The Plan to Make Google Glass Seem Totally Normal Is Backfiring

[onehandle]

Google's attempts to ease the world into the freakishness that is Google Glass has done just the opposite, with a lot of people very turned off before the computer glasses go on sale to the public. Since announcing the wearable computer back in April of last year, Google has done the slowest roll out of all time, first starting with Google Glass Biggest Fan Sergey Brin wearing them everywhere, and then, more recently letting some tech nerds play with them at South by Southwest. The move made sense, considering how drastic a face piece looks compared with most of the other, non-wearable gadgets coming out these days. But, it just hasn't worked.

Since the very first Google Glass video, critics have called them "creepy." It took only nine months for someone to think of the term "glasshole" and another three months for the term to find its way on a non-tech blog. Just yesterday it was Urban Dictionary's Word of the Day. Some closed-minded bars have preemptively banned them, and even more open-minded ones find them weird. On top of that, they're creepy in a stalker way and in a computer overload way. And of course, there are the requisite privacy complaints.

But, was there really any way Google could have introduced these very different things without such a strong negative response? Nothing will make these any less funny looking, not even Warby Parker style horn rims. And something so inherently dorky and invasive is fertile ground for Internet jokes. It should be noted that a lot of tech nerds can't wait for them.

Then again, maybe if Google weren't so annoyingly enthusiastic about a thing it hasn't fully explained and won't let anyone touch the general public would cultivate an actual appreciation for the thing. As of right now, the only impression anyone has of the glasses are some vague promotional videos, a few hands on moments as SXSW and images of Brin taking them down into the subway, where presumably they don't really work. Nothing out there has explained why anyone not obsessed with technology should overcome aesthetic judgments and put these things on.

http://news.yahoo.com/plan-google-glass-seem-totally-normal-backfiring-214839439.html

Google Hopes Google Glass Won't Get You Beat Up

Let's put it out there: people wearing Google Glasses look weird. We're not used to seeing people with working computers for eyes. One Seattle bar took things a step further, though, by threatening to beat up anyone wearing the new eyewear. Google doesn't get what all the fuss is about.

"It is still very early days for Glass, and we expect that as with other new technologies, such as cell phones, behaviors and social norms will develop over time," a Google representative told CNET. Google is so naive thinking a statement like that would protect them from bullies. Google founder Sergey Brin said smartphones make him feel emasculated. Why the company doesn't get that their glasses are even worse is beyond comprehension?

But that's what Google hopes! The company was responding to threats from famous Seattle dive bar The 5 Point Cafe. The bar banned anyone wearing the glasses from their premises. Their message was simple: "ass kickings will be encouraged for violators."

But apparently that needed expanding, as if it was somehow unclear, so bar owner Dave Meinert told KIRO-FM in Seattle more about the policy. It's about privacy. "You have to understand the culture of The 5 Point which is a sometimes seedy, maybe notorious place and I think people want to go there and be not known," Meinert told the station. "Part of this is a joke, to be funny on Facebook and get a reaction, but part of it is serious because we don't let people film other people or take photos unwanted of other people in the bar because it's kind of a private place people go." Of the things we know Google Glass can do, taking video is one of the biggest features.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/03/google-hopes-google-glass-wont-get-you-beat/62936/

[Bonobo]

1. OMG!! You work for Apple!!!! Fanboy! Fanboy!!!

[onehandle]

2. Google Glasses work with Apple Products. Anyone can be a Glasshole.

And I don't work for Apple.

[Bonobo]

3. Sarcasm, friend. Sarcasm. nt

[onpatrol98]

4. a bar is kind of a private place people go....

A bar is a private place?

People film and take pictures of people ALL THE TIME. Youtube??? Heck, even DU is full of pictures of politicians taken in awkward positions so we can get a good laugh at their expense. Even if Google glass flops, it will eventually be overtaken by something else as the technology improves. That's unfortunately just the march of time. Many of us thought the idea of sharing every moment of your life on Facebook was a stupid idea. But, oh well. People once thought the idea of a "car" was stupid.

[frylock]

5. google's greatest failure was not allowing apple to create them first..

if Apple had created them, they'd be touted as the greatest invention of all time.

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. +1 n/t

[Apophis]

7. Exactly.

[Apophis]

8. I can't wait to get a pair.

I've always wanted my own HUD.

[onehandle]

9. I have an HUD in my car. Helps me focus on the road.

I don't mumble to it and upload the actions of everybody around me with it to help Google sell ads.

[treestar]

10. People can take cell phone photos

So this doesn't seem much different.

A bar is a private place?

[geek tragedy]

11. Google Glass and the iWatch are duds waiting to happen.

The Glasses have already gotten thumped pretty hard.

As far as the iWatch is concerned--there's a reason why mechanical watches sell for a lot more than digital ones. And it has nothing to do with function or accuracy.

[onehandle]

12. The 'iWatch' rumor is based on a lightweight patent Apple registered.

Last edited Fri Mar 15, 2013, 02:12 PM - Edit history (1)

They sketch something. They register it.

Nobody knows anything about it, or if it even exists. Many tech bloggers think it doesn't.

That being said, I was skeptical of the iPad. It ended up totally killing the netbook market and had copycats scrambling to catch up. Apple is projected to dominate total number of tablets in use until at least 2017. A market that didn't exist before iPad.

[Paul E Ester]

13. iWatch Concept video. Dorky or Not?

[CosmicDustBunny]

14. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.