At the end of each year, tech journalists are usually called upon to predict the year ahead. Having been in the predictions business as a strategic analyst and a journo, I try to keep in mind two maxims: "If you're going to make predictions, make a lot of them. People remember the hits and forget the misses." -- unknown, but possibly economist Milton Friedman "The future is … [Read more...]
Glass: Product of the Year — Part 3
It's not actually shipping, except to some selected blessed few. It costs about as much as an annual gym membership. It makes you look like a dork, and it doesn't actually do very much. So how can Google Glass be called a Product of the Year? Because in many ways to many people, fairly or unfairly, Glass defines wearable technology in 2013. From most companies, something … [Read more...]
Stanner on How Wearables Get Out of Our Way
Thad Stanner, Google's former tech lead on Glass, has an awesomely insightful essay in Wired about how bringing technology closer to your body makes it less obtrusive and more useful. In the process, he reveals some of the thinking behind the design of Glass -- and how much thought went into designing a product that would be less creepy and less alienating for civilians. ... … [Read more...]
Passing on Glass
Over the weekend, Google (finally) invited me to be a Glass Explorer. The catch: exploration Glass-style costs $1500. Glass is no longer quite the science project it was at the start; the fit and finish appears to be smoother, as does the software. But to what end? Yes, Glass is cool in a dorky sort of way. I don't think I could carry off wearing one in a non-ironic kind of … [Read more...]
Glass in the Film World
Google has apparently seeded Glass in several academic film programs as an experiment in storytelling. There's an interesting piece in the International Digital Times about how CalArts and the UCLA Film school are progressing. The big reveals happen in March and will probably be worth checking out; expect something between "Laser Cats" and Star Wars. … [Read more...]
Canadian Media Lab Launches Wearables Gaming Accelerator
The Canadian Film Centre's Media Lab has launched a wearables technology accelerator to develop Google Glass gaming apps. ideaBOOST/Mind Pirate Production Lab is a three-month project and comprises four companies: Imaginary Computer, SmokeBomb Entertainment, Little Guy Games and Normative. Each company will get a grant of $10,000 -- and access to Google Glass. Here's a … [Read more...]
The new, less-dorky Glass
TechRepublic's Jason Hiner has a set (pair?) of Google Glass 2.0, and he's kind of liking it. The new version is built better, is less obvious, has more useful software and APIs so programmers can more easily build interesting apps, and can accommodate prescription lenses. We're still not talking about a mainstream product here, but six months has apparently made a big … [Read more...]
Mystery Barges Are Google Glass Showrooms
All things being equal, we're pretty much fans of Google around here, although we do wish they'd stop acting like villains out of James Bond movies. The latest: Google has apparently been building four-story structures on mysterious barges off the coasts of San Francisco and in New London, CT for reasons that have been heretofore obscure. In the last couple of days, though, … [Read more...]
Intuit’s Pay-by-Glass Prototype
Mobile payments are a pretty obvious application for Google Glass, although the only app that's close to being in the real world just works with BitCoin, so its utility is somewhat limited. But Intuit, maker of Quicken and QuickBooks, is now sniffing around. Investor Business Times reports that Quicken has adopted its GoPayment app to work with Glass. There's an Intuit video … [Read more...]
Will Wearables Make Us All Glassholes?
My old and good friend Tristan Louis put up a blog post the other day, worrying about how wearables will inevitably wear away at the social fabric. He cites Vint Cerf (inventor of the IP protocol that runs the Internet) and Scott Heiferman, founder of Meetup.com, both as saying that stuff like Google Glass will cause people to act like jerks: We’re not ready for ubiquitous … [Read more...]