“Do these AI glasses do anything special for seniors?” I asked a clerk in a Meta store. “No,” he said. But an 86-year-old reader named Sheila set the record straight. She says her Meta Ray-Ban Gen 2 glasses help her cope with macular degeneration.

Sheila, a retired teacher, isn’t blind, but has difficulty seeing clearly. She got interested in Ray-Bans because of a friend who has a blind son. He said they helped more than anything else he tried. 

After purchasing the AI glasses, her first step was to ask them to call out the temperature on her thermostat. Next she asked the glasses to guide her through the settings on her washing machine, dryer, microwave and toaster oven. When her water bill arrived, she said: “Hey Meta, read it.” But she never says “thank you” because she doesn’t want a relationship with a robot.

Her Ray-Bans are also useful at Walmart. When she’s trying to find magnesium glycinate, for example, her smart glasses tell her whether the item is on an upper or lower shelf and which way to turn. She also asks them to call out the ingredients on packages. Outdoors, she likes to take a picture of her surroundings and ask for music to go with it. Her nephew calls her an “elder-escent:” an elder with the passion of an adolescent. 

You can order smart Ray-Bans from Target online, starting with the older version for $299. But Meta.com has many more options, as well as information.  

AI Glasses for the Hearing Impaired

Going beyond Meta Ray-Bans Gen 2 are the “Meta Ray-Ban Display,” for $799. Besides video and everything else that the other Ray-Bans offer, they help the hearing impaired.

The Display glasses offer live captions in the upper part of the right lens whenever you’re in a live, face-to-face conversation. Unfortunately, however, they’ll disappear when the speaker turns away. They’re also big and bulky, though they look great on the models. Check out the CNET article “I Wore Meta’s New Ray-Ban Display Glasses, I feel Augmented” to see how they look on an ordinary person. Unfortunately, their video resolution and battery life aren’t as good as the less expensive kind. And if you need bifocals or progressives, your prescription must be in the plus four to minus four range for whatever version you choose. They come as sunglasses, transition lenses or clear.

Updates for iPad and iPhone

When I went to a friend’s house to offer tech support, I noticed that 51 of her iPad apps needed updating. No wonder her banking app no longer worked.

To check for updates, tap the iPhone or iPad App store icon, then tap your profile icon. Now scroll down until you see “Update All,” and tap it.

Current users have been especially slow in updating their iPhone operating systems to version iOS 26, though version 26.2 is already out. Perhaps that’s because they’ve heard bad things about the new “Liquid Glass” feature, which can make text and icons harder to read. Liquid Glass also reduces battery life on older iPhones and iPads. To disable it, go to Settings and type “Liquid Glass” in the search box. Change “clear” to “tinted.”  I did.

Taming Edge

For a few days, every web search I did in Microsoft Edge turned into a “Search with Copilot” session. It was intensely annoying. Instead of going directly to a site, a big page would open up saying, “Hey Joy, what’s on your mind?” To get rid of this intrusion permanently, I clicked the three dots in the upper right of my computer screen, chose “Settings,” and typed “Copilot” in the search box. Then I turned off any setting that included the word “Copilot.” 

This means I don’t have Copilot’s “Vision,” which can examine any website I’m looking at and answer questions about it in a sidebar. But I really don’t need that. At any AI site, if you just paste in a website address, the AI bot can answer questions about whatever is on that page, whether it’s a travel site, a news article or whatever.

EV Considerations

According to a survey by Turo, a rental car company, 51 percent of Americans use short-term rentals to test a new car.

Renting a car first can help you test things such as calling from the road via Bluetooth. You may also want to try turning on the heater or air conditioning, changing the radio station, turning on the wipers and so on. I’ll never forget the time I was driving a new VW in a downpour and couldn’t figure out how to turn on the wipers. 

If it’s an electric vehicle, find out if the car accurately predicts how long the battery will last before you get to a fast charger. A Tesla Supercharger can take your vehicle from 10 percent to 80 percent in 20-30 minutes. You may also want to know how easy it is to start the overnight charging cycle at home. For home charging, 240 volts is strongly recommended. 

Internut

“Silicon-carbon is just the start.” Search on that phrase to see a TechRadar article about phones with silicon-carbon batteries that last over a day on a single charge. Solid state batteries are even better, and someday we may have nuclear batteries. Charge them once and come back in 50 years. 

Filed under: AI, environment, health, Internuts, troubleshooting