Is there a better predictor that year X won't be the year of Y, besides tech sites in December of X-1 saying "X will be the year of Y"?
Nice. lingual algebra is the new snowclone
Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'
41–50 of 58 posts
Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'
#42Ugh, I really hope not. I can't see any reason people wouldn't use this, though, since it's a lot less likely for someone to care about other people's privacy or convenience than their own. I can certainly see myself asking people to take them off if they want to talk to me (unless they're the same people that currently browse/text/play on their cell phones during conversations, as that's a conversation you might as…
> unless they're the same people that currently browse/text/play on their cell phones during conversations, as that's a conversation you might as well not have anyway
How about people that have a laptop in front of them as they talk to you? Like interviewers, or stenographers?
Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'
#43Year of smart glasses? It's a half assed product, introduced years before it's any good for use, and it's main real utility is that of a smaller Go Pro-style live action camera. Plus, it didn't even make any dent in the market. It's not like Google search in 1996 or the iPhone in 2007, products that immediately changed whole markets. So, no, 2014 would not be the year of "smart glasses". With the display technology u…
Just for the sake of argument -- We tell software startups to get their MVP out as fast as possible in order gain feedback and improve the product... yet we smack down hardware vendors who have done exactly that?
Hardware != software - releasing half assed hardware early is completely different that releasing a half assed web app that can be updated almost constantly. But I think Google is mostly not getting smacked down for releasing Google Glass too soon - the opinion that Glass is ready for prime time is getting smacked down. IMO Glass is obviously not ready for prime time and won't be for a few years at least, but this is all just moot anyway, the article is obvious clickbait. People love a good "Next year is the year of the whatever".
Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'
#44I consider that I live day to day in a very average technical social scene. I don't know a single person that wants to have to wear smart glasses, myself included. There isn't a scenario under which a company can convince me to frequently wear glasses. You couldn't pay me to do it, I hate the physical annoyance. I have an alternative prediction: while the tech people predicting smart glasses or smart watches are the…
Do you need iPhone, if iWatch has the same, or bigger display? (curved sapphire glass). Smartphone solves problem of having a computing device all the time with you, but in order to get that you have to pay with screen size. Smartglasses solves the same problem as smartphone, but without tradeoffs. They can display touch, augmented, or desktop, or tv interfaces. You don't need a tablet, phone, laptop, desktop, tv. You need boxes with small(pocket), medium(backpack), and large(desk) computing power, and glasses that can receive video over the air. (and some input method). If glasses are only for display, they don't need large battery.
Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'
#45Ugh, I really hope not. I can't see any reason people wouldn't use this, though, since it's a lot less likely for someone to care about other people's privacy or convenience than their own. I can certainly see myself asking people to take them off if they want to talk to me (unless they're the same people that currently browse/text/play on their cell phones during conversations, as that's a conversation you might as…
I really don't like this mindset because, ultimately, it's a losing one. Technology marches on. It's already possible for people to wear undetectably-small cameras and computers on their bodies, and we're heading toward a world in which these types of devices will not only be feasible, but both affordable and useful. In other words: mainstream. Given the reality of the situation, it's short-sighted to poke fun at "Gl…
I really don't like this mindset because, ultimately, it's a losing one. Technology marches on.
Of course, but just because we can do something, it does not mean that we should.
I could commit numerous offences in the next half hour, causing substantial harm to many of my neighbours, whether that be damage to their property, injury to their person, harm to their reputation, subjecting them to something that distresses them, or otherwise.
I don't do those things, because I'm not a jerk and I have no interest in upsetting my neighbours. Hopefully most of my fellow human beings would take the same view. Maybe a few people don't do those things, even though they'd like to, because they know it would be illegal and they don't want to accept the punishment they would expect.
Those who really do bad things anyway, we can only try to catch and punish. You can't realistically stop someone from committing most types of crime if they truly don't care about the consequences, and I doubt any of us would enjoy living in a world that did try to physically prevent crime from ever happening.
New technologies will create new potential benefits and potential abuses, but technology is always ethically neutral. What matters is how we use it, and respecting the reasonable wishes of others is the cornerstone of good manners and always has been.
Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
But your assertion seems to be that new technologies should be above criticism by virtue of the inevitable march of technology itself, part of which is driven by consumerism and hype, and not any process which necessarily judges technology on its own merit. It hasn't yet been proven that smart glasses are going to be as transformative as gunpowder, or as revolutionary as the internet, or what have you. Maybe they wil…
Yes, Glass may fail, but it seems obvious to me that the perpetual shrinking of technology is an unstoppable trend that was set in motion decades ago. It turns out that computers, and phones, and recording devices, and the internet are all really useful technologies, and people like having access to them wherever they go with as little hassle as possible. As time approaches infinity, the likelihood of our brains beco…
Trying to stop it is impossible, and merely complaining about it gets us nowhere.
On the contrary. I fully expect that in many places, overtly creepy technology like Google Glass will shift a long-overdue privacy debate that seems to be gathering momentum. If technology like Google Glass becomes socially unacceptable and illegal, it will not become pervasive in the manner you described.
Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'
#47Ugh, I really hope not. I can't see any reason people wouldn't use this, though, since it's a lot less likely for someone to care about other people's privacy or convenience than their own. I can certainly see myself asking people to take them off if they want to talk to me (unless they're the same people that currently browse/text/play on their cell phones during conversations, as that's a conversation you might as…
> I can certainly see myself asking people to take them off if they want to talk to me I bet that ten years ago, you would ask people to turn their phones off before agreeing to talk with them.
I don't use Facebook, and my friends and family know that and understand that I would prefer not to have them share information about me with Facebook either. As far as I'm aware, everyone I know respects this, and it has caused 0 awkward social moments.
So you'd better believe I would ask someone to turn off recording devices if they're not being used for a sensible reason. I'd be polite about it, of course, the first time. After that, well, anyone who would need asking twice isn't likely to be someone whose opinion of me I care about very much anyway. And I'm willing to bet that any resulting footage of me educating the offending party about privacy and manners right to their Google Glassed face is not going to cause anyone I care about to think less of me either.
Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interestingly, a friend of mine who is a professional videographer and who tried Google Glass told me he could think of a few uses for it in his field, but he couldn't come up with any reason why he would use one as a general purpose device.
I predict a moderately successful app that scrolls random 6502 assembly code in your field of vision as you scan your surroundings.
I predict one which automatically makes everyone look naked.
Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'
#49Year of smart glasses? It's a half assed product, introduced years before it's any good for use, and it's main real utility is that of a smaller Go Pro-style live action camera. Plus, it didn't even make any dent in the market. It's not like Google search in 1996 or the iPhone in 2007, products that immediately changed whole markets. So, no, 2014 would not be the year of "smart glasses". With the display technology u…
Just for the sake of argument -- We tell software startups to get their MVP out as fast as possible in order gain feedback and improve the product... yet we smack down hardware vendors who have done exactly that?
>Just for the sake of argument -- We tell software startups to get their MVP out as fast as possible in order gain feedback and improve the product... yet we smack down hardware vendors who have done exactly that?
Well, something half baked is not always an MVP. Sometimes it's just half baked and should not have been presented in the first place.
Not to mention, software startups products don't cost hundrends of dollars to buy and test. In fact, usually they are free. So, pushing a half-arsed hardware to buyers? Not so wise.
The original iPod was a MVP launch ("no wireless, less space than a nomad, etc"). It took it several years to get large disks, video, wi-fi sync, etc.
Google Glasses? An ill-thought, hastily implemented product, merely combining non-optimally a few pieces of stuff you already have (voice recognition, eye displays, small video cameras etc) as "innovation theatre".
Re: Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really don't like this mindset because, ultimately, it's a losing one. Technology marches on. It's already possible for people to wear undetectably-small cameras and computers on their bodies, and we're heading toward a world in which these types of devices will not only be feasible, but both affordable and useful. In other words: mainstream. Given the reality of the situation, it's short-sighted to poke fun at "Gl…
I really don't like this mindset because, ultimately, it's a losing one. Technology marches on. Of course, but just because we can do something, it does not mean that we should . I could commit numerous offences in the next half hour, causing substantial harm to many of my neighbours, whether that be damage to their property, injury to their person, harm to their reputation, subjecting them to something that distress…
I agree with everything you said. What it comes down to, however, is your last sentence. Who decides what is and what isn't "respecting the reasonable wishes of others"? Who decides what constitutes "good manners"?
What's reasonable in one decade may be unreasonable the next. The bad manners of the last generation are common place acts today. That's the nature of change. And it doesn't happen by itself: it happens because there are people actively pushing against the boundaries set by the status quo.
Of course not everyone will agree with this. For every boundary-pusher, I'd expect there to be at least 10 or 20 people who have to be dragged along kicking and screaming about how in their day, it was considered rude to [wage war with guns|fornicate|use phones in public|wear a recording device].
At what point do we dismiss these people as mere curmudgeons, holding onto the past for the sake of the past, and at what point do we take them seriously and put on the brakes? I'm sure a thoroughly enlightened answer would have many complexities... but I'd say it's generally safe to let society itself decide. Just because the boundaries are being pushed doesn't mean society has to follow. If tiny wearable computers and recording devices aren't useful enough to be worth the affronts to privacy and intimacy (and fashion, in the case of Glass), then none of this stuff will last.
The thing is, the answer to how all of this will end is blindingly obvious. Assuming technology continues to improve, then CLEARLY people will find it useful to turn themselves into walking computers/phones/cameras. Yes, society as we know it will change as a result, but it's been doing that since the dawn of time.