The Origin
- Google conducted an #IfIhadGlass campaign earlier this year, and a post of mine on Google Plus got me selected in the campaign. I had hoped to not just use it as an end user, but also to write apps for it. This review will focus more on usage of the device, as compared to a hardware breakdown of the Glasses.
The Pickup
- Around 1st week of June, I received notification from Google that I could pick-up the glasses within a month and I scheduled my Google Glass pickup from the Chelsea Market site on 29th June. At the time of Pickup, I took a 360 degree panorama of the site which can be seen here. During the appointment, basic functionality like taking pictures, videos, setting up WiFi networks, making calls, navigation and 'Googling'-via-voice commands were demonstrated. The atmosphere was cordial and the folks there were responsive to the various questions that were posed. I was told that even though I can pickup the actual Glasses there, I would have to wait for sometime to get the actual detachable / modular Glass shades. This was a minor disappointment, since I had hoped to collect the entire kit in one go, especially after spending a decent chunk of money and physically making it all the way to NYC. Anyways, the pickup was right in time for my week-long trip to Vegas and Grand Canyon, where I had hoped to do a 'stress test' of the device. I thought that with the temperatures touching 118 deg F ( or 47.7 deg C ), it would provide an ideal atmosphere to test the Glasses in rough conditions.
Construction
- The build quality is absolutely top notch, and it also feels surprisingly light. Also, the Glasses accidentally fell down twice from a desk, but there were no scratches, or signs of damage.
Battery life
- There has been justified criticism of the battery life of Glasses, which has been stated in certain blogs as being nearly 4 hours of heavy use. However, in my usage of the Glasses I was regularly able to take more than 100 pictures and videos over the course of the day on a single charge. Additionally, I don't believe that Google intends Glasses to be used as a continuous video consumption device ( primarily due to eye strain), but more as a here-and-now kind of a device. In that sense, Google Now is the perfect app for Google Glasses. Also, in that sense even though the battery life is an area of improvement, I found it adequate of bursts of interactions throughout the course of the day.
Photos and Videos
- The Glasses take decent pictures and videos in good daylight ( Sample1, Sample2, Sample3, Sample4 ) and also in moderate low light conditions ( Sample5 ). Glasses are excellent for catching fleeting moments, when you have a very limited window of opportunity. For example, we once came across Google's StreetView car, and were able to take pictures and videos of it easily with the Glasses. Glass's camera becomes nearly useless in very low light / night conditions ( as expected ). I don't expect that Google would be able to fix this anytime soon. They could either add a compact Flash, or increase the exposure time for the lens. Adding flash would have an adverse on the already scarce battery life, and increasing the exposure time is difficult because you would then have to keep your head absolutely stable for the duration of the exposure, which is not an easy task. At the moment, the Glass software automatically applies effects ( HDR tweaks ) to the pictures to enhance them and you don't have much control over the effects. This is an obvious area of improvement in the near future. Also adding timer(s) for photography would be very useful. Last but not the least, in a traditional camera you are able to frame the picture properly before taking it but currently in Glass you don't get that option. I guess in the future, this would be another good area of improvement with which you can get a live-preview of the picture that you are about to take. The pictures and videos get backed up automatically to Google+ when data connection is available, which good for backup.
Sharing
- The 'Taking-a-picture-and-share-it' loop is very straightforward. It is frictionless to the extent that one needs to be really careful while sharing pictures since it is such a compact loop. In the entire week of testing, there was only one incident where I accidentally shared a pic when I didn't intend to share it. The sharing function is tightly integrated with Google+, and you cannot help avoid the the feeling that Google is using Glasses to push Google+ ( pushing Google+ through all possible fronts seems to be Google's policy these days anyways).
People's reactions
- A bus driver at Grand Canyon as I was boarding the bus: "Is this your video monitor ?"
- Random person 1 at Grand Canyon ( with a broad grin ): "Google Glasses, eh? Are you recording everything here ?"
- An employee at a Grand Canyon Cafe: "Is this a magnifying Glass ?" ( Best reaction award goes to this one, in my opinion )
- A security personnel at a gas station close to Valley of Fire: "What you got going on there ?"
- TSA employees: No response at all.
- Some folks looked suspicious of it, while others were in awe.
Limitations
- Volume of the bone conduction speakers is too low, and they are not audible in any public place. They can be easily overwhelmed with the most minor noise.
- The screen becomes useless in ultra-bright conditions. The only saving grace is that you can issue voice commands to still get functionality out of the device.
- Google is still working on Glass version for people who need optical correction. Given the modular design, this shouldn't be difficult.
- During the week of usage, there was an incident when I took a phone call with Glasses and the Glasses got 'stuck', i.e. they were repeatedly playing a sound even after I cut the call. I had to perform a hard reset of the device by pressing the power button continuously for 10 seconds. I guess this is a part of the pre-release experience. Anyways, this just happened once during the course of the week.
Voice recognition
- The microphones on Glass are impressively sensitive and accurate. Obviously, in strong winds you need to speak on top of the ambient noise if you want to perform voice commands. You also have the alternate option of using the touch-pad in such cases to navigate through the functionality, if you so prefer.
Glass as a distraction?
- After having used it for a week, I have to say that the Glasses are not as distracting as I had originally thought. One still needs to be responsible while using them, as with any other device like a smartphone.
Software Upgrades
- When I picked up my Glasses, they were at the XE4 firmware level. Subsequently after reaching home, i received the XE6 update, and then a few days back I received the XE7 upgrade. In other words, I received two updates during the course of one week. Google has plans of providing software upgrades every month, so there should be new features / fixes being made available on a fairly aggressive schedule.
Future success / failure
- After having used it for a week, with having it on my eyes for almost all of my waking hours, I am still not convinced about the absolute future success or failure of the device. It could go either way. What I am sure of is that it's an interesting concept and Google is willing to aggressively improve it over time with feedback from #GlassExplorers, which should keep it interesting
Additional Resources
