Weâve been waxing lyrical (and critical) about Appleâs Vision Pro here at TechCrunch this week â but, of course, there are other things happening in the world of wearable tech, as well. Sol Reader raised a $5 million seed round with a headset that doesnât promise to do more. In fact, it is trying to do just the opposite: Focus your attention on just the book at hand. Or book on the face, as it were.
âIâm excited to see Appleâs demonstration of the future of general AR/VR for the masses. However, even if itâs eventually affordable and in a much smaller form factor, weâre still left with the haunting question: Do I really need more time with my smart devices,â said Ben Chelf, CEO at Sol. âAt Sol, weâre less concerned with spatial computing or augmented and virtual realities and more interested in how our personal devices can encourage us to spend our time wisely. We are building the Sol Reader specifically for a single important use case â reading. And while Big Tech surely will improve specs and reduce cost over time, we can now provide a time-well-spent option at 10% of the cost of Appleâs Vision.â
The device is simple: It slips over your eyes like a pair of glasses and blocks all distractions while reading. Even as Iâm typing that, Iâm sensing some sadness: I have wanted this product to exist for many years â I was basically raised by books, and lost my ability to focus on reading over the past few years. Something broke in me during the pandemic â I was checking my phone every 10 seconds to see what Trump had done now and how close we were to a COVID-19-powered abyss. Suffice it to say, my mental health wasnât at its finest â and I canât praise the idea of Sol Reader enough. The idea of being able to set a timer and put a book on my face is extremely attractive to me.