back to article Kiss your Glass goodbye: Google mothballs techno-specs (for now)

Google is killing off its Glass Explorer program but insists this isn't the end for co-founder Sergey Brin's controversial sci-fi head-gear. In a post to the official Glass Google+ account on Thursday, the Chocolate Factory said it will quit selling the current version of its spy-goggles to individuals on January 19, although …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Now if they sell them off at a reasonable price...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Now if they sell them off at a reasonable price...

      Yes, I can't help but being very amused at early buyers hoping for stardom against any shred of common sense, It was dorky and stupidly invasive, made by a company that saw no problem with declaring privacy dead when it suited it. Of course this demise will be buried under BS that makes it look like it was planned all along, a bit like when they pulled out of China "because of hacking" instead of not having made a dent in Baidu's market share.

      Hurray, it's dead. Next.

      1. Naughtyhorse

        Next....

        How about those fucking ridiculous massive smart watches?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Except it isn't dead. They graduated the product from labs into production. The official launch of the product is coming, instead of as a prototype program.

  2. Eddy Ito

    Explorers, we asked you to be pioneers, and you took what we started and went further than we ever could have dreamed: from the large hadron collider at CERN, to the hospital operating table;

    I suppose it works if it was exploratory surgery.

    But it does beg the question as to who was wearing them.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      The implementation was undeniably ugly but there's really SO much promise to the concept. Maybe not for every-day use - that depends on fashion as much as utility - but for many, many learning and educational uses.

      I have a few great app ideas but it seems a bit pointless to work on them with nobody to sell the apps to :(

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I have a few great app ideas but it seems a bit pointless to work on them with nobody to sell the apps to :(

        I can see this kind of product do well in a contained market - cameras are already used in many processes where the ability to review things afterwards is great, or image overlays would be of great help if they do not impair sharpness of vision (think surgery, for instance). Where I cannot see this work is in public use, basically expanding the range of ever present CCTV until it reaches into the house.

        As long as there is a 3rd party who has any way of accessing what you see (and I would not put it past Google to have that sort of access) I personally think it right to flat out ban people with it near your life. Not to mention that I don't want to be surrounded by people who have given up both common sense and their sense of fashion in one go.

        1. JDX Gold badge

          I recommend reading "The Light of Other Days" (SF novel) as a "what if privacy disappeared" thought experiment. It's quite apt. For that matter, the Culture universe (Iain M Banks) - which is often depicted as a free-thinking utopia - shares this concept although it's not really a key theme.

          1. AbelSoul
            Big Brother

            Re: the Culture universe (Iain M Banks)

            One salient difference between the Culture and current society is that, so long as it doesn't cause harm to anyone else, nothing is taboo in the Culture.

            Members of that society are free to engage in whatever vice they like, either alone or with other consenting adults. Were we living in such a society, the privacy concerns raised by things like Glass would be much diminished (though not completely gone, I don't think).

            Alas, we are a very, *very* long way away from that.

          2. Stevie

            The Light of Other Days

            Had to google this because I know a Bob Shaw short "Light of Other Days", which is an excellent story revolving around "slow glass", which had no privacy invasion in it (actually it did, but not in the way you'd expect).

            If you are intrigued I recommend not Wiki-ing the Shaw story, but finding it and reading it from an unspoiled standpoint.

      2. chivo243 Silver badge
        Big Brother

        @JDX

        "SO much promise to the concept."

        - I could see some medical or scientific applications benefiting from this kind of technology. But from a social standpoint it's creepy, like those bluetooth phones people have hanging out of their ears.... They belong in the clouds with Lando Calrissian's posse.

      3. Cuddles

        "there's really SO much promise to the concept. Maybe not for every-day use - that depends on fashion as much as utility - but for many, many learning and educational uses."

        This is by far the biggest problem with GGlass. Everyone can come up with all kinds of ideas where such an idea could be useful - combined cycle computer and sports glasses, same for many other sports, education, medicine, the military, and so on. But Google ignored all that and came up with a completely useless product marketed at narcissistic twats with more money than sense. There are all kinds of uses for glasses with a built in HUD, but they tried to make it nothing more than a fashion accessory, while simultaneously making it as unfashionable as they possibly could. It's not the idea of GGlass that is the problem, it's that Google tried to get everyone to use it in one of the few situations where it has no actual use.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          They should be mandated for all on duty police. Each shift should be recorded and stored for a period of time, and be available for review in case of complaint, interaction or arrest.

  3. djstardust

    I'd rather be a commentard than a glasshole .....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Holmes

      Lucky you then.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Pass me the bucket...

    "Glass was in its infancy, and you took those very first steps and taught us how to walk," the Glass team wrote. "Well, we still have some work to do, but now we’re ready to put on our big kid shoes and learn how to run."

    I have a bit of sick in my mouth and I feel more coming.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. King Jack

      Re: Pass me the bucket...

      Read today's Dilbert comic strip....

    3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Pass me the bucket...

      "Big kid shoes"? As Dorothy Parker wrote, that was the point "at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up".

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It wouldn't have been that bad if it weren't for the camera, and the "i'm a wanker" style

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    About turn

    It's quite amazing the sheer speed with which this turned from a device everybody slavered over (pre public launch) to one that made you an instant social pariah everyone felt comfortable ridiculing. The venomous dislike reminded me of that scene in "The Last Emperor" when the former jailer is paraded down the street in a dunces cap with a sign round his neck during the Cultural Revolution.

    Apart from anything else it just arrived at the wrong time, when privacy went from 'what's that' to 'hot topic' almost overnight. Amusing that Google themselves played no small part in that coming to pass.

    1. BongoJoe

      Re: About turn

      Everyone?

      When this was announced I believe my response was along the lines of "I'm not touching that peice of wankboi shit with a proverbial."

  7. petur

    misleading title?

    I understand it more as moving from testlab to actual mass-product.... not exactly axing it.

    (yes I know it says 'axing the explorer program', but it makes you feel like the whole thing is over)

    1. Mark 85

      Re: misleading title?

      Have an upvote for that. I read the article twice to make sure, but that headline is off the mark. I am wondering what they'll do for the "production" version. And no, I won't buy for myself.

    2. localzuk Silver badge

      Re: misleading title?

      Indeed. The BBC is presenting it in an "its dead Jim" manner also. I don't really read it as that though.

      Google's X labs are for pure out of the box thinking. Google Glass is no longer a "new" idea and is mature enough that it can happily be its own department - that doesn't seem like being axed to me. If it were being axed, surely they would've reduced staffing or moved the head to something else instead?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: misleading title?

      That's how I read it too..

      :-?

      1. VinceH

        Re: misleading title?

        Quite. The article clearly states it's the "explorer" project that's being wound down, that Glass will be moved from Google X to its own division, and that a new version will be appearing in 2015.

        These are hardly indications of Google kissing Glass goodbye and binning it, as per the headline.

        I was quite disappointed when I read the article to discover the title was so misleading.

      2. Bloakey1

        Re: misleading title?

        I agree I read it as the same but it seems that the wish is the father to the act in journalism, others are reporting its demise.

        It has gone from a "blue sky thinking lab" <sick><sic> that deals with ideas and concepts to a unit that deals in products and production runs.

        So not dead but about to pass the cervix and head for the exit to have its umbilical cut in order that it might breath on its own.

        I would not touch them but they would be great for some of the sporty things I do.

        1. petur

          Re: misleading title?

          It looks like Neil McAllister thought he could do even better, and changed the title into something that is even more incorrect.

          I filed him permanently under Google Glass Hater....

    4. DaLo

      Re: misleading title?

      I completely agree with you but Google did take Wave out of invitation beta and opened it up to everyone before shutting it down a few months later.

      So I wouldn't definitely say that pulling something out of experimental means a whole lot either way, it was probably just to free up resources in X and see if a commercial department can make anything out of it.

  8. aearon

    "they have won some converts in certain industries, such as healthcare"

    It seems like there are a lot of business applications for something like this. Truck drivers and cabbies could get easy to use GPS. Police officers can have information streamed (Robocop!). Waitresses could see when orders are ready. I'm sure there are military applications although they probably already have something similar. In short, there is a decent potential to be pretty USEFUL devices.

    But no, Google insisted on marketing to hipsters. Instead of trying to be useful, they tried to make them "cool." And they should have known that wearing a computer on your face was never going to be cool.

    1. Fluffy Bunny
      Thumb Up

      Re: "they have won some converts in certain industries, such as healthcare"

      The police already use dashcams to provide evidence of what happened. It avoids the "he said, she said" problems. Think about how effective personal cams would be to solve the same problems. Cops shot a suspect who claimed to be unarmed/putting the gun down/etc? Well, they would be able to show what the officer actually saw and why they made the decision they did.

      1. petur

        Re: "they have won some converts in certain industries, such as healthcare"

        Read the comment again... not streaming stuff from the police officer, but to.

        Think about getting info quickly i.s.o. calling the office and have somebody look it up and read it to you. Or use the cam to quickly lookup a car registration number.

        And dashcams/bodycams are mostly recording devices, good for evidence *if* there is a problem, a glass camera could be used to make a picture of a crime and add it to a file...

        1. Euchrid

          Re: "they have won some converts in certain industries, such as healthcare"

          That's an interesting idea about information being streamed to the user in those circumstances.

          Re: body-worn cameras, the UK surveillance commissioner discussed this in a recent interview:

          “If people are going round with surveillance equipment attached to them, there should be a genuinely good and compelling reason for that. It changes the nature of society and raises moral and ethical issues … about what sort of society we want to live in … I’ve heard that supermarkets are issuing staff with body-worn videos. For what purpose? There is nothing immediately obvious to me.”

          http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/06/tony-porter-surveillance-commissioner-risk-cctv-public-transparent

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "they have won some converts in certain industries, such as healthcare"

      But no, Google insisted on marketing to hipsters. Instead of trying to be useful, they tried to make them "cool." And they should have known that wearing a computer on your face was never going to be cool.

      However much I dislike(d) the product, that idea was actually clever. Industry sales have a long sales cycle (close to a year) which involves a lot of talk and testing to prove the concept. By deluding hipsters by making them think it was cool to look like an idiot they ensured a nice test platform, with the high price assuring the people who bought it were certainly going to use it instead of making the costly first hardware lie in a cupboard collecting dust. It's a clever way to abuse a fan base, hats off.

    3. Bloakey1

      Re: "they have won some converts in certain industries, such as healthcare"

      <snip>

      " I'm sure there are military applications although they probably already have something similar. In short, there is a decent potential to be pretty USEFUL devices."

      <snip>

      They do have the technology already. The French are ahead of the game on this and the second regiment of the Foreign Legion is totally geared up a la robocop. They have display panels on their chest, inbuilt GPS, cameras on rifles etc. The US and Brits are very envious of it all.

      This does not show all the new Gucci stuff but explains concepts and some of the kit, check helmet with night vision etc.;

      http://www.army-technology.com/projects/felin/

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "they have won some converts in certain industries, such as healthcare"

        They do have the technology already. The French are ahead of the game on this and the second regiment of the Foreign Legion is totally geared up a la robocop. They have display panels on their chest, inbuilt GPS, cameras on rifles etc. The US and Brits are very envious of it all.

        Looks good, I hope it works. However, this does also mean that we probably have arms manufacturers testing EMR sensitive landmines, given that they have a preference for profiting from BOTH sides of a conflict? Thankfully it's the Legion, they also know how to get on without any technology (the Brits are rather good at that too, mainly out of necessity :) ).

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yet another Google fail. Although you would not think it from their condescending, ‘too cool for school’, type attitude, it appears that Google are not capable of building any products outside of their core search engine that people actually want to use. They bought all of their other ‘hits’ (YouTube, Android, Nest, Boston Dynamics). Whereas Google+, Wave, Glass etc are all utter failures. Wonder how their ‘self driving car’ business will go… It seems the world is realizing that having a creepy US megacorp spy on your every move and sell your personal information to the highest bidder is not such a good thing after all….

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      That's partly fair, but only partly. Gmail and Google maps were both huge hits that they've been so successful at knitting into their core business that we don't really see them as separate anymore. Android has also been a hit at least in terms of supporting their core business in a newly mobile world (which is really the only reason they should release any product).

      Almost everything else has been a failure, and the cycle is surprisingly consistent.

      Like Apple they seem to just think people will take from Google because they're Google.

      Unlike Apple people don't.

      I expect their cloud and domain registration businesses to follow the same cycle as both fall well outside Google ' s normal comfort zone and will be quietly put on the back burner when they become too much effort.

    2. localzuk Silver badge

      Somewhat odd analysis, considering Google Apps being used by millions of people worldwide, with its various different apps. Google Maps is pretty popular too...

      Are Google somehow alone in their acquisitions methodology for development? Apple have bought 62 companies since 1988. Microsoft have bought 169 companies since 1987.

      Sure, Google buy a lot of companies - 174 since 2001, but does the number actually matter? Just look at the products that come from them for each company - a lot of the "big" releases of the last decade were started by little companies, bought up by big corporations and then polished and marketed by them.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Maps was built out of acquisitions...

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Maps#Acquisitions

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I came, I glassed

    I failed to conquer...

  11. Mystic Megabyte
    Alert

    Google hosting malware

    Off topic, how do you report to Google that they host malware?

    All of the links on this page are not to a Python utility but html malware serving pages.

    https://code.google.com/p/sppyqt/source/clones

    Presumably there is a lot more of this crap on code.google

  12. JimC

    I'm looking forward

    To my wrist computer, programmable with Gps, phone, everything on my smart phone except for a large display. No bigger than a normal watch either. The trouble is for the outdoor sports I do both are going to need to be virtually indestructible because they'll get treated just as badly as a cheap digital watch,, but will be rather less disposable.

    Think the tech is getting in sight now, but it's a big ask on the physical side. Having a waterproof phone I can take on a boat has been a happy step, but I think the wrist comp will need another level of miniaturisation.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm looking forward

      I can see this feature "kinetic recharge" facilities.

      I'll go and hide now, but in my defence, it IS Friday :)

  13. Euchrid

    Elephant in the room

    Sad to see that so much of the reporting of this news isn’t mentioning the harassment that the brave pioneers who wore the glasses had to regularly contend with – we need more hard-hitting reporting like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClvI9fZaz6M

  14. a well wisher

    Dumped ?

    Has Brin's Google Glasses girlfriend (Amanda Rosenberg) been axed too ?

  15. russsh

    Come back in twenty years

    Google's "Apple Newton" moment?

  16. JDX Gold badge

    Pretty misleading title

    They've stopped selling the prototype version and moving the development team out of the "pie in the sky department" into a real division - that sounds more like gearing up for a real product to me.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Pretty misleading title

      They probably cannot afford to back out of their TIA promises to the NSA anyway..

      It will take some updating of movies, though. The new Jason Bourne movie will have CIA agents switch from Glasshole to Glasshole tracking a fugitive. "We need eyes on Bond Street" - "Got a Glasshole in that location, Sir" "Well, switch over" "He's looking the wrong way, Sir" "Feed him some crap that makes him turn his head then, get on with it" "Moving blonde projected .. and we have a visual, Sir"

      Implausible? You do recall this was the company that "accidentally" sniffed any unprotected Wifi in a pretty much global campaign? I wouldn't put this past them. Well, that is, if they somehow manage to make being a Glasshole socially acceptable. Thankfully that didn't work with v1.

  17. John Styles

    It's like a zen koan, if Google announces something about a failed product on Google+, does anyone notice?

  18. Frederick Tennant

    Great Idea bad market

    Google glass should have been sold to the military not the general public. The resulting uptake of this product created two types of public, the "haves" and the "have nots" or the "intimidated" what would you think if a person was talking to was wearing "Glass?" What was they looking at? what app was running? it automatically creates paranoia etc.

    it was never going to work and as for the price, well, they are not Apple users, they are a breed which often are repeat customers who have always paid over the odds, for the supposed build quality ease of use etc.

    Wearable tech should be for the disabled. Google should have looked at their own software division who should have made better apps for their own products, who would build a product and no software to create some desire to buy....oh Google lol

    1. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

      Re: Great Idea bad market

      Well it certainly brought out the haters; the people who like to beat up on nerds just for being nerds.

      There is no doubt that the concept of Google glasses strayed into areas which people were not comfortable with but that in itself does not make them an entirely bad idea. Just look at the number of people who criticised the cost rather than what they were.

      It will be interesting to see what lessons Google has learned from their initial deployment. It is not always possible to know what actual boundaries there are without pushing at them. Some ideas succeed and some fail. Google did get it wrong in some respects but I cannot criticise Google for testing the waters and having the courage to do so.

  19. TRT Silver badge

    I could see it working as a component of a helmet or visor, say in extreme sports, but for day-to-day use it's just so obvious and ugly. Now if they'd gone with just a camera in the glasses, no unstylish pokey-out display module, linked to a wrist mounted unit?

  20. Thecowking

    It was certainly not mature when I used it

    The battery was poor, the camera was impossible to focus properly and the controls were a little clunky.

    I can see it being better in the future though, it just didn't do anything that my pebble doesn't do to a level where it's really worthwhile using it.

    If it launches faster, longer lasting and a little sharper image wise. I'd probably give it another punt, assuming the price came down. I was borrowing them before.

  21. ATtheHun

    While I'm not in least surprised by some of the backlash I ultimately think it's extremely hilarious that with all of the cameras throughout Europe, they haven't yet resigned themselves to the benefits. Glass has amazing potential that most can't even envision yet. It provides the ability augment the human brain much in the same was the movie Limitless describes but via a computer/network rather than a chemical/biological solution. Of course the people sense this possibility but couldn't really put their finger on it but still feared it and therefore ridiculed it. Mark my words, the next iteration won't be as visible but will be 10x as powerful.

    1. LucreLout

      Glass has amazing potential that most can't even envision yet. It provides the ability augment the human brain much in the same was the movie Limitless describes but via a computer/network rather than a chemical/biological solution.

      It most certainly does not.

      Limitless centres around chemically enhancing your IQ such that you are able to grasp concepts quicker, and understand far more complicated ideas than you could without the enhancement. Glass simply provides enhanced access to information - there is no cognitive improvement to aid comprehension. Access to information != understanding.

      That isn't to say Glass was without its uses, only that those uses are, and will always be, so much less than chemically adding a digit to your IQ per the Limitless plot.

  22. John Sturdy
    Boffin

    It seemed a silly idea to me, until...

    I thought it was just a gimmick, until I was trying to find my way around an unfamiliar city in sub-zero weather, when suddenly what I really wanted was a navigational display that I could use without having to hold my phone, and could operate without having to take my gloves off, and I realized that a head-up display with voice control would fit that spec very nicely.

    That being said, I could have chosen a coat with a convenient phone pocket on the outside (and just hoped it was secure enough against pickpockets) and conductive gloves so I could operate the touchscreen. And when the weather's cold enough for me to wear gloves, I also wear a hat, so a head-up display in the brim / peak of a hat would have been OK. But I no longer dismiss the Glass as useless.

    1. Greencat

      Re: It seemed a silly idea to me, until...

      Found myself in a similar situation the other day. Part of London I wasn't familiar with, and a destination around six miles away - fancied a stroll and had a couple of hours to spare.

      I simply put on my headphones, put on an audio book and set Google maps navigation going. It seamlessly faded out and paused my book when it needed to give me instructions - then resumed the book immediately afterwards. Meant I didn't have to look down at anything or look like a Glasshole. Phone never left my pocket so reduced potential for being mugged too.

      YMMV but I felt it was good enough.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It seemed a silly idea to me, until...

        I use the TomTom app for that (so I'm not tied to having a data plan live when abroad), also with ear buds. Works well, and I keep warm :)

  23. Yugguy

    But they made you look a bit...

    Even in an early version like this was, surely they could have created a better form factor.

    One that didn't make you look a bit "special."

  24. envmod

    wearable tech - what a load of shit.

  25. Alan Denman

    Hit by that orchestrated negative campaign

    In a chicken and egg scenario, the media were certainly to blame for this one.

    If it was anyone but Google, all the negative aspects would have been ignored 'at any price'.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's scary

    We can eliminate Google glass but we can't eliminate the unscrupulous people who would use these devices. That is the real problem.

  27. Donkey Molestor X

    the killer app that could've been

    You know what would've made me interested in Google Glass? A pedestrian-friendly minimap. How cool would it have been if you could give it a destination and then have arrows "projected" in front of you to follow to get to it? I've used Google Maps on my phone while walking on city streets with reasonable success but that always carries the risk of having a collision while you're glancing down to the phone. If you could've had translucent arrows guiding you in Google Glass instead - THAT would've been a killer app.

    1. Thecowking

      Re: the killer app that could've been

      it does that.

      The navigation was actually pretty good, but once the novelty wore off, I was still happier using another piece of tech to replace it.

      Glass as is just wasn't good enough to displace anything else in my tech arsenal and not good enough at augmenting them to be worth a purchase.

      I'm hopeful that the new one will be better, because the potential was certainly there.

    2. LucreLout
      Joke

      Re: the killer app that could've been

      If you could've had translucent arrows guiding you in Google Glass instead - THAT would've been a killer app.

      Making every attractive lady appear naked by imaging over her clothes with an age & body type appropriate adult industry star would have been a killer app. Some coloured arrows not so much.

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: the killer app that could've been

        Making every attractive lady appear naked by imaging over her clothes with an age & body type appropriate adult industry star would have been a killer app.

        I am almost certain we discussed that possibility in these hallowed halls when Glass first came out. I remember thinking, and possibly posting, that it really wouldn't be hard - a little HMM or ANN modeling; some image search; and some transformation, which could be done with physiological rules, a model, or a combination.

        "Attractive" is obviously subjective, but it'd be easy enough to only do the overlay if there's a sufficiently-close match. (That wouldn't meet my standards but it'd probably work for anyone unpleasant enough to use such an app.)

        It'd be an interesting project if it weren't so vile - but there are analogous ones (show everyone wearing a flannel shirt, so you can pretend you're in the Pacific northwest!) that are less icky.

    3. Mike Flugennock
      Facepalm

      Re: the killer app that could've been

      "You know what would've made me interested in Google Glass? A pedestrian-friendly minimap. How cool would it have been if you could give it a destination and then have arrows "projected" in front of you..."

      I got yer killer app right here, man. It's called a map... on a sheet of paper. You hit Google Maps before you leave the house, print out the map, fold it up and stick it into your pocket.

      (The st00pid, it buuurrrrrnnnnnsssssss.)

    4. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: the killer app that could've been

      How cool would it have been if you could give it a destination and then have arrows "projected" in front of you to follow to get to it?

      Saving you from having to learn about, or look at, your surroundings, eh? Yes, I can see why that would be appealing to many people.

      Not to me, though.

      Life is short. Experience it.

  28. mmeier

    Wrong producer, wrong os but a good idea

    Sorry but Google is the last company I would trust with a Augmented Reality system. Companies are like Vikings: "The vikings will trade with everyone. With the strong in trade goods, with the weak as trade goods" And with Google you are weak.

    Glasses are hardwired into "Skynet 2.0", depending on their systems for many services, depending on connection for many tasks - no way I buy that, just happily got rid of my Samsung Spyphone.

    Now give me a AR unit from a vendor that makes his money from hardware/software sales and that can work of the privat computer in my attache case/notebook bag, connected using a well encripted PAN and outsourcing many computational parts to that box and you have a customer. That unit would be very useful both on the job and privatly.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If they had taken off?

    How long before unblockable ads were streamed to your eyeball? Remember Google is an ad company, always looking for ways to increase its bottom line.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If they had taken off?

      always looking for ways to increase its bottom line

      So is a pr0n company, but they use at least real bottoms for it :)

  30. WalterAlter
    Happy

    Metaphor Side Slip

    I'm thinking that, much like them US gun nuts like to say "A gun toting society is a polite society", a Google Glassed society might be equally polite. Every "he said/she said" dispute, as well as a lot of court cases would become moot and kids wouldn't be bullied about so much. Store clerks, waiters, public functionaries and muggers will be nice to you. Google Glass of course needs a brand image, but they would find advantage in coming up with a design that looks like an ordinary pair of RayBan's or Blue Blockers or Oscar de la Renta specs.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Metaphor Side Slip

      I'm thinking that, much like them US gun nuts like to say "A gun toting society is a polite society", a Google Glassed society might be equally polite

      That's another argument to keep this crud far away from social life - it is already evident that distribution of conversations outside the private zone they were meant for have a crushing effect on freedom of expression and even your thinking (which made me wonder yet again about New Labour's love of CCTV) - you CERTAINLY don't want an unelected profiteer who acknowledges no rules unless forced to be in charge of such a platform.

      1. WalterAlter

        Re: Metaphor Side Slip

        I see CCTV technology as unavoidable in the world of political reality. Attacking the technology rather than the yobs who implement it is a typical example of mistargeting. It's simply going to happen in the post Charlie Hebdo event circus. Blame terrorism for all the surveillance state tools we are immersed in. Brace yourselves for lie detectors and xray at a distance, remote thought reading and involuntary cerebral data dumps. The game is just warming up. Blame terrorism and its historic roots which are coming home to roost- imperialism and colonialism, which we are quickly learning were guided by rather short term thinking when carried forward into the electronic global village. The Nazi Internationale may have hung up its swastika armbands in 1945, but its memes live on in circles as far removed from soccer and oy hooliganism as you can imagine.

    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Metaphor Side Slip

      Ah, a level of politeness East Germany could only aspire to. It'd be a paradise on Earth.

      I, for one, welcome our new panoptic overlords. We have met the enemy, and he is us, as Walt Kelly said.

      (Good lord, I'm practically waxing amanfrommars1 here.)

  31. Mage Silver badge
    Devil

    SciFi?

    I don't think so.

    It's also a rubbish implementation.

    It needs very much better display quality.

    It's an evil niche product currently, so using it with belt radio/PSU/CPU etc and just having the display, mic, earphones and camera on the headset is fine. Then the belt pouch computer needs to run Linux and not a tied to Google Android spyware.

    It also needs HD cameras adjustable to field of view and spacing of your eyes. The camera needs to automatically focus on what you focus on.

    The apparent focus distance of the image needs to be independent of what you look at (tri colour laser) or track it (variable apparent distance of image).

    The current product is gadget spyware as google monitors the uploads / downloads. It needs to be able to work with arbitrary services, without Internet and without google.

  32. Memphis3

    Google / Apple New Guy

    Wrong chip Wrong design Good kill

    Google is not noted for innovative design. Apple is noted for innovative design.

    Hopefully

    The new guy (apple ex) will do a clip on or base ball cap or dog collar or a head ban or stick on or a monocle or a Pirate's Eye Patch or a what ever eye display

    Why

    I don't wear a watch I don't carry a iPhone I don't wear rings I don't wear glasses or shades.

    Now

    I do wear underwear but don't have eyes down there.

    I do wear a base ball cap to cover my uncombed hair (the little I have left)

    and

    When I work with my robots or my computers or my RC helis I do wear a head lamp and some times working on CBs I wear a magnifier and LED light.

    Google Apple New Guy

    Lets try to get it right this time.

  33. Memphis3

    Google / Apple New Guy

    Google Apple New Guy lets try to get it right this time.

    I don't wear shades or glasses

    I don't wear rings

    I don't wear my iPhone

    I don't wear head bands

    Now

    I do wear baseball caps to cover my uncombed hair (the little I have left)

    Hopefully

    The new GooApp guy will design a head ban or stick on or monical or pirates eye patch eye display that I can tolerate.

    I do tolerate a head band led when I am working on my robots computers circuit boards.

    Google is not noted for innovative design Apple (RIP) was.

    Nice work on the kill

    Good luck on the resurrection.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Surprise, Surprise -- Another Google Gimmick Gone

    And the next Google Gimmick? Hurry -- hipsters are waiting!!!!!

  35. Sarah Balfour

    You'd have thought that…

    …with all these supposed brains floating about, Google might have totally reinvented the search engine, keyword search is aggravating - it plain doesn't fucking WORK!

    As for Google Maps which, as someone who could get lost in her own house, it's invaluable - or it would be, if I had an iPhone, rather than an iPad (didn't think the former could be purchased sans contract, and no MSP is gonna give a contract to someone on benefits with a zero credit rating - not even Vodafone). The irony is that Google's always so keen to boast about how up-to-date its mapping is, but the area around the station in my parents' hometown hasn't been mapped since 2008; if ONLY they'd not mapped it since 2005/6, then t could have been immortalised (well 'semi-immortalised', if such a thing can be, Google's BOUND to realise at some point…) before Tesco swung a wrecking ball at it.

  36. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    Part of the Nest division?

    The new unit will continue to be headed by current Glass Project leader Ivy Ross, but Ross will in turn report to Tony Fadell, a former Apple exec and CEO of Google's Nest Labs smart thermostat division.

    So, a HUD for my home furnace? About time!

    Of course it won't really be useful until it's fully integrated with my IoT toaster.

  37. Virag0

    I wish I had one

    I can see a lot of practical uses with this. I wish I had one. It would be useful to perform

    demonstrations of work such as cooking, or creative work like painting, pottery, gem cutting and music production/perfomance. If I had a set, I would use it just like that - to document a creative

    process or as a first person view teaching/training aid to demonstrate a complex task.

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