Google Glass surrenders...

Google Glass sales halted but firm says kit is not dead - BBC News

Google are discontinuing Glass. I wonder what the implications for wearables in general is?

dbm said:

Google are discontinuing Glass. I wonder what the implications for wearables in general is?

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Sometimes some products are ahead of their time. The Apple Newton PDA is a classic example. Google is/was definitely a leader in this area (didn't seem like many other companies were jumping on the idea of smart glasses...just yet). One BIG thing against "smart glasses" is...MANY folks don't want to wear glasses (for a number of reasons) that's why we have contact lenses.

"Wearables" includes watch's...and there seems to be quite a few companies making smart watches. So I'm thinking smart watches have a better chance of succeeding.

- Nick

I Agree with you Nick.. But the Apple iWatch is to much of an iPod extension it seems.. There were computer stuff designed to run with the iPod that would project the screen onto a wall and let user interact like a normal computer interface.. It wasn't all that bad, its even being able to help navigate blind people.. Plus its open source.. But I forgot the name.. LOL

That wasn't the reason Google Glass in its present incarnation didn't work. The reason it didn't work was because none of the pictures showed off the GIANT battery behind the ear, because it made your face asymmetrical, because people don't like having cameras pointed directly at them, because the people who wore it everywhere were creepy, and because you could not tell if it was recording you. If I saw a guy walking down the street towards me wearing one, I would cross the street. The whole thing was very Big Brother-y and poorly implemented, plus I can only imagine the number of car crashes that would have resulted if they had ever become popular.

It was a bad idea, badly implemented. When you whip out a smartphone to take the gang's picture, you inherently have the gang's permission. Google Glass removed that "invisible contract" and made people uncomfortable.

The question in my mind was whether glasses in general are a bad idea for wearable tech (at least for the immediate future) and so whether smart watches will get more attention as the 'best' wearable form.

I'm intending to get an Aplle Watch on day 1, but then I am heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem and see it as a useful extension of that. If I couldn't see a use for me I would be less interested.

As a glasses wearer I have no problems with the face furniture aspect of Glass but I agree that it was probably cumbersome to wear for an extended period. And I would expect paranoia from people I met or worked with. Am I videoing them? Am I surfing the Internet covertly? Too many questions at this point.

I see it as just another privacy invasion.
I see no use for them.

pigoo3 said:

"Wearables" includes watch's...and there seems to be quite a few companies making smart watches. So I'm thinking smart watches have a better chance of succeeding.

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I think they're an interesting idea in theory but the question is "why do we need one?" They either do a subset of what a smartphone does or they do what a smartphone does in a considerably less comprehensive way. Honestly, why do I need to save 3 seconds by looking at a watch when a phone, in my pocket, will do what the watch will 100x better? What's most perplexing is that you're right - Apple will probably sell a lot of them.

vansmith said:

What's most perplexing is that you're right - Apple will probably sell a lot of them.

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I think that because a bunch of manufacturers are making (or plan on making) smart watches...this gives it a better chance of being a "survivable" product.

Yes you're right...it may not do much more (or even less) than smartphone's...and maybe we don't need a smart watch. But who the heck know's what it will morph into (features/abilities) with strong competition.

Heck...I bet when the first gen. iPad's came out there were folks saying "why do we need this"...a laptop computer does so much more. Of course not too many folks would say that now (at least for the most part).

I'm on the fence with smart watches. For the most part they're pretty darn ugly & chunky. Manufacturers are going to have to "pretty" them up quite a bit to get me interested.

The problem with glasses (Google glasses) and watches (smart watches) is...glasses & watches are fashion accessories. If they're ugly...gonna be difficult to sell a lot of them to folks who are very conscious about their personal appearance.

An ugly set of glasses or an big ugly chunky smart watch is kind of like wearing a set of these:



- Nick

pigoo3 said:

I'm on the fence with smart watches. For the most part they're pretty darn ugly & chunky. Manufacturers are going to have to "pretty" them up quite a bit to get me interested.

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Can I add battery life to that as well? No one seems able to crack a day of charge and the Apple Watch doesn't seem poised to do it either (source).

vansmith said:

Can I add battery life to that as well? No one seems able to crack a day of charge and the Apple Watch doesn't seem poised to do it either...

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Yes this is a problem too. And I'm afraid that if longer battery life was needed/required. The watch would either lose features...or get even chunkier (bigger battery).

Of course if some newer battery tech. can be used...this could help (longer battery life & slimmer design).

- Nick

Google glasses never appealed to me on a lot of levels. The biggest being how would they get my trifocal lens in the thing??? I have enough issues getting my glasses prescription set to work for me now. Getting old is not what it is cracked up to be!

As for the apple watch - I am interested. I have no issues with it being big around but if it is too thick that could be an issue. I like wearing a watch and the added features would be nice.

Daily charging is not an issue for me because I charge everything at night anyway. Now if they could come up with one that has solar charging that would be sweet! And it would solve the daily charging or more issue.

Lisa

Since my current wristwatch looks like this:

The size and shape of an Apple Watch is a complete non-issue to me. The battery life only really needs to be 18hrs too since I can charge it every night no problem.

For me, I can see use scenarios around controlling my ATV and AirPlay music from the watch. I don't always have my phone in my pocket in the house.

Genuinely silent notifications (vibrate on the phone is really quite loud) will be useful in work. I will turn vibrate off on the phone and may even turn the ringer off all the time, too.

In my car I have a Bluetooth dongle which means I can play my music through the stereo but can't use Siri via the car phone mic. I can see scenarios where using Siri via the watch will allow me to voice-control my music, even if my phone is in my jeans pocket (very hard to get out when sitting in the car) or in the boot (trunk for the colonials).

I am planning to buy one for my wife, too, as she never hears her phone ring when it's in her hand bag. This drives me nuts!

And I like gadgets.

Like it pigoo3 said on the iPad, I'm sure there will be other usage scenarios too which I can't anticipate yet. I would find being without the iPad a major inconvenience now.

I am planning to buy one for my wife, too, as she never hears her phone ring when it's in her hand bag. This drives me nuts!

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And there you have it! My reason for getting her an Apple watch. Her phone rings in her purse and she NEVER hears it. Just the idea of a haptic notice that it's ringing makes it worth whatever they charge.

We had a vendor show up wearing those glasses one day. A lot of IT employees, and a surprising number of women, wanted to blast the guy in the face. He was asked to remove them for "security reasons" and grudgingly obliged. I personally don't care one way or another about them, but I'd decline to interact with someone until they took them off. Remove the video and people would probably grow to accept them more easily - too much too soon.

Won't buy an Apple watch. But then, I've never worn a watch - old school, used pocket watches.
Quit carrying those around not too long after the first iPhone.

What I do like about it and hope there is enough interest in it - the size means that the industry will need to continue developing CPUs, GPUs, batteries, etc. more and more powerful until one day - probably after I'm gone - we'll have a touchscreen tablet with a pull out hidden keyboard that's not much heavier than the top lid of my MacBook Air.

We have super compact computer technology these days. But battery technology has been dragging behind and is holding compact devices back. Battery alone accounts for about 2/3rds of the size of our iPod and iPhone sizes.. Just imagine what could be made if your iPhone batter was the size of a wrist watch battery.