GOOGLE GLASS \ For rich hipsters only
So recently I had the chance to play around with Google Glass at work when a digital tech agency came through to show us what they’re made of. Now I am in no way a tech genius nor am I educated in tech development but I honestly took this experience from a consumers point of view.
At first glance the “spectacles of the future” looked absolutely sleek and something you would find in an episode of Extant. Once I put them on, my feeling towards the product changed. To turn it on you can either tilt your head backward or tap the side of the frame. Now because we all want to be cool looking hipsters I threw my head backward (possibly clicking my Medulla Oblongata) and the tiny spherical screen next to my right eyeball came on and prompted me to either swipe the side of the frame or speak to this thing on my head. I chose to speak (again with the hipsterism). I had to say “Ok Glass” in a yankie accent so this thing could understand me, then I just gave up with the gimmicky crap and started using my finger to maneuver around the user interface. Played some games, googled “nike airmax” (which it picked up as MX) that just made me “mxm” and I took a couple of awkward pictures of my colleagues sitting across from me in the boardroom.
There was no face recognition. No “tell-me-about-the-history-of-the-object-I’m-holding” action. No feature that could let me call a friend. Just a tiny screen that can link to WiFi, take bad pictures and share those bad pictures to Instagram. All for the glorious price of 27 thousand South African Rands.
Now never doubt the fact that it is a cool product, yes for what it does it does it well, if you were a yankie speaking hipster living in a broadband lighting speed neighbourhood that has money to spend on concept products, it works brilliantly. But if you’re an umlungu living in a city that fights for free WiFi hotspots, appreciates completely designed and thought through products as well as wanting something that is practical, well, its clearly won’t work well for you.
I’ve read up on some articles and they are promising more app additions and some new software. My question is why release a product that is half done just to tell your friends that you have glasses that can google. We have phones for that, and those phones don’t burn a layer of your cornea after half an hour of use. I must admit though I looked good with them on, so a selfie was inevitable. I know, douche level 1000.