Why I'm Returning Google Glass • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I'm Returning Google Glass

#31

Post by alanctgardner2 » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 4:42 PM UTC

lnanek2 wrote: post #24

srik wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The TOS probitis reselling, loaning or transferring.

Google reps have stated you are allowed to "gift" it to someone else when you pick it up, though. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would privately gift you some money back.

It would be amazing if someone could confirm this; even if Google offered me an official pair I couldn't afford the flight and hotel (going back to school in the fall!). I'd love to write some apps for Glass, and it seems like a surprising number of Explorers don't want theirs anyways.

Re: Why I'm Returning Google Glass

#32

Post by jjindev » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 4:46 PM UTC

lnanek2 wrote: post #26

jjindev wrote: post #6

One wonders if the tablet (or small tablet) isn't really just the last good form. We've spent decades building towards it. Time to stop and enjoy. (That and make tablets cheap enough to be ubiquitous)

I've never found a use for a tablet myself. My phone is fine for Kindle reading and anything else I'd use a tablet for. Past that I use my Macbook Pro Retina which is barely heavier than a tablet anyway and has a nice keyboard. Glass/watches are handy because they don't have to be taken out like a phone/tablet/laptop.

I'm counting my phone (4.25" diag) as a small tablet. I don't have a bigger one myself, but I see them, especially at parties, in the hands of children. Their ubiquity is growing.

I can see room for more devices, fitness bands, etc., but as sensors rather than media. I'm just not seeing them beat the form of the book, magazine, tablet.

I mean wrist-watches kind of overloaded their interface after time, date, and dive depth. It was technically possible to put a microfilm reader in a wrist watch, but a paper copy of National Geographic was just so much nicer.

I'd be willing to try a heads-up travel guide, but a cheap and light one in my pocket might be all I need.

Re: Why I'm Returning Google Glass

#33

Post by acuozzo » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 4:48 PM UTC

uptown wrote: post #19

jjindev wrote: post #6

One wonders if the tablet (or small tablet) isn't really just the last good form. We've spent decades building towards it. Time to stop and enjoy. (That and make tablets cheap enough to be ubiquitous)

Tablets may be a dominant form for quite a while, but how can you possibly think tablets are all there will ever be?

The UI in the NCC-1701-D is basically thousands upon thousands of mounted iPads with a really, really advanced version Siri installed.

I'd be OK with that kind of future.

Re: Why I'm Returning Google Glass

#34

Post by jjindev » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 4:49 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #22

jjindev wrote: post #6

One wonders if the tablet (or small tablet) isn't really just the last good form. We've spent decades building towards it. Time to stop and enjoy. (That and make tablets cheap enough to be ubiquitous)

Not even slightly. I don't think there is one last good form. The future is a variety of devices. Despite the rise of tablets, I still code using a desktop machine with multiple monitors, and I wouldn't ever trade it for a tablet.

I'm looking at the progression of form. The paperback book did not kill the newspaper, but it was kind of the bottom end. "Tiny books" are a novelty.

So yeah, development is serious work like stocks trading and you want a big interface like the Wall Street Journal.

Re: Why I'm Returning Google Glass

#35

Post by ChikkaChiChi » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 4:50 PM UTC

If you are returning Google Glass, you weren't meant to have it in the first place.

Bleeding edge isn't for everyone for a reason. This is the birth of a new form factor that has potential, not complete market realization.

Re: Why I'm Returning Google Glass

#36

Post by tehwalrus » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 4:51 PM UTC

jjindev wrote: post #6

One wonders if the tablet (or small tablet) isn't really just the last good form. We've spent decades building towards it. Time to stop and enjoy. (That and make tablets cheap enough to be ubiquitous)

when I can write the software for the tablet on it, and get one with a beefy processor (which only fires up to max when on AC power), I might think about it. Right now, I need an ultrabook to do that.

(and no, I'm not interested in the MS Surface Pro, Windows 8 is terrifyingly poor by all accounts.)

Re: Why I'm Returning Google Glass

#37

Post by jjindev » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 4:53 PM UTC

jjindev wrote: post #32

lnanek2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never found a use for a tablet myself. My phone is fine for Kindle reading and anything else I'd use a tablet for. Past that I use my Macbook Pro Retina which is barely heavier than a tablet anyway and has a nice keyboard. Glass/watches are handy because they don't have to be taken out like a phone/tablet/laptop.

I'm counting my phone (4.25" diag) as a small tablet. I don't have a bigger one myself, but I see them, especially at parties, in the hands of children. Their ubiquity is growing. I can see room for more devices, fitness bands, etc., but as sensors rather than media. I'm just not seeing them beat the form of the book, magazine, tablet. I mean wrist-watches kind of overloaded their interface after time, date, and dive…

OK, maybe running with a HUD would be fun, current pace, previous pace on course ....

Re: Why I'm Returning Google Glass

#38

Post by ChuckMcM » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 4:53 PM UTC

mikeevans wrote: post #8

Navarr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm trying to understand why or how he got it. Was he an #ifihadglass winner? Was he just a lucky individual at Google IO that decided to plop down the cash for what was definitely a developer-device? I can understand that he doesn't think it's worth the price - because for a normal consumer it isn't. But I don't understand why he would have gotten it in the first place when it was so clearly limited in scope.

Looks like he was an #ifihadglass winner: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=1047&...

And it was a "whim" and his idea was to write a journal (which presumably gets page views) and so he gets one, and now he's publicly returning it, and getting lots of page views and his money back. All in all, the cynic in me thinks things are going as planned. He is effectively out no money, and yet he's picked up a bunch of traffic. Internet win.

Re: Why I'm Returning Google Glass

#39

Post by l1ghtm4n » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 4:54 PM UTC

I can't help but have a little CueCat-ish response to Glass. I don't wear glasses and don't care to. So Glass saves me from having to take my smart device out of my pocket by having something on my face all day?

NB: I've seen plenty of these around but haven't actually played with one.

Re: Why I'm Returning Google Glass

#40

Post by ChikkaChiChi » Thu, Jul 18, 2013, 4:56 PM UTC

brandynwhite wrote: post #25

I've been wearing glass for a while now and am active in development (see http://openglass.us ), there are a few select groups of people I'd recommend it to at this point: developers (it's a fun/simple/exciting platform to write for), researchers (just like with the kinect, it makes it much easier to reproduce experiments), people who are constantly running around town while being in contact with others (business/sal…

Your point about notifications is an issue that's been on my mind. Notification convergence and awareness of your current context is something that I've been trying to figure out for some time.

We have all these things and yet none of them seem to be able to each other (and/or without serious battery consumption) where I am, what I am doing, and how best to let me know a thing has happened.