With much anticipation, Google Glass is finally here. Well, at least for a small selection of lucky buyers. Already being dubbed as the next big thing, it is only available to those in the US. In this small frame of time, the country has been in an uproar over Google Glass trying to see what to make of it. Being a 20 year old, I remember the futuristic cartoons of The Jetsons and Star Trek where we would fantasize about flying cars and voice induced watches. It’s safe to say that that era of gadgets is slowly but surely creeping it’s way tino society now.
The glasses are sleek and have a sci-fi look to them, as a stretchable titanium headband sits comfortably from one ear to the other. There is a camera type lens that sits over the right eye of the user; personally I think that the lens being out in the open is far from an eye sore and for lack of a better term, looks pretty cool.
These glasses have been referred to simply as a computer for your face. It sounds awesome and honestly, it is. It seems as though Google Glass can do just about anything your mobile phone or computer can do. With the lens over the right eye, the user can use voice commands to take photos and video, use GPS, share the media it captures, send texts, make phone calls and even surf the web. It almost seems too good to be true but in this case the truth just happens to be really good. There has been video of the functions of Google Glass. The videos display the users view while they record video and even take pictures and sending them to the person they were having a phone conversation with. Honestly it doesn’t get any better than that.
The lens that is used has a 640×360 pixel resolution. That is about the equivalent to a 25-inch high definition picture display. In other words it’s a great view for some glasses. For concerned users, yes, prescription lenses can be used for Google Glass. So for those who claim they are blind as a bat, once the prescription lenses are added, your experience with Google Glass won’t be limited, so everybody wins. There have been several reviews that have raved about the comfortability. They are supposedly one size fits most with adjustable bands and they come with alternate nose pads.
Google glass is the future and should be welcomed with open-arms despite all of the controversy that comes with it. The problems that people complain about are problems that can easily be solved especially once they release newer versions over the years. We have to remember that there is still being work done to Google Glass; they haven’t truly hit the retail market yet. A lot of people are concerned with the potential lack of privacy that Google Glass could impose. Considering there is a camera lens that sits on the glasses I can understand a person’s concern with someone using it. However you must use a voice command and hand gestures to activate the camera. The camera also has a light that comes on while a video or picture is being taken. I’d be more worried about not seeing someone taking a photo of me while the flash is off on their phone.
Others complain about the average battery life for Google Glass only being five hours and how videos can only be recorded up to 10 seconds. There are limited apps for the new glasses along with those believing driving while using the GPS on the glasses can be distracting. All of these problems can easily be fixed. This is only the first product, which is still a work in progress. There aren’t many apps because not there aren’t many users just yet. There has only been a select amount that signed up for Google Glass that was willing to pay the original price of 1,500 dollars. There will be several different versions of Google Glass in the future and I’m sure each one will be fixed to the concerns that people have.
Right now the starting price for Google Glass will remain at 1,500 dollars and so far it is only limited to a small amount of people in the US only. I know those may be afraid of this sudden yet magnificent change in technology. However, this may be the cartoon-loving kid talking, but a futuristic gadget like this can only be beneficial to the world in the upcoming years. Google Glass is just another portable device to help serve the basic needs that our business minded society has. Being a college student, at this very moment I wouldn’t buy Google Glass because that 1,500$ could be used towards my tuition. But anyone who isn’t in college debt should make the decision to buy Google Glass or at least in the future. Google Glass is the future that is presently with us and some years from now I can see it being a necessity like a cell phone or computer. Google Glass, I’m all for it.
