Google Glass, my first 3 days.
I received my Google Glass finally, on Monday. It’s been very hard to get it. UPS did mess up the delivery, so I couldn’t get it before Christmas, and once in the USA, as I am currently in London, I had to get someone to pick it up and bring it back. Anyways, at last, after a lot of tribulations, I finally could put it on me and test it out ! By the way, yes 1500$ is very expensive.
The first big issue I found out, is that as I wear prescription glasses, it was very hard to see the whole screen, but I finally understood after 3 days of intense breaking of glasses, that the Google Glass “small plastic screen” is adjustable! Finally, no more dark borders, and I can wear the Google glasses on top of my glasses. Still, I contacted a company in the US that is making prescription google glasses. We will see how this goes in the future.
The second challenge – I am French, and my English has a tiny “Arr” accent. So when I ask for Park Plaza, Google search keeps writing F*** Plaza ! Or, when I ask to “Google” things, most of the time, the voice recognition engine doesn’t understand a word of what I am saying. My son keeps saying “You have to say Goog-All” – I will keep trying. At least, the device will make me practice my English accent.
So, yes, the first day with the glasses have not been easy (for my prescription glasses), and I was not very impressed, as it would seem that Google Glass is a nice camera, but nothing else. However, amid my initial impression, the device started to grow on me, wearing it that night, and watching some CNN / BBC news videos. Then the next day, from morning to evening, getting information on the very bad weather we are having at the moment, or just to see what’s going on in General.
Anyways, it didn’t go without some slight web development from my side, as the google glasses only permit to search, not to “browse”. So I hijacked my son’s website www.crazyvideogame.com (that I can search by saying “Crrrazy video game dot com”), so that when a glass device connects to it, it display a very nice Javascript keyboard, that one can operate with the head pointing system of Google, as well as finger click. The engine permits to go on any URL, and do any kind of google search – I admit, its faster to type CNN.COM than ANYOTHERBIGNAMENEWWEBSITE.COM, but the good thing is that it works! This has really been my first development here, a WEB one.
It was then time to install custom native apps on Glasses, but first, to be able to install GlassWare on an android phone, to see what is more interesting than the web version. For this being in the UK required me to find the APK to download on the web, which was easy (simple google search can help). GlassWare on android is not fantastic, it just adds the functionality to “ScreenCast”, which makes your android phone display what is in your Google Glass screen. Hopefully with more updates, GlassWare will be more interesting.
I then installed some GlassWare apps, which are fun, and decided to install unofficial apps from Google (Fly an helicopter is genius !) – for this, installation of “adb” on my windows computer, and some tweaking with the USB drivers did it. The only issue with installing custom apps is that they can make your actual Google Glass react strangely, like Insight, which made some QR code scanning pop up in the middle of any actions I was doing.
Being able to install/write native apps, as well as web apps – this now means to me that the possibilities are big with the devices, and yes I am addicted to it now.
Anyways, long story short. I still do not feel comfortable enough to wear the Google Glasses in public. Also please bear in mind that in the UK, you might attract a lot of attention playing in public with these. But, as I think Google Glass is only the start of something much bigger (remember the first cell phones), I really want to overcome this internal fear, and will wear it, write apps, and hopefully it will make my life better, easier and cooler!