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My awkward week with Google Glass

“It’s a Wednesday night, and I’m turning heads on the sidewalk. People are slowing halfway down the block as I approach. They’re whispering about me as I walk through the room. Strangers are watching me, sometimes even stopping me on the street,” Hayley Tsukayama reports for The Washington Post. “Why? Because I’m wearing Google Glass. And I hate it.”

“Headed into a week with Glass, on loan from a co-worker, I was prepared to review a buggy product. Glass, after all, is still in testing, and has only been released to developers, media and just a handful of ‘normal’ people who were willing to spend $1,500 on an untested product,” Tsukayama reports. “I expected tension headaches from constantly trying to focus on a floating screen above my line of vision. (I got only one headache, for what it’s worth.) I even prepared myself to be comfortable talking aloud to the product in public because you can control Glass through voice commands.”

“What I wasn’t prepared for was the attention I got. Sporting Glass put me among only a handful of people in Washington, and that meant getting a lot of looks,” Tsukayama reports. “I’ve heard just about every privacy concern raised about Glass, but, as the one wearing the device, I wasn’t expecting that the privacy most invaded would be my own. That type of anxiety should lessen over time, particularly as Google works with designer labels such as Luxottica’s Oakley and Ray-Ban to make prettier models. But anyone who opts to buy Glass should be ready and willing to become a constant topic of conversation and to answer questions from strangers… ‘Is she wearing Google Glass?’ ‘Is that what I think that is?’ ‘Are you recording, like, right now?’ ‘You look ridiculous.’ Or, my personal favorite, delivered deadpan, from a friend: ‘Oh. Hayley.'”

Tsukayama reports, “But beyond the personal privacy issues, I found that Google Glass is an intriguing device that has a lot of flaws. After more than two years in development, the number of remaining technical bugs is surprising.”

Much more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Buggy Spywear.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Barry Coyle” for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Through a Google Glass, darkly; surveillance of, by, and for the people – April 18, 2014
Spyware app can secretly take photos from Google Glass without user’s knowledge – March 26, 2014
Google Glass-wearing woman claims attack at San Francisco bar – February 26, 2014
Scoble: Google Glass is doomed – January 2, 2014
One year wearing Google Glass: ‘Look at that asshole’ – December 31, 2013
Why an Apple iWatch has better chances than Google Glass – November 6, 2013
Apple’s Siri lambastes Google Glass – August 26, 2013
Google Glass ban list grows; top 10 places banning Google Glass – August 7, 2013

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