If you don\u2019t like the idea of someone recording you discreetly, you probably don\u2019t like smart glasses. Video and photo capture are easily some of the most divisive aspects of the form factor, if not the\u00a0<\/em>most divisive. However divisive the recording part is, though, there are<\/em> unifying aspects of smart glasses with cameras\u2014things that fans and critics can hate together. Take subscriptions, for example.<\/p>\n As noted by Wired, L\u2019Atitude 52\u00b0N, a smart glasses company that successfully crowdfunded last year, just launched its Berlin model of AI specs, which is set to go on sale May 26, and they have one tiny little quirk that I haven\u2019t seen yet, or at least not to this extent: the AI features on the smart glasses (a good deal of the stuff that might actually convince you to buy them) will all be paywalled after a year\u2019s trial.<\/p>\n Per Wired, which spoke to L\u2019Atitude 52\u00b0N CEO Gary Chen, there\u2019s no word on how much the $399 smart glasses\u2019 subscription will cost, but if you don\u2019t pay up, Berlin will be limited to \u201cbase features,\u201d which include playing music and capturing media. I guess anyone interested in buying Berlin will have to be okay with a looming, unknown cost down the road.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an interesting choice for a company that positions its smart glasses as being ideal for travel, pitching stuff like an \u201cAI tour guide\u201d that uses computer vision to provide information on your surroundings as a centerpiece of that travel functionality. Outside of a tour guide, the Berlin smart glasses also appear to lean into translation and a voice assistant in the AI department.<\/p>\n On the bright side\u2014call it transparency if you want\u2014at least Chen is being honest about future ambitions to squeeze recurring profits out of anyone who buys the company\u2019s smart glasses. A lot of the time, that\u2019s just an unacknowledged minefield customers unknowingly step onto when buying any gadget with a cloud service.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re okay with potentially having to cough up a monthly sum to get the most out of your smart glasses, the Berlin look like a decent pair, but not quite the best. There\u2019s no screen, but there\u2019s a 12-megapixel camera, which is the same as the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses, though there\u2019s a significant difference in capture resolution. The Berlin have a max recording resolution of 1080p, while the Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses can record in 3K. They do look stylish, or at the very least unique, and if they can compete on open-ear audio, they might be a worthy consideration even with that very annoying subscription caveat.<\/p>\n I\u2019m skeptical that smart glasses are practical enough to justify paying for monthly, but I guess the only way to find out is by adding to everyone\u2019s already Sisyphean monthly subscription budget.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Berlin](\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/04\/berlin-2.jpg\")