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Google Glass is still around and just got its first update in nearly three years
- Warvick 9y agoGG would become so much more popular if it would aim at certain niches first, like security, technicians, doctors and public servants (partially the way Segway did) - it should invest in showcase apps that cater for those niches and build up market from there.
- Pellepelle3 9y agoSupposedly that is how it is used now, by doctors, factory workers, and other niches. And it is thriving from what I hear
- hugs 9y agoA classic argument about which is better, consumer or enterprise. I struggle with this one myself. I naturally gravitate to finding enterprise niches and targeting specific use cases. But that comes at the expense of being perpetually in "accidental stealth mode" because the tech press generally cares only about consumer applications. Google traditionally is better at large scale consumer apps (and getting the PR that goes with it). So it was not a surprise that they didn't target the enterprise first with Glass. They like making flashy large-scale "bets". Which makes sense since they're an ad company and are constantly looking for ways to expand that platform in the biggest way possible.
- majewsky 9y agoTo witness, note the success of HoloLens.
- Eric_WVGG 9y agoLast month a few eviction notices were served in my building. The guy who was delivering them was wearing GG, presumably to legally document that the notices were served.
- beachbum8029 9y agoYou must live in CA.
- Eric_WVGG 9y agoNYC
- digi_owl 9y agoMy understanding is that this was the initial intent, but then Brin got involved and hings went hype crazy from there on...
- snarkyturtle 9y agoNPR just did a story this year that it's being used in the manufacturing industry, so it's still being used, just not for leisure: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/03/18/514299682/google-glass-didnt-disappear-you-can-find-it-on-the-factory-floor http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/03/18/514...
- hammock 9y agoTLDR it can find barcodes and scan them faster than the human eye can. Yeah fascinating.
- Retric 9y ago"I don't have to leave my area to go look at the computer every time I need to look up something," Is a little more than just a bar code scanner. Considering how important some seemingly minor assembly problems have been this is probably a lot more valuable than you might think as it reduces people guessing vs. going to the effort to look something up.
- ergothus 9y agoI'm more interested in the potential for the glasses seeing things and taking action without the user being involved. That could do.... a lot. Good and bad. A worker in a store/warehouse/wherever could effectively do inventory while doing other work...slowly, but constantly, and without disruption. Ad companies could pay you to run software that will track all the brands that you see. If you think anonymizing data isn't enough now, imagine when there are even more potentially identifying variables. That's just off the top of my head.
- majewsky 9y agoIs it just me, or do a surprising amount of dystopias involve ad companies?
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- QittyQat 9y agoNice! I really like Google Glass, the only issue I have with it is the reduced battery life. I wish there were a supported way to replace the battery. Or is there?
- awqrre 9y agoI really like the Google Glass idea too, the only problem I have with it is when other people use it.
- awqrre 9y agoI got the admin karma adjustment treatment
- hghhhggv 9y agoAlternatively, you're an idiot.
- nextlevelwizard 9y agoWhy is that a problem to you?
- awqrre 9y agoif I wanted to have cameras pointing at me from every angle, I probably would have went for an entertainer position...
- nextlevelwizard 9y agoWith prevalence of smart phones and security cameras I think that ship has sailed long time ago. Only argument you could make is "but now the cameras are out all the time and they can just record me!", but reality is that you are not that important. No one is going to film you, because no one cares. It's same reason why we don't take "gang stalking victims" seriously, you are just delusional.
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- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- hkmurakami 9y agoIt's been used in medical fields for quite some time. Technology exists outside of the consumer space but I guess the popular press likes to ignore that.
- superhubbabubba 9y agoMy privacy is not public or google's property!!
- nextlevelwizard 9y agoHow does this relate to anything at all? No one is forcing you to buy or use one and if someone uses one out on the street, then by definition you have no privacy in a public setting. Just because it's stupid doesn't mean it's subject to different rules than rest of people filming in public.
- dawnerd 9y agoI'm kinda sad I never took advantage of their invite to buy one. Would have been a cool piece of Google history to have sitting on a shelf.
- jonnathanson 9y agoIt was going for $1,500 at the time, making it a particularly expensive thing to have bought as a conversation piece. The price was a serious flaw in Google's rollout strategy, perhaps more than anything else. They were trying to do a small alpha/beta, while also marketing the product as "cool" and exclusive at the same time. The product was very very very MVP and alpha-like, but came at a finished-product price tag. I have to imagine that this strategy reaulted in a very small and non-representative test cohort of wealthy tech geeks in the Bay Area. Many of them no doubt purchased Glass as an in-crowd signal, with little serious intention of dogfooding the product or developing for it. Hardware at that pricetag can't just be soft-launched like software. When you charge $1,500 for a device in basically v0.1, you're setting people up for disappointment.
- PeterisP 9y agoIt's reasonable and expected for early stage hardware to be much more expensive than a later mass produced piece; both on the cost side and on the demand side. If you release a v0.1 bleeding edge device, your per-unit costs are huge, and you also target it at people who really need or want it's specific functionality, and thus aren't price sensitive. For any class of such technology the price comes down only when the tech is tested and mass produced. If anything, they should have sold it at $3000 or $5000 to get more feedback from its use as a small alpha/beta in practical niche domains where it's really needed, not as a consumer device used as a fashion item instead of testing its practical application.
- throwaway2016a 9y agoI'll have to dust off my glasses and install this. I never got the hang of it because the screen is about 1/2 cm too high for me so I have to uncomfortably force my eye to look straight up. No matter how I tried to position it on my head I always had that issue... There was also the whole thing about people thinking you're an ass for wearing one. And they are very rare in New Hampshire where I am so they stick out like a sore thumb.
- falcolas 9y agoIf it's too high, try widening the nose pads a bit. That's what usually sets the height of glasses on your face.
- throwaway2016a 9y ago> If it's too high, try widening the nose pads a bit. That's what usually sets the height of glasses on your face. Thank you for the advice. Trust me, I have. Many times and many ways. It helps (a lot) but it is still too high. What does fix it is raising the arms it up so they aren't directly on my ears. But there is no way to keep it in that position.
- falcolas 9y agoOdd. The screen must be a noticeable bit in front of the nosepads then, to use them as a pivot that lowers the screen. Can't wear them further down your nose (re-bending the ear hooks if necessary)? I realize you've probably tried it (sorry!), so feel free to ignore my suggestions, but it's triggered one of those "there must be a solution!" quirks I have.
- WhatIsDukkha 9y agoI'm not sure a lot of people actually got to try google glass. I'm loving (and developing in) VR, and interested in actual AR. Glass was a deadend as soon as I actually put one on. I found it to be pretty much as if you were holding up a smartwatch beside one eye, that you could turn your eye and look at in focus. There is no overlay of the real world. You are either looking at watch beside your eye or the real world. The blurry screen was always kind of off to the side and annoying when wearing it. Just as if holding a wristwatch up to the side of your head would be. If that sounds bad to you, yes that's why it failed.
- Ajedi32 9y agoYeah, I always got annoyed when the media kept referring to Glass as "AR", when in reality it was mostly just a quick way to get notifications and such without pulling your phone out of your pocket. If Glass counts as AR, so does my smartwatch.
- derefr 9y ago"Notifications" is a bit of an under-sell for what a crappy text-screen that's by your eyeball can accomplish, when combined with a camera and microphone and bluetooth-paired to a phone. Glass could (can?) do the Word Lens "translate what I'm looking at" thing better than a phone can—not in visual fidelity, but in fluency of use. It can also just let you read a book on the bus without holding your arm in front of your face. Neither of those are strictly AR, but nor are they things you could accomplish with a pager.
- abritinthebay 9y agoThe reaction when we had one at work was "well this is kinda crap, doesn't do much, and there's no way to wear it without looking like an asshole". It was clever, but it was basically the worst possible experience at everything it did for most people. I don't doubt the utility of it for niche tasks or users but as a general consumer product it was never going to take off
- derefr 9y ago> The blurry screen was always kind of off to the side and annoying when wearing it. That sounds better than the alternative, actually—I can only imagine how distracting it would be if there was text that was clear and crisp floating in my field of vision even when I was trying to look at something else.
- dsl 9y agoIf anyone from the Glass team happens to read this: A very good friend of mine has an uncorrectable problem that basically gives him double vision all the time. I got Glass for him as a gift, and it changed his life. Emails, text messages, directions, all over a single eye so it was clear. Thanks for pushing a much needed update so he can start using them again.
- rullelito 9y agoCan't he just have a patch?
- iDemonix 9y agoI thought Google just released one?
- sand500 9y agoNot sure of you are being cheeky but I think they mean eye patch.
- Bronze_Colossus 9y agoI think he meant a litteral patch over one of the eyes, not a software patch.
- apinnes 9y agoWhoosh
- DaveSapien 9y agoThese two comments are perfect, in every way :)
- iDemonix 9y agoI should have appended an /s
- superhubbabubba 9y agoGlasses for nation. More spying
- thomasfedb 9y agoIf there are any Googlers around here: I'm a medical researcher from Australia and we had really encouraging preliminary results with Glass in operating theatres. We'd love to continue the work but need to be able to buy/acquire about a dozen units. We've tried reaching out to Google via their Glass for Work page, but didn't get a reply. Our pilot study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26992465 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26992465
- ktta 9y agoYou might want to provide an email address or someway of contacting you. Your profile is blank.
- nimchimpsky 9y agothe full contact details are in the research paper linked. But yeah, wouldn't hurt for the guy/gal to add some easy contact details. Sheesh, academics eh.
- ktta 9y agoI didn't find any when I looked. Just his position and the name of the university he was associated with. For someone asking a favor, I would imagine making contacting them easy is understood.
- thomasfedb 9y agoFair point!
- nimchimpsky 9y ago> his position and the name of the university he was associated with Whats wrong with that. Thats all you need.
- supercoder 9y agoSwitch to using Spectacles by Snap, they're cooler.
- drewg123 9y agoI tried GG when I was working for Google at some event where the team came to your building and let interested people try it. I was quite enthusiastic about it before trying it, but actually using it for 5 minutes really turned me off. I think that this might be because I don't normally wear glasses. I found looking slightly askew to focus on the presented info was awkward for me (eg, maybe it was natural to somebody who wears bifocals). I also found the weight a bit unnatural. To me, Android Wear was a much better fit for what I wanted from GG. Eg, notifications, navigations, music controls, email/text without having to pull out (and unlock) my phone. (and I hadn't worn a watch for 15-20 years before getting my first Android Wear device).
- L_Rahman 9y agoThe last two responses in this thread - industry applications (operating theatre) and medical use (double vision) - are the things Google should have focused on all along. A tiny floating screen in the corner of your eye is most useful when: 1. You can't readily access the screens that are in your pocket or desk. 2. You need to look at a screen and the world around you at the same time. The screen may possibly overlay on the world around you.
- digi_owl 9y agoI think that was the plan of the original team all along, but then Brin happened. It was him that orchestrated the whole stunt at IO to unveil it, driving the hype through the roof in the process.
- KirinDave 9y agoYeah, mine suddenly started working again. It got stuck in a weird loop a few months ago. I don't think I have an update but I think they fixed an oauth bug.
- pavement 9y agoThree years later and I still find the idea obnoxious and pandering to the unseen apparatus of encroaching social control.
- taneq 9y agoI don't think it's that much of an issue if each person has a video record of stuff they've seen. I mean, we already have this in a squishy lossy human way. Where I do think it's an issue is when every person's viewpoint is piped back to the Borg mothership.
- pavement 9y agoI think it's suicidally bad for this to become the default norm for human interaction. Among strangers it's a horrible idea, and among loved ones, a thousand times worse. If social interaction has begun to feel rigid and sterile already, this sort of thing represents a deep freeze beyond anything we've ever experienced. Everything points to confession and contrition now. Emotions become bottled and pressurized. Stiff behavior modification leaves no release valves. Go ahead and experiment with this, if you don't believe me. I'll check out, without hesitation. I'll take my business elsewhere, anywhere.
- NoCoastCoder 9y agoI completely agree with you but your wording is insufferable. I really hope you don't talk like that in real life.
- true_religion 9y agoAs a counter, I found his wording to be rich and amusing. I would completely befriend him in real life.
- zeveb 9y agoThe Black Mirror episode about exactly this got it right, I think. Forgetfulness is a blessing!
- whyagaindavid 9y agoOn a lighter note, people complain about google over updates. See they are not bad!
- spullara 9y agoPeople are incorrectly complaining about google when they should really be complaining about the OEMs. You can blame google for that business model but generally they aren't deciding when Android phones get updates.
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoThis is incorrect. People are often complaining about the OEMs, when you really should be blaming Google. Google designed the way the OS handles updates, and it also sets the terms that OEMs have to agree to in order to sell Android devices with Google Play Services included. Google controls the entire table here. But they want you to blame all of the different OEMs rather than looking at the real culprit in the middle of all of them.
- digi_owl 9y agoSamsung has Tizen sitting in the wings if Google gets too pushy. HTC would not hesitate to make a deal with Microsoft. LG owns WebOS, and is actively using it in their smart TVs. Huawei, ZTE and such can just fall back on Chinese infrastructure. The only ones that would be affected would perhaps be Sony, this new Nokia that's rising, and various white box manufacturers. Google really do not have as much control as one would think.
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoAny OEM doing this except maybe Samsung would immediately go out of business. Feel free to let me know if you ever have a practical example of someone successfully leaving the Android monopoly ecosystem and not falling flat on their face. Also, bear in mind, OEMs have no reason to object to Google controlling updates. They'd still be able to customize the experience with apps and themes. And they'd save boatloads of money as Google handled all the update testing and distribution. Of course... Google doesn't want to pay for that, and that's why they leave it on OEMs.
- k__ 9y agoI think what kept Glass from going through the roof was the camera. The whole thing would probably be awesome in its own with just display, GPS and compass. Many people feared for their privacy and the people using the Glass were considered douches because of this issue.
- beachbum8029 9y agoYet none of those same people have an issue with taking their phone out of their pocket constantly and glancing at it which has... a camera on the front! But I could see the issue of never knowing whether or not the glass camera is recording and whether that recording is going to wind up on youtube.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoYou never know when the smartphone camera is recording either.
- k__ 9y agoWearing a Google Glass is like someone pointing a smartphone cam in your face all the time. Yes, you get all the fancy AR stuff with camera, but I think you could still build a nice HUD without the cam.
- kbart 9y agoTrue, but Google Glass is more like camera pointed directly at you. If somebody kept pointing smartphone camera at me constantly, I'd sure get annoyed.
- mysterydip 9y agoFor me, Penny Arcade summed it up best: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/06/14 https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/06/14 The difference with a phone is generally people pull it out, do something, then put it away. You'd get a similar reaction from onlookers if you kept your phone front and center your entire day.
- 9y ago
- javindo 9y agoDoes anyone else get the impression that this might have just been an intern project* or similar? Seems very odd for a seemingly minor iterative update to pop up out of nowhere after such a long time otherwise. * The update, not Google Glass itself
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoI actually commented in the previous discussion about this update. (This post is technically a dupe.) But my assumption is that someone at Google still uses their Explorer Edition, and fixed some pet peeves of their own to support newer Android phones better, maybe they added the keyboard input because they needed it, etc. And then just decided to go ahead and get it released to everyone because the work was already done anyways.
- puzzle 9y agoAt Google you just don't get something released to the public, let alone to people that paid for a device which an update could brick, on a whim. Even if someone outside the Glass team did all the code changes, they would need someone on the inside with enough permissions to actually sign and push out the OTA images. I suspect this is a backport of work that was done to support the new Glass for Work program. (I used to work at Google, on teams other than Glass, although I know former members.)
- ocdtrekkie 9y agoMy comment perhaps could've clarified that there was likely some bureaucracy involved in release. I wouldn't even be surprised if my hypothetical Explorer Edition user was a member of the original (or current) Glass team. But likely that it was more of a 20% thing than their job. But I am dubious this has to do with Glass for Work, because Enterprise Edition has been out a long time, and surely has had updates long before now. It's unlikely that Enterprise Edition is still built on the archaic platform Explorer Edition is built on (Android 4.x on an OMAP processor that was already old when Glass was first released). And there is little to no reason I can fathom for Google to expend Glass for Work resources on backporting fixes to a device that's been abandoned for over three years.
- digi_owl 9y agoFor all this talk about recording everything, don't the Glass sport a bright LED up front when the camera was in use?
- falcolas 9y agoIIRC, no. It just had the "screen" enabled, which can be seen by external people, but no dedicated "the camera is on" light.
- knorker 9y agoDo snap's spectacles?
- digi_owl 9y agoThing about them is that you have to manually reach up and press a button, and that records 10 seconds. Maybe they can be modified to record continually, but up front they are much more limited than Glass.
- knorker 9y agoGlass was never always-on recording. Yes, you could wink to take a photo and not use your hands, and yes by touching it multiple times you could start recording and even have more than 10s. But they were never a "life recorder", just like I assume Spectacles aren't. Still Spectacles are not getting creep-accusations and hate, as far as I can see. There are life recorders though. They've also not gotten the hate Glass got.
- jimrandomh 9y agoA bit of historical context. Glass unofficially supported Bluetooth keyboards up to version XE11 (that is, November 2013). Version XE12 contained one major bug which, while it didn't break keyboards themselves, did break most of the non-Glass Android apps you'd want to use a keyboard to control. Version XE16 was a four-month rewrite, which replaced the Bluetooth stack with one that couldn't handle keyboards (and bricked a lot of devices and broke a lot of other things.) At that point something went very very wrong with Google's internal politics, and despite there being both internal and external demand, work to repair keyboard support was blocked in favor of fixing crash-bugs. Combined with Glass being closed-source, an overly-aggressive auto-updater that made it hard to stay on XE11 or XE12, increased memory usage that exceeded what the existing units had, and poor communications from Google, this caused the Glass community to turn on Google and become hostile. Three years later, version XE23 adds support for Bluetooth keyboards, and makes it more official (so you don't need an awkward procedure involving sideloading parts of cell-phone Android). So I interpret this a sort of three-years-later apology. For which, thank you, it's overdue but is a nice gesture. Source code would also be nice, as would a public post-mortem of what the whole mess looked like from Google's end.
- superhubbabubba 9y agoKiss goodbye to your privacy with google