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Google Glass is Still Around (nymag.com)
Google may have discontinued the sale of Google Glass years ago, but die hard fans have not given up. From a report: Glassholes still exist, just not as boogeymen haunting the tech section of your newspaper. There's a small group of fans still talking and updating and buying and selling on Reddit. Somebody who picked up a pair for $150 and wants help using the device to display sheet music; somebody with questions about installing an older operating system onto Glass Enterprise; another person looking for foldable frames; somebody else trying to fix a broken device; people looking to buy, as well as a number of people asking if it's even worth it to spend any money on the now-defunct tech. (Spoiler: survey says it's not.) There is also, weirdly, somebody asking if Google nixed Google Glass "because 'someone' was made aware of the book 'The Circle' by Dave Eggers?"
Reading through the forum, it seems wrong to regard the dwindling frequenters of /r/googleglass as Glassholes. On the contrary, they seem to bust out their devices at incredibly appropriate moments. "I pretty much only use Glass for taking pictures/video while running/hiking or anywhere I don't have access to a phone or don't want to carry one," writes one Redditor. "It's a great way to capture highlights of a marathon, for instance, without having to stop and pull out a phone." "Text notifications. Phone calls whilst driving, pix and video while on the go," writes another.
Reading through the forum, it seems wrong to regard the dwindling frequenters of /r/googleglass as Glassholes. On the contrary, they seem to bust out their devices at incredibly appropriate moments. "I pretty much only use Glass for taking pictures/video while running/hiking or anywhere I don't have access to a phone or don't want to carry one," writes one Redditor. "It's a great way to capture highlights of a marathon, for instance, without having to stop and pull out a phone." "Text notifications. Phone calls whilst driving, pix and video while on the go," writes another.
The walk-in services part of one of my local hospitals has some doctors use Google Glass. It is great for several reasons. The doctor can focus on care while an associate that has eyes on a computer screen can do 2 things to help the whole process: deal with documentation and provide research into records info as needed. It is really a good fit for healthcare in this way. They see 100's of patients a day at the walk-in services location, this saves time for the doctor, they don't have to write up very much and they just review what was written to refine/correct/accept the docs and move onto the next patient. I hope Google Glass, or very similar, stays around for this simple reason.
I am a photographer. I'm often surprised at how camera shy people are, considering that they are being photographed and under video surveillance nearly constantly when in public. Nevertheless, I still ask permission most of the time when taking candid shots of people and I can tell you that they fully expect you to do so or they will get pissed very fast. There are good reasons people act like this, though. So, I imagine the same is true about "Glass" since it's a real live person there videotaping you.
The actual concept behind Google Glasses wasn't a bad idea par say. There are a lot of people who want overlay smart video technology. For something such as Car Navigation where it virtually pops up an arrow or indicator in your vision for where to go is a lot better for example than having people look at their GPS and then crash into things or people! Unfortunately both the ability to miniaturize this technology and battery isn't quite there yet so it was more of a test concept than a real device.
Honestly, sheet music is a pretty genius use for something like glass. That would be way better than paper music or tablets or whatever, especially for instruments you have to hold with your hands and use a stand for.
But I'd love this even for the piano.
Glass should never have been a consumer product. Hindsight 20/20, that was foolish of Google.
That said, Glass DOES have LOTS AND LOTS of obvious business related uses. Any professional, technician, or worker that uses their hands could have made a lot of use of this product. It's a tragedy it was killed. It should have just been rebranded and re-marketed to professional customers.
I have never seen these things. But Ashland, KY is far from anywhere.
Corporatism != Free Market
Remember the story of a guy with GG who went into a bar (in Seattle I think) wearing them and got punched out, glasses broken. Why?
Theory: People HATE being recorded all the time, and REALLY hate being recorded in the bar. Maybe they're meeting someone they shouldn't be seeing. Maybe they are making a deal with someone. Whatever. Bars had always been the last bastion of private socialization.
Yeah cell phones can do it but video recording is obvious when they are doing it so you can defend yourself by shutting up and getting out of the camera eye. Some people use their cells to record audio but that's considered dirty. Prepare to be hated if you get caught.
The difference with GG is it made surveillance easy and obvious and personal. It became a focal point for society's brewing anger around being watched all the time. Knowledge is power, data-gathering is bullying.
If the future is omnipresent surveillance (I can see a simple AI app in 20 years basically being the panopticon held in the basement of those billion dollar spy agency buildings today) then the only real solution is to let everybody have it so we can track government as they track us.
Sad but better than the alternative.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
it seems wrong to regard the dwindling frequenters of /r/googleglass as Glassholes.
Based on what I see here on Slashdot the term Glasshole was used to describe generic use of google glass. A generalised statement along with a counter-intellectual assumption.
I originally thought it was something that Slashholes here came up with but apparently making broad negative generalisations about people is something that is done elsewhere too.
It's better for the person to use the phone in their lap or the center console of the car?
Heads up displays are better than heads-down, all else being equal.
I rather liked the solution to the spam problem. :)
If you liked the book, you might also like "The adolescence of P-1"