Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Google has bought North, a company focused on building augmented reality glasses. The companies announced the news earlier today, saying that North’s “technical expertise” will help Google invest in its “hardware efforts and ambient computing future.”
The details of the deal, including how much Google paid, weren’t revealed. With the acquisition, North says it’ll wind down its Focals smart glasses functionality, meaning wearers who spent up to $1,000 on a first-gen pair last year will soon be unable to use them.
North launched the Focals 1.0 in January 2019, and within a month of launch, it dropped their price nearly in half to $599.99. The glasses feature a tiny laser in the arm that projects images in front of users’ eyes. The Focals…