Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Google Glass: See For Yourself

Image from dvice: Google Glass will make dating super creepy (and awesome)
Thanks to Jenny I checked out Charles Arthur's Guardian review of Google Glass, and I'm reminded of some of the early critiques of the iPod and iPhone (not to mention my own preliminary pan of the iPad). Somewhat predictably Arthur emphasizes the first-generation glitches of this augmented reality device: buggy interface, wifi hassles, low-res pix. The price of being bleeding-edge cool.

He also notes the risk of surreptitious snapshots -- and the even greater risk of looking like a tool while wearing these things. Yes, these things may be a creeper's favorite new toy. And I've yet to see pictures of someone wearing these Google Glasses without flashing back to images of Geordi La Forge. Google Glass may be useful for specialized tasks, but most folks may see little more than a gimmick.

Arthur may be right; he may be wrong, but his review is worth a read if only for its conclusion, which rightly points out a deeper concern arising from our potential willingness to outsource our sight: "Google Glass feels like something that would make you see the world less, and replace it with a world seen through a giant corporation's interests, funnelled through a tiny screen suspended above one eye." The electronic panopticon is getting an upgrade.

Read the entire article: Google Glass – hands-on review

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