It is how comfortable they are to wear that makes wearable gadgets truly live or die. I can't recommend a fitness tracker that causes me to itch or drags my head down. HTCs Vive Flow VR headset is extremely lightweight and the company wanted to show how it could fit in your daily life. They asked for photos of people wearing it in their living rooms.
They don't seem to care that much because they aren't wearing it. It is photoshopped. It was not a headset, nor a phone that was used to photograph the woman in the above photo. Check out istockphoto.com for the original.
Protocols Janko Rodgers noted yesterday that the majority of HTCs leaked HTC Vive Flow lifestyle photos appear to have been taken from istockphoto.com. HTC is now prominently using those final versions on its public-facing site. These are just a few more (with image sliders that you can drag):
It could have been worse. It could have been worse.
They could also have used a Panasonic to photoshop a white man's head onto a body of a black man, and then sold their wearable speaker.
It's the second time in two weeks that we have seen a wearable device digitally attached to someone's body. This is misleading and my gut instinct is to wonder what these companies are trying to hide. Adi Robertson, a colleague, said that the headset kept sliding down her face during demos. She also tried another face gasket which worked better.
This is unacceptable, especially for wearables. This must stop.
