Let's Talk Tech
Heads up Display! Face computer!
It’s been a while since a tech accessory really lit me up. That “WOW” feeling that leaves you feeling like tech is about to change. Putting a computer on your face is REALLY hard, so it’s not only refreshing, but exciting how good the Focals are. Taking them right out into the field, traveling with them. Getting updates. This is a tantalizing tease of the post-smartphone world… Continue reading “Focals by North Review: Wearing the Future”
I found it curious that we heard nothing about a follow up to Google’s Glass program. It was moved to open BETA last year, so anyone willing to part with $1500 was able to secure a face computer of their very own, but the rumored announcement of a consumer edition never materialized in 2014.
The plot thickens however as this was posted publicly on the Glass Explorer Google Plus page today:
We’re graduating from Google[x] labs
It’s hard to believe that Glass started as little more than a scuba mask attached to a laptop. We kept on it, and when it started to come together, we began the Glass Explorer Program as a kind of “open beta” to hear what people had to say.Explorers, we asked you to be pioneers, and you took what we started and went further than we ever could have dreamed: from the large hadron collider at CERN, to the hospital operating table; the grass of your backyard to the courts of Wimbledon; in fire stations, recording studios, kitchens, mountain tops and more. Continue reading “Breaking: Google to End Glass Explorer Program January 19”
Glass is taking another step towards being a commercial product. Google is now offering the Explorer Edition in the Google Play store.
They’re slowly walking away from the previous invite system, and they’ve flirted with selling Glass at events and kiosks, and recently had a limited time open invitation for new Explorers. Now anyone who wants to jump on board can grab Google’s wearable eye-level computer. They are also selling frames and earbud accessories alongside Glass.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t come with any pricing breaks, and you’ll still drop $1500 to own a Glass of your very own. Still, we can consider this progress, and some small sign that Google still has faith in the project while we wait out a more reasonably priced consumer edition.
On April 15th at 6am PDT Google will open up the Explorer program to anyone interested in owning their own heads up display.
Here’s the deal though, it’s still a BETA product, and it’s still fairly expensive. While it’s currently our best hope for a consumer, wearable, eye-level computing solution, you’ll have to pony up $1500 + Tax to grab one of your own.
I’m very positive on Glass, but it’s fairly apparent that Google hasn’t handled the launch of this project well. The general public is still fairly ignorant as to what Glass can and can not do, resulting in dramatic interpretations of privacy abuses. People have been written tickets for wearing them while driving, restaurants have asked customers to leave for wearing them, and an Explorer was even physically assaulted by a mob of people.
Google should be praised for pushing the envelope, but the Explorer experiment was flawed from the beginning. When it’s an invite only program for geeks, and the cost of entry is north of $1500, you have to expect that a statistically significant number of participants wont be the kind of people that you’d want as ambassadors for something so new. This has resulted in the coining of the term “Glasshole” to represent people who use Glass in a rude fashion. Unfortunately that term is starting to generically describe anyone with Glass, as it only takes one bad apple to taint the whole bushel. Continue reading “Anyone Can Buy Google Glass on April 15th, but Should You?”
They do look better, less sci-fi, more natural.
I think heads up displays are our wearable tech future. After using several fantastic smartwatches, nothing seems to solve the problem of eye-level information like Google Glass. Of course it brings a completely different kind of stigma in that you’re wearing a computer on your face, which really seems to weird people out. A common criticism of Glass is that it looks too geeky, and now it seems Google is taking steps to curb that complaint.
Following their partnership with eye wear designer Warby Parker, Google is piggy-backing on the designer’s Titanium Collection of frames with four new looks for Glass that Google is calling “The Titanium Collection”. Not very original, but Google isn’t known for fashion, so maybe it’s better they leave that job to the pros.
This also marks the beginning of Glass supporting prescription lenses. From the FAQ: “Google is in partnership with VSP Vision Care for VSP members and VSP eye care providers to receive reimbursement on Glass frames up to the frame allowance provided within their current vision benefit. The prescription lenses are also covered under the patients’ lens benefit offering through their VSP coverage.”
See the new frames in this Google promo vid:
This does not change the process by which you go about getting Glass, it’s still a very public BETA, and the Explorer program is still the gateway through which people acquire their own face computer. This is simply another iteration in the design of the heads up display, hopefully making them a bit more socially acceptable for people who are concerned about the design of the original Explorer Edition Glass. Google is pushing into very new territory, and that can make consumers squirrely. Restaurant owners asking Explorers to leave, law enforcement issuing citations for operating motor vehicles with screens visible to the driver, there’s a stigma to this product Google’s going to need to overcome. You know you’re in trouble when The Simpsons dedicates an entire episode to showcasing how socially awkward heads up displays are.
The Explorer program isn’t getting the job done. For as many people who are fantastic ambassadors for this technology, there are just as many Glassholes who taint the product in the minds of people who might be apprehensive about its capabilities and their privacy. Google is still publicly stating “the end of 2014” for the consumer launch of Glass, but they’ve got some significant PR hurdles to clear before then. These new frames at least area step in the right direction.
RELATED: Chris Emerson Interview – Two Months as a Glass Explorer
Full Google FAQ below: Continue reading “Will more attractive frames solve Google’s Glass perception problem?”
Cecilia Abadie has been in the news a lot this week. She was pulled over for speeding in California, and she was issued an additional citation for operating a motor vehicle with a video screen visible to the driver. That screen was the eye piece on her Explorer Edition Google Glass.
Following the letter of the law, this citation is valid, though Google Glass is a product which could help reduce driver distraction.
And now we stand at a legal crossroad. Laws can be handled with some flexibility, and many situations like this can be chalked up to “officer discretion”, but it’s not an institution known for rapid evolution. Changes to cultural perspectives in legal matters sometimes require generational time frames.
When positioned against the visceral pace of technological improvement, it can often feel as if new laws are obsolete before they’re even implemented. Previous generations enjoyed more staged evolution to the tools they used. A person might go most of their adult life without radical changes to how work got done. Now we can expect a near fluid progression, sometimes software and hardware updates delivering near daily minor alterations to how our technology functions.
And now Glass is caught in the crossfire. Continue reading “When Technology Evolves Faster than our Laws – Google Glass and Driving”