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My two-week review of Google Glass: it all depends on the price

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Re: My two-week review of Google Glass: it all depends on the price

#91
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it'll be too different from pulling out your phone from a politeness standpoint. This is the point a lot of Glass proponents don't seem to get. They assume that not paying attention to you whilst looking at your face is somehow more polite than looking at your phone. It's not. I suspect that over time Glass will become like Bluetooth earpieces. Perfect for use alone but a faux pas around other people.

A couple of differences. First, vision is much higher bandwidth. You can glance at a notification and immediately know that you have a message, who sent the message, and how you received it. Takes half a second. Bluetooth earpieces are only suitable for sustained conversation. They are social faux pas because you are having a sustained conversation with someone else. This is not the case with HMDs - someone using a t…

I think you are missing the point how looking at a cell-phone is impolite.

It's like this: you tell a friend about this cool new software but he thinks what do eat. Someone else tries to explain something to you but you figure how to solve that software bug.

When I was 16 or so, I stopped wearing a watch. Because so often I just looked at this watch, even when time did not matter so much. But this reflex raises your stress level. When I looked more often at the watch I remember people asking me whether I was in a hurry or something. Maybe I'm a bit extreme about that, but the fact is this: more multimedia, more distraction, more stress. Even more when we are talking about push updates.

Re: My two-week review of Google Glass: it all depends on the price

#92
What review? I read this and other than saying he won't live without it he doesn't say what makes it amazing. The price point discussion is nice but I don't understand why I would want one. I can see for vacation to take videos to share with my family bu I don't get why it's amazing. Am I going to read my Facebook feed on it? What am I going to do with it other than pictures? Give me details!!

Re: My two-week review of Google Glass: it all depends on the price

#93

Are there any Glass users around here? I have a basic question. Can the wearer see a video? I ask because I've seen captured video, still images of ... still images, etc. ;-) Conceptually, video is similar but I want to verify that video playback is in there.

Lots of their promotional stuff showed the wearer in a video hangout, so I assume this is in the existing hardware.

Re: My two-week review of Google Glass: it all depends on the price

#94
Couple of questions for those with Glass:

Do they work with eyes older than 40 - those that can't focus within 18 inches without multi-diopter help? These folks still have money to burn.

How about astigmatism? Makes for interesting curves rotating my progressives. Dptical artifacts on two axes!

Will they be snatched off your face like apple gear has been grabbed at times. High value, small package. Easy to fence if google doesn't have or use a kill switch.

Price will be an issue. My glasses already cost 400-700 usd depending on where I get them. This assumes I can get prescription Glass...

Re: My two-week review of Google Glass: it all depends on the price

#95
I appreciate this review, and I agree with him 100% on the price point. Had I been in the audience I wouldn't raise my hand till $200-300 either ($1500 is almost comically absurd). But at the same time, I'm gonna wait no matter what till it does more. A head mounted camera (which seems to make up the bulk of the advertising use-cases for it) just isn't important to me...at all.

I think the head mounted navigation stuff could be very useful, but I can barely get my Android phone to understand spoken address searches right now, and I don't mind having it shout out directions to me. I'm not sure I need to pay a few hundred bucks to get the directions up on my face.

The one thing that I hope somebody creates an app for is a quick barcode/item scanner and price lookup app. Just tell me what the best price is for an item I'm looking at and where I can get it. I've tried a few phone apps for this, but the experience is atrocious.

But is it worth $200-300 for those limited use cases? I dunno. I really am going to wait and see.

Re: My two-week review of Google Glass: it all depends on the price

#96

I'm actually pretty curious how this will fit for people who already wear glasses or some kind of eyewear. Will there be prescription Google Glass(es)? That could shoot the price way up, especially if Google is the only merchant for them. Who will make the lenses for me? Could I get my favorite glasses merchant to make my glasses, or will I be forced to get a $700 special prescription pair from Google? Maybe people w…

Google is already in talks with Warby Parker (the Zappos of glasses) to design more stylish frames. I'm sure they have a plan for affordable prescriptions, and Warby's frames/lenses come to less than $100 already. Actually, if I could get Google (prescription) Glass for But there's no way in hell I'm going to use this if I always need a cell phone (I rarely have one), and I'm not paying any of the major cell companies for a Glass plan because they all rip you off. If they teamed up with Metro/Boost/Cricket type companies or went the original Kindle path of free data, I'd be happy.

Re: My two-week review of Google Glass: it all depends on the price

#98
post #95

I appreciate this review, and I agree with him 100% on the price point. Had I been in the audience I wouldn't raise my hand till $200-300 either ($1500 is almost comically absurd). But at the same time, I'm gonna wait no matter what till it does more. A head mounted camera (which seems to make up the bulk of the advertising use-cases for it) just isn't important to me...at all. I think the head mounted navigation stu…

IMO, at that price point, the real question is "is it worth it to wear them and look like one of those guys that walks around with a Bluetooth earpiece in at all times"?

Re: My two-week review of Google Glass: it all depends on the price

#99
post #16

Hrm. I find that wearing things that aren't strictly necessary irritates me. I don't even like watches, let alone some thing attached to my face. When I raced bikes, I ended up dumping the annoying heart rate monitor too as I did not like having this thing strapped to me. Phones work pretty well as they're just along for the ride, like a wallet or keys, and don't constrain me.

I wear glasses and despise contacts. I guess I could get laser surgery, but I'm used enough to glasses that I would never bother with the cost or risk. I don't see how this is very different from wearing glasses.

But when you wear glasses you get to choose the design and look that fits your personality. It's also a fashion accessory.

I love my glasses, but part of the reason I love them is because I have not (yet) met a single person with the same glasses as mine, and I've had them for 3 years now.

I wouldn't feel so happy wearing something every other person wears.

Re: My two-week review of Google Glass: it all depends on the price

#100
post #89
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in London so that's basically happening already.

Are those recordings currently posted on Facebook or Youtube, with you tagged in them? Do those cameras follow you inside every pub? If so I am quite sorry for you. This isn't fighting governments, this is creating the panopticon. All the public footage will be used by governments and I think you'll find that it will be much more invasive and even malicious than what governments are currently doing. Governments are m…

There's the gov't side to it and also after several more levels of gadgets that each give us a "new normal", we'll probably end up like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKrYHLE8mDc
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