
I, Glasshole: My Year With Google Glass - shawndumas
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/12/glasshole/all/1
======
frisco
I have Glass. I wore it for about a week when I first got it and then stopped;
while cool, it's not very useful. It struck me that it's more of a status
symbol right now than a legitimately useful device.

I've changed my mind about this a little bit recently: now I use it as a
classier GoPro. There are a lot of times where it isn't appropriate to have a
GoPro strapped to your head, but there's still good story potential. In most
of those cases, the cool factor of Glass lets you get away with recording it.

My friends and I stitch the footage we collect from the adventures in our
lives into a video every now and then, and Glass has added a lot to the
storytelling capability.

Maybe wanting to record stuff makes me a narcissistic millennial, but it
doesn't harm anyone and the videos we get out of it are awesome. I don't know
if that use-case justifies Glass, but it definitely has some value for me,
even if it's only used rarely.

~~~
jonmrodriguez
You describe exactly the use case for which my product Epiphany Eyewear is
specialized.

Epiphany records wide-angle HD video (like a GoPro), has a full hour of
battery life, and looks & feels like designer eyewear which hold your
prescription. Please check it out, I put practically every waking hour of my
life into manufacturing this:

[http://epiphanyeyewear.com](http://epiphanyeyewear.com)

We are now shipping consumer units, with approximate a 5-week backlog on
orders placed right now.

~~~
frisco
Cool, I will check it out. Congratulations on shipping!

While it seems like most of HN believes Glass's aesthetics to be garish and
unwieldy, they _are_ futuristic and I think that's a positive thing. Some day
we might do better, but given the technology available today they are actually
very compact. Glass has always felt thin and light to me. (Photos can be
misleading on this: how many people here have actually held Glass?) I also
like that it's explicit: though most people can't tell when it is and isn't
recording (and, realistically, people usually assume that it isn't) I like
that it's at least upfront that it might be. If someone asked me to stop I'd
take it off. So, there's a balance: I wouldn't use it as a "hidden camera" and
the aperture on your landing page (if I'm reading the photo right?) looks
pretty camouflaged.

~~~
jonmrodriguez
Thanks!

Epiphany's camera is visible in the production version. The site photo is a
little outdated, here are newer pics where you can see the better aperture of
the production model:

[http://bestoftheweb.quora.com/Epiphany-Eyewear-smart-
glasses...](http://bestoftheweb.quora.com/Epiphany-Eyewear-smart-glasses-
modeled-by-BCBGMAXAZRIA-at-New-York-Fashion-Week)

[http://instagram.com/p/gEi4OyP-40/](http://instagram.com/p/gEi4OyP-40/)

About Glass, while I agree that it's impressively miniaturized for today's
technology, I don't think any display component available right now is up to
the incredibly high standard of style that is required to be on a person's
face. It's an uphill battle, and until some future date when a "holy grail"
display component arises that can display images on a regular eyewear lens
without any bulk, displays will not be stylish enough for people to feel
comfortable wearing them.

------
biscarch
I suppose here is as good a place as any... but can anyone explain to me why
there is an overarching trend of self-describing as an asshole just because
you own Glass? It's becoming a connection, especially in the media, that Glass
= Asshole and I think it's because much of the early community refers to
themselves as "Glassholes".

I own Glass and I am not an asshole (afaik) about it nor do I wish to be
perceived as one. I've met a bunch of other Glass users with whom I've brought
this up in a similar way to: "Why do you self-deprecatingly call yourself an
asshole for wearing Glass?" and as far as I know they stop, but that may just
be them not doing it around me.

Do other Glass users feel like they need to call themselves names? Is there
something I'm missing/taking out of context? Do people without Glass have an
opinion on this?

(An interesting and maybe relevant tidbit is that I was recently told "You
make me feel poor" by someone who I was interacting with while wearing Glass)

~~~
justin
I bought glass and wore it for a week. I felt like an asshole while doing so
because 1) I was making people uncomfortable and violating social norms
(basically keeping a camera pointed at anywhere I looked) for my own
convenience, and 2) it signaled I could blow $1700 on a mostly useless device
(like having an expensive watch).

I didn't stop using glass because I felt like an asshole though, I stopped
because it was just another device to charge with minimal utility.

~~~
eps
It's almost entirely #1 that makes a Glass wearer an asshole, I can assure you
of that.

Going around with a instant recording device is an ultimate manifestation of a
lack of common tact. People just do NOT like to be recorded. Period. And the
fact that _you_ think it's OK, that's what rubs everyone else the wrong way.
Not that you could get that shiny gadget and that they couldn't.

------
iamartnez
I was showing my Glass to a family member who visited from out of state. He's
a commercial helicopter pilot, isn't wired in to the tech space, and didn't
know much of anything about it.

He went completely mental after putting it on.

A few interesting things he noted:

1\. Many commercial helicopter pilots today use iPads with a software called
Foreflight ([http://foreflight.com/](http://foreflight.com/)). They mount the
iPad in the cabin and prefer it to the older analog stuff.

2\. The form factor alone is a huge improvement over anything else available
on the market, he told me. He also said that many pilots would pay top dollar
for a device like Glass. "All" it would need to do is: a) display a hud w/
waypoints, b) show current conditions, c) know which direction he's looking
at.

4\. Pilots see the world differently. We look at Google Maps, they look at
SkyVector[2]. Flying commercially is mostly an automated affair with
everything planned out ahead of time. Computers do all the work. The
location/size/properties of every airport is stored in a consistent format.
Pretty much everything is standardized and easily accessible, no matter how
remote the location! [3]

5\. He told me that the day-to-day processes are ancient. Logbooks are kept by
hand, for example. This is interesting considering aviation is a highly
regulated industry. All process are laid out in great detail and slow to
change. This could make building software in this space easier once you get
past the initial hump.

6\. Military pilots have had things like this for years, but way more
advanced. He told me about helmet-mounted displays (woah) [1].

We went on to discuss the myriad of practical applications for a device like
Glass, even if the cost stays high past the prototyping phase. Unfortunately
none of them included every-day usage by his wife and kids.

[1]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmet-
mounted_display](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmet-mounted_display)

[2]: [http://skyvector.com/](http://skyvector.com/)

[3]: [http://skyvector.com/airport/ZMCD/Dornod-Choibalsan-
Internat...](http://skyvector.com/airport/ZMCD/Dornod-Choibalsan-
International-Airport)

~~~
ronaldx
> He told me that the day-to-day processes are ancient.

It's a basic tenet of air safety that everything can be done by hand when
equipment fails.

For example, it's a requirement that you should be able to do vector
calculations to account for wind: using only pen-and-paper tools.

Although licensed pilots are allowed to use technology to assist, you
shouldn't imagine that the ancient day-to-day processes will change.

------
brandynwhite
Don't agree with most of the article but hey it's cool that I'm in the top
picture (second row). Here are a few brief comments

Socially Awkward: I've worn Glass every day since I got it (one of the first
ones) and had 2 negative reactions and one of them ended up being a VC that
after explaining it to him offered to fund me (I didn't accept). You have to
be sympathetic to other people's feelings, if someone is feeling uncomfortable
and you aren't using it then just put it on your head/neck and watch them
chill out instantly. It's awkward when someone's constantly wondering if you
are recording them but too scared to ask, just diffuse the situation and
figure out what is making them feel uncomfortable. Once they understand how it
works it will clear up any wild ideas they may have. Part of being an early
adopter of anything is to explain it to people who are curious (same goes for
fitbits, AR drones, etc).

Glass wearers self-segregating: If you act nervous and self aware while you
are wearing it, you will make the whole room feel uncomfortable. If you are
approachable and having fun with others you'll get a whole night club to stop
dancing and want to talk to you (this is in DC, not exactly a bastion of
techies like SF/NY). Due to how the Glass invites were distributed it's not
"self-segregated" it's "self-selected", you invite your friends which means
when you go out you are with your friends. Causation vs correlation man, the
former is sensational and the latter isn't even mentioned.

At the end it starts to get more agreeable: glass is v1, it's incredibly
ambitious of them to have released Glass like they did and it's allowing us to
even have these discussions (thanks!), and the status quo (phones) aren't that
great either right now. Sure it's not perfect but look where we came from:
custom/clunky wearables of the 90's, nothing special for a decade, and now we
have something that gets more positive attention than I'd otherwise get.
Instead of looking at the first datapoint on a timeline and dumping on it,
shouldn't a hip futurist publication (where the author says he gets made fun
of...that's probably more telling about what it's like to work at Wired than
anything) try to think out a few more steps and not sling link bait like
this?﻿

(from my G+ post
[https://plus.google.com/+BrandynWhite/posts/fRfhgBXej7e](https://plus.google.com/+BrandynWhite/posts/fRfhgBXej7e))

~~~
MatthewWilkes
A VC offered to fund you as a technology _user_?

~~~
brandynwhite
Well I do a bit more than that [http://openshades.com](http://openshades.com)
and [http://wearscript.com](http://wearscript.com)

------
cupcake-unicorn
"I have no idea why my wife was resistant to live-casting the birthing
experience."

Seriously? Is this a joke? He really is a Glasshole :P

------
hnriot
I don't seriously think anyone at Google thinks Glass is going anywhere. To
me, this looks like Google just trying to cement in the public's head that
Google=Futuristic technology. In that regard, and pretty much only that
regard, Glass has been a success.

~~~
jpace121
I think wearable computing is definitely the future, and Glass is probably a
good first stab at it. I don't think anyone thinks glass is the perfect
solution, though.

~~~
ams6110
I hope I'm dead before this happens.

~~~
jfoster
Okay, but if you want to convince others to share your view, you need to state
your objection to it. It's more credible if you back up your objection with
realistic examples of what you are concerned about. It's also more convincing
if your concerns are consistent with the technology. For example, many people
state that they object to the camera on Glass. Yet, DSLR cameras are far more
effective at taking high quality pictures from a distance.

------
njharman
This is old and tired news. These attitudes will change. I know cause I'm old
enough to have seen it before with advent of cellular phones. Same reactions,
calling people assholes, same stigma, same wealth issues.

People hated the jerks who were rich enough and self important enough to be
phoneable anywhere, anytime. Eventually price, ugly factor came down and
phones became ok cause everyone had one.

Same thing will happen.

~~~
Silhouette
I don't think the real problems with Google Glass have much to do with showing
off how rich the wearer is. Most of the strong concerns I've heard -- and I
thought I was pretty down on the idea, until I heard some otherwise very
level-headed people I know speak about it -- relate to the privacy aspect. I
don't see that going anywhere, just as today most of us have mobile phones but
there are plenty of places that will ask you to turn them off so you're not
disturbing everyone else around you with your conversations/ring tones/etc.

~~~
jfoster
But is the lack of understanding due to the current inequity? I suspect people
fear it partly because it is an unknown device that they haven't been able to
experience yet. Once they have tried it, some will probably relax a little
bit.

Cameras on phones had similar reactions to begin with. Now everyone just finds
them to be extremely useful.

------
kumarm
I wear Prescription Glasses. I can't wait to get Google Glass that work well
with Prescription Glasses. To me it is seamless since I already wear glasses
anyway.

Google by ignoring Prescription Glass users initially lost a chance to have
people use it 24x7.

~~~
andrewfong
I also wear prescription glasses, but wearing Google Glass 24x7 sounds like a
terrible idea to me.

Think of it like this: There are all sorts of situations in which it is
socially unacceptable to have your phone out. Movies. Funerals. Intimate
conversations with loved ones.

Having Glass on 24x7 is basically the same as always having your phone out.
Sure, maybe it's off and you're not actually looking at the screen while
you're having a conversation. But the other person doesn't know that. If you
flick your eye to a corner, does that mean you got something in your eye or
were you checking a text message? Wearing prescription glasses does not
interfere with my ability to establish eye contact and maintain a personal
connection with someone. Google Glass does.

And, come to think of it, that's really the problem with Glass. There are all
sorts of useful situations in which I'd like to have Glass, much as there are
all sorts of useful situations in which I'd like to have a smartphone. But I
can easily put away the smartphone in the situations where it's socially
unacceptable to have it out. It doesn't seem nearly as convenient to do so
with Glass.

~~~
ericd
It's pretty easy to do the equivalent, I just flip it to the top of my head
like I do with sunglasses when I go indoors.

~~~
gaius
Umm, not if you would be blind as a bat without your prescription glasses!
Like many glasses wearers I do have contact lenses too, but glasses are much
more comfortable to wear all day.

~~~
icebraining
A prescription version might allow you to flip just the screen, like some
clip-on sunglasses.

------
tommaxwell
I, like others here, have Glass. My girlfriend dumped me and I lost all my
friends but hey now I can wink to take a picture so it's all good.

------
forgottenpaswrd
The author says it is the format what makes you an asshole. It is not.

If I go with my reflex pointing to people in the beach people will get angry
at me. As simple as people is there to relax, not to have to defend
themselves.

People is doing top less in the beach and people could see it at the moment.
It is a completely different thing that someone will store the date, the
place, the people in the pictures and have millions of people look at them on
the Internet.

I got to watch a woman, a sports teacher fired from a Catholic school because
she made top less 8 years ago!! and one of his students got a picture from an
ex- boyfriend asshole and soon all the school had the pictures. Half of the
parents supported her, over a quarter were outraged.

People say stupid things all the time, when there is friends, I don't want my
conversations recorded without my permission and having someone remind me
constantly : you say this and that while drinking beer with the football team.

The same way Paul Graham was sold by a private conversation made into an
interview by a son of a b*ch. When you are talking to someone else you are not
talking to millions of people.

------
wamatt
Interesting that no one seems to be talking about the wisdom of placing an EMF
field next to your brain, for hours at a time.

~~~
wilg
Do you have something to say about the wisdom of placing an EMF field next to
your brain, or are you just interested that no one is talking about it?

------
etfb
Here's why Glass users _are_ assholes, and why that won't always be true:
because "iPod" is a verb.

"To iPod" is to change a particular technology so much that you create a
permanent mark in everyone's calendar. Before Apple invented the first iPod,
music players were clunky and irritating, and it was like nobody in the
business knew the first thing about user interface design. After the iPod,
music players were iPods, clones of iPods, or nothing. And carrying music
around with you is so ubiquitous that the commuters on the bus who _don 't_
have earbuds in their ears look weird.

Glass hasn't been iPodded yet. That means it's intrusive, ugly, and it
threatens people -- a bit like the way people felt uncomfortable sitting on
the bus with someone who had headphones on. It's rude, it's anti-social, and
it's a clear sign that someone is maladjusted.

But one day, someone -- almost certainly _not_ Google -- will create a
wearable camera/HUD/computer that is to Google Glass what the iPod is to the
Sony Walkman. And after that, it will be normal for people to be documenting
their whole lives, and the hostility will disappear quite quickly.

But that day is not today. Today, if you use Glass in public, you _are_ an
asshole. Accept it peacefully and look forward to the iPodding.

------
laichzeit0
Glass is amazing, but it's not for everyday wear, like a watch, because you
look like a tool. That said, there are a few very niche applications for it
that I can't wait to try: deep sea fishing, for one. Our boat is fairly
customized and teched out. Walking around on the boat and having the data
overlayed infront of you would be awesome. Maybe hooking up the coms is also
possible, I'd like to stream the video feed of the cameras in the lures too.

------
yeukhon
I don't know why it has to be so negative. All the negativity seems to be
privacy concern. I respect that and I do understand there is privacy concern.

But the technology is pretty fun for people who just want to capture every fun
moment of their life. I, for one, would love to wear it every day. I always
see interesting stuff. But holding a physical phone on my hand seems weird to
me. I feel like if I could just film the current event as I am looking would
be awesome and easy. I don't have to pull out my device and stand there.
Putting it on my head seems natural to me. Imagine instead there is Google
Watch with the same functionality, it'd surely would be awkward. When I am
searching for a place, I imagine that Glass could just scan my environment as
I look and tell me "oops there is the coffee shop you are looking for!" To me,
the most awkward thing about taking photos with cell phone by myself or with a
group of people (call it selfie) is holding a cell phone. Every time when
someone pull out a cell phone taking some instagram photos on the food or
people, everyone around will look at him.

I broke up with this lovely girl. I wish I had this shiny toy when I was with
her. It would be really fun to take lots of pictures and video. Kids like me
love blogging too. I always entertain myself thinking "it would be nice if I
had the gut and time to do vblog."

~~~
huhtenberg
> _But the technology is pretty fun for people who just want to capture every
> fun moment of their life._

Except for all other people in the frame who don't want to be captured in the
process.

Fun for one at the expense of others is the book definition of an asshole.

So, yeah, you do _not_ understand the privacy concerns nor do you respect
them. You will fit right in with the rest of the Glass crowd.

~~~
pjbrunet
I'm not a lawyer but I heard if you say "You don't have permission to record
me." they're legally obligated to delete the video.

~~~
lmartel
Perhaps that's why you're not a lawyer :)

~~~
pjbrunet
Hah OK. I'm only repeating what I learned in a video class, but that was 10+
years ago so maybe the laws have changed since then? But even then, how many
people (in public) would go out of their way to engage the person with the
camera when that more likely makes a bad situation worse?

------
hisham_hm
It's interesting that there are so many comments about how uncomfortable
people get around it due to not knowing if they are being filmed/recorded...
why didn't Google simply cater for that by adding a small, hardware-controlled
red "recording" LED indicator to it? I think it would work wonders to the
rejection around Glass.

------
qwerta
I think people do not mind the device itself. For example bluetooth handsfree
is kind of similar, it can do even do recording, but most people do not mind
it.

I think problem is usability. It is not possible to have conversation and use
this device at the same time.

------
bloddyfool
So here's a question, If google made google glass look just like a
prescription glass, would it be for the better or worse?

------
riyadparvez
Just wait for Apple to release "iGlass".

OMG, how innovative, Apple and see everyone is copying Apple.

