May 2013

Maile meets Glass

A couple weeks ago we got a pair of Google Glass (is that how you write that?) at the Pocket office. I took them home this weekend to try it out.

We gave them a good workout – Grandma and Papa Boston were in town and we were all over the city. We went down to the new Exploratorium, the Ferry Building, took a pedal cab, headed over to Presidio Picnic, went kite flying and did plenty of goofing around. In the video below almost every picture and video was taken with Google Glass (there are a couple I threw in that Papa Boston took of me wearing them).

My overall impression is that while it is a pretty cool experience to use, I don’t think they are something I’d wear on a regular basis and I see a lot of challenges to this particular form factor being adopted on a wide scale. Some more specific thoughts:

• They were actual quite comfortable to wear – I was aware that I had them on, but didn’t find them uncomfortable and unless I specifically was trying to look at the screen, they didn’t get in the way of my normal interactions with people.
• The screen worked pretty well – it’s pretty small, but for basic notifications (like the score of a ballgame) it works fine. The screen is pretty hard to see in sunlight though.
• I don’t think this would replace me reaching in to my pocket and pulling out my phone for most things – you can get emails on it, but I don’t see that I would use it for that. The primary use cases for me were photos, videos, navigation and quick notifications (scores, weather, breaking news, etc.)
• I did feel a bit ridiculous wearing them around the city – part of that is the novelty factor, lots of people come up to you and ask about them. Everyone was really excited about them though – still, just don’t see this going mainstream as it currently is designed.
• You can judge for yourself in the video above, but I think the perspective is a lot of fun, especially with the girls. There were definitely moments I was able to capture that would have been ruined if I was trying to do it with my phone. I was able to be completely “in the moment” rough housing around with Maile or flying the kite – I liked that aspect a lot.

My friend, Jon, said it best, that there is a pretty good chance we look back at this post in the same way we laugh at the pictures of our parents from the 70’s, 80’s, etc. and laugh at what they were wearing. Google Glass may be my perm.

(Click here for the video.)

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