

“SNL” Parodies Google Glass - whosbacon
http://allthingsd.com/20130505/snl-parodies-google-glass/

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mladenkovacevic
I hate to sound condescending or preachy (unavoidable), but small minds will
look at anything new with a sense of derision and in particular with regards
to how foreign that thing seems directly to them as a vapid consumer. They
will not be able to engage their sense of empathy and imagine the
possibilities where that new thing might actually benefit someone in a really
meaningful way.

Bigger minds will look at new things not as a product or the "next thing all
the cool people gotta have" but an opportunity to better ourselves, and our
relationships with each other.

[Too long;Skipped the preachyness]: Those who don't create, critique. But then
someone's gotta keep people entertained too.

~~~
jimbokun
"They will not be able to engage their sense of empathy and imagine the
possibilities where that new thing might actually benefit someone in a really
meaningful way."

"Bigger minds will look at new things not as a product or the "next thing all
the cool people gotta have" but an opportunity to better ourselves, and our
relationships with each other."

Are you seriously invoking empathy and "better relationships with each other",
in defending something explicitly designed to distract us even more than we
already are from the people around us?

And can you elaborate on how Google Glass will benefit us in a "really
meaningful" way? As this comedy sketch drives home, if the value proposition
is for Google Glass to be less distracting from human interaction, that's a
pretty self-evidently farcical position. If there's Google Glass between you
and the person you are talking to, you have every reason to believe you are
not receiving their full attention. At least with a phone you have to pull out
to look at, there is some kind of social signal that you are paying attention
to something else right now.

I'm sure there are good use cases for Glass I just haven't seen yet, where it
can provide a better UI experience than a phone. The ones I've read so far,
however, sound awful. Getting spammed with advertisements walking down the
street? Getting background on that person you are talking to who's name
slipped your memory seems like a nice thing. But I think it just sets a new
baseline, where remembering your name doesn't indicate any human connection,
as you assume the Glass wearer just Googled you and got a heads up display on
how to steer the conversation.

So I really do believe there will eventually be some positive use cases for
technology like Glass. What this comedy sketch shows is that most of the use
cases proposed so far are not it.

~~~
dannyr
"The ones I've read so far, however, sound awful. Getting spammed with
advertisements walking down the street? Getting background on that person you
are talking to who's name slipped your memory seems like a nice thing."

Do you have a source for these?

Are you just purposely reading bad reviews of Google Glass? I have read a lot
of positive reviews of it along with bad ones. However, pretty much everybody
who have actually tried it ended up liking it.

I have not seen Glass serve ads and Google is actually banning developers from
serving them. Also, there's no face recognition for you to figure out people's
names.

As somebody who have tested Glass since last year, I think it's a very useful
device.

Google has been careful about Glass, not wanting it to be a device for
distraction. It is pretty evident on the Glass API where they are very careful
on what they opened to developers.

I'd suggest you read reviews from people who have actually used Glass.

~~~
jimbokun
Useful for what? This is what I'm wondering about.

I read this engadget review:

<http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/30/google-glass-review/>

and don't see anything where I'd prefer Glass over a phone.

There was a lot of voice stuff, similar to Siri, and Google's implementation
may be better, buy it's not clear to me where the heads up display adds a lot
of value over voice response, or voice response plus looking at your phone.

The biggest drawback to me is the very limited, 2D controller paradigm. It
sounded a lot like the kind of UIs you see for DVD players, where you mainly
navigate through Left/Right (and occasionally Up/Down) buttons. Versus the
touch screen paradigm of being able to select and manipulate objects directly.

To me, this leaves a very narrow range of use cases where something like Glass
provides the optimal user experience. Something where you need a display, but
it takes too long to take your phone from your pocket, where a two way
navigation UI suffices, and having to reach up to your temple to control it is
not too awkward. Or a voice UI, where something more than a voice response is
needed (otherwise, phone plus Siri like capability plus audio headset would
suffice).

I'm sure these applications exist. I don't think any of the applications
described in the Engadget review fit the bill.

So, as a Glass tester, tell me what I am missing. What are you seeing as the
big wins of using Glass over just using your phone?

------
zizee
"We're sorry, but the clip you selected isn't available from your location.
Please select another clip."

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMcpWxF9hbI>

~~~
karpathy
I only found out After they made me watch their 30 second commercial. Classy.

~~~
akandiah
I'd encourage you to install AdBlock (on FF or Chrome). It should remove those
pesky YouTube commercials.

~~~
raldi
I don't think the experience he's describing happened on YouTube, but rather
on NBC's site.

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doorhammer
Warning: IANA-Designer

At the risk of sounding like a small-minded narcissist (I'd like to think I'm
a moderately minded narcissist) and being _that guy_ , I really can't get over
just how _awful_ glass looks aesthetically, especially with the going-out-to-
the-shooting-range sunglasses.

I'm pretty excited about it as a step forward in wearable computing and
especially of various types of HUDs, etc, but being the shallow putz that I
am, I won't wear it until it's a bit more inconspicuous.

Of course if adoption goes nuts, it might be a moot point, but who knows.

Even the models look like super attractive people wearing some _thing_ on
their face.

Then there's this guy:
[http://whitemenwearinggoogleglass.tumblr.com/image/491923008...](http://whitemenwearinggoogleglass.tumblr.com/image/49192300888)

That guy's got the whole _thing_ down, though. Full image package right there.
That's the bar for me, as far as geek-chic goes with glass.

~~~
goronbjorn
They're in talks with Warby Parker about making more stylish models.

~~~
doorhammer
Nice. That would be cool.

I think the whole package will have to shrink for me to really be on board,
but it looks like that would definitely be a step in the right direction, as
far as I'm concerned.

~~~
goronbjorn
If they stay committed to it, it will get a lot better over time, both in
terms of functionality and form factor. That's a _huge_ if though.

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gkoberger
It's too bad Google Glass seems to be going the way of Segways and Bluetooth
headsets -- great inventions that everyone is too embarrassed to be seen with.

~~~
Avshalom
Segways weren't a great invention that people were embarrassed by. They were
an extremely expensive toy that didn't solve anyone's problems and were bulky
enough that they made new problems when people tried to use them.

Bluetooth headsets... are still being used frequently? They haven't seemed to
go any particular way.

~~~
speeder
Well... I frequently see shopping center security personel at night using
Segways...

I guess for patrolling long flat hallways they are nice (and faster).

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supercanuck
I think the decision to let app developers and other software folks be the
first to wear these in public is going to come back to haunt them from a
marketing perspective since these sort of people will be the ones people will
see wearing them in public first

~~~
kailuowang
I think Google will pursue a smart enough strategy when it comes to marketing
this device. The fact that they are working with fashion shows and Warby
Parker is a good indicator.

That being said, I think the philosophy behind the product development of
Google Glass (and most other Google products) is to to focus on being
competitive in features, then the marketing is the icing on the cake.

From that point of view, having developers trying them first so that great
ideas can be implemented before the mass market makes more sense.

~~~
mratzloff
Google is great at producing technology. But most people don't want
technology; they want products. Google is pretty clueless when it comes to
making products.[1]

 _The fact that they are working with fashion shows and Warby Parker is a good
indicator._

It's a good indicator that design is an afterthought to them. Which is more
likely?

a) Google approached the company at the beginning of the project and worked
with them throughout the process.

b) Google approached the company toward the end of the project, after the
technical components were done.

Given the outcome and Google's track record, I'd say B is more likely.

 _That being said, I think the philosophy behind the product development of
Google Glass (and most other Google products) is to to focus on being
competitive in features, then the marketing is the icing on the cake._

Competitive with what? Smartphones? No one will buy Google Glass as a
replacement for a smartphone. Marketing is _everything_ for a product like
this.

 _From that point of view, having developers trying them first so that great
ideas can be implemented before the mass market makes more sense._

Google is doing this because they see developers (gadget geeks) as their
evangelizers. They're replaying the Gmail strategy. But Gmail doesn't make you
look like a guy with a cell phone clipped to his belt.

[1] There are some exceptions, like Google Maps and Google Now.

~~~
supercanuck
I think folks are looking at this device as a technological innovation and
forgetting that it is also a fashion accessory. I'm hoping Google doesn't make
that mistake, but early commentary seems to suggest they are.

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adamisen
Eat up Martha, or how Google may learn a hard lesson of the 90s. You only get
one shot at a first impression.

~~~
acchow
Do you mean that users of glass risk ruining their first impressions with
other people? Or that the company that introduces glass (like the introducer
of the Segway) risks its first impression to the people? (Because, Google
hardly needs a "first" impression)

~~~
adamisen
If the first public impression is that Glass is awkward and half-baked it will
be very difficult for Google to generate mass market appeal. It happened with
the Newton, famously mocked on The Simpsons.

Apple refined the hell out of the iPhone before making any public statements.
That seems to have worked quite well. Better than the Newton launch did
anyhow.

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freejack
Gotta love what passes as a story nowadays. I'm glad AllthingsD is so deeply
embedded in tech reporting that they caught this gem. Imagine that - SNL did a
skit. About something technology related.

Really, it was news in 1994 when folks were reporting on cyberspace and the
information superhighway. Now? Now its just a bit tedious and sad.

Can't wait to see what AllthingsD has to say about the next time Homer Simpson
uses a smartphone.

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tvon
SNL parodies everything. I suspect they did some iPhones in their time and
that thing is still flying off the shelves.

~~~
jimbokun
iPod invisa.

[http://www.maxmouth.com/view_video.php?viewkey=f4cc0ad3819a3...](http://www.maxmouth.com/view_video.php?viewkey=f4cc0ad3819a36752467)

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capkutay
Will glass have any way to indicate to others that you're recording a video or
taking pictures? If not, I would always feel a little uncomfortable with
someone wearing glass present in the room...

~~~
ben1040
You're either pressing a capture button on the device, or using a voice
command to take a picture or video. So it's designed to send a social signal
to others that you're doing it.

When a video is being recorded, the image appears in the screen. If you're at
face-to-face speaking range or a little further away, it's actually not that
difficult to see in the image in the display. And even further off you can see
what looks like the screen being lit up.

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dannyr
I like Glass but I find the skit pretty hilarious.

It's nice that Google Glass gets the pop culture treatment. IPhone has been
featured on SNL several times but never for Android.

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magicalist
Discussion on this from a few hours ago:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5659251>

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waltz
This is just marketing. This will spark conversations by providing arguments
that are easy to refute.

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taigeair
Peacock!

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yoster
Good ol SNL. They haven't been really funny lately, but every once in a while
they will come out with something hilarious like this.

