
Google Glass evangelist: It's not worth the headache - singhit
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57618825-71/google-glass-evangelist-its-not-worth-the-headache/
======
brandynwhite
Definitely not my experience, I have no such eyestrain or headaches and this
is actually my first time hearing of someone having had this experience. I've
heard of people having such problems with video games too but I feel like it's
equally rare. I've been active in Glass development
([http://openshades.com](http://openshades.com) and
[http://wearscript.com](http://wearscript.com)).

I think CNET is just looking for attention out of a non-issue, I've done
interviews with them about Glass before (I won't bother linking, they don't
deserve any more attention) and I felt then (and see in this article too) a
desire to just dig up any morsel of controversy without a real appetite for
balanced reporting. Specifically while being interviewed they dug for red meat
that could confirm people's negative suspicions and in my case I had nothing
negative to say and they still tried to spin it that way. I had to fight to
get them to quote me accurately and they still refused to change blatant
misquotes that served their narrative, I can't really emphasize how
frustrating it is to have someone twist your words around to try to get a few
more people to click on their post.

Tips for anyone doing tech press interviews: choose your outlet wisely (it
wastes a lot of time fixing a poorly written article), refuse to do interviews
that aren't recorded (either video, audio, or over email) as they will "hear"
what they want, and insist on seeing a draft before they publish as a
condition to the interview.

~~~
x0054
It's not all that far fetched to think that it would give headaches to some
people. I know people who get headaches from using their smart phone, or
computers in general. Why not Google Glass.

~~~
brandynwhite
The plausibility of an argument isn't a good measure to use because that's
exactly the problem I have with this reporting, they come up with a plausible
narrative 'a priori' that fits people's pre-conceptions and then justify it
with random tidbits they can drudge up. Since people can naturally agree with
such statements it makes correcting them substantially harder.

I know literally hundreds of people who use Glass daily and have never heard
this once. Now it's on the front page of hacker news as a "thing". I don't
doubt Chris is telling the truth about his experience. I'm just generally
bothered by tech bloggers (in this case CNET) wanting to feed people
intellectual junk food that they are looking for without any real concern for
the damage it does to the industry they are reporting on. Reporting on
legitimate problems with technology is beneficial because it opens a dialogue
that ultimately makes it better, making "mountains out of mole hills" just
distracts everyone and creates a fog of confusion.

~~~
dewiz
So you are saying we should not trust Chris, instead we should trust you.

I would surely trust more if the private forum for Glass owners was not
private at all, so that we could rely on hundreds of different experiences.

As for being in HN frontpage, good to see people are interested also on real
life experience and disavantages of new tech.

~~~
brandynwhite
That's not what I'm saying at all (quite the opposite, I specifically said I
don't doubt his experience). I also am glad that people voice their
experiences good/bad with tech, that's what I'm basing my opinion on. My issue
is not with anything Chris did, it's that any negative statement is amplified
because it grabs attention and positive statements are generally 'boring' as
news.

I do agree with your comment about the forum and I've lobbied for that to be
opened up myself on numerous occasions. I think it's largely for legacy
reasons at this point since people assumed their posts would be private it's
tricky to make them more public than they had expected, but there are highly
active communities on G+ that are public.

------
jonmrodriguez
If you don't want the disadvantages of a display and what you care about is
the video recording use-case, feel free to check out my product Epiphany
Eyewear.

[http://www.epiphanyeyewear.com?design](http://www.epiphanyeyewear.com?design)

I know self-promotion is frowned upon and I'm sorry for that, but
manufacturing & programming this product is all I do 15 hours a day x 7 days a
week, so at this point it's my whole life and I feel like this is a relevant
opportunity to mention it for people who are looking for an alternative /
complementary product to Glass. Cheers!

~~~
huhtenberg
I would actually gladly pay for the opposite - a wearable display without the
camera.

~~~
BugBrother
That would destroy the effects life video-logging will have on social
interaction.

I look forward to what happens to cultures when it is impossible to be an
asshole without ending up on Youtube -- especially violent crime will be
impossible, when a large portion (10%+) of the population have logging of what
they see.

(It would also need fast uploads, preferably triggered by e.g. pulse increase
if not exercising, so criminals can't just destroy the logging mechanism.)

Disclaimer: I don't know if I will like or approve of the effects, just that
it is an interesting thought experiment. There are lots of
benefits/disadvantages. For positive ones, think Russian car cameras and
meteorites; catching one-in-a-billion events. For negative ones, consider when
someone is very stressed out because of a loved one's death.

Edit: Thanks eterm, but effects on culture are certainly way too complex to
predict.

~~~
eterm
May I recommend "The entire history of you" one of a short series of films
shown on TV. (All 6 so far have been very good.)

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2089050/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2089050/)

"In the future,thanks to the Grain, a chip which can be implanted on a hard
drive in the brain,every single action that a person makes is recorded and may
be played back."

------
deanclatworthy
I've been using one at our office now for a day. My experience so far: \- It
doesn't work well with contact lenses, I find it hard to focus on the screen
as it's so close to my eyes \- You look like an idiot any time you try and do
anything. To activate the device you have to tap the side or look upwards to
the moon. To take a photo you have to wink. What instead happens is it doesn't
recognise your gesture first time resulting in an awkward squinting exercise.
\- People universally have agreed it makes the wearer look stupid (perhaps
attaching it to prescription glasses would be less obvious) \- It's actually
quite tiring talking to yourself after a while \- This thing is heavy. Hurts
your right ear after a while \- It gets warm, resulting in side-head sweat \-
If you are looking in someone's direction as you are looking at the screen it
creates this almost soul-less void in your eyes, making you look dead. \-
Voice recognition at least for British accents isn't great so far, but it's
not bad

------
gst
While I haven't used Google Glass yet, I can't imagine being productive (or
being able to relax) while using it. I usually try to disable as many
potential distractions as possible when working. I don't have mail
notifications, I don't have chat notifications, I don't even have a clock that
shows the time on my desktop. I'm way more productive when handling those
things on my own schedule (e.g., batched handling of email every few hours).

Using something like Google Glass would probably drive me crazy. I wonder how
(and if) Google Glass users can get productive work done. Do you wear Glass
while you do things such as coding?

~~~
brandynwhite
It's designed to be out of your way, when you get a message for example it
plays a soft chime that you can hear but nothing pops up. For something to
come up you either have to tap it or tilt your head to see what the
notification is. With your phone you'd have to take it out, unlock, open the
app that made the noise, and put it away. The interface is quite streamlined
since it is intended for quick notifications. Of course anything that notifies
you of something could be distracting but since it only does so for high
priority emails and in a way that's easy to ignore I don't think it is. In
your case though, if you specifically don't want anything to interrupt you
while coding then I'd just say don't use it while doing that? My personal
style while coding is more event based (short time intervals per-task), I
regularly pop between different projects and try to keep everything busy all
at once (e.g., cluster going full tilt, 3d printer chugging away, teams tasked
with work). Glass works well for me, I can triage emails by lifting my head up
when I hear the chime without moving my hands from the keyboard while typing.
Everyone has their own personal style that fits with the type of work they do
and how they like doing it.

------
timcederman
I was very disappointed with my Google Glass experience. Incredibly difficult
to setup - it never synced properly with my Android devices, couldn't get it
to scan my wifi network, and baffling controls.

Add to all of that I never found a single compelling use case. It was an
interesting, but frustrating, novelty.

~~~
Einstalbert
I was ready to go when I signed up to be a beta tester. I was ready to
transform my entire, dull life just to seem more active for the beta phase (We
want active testers!) but then Google called my bluff and asked me to fork
over $1,500. Ouch! I was expecting maybe a third of that.

Did you feel disappointed with losing out on the money, or did that aspect not
factor into your afterthoughts much?

~~~
timcederman
I borrowed one for a few weeks from a friend.

~~~
72deluxe
Do they feel disappointed with spending all that money? Was their experience
the same?

~~~
ulfw
Most likely yes. Otherwise why lend it out for several weeks ;)

------
zobzu
I used glass a couple of times and i was underwhelmed by the technology. The
screen is tiny and of poor quality. Controls aren't all that great. Battery
life is terrible.

So yeah, it's fun and novel for a few minutes, but not much more. I'm more
excited by some better use of frame mounted displays like the oculus however.

~~~
darklajid
Same here. My employer joined the program/is looking into Glass as a potential
market.

While my boss was constantly amazed and happy like a child on Christmas Eve, I
.. was utterly disappointed. The battery (supposedly fully charged before I
ever got near that thing) died a couple of times, the thing got warm to the
touch, the display is unreadable/tiny/useless and the controls are weird, if
we're friendly here.

At least I could witness that this thing HAS an appeal to some people - I just
don't understand why and don't think the technology in its current state is
good for anything but novelty anyway.

------
andrewfelix
While I think Glass is a flawed concept, remember this is a single anecdote.
This is not evidence of the product causing headaches.

------
double051
_I was wearing Glass every day, all day long; I would wear it to Starbucks; I
would wear it to the mall; I would wear it driving, and I would wear it at my
office. There wasn 't a minute I didn't have it on._

Maybe that's the problem? I wear mine in moderation and I've never had any
pain problems with it on.

~~~
daeken
I often wear mine for days at a time with absolutely no problem. People are
different; saying "never had any problems" really doesn't mean anything in
this sort of situation. What's fine for you and I might well not be for
others.

------
Caligula
I wish google was less opaque about procuring a google glass. I did their
begging/twitter spam but was not one of the chosen few. They do not even
release projections on when they will release more. They never email me even
though I signed up for their list. Oh well....

~~~
berberous
Want my invite? Let me know how to reach you. (I thought about buying it and
returning it after 30 days, but feel like that's kind of a dick move. And no
way I'm actually laying out 1500 for it.)

~~~
Caligula
Hey, Yes pretty please and thanks! elias.majic@gmail.com

------
blueskin_
I wonder about headaches from getting punched by people who don't want to be
recorded.

>Will someone now invent the equivalent of a missile shield defense that
prevents you from being photographed when, say, you're out on the street?

I've idly wondered about this before. Some form of glasses/hat/other wearable
that detect google glasses and direct a laser into their camera. I'd wear
those.

~~~
panacea
Heh. Glass looks bad enough... imagine seeing people walking around with
little swivelling laser turrets strapped to the side of their head.

------
whackedspinach
Hey, just to provide a counterexample: I wear Glass a lot and don't experience
headaches. I also wear glasses all the time. I really enjoy the technology,
and I just wanted to say it might be a person-specific factor that makes Glass
cause headaches, if it does.

------
fearlessleader
I don't like wearing them if I have a headache already, but they don't cause
me to have one. My headache with them is other people.

~~~
natch
About your other people comment, it's a two way street. Other people also get
headaches from the obnoxiousness of these devices.

If someone is sitting next to me glancing at my smartphone screen, it's
usually not a big deal. But if they might be recording my screen, that's more
likely to be a big deal. Even though it can be a mix of perception and
reality, I think privacy issues are the root cause of the discomfort with
these devices.

This is the kind of headaches I thought were being talked about when I saw the
title.

------
wavesounds
When I wear sun glasses for a long period of time I get headaches. I find they
restrict blood flow to parts of my head above my ears. So it could be just the
physical design/weight/tightness of the frame. There's no way I could wear my
sunglasses for 8 hours straight and they aren't carrying any kind of special
electronics.

~~~
zorpner
Consider looking into some larger frames -- I had the same problem, then my
wife bought me some sized sunglasses (from Persol) that fit my giant head
perfectly. No more headaches.

------
Cthulhu_
The second argument he's raising is that the novelty and thus the daily use
has worn off.

What I gathered from the first users of Glass who said it was amazing... was
also that they were the center of attention all day long, people interested in
them and the device, wanting to touch it, etc. If that novelty's worn off, or
if people get tired of the attention, I can imagine it's not that great a
device anymore.

------
jinushaun
Welcome to wearing glasses

------
Mutinix
Have there been many cases of this? I mean, I know people who can't wear 3D
glasses for long, people who can't stay in front of a computer screen for very
long and so on. So is it a problem with the technology?

On an unrelated note: Does anybody know when Glass will be available in other
countries? I've been interested in obtaining a pair for a while but I'm not
sure how to go about it.

------
dredmorbius
Interesting. Jeff Jarvis, who's also generally quite gung-ho on Google (and
Glass early adopter) seems to have also seen the bloom go off the rose:

"I just called Google begging to get out of +Google Glass." (Feb 4, 2014)

[https://plus.google.com/105076678694475690385/posts/4hWFG7XY...](https://plus.google.com/105076678694475690385/posts/4hWFG7XYpC1)

------
Wintamute
A dude gets two headaches and now Google Glass is a health hazard? Hardly a
wealth of data points. Maybe it had something to do with being filmed for 8
hours by a Korean documentary crew - that sounds pretty stressful if you're
not used to it. This article is typical cnet link bait.

------
nnnnni
I used Google Glass once... The migraine set in after only a few minutes. It
was horrible.

It felt like I was using a 60 Hz CRT monitor, so I suspect that the problem is
that the refresh rate is too low.

Also, the eye strain of looking up in a weird way certainly didn't help!

------
facepalm
I just checked ebay and there were hardly any Google Glass(es) on offer. So it
seems to me users are not abandoning it in droves. Or is it all offline, the
next nerd is already qeueing behind you to take over your glasses?

------
snarkyturtle
Or you could not wear it for 8 hours a day. I wear my glasses for half that
amount and I get headaches, to wear it everywhere is insane. I'd figure it
would be more of a situational thing than anything.

~~~
TeMPOraL
8 hours a day? If I had a pair, I'd wear them 16-18h / day.

~~~
ulfw
That's exactly what us billion or more people who wear glasses do. Wear them
all day ;)

~~~
TeMPOraL
Yup, I'm a glass wearer as well ;).

------
saltysugar
I think this problem is fixable with technology. Or sometimes it can just
happen to a small number of people, just like 3D glasses.

------
micfok
Do we know whether Chris regularly wears glasses or not?

~~~
chrisbarrett
I do not wear prescription glasses.

------
retr0h
This google glass. I do not understand.

