I have to agree with this. The skydiving stuff - possibly interesting from a networking perspective - but from a product perspective... I just don't get why people ate this up. It honestly felt ridiculous to me.<p>I'd be more enthused if I felt like they laid out a road map for the product and talked about why we need this. Why do (normal) consumers want this, Google? Im not saying they don't I just want to know why Google thinks they do and what the offering really is going to be. We've seen tech-oriented glasses in many forms over the years flop... why now and why will people adopt these? Whats the actual killer features that are going to be worth putting these on?
Not crazy; just jaded.<p>It's an early prototype for chrissakes. The real devporn comes later. For now, just sit back and enjoy the show.<p>FWIW I pre-ordered and can't wait to hack around with this thing.
I think that Google is, at this point, doing a simple marketing exercise to test the concept. Why spend millions in R&D before you even know if people are interested in the new form factor?<p>So far, the reaction seems to be mostly positive. By hiring a few stunt guys and a blimp Google created a lot of hype, got a nice amount of feedback on that.<p>Heck, I was suckered by the presentation, even while thinking "I wonder what they are using the send the image feed, surely not 3G or even LTE... and what else besides doing Plus group conversations can this do?". I <i>knew</i> it wasn't revolutionary, but still got excited.
I agree, when it's something more than a head mounted camera taking pictures of things I don't care to take pictures of, or telling me the weather when I don't care or can obviously tell by looking out a window...then I'll be interested (maybe).<p>As many people say, "it's the software stupid", so I'm waiting.
Post starts with:<p><i>I’ve been following every single article, video, or meme mentioning Google Glass since its first demo video a few months ago. Google promised a lot; Glasses were meant to be something like “an augmented brain.” It would offer contextual information, interactivity, quick reference, and much more. And now I feel betrayed. Why?</i><p>And ends with:<p><i>We all know that this is a really early prototype and are willing to see (and buy) something as revolutionary as the iPhone. In the end, the most intelligent move of the day was releasing the early version of the product only to developers (with a US$1,500 price tag), to gain the necessary feedback and try to get things working while surfing on the huge PR wave.</i><p>You just answered your own question.
You could call it a PR stunt and be right. For me it was inspiring. After watching the video I fired up trello and put in an idea for our service, minggler, on how we could leverage Google Glass. No it does not include extreme sports. Google gets railed so often for doing terrible marketing. They got this one right. Let them have their win and keep thinking of ways this new platform can be leveraged. We are.
I know we've all read about the exciting "external brain" aspects of augmented reality in books like Accelerando, but sheesh guys, we have to start SOMEWHERE.<p>If I have to buy 10 pairs of Google Glass to light a fire under Apple, Qualcomm, and Valve's asses to get the immersive AR glasses I always wanted I will gladly do so.
It was definitely a far cry from their ultimate vision:<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4</a>
Since you asked, yes, you are crazy for looking at the video broadcast to the Hangout and thinking that it's indicative of the UI available on the HUD. Or that because they didn't show a feature that it's not planned, even for v1.<p>There have been public mentions and acknowledgements of some of the features that you call out as missing. You're, plainly, uninformed.