| easier, for example in the hidden developer menu.
| me-vs-cat wrote:
| By malicious entities, do you mean the phone manufacturers,
| third-parties, or both?
| jwrallie wrote:
| Probably malware makers? Some phone manufacturers use
| that argument to explain why they prevent users from
| becoming root.
|
| I still read it as phone manufacturers on my first pass!
| goodpoint wrote:
| The hardware is owned by the user but the OS is essentially
| owned by Google or Apple. The user is a tenant or a cow to be
| milked.
|
| The main goals is preventing a spread of "google play"
| alternatives with paid apps.
| coolcase wrote:
| What about running the userland app?
| subscribed wrote:
| Anti-rollback is a security feature. I'm sorry you find
| yourself limited by Google - coming from the GrapheneOS user
| this is the only reasonable secure hardware platform of all the
| Android landscape.
|
| I hope rooting will be easier for all the interested.
| hawk_ wrote:
| > The biggest downside of the glasses is that the FOV is actually
| too big. Seeing the top and bottom edges of the screen means
| moving your eyeballs to angles that are just a little
| uncomfortable,
|
| Is there a window manager and/or eyeball tracking trick that
| could be added to this setup to bring content into the center?
| k__ wrote:
| That's not a FOV issue, that's a DOF issue.
|
| You can't comfortably use any XR system for more than videos,
| if you can't use your neck to look around.
| two_handfuls wrote:
| Oh that's a cool coincidence, I was just watching a video of
| someone coding a game without a laptop. In their case it's a VR
| game on a VR headset (based on Android), using Godot.
|
| It's not really related I know but it's neat how all those not-
| strictly-computers are getting more useful!
|
| Edit: forgot the video link! It's
| https://youtu.be/4ZAzi-4Ko3g?feature=shared
| conradev wrote:
| This is my favorite portable keyboard:
| https://www.logitech.com/en-us/shop/p/keys-to-go2-universal....
|
| Unless they have a way to lock open, foldable keyboards will
| always subtly bend which is annoying enough for me to ditch the
| folding part entirely.
| whatever1 wrote:
| I wish they also included the trackpad beneath it. I basically
| want a laptop base without the screen.
| opan wrote:
| I wonder if the keyboard covers for the Microsoft Surface
| tablets could somehow be repurposed.
| conradev wrote:
| That's a great place to look because they sell this:
| https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/d/surface-pro-flex-
| keyboard/...
|
| Tempting!
| 8note wrote:
| they arent that nice, compared to what im currently using
| (epo64: https://a.co/d/gRQnvjE apparently on sale atm)
|
| that said, my surface pro 3's keyboard is quite old now, so
| maybe the new ones are nicer
| Philpax wrote:
| They more-or-less improved the keyboard immediately after
| the SP3. The SP4 is a night-and-day difference to the SP3
| (to the point where I was considering getting a SP4
| keyboard for my SP3 when I still had it), and they've
| gotten better since.
| seltzered_ wrote:
| Over a decade ago microsoft actually sold a Bluetooth
| adapter for the surface keyboard
| kukash wrote:
| You can just unmount the display and have a base. I used such
| setup for 6 months as a teenager plugging it everywhere I go.
| Philpax wrote:
| There are people who have bought MBPs with broken screens
| and deleted the screen to use them with the Vision Pro.
| Works quite well!
|
| See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUa_pPUbpGQ.
| layer8 wrote:
| There are various products like
| https://inateck.com/collections/tablet-
| keyboard/products/blu....
|
| There's also https://www.esrgear.com/products/ipad-
| air-13-2024-ascend-key... which I think are standard
| Bluetooth as well.
| bentcorner wrote:
| I have the non-cover version of this (or at least, it's another
| Logitech keyboard with a very similar design but lacks a cover
| - the K380s), and I also have a Keychron B1 Pro and a TKL
| mechanical keyboard, but my cheapo K380s still feels better to
| use to me.
| toyg wrote:
| IMHO the best option would be a LingLong Lunar. But they are
| pricey right now.
| titzer wrote:
| I have these same AR glasses and I really like them. The one
| downside is that they don't seem to handle heat too well--they'll
| crash if I run them in full sunlight for more than a few minutes.
| Also, they are not really AR--they are just a floating screen,
| and supposedly there is motion-tracking hardware, but no
| software. That's OK; a big floating screen that is fixed to my
| head is actually good.
|
| In full sunlight I think this requires opacity. I lost the
| plastic cover for the lenses and I hacked up some cardboard
| thing.
|
| These glasses have a really cool 3D side-by-side mode. The button
| activation is awkward, but it effectively turns this into a
| 3840x1280 screen. I couldn't really find much desktop support for
| this, but there are a few YouTube videos that are 16x9 SBS and
| they look really really cool. Unfortunately in this mode the
| desktop is then super-wide and spread across two eyes, so it's
| almost impossible to use a regular laptop with them. A 3D OS
| desktop would be killer on these!
|
| I didn't try to go full mobile with a phone.
|
| The cord is somewhat annoying, but I think I prefer it over a big
| stupid battery and some wireless protocol.
|
| One wrinkle is that the interface is USB-C. The glasses need
| power, and though you can/could power them over HDMI, they don't
| support that. You need the device to support HDMI over USB-C and
| recognize the glasses as a display. The manufacturer offers a
| completely hilarious _battery-powered_ HDMI-to-USB-C adapter. I
| have no idea why there is no powered solution; maybe there is.
| lagniappe wrote:
| You got them post-rebrand. If you shop by the old name "nReal"
| then you can find the non powered HDMI adapter. Also, the app
| is called nebula, but the motion control is just annoying and
| not worth it. I like mine, they work great, but the FOV is
| tiny, and all of the chirping about AR from influencers/media
| just doesn't help how underwhelming they are if you go in with
| those expectations rather than just a HMD.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Formerly-Connects-Lightning-Compatibl...
| flutas wrote:
| > I have these same AR glasses and I really like them. The one
| downside is that they don't seem to handle heat too well--
| they'll crash if I run them in full sunlight for more than a
| few minutes.
|
| Yup, I found laying my head on the left side where the cord
| comes it also causes them to overheat quick. My solution is to
| always lay on the right hand side of them and I actually put
| some stick on heatsinks on the left "leg" body that also really
| helps keep them more comfortably cool.
|
| Also weird quirk with them and USB-C I've found.
|
| If you plug them in to a macbook it's 50/50 if they work or
| just turn on the tint. If that happens, rotating the USB-C plug
| causes them to work.
| Groxx wrote:
| Surprisingly: USB-C cables _do_ have an orientation. It comes
| up a lot with these kinds of female-to-female USB-C cable
| extenders: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTT1FJL6 (I have not
| used this one, it's just an example)
|
| > _Important Note: Ensure your USB-C cables support video
| transmission when using this coupler for video pass-through.
| If the connection doesn't work initially, try reversing the
| orientation of the cable's plug to ensure proper
| functionality, as USB-C protocols depend on connector
| orientation._
|
| AFAICT not all cables are like this, but quite a few are, and
| broadly it appears that it's the _sockets_ that are
| reversible and are simply hiding this - cables often just use
| one side. So when you bridge two cables like this, you need
| to make sure those (unmarked) sides line up.
|
| So I suspect one side of your connection is either damaged or
| cheap (and didn't fully meet the reversible spec to save
| money).
|
| (but _only suspect_ , I haven't found a way to fully validate
| this)
| RamRodification wrote:
| WHAT
|
| Thanks
| transpute wrote:
| _> it 's the sockets that are reversible and are simply
| hiding this - cables often just use one side. So when you
| bridge two cables like this, you need to make sure those
| (unmarked) sides line up._
|
| Thanks for explaining the unexplainable! Also seen with
| couplers and gender-changers for connecting USB-c cables.
| asveikau wrote:
| > I unfortunately had to upgrade my phone, because to drive the
| glasses you need to have DisplayPort Alt mode. My very cheap,
| very crappy old phone did not.
|
| I also run a low spec android phone, and I tried the same brand
| of glasses with it. My workaround was a screencast to HDMI
| adapter, paired with an HDMI to to DP over USB-C. Both are cheap.
|
| Occasionally the screencast flakes out. But when the network is
| working well it's pretty good.
| fouc wrote:
| is your HDMI to DP adapter active (powered)? what brand?
| asveikau wrote:
| https://a.co/d/hJ99gxr
|
| This is what my Amazon purchase history linked to, but I
| think the one I got in September looked very similar but
| without a logo on it.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| Technically wouldn't it be much easier to just do the actual
| programming in a GitHub code space ?
|
| I guess you'd need a stable connection though. I might try this
| as soon as Android actually impliments desktop mode correctly.
| Surprised OP didn't use Samsung Dex.
| Mortiffer wrote:
| Thinking the same. Also considering the amount of speed up you
| get from the copilot .
| Jarwain wrote:
| Ive been thinking the same thing! Except with Code-server or
| some other way to get vscode's remote over ssh
| stevage wrote:
| OP wanted to work on a plane though.
| OsrsNeedsf2P wrote:
| Does GitHub code spaces allow you to compile stuff and get
| artifacts? I've never used it so I'm not sure what the
| limitations are compared to the Linux desktop (which is about
| as powerful as you can get)
| throwthro0954 wrote:
| I'm quite far sighted, is it possible to use AR glasses for
| farsighted people?
| mikenew wrote:
| The focal plane of the glasses is around 10 feet, so I think
| you should be able to see it just as well as anything else at
| that distance.
| bernardom wrote:
| How do glasses like this work for someone who wears eyeglasses
| for myopia and astigmatism, and doesn't like contacts?
| seanthemon wrote:
| There are perscription lenses, but not sure how well they work
| https://lensology.co.uk/xreal-air-2-ultra-lenses/
| owl_vision wrote:
| they don't work for me having astigmatism with or without
| prescription glasses.
| mingus88 wrote:
| When I did a Vision Pro demo they had lenses on hand to
| accommodate my astigmatism. It was pretty nice...and about
| 10x the cost of this
| bernardom wrote:
| Oh, that's really cool though that they can handle it!
|
| It's funny that 3500 seems sooo much to spend for hardware
| now... over the last 25 years, it's gotten so much cheaper
| between lower price macbooks and not needing to upgrade
| phones and laptops nearly so often.
| alt227 wrote:
| Its not so much to spend for a full powerful computing
| device which you can do anything you need to on for work
| or play (like a powerful laptop or desktop), but it is a
| lot for a purely media consumption device like a headset
| (which is essentially a fancy TV).
| cuvinny wrote:
| As long as your prescription isn't to extreme the VITURE Pro XR
| exists and is similar. I tried it and it worked surprisingly
| well but returned it because the headtracking didn't work on
| Linux and I didn't like the static view.
| toyg wrote:
| You can buy inserts for an additional $80 from official partner
| HONSVR, or less from AliExpress. My HONS inserts work as well
| as any glasses I've had. I have -1.50 myopia in both eyes, with
| different levels of astigmatism.
| halyconWays wrote:
| Air 2 Pros!? I have those and can't stand using them for work. I
| was hoping the One Pros would be a big enough step up that I
| could use AR glasses for daily productivity.
| zmmmmm wrote:
| Can you elaborate what the main issue is for you?
| sneak wrote:
| > _I wrote most of this blog post sitting at a picnic table in a
| park. Screen glare and brightness is not an issue. I can fit into
| tight spaces. This setup was infinitely more comfortable than a
| laptop when on a plane. Some coffee shops also have narrow bars
| that are too small for a laptop, but not for this. The phone has
| a cellular connection, so I 'm not tied to wifi. In other words,
| there's a sense of freedom that you do not get with a laptop. And
| I can be outdoors. One of the things I've grown tired of as
| software dev is feeling like I'm stuck inside all the time in
| front of a screen. With this I can walk to a coffee shop and work
| for an hour or two, then get up and walk to a park for another
| hour of work._
|
| Am I the only one who wishes they could be inside in a windowless
| room 24/7/365? There's climate control, HEPA filtration, good
| chairs, peace and quiet, precisely the light level and color and
| direction I like, etc, at all times. Every time I go outside, the
| environment is worse than being at home indoors.
|
| Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one on the planet who doesn't
| enjoy being outdoors at all.
| scotty79 wrote:
| Nah, there are at least few of us.
|
| I still go out though to walk and cycle, sometimes eat, but
| anything else is more comfortable at home.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| > Am I the only one who wishes they could be inside in a
| windowless room 24/7/365?
|
| I spent a decade in a building like that for my 9-5 job. It
| gets old, unless you really hate sunlight and fresh air.
| 8note wrote:
| i wish i could have those bright window spots everyone hates.
| the glare doesnt bother me.
|
| i do just go outside on the building deck instead
| sneak wrote:
| It being an office building, you likely did not have nearly
| the level of environmental control I describe.
|
| I do really hate sunlight, but fresh air is essential. If you
| don't have fresh air indoors, your HVAC design is bad. Air is
| one of the easiest things to move around.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| It wouldn't be too expensive to make what you want, you
| could always buy a small plot of land and build a custom
| home to try it out. Shouldn't be more than $200-400k,
| possibly less depending on the area.
| sneak wrote:
| I'm doing precisely that, but I have simulated the same
| in the meantime by taking a normal residential house and
| completely blacking out and sealing the windows in the
| largest upstairs room. It's excellent. When I turn off
| the lights it can be pitch black and 68F at noon in the
| middle of the summer in the Mojave.
|
| I had to cover the windows in all the adjacent rooms to
| make this work, but it does.
| craftkiller wrote:
| Don't forget the lack of bugs landing on you and crawling on
| you!
| kristianp wrote:
| I find that working outside or at a cafe is too distracting. I
| agree with what you're saying with regards to work or even
| reading.
|
| I enjoy outdoors for relaxation and forgetting about work
| though.
| tbrownaw wrote:
| > _Am I the only one who wishes they could be inside in a
| windowless room 24 /7/365?_
|
| Seems like the sort of thing that might later turn out to have
| been a bad idea regardless of how it seemed at the time.
| gitroom wrote:
| This is nuts in the best way - love seeing someone out here just
| making things work for real stuff.
| cycomanic wrote:
| I've been wanting a simulavr since I saw the first videos. A
| proper Linux dev environment in a pair of VR classes (and I
| really wouldnt want to hack around Linux on android). Too bad
| that they still far away from being real.
| asdev wrote:
| Apple is releasing Vision OS 2 which lets you do an ultrawide
| display on the Vision Pro. It looks phenomenal and has no lag
| aaronscott wrote:
| They have an ultrawide mode available now. Personally I find it
| very uncomfortable. You have to move your whole head to see the
| sides, and the vision pro is heavy. Looking off to the side for
| a length of time is uncomfortable.
| asdev wrote:
| you would have to do the same thing with an ultrawide
| monitor, minus the weight of the AVP
| hiatus wrote:
| Not if it's curved.
| Philpax wrote:
| To add to this: I have a Vision Pro and a 34" curved
| ultrawide. The latter is much more usable in this regard,
| because the effective resolution per degree is higher,
| which means you can keep your head static and use your
| eyes to look around.
|
| By contrast, you _have_ to use a giant screen on the
| Vision Pro to get equivalent resolution, which means you
| have to move your head. It still has its advantages (you
| can take it wherever you go, and the resolution of the
| virtual screen can be higher), but it 's not yet
| comparable to a physical monitor, to my chagrin.
| conradev wrote:
| The foveated rendering didn't look phenomenal for me the last
| time I tried. It gives the perception of a wide FOV but your
| peripheral vision is still blurry.
| Philpax wrote:
| The optics on the Vision Pro are... well, they're not
| fantastic. It's a challenge to blow up displays that small to
| meet your field of view. Peripheral vision on the Quest 3 is
| far better, but the displays are over double the size, which
| made the lens design problem less challenging.
|
| Apple have since purchased at least one lens design company
| [0], so future iterations of the Vision Pro should hopefully
| be less optically-challenged.
|
| [0]: https://mixed-news.com/en/apple-buys-lens-manufacturer-
| limba...
| xqcgrek2 wrote:
| The Vision Pro is a joke. Way too low resolution (PPD), heavy,
| expensive, and over-engineered and power hungry. It's baffling
| how it was ever greenlit.
| Philpax wrote:
| It's the best possible headset that could have been built
| with the technology at the time, but the technology at the
| time was insufficient for the experience that it's designed
| for. It still has its uses (it's incredible for watching
| movies and doing work in environments where you don't have a
| suitably sized monitor), but I agree that it's not a product
| anyone other than extreme enthusiasts should buy.
|
| I certainly hope it'll get smaller, cheaper and more
| efficient. I would love more resolution, of course, but I'd
| be more than happy to keep the existing resolution if the
| actual ergonomics were improved.
| amelius wrote:
| How can they fix the smallish FoV without a hardware upgrade?
| toyg wrote:
| Recent XREAL glasses can do ultrawide already.
|
| The Vision Pro, like most full headsets, tries to do too much.
| tippytippytango wrote:
| I hope they can figure out why these give some people headaches
| and eye strain (like myself) I really want to use this, but can't
| stand the pain for more than a few minutes.
| layer8 wrote:
| One reason is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergence-
| accommodation_conflic.... Very difficult to solve.
| xnzakg wrote:
| For normal VR/AR, definitely, since you want to have objects
| moving in the Z direction. For this usecase it should be
| enough to show the "flat" virtual screen at the focal
| distance.
| mrbluecoat wrote:
| > ultimately, the aarch64 glibc rootfs tarball of Void Linux fit
| the bill, and it's been running beautifully.
|
| Void FTW!
| tbrownaw wrote:
| > 1080p
|
| So good enough for gargoyling or other situations where even a
| laptop form factor is a pain, but not a proper replacement yet.
| foobazaar wrote:
| I came back briefly to ctrl-f for 'gargoyle' once I got about a
| third of the way through the article so thanks (still would
| though).
| hansmayer wrote:
| Very cool experiment and the piece is written really well,
| manages to communicate a ton of relevant information without
| being overly verbose. One side note though - whats the deal with
| working in the park/on the bench etc, is the author really able
| to be productive in an outside environment? I dont think I could
| ever work like that, either with or without the AR glasses.
| johnyzee wrote:
| First thing I thought. If I go to a coffee shop or the park,
| it's because I want to enjoy that place, not do the same work I
| could do (better) at my desk. That's an aside, though, the OP's
| setup is really cool and intriguing.
| presentation wrote:
| On the flip side I find it extremely easy to get bored and
| lazy at home but when I work at a coffee shop the bustle
| makes me feel more energetic and focused. I work on picnic
| tables in the park when the weather permits.
| fzzzy wrote:
| Can you explain why you don't think you would be productive
| outside?
| hansmayer wrote:
| Well I guess for a lot of people it would be self-
| explanatory, but if I go outside to a park, or to a coffee-
| shop, or whatever - I go there to enjoy myself, not work.
| Apart from that, I would not really have the ergonomic
| benefits of my controlled working environment, not to mention
| bugs, people walking by, random noise or whatever it is.
| sweetjuly wrote:
| I suspect that's a personal bias. If you go to most any
| cafe (at least in the US) there will be a half dozen people
| there typing away at their laptops. This is even more
| common with the rise of remote work where people will (for
| better or worse) commandeer cafes as their personal office.
| hansmayer wrote:
| Well of course its a personal bias - I never claimed no
| one else could work like that, just myself ;) I am aware
| of all the folks typing it out in the coffee-shops. Just
| that I could never be productive in that setting. Answer
| some e-mails - perhaps, but not really do any
| (meaningful) programming work as such.
| 8note wrote:
| i go outside to get sun.
|
| grab a set on a ledge somewhere and think. that works for
| work, if the thinking is about work.
|
| major benefit is that none of the people walking by are
| going to try disrupt what thing youre working on to be
| different work
| fzzzy wrote:
| Yes, that makes sense. Thanks for explaining. I'm not sure
| if I could work in public like this but I am interested to
| find out.
| jonbell wrote:
| The exact same thing jumped out at me, for the opposite reason.
| I have unlimited data + tethering, so I can use my laptop with
| fast internet anywhere. That's the big breakthrough for me, not
| the glasses+phone combo.
|
| Working in a park is amazing. You are still enjoying the
| ambience/vibe, but yeah, you're also writing a blog post or
| whatever. For me, that doesn't distract from the park or the
| productivity. They both enhance each other.
|
| Same with a coffee shop -- this is why coffee shops have wifi
| passwords, because many people in there are on the internet,
| soaking up the ambience/vibe.
| Philpax wrote:
| I do the same, but I find looking at my laptop to be quite
| distracting; I mentally "lock in" to my laptop, which defeats
| the purpose, and also ends up being ergonomically challenging
| much of the time.
|
| I'd like to use AR glasses for this, as it means I can look
| straight ahead and take in more of the atmosphere, while
| still keeping good posture.
| divan wrote:
| I work in Quest 3 regularly and in a "normal" weather I like to
| work outside (in a safe environment aka backyard). It's just
| nice to have fresh air. But once I decided to work and sunbath
| on the balcony of the hotel in the Swiss Alps in a sunny spring
| day. It was lovely until sweating made the work really
| uncomfortable (but yet practically possible). :)
| mikenew wrote:
| That's a great compliment; thank you.
|
| As far as being outside, I imagine it's very dependent on
| personality. I often get restless and distracted working from
| home, and being outside or in a public space will help me feel
| a lot calmer and more focused. There's also a certain amount of
| intentionton it takes to "go to a specific place to do a
| specific thing" that helps me mentally.
|
| It's not something I'm doing every day, but when the weather is
| beautiful and I'm feeling stuck behind a desk it's so nice to
| be able to work outside.
| WD-42 wrote:
| Do people ever think you are staring at them? You still have
| to point your face somewhere, just with a laptop screen it's
| more likely obvious.
| k__ wrote:
| With the new 6DoF glasses it could be a viable alternative to a
| laptop, yes.
| gs17 wrote:
| 6DoF feels like overkill to me if you're only trying to replace
| a laptop. I'd agree that it's really a lot better with at least
| 3 though.
| Stratoscope wrote:
| I don't use AR glasses, and I don't code on my phone, but I do
| like to use it for writing without having to carry a backpack.
|
| The keyboard I use and really like is the iClever BK05:
|
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018K5EJCQ
|
| It is backlit and has a standard full size PC layout, including
| function keys and an "inverted T" cursor key section. The key
| feel is nearly as good as my ThinkPad. And it comes with a nice
| little stand to support your phone at a typical laptop screen
| angle.
|
| It comes with a soft pouch that holds the keyboard, the phone
| stand, and the manual. Folded up, it fits easily in the cargo
| pocket of my pants.
|
| Like the keyboard described in the article, it is not suitable
| for use on your lap because it doesn't lock open. That doesn't
| matter for me, because I need a place to put my phone anyway.
|
| If you read the reviews, note that the "top rated critical
| review" has a glaring mistake:
|
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1RVWODQ8SCS2X?ie...
|
| The reviewer says that the keyboard has no support at the left
| and right edges, so those outer sections don't lay flat and tap
| against the table as you type.
|
| Wrong! This reviewer didn't notice the two little black tabs that
| you need to flip out so the keyboard lays flat and well
| supported. This is also described in the short manual.
| staindk wrote:
| I bought this keyboard years ago and enjoyed using it for about
| a week. Then 3-5 keys stopped working entirely and nothing I
| did would fix them. Recall having a tough time getting a refund
| on Amazon.
|
| Guess it's good to hear I must have had a dud.
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| I remember more than a decade ago I used this [0] keyboard on
| my HP Jornada Palm Pilot. Surprised to see it's still being
| sold. Folds up into a nice case.
|
| [0] https://eshop-cy.com/en/product/targus-pa820u-stowaway-
| porta...
| flyinglizard wrote:
| I can't grasp tech professionals who nickel and dime over their
| setup. Like buying used, not using late gen hardware etc. You're
| spending half your awake hours in front of the thing, just buy
| the latest and greatest.
| 8note wrote:
| im debating rhe upgrade to the surface studio thing now that
| its eol.
|
| the best and greatest is that pen+touch experience, and its
| gonna be gone maybe forever
| luqtas wrote:
| once i asked mom to buy me the most expensive knife and fork of
| the store, she looked at me and said: you are so silly and
| dumb! later that year she gave me a golden spork. since then
| all my meals are much better
| Philpax wrote:
| The latest and greatest is often not a significant enough
| improvement over used hardware to merit the price delta. Just
| because we can throw money away doesn't mean we necessarily
| should.
|
| (Also, not everyone _can_ throw money away! The US tech market
| is an aberration compared to the rest of the world.)
| alt227 wrote:
| I cant grasp tech professionals who always need the latest and
| greatest, its like they need to show off to someone instead of
| just getting on and doing their job.
|
| When I am hiring engineers, I nearly always hire the ones who
| built their own setups out of crappy old hardware, just to
| learn how it works and build something cool. Those guys are in
| it for the love and will work all hours to get something
| working. The ones who wont work on anything but the latest
| apple hardware are invariably the awkward ones in the team who
| demand to be treated in a certain way, and are disliked by
| everybody else for being picky and looking down their nose at
| everybody.
|
| Not saying this is a hard and fast stereotype which fits all,
| but my experience of hiring IT engineers in the UK has shown me
| this is often the case, and my teams are more productive and
| happier after weeding those guys out.
| eeasss wrote:
| Why
| Philpax wrote:
| There's a whole blog post explaining that. Try clicking
| through!
| npilk wrote:
| The Xreal glasses are going to be the near-term winner for AR/VR
| form factor. A "personal screen" you can carry around with you
| and use to look at whatever is on your phone in a much larger,
| private format.
|
| This just adds more value more simply than the new ecosystems
| most AR/VR glasses are trying to establish.
| transpute wrote:
| Vendor wins by unbundling display from custom
| OS/hardware/ecosystem, allowing customers to choose.
| mncharity wrote:
| > FOV is actually too big [...] Seeing the top and bottom edges
| of the screen means moving your eyeballs
|
| Or head tracking.[1] Aphysical rotation exaggeration avoids
| trading eye for neck stress.
|
| > I do feel a little weird wearing these in public, but not
| _that_ weird.
|
| Non-weird can be an expensive constraint, fruitful to relax if
| going beyond a minimalism setup. A baseball hat can barnacle
| quite a bit before people find it remarkable... at least around
| Boston. For instance, for head tracking, an Intel RealSense, or a
| hat fisheye camera and tennis ball on the table, or an optical
| marker on a hat chopstick, can be simpler, easier, lower power,
| and less expensive, than invoking "and it has to look non-weird".
| With current tech, that's almost as challenging as "and it has to
| be a product".
|
| > as these AR glasses continue to improve and Linux continues to
| be flexible and awesome.
|
| I suggest Nreal (now Xreal) made a bad call here. They developed
| internally on Ubuntu, but chose to shut out linux. (Caveat: I've
| not followed in a few years, maybe that's changed.) Unicorn
| dreams and race to mass market - maybe the right call if everyone
| started watching media on phones with glasses. But it could have
| been an inexpensive risk mitigation, and a worthwhile investment
| once market fit was clearly a long haul. Is there some doc which
| lays out alternatives for a company who thinks they have a crown-
| jewel binary blob, to allow the community to wrap it for linux
| consumption, with minimal "we just throw a blob over the wall -
| we don't support linuxes" cost? It's been a lot of years that
| something like TFA has been possible, during which a lot of
| developers could have been exploring for viable market niches.
| Instead of... not.
|
| [1] https://x.com/mncharity/status/1225091755667853318#m
| teruakohatu wrote:
| It is disappointing that this requires rooting. Essentially this
| requires deciding if you want a dev environment or banking
| apps/nfc wallet or be willing to play an endless game of cat and
| mouse.
| 8note wrote:
| with the gen ai cli tools, i think if i go all in, i could skip
| lugging my laptop around. theres some UX warts to phones where i
| think i need a keyboard for tab, ctrl+c, ctrl+v, ctrl+d, delete,
| and so on, that arent in gboard, but i think it could be a fun
| side project to design and build a tiny mechanical keyboard that
| only had those buttons i need
|
| im running the newer pixel fold, so ive already got a ton of
| screen real estate.
|
| ive made a couple code changes phone-only now, using the amazon
| internal browser that has ssh access to my dev desktop.
|
| im missing the ability to get cloudwatch logs and the like, but
| when i get a good mcp, i think i can leave my laptop at home
|
| my previous workflow was mostly on pen/paper though, only
| touching the keys when i know what code im going to write, or
| when i need to lookup something specific, so i think im in a
| better spot for phone dev than somebody with ten monitors each
| showing some chunk of code
| twism wrote:
| I forked Hacker's Keyboard so it would work on newer versions
| of Android and some other customization for GNU Screen
| shortcuts. That with another personally forked ConnectBot (SSH
| client) and I do 95% of my hobby clojure (tersness helps)
| programming on my pixel.
| hiatus wrote:
| Would you be willing to share your fork?
| tomaskafka wrote:
| Wow, I had little idea the readily available tech is this far
|
| > Termux, which is an Android app that provides a mix of terminal
| emulator, lightweight Linux userland, and set of packages that
| are able to run in that environment.
|
| Tim Cook, I know what you know (and fear losing Mac sales to iPad
| and iPad sales to iPhone, so you want them nerfed), but this
| would make me upgrade my 2018 iPad Pro. I'd love to be able to
| leave my expensive macbook home for the vacation, and still be
| able to do some emergency hotfix on a tablet with keyboard
| (ideally connected to eg. hotel TV).
| maleldil wrote:
| Aren't there SSH clients for iOS? That should work for an
| emergency hotfix.
| doublepg23 wrote:
| iSH sort of works as well as BlinkSSH for remote clients.
| rcarmo wrote:
| I use Blink extensively, as well as RDP connections to Linux
| hosts (which can support hardware acceleration and low-
| bandwidth links very well)
| edude03 wrote:
| I know this isn't what you're asking for - I wasn't either -
| but I found a used surface pro (arm or x86) is better for this
| use case than I imagined. They're so cheap used on eBay or FB
| marketplace that I think it's worth trying if you're already
| willing to buy a new iPad anyway.
|
| I have two now - the SPX - they're ~$200 used, with LTE and
| 16GB of ram, and a SP8 - i5/16gb of ram ~$350 used from FB
| marketplace. The SP8 runs Fedora 40 and it's light enough that
| I just keep it in my backpack whether I'll need it that day or
| not.
| flutas wrote:
| > Tim Cook, I know what you know (and fear losing Mac sales to
| iPad and iPad sales to iPhone, so you want them nerfed), but
| this would make me upgrade my 2018 iPad Pro.
|
| Can check out side-loading UTM using AltStore or a local dev
| account.
|
| https://docs.getutm.app/installation/ios/
|
| You do lose JIT support in newer iOS though.
| anonzzzies wrote:
| I have the same setup, it works well, been doing this for years
| now. I like to be outside as much as I can and for that reason I
| like having 20 hour battery life (good phone with an external
| battery). My setup fits in my pants pocket and usbc chargers are
| everywhere (bars, restaurants, hotel lobbies, everyone has then
| at home) if you don't need to charge a laptop with them. Where I
| live is a lot of sun and seeing your laptop screen even in the
| shade is hard; no problem with this.
|
| The issue with the top and bottom edges and the too low res are
| the only downsides; both will be fixed as time passes and the
| inconvenience beats lugging a laptop and charger around and
| finding outlets instead of literally never needing any except
| while sleeping.
| Scipio_Afri wrote:
| What about using this to replace a multi screen setup at home?
| johnh-hn wrote:
| Does anyone know if these glasses, or any other glasses, can be
| tried in-person and used on desktop? I'm legally blind, but have
| just enough vision to use a screen without a screen reader. The
| problem is I have to be about 6 inches from a 27 inch screen. I'm
| tall, and I'm almost bent in half to do it. It's been hell on my
| back and neck. I've only really made it work because I've
| modified so many things to get around it (i.e. customising
| Windows, Firefox, and so on).
|
| The part that makes it so tough is monitor arms come in standard
| sizes and are nowhere near long enough or extend far enough for
| me to sit comfortably. My dad modified my desk for me years ago
| to mount a monitor arm on wooden blocks, but it means I can't
| move the monitor much.
|
| Being able to wear glasses and ditch the monitor entirely would
| be a game changer for me. I know next to nothing about AR though,
| being as I assumed, perhaps wrongly, it isn't something that
| would work for me.
|
| Edit: Thank you for the replies. It means a lot. I've got some
| options to explore here now thanks to you.
| conroydave wrote:
| if you are based in the USA, most stores have 30 day return
| policies. perhaps order them, try at home, and return if you
| they arent a fit for your situation
| johnh-hn wrote:
| I'm in the UK, but the same idea applies, you're right. I'm
| just hoping there is a way to do it in-person as I might need
| to try quite a few types to get something that works.
| wafflemaker wrote:
| My wife uses Klarna to order multiple items, pay with
| Klarna (delayed payment) and then only pay for what is not
| sent back. Usually you have few weeks? to try the items,
| even though it's usually clothes stores that allow Klarna
| payment.
|
| Since you're in Europe, Klarna might work there.
| colingauvin wrote:
| You can use them just as a monitor/without AR - some require a
| special USB-C to DP cable if you don't have native USB-C video
| out (or Thunderbolt), but they are a bit blurry compared to
| normal screens for me. I'm not sure how well they'd work for
| you.
|
| The other problem is they aren't quite up against your eyes the
| way VR headsets are. They project a screen that appears to be
| quite far away. I imagine you could lower the resolution
| though, and it might look closer.
| johnh-hn wrote:
| Thanks for this. I definitely would lower the resolution if I
| could as I do the same thing with my screen. The only
| complication with that might be that in addition I also use:
| https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_10_dpi_fix..
| ..
| toyg wrote:
| Newer models, like the One and One Pro, allow you to set the
| distance. I think the minimum is 1.5m.
| brigade wrote:
| Glasses like these put the screen at a focal distance further
| than a monitor, closer to TV distance. Optics wise it's
| basically the same as VR, if a VR headset is easier to try.
|
| If your corrected vision needs stuff 6" away, don't expect AR
| or VR to be a solution with current optics
| johnh-hn wrote:
| This is what I've been worried about. I have lens implants so
| I already have a fixed focus as well. The combination of the
| two would likely be a problem.
| daniel_reetz wrote:
| In a VR headset the virtual screen distance is set by the
| distance of the microdisplay from the lens in the headset.
|
| It's not crazy to think you could move the microdisplay
| position and get a virtual display at 6". There might be
| other optical consequences (aberrations, change in viewable
| area) but in principle it can work.
| johnh-hn wrote:
| I'd be open to trying something like this. It might be
| the kind of simple solution that would work for me.
| Philpax wrote:
| The microdisplays are usually fixed in place (and
| sometimes the display and optics are a single package),
| so it would likely be a bespoke solution.
| ycui1986 wrote:
| a few AR glasses come with adjustable knobs for
| nearsighted people. So, not all of them are fixed
| distance.
| swsieber wrote:
| Some ar glasses support adjustable focus, and others
| support custom prescription lenses.
| dalemhurley wrote:
| I just returned the Virtue Pro. I got custom lenses too.
| The edge/corners were still blurry. With custom lenses I
| would have preferred fixed focal.
| MBCook wrote:
| You can get a free trial of an Apple Vision Pro at an Apple
| Store.
|
| Even if you have absolutely no intention of ever buying one
| it would give you a free and easy way to find out if a
| headset type device would work well with your vision or
| just be totally incompatible.
| CGamesPlay wrote:
| The pair I have (original xReal Air) include a glass insert
| that can be ground to your prescription. It's a thin piece of
| glass, I don't know exactly what kind of prescription can be
| put onto them, but it might be helpful.
| rcarmo wrote:
| That is usually for very low prescriptions. Judging by the
| photos, I don't think you can use those blanks for much
| more than -2.
| ycui1986 wrote:
| some AR glasses come with built in correction up to
| -5.00. Beyond that, they recommend correction lens
| insert, so it can work for more. The built-in correction
| does not do astigmatism, that will require prescription
| insert too.
| haiku2077 wrote:
| I'm around -6 and was able to get an insert for my VR
| headset. There are third parties who partner with
| eyeglass lens manufacturers to make them for most
| headsets.
| froh wrote:
| possibly this is rather a template to cut a.preacription
| lens to the right size, just like glasses come with
| templates for the prescription lenses. the prescription
| lenses are shipped in a large round shape, and then cut to
| match the template.
| noen wrote:
| Basically all XR devices put the focal plane at between 0.5 and
| 1m away. It's a very very complicated reason why, but this is
| unlikely to change for a very long time.
| gpm wrote:
| Huh? I've always seen numbers larger than that
|
| Xreal claims
|
| > To mitigate this, the industry usually maintains the VID at
| over 1 meter; for instance, Apple's Vision Pro employs a
| distance of 1.1m, Meta Quest 3 sits at 1.25m, and Hololens
| boasts 2m.
|
| https://us.shop.xreal.com/blogs/buying-guide/prescription-
| le...
|
| Though strangely they don't give a number their for their own
| devices.
|
| The article claims the focal plane on the xreal glasses is 10
| feet (roughly 3m).
| Squeeze2664 wrote:
| Can you point to something to learn more about this?
| mkl wrote:
| The article says his one is 10 feet (3m).
| numpad0 wrote:
| Why? I mean, can't you dial it in and out if you weren't
| folding the path and really needed that feature?
| mh- wrote:
| Not an answer to your question, but re: monitor arms.. mine can
| be pulled out far enough it would touch my face. It mounts into
| a grommet drilled into my desk. I assume there's other reasons
| this isn't workable for you, but if it's for lack of finding a
| suitable arm, let me know and I'll find a link for you.
|
| My other recommendation would be to consider a standing desk.
| Even if you prefer to use it sitting, you can tweak the desktop
| height to your liking and help mitigate the posture issue.
| johnh-hn wrote:
| That's kind of you to offer, and I'd appreciate that if you
| wouldn't mind. I have seen some that are a bit longer, but
| the height is too low for them to be of use.
| mh- wrote:
| Happy to (hopefully) help. I have the Fully Jarvis monitor
| arm[0]. But it looks like you can find substantially more
| options here[1] from Uplift, some of which might have
| better range.
|
| Back to the Jarvis, though: see how the photos of it show
| the arm in a typical "bent knee" shape? You can totally use
| it with both halves of the arm pointed in the same
| direction. I just did a quick measurement on mine and each
| of the arms is about 25 cm long, and they're fixed at a
| ~45deg angle. So if you center its mount on your desk, you
| should be able to bring the monitor around[2] 35 cm closer
| to your face and still retain a lot of height adjustment
| (~34 to ~50, as measured from your desktop to the center of
| the display).
|
| If you go this route (and your desk doesn't have an
| existing grommet hole you can use), they sell a drill bit
| to bore one in the right diameter.
|
| [0]: https://store.hermanmiller.com/office-furniture-desk-
| accesso...
|
| [1]: https://www.upliftdesk.com/desk-accessories/monitor-
| arms/
|
| [2]: cos(45deg)*50cm
| Groxx wrote:
| If you don't mind having a "personalized" desk, arms that
| are meant to / able to go through the grommet often just
| have two (large) bolts. You could pretty easily drill
| through the middle of a desk and mount it at any
| distance.
|
| I have the dual version of this, which they don't seem to
| sell any more: https://www.upliftdesk.com/crestview-
| single-monitor-arm-by-u... but if you look at the "all
| components" image, you can see the steel plates and bolts
| that I use to attach mine - the bolts aren't part of the
| bent black thing, they work with that or either of the
| shiny steel plates. Those both fit within a grommet hole
| (the large circular holes in desks) with bit of free
| movement to adjust it, and the bottom of the "stand" is
| completely flat so it could very easily go anywhere - you
| put the plate under the desk, stick the bolts through it
| + through the desk hole, and they go into threaded holes
| on the underside of the stand.
|
| _Some_ monitor arms are only meant to clamp onto the
| edge of a desk, and you won 't be able to do this - I'd
| probably avoid those in this case tbh.
|
| (I've probably failed to adequately describe it - I can
| take pictures or draw something out if you'd like. It's
| not complicated, it's just... there are not many similar
| things that I can point to as a comparison that most
| people have at hand)
| dlgeek wrote:
| I have an uplift arm and while I'm not at my desk right
| now, it's height adjustable and I can get it pretty close
| to my face (without sacrificing the height adjustment) -
| I have both the range and the crestview (Upgraded when I
| got a bigger monitor).
| zdragnar wrote:
| I'm not the person you replied to, but if you get a monitor
| arm made for an ultra-wide monitor, it will be longer and
| taller than most.
|
| I use this one myself:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00B21TLQU
|
| It can go far taller than I need it to, and the length of
| the arm itself should be enough that, positioned well, I
| imagine you could get it situated however you wanted.
| mh- wrote:
| This is a really good idea. And the "Measurements" image
| does a good job showing the exact ranges of motion it
| has. Looks like it can bring the display 16" (~40cm)
| towards you.
| johnh-hn wrote:
| Thanks to both of you for the suggestions. I should've
| asked about this ages ago.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| You might also look at arms that use a vertical post with a
| horizontal arm coming off of it, rather than the gas spring
| height adjustment. They can come in a variety of heights, I
| think mainly because the systems are designed to allow
| multiple rows of screens (like a big 3x2 grid).
|
| Off the top of my head, I know I've seen this for Knoll
| Sapper, which the PDF brochure (linked below) says has
| posts up to 32" high. Not sure if the 17" horizontal
| extension is enough for you, though you could also drill a
| hole in a desk and mount the post further forward instead
| of clamping on the back. Or heck, clamp it on the side or
| front.
|
| See page 7 here: https://www.knoll.com/document/13529413263
| 70/Copy%20of%20Sap...
| philosophty wrote:
| Another option: you can buy a $40 monitor arm (they're all
| pretty good in my experience) on Amazon and mount it in the
| _front_ of the desk to the left or right side and then swing
| it into position in the middle anywhere, even feet in front
| of the desk.
| rcarmo wrote:
| I have very high myopia (over -10) and share your concerns. I
| really wish these things were designed to cater to people for
| whom alternate display tech would actually simplify our lives.
|
| So far I haven't seen anything that can deal with more than -8,
| and getting a custom prescription is usually prohibitively
| expensive. I can wear contacts to offset things somewhat, but
| they just cause added eyestrain.
| johnh-hn wrote:
| I know what you mean. I can't help but wonder what it would
| take to make a pair of these. The hardware requirements for
| low-vision users would be lower, as we wouldn't need things
| like ultra high definition displays.
| Philpax wrote:
| It's not _too_ difficult to actually assemble - you just
| need some displays, a display driver, and the optics - but
| getting optics fabricated to meet your requirements might
| be challenging.
| rcarmo wrote:
| It is too difficult to assemble precisely for that
| reason.
| Philpax wrote:
| The assembly is easy: the part sourcing less so ;-)
| swsieber wrote:
| I think custom prescriptions for the xreal air 1 are around
| $80: https://vroptician.com/prescription-lens-inserts/nreal-
| air
|
| Which I could see that being a deal breaker, but maybe it's
| lower than you thought
| rcarmo wrote:
| With import tax to the EU, yeah, it's a deal breaker. Even
| from the UK. Also, that site only has lenses for the first
| gen, and above -10 there's a surcharge of EUR 70.
|
| I pay more for eyeglasses than for a Quest 3, so... I don't
| want to double that.
| toyg wrote:
| There is no import tax for the UK. I paid PS60 in total
| for my lenses from official partner HONSVR. There are
| cheaper options on AliExpress.
| rcarmo wrote:
| No, but there is from the UK to the EU, thanks to Brexit.
| bluedino wrote:
| I had soemthing like -9.50, but had LASIK, and now I can't
| focus on anything less than eight or so inches away. I have
| never tried AR glasses or a VR headset, would they work?
| ycui1986 wrote:
| They should work, because they are at infinity in your
| eyes' perspective.
| ycui1986 wrote:
| Virtue One's prescription insert is $100.
| numpad0 wrote:
| Disclaimer: the following is bad medical advice, do not
| follow.
|
| VR/AR/MR headsets aren't precisely focused at infinity, it's
| usually 10ft or so. They also have lower resolution than
| human eyes(~60 px/deg or 1MOA) while at it. This combined
| means you don't need full correction, I personally use -3 for
| both eyes, and it seem to work for me in VR.
|
| YMMV.
| actinium226 wrote:
| a) You can always get them, try them, and return them in the
| given period if you don't like them. That's what I did with
| these same glasses and I didn't get any crap about it
|
| b) There are monitor arms that extend quite far, and are easy
| to install. I use this one: https://a.co/d/fV5llce. Granted I
| don't keep it 6" away from my face and my desk is a bit too big
| for that, but I could get it really close if I wanted and my
| desk was smaller.
| ThrowawayP wrote:
| > " _...I have to be about 6 inches from a 27 inch screen. I 'm
| tall, and I'm almost bent in half to do it ... The part that
| makes it so tough is monitor arms come in standard sizes and
| are nowhere near long enough or extend far enough for me to sit
| comfortably ..._ "
|
| Google for "long reach" monitor arms; some models have a reach
| of 30 to 40+ inches. They're not exactly cheap since they come
| from ergonomics vendors but they allow you to bring a large
| monitor as close to your face as you like and, depending on the
| model, clamp to a table like a standard monitor arm. I've had
| various models of them for a couple of decades now.
| captnObvious wrote:
| Ive mounted monitor arms to the front of the desk, rather than
| the back, and extended them out toward me for a somewhat
| similar situation. Bluetooth keyboard goes in my lap, thumb
| ball mouse goes on my arm rest. I can extend the monitor about
| 2.5 feet toward my face in this way. Hope it helps
| lelandbatey wrote:
| Something you can consider are "dentist office screen mounts".
| They're what they seem like, arms like you'd see at a dentist
| office/hospital that swings around an entire room, to hold a
| light or screen. See this example Amazon listing for one that
| mounts to a wall with a 5foot swing area:
| https://www.amazon.com/DW630-1218-Long-Articulated-Adjustabl...
| lhamil64 wrote:
| It sounds like we have a similar situation. I've been wondering
| if these kinds of glasses would work for me but it just seems
| like such a hassle to order a pair to try just to end up
| returning them if they don't work. I wish they were sold in a
| store that I could just walk into and try them for a minute.
|
| FWIW, I use a monitor arm that's mounted on the front left side
| of my desk (my dad also modified my desk so this would work) so
| I can pull it as close as I need. It does mean I can't push it
| back to a normal monitor distance but I'm the only one using my
| PC so that's not a problem. Oddly enough, I recently got
| cataract surgery so now I have a lens that makes me focus
| further away, but now text is too small to read at that
| distance so I have to use readers to focus closer and use the
| arm.. seems a little silly but it mostly works out.
| godelski wrote:
| > I wish they were sold in a store that I could just walk
| into and try them for a minute.
|
| I've constantly wondered why this doesn't really exist. Not
| even just with AR or VR but with lots of products. I thought
| that early on in the transition to more online purchasing
| that it was well understood that people were still visiting
| stores so that they can inspect items before purchase. There
| always seemed to be a weird perverse incentive where for a
| given store their online prices would be cheaper than those
| in store. Combined with wider selection of sizes and styles,
| it felt weird not to buy online, especially if you were not
| in a major city. Employees would even tell you this!
| Themselves being unable to just handle the "online" sale for
| you (baffling...). Malls offered a lot more business value
| than just facilitating direct purchases. They do a lot to
| build brands, loyalty, and advertise to customers.
|
| Being a lanky kinda guy I could never find clothes in my
| sizes in store but it was still quite helpful to see the
| difference between certain materials and would often lead to
| buying a more expensive version than another. Without the
| stores, it just seems to make a market of lemons[0], and I
| think that's kinda apt given general consumer frustration.
| You can't rely on reviews and you can't rely on images or
| even product descriptions...
|
| How the fuck am I supposed to know what I'm buying?
|
| My hypothesis is that some bean counters saw that sales were
| plummeting in stores and concluded that they should then
| close them. Having the inability to recognize that the
| purpose of the store had changed, despite them likely using
| the stores in the new fashion themselves. Hard to make
| effective decisions if the only viewpoint you have is that of
| a spreadsheet...
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons
| 20after4 wrote:
| Several other factors probably pushing the bean counters:
| * Real estate in high-traffic areas, especially in malls
| (do those still exist?) can be extremely expensive. *
| With retail stores, shoplifting is the business's problem,
| after the switch to ecommerce, a lot of theft is shifted to
| being the customer's problem (porch pirates) *
| Customer service staff in the store are likely more
| expensive than outsourcing call centers and now AI is well
| on the way to cutting out most of those jobs.
|
| So while I doubt they completely overlooked the value of a
| physical presence, they probably calculated that it's an
| acceptable tradeoff.
|
| I think Apple does a really good job at blending their
| physical stores and their online business into a very
| seamless experience. Not many companies can operate at that
| level of excellence. Although I have many complaints about
| Apple's business practices, however, their retail stores
| and customer service experience are not among them.
| godelski wrote:
| I'm quite aware that stores cost money. I'm not sure why
| you'd think I didn't.
|
| I agree that Apple is doing it right and is kinda what
| I'm talking about. They do focus on the experience even
| though I'm sure most sales translate to online sales.
| They do understand that the physical presence generates
| many of these sales. It's not trivial to measure like
| direct sales but it is measurable.
|
| I'll admit Apple has an advantage that it isn't a
| franchise (pretty sure?). But that doesn't mean the other
| companies couldn't adapt to the new environment. But
| clearly a lot of them failed due to this. The experience
| still matters to customers but if they don't have many
| choices they still gotta do what they gotta do
| bbarnett wrote:
| One thing I've noticed is that some stores are, as you
| ponder, indeed franchises.
|
| In some franchises, store owners get a vote on change.
| They also have no inventive or desire to be a mere
| showcase for purchases happening elsewhere, such as
| online.
|
| Combine this with a sometimes contracted inability for
| the company to "compete" with franchises, and you get
| some very weird behaviour.
|
| And the of course, as people and politics are involved,
| you may see non-optimal, status quo results from votes.
|
| It's only really been 15 years, since retailers have
| really seen a notable dive in store sales, and the last 5
| years being the most harsh.
|
| Meatspace speed is slow. Most of the world's behaviour is
| ossified compared to people on HN.
|
| In other words, the Internet is fairly new. I think
| eventuality we'll see some stabilization here, over the
| next 10 years.
|
| An example...
|
| Used to be, before opening trade with China, that most
| cultery was made in the US. There were in fact 4 or 5
| main manufacturers of cutlery.
|
| Once the cheap stuff came in, this all collapsed. All of
| them shut or went bankrupt.
|
| Yet out of the ashes one emerged, and I think a second
| now. The market was in such turmoil, sales collapsed so
| fast, that they all weakened at once.
|
| But at least one can exist.
|
| My point is, we're in this period of chaos now. It'll
| sort out I think.
| numpad0 wrote:
| Apple makes gobsmack amount of profit from both devices
| and gambling apps(they don't do games) that easily cover
| costs of demo units. It'll be harder if you only sell
| only one type of fancy low-volume gadget at $499.
| godelski wrote:
| 1) Why does Apple make "gobsmack amount(s) of profit"?
| Perhaps there's a strategy that leads to this. I believe
| the memes version is "Says 'because they're rich';
| refuses to elaborate; leaves"
|
| 2) My example was clothing. I certainly think this makes
| sense as a setting in such an environment. Let you look
| and try. Directly sell most common sizes, transfer to
| online purchase for others. You can even have employees
| measure customers to get the right fits! Now you could
| even do the virtual tryons. This is very different than
| racks of clothes.
|
| 3) I think you forgot about stores like Sharper Image,
| Electronics Boutique, or Brookstone. Customers frequently
| would go into these stores to just see all the random
| gadgets and stuff. I can certainly remember going into
| Brookstone dozens of times yet not actually buying
| anything. Thing is, what these stores were good at was
| advertising products. But they were terrible at selling
| them because you could always find the same things
| somewhere else for cheaper, like Sears.
|
| Like I've said, the value of many of the physical stores
| was not just in direct sales. That was a fine metric in
| the old days, but things changed and so did many other
| things. My original comment was a claim that a myopic
| view was applied, hyper focusing on the limited direct
| sales metric. But coke doesn't advertise to make you
| aware of coke nor do car companies advertise to make you
| aware of cars. They do things differently because their
| size and markets are different.
|
| My point of a lemon market is that with the loss of
| ability to physically scrutinize products, you cannot
| tell the difference between a lemon or a peach. What I
| didn't say, is that this incentivizes more dark patterns
| like making returns difficult. Part of Amazon's quick
| adoption was free returns, making the downside of buying
| a lemon low, only costing you time. But the idea of
| tricking you into buying something, especially with a
| subscription, and making you live with the purchase
| sounds more like the strategy of an infomercial penis
| pill scam, not a blue chip business.
| danparsonson wrote:
| > ...it was well understood that people were still visiting
| stores so that they can inspect items before purchase.
|
| You have all the pieces but you're not putting them
| together.
|
| Bricks and mortar stores cost money just to exist - rent,
| rates, staffing, etc. - and that's why they can't compete
| on price with online stores, which can just be giant
| warehouses with shipping. The online arms of some physical
| stores can benefit from the same economies as totally
| online businesses, leading to cheaper prices online even
| for companies with a physical presence.
|
| How can a physical shop make any money if they are just
| treated as a gallery for browsing before the buyer heads to
| Amazon to get the item 10% cheaper? It's not bean counting,
| it's basic economics.
|
| How the fuck are you supposed to know what you're buying,
| indeed - patronise physical businesses because you
| recognise the value in their existence, and understand that
| that's worth paying an additional premium for.
| godelski wrote:
| > Bricks and mortar stores cost money just to exist
|
| I understand this. I'm not sure why you think I don't. I
| thought it was a pretty obvious thing...
| danparsonson wrote:
| Because you said this:
|
| > I've constantly wondered why this doesn't really exist.
|
| and if you understand that real stores are more expensive
| to run than online stores, then the rest seems obvious?
|
| Places like that _did_ exist in the past - they were the
| places we had to go to buy things. Online prices are
| lower so people bought online instead and drove most of
| them out of business.
|
| Perhaps I'm missing something?
| godelski wrote:
| > Perhaps I'm missing something?
|
| Is that you're being extremely insulting, I'm just not
| sure who you're insulting more. Me, believing I missed
| the most widely discussed and obvious component of cost.
| Or you, for thinking such a low level addition makes an
| actual contribution to the conversation. It's a
| conversation killer either way because you call me a
| moron and over value your analysis.
|
| You are missing that I've talked about how there's more
| business value than direct sales. You can easily infer
| from here that this means "the value outweighs the
| costs". What costs would those be? I think we all know
| the location costs money as well as the people who work
| there. These costs are such a universal experience it
| only makes me wonder about you? Do you not have a job or
| employ people? Do you not rent or pay a mortgage? Watch
| the news? Be on HN? Did you ever have a parent that
| worked, rented, or bought property? Family? Friend? These
| costs are literally at the core of our economy that
| people become failure with them as young children.
|
| Yes, you have to infer some things. I'll have to write so
| much more if the only message that can be conveyed is the
| direct literal translation of my words. Which I don't
| think you expect because you're using natural language
| and expecting me to do the same with you.
| toyg wrote:
| XREAL is on Amazon, and their return policy is pretty good.
| looofooo0 wrote:
| There are fairly long arms which any vesa mount monitor can be
| attached to. This is no option for you?
| crooked-v wrote:
| The specific company I would point to is Ergotron. In the
| worst case you can just daisy-chain extra arm extensions as
| long as it's within the total weight limit, and I'm 100%
| confident after using the same monitor arms for years that
| the result would be reasonably stable.
| egeozcan wrote:
| There used to be also some Amazon Basics branded ones that
| are also produced by Ergotron (or the same factory that
| produces Ergotron - not sure). They were 100% compatible,
| and looked/functioned the same for quarter of the price.
| bgnn wrote:
| Great replies here already. Just piggybacking on the monitor
| arms: I have mounted mine to the wall. If this is an option for
| you, you can mount them at a good height on the wall and extend
| it to bring the screen closer.
| numpad0 wrote:
| What if you built a wheeled carriage to go over your desk?
|
| Something made of precisely cut 2x4 lumber or 2040 frames,
| assembled like a whiteboard frame but have just a single beam
| where the board would be. Then the pole of monitor arm can be
| bolted onto the beam to hang upside down.
|
| Once assembled, the whole thing can be rolled in and up to the
| front edge of the desk, right up to your face. If someone else
| needs to use your computer, the carriage can probably be moved
| back towards the wall.
|
| The reason why display arms extend only so far is because a
| long cantilevered weight love to wreck the base. The desk top
| is going to break if it's too far out. So stretching the arm is
| probably no go.
| Onavo wrote:
| Or you can get this thing called an "office chair". The
| overpaid tech bros here prefer names like Aeron, Embody, and
| Mirra. Some execs swear by their Eames too.
| numpad0 wrote:
| GP needs to have display right up his face. Chairs don't
| solve that problem.
| rho4 wrote:
| I have a colleague at work who also has to get within 6" of the
| screen.
|
| 2 years ago I switched to a 55" 8k TV as my primary monitor.
|
| While everyone was giving me the usual crap about it, this guy,
| when I showed him what it would look like with 400% Zoom, he
| went and bought one for himself at home.
|
| He thanks me every few weeks, but still didn't dare to set one
| up in the office.
|
| (ps I have mine standing on a normal height-adjustable table,
| so you wouldn't have to hunch at all)
| westpfelia wrote:
| Dude thanks for at least helping! And while he might not be
| comfortable enough to use it at work at least you were able
| to help set him up in his personal life. I had a colleague
| with a rare form of macular degeneration and this stuff is a
| game changer for him.
| johnh-hn wrote:
| Precisely. The ideas here may not seem like much to some,
| but I am genuinely in awe of how much people are trying to
| help me solve this. I've had people contact me via the
| email in my profile offering help too. And I meant what I
| said in my original comment: fixing this would
| significantly improve my quality-of-life. That makes it
| difficult to convey how grateful I am for the suggestions.
| johnh-hn wrote:
| This is an interesting suggestion. Like with most suggestions
| here, I have no idea if it would work or not, so I'm making a
| list of things to try.
|
| One thing that would concern me a bit with this though is how
| I'd use my neck. To give an example, when sitting in front of
| my screen now, if I want to see the browser tabs at the top
| of my screen, then I have to tilt my head backwards to see
| them. But if I need to see the taskbar, I have to tilt my
| head down. It doesn't sound like much, but doing that all day
| rather than just moving your eyes instead adds to overall
| fatigue.
|
| With your suggestion, I can't picture if that would still be
| required or not. Thanks for sharing the idea. I'll look into
| it.
| alickz wrote:
| I don't know if this will help you visualize it or not, but
| here's a photo of someone using a TV as a monitor on a desk
|
| https://i.imgur.com/mjcqjfZ.jpeg
|
| I use my 4K TV as a monitor (though from ~8ft away) and for
| me Windows' scaling (found under Display in Control Panel)
| allow me to easily read text from so far away
|
| Maybe it could help you
| johnh-hn wrote:
| This actually does help, thanks. It's given me a clearer
| idea of the scale of what it might look like to sit in
| front of it. From that picture, you can probably imagine
| what I mean about the neck movements.
| necovek wrote:
| The benefit of a big TV should be that you can move it
| farther out than the 6" you mentioned (and that the
| person is roughly sitting at), increase text size, but
| need fewer neck movements to take it all in -- provided
| you can focus at bigger distances.
|
| You are essentially keeping the same angular size, and by
| moving an 85" TV to 19" from your eyes, you get text to
| be sized just like your 27" at 6" (3 x 27" = 81").
|
| Won't help with your neck issues though, since you'll
| have exactly the same issues.
| ThrowawayP wrote:
| The issue with the "keyboard in front of huge monitor"
| type of arrangement for people who need to get their face
| really, really close to the monitor is they have to lean
| far in and hunch over the keyboard, putting their arms in
| an uncomfortable position. Speaking from my own
| experience, this causes RSI problems fairly quickly. And
| the keyboard can't be moved farther back to allow the
| person's arms to be in a more natural position because
| the base of the TV or monitor blocks the way.
|
| A monitor arm of the right length and height lets you sit
| so that the monitor is close to your face, floating at or
| beyond the front edge of the table, and the keyboard is
| physically behind the monitor, letting your arms be in a
| more natural position for typing.
| necovek wrote:
| If one needs to use 55" 8K TV at 400% zoom, I suggest getting
| a 55" 4K TV and keeping it at 200% zoom -- it's much cheaper
| and easier to drive with any iGPU.
|
| There are also 55" monitors, but they'll likely be more
| expensive but behave much better.
| sesm wrote:
| Regarding monitor arms, what if you put a regular monitor
| straight in your face and use a split keyboard (like Ergodox)
| on the sides?
| elif wrote:
| A PC is actually the best way to use xreal imo. The android
| experience is clunky... But I'm old and use mouse and keyboard
| for everything
| imhoguy wrote:
| I also wonder how AR glasses work with myopia. Could they
| potentialy worsen it? Need to dig out some research.
| theodric wrote:
| I have a pair of these Xreal (formerly Nreal) glasses, and I
| find text too unclear from the plastic optics, too full of
| halo/fringe (think: cheap VR headset, like trying to work on a
| Quest 2), and the OLED's pixel arrangement too odd for any
| serious work use. It's just about good enough for light gaming
| and movie consumption, but even gaming is a strain for me. They
| also make me sleepy! They do accept some prescription lenses
| inserted in front of the viewports, and include a blank you can
| have cut, but I haven't used them. I have good close-up vision
| with some mild, untreated astigmatism.
| aio2 wrote:
| Pardon my ignorance, but why not you just wear glasses?
| zwolbers wrote:
| Just to chime in with another alternative - if you're open to
| using Linux, you might want to look into Viewport Panning with
| X11 [0].
|
| It allows you to setup a larger virtual desktop that you can
| then pan around. Instead of moving your head around, you could
| instead just shift the viewport. Might be more convenient than
| a larger screen and/or monitor arms assuming you also setup
| zoom/display scaling.
|
| By default, you pan by moving the mouse to an edge, but iirc
| you can setup key bindings and/or gestures.
|
| [0]
| https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution#Panning_viewport
| apexalpha wrote:
| I dont know if I missed someone else saying it but have you
| tried the Apple Vision?
|
| The screens are a few inches from your eyes.
| LMMojo wrote:
| I have a co-worker who is similar, needs to be about 3-4 inches
| from the screen. He had his monitor die, a 15" LCD, and the
| guys in IT 'did him a favor" and upgraded him to a 27" screen.
| He lasted all of an hour. Told IT it'll never work and they
| were confused until the saw and understood his use case.
|
| I thought about these glasses, too, when I tore and detached my
| retina. With the surgery they drained me eye and my focal
| distance was initially maybe 1cm, and as my eye refilled the
| focal distance grew. At the time I wondered if sometime like
| Google Glass would work for me. I feel like there could be a
| lot of applications for these if they'll work with such short
| focal lengths.
| aucisson_masque wrote:
| I think the next version of Android is supposed to include a
| terminal that can run Linux.
|
| I don't know the specifics but it would be better than having to
| root the phone and use chroot.
|
| It's sad that a phone running java on top of Linux isn't able to
| run Linux app without big downside like termux and proot.
| Hopefully it changes.
| ErrorNoBrain wrote:
| Android has a terminal in the newer beta versions, indeed - a
| proper one
|
| it was sorta possible before too, but now, it can start up
| programs with a window etc (and of course someone ran doom on
| it)
| kllrnohj wrote:
| > It's sad that a phone running java on top of Linux isn't able
| to run Linux app
|
| It can. It just can't run something expecting glibc, X11,
| Wayland, or any of the other large number of userspace
| libraries that Android doesn't have.
|
| But a pure Linux app works no problem. Just shell in and run
| it, easy.
| dzikimarian wrote:
| I have Android 15 (regular release) and it's there. Feels
| snappy I didn't use it to run desktop environment though.
| shlomo_z wrote:
| Does it include package management? Can you run Python for
| example?
| transpute wrote:
| Yes, it has full access to Debian repos.
| dzikimarian wrote:
| Yes, this is Debian, apt is present and working. I was able
| to install & use mtr for example.
|
| However for python I got "no install candidate". Probably
| doable after adding necessary package repos
| baq wrote:
| With Python you should be `uv run`ning stuff nowadays
| anyway.
| astrodude wrote:
| really useful when you are travelling without laptop and you need
| to quickly fix a thing
| amelius wrote:
| Do they have a USB-C cable running from the phone to the glasses?
| inatreecrown2 wrote:
| What I always wonder about with these Headsets is how can this
| not damage your eyes, focusing them at such short distance for
| prolonged periods. Anybody with experience in using such a device
| would like to comment on this?
| Waterluvian wrote:
| So this is probably a silly question but... can't you fool your
| eyes into focusing at any distance you want if you've got a
| stereo screen at a fixed distance (ie a headset)?
|
| Isn't this just a function of the parallax when rendering both
| screens?
| dTal wrote:
| Focus is distinct from convergence - convergence is how much
| you have to cross your eyes to look at something, but focus
| is where muscles squish and stretch your eyeballs to change
| the distance of your retinas from your pupils. Just like a
| camera, if your eye is not focused at the _real_ distance to
| subject, it will look blurry because your pupil is not a
| perfect pinhole, but has area (so a single eye is already
| seeing the same object from slightly different angles, on
| either side of the pupil).
|
| Usually your brain learns a strong correspondence between
| focus and convergence, but this can be unlearned quite
| easily, and indeed must be in order to view e.g. VR, 3D
| films, Magic Eye pictures, etc... - all of which encode 3D
| information through convergence, while requiring your eyes to
| focus on a fixed plane.
| brigade wrote:
| No, and VR's inability to match focal distance with parallax
| causes the vergence-accommodation conflict.
| Philpax wrote:
| This is a real problem, but it's fine for most VR use cases
| as you're usually looking at content that's rendered at a
| distance greater than the focal plane. The problems start
| to occur when you look at nearby content - that is, content
| less than 2m away - as it ends up being extremely
| uncomfortable for your eyes.
|
| There are solutions being developed for this, but they have
| not been successfully miniaturised and/or cost-reduced for
| productisation. It's unclear how far away it is at this
| time, but Reality Labs has several generations of solutions
| that physically change the distance between the lenses and
| the displays, and alternate solutions like lightfields
| capable of simultaneously displaying content at different
| focal planes are being investigated.
| flutas wrote:
| IIRC: Like Google Glass and VR headsets, they use some optical
| tricks to focus at infinity.
|
| So to your eyes you're focusing at an object 2-3+ meters away
| rather than 2-3 cm in reality.
| gpm wrote:
| It's not "at such a short distance" compared to how people use
| laptops, or even desktops. The focal distance on these headsets
| is all >1m (the author quotes 10 feet for the glasses they are
| using in particular).
| tripdout wrote:
| How do ARM64 binaries like window managers, Firefox, etc run and
| with graphical acceleration on Android?
|
| I guess as a start the chroot provides glibc and all the other
| libraries that run natively, but how does any of this interact
| with hardware?
| RestartKernel wrote:
| Good read, this is one of those things I've considered doing
| myself, but never committed to. Having someone describe the
| experience in such detail is very much appreciated.
|
| > RAM usage often gets close to that 12GB ceiling.
|
| Unused memory is wasted memory. Just because you're almost maxing
| out those 12 gigabytes doesn't mean you'd be in trouble with
| less.
| djrj477dhsnv wrote:
| I had tried a similar setup over a year ago. The blurry edges of
| the screen and weight of the glasses were an annoyance, but the
| main reason I didn't continue using it was because I'm moderately
| near-sighted and often switch from contacts, to glasses, to no
| corrective lenses, which wouldn't work with fixed focus VR
| glasses.
| seltzered_ wrote:
| > Can someone please make a good folding keyboard? This little
| $18 piece of plastic is decent for what it is, but this was the
| weakest part of the whole setup, and it feels like it should be
| the easiest.
|
| You may want to consider the Protoarc xk03
| https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/comments/1akevd...
| or adding a Bluetooth mod to the old palm folding keyboard:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/comments/sqvrsg...
| MarcelOlsz wrote:
| Amazing, I just linked the targus one somewhere below but it's
| for an HP Jornada Palm Pilot, awesome that its been revived for
| bluetooth!
| TuringNYC wrote:
| On a somewhat related note, I feel any specialized device
| development should come hand-in-hand with a great developer
| experience with a well-designed simulator experience.
|
| I was an original Google Glass developer (2013) and not allowing
| development via a simulator was one of their biggest mistakes
| ever. You had to continuously test squinting into the actual
| hardware. After about 25min it would overheat and you were forced
| into a cooldown period of about 30min. You couldnt easily put
| together tests or parallelize testing mundane parts of the app
| off-device. I ended up with the worst headaches after three
| months and we pivoted our business to something else soon after.
| throwaway314155 wrote:
| I mean if you couldn't stand using the device long enough to
| test it (not that you should have to - i agree on that), maybe
| the problem was that the device simply wasn't in anyone kind of
| ready state to be shipped as a revolutionary new way of
| interfacing with computers. Like christ, it would overheat
| after 25 minutes?
| linkregister wrote:
| Being one of the 3rd party developers to create apps for a
| nascent platform is a great position for your business to be
| in. It just so happened that Google Glass didn't work out.
| But imagine being an early developer for Android or iOS.
| TuringNYC wrote:
| >> I mean if you couldn't stand using the device long enough
| to test it (not that you should have to - i agree on that),
| maybe the problem was that the device simply wasn't in anyone
| kind of ready state to be shipped as a revolutionary new way
| of interfacing with computers. Like christ, it would overheat
| after 25 minutes?
|
| Well the usage for these types of devices (e.g., Apple Watch,
| Google Glass) is meant to be notifications driven and event
| driven. So the unit was sufficient for regular Production
| usage (though not great for all-day use.) However,
| development is basically a constant stream of tests, etc --
| so the development experience is continuous and thus much
| more taxing than the Production user experience.
| gcanyon wrote:
| The Xreal Air 2 Pro costs $299 new; why would you buy it used for
| $260?
| smilliken wrote:
| At risk of the obvious, because it saves $39 and reduces
| landfill waste.
| miloignis wrote:
| I believe they only went on sale fairly recently, the author
| may have bought them used when the new ones were more
| expensive.
| hentrep wrote:
| I've long wondered whether working within AR glasses improves
| one's ability to focus. My hypothesis is that I have fewer shiny
| objects in my periphery to create distractions. Can anyone who
| has experience with AR glasses comment?
| fouc wrote:
| is a Pixel phone the best way to go for this setup or can a
| Samsung phone work too?
| resonious wrote:
| Man, I tried this too but eventually went back to a laptop.
| Though maybe that wouldn't have been the case if I was able to
| use chroot. Still, for me, a laptop is quite nice for being able
| to just whip it out and start doing stuff immediately. With phone
| + glasses + external keyboard, I have to pull out several things
| and plug in the glasses.
|
| But proot being slightly too slow is a real bummer. I was able to
| get a lot of stuff working natively on Termux, but every once in
| awhile you hit a wall and it's sad.
| mikenew wrote:
| proot is just good enough to make you want to try it, but not
| good enough to keep using it. chroot was far better and if
| that's what was holding you back I'd recommending trying
| chroot.
|
| I can relate to the clunk of having 3 different pieces to the
| setup, but I found myself using just the phone + keyboard
| pretty often for quick things. And since the desktop
| environment seems to sit in the background just fine, it wasn't
| much more than just turning on the phone and opening the
| keyboard. So in that sense it wasn't much different than a
| laptop.
| resonious wrote:
| I see - actually in my case I'm on Samsung, and Dex takes
| several seconds to boot. I like the desktop but It sounds
| like chroot + Termux:X11 would be way faster in every way.. I
| just really wish there was a Termux:Wayland - my favorite
| desktop doesn't seem to have an equivalent in X11 (niri,
| though maybe I need to look harder)
| cuvinny wrote:
| I tried this with the VITURE Pro XR (has adjustable lens so if
| you are nearsighted and wear glasses they work) but with a linux
| laptop. I couldn't stand the static image (focusing on the top
| and bottom of the screen was painful) and wanted headtracking
| which only worked on Windows or the phone. There was a project I
| found of someone adding support for it but it was pretty jank at
| the time.
|
| Anyways, ended up returning it but kind of wish I thought of just
| using the phone. Might finally get me to learn NeoVIM
| jacooper wrote:
| Google is now shipping a full Debian Linux VM on pixels,
| apparently this is a part of the plan to introduce a desktop
| computing mode on Android.
| https://www.androidauthority.com/android-desktop-mode-leak-3...
|
| https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/13/android_15_linux_debi...
| zmmmmm wrote:
| I have been eyeing off this setup for ages but I'm stopped by the
| fact that the glasses only project 1080p displays. They seem to
| have been stuck at that resolution for years and I'm not sure if
| it's a technical limitation or something else. I just know I
| wouldn't use a 1080p screen in real life except in an emergency
| so I'm super sceptical that I'd be happy with the glasses.
|
| Very curious why these have stalled out at 1080p. They don't have
| to go much higher, give me 2560x1600 and I will be very happy.
| wolfv wrote:
| The phone market is stuck at 1080p bc the screens are small.
| When the wearable market is large enough, someone will develop
| glasses with higher resolution.
| dontTREATonme wrote:
| This confuses me, many phones have 4k screens, the Apple
| Watch has a 330ppi which is much higher than the 5k 27"
| display Mac display. So basically you can almost certainly
| source a high enough pixel density to support 2k on AR
| lenses.
| luyu_wu wrote:
| These displays in the glasses are significantly smaller
| than even your Apple Watch though (0.58" or so I believe).
| Essentially the displays they're using are the same ones
| found in DSLR viewfinders. There should be higher
| resolution options, but I suspect the resolution limiter is
| the optics not the pixel size (just a suspicion).
| __rito__ wrote:
| Can I now completely get rid of the physical keyboard? I will go
| full in on AR(/VR) when I can comfortably type into thin air,
| lying down, kinda like this: https://ibb.co/nv8Qj72
| ycui1986 wrote:
| one of the problem that I have using AR glasses for work is that
| I have to refocus my eyes every time I try to type anything,
| which is an annoyance. The eyes focus to the infinity on the AR
| glasses, but near sight when typing. This is on top of the fact
| that keyboard is much dimmer to look at when wearing the AR
| glasses.
| oliver-leung wrote:
| Learning to touch-type would be helpful in this case
| dankebitte wrote:
| > On average I'd drain about 15% battery per hour. So 4 to 5
| hours before you need to be thinking about charging, but I'm not
| sure you'd want to have the glasses on longer than that anyway.
|
| I know there are splitters break a USB-C port out into a USB-PD
| port and a data transfer port, but can those (or a different
| accessory) also be used to provide PD _to_ the phone for
| prolonged usage?
|
| eta: Never mind, just saw that the XREAL Hub addresses this. I
| still wonder if there's a cheaper option, but most seem to be
| designed for PD out, not in.
| throwaway290 wrote:
| There is a review of Xreal glasses in russian internet, auto-
| translate is interested. Guy started losing vision pretty quick
| after using them as monitor replacement. Take care
|
| https://www.iphones.ru/iNotes/otkazalsya-ot-ochkov-rasshiren...
| notpushkin wrote:
| This is neat. I've been thinking about doing something like this
| on my Quest 3, but it's a fair bit bulkier than this setup. One
| upside is, you already get an Android and can setup pretty much
| anything you might want! (I've sideloaded F-Droid on mine, going
| to see if Termux works.)
|
| Re: Bluetooth keyboard - you can get a Thinkpad keyboard as a
| Bluetooth one. It's slimmer that the usual bottom half, so it's
| much more portable. But it's not folding, of course.
| transpute wrote:
| There's roughly 4 different approaches to Linux on Android:
| * virtual machine emulating x86_64 * Termux *
| arm64 binaries running in chroot * proot.. Same idea as
| chroot, but doesn't use forbidden system calls
|
| Fifth option: arm64 pKVM VM from Android 15 on Pixel 7+
| phone/tablet hardware using nested h/w virtualization. Shipped in
| 2025 under the uninformative name of "Linux Terminal" via
| Development options, Android now has full Debian Linux with VM
| root, no emulation, compatible with USB-c desktop display.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43973395 &
| https://www.androidauthority.com/android-linux-terminal-purp...
|
| _> The main purpose of this Linux terminal feature is to bring
| more apps (Linux apps /tools/games) into Android, but NOT to
| bring yet another desktop environment.. Ideally, when in the
| desktop window mode, Linux apps shall be rendered on windows just
| like with other native Android apps.. GPU acceleration is
| something we are preparing for the next release._
|
| Hopefully Android 2025 Linux VMs will lead to iOS 19 VMs at WWDC,
| since Apple wants to sell smart glasses to compete with Meta
| glasses.
| anonzzzies wrote:
| I use NOMone; works really well. Runs everything I need
| including vscode/cursor, node and anything else I need without
| any fiddling, it just all works. Obviously the new linux vm is
| likely nicer, but this works really well so far.
|
| 0] https://desktop.nomone.com/
| transpute wrote:
| Thanks for the pointer, seems to be using VNC, https://www.re
| ddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/18psg3p/linux_o...
| cma wrote:
| It says it doesn't use VNC while others do:
| While current solutions depend on VNC to display the Linux
| interface, we got rid of VNC altogether along with the
| problems it causes.
| transpute wrote:
| It's doing VNC-alike "graphics remoting", but with less
| isolation/security in the name of efficiency/performance:
|
| _> We thought this is too inefficient. So we decided to
| combine both into a single application, to eliminate most
| of the interprocess communication, and avoid having the
| Linux server run in the background, and thus suffering
| from power optimizations. We still have a framebuffer,
| but we do the scrapping and updating directly. We have
| reduced all the hassle to mere memcpy and texture update
| operations. This turned out to be huge! In the future, we
| hope to reduce this overhead even further by rendering
| directly to the texture, and this saving the need to
| scrape and copy memory._
|
| When the next release of Android Linux Terminal ships
| vGPU with virtio, it will provide better graphics
| performance than VNC, while retaining strong security
| isolation between Debian guest VM and host Android.
| lamuswawir wrote:
| Thank you internet stranger. I like having termux running on
| my phone, just in case. I will definitely try this out.
| jacooper wrote:
| The termux app is still way better when it comes to being
| an actual terminal emulator, however the stock app should
| get a lot better with android 16
| dr_kiszonka wrote:
| Nice! Does it support virtual desktops ("Workspaces" on
| Ubuntu)?
| Zambyte wrote:
| This seems pretty nice, but fair warning to anyone planning
| on checking this out, it's actually just a trial version, and
| the full version is $8. Not too expensive, but doesn't feel
| great to me that this information is completely omitted until
| you download and run the app.
| anonzzzies wrote:
| You can check for quite a long time and then pay a one off
| $8. Not ideal as I like opensource, but seems quite a lot
| of work went into it and it's a smooth experience.
|
| I have nothing to do with them, I am happy with something
| that just works for all I need it for without having to
| take all kinds of expert steps. It Just Works. Maybe some
| massive companies can learn from this; the list is large.
| ekianjo wrote:
| Box64 is yet another option
| buserror wrote:
| Just tried to install that on my pixel 9, and the option is
| there (Linux development) and the Terminal app is there, but it
| seems to freeze on launch, when it asks for permission to get
| Location. Bummer I was looking forward to this!
| aljgz wrote:
| This worked for me: Go to the app info, set the permissions
| and run it again.
| buserror wrote:
| Works! Thanks for spending the time replying :-)
| erinaceousjones wrote:
| Technically Pixel 6 has the pKVM feature too (I have the
| terminal app from the feature drop when it was added). We're
| just missing DP alt mode introduced from Pixel 8 onwards
| mikevin wrote:
| Any idea where to find the source? Wondering how it's set up.
| transpute wrote:
| pKVM is upstream in mainline Linux.
|
| AOSP, https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/modu
| les/V...
|
| GrapheneOS, https://github.com/GrapheneOS/platform_packages_m
| odules_Virt... &
| https://x.com/tuxpizza/status/1900431745146888488
| garylkz wrote:
| I remember back then my laptop broke during the beginning of
| COVID, and I was left with a smartphone that is incapable of
| doing Termux stuff.
|
| To cope with that I have ended up making some toys like Discord
| bot that evaluates code, requested access from Insomnia 24/7 to
| SSH into Linux environment for programming purposes.
|
| It was fun experience and I've ended up learning a lot of
| programming stuff before I've even started my study in university
| for computer science.
| benkaiser wrote:
| I actually tried doing web dev on a Meta Quest 3 recently, but
| found the biggest limitation to actually be the lack of devtools
| in Android.
|
| Here is the blog I did discussing the limitations:
| https://benkaiser.dev/web-development-in-vr/
|
| I wonder if something like this running on the quest could
| technically work, but I suspect it would be too heavy running
| Linux chrome in a chroot. You also lose the cool "place and
| resize your windows anywhere" if it's all stuck inside one window
| for a desktop.
| eecc wrote:
| Poster laments the lack of a quality folding keyboard.
|
| Well, though not in production any more, there is one that is
| absolutely perfect: Microsoft Universal Foldable Keyboard.
|
| You can still find it on eBay, and it's unfathomable -- though
| perfectly in-character -- for Microsoft to have terminated it.
| alchemist1e9 wrote:
| Thanks for sharing that. I found one "new" on ebay as you
| suggested. Will give it a try.
| js8 wrote:
| What about a wearable split 34-key keyboard? That could work,
| for outdoor coding. Or voice interface, there was a video of a
| guy coding in Emacs using that.
| ivanb wrote:
| This is the future. Foldable, headless computer-in-keyboard and
| some glasses. In a sense we are doing a full circle to Commodore
| 64 form factor.
|
| One overlooked aspect is ergonomics. Laptops are terrible for
| posture, unlike the poster's HMD setup.
| byb wrote:
| I'm hoping more people will author articles about using these
| types of displays full time. There was an article posted a month
| ago about someone using XREAL ONEs with an x86 PC and a portable
| power bank. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43668192
|
| I've done some cursory research on the XREAL Air 2 Pros because
| they are currently discounted at 299 USD. I'm interested in
| retiring a 4K 43" monitor which has been slightly too large.
|
| My question to anyone who has tried XREAL's products is whether
| the more expensive XREAL ONE model provides a much better
| productivity experience for 499 USD?
|
| So far, I'm not convinced the Air 2s provide a 'stable' enough
| image for productivity tasks as this article states. I found a
| Youtube reviewer who created a rendition of what it is like to
| use them for video editing - and they weren't enthusiastic
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZhD8Dt6akY&t=316s
|
| Linus Sebastian from LTT did go on Jimmy Fallon a few months ago
| and show off the XREAL ONEs
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=vybLi25Q8Fw
|
| For me, I'm not interested in XREAL's Android offerings; I'm more
| interested in Graphine or e/OS, but would need to purchase a new
| tablet and a new phone with USB-C display output. I did pick up a
| Chuwi Hi10 X1 Intel n100 tablet a few months ago for about 200
| USD, so that solves the battery problem for me.
| https://store.chuwi.com/products/hi10-x1-n150
|
| If I didn't have that, and wanted to go the powerbank with X86
| route, the company MeLE does have some very, very small mini pcs.
| https://store.mele.cn/products/mele-quieter-4c-n100-3-4ghz-f...
|
| To many people asking about keyboards, I'd recommend simply
| getting a 60% with bluetooth, or an adapter which converts a
| regular USB keyboard into a bluetooth adapter. I'm also a
| trackball user, and the Japanese company DEFT makes some decent
| ones.
| dwedge wrote:
| I can only see out of one eye at a time, is binocular vision
| needed for these glasses to work?
| nis251413 wrote:
| Yeah I also have amblyopia and am curious about this. How does
| it work with the two lenses/screens? I assume if eg one with
| normal binocular eyesight closes one eye, they are able to see
| the screen on the open eye side normally? In some sense I would
| imagine it should be just minus one problem to solve this way
| (the vergence accommodation) if one does not care about
| stereoscopy.
|
| I tried once the apple vision pro and it seemed fine,
| amblyopia-wise at least. It was too briefly though to know for
| sure how it would be like using it for longer.
| henrik_ wrote:
| It would be cool to be able to use the screen in the glasses as a
| monitor. So when you look down at your laptop screen, the screen
| in the glasses would dissapear or something.
| Korova wrote:
| It might be a bit bigger than you'd prefer, but this Royal Kludge
| folding keyboard is apparently great
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y941mt8mtmk
| crvdgc wrote:
| What about Cardboard VR like headset + a keyboard? Has anyone
| tried this setup?
| ffaser5gxlsll wrote:
| Using VR glasses instead of screens is a wet dream of mine, but
| VR tech has been one of the worst vendor-locked tech I have ever
| seen.
|
| I haven't keep up lately, but as a linux-only dev, is there any
| hw combo which would give me full native hardware support and the
| ability to develop for the platform?
|
| (I don't count linux-on-[android|win] as a solution)
| KeplerBoy wrote:
| The xreal glasses mentioned in the article are just displays
| (or at least they can operate in that way). Their website claim
| it works with basically anything that outputs HD video (game
| consoles, PCs and whatnot).
| imhoguy wrote:
| I think the keyboard in such setup needs a disruption, because it
| is the last piece which keeps us in the old world of typing
| machine on a table.
|
| I am thinking about some kind of wearable keyboard, either
| attached to trousers on laps, or kind of gloves. But gloves
| usually have no tactile response.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| Why so physical?
|
| Researchers ate already able to translate thoughts into
| text[1][2] by wearing a special cap with a fair amount of
| accuracy.
|
| [1]: https://www.extremetech.com/science/new-cap-uses-ai-to-
| read-...
|
| [2]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.14030
| imhoguy wrote:
| That's promising. But hardly working now with noisy
| environment like park or a car, and AR screen adds its mental
| noise too.
| inciampati wrote:
| The setup in the post plus a speech to text system and
| aidertmux and aider would be sufficient for a very wide range
| of tasks. Or a multi screen setup with the phone as a
| multimodal input system and the AR as the screen.
| alchemist1e9 wrote:
| I agree and have experimented with related ideas. In a sibling
| comment thread.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43985513#44016985
|
| https://kbd.news/Tackle-keyboard-2549.html
|
| I want to try some version of this next. I've tried tap strap
| (overlaps with glove idea) and I currently use a retractable
| lap approach, where the keyboard folds out from chest to be
| used, it's still too much friction and too awkward.
|
| This Tackle keyboard approach is a bit obvious once you see it
| if one can be fully touch type without crossing middle then a
| split keyboard mounted on torso could work... perhaps ... these
| things require actually trying I've found.
| ednite wrote:
| Thanks for sharing. It's a really clear write-up. I've been
| planning something similar and might just follow your setup.
| codingbot3000 wrote:
| Maybe stupid question: What does it mean to add a bluetooth mouse
| to this setup?
| bilsbie wrote:
| Wow I've been wanting this for years. My adhd makes it hard to
| sit at a desk for long periods of time. I think moving locations
| frequently would be great.
| bilsbie wrote:
| Is the screen fixed in space like vr? Ie it's a virtual screen.
| Or does it move when you move your head?
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| /a moment of silence for the textblade/
| maradyura wrote:
| dev setup from the future :)
| hardwaresofton wrote:
| Has anyone tried the Viture Pro? There are myopia adjusters built
| in.
| lvturner wrote:
| I've tried this with a folding phone, it's... Ok
|
| On keyboards I found a Royal Kludge mechanical keyboard, feels
| great but unfortunately one of the keys switches is cracked, I'm
| sure I could glue it down but haven't yead had time to dismantle
| it.
|
| In terms of lilputian mice, the "CapacMouse" is.. far far better
| than it should be.
| fennecbutt wrote:
| I can't wait for high fov variable dof across the image.
|
| Google lens was shot down by a society of thoughtless individuals
| but we'll see ar happen in a couple decades, I'm sure.
|
| Will be great to life through phones being replaced by glasses
| and then eventually contact lenses.
| rusk wrote:
| Google abandoned it the same way they abandoned everything.
|
| They could have worked out the details to make these devices
| less hostile to bystanders but they didn't because it was all
| just a marketing gimmick with no solid business underpinnings.
| backendEngineer wrote:
| oh boy
| d_burfoot wrote:
| I feel like we are due for a revolution in computer interface
| design that will free us from our desks. I want to be able to do
| work while walking on the bike trail or sitting in a lounge chair
| by the pool. All the core concepts of GUI design - "mouse",
| "window", "file", "folder", "desktop" - were developed in a
| previous era with far tighter constraints on what could be done.
| Now we have voice understanding, wearable computers, AR / VR,
| LLMs, cellular internet, etc. Even though the tech has advanced
| by leaps and bounds, the underlying UI concepts haven't changed
| much.
| transpute wrote:
| The division of "operating system" labor across devices and
| network is an open technical, business and political challenge.
| Many would-be gatekeepers competing for control, even as prior
| gatekeepers are being slowly regulated out of their monopoly
| roles.
| orbital-decay wrote:
| Desks were invented hundreds of years ago (at least) and are
| ergonomically ideal for doing prolonged work. It's not related
| to computing in any way. I don't see them going away any time
| soon.
| 4gotunameagain wrote:
| They are not ideal, they cause all sorts of lower back/neck &
| circulation issues, even with a tuned ergonomic setup.
|
| But it's true that it is the best we got, sort of the cringy
| but effective treadmill desk.
| AstroBen wrote:
| Does spending 8-10 hours on your feet every day fare
| better? I think the solution there is mixing it up
| MobiusHorizons wrote:
| I have been thinking about this a lot recently. There is a lot
| you can do to work through programming problems away from your
| computer if you have enough of it in your head. Unfortunately,
| it seems harder and harder to keep the project in my head the
| more I rely on autocomplete, linters or other IDE features.
| These bring my process of reprogramming out of my head and into
| a more constant conversation with the editor. Autocomplete
| disincentivizes me from remembering the interface of my
| dependencies. On personal projects it's much easier, since I
| have usually written all the code myself, and I have been using
| basic vim with no plugins at home.
| realinfktop wrote:
| >I want to be able to do work while walking on the bike trail
| or sitting in a lounge chair by the pool
|
| I think this is only a bandaid to the problem that we're still
| spending so awfully much time at work, despite massive
| improvements in worker productivity. I _don't_ want to be
| working on the bike trail or while lounging or by the pool, I
| want be in places that are not work
| harrison_clarke wrote:
| i've been doing some hobby programming on a steam deck for the
| last ~week. (since i got the steam deck). it's got a variant of
| arch linux pre-installed and it's x86_64, so a lot of those steps
| are covered
|
| might have to try it with AR glasses. but, the screen is bright
| enough that it's usable outdoors anyway
|
| i've been using copilot with voice input, with a bit of on-screen
| keyboard usage when it's not cooperating. i'm mostly giving it
| fairly simple edit instructions ("write a for loop at line 50"),
| rather than full on vibe coding, and it's working much better
| than i expected
|
| i'm not using emacs/vim, because the steam keyboard doesn't have
| a ctrl key, and i have to use a less ergonomic kde on-screen
| keyboard to push it (and i'm a heathen that prefers vscode
| anyway)
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| Stuff like this is a glimpse into the future that we were robbed
| of by the current big tech status quo.
|
| They're running a 3rd party OS on their phone using a 3rd party
| external keyboard and 3rd party display. Interoperability!
| Imagine that! Running whatever software you want with whatever
| accessories you want on hardware that you own! Tech should have
| made it easier to accomplish this!
| kylecazar wrote:
| There's a 5th option for Linux on Android now (currently Pixel
| users only, presumably rolling out to everyone eventually). You
| can get a fully virtualized Debian (AVF) environment by enabling
| a switch in settings.
| hoppp wrote:
| Ive been thinking about this too. Got the glasses and was
| thinking about small wireless split keyboards like the corne-ish
| zen
|
| My issue is the phone. I will need at least 24Gb of ram for my
| work.
| ctenb wrote:
| Perhaps it's an option to use an SSH session into your
| workstation or some other remote client technology?
| sampo wrote:
| > 4. The phone has a cellular connection, so I'm not tied to
| wifi.
|
| Do American phone companies block sharing wifi from your phone,
| or why would someone with a phone feel they are tied to a wifi
| when needing to use a laptop?
| blackhaj7 wrote:
| I would love an article on how to setup the phone @mikenew
|
| I am a complete novice with this but very interested in
| replicating the setup as I feel the urge to be freer while coding
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-05-18 23:01 UTC)