6 ms·

Google Glass is Alive

65 points by brianchu 11y ago

dmitrygr 11y ago
What shoddy reporting! ... "Reportedly the new version of Google Glass also sports improved battery life, partly because of the Intel Atom CPU. The specific clock speed is unknown, but this tiny SoC has proven itself by powering most Android Wear devices." ... NONE of the current Wear devices run Atom chips. They all run ARM Cortex-A7 chips, except Moto360, which runs a Cortex-A8 !
- ekianjo 11y ago
  Its techcrunch, expectations are low to begin with.
  - zbyte64 11y ago
    If you follow the link they cite: "The chip is reportedly clocked somewhere moderately faster than current top-of-the-line Android Wear smartwatches." So the "writer" is performing worst then a summary bot.
    - ekianjo 11y ago
      > So the "writer" is performing worst then a summary bot. That's a pretty good business opportunity for TC then. Fire the "writers", replace by bots, nobody notices any difference (or actually an IMPROVEMENT!).
zaiwu 11y ago
At least this time it has a clearer target, the enterprise market. Nice try. I think last time Google Glass failed because Google didn't demonstrate any practical scenario using this product. It's like, Google was telling us, "this is a cool product but nobody knows the application of it, so, use your imagination!" Users get lost when you define such a big scope. This time Google should definitely learn from Hololens. Show some killer apps on Google Glass and let users feel excited about it, not only because it is cool, but also useful.
- unfunco 11y ago
  I think it failed last time because they tried to make it an exclusive club [0], resentment for a product builds the moment you tell some groups of people that their money isn't good enough. I was intrigued in the beginning, and I lost all interest when I saw Marc Andreessen wearing a pair. [1] [0] http://whitemenwearinggoogleglass.tumblr.com http://whitemenwearinggoogleglass.tumblr.com [1] http://bgr.com/2013/04/26/marc-andreessen-google-glass-interview-467060/ http://bgr.com/2013/04/26/marc-andreessen-google-glass-inter...
- Steko 11y ago
  It failed because it was designed backwards by starting with the most impressive screen/camera/chipset possible and then unsurprisingly ended up with shit battery life. That is a deal breaker on a wearable who's killer apps are things like lifecasting and personal security. The correct way to design a device like this is to start with battery life required and work forward with that as your primary constraint. If what you end up with isn't good enough you don't release the product and wait until more power efficient chips or better battery tech comes out.
  - tracker1 11y ago
    I would have loved to try it, but I'm far sighted and anything closer than 2' from my face is blurry, I don't wear corrective lenses most of the time, and even if I did, google didn't have a solution for this. I can think of a lot of scenarios where glass would have been a fit (if they got the cost down to even $500/pair)... the ability to have a context aware helper screen would work in a lot of scenarios... from parts pickers, to manufacturing, to presentations. Most of the ideas I have around google glass are pretty boring, but could really boost productivity in a lot of areas commercially, and this is probably where they should have started. If you are paying someone $35k/year to do a job, and they could be 5-10% more effective with a given tool, that tool would be well worth $1000-1500. And I can think of a lot of jobs that pay over $12-15/hr that could be assisted/improved with this.
- prapam2 11y ago
  I was touring some places in UK. Some of them incredible beautiful. I wished i had a google glass to record those moments and show then to my folks back home.
BorisMelnik 11y ago
"...aimed at the enterprise market" A relative who is in a professional field (not in tech) uses Google Glass to record YouTube videos live on the job. He has probably 300 hours worth of videos published and is now at the point where anything he publishes gets 5k+ views on YouTube. Just saying this because I see applications like this really taking off. Perhaps security guards could use these on the job or even cops (eventually) for their own safety. Trying to stay positive about this.
- drwrf 11y ago
  Can you post the link to your relative's YouTube channel?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- pjbrunet 11y ago
  I've been saying that for a while. I bet Google could dominate the enterprise market with HUD data while everyone else is playing around with Unity3D gaming apps. Of course AR gaming will be huge but data doesn't need to be 3D to be useful, or we would already have 3D displays. 2d info is more useful than 3D info, focus on that. We all watched Johnny Mnemonic browse file systems in 3D (long time ago) and that never came to pass, because it's pretty much useless to see a file system in 3D.
  - dzhiurgis 11y ago
    The value for enterprise will be when technology be able to extract insights on the fly from it's client database. Think of it like Siri + CRM + HUD = on demand insights about customer needs, immediate details when a particular problem can be fixed given stock in warehouse. Also this will incredibly strain the user as simply he will have less time to pause between client interactions. Give it another decade and computer vision will be able to advise technicians that they are about to touch live wire, etc.
  - sixQuarks 11y ago
outside1234 11y ago
Being in the enterprise market requires that you actually know how to sell into an enterprise. What has Google done where they have been successful at that? This feels like Google scrambling to catch up to the Hololens and sort of making it up as they go along. Nothing to see here.
- blhack 11y ago
  >What has Google done where they have been successful at that? Google apps.
- reilly3000 11y ago
  um, and AdWords. And Enterprise Analytics. And Doubleclick... They don't kill it at being Microsoft, but that hasn't been their goal.
yzh 11y ago
One application of Google glass is lifelog which is described in Ted Chiang's story: The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling https://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_of_fact_the_truth_of_feeling_by_ted_chiang https://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_o...
- pavedwalden 11y ago
  I've enjoyed a lot of Ted Chiang's other work, but I didn't know about this. Thanks.
chaostheory 11y ago
Google Glass never died. I don't understand how people come to this conclusion when they're also aware that it was handed off to Tony Fadell of the Nest division to manage. Going on a tangent, to this day I fail to understand why Apple didn't even make a bid on Nest. At the very least it would keep someone with both good taste and a strong enough force of personality to make it happen, away from Google's hands. Instead Apple spends over twice as much on Beats... Did Fadell hate his tenure at Apple so much that he wouldn't even consider a bid from them or vice versa?
- jinushaun 11y ago
  Agree. Nest belongs at Apple, not Google. Apple could've owned the home with AppleTV, Nest and HomeKit.
  - erikpukinskis 11y ago
    Apple doesn't bother with experiences unless they are a big part of most peoples' days. Fiddling with your thermostat is not a huge part of most peoples' days. Nest has yet to prove that they can make a product that plays a significant role in our lives. Beats has. People wear Beats all day.
    - chaostheory 11y ago
      If that's the case, then why is Apple bothering with Homekit? Nest isn't just about thermostats and fire alarms. Nest is going to encompass your whole house which is the same thing that Homekit aspires to do. I still feel that Apple made a huge mistake by letting Nest go to Google. The main difference between Homekit and Nest is that Nest's products and platform has already been battle tested.
  - Steko 11y ago
    Not to denigrate Nest but I don't think not having them is going to make Apple any less formidable in the home. Nest's competence is design sense/simple ux which Apple already has plenty of but Google doesn't. That makes them far more valuable to Google. Like just imagine a Nest-less world where Google and Apple both release smart thermostats in 2010. The Apple product might look like Nest and the Google one would prolly look like whatever Honeywell was selling at the time.
vosper 11y ago
It's hardly a scoop that Glass is alive - I've been seeing recruiting adds for "Software Engineer, Google (Glass)" on LinkedIn for a while. They're not exactly making a secret of it.
kendallpark 11y ago
Enterprise market is where this needs to grow first. Not the consumer. There are great use cases in various professions, from law enforcement to medicine. Imagine a surgeon that can get a HUD with patient vitals and/or send a live feed to a remote surgeon for feedback during the procedure. I don't think consumers are ready, but there are so many industries that would readily shell out $1500 a piece for these.
- tracker1 11y ago
  Not just enterprise, but mechanical assembly, live training/retraining... deliver services (a step above typical gps), hell, making sure your order is correct. For that matter it would make a great sales tool... you can check inventory while interacting with a customer, not having to look away or turn your back. Presenters being able to have notes on screen while talking... There are definitely commercial applications.. but not for a product you can't actually buy.
jacquesm 11y ago
What happens inside google does not matter, what happens is when they release it next time and if they do as bad a job at this as they did with the previous roll-out then it might as well be dead. I'm curious how big a percentage of those who bought 'glass' the first time around are going to spend their money on the next round given what they know today.

65 points by brianchu 11y ago

What shoddy reporting! ... "Reportedly the new version of Google Glass also sports improved battery life, partly because of the Intel Atom CPU. The specific clock speed is unknown, but this tiny SoC has proven itself by powering most Android Wear devices." ... NONE of the current Wear devices run Atom chips. They all run ARM Cortex-A7 chips, except Moto360, which runs a Cortex-A8 !

ekianjo 11y ago
Its techcrunch, expectations are low to begin with.
- zbyte64 11y ago
  If you follow the link they cite: "The chip is reportedly clocked somewhere moderately faster than current top-of-the-line Android Wear smartwatches." So the "writer" is performing worst then a summary bot.
  - ekianjo 11y ago
    > So the "writer" is performing worst then a summary bot. That's a pretty good business opportunity for TC then. Fire the "writers", replace by bots, nobody notices any difference (or actually an IMPROVEMENT!).

zaiwu 11y ago

At least this time it has a clearer target, the enterprise market. Nice try. I think last time Google Glass failed because Google didn't demonstrate any practical scenario using this product. It's like, Google was telling us, "this is a cool product but nobody knows the application of it, so, use your imagination!" Users get lost when you define such a big scope. This time Google should definitely learn from Hololens. Show some killer apps on Google Glass and let users feel excited about it, not only because it is cool, but also useful.

unfunco 11y ago
I think it failed last time because they tried to make it an exclusive club [0], resentment for a product builds the moment you tell some groups of people that their money isn't good enough. I was intrigued in the beginning, and I lost all interest when I saw Marc Andreessen wearing a pair. [1] [0] http://whitemenwearinggoogleglass.tumblr.com http://whitemenwearinggoogleglass.tumblr.com [1] http://bgr.com/2013/04/26/marc-andreessen-google-glass-interview-467060/ http://bgr.com/2013/04/26/marc-andreessen-google-glass-inter...
Steko 11y ago
It failed because it was designed backwards by starting with the most impressive screen/camera/chipset possible and then unsurprisingly ended up with shit battery life. That is a deal breaker on a wearable who's killer apps are things like lifecasting and personal security. The correct way to design a device like this is to start with battery life required and work forward with that as your primary constraint. If what you end up with isn't good enough you don't release the product and wait until more power efficient chips or better battery tech comes out.
- tracker1 11y ago
  I would have loved to try it, but I'm far sighted and anything closer than 2' from my face is blurry, I don't wear corrective lenses most of the time, and even if I did, google didn't have a solution for this. I can think of a lot of scenarios where glass would have been a fit (if they got the cost down to even $500/pair)... the ability to have a context aware helper screen would work in a lot of scenarios... from parts pickers, to manufacturing, to presentations. Most of the ideas I have around google glass are pretty boring, but could really boost productivity in a lot of areas commercially, and this is probably where they should have started. If you are paying someone $35k/year to do a job, and they could be 5-10% more effective with a given tool, that tool would be well worth $1000-1500. And I can think of a lot of jobs that pay over $12-15/hr that could be assisted/improved with this.
prapam2 11y ago
I was touring some places in UK. Some of them incredible beautiful. I wished i had a google glass to record those moments and show then to my folks back home.

BorisMelnik 11y ago

"...aimed at the enterprise market" A relative who is in a professional field (not in tech) uses Google Glass to record YouTube videos live on the job. He has probably 300 hours worth of videos published and is now at the point where anything he publishes gets 5k+ views on YouTube. Just saying this because I see applications like this really taking off. Perhaps security guards could use these on the job or even cops (eventually) for their own safety. Trying to stay positive about this.

drwrf 11y ago
Can you post the link to your relative's YouTube channel?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
pjbrunet 11y ago
I've been saying that for a while. I bet Google could dominate the enterprise market with HUD data while everyone else is playing around with Unity3D gaming apps. Of course AR gaming will be huge but data doesn't need to be 3D to be useful, or we would already have 3D displays. 2d info is more useful than 3D info, focus on that. We all watched Johnny Mnemonic browse file systems in 3D (long time ago) and that never came to pass, because it's pretty much useless to see a file system in 3D.
- dzhiurgis 11y ago
  The value for enterprise will be when technology be able to extract insights on the fly from it's client database. Think of it like Siri + CRM + HUD = on demand insights about customer needs, immediate details when a particular problem can be fixed given stock in warehouse. Also this will incredibly strain the user as simply he will have less time to pause between client interactions. Give it another decade and computer vision will be able to advise technicians that they are about to touch live wire, etc.
- sixQuarks 11y ago

outside1234 11y ago

Being in the enterprise market requires that you actually know how to sell into an enterprise. What has Google done where they have been successful at that? This feels like Google scrambling to catch up to the Hololens and sort of making it up as they go along. Nothing to see here.

blhack 11y ago
>What has Google done where they have been successful at that? Google apps.
reilly3000 11y ago
um, and AdWords. And Enterprise Analytics. And Doubleclick... They don't kill it at being Microsoft, but that hasn't been their goal.

yzh 11y ago

One application of Google glass is lifelog which is described in Ted Chiang's story: The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling https://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_of_fact_the_truth_of_feeling_by_ted_chiang https://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_o...

pavedwalden 11y ago
I've enjoyed a lot of Ted Chiang's other work, but I didn't know about this. Thanks.

chaostheory 11y ago

Google Glass never died. I don't understand how people come to this conclusion when they're also aware that it was handed off to Tony Fadell of the Nest division to manage. Going on a tangent, to this day I fail to understand why Apple didn't even make a bid on Nest. At the very least it would keep someone with both good taste and a strong enough force of personality to make it happen, away from Google's hands. Instead Apple spends over twice as much on Beats... Did Fadell hate his tenure at Apple so much that he wouldn't even consider a bid from them or vice versa?

jinushaun 11y ago
Agree. Nest belongs at Apple, not Google. Apple could've owned the home with AppleTV, Nest and HomeKit.
- erikpukinskis 11y ago
  Apple doesn't bother with experiences unless they are a big part of most peoples' days. Fiddling with your thermostat is not a huge part of most peoples' days. Nest has yet to prove that they can make a product that plays a significant role in our lives. Beats has. People wear Beats all day.
  - chaostheory 11y ago
    If that's the case, then why is Apple bothering with Homekit? Nest isn't just about thermostats and fire alarms. Nest is going to encompass your whole house which is the same thing that Homekit aspires to do. I still feel that Apple made a huge mistake by letting Nest go to Google. The main difference between Homekit and Nest is that Nest's products and platform has already been battle tested.
- Steko 11y ago
  Not to denigrate Nest but I don't think not having them is going to make Apple any less formidable in the home. Nest's competence is design sense/simple ux which Apple already has plenty of but Google doesn't. That makes them far more valuable to Google. Like just imagine a Nest-less world where Google and Apple both release smart thermostats in 2010. The Apple product might look like Nest and the Google one would prolly look like whatever Honeywell was selling at the time.

vosper 11y ago

It's hardly a scoop that Glass is alive - I've been seeing recruiting adds for "Software Engineer, Google (Glass)" on LinkedIn for a while. They're not exactly making a secret of it.

kendallpark 11y ago

Enterprise market is where this needs to grow first. Not the consumer. There are great use cases in various professions, from law enforcement to medicine. Imagine a surgeon that can get a HUD with patient vitals and/or send a live feed to a remote surgeon for feedback during the procedure. I don't think consumers are ready, but there are so many industries that would readily shell out $1500 a piece for these.

tracker1 11y ago
Not just enterprise, but mechanical assembly, live training/retraining... deliver services (a step above typical gps), hell, making sure your order is correct. For that matter it would make a great sales tool... you can check inventory while interacting with a customer, not having to look away or turn your back. Presenters being able to have notes on screen while talking... There are definitely commercial applications.. but not for a product you can't actually buy.

jacquesm 11y ago

What happens inside google does not matter, what happens is when they release it next time and if they do as bad a job at this as they did with the previous roll-out then it might as well be dead. I'm curious how big a percentage of those who bought 'glass' the first time around are going to spend their money on the next round given what they know today.