Ask HN: Are you planning on getting Google Glass?
If so, how do you plan on using it? If you plan on developing for it, what applications do you want to target?
If you aren't planning on getting it, why?
If you aren't planning on getting it, why?
I would feel very differently if this were an implant and not something I wear. I do not want to have something on my face and the advantages I see from Glass don't outweigh that desire.
For example, I don't see the advantage in being able to photograph things from my head. Sure, you can imagine a situation where having a camera attached to your head is really useful and being able to take an instant photograph would be fantastic, but I'm not ready to pay the price of a thing on my face all the time for that benefit.
I can imagine having Glass as a display for a GPS as very helpful. I wouldn't mind driving with something like that especially if it could be part of sunglasses. There I am concentrating on a task which Glass will enhance. So, I view Glass as task-enhancing not life-enhancing. A lot of recent news has been of the gee-whiz it'll change your life variety which is off-putting. It's more likely to be incredibly useful in some situations.
Lastly, I do not trust Google and so the idea of a device that uploads stuff in any automatic fashion is not something I want. (It's not just Google, I don't trust Apple's iCloud etc.). I may be unusual in that. I would actually prefer that there be a 'home cloud server' which would be where my photos, emails etc. were stored and processed and that I had total control over.
The main use case for me would be exercising, going for a run with my phone in my hand, having to unlock it to change music or check my distance is a pain.
I remember when I got my first smart phone I had this cool feeling of living in "the future". I had the same feeling when I got my first tablet. This would definitely blow my mind enough that it might be worth the price.
Should they become more common and more attractive (seems likely, over time) and should there be a lot more information available about how the Glass-like genre of products affects its wearers (again, seems likely), I'll take that information into account and reconsider it.
I'm not making the mistake I made with smartphones again, where I bought one out of enthusiasm and only stopped to evaluate the cost/benefits after it had already changed the way I behave. I wouldn't take a medication that hasn't been thoroughly studied, no matter what the marketing promises - so why would I adopt a new technology?
Where I do see a cool application is as a golf GPS. Over the past couple of years, I've been using an app on my phone for golf GPS that also tracks my score and other related stats. I think it'd be really cool to use Glass as a GPS where it shows you the distances overlayed on top of what you're looking at (eg. distance to the green, bunkers etc). And all this info updates live.
Even though I'm not overly concerned about my data, I can't see using it for anything more than as a toy.
I can see endless applications like those relating to sports. Watching baseball with a live scoreboard and stats. Weather related info for sailing.
I want to start to program for it early (The thing is that I really don't like android developing experience).
I love the technology, but the feudal model is completely insane. It's worse than iOS-- at least iOS devices won't arbitrarily record you and upload it to a single large company with a EULA agreement authorizing them to do with it whatever they please. Every Google Glass wearer is a spy that might be uploading everything they see and hear to be... data mined by advertisers? shared with governments? stolen by hackers and used for blackmail? It's so insane the mind reels. I can't believe anyone is even thinking about using this platform.
Oh, I'm sure Google will "promise" not to do anything "evil" with this platform. But always remember two things: (1) corporate policies can shift at the whim of the board and the shareholders, especially if the board's makeup changes, and (2) governments can compel corporations to cooperate, both by legal means and extra-legal/para-legal threats and incentives. Finally: nothing is completely secure against malicious hackers.
It's an alarming trend. Each new form factor that has departed from the PC has brought with it an order of magnitude ratcheting up of feudal control and reduction in user control: PDAs, smart phones, tablets, and now this, which is off-the-charts insane.
I'm astounded that Google is getting away with it, honestly. Microsoft would never have been permitted to even contemplate something like what Google and Apple have done without wailing and gnashing of teeth.
I really think we need a term for this stuff: feudal computing. It's a total 180-degree turn away from everything the PC and Internet revolutions stood for.
I predict that Glass will fail because of this, not the technology, and I really hope it does. If it succeeds in its present form it's a dangerous harbinger of things to come. Say goodbye to general purpose computation for the masses.
Again I ask: what would people have said if Microsoft had proposed a new OS revision that monitored everything you did and uploaded it to MS, permitted only MS to have administrative rights, and permitted only software approved by MS to execute?
I'm just amazed at how all you have to do is change the name of the company and change the form factor of the machine and people don't see it anymore. Are people that concrete-bound?
I'm not even a FOSS zealot. I don't think everything should be free, especially not free-as-in-beer. I actually wonder if the free-as-in-beer mentality is part of why we're seeing this-- there is no other way to make money since people will not pay for a plain OS or software anymore. Everything has to be paid for, so things have to be monetized differently... like by taking away all privacy and control and selling the user to advertisers and governments.