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With No Guidance From Google, Makers Creating Own Glass Accessories
Nerval's Lobster writes "Google remains tight-lipped about its roadmap for Google Glass, and its population of early-adopter 'Explorers' remains small. Nonetheless, a growing collection of engineers, designers, and artists are creating their own accessories and add-ons for Glass — some of them useful, others totally whimsical. For example, there's Brooklyn designer Todd Blatt, who's relying on a 3D printer to churn out Glass accessories such as tiny flower-pots and pencil holders (not so useful) as well as a plastic camera cover (useful, at least for anyone in the vicinity who likes their privacy). Small firms such as GPOP and Remotte are likewise exploring how to best skin, dangle, screw, and attach hardware to Glass that makes it operate in whole new ways. (The avenues for exploration have opened up with the second generation of Google Glass, which includes a small screw in the right arm that can double as a mounting point for new tech.) Google seems to have no choice but to let this growing ecosystem thrive, even if some of the modifications (such as camera covers) don't necessarily suit its interests. But will the company actually say something about it?"
They're crowdsourcing the R&D of accessories. Why pay for it when you have hundreds of devoted followers who will do it for you?
...they'll probably make it as far as iPhone accessory makers have. The most successful will have strictly protective or ergonomic function. Any hardware that attempts to interface with the device itself will be: 1. For a tiny niche market (scientific equipment, RC transmitter, etc...) 2. Rapidly adopted and replaced by branded version (game controllers) 3. Fought by firmware updates till it's useless (ethernet adapter, iPhone interface cable (that would be interesting), etc...)
My question is what does Google, in the current form, expect the glasses to be used for. In the current incarnation, it is the equivalent of wearing mirrors on the top of your shoes. Releasing them without some alternative storyline was a mistake.
Now, when these become available I can see buying a pair and putting prescription lenses in them. OTOH, it does show that Google does not really know what to do with a new product. Everything else it has done in the consumer space has been a refinement or copy. Search using graph theory, phones that were open and now less so, a languishing Office app. What it does with Glasses will determine the future. It could be really good, if they release as a tool instead of a toy.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Though I can empathize with the spirit of your post, the technological landscape is still driven by supply and demand now just as it was back then. It's just now there are more people than ever beginning to realize what is possible with technology, so the demand ebbs and flows in a more diverse manner than when only a select few of intellectuals understood what could be done.
You should be thankful; though the signal-to-noise ratio is fairly low in terms of groundbreaking devices vs. hipster trash, the magnitude of the signal itself is still larger than in any previous decade previously and you can still get more amazing hardware+software that is practical and outstanding.
If you watch a lot of television and consume any amount of mainstream tripe, then I could see one's opinion being jaundiced. You have to see the forest through the trees man!
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
Why should a person who's minding their own business actually care if they happen to incidentally be in a video that somebody recorded near them? I don't see people jumping out of the way to avoid or threatening to assault people holding up cell phones when they are actively taking photographs or video in public. People just go on doing what they do.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I long for the days when technology was driven by real needs, and not just by pointless hipster desires. Earlier advances brought us some real gains. I remember when the PC first came out. They allowed for a lot of tedious work to be done much more efficiently. They allowed us to do marvelous things that we couldn't do before. That type of practical technology is on its way out these days. Now all we get are hipster-driven shitfests.
Whoever said "youth is wasted on the young" was absolutely right. Those days are still here, kid! If you had been alive in the 1970s you would have said the same thing about Pong and Space Invaders, while Wozniac and others were developing PCs. Some incredibly useful things that have come along in the last two decades: cell phones, digital HD flat screen TVs, feature phones (more useful than cells), CrystaLens eye implants, cochlear ear implants, hand transplants, tablets (believe it or not, these are used in industry), cars that park themselves... hell, kid, what the fuck do you want, a new miracle every damned week?
Off your lawn, my ass...
Free Martian Whores!