Adweek has a thin story about the fact that advertisers and agencies are experimenting with Google Glass, which only makes sense; if there's a digital agency not experimenting with Glass, they'll be out of business shortly. But it gives us a hook for something we saw last week at Mobile World Congress: using Glass to scan barcodes. It turns out that supermarket UPC codes are … [Read more...]
Indiana Cancer Docs Try Out Glass in Surgery
Does the FDA know about this? CrunchGear's got the story about a couple of surgeons at Indiana University using Google Glass during cancer surgery. While removing an abdominal tumor, they used Glass's voice commands to call up and view MRI and x-ray scans. This is the sort of thing that regulators and ethics committees get starchy about, but given the publicity that IU is … [Read more...]
Google Details How Not To Be A Glasshole
Google is often slow to understand that it has public relation problems, so it is just now dealing with the fact that not everyone is delighted with the people who own and wear Google Glass. The company has posted a Goofus and Gallant guide on how Glass Explorers ought to behave. It's easy to make fun of this, but it's really not a bad move. People using new technologies … [Read more...]
Virgin Atlantic to Try Glass in Customer Service
Virgin Atlantic is running a six-week trial of equipping customer service agents with Google Glass and/or Sony Smartwatches at London's Heathrow Airport. When Virgin Upper Class customers get out of their chauffeured limo, the agent will have information about the customers -- their itineraries and other relevant information -- available on their wrists or before their … [Read more...]
Glass Gets Frames, Prescription Lenses
We have not been shy about expressing our opinion of Google Glass; one of our chief objections has been its inability to accommodate prescription lenses. At last, Google is now finally selling some pretty attractive snap-on frames for Glass that can take ground lenses. They apparently cost about $250, on top of the $1500 cost of the Glass. Plus the cost of lenses. And, from … [Read more...]
Will We See Samsung Glass This Year?
A lightly sourced (to be kind) article in Korea Times make some predictions about the facewear market in 2014. The reporter quotes an anonymous official at Samsung as saying that Samsung will introduce a smart glasses product at the upcoming IFA trade show in September in Berlin. He also cites "an executive at Google's local parts supplier" as confirming that Google Glass will … [Read more...]
Sacramento Kings to Wear Glass During the Game
We're hearing that the NBA's Sacramento Kings, at 14-25 10 games out of the Western Division playoff race, are going to wear Google Glass during Thursday's game against the Indiana Pacers. The players won't be taking the court with them on; they'll be donning the devices only when they're on the bench. Cheerleaders and game announcers will be wearing them, too -- and the … [Read more...]
Dept. of Bad Ideas: Glass Sex App
So here's this story about a London Glass Hackathon, in which a winning entry involves getting two people wearing Glass to make the beast with two backs, record the encounter, upload it to the cloud, and -- get this -- each participant then watches the event from the other's perspective. The recordings are purged after five hours. What could possibly go wrong? … [Read more...]
Glass Wearer Beats Calif. Traffic Ticket
Cecilia Abadie picked up a speeding ticket on the I-15 in San Diego in October. So did a lot of people, but what made her newsworthy is that she was wearing Google Glass at the time. Yesterday, Reuters said, she beat the ticket for the same reason that a lot of people hate Glass: the judge said no one could prove that it was turned on at the time. Abadie was allegedly doing … [Read more...]
Scoble on Glass: It’s “Doomed”
There is perhaps no more public supporter of Google Glass than pundit Robert Scoble. So it was something of a surprise to read a posting (It's on Google Plus, and you may need to be a member to read it) where he says, "Google Glass is doomed... [b]ecause the tech press tells me so." He goes on to enumerate Glass's failings, most of which we wrote about recently. It's too … [Read more...]