When Rovio isn’t busy updating Angry Birds Star Wars with new bird characters or spending time making Bad Piggies
fun to play, they are completely swept up in hypebeasting a new game.
The newest of such is being labeled (by Rovio, mind you) “the evolution
of Angry Birds.” It’s called Angry Birds Go! and from what little we have seen so far, we have our money on some type of Mario Kart-like racing game.
Over on their site, you are invited to check out a “sneak peek,”
which leads to you being at the starting line of a track, then you see
the countdown go from 3, 2, 1, Go! Assuming that Rovio knows where our
minds will go after seeing a countdown and then a bird wooshing off onto
the track, it must be a racing game, right?
No release date or platforms have been announced yet, but it’s Rovio,
so I’d expect a whole bunch of that coming up shortly. Any thoughts on
what Angry Birds Go! could be exactly?
As we approach the rumored date for Android 4.3′s launch on June 20 (at least, that’s what our sources say), many have already come to the realization that we should not expect Google to introduce a new interface for the OS. It will still be called Jelly Bean
and nothing too crazy will happen. What most in the business have their
money on is that we can expect to see Google change up Android’s look
in the iteration after next, being Android 5.0 “Key Lime Pie.” That’s when we will see some new colors, icons, wallpapers, etc. take place. Graphic designers appear to be already creating their very own
concepts for what they would like to see in Android 5.0, playing more
with lockscreen widgets and revising the Android homescreen look. Artist
Jinesh Shah took to his Google+ page recently to post up a few
pictures of his own ideas, some of which we have become big fans of.
While it comes off as minimal and clean, there is enough information on
any given homescreen and the lockscreen to give off the sense that this
concept would be highly functional and practical for users. The lockscreen widget shows a comprehensive look at this user’s
upcoming meeting, even showing a map preview of its location. Below
that, we can see upcoming flight details, all of which would be able to
be customized under new settings that would come with KLP. As for the
homescreen changes, what sets this concept apart from others is the idea
of “hidden” widgets. With swipes and other gestures, you could reveal
other widgets that don’t necessarily have to be on your homescreen when
not being used. It’s a fantastic concept, one that we probably wouldn’t
mind seeing implemented.
Share your thoughts on the Android 5.0 concept below!
If Samsung's Galaxy S4 is more smartphone than you think you need,
the electronics giant has just offered up the smaller, more midrange -
and surely cheaper - Galaxy S4 Mini.
Samsung is hoping to give its lighter smartphone much of the same
GS 4 taste with just a little less vigor. Although the Mini has
stepped-down specs compared to its flagship family, like a
lower-resolution screen and an 8-megapixel camera instead of a
13-megapixel shooter, it's no slouch when it comes to the Galaxy S4's
core features, even a built-in TV remote control.
As with the Galaxy S3 Mini that came before, this version is
aimed more toward the mass market than the high-end sector, without
sacrificing too many of the superphone's more defining features.
Launch and Price
With the Samsung galaxy S3 launching for €300 (Rs 23,300), it's
hard not to expect the S4 variation to launch at the same price. This
could be bit too expensive given the specifications and strong
competition for mid-range Android phone. We'll have to wait a bit longer
to find out - UK event scheduled for June 20 likely to give us more
information. According to the sources, the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini will
be launched in India on 30th July 2013 and will be priced at Rs 24,000
(approx).
Architect
Samsung's modest Mini is a wee bit shorter, thicker, and wider
than the svelte Galaxy S4 but clearly cut from the same cloth. Like the
round-shouldered original, the Mini retains its curved perimeter,
metallic rim, and rectangular home button, and also comes in black and
white versions.
Specifically, the global GS4 Mini stands 124.6 millimeters tall
(4.9 inches) by 61.3 millimeters wide (2.4 inches) by 8.9 millimeters
thick (0.35-inch) and weighs a lighter 107 grams (3.7 ounces, compared
to the GS4's 4.6-ounce weight.) A 3G-only, dual SIM version will weigh a
hair more at 108 grams.
Getting onto the banking craze on mobile phones, Kotak
Mahindra Bank (KMB) has launched its Mobile Banking App for iOS and
Android devices.KMB's mobile banking app gives a plethora of
options to choose from such as checking FOREX rates, making bill
payments, checking on term deposit rates to say the least in addition to
checking your account balance and latest transactions made. KMB
encourages you to bank at your finger-tips by providing features that
will make you into a certified couch-potato such as immediate transfers,
cheque book requests, the flexibility of personalization of home page,
and choosing information which is available without the need to login.With
online banking now fairly popular among masses, it's time to move on to
banking apps, thus making banking even more personal. You may download the app for your preferred device from the bank's website or the Play Store.
Many
other Indian banks have gone beyond online banking to reach Android
smartphones as a mobile app - among them are ICICI, HDFC, and State Bank
of India.
Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Communications (RCom) has
announced a Rs. 12,000 crore (Over US$ 2 Billion) deal for sharing of
RCOM’s nationwide telecom towers infrastructure. This would let Reliance
Jio Infocomm utilize up to 45,000 ground and rooftop based towers
across RCOM’s nationwide network for its 4G roll out.
This agreement provides for joint working arrangements to configure
the scope of additional towers to be built at new locations to ensure
deep penetration and seamless delivery of next generation services, said
the statement. At the AGM meeting in Mumbai, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman
and Managing Director of the Reliance Industries said that Reliance Jio
Infocomm team would hire nearly 10,000 professionals nationally over the
next year.
Reliance Jio Infocomm tied up with Reliance Communications recently
to get access to the latter’s optic fiber network. Reliance Jio is
likely to launch their 4G services over the next year.
Now you can message and call from your Nokia Asha devices as well.
WeChat,
the popular messaging and VOIP service of Tencent, has now been
launched for Nokia Asha devices. With WeChat one can share messages or
files over WiFi and data networks.
The application also brings walkie-talkie style live voice messaging
and a group chats service. The Live Voice chat feature allows a group of
friends to have instant voice conversations within the group with a
simple touch action. They are just like walkie-talkie devices in the
real world.
One person can speak at a time and everyone can hear. For group
messaging too users can send messages to up to 40 different users at
once using the WeChat service.
The application integrates with the device and allows users to
communicate or connect with fellow WeChat users using a WeChat ID or
through their mobile number. The app is available for free from the
Nokia application store and can also be downloaded from the WeChat
website.
Microblogging service Tumblr is being acquired by Yahoo.
Yahoo announced
the deal early Monday, along with a "promise not to screw it up." The
Internet pioneer is paying US$1.1 billion for Tumblr, "substantially all
of which is payable in cash," Yahoo said.
The news had been expected. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the Yahoo board had approved the deal.
Under the terms of the deal, Yahoo will allow Tumblr, which has over
300 million monthly unique visitors, to operate as a completely separate
entity that retains "the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment
to empower creators." The company's founder and CEO David Karp will
remain in his position.
"Our team isn't changing. Our roadmap isn't changing. And our mission
-- to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of
the audience they deserve -- certainly isn't changing," Karp said on
Monday in a statement. "But we're elated to have the support of Yahoo
and their team who share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate
creative canvas. Tumblr gets better faster with more resources to draw
from."
Yahoo didn't say specifically what it has planned for Tumblr, but did
say that the service's more than 50 billion blog posts are valuable
additions to Yahoo's services and search. In a conference call
discussing the acquisition, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said that she plans
to integrate Tumblr in to Yahoo's home pages.
"The two companies will also work together to create advertising
opportunities that are seamless and enhance the user experience," Yahoo
said. Mayer was similarly less-than-forthcoming in her conference call
on exactly how Yahoo will create new advertising opportunities, but she
did say that she hopes to make ads "aspirational."
This may not be the first time that Yahoo has made a play for Tumblr. A report
back in 2009 suggested that Yahoo was in talks with Tumblr to acquire
the company for "as much as $50 million." At that time, Karp said that
Yahoo wasn't going to buy Tumblr. If those talks did, in fact, happen,
it looks like Karp was right to wait.
The Tumblr deal is subject to customary closing conditions. If all goes well, the deal should close in the second half of 2013.
The frothing excitement around this prototype, titanium-framed
wearable computer has the tech world tripping over itself in a mad dash
for Glass access. Ten thousand or more Google Glass units are now
shipping to beta testers and winners of the If I Had Glass contest--for a
US$1,500 price tag. But the big what, why, and how questions remain.
The answer, for now, is simple: Google Glass is Google on your face.
These early frames ship with the ability to take the very most recent
communications from your smartphone or Google accounts and show them to
you in a head-up display. They take phone calls. They send texts, take
photos and video, and show maps. They deliver search results. If you've
played with Google Now, the Glass interface is strikingly similar.
But the sky is the limit for Google and its army of developers. Right
now, the experiences we have with these early devices are very personal
ones shaped largely by the reaction of our community and daily needs.
CNET got lucky enough to claim two Glass units--one on each coast--so
we're going to write about this very different device in a different
way.
CNET Senior Editor Scott Stein will kick off this hands-on review of
Glass first, giving his initial impressions from his New York/New Jersey
life. CNET Reviews Editor in Chief Lindsey Turrentine will chime in
next with her own perspective from the opposite coast (and the opposite
gender). We'll walk you through Google Glass' realities and
possibilities. Keep an eye on this review. It's going to get epic.
Is this a real product, anyway?
Google Glass Explorer Edition is intended for developers and "early
testers", and while this group of customers may include those who feel
like they can afford a US$1,500 wearable device, everyday people aren't
the primary target yet. But yes, Google Glass is a very real product,
and it really works, but its app support remains pretty limited. It
looks like Google Glass--the consumer version--will arrive sometime in
2014. In the meantime, app developers and Google will be using this
model to develop software and experiences that will be incorporated into
the consumer version.
What does Google Glass actually do?
Glass takes photos and videos, sends text messages, engages in
FaceTime-like Google Hangouts, makes phone calls, searches Google, and
gets turn-by-turn navigation with maps. It can show the weather, the
time, and headlines from The New York Times that have been pushed to the
device, with spoken headline summaries. For now, anyway, that's about
it. Some features require tethering--GPS-based functions that use the
phone, such as turn-by-turn directions. Others, like Google Hangouts and
Google Search, can also be performed over Wi-Fi. When offline, Glass
only takes photos and videos.
Scott:
People who stare at you while you're wearing Google Glass think you're a
cyborg from some "Star Trek" spinoff, scanning and doing impossibly
invasive things that they aren't privy to. The illusion is greater than
the reality. Google Glass could be an augmented-reality Google Goggles-like "reality scanner", but it isn't right now.
Sharing pictures and video via Google Glass is limited to your Gmail
contacts and Google+ circles, but there are extra oddities: you can
currently add only 10 of your Gmail contacts to Glass, and via a Web
interface management tool that's not on Glass itself. Google Circles
have to be set up for sharing before you start (all pictures and videos
automatically upload to a private folder on Google+, however).
That extra layer of careful social management almost feels
Nintendo-like, in the sense that Nintendo's hardware has often relied on
"friend codes" to manage online connections. This fixes some of Glass'
perceived privacy issues, but in the end, yes, you can still record
video in a very discreet manner, then share it online.
The point here: Google Glass does a certain set of tasks, and
certainly not all the ones most people think of when it comes to some
wearable Internet-connected display. Glass isn't a true phone
replacement, or camera replacement, or tablet replacement--not yet. As a
hands-free accessory, it can only do so much, and it doesn't mirror
everything I can see on my phone. In that sense, I currently feel the
urge to go back to my phone screen and not lean on using Glass. Lindsey:
For me, Glass is like a handy monitor for my cell phone. It pulls out
the most important stuff--the camera, the maps, the texting--and makes
it available to me in a relatively unobtrusive way while I live my real
life, walking down the halls at my kids' school or darting between
meetings. It's like a Bluetooth headset but with a display and a camera,
and even the potential that Glass could liberate me from the compulsion
to hold and stare down at a phone screen entrances me.
I know I won't miss a text or a call while wearing Glass, and I can
check the time or a new e-mail during basic conversations without being
(as) rude as if I had to stop and check my phone. (Of course, I can only
check my personal Gmail at the moment--corporate Gmail or Exchange
integration hasn't yet arrived.)
But I can't get over the feeling that Glass should be updating me on
what my friends are doing. My Pavlovian need to know what everyone
thinks of my photos and videos makes the fact that Glass only sends
images and videos out disconcerting. Google+ on Glass doesn't alert you
to incoming comments, and it feels one-sided as a result.
The hardware: Design and features
This product is often incorrectly referred to as "Google Glasses"
with good reason. But it's really more of a lensless eyeglasses frame,
with a mobile computing device built into the stem that sits on your
right ear. That right arm wraps around to a small transparent display
that sits above your right eye. Imagine if a wearable side-mounted
camera grew a glasses-frame construct, and that's Glass.
Glass is lightweight, more so than you'd think. The titanium frame is
bendable. Little nose contacts can be bent and adjusted for individual
fit. The right side of Glass has a thick back part that houses the
battery, and all the rest of the electronics: buttons, touch pads, and
speaker.
The Glass Explorer package comes with the Glass unit itself (in a
variety of colors), a snap-on sunglasses visor, a clear visor, and a
Micro-USB charger. There's a rigid cloth pouch to store Glass in, but
the frame can't be folded up like regular sunglasses--at least, in its
current iteration. It's more like a visor, so you'd need some sort of
larger bag.
Glass runs on Android, but can connect to both iOS and Android
devices. It can connect via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to a phone, a laptop, or a
home Wi-Fi network, or even work alone as a disconnected offline
camera. The 5-megapixel camera shoots 720p video, 10 seconds at a time
by default. It has 12.5GB of onboard storage and a battery that's meant
to last a day.
Scott:
Because you don't need a phone to be connected to Glass, it's more of a
smart home device than any smartwatch I've ever seen. Depending on use,
you'll need to recharge it sooner rather than later.
As an actual glasses-wearer, I found Glass feels more like the
framework for a pair of fancy 3D glasses than a regular glasses frame.
They can fit on top of my regular glasses with some flex, but they're
really meant to be used glasses-free (for now; prescription versions and
other variations are in the works). This meant I had to rush to get a
pair of contact lenses, which was as disorienting as being fitted for
Glass. But Glass has an undeniably solid build quality. It's not always
the most comfortable device, but it sits evenly on my face and remains
as innocuous as a pair of glasses. Adding on the clip-on sunglasses made
Glass feel a little less awkward. Maybe it's the psychological
framework of actual glasses. Lindsey:
I'll be honest: I struggled with the Glass frame. The titanium is light,
yes, but its severe horizontal line--the arch of the frame across the
brow--demands a perfectly fit Glass frame. I must have an asymmetrical
face, because I spent a good 30 minutes trying to adjust the flexible
frame to sit level.
Luckily, the frame is strong and flexible. A certain unnamed CNET
editor dropped Glass a number of times while we were setting it up and
the device didn't show a scratch.
Scott's right: The battery life on Glass is short, especially for a
device most useful when you're otherwise occupied and presumably moving
from one task to another. I ran down the battery completely in 1-2 hours
of intermittent use.
Glass' bone-conducting speaker, which sits just behind the right ear,
tickles. Its buzzy, chiming nature feels a little funny, and sounds
pleasantly chipper and quiet. Unfortunately, Glass has no volume
control, and hearing phone conversations in a public place was
impossible. (Think of this part of Glass as fancy Bluetooth speaker
functionality.)
The Glass touch pad requires more interaction than I'd like. You'll
need to use it to do anything not dead simple, like read multiple-page
e-mails or trigger Glass to read an e-mail aloud. Believe it or not,
hair is a problem here. For anyone with hair of any length, your locks
sometimes fall over the pad and interfere with operation.
Style
Glass is Google's most style-oriented device, and as wearable tech,
it should be. Attention to detail in the colors, frame build, and
accessories feels as precise as the actual hardware underneath. Does it
pass the test with our CNET editors thus far?
Scott:
I appreciate the effort made with Google Glass, but I can't call it
stylish. I felt as awkward wearing it around on my first day as I would
wearing an Xbox accessory on a subway. The titanium frame has an
Oakley-style vibe, and the Glass visor has a cyberpunk-meets-rave feel,
but to actually wear it to a cafe or a party takes chutzpah. People
either stared at me with apprehension, got excited about tech, or
thought I was an insufferable geek. Maybe that'll change. Lindsey:
Here's where I disagree with Scott. I like the way Glass looks. I find
that the glassless frames flatter most people, with the frame
highlighting the most interesting parts of the face, calling attention
to the eye without obscuring it. Not everyone agrees with me, of course,
and no fewer than three people walked by my office and laughed openly
at me when I first put them on. I don't typically wear glasses, so the
difference shocked my coworkers.
Fashion is fleeting, and Glass still looks "weird" because very few
people have it. But if more and more people adopt Glass, society will
decide whether it looks cool. I mean, pegged jeans are coming back.
Anything could happen.
Walking down the street wearing Glass in Northern California felt
fairly natural. Around here, the Googlers have been wearing Glass for a
few months, so they're not entirely novel to all parties. (Which goes to
show that humans adjust to change quickly.) Some strangers stared, and a
few asked about Glass, but many seemed to already know about the
technology. In my carpool this morning, no one even noticed, as far as I
could tell.
I do have a few fashion complaints: first, the color. Among the most
first-world of Glass' problems is that its silver-tone titanium frame
clashes with gold jewelry. There, I said it. If you have a complexion
that looks better with warmer colors, other colors would work
better--tortoiseshell, maybe, or just a warm brown. I'm hoping Google's
partnership with hipster frame company Warby Parker will address the color situation.
Also, I frankly dislike the sunglass lenses that snap handily into
the Glass frames. They reek of cocky race car driver to me, but once
again, I can't argue matters of taste.
Wearing and using Glass
The eyepiece--that small, clear visor--is a thick stick of
half-mirrored material and has a small adjustment hinge for
left-to-right movement. It's meant to float above your eye, not in front
of it. The screen is crisp and bright indoors, but in bright sunlight
outdoors it can get hard to see over your surroundings. It's a
720p-display equivalent, which feels like a 25-inch screen that's 8 feet
away.
A little lozenge-shaped raised bar above the right ear houses a
bone-conduction speaker. You can hear it, but it's not as loud as a
standard earpiece. The microphone has decent receptivity outdoors, but
in noisy areas it's like talking loudly into a Bluetooth headset.
The wide, flat outer edge of the right side of Glass is a touch pad,
capable of interpreting four-direction swiping and tapping. You tap once
to turn Glass on (or, tilt your head upward to a user-determined
angle), and swipe and tap from there.
Scott:
Wearing Glass almost feels like wearing a video game accessory. The
simple set of buttons, clean lines, and touch- and voice-based
interaction resembles what Microsoft's been trying to do on the Xbox
360, but targeted to the real world.
Training in Google's Glass meeting room felt like the tutorial level
of a video game like Portal. Bridget Carey (a fellow CNET senior editor
and Glass-head inductee) and I were guided through various tasks in a
playgroundlike layout. Our first interactions were like adjusting to
in-game controls.
If Kinect and Siri had a baby and raised it among a family of
smartphones, it would be Google Glass. If you don't like engaging with
Kinect and Siri, you won't like this experience. Voice recognition
works, but has its hiccups. You can see the commands you can perform,
much like how Kinect's command guidance system works.
I made some phone calls to my wife (as mentioned earlier, Glass makes
normal phone calls), and she could hear me, but she wondered if the
call was being made via speakerphone. It's more successful at projecting
video than it is as an audio accessory.
But speaking to Glass is needed to do most tasks efficiently. Swiping
isn't enough. Doing both can get a little odd, and again, each
interface--touch and voice--has its little hiccups.
Yes, taking pictures and videos is incredibly easy, and fast--so
fast, as Bridget Carey noted, that there isn't a "cheese moment"--but
everything else Glass does requires a lot of speaking and head-tilting,
swiping, and a degree of patience.
The combination of voice and swiping sometimes comes off well, but it
can be tedious, with occasional accidental gestures. I deleted a few
videos I shot by accident, and very easily, by swiping or tapping in the
wrong order. But these are still the early days; these interface
elements can and will evolve. Living with a touch pad on the side of
your head takes some getting used to.
Sometimes I wished the screen's overlay were more directly placed
over my field of vision. I want real augmented reality. Google Glass
isn't designed for that, exactly. It could accomplish elements of that,
but it's more of a floating screen that stays separate from the world
around you, at least as far as augmenting objects is concerned. Lindsey:
My husband put it best: Glass is like wearing a smartphone from five
years ago stuck to your head (well, except for the sophisticated voice
recognition). The screen is blurry much of the time, and as Scott and I
have both explained above, Glass really doesn't do that much. Even its
Google search results get truncated and are sometimes confusing, since
they only deliver the "rich snippet" content that you see on the first
page of Google search results.
But Glass hints at something so promising: The ability to share and
absorb up-to-the-minute information while you keep your hands free,
without looking down. It's counterintuitive from a safety perspective,
but so far, my hands-down favorite use of Glass has been while driving.
Glass' Google Maps integration puts turn-by-turn directions in your
peripheral vision--no looking across the dash or at a phone to see the
map. Glass chimes and speaks when you need to change direction, and
while directions are running, Glass won't perform any other features,
presumably to keep a driver focused.
It's counterintuitive from a safety perspective, but so far, my hands-down favorite use of Glass has been while driving.
It's also dead simple to send a text (to one of your 10 anointed
contacts) without using your hand while driving, unlike Siri or an app
that requires you to at least push one button. You just lift your head
to activate Glass, then say, "OK, Glass, send a message to…" Google's
voice recognition understands me better than Siri, and Glass sends the
text immediately without further confirmation.
To be clear: Driving with Glass used incorrectly could be extremely
dangerous and distracting. It's possible to tell Glass to Google song
lyrics while you're driving, then read them in the HUD, for example.
That's the kind of thing no one should do with Glass while driving.
You'll crash your car. Seriously.
Glass apps and Google account integration
Glass is meant to tie in to one Google account (Gmail), and with it,
Google+ and Google Now. Apps don't get downloaded; they populate
seamlessly via the MyGlass app on Android. Right now, they operate more
like features and push services (for instance, The New York Times' app
really just seems to push headlines down to the device).
Google Now is the connected brain that pushes information to Glass.
The current uses are limited, but the potential is huge. Just as Google
Now engages in place-specific and predictive pushing of information from
the Web to you, so could it do to Glass, which has very similar info
cards that you swipe back and forth from.
Scott:
Glass is not a multiaccount device right now; it's meant to be your
personality extension, serving your Google accounts specifically. To
that end, it caches a seven-day queue of your recent activities on
Glass' interface.
It's also interesting how much of Glass gets managed outside of the
Glass hardware itself. The Glass settings and contacts dashboard lives
on the Web, not on Glass itself, so what you get via your Glass display
are largely simplified interactions. Even the settings area is
bare-bones. Getting onto a Wi-Fi network involves a mediated process.
You can use the MyGlass app to add networks, or you can go the slightly
more complicated route, which involves going to the MyGlass site on a
Web browser, entering each protected network's ID and password, and
generating a QR code that you look at with Glass, at which point it logs
on and remembers the network from there.
I like the simplicity and focus of the integration with your Google
accounts--but it's clear that Glass lives as an accessory that requires
other connected computers to truly set up. Lindsey:
In 24 hours of use, I found myself tallying a long list of tasks I would
just love for Glass to tackle--I wish Glass would put a new message
alert on its home screen, for instance, and could report my bank
balance. I wish it read more than just a summary of stories from The New
York Times in the Times app. I wish Glass came with more apps,
including Twitter (which may be coming soon), Facebook, Rdio, and NPR. As I mentioned before, I wish Glass showed comments on Google+ posts.
My wish list just brushes the surface of Glass' functional potential.
Already, developers working on Glass apps have buckled down, and
developer-tracking sites are popping up everywhere. Here's one good example.
Social etiquette: Glass and everyone else
How does wearing Glass feel in public? Is it awkward, or is it fun?
Does Glass feel like a social imposition or something surprisingly
socially engaging, as Google seems to be promising?
Scott:
In a public place, if you're like me, you'll feel incredibly awkward. I
walked to my train station in Montclair, N.J., and used navigation, but
felt disoriented; my attempts to look up meant I was distracted from
what was in front of me. I wonder if I would have been hit by car, or
would have noticed if a clown was right next to me juggling fire. It got
better when I zoned out and acted like nobody was watching, but as I
got closer to people, I felt like I shouldn't be looking at them--even
if Glass wasn't actually doing anything.
On the train, in close quarters, I walked down the aisle looking for a
seat and felt like the new kid in school, and not in a good way. People
stared, but cautiously. I didn't want to look at them. I didn't want to
make them feel uncomfortable. But there's no way for a camera
conspicuously hovering on your glasses to not generate some level of
social discomfort, no matter how elegantly designed.
Glass' gestures and controls are intended to be socially coded and
visible: the eyepiece glows, you'll be speaking to yourself, you may be
tilting your head or touching the side of your head. But that doesn't
ease a spectator's sense that they'll be recorded at any moment.
Let's face it, though: We're in an age of connected cameras. The
first camera bonded on a smartphone introduced that years ago. Cameras
everywhere can see where we're going. Social revolutions have happened
via Twitter and Facebook. Glass is another step in that direction. It's a
significant step, but still just a step.
Google Glass feels a bit more intrusive at close quarters because
it's more personal; it never comes off, whereas we'd normally put down a
phone in that situation. That's a challenge, and while it's the
beginning for Glass and me, I'm curious how that will be overcome.
Lindsey:
OK, we can't avoid it. Let's pick up where Scott left off to talk even
more about privacy. I'm not satisfied to leave it at integrated cameras
being the new reality. The single most frequent question I've gotten
here in the comments and on Twitter has been about whether or not the
subjects of Glass photos and video can tell that they're being
photographed.
Yes and no. Right now, the only way to command Glass to take a photo
is to either reach up and push a button on the frame or to say, "OK,
Glass, take a photo". A chime goes to indicate the action, but unless
the room is quiet or the subject is close, it's hard to hear. Glass does
not just film all the time, which is another common question; each
photo requires deliberate action by the wearer.
There's a plus side to this subtle camera integration: The photos
I've taken wearing Glass (though nothing fancy from this 5-megapixel
camera) have a certain casualness that reflects real life. Subjects
don't really know when to pose without a camera held up in front of
them, and the candid effect is charming. But some subjects simply Do.
Not. Like. The idea that I could be recording them unnerves them, and
rightfully so.
A Twitter follower asked yesterday, "What are the rules? Who makes
the rules?" So far, there are none, but I suspect that as Glass matures,
society--and possibly the courts--will develop etiquette for the
device, just as we (mostly) demand that cell phone users leave a nice
restaurant before talking. The first rule should be: Take off Glass in
the bathroom, locker room, or doctor's office. The second: Always tell
people when you're taking their photo.
Into the future of the unexpected
Regardless of whether you believe wearable smart devices are the
future of how we interact with the world around us, Google appears ready
and engaged in taking us there. Glass is a technology, not a product.
Sure, it's a US$1,500 pair of wearable titanium glasses today, with a
battery-powered 5-megapixel camera and bone-conducting speakerphone
bonded to a hovering interactive display. It's usable as a phone
accessory. It could be used around the home.
Google Glass has its discomforts and its disconnects. It's an early
product that's clearly in beta, but it's also an experiment. It's a
social-interaction project, it's a living debate on wearable tech, and
it's an app platform in need of apps. It's not necessarily a device that
needs to exist, but it could have uses for some. And some of its uses
may not have been invented yet.
Over the next few days we'll be using it in all sorts of
circumstances, realistically and idealistically. We'll report back with
more experiences, so stay tuned for our entire team review.