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"Google Glass Hands On\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass  Camera\nThis is Google Glasse's unblinking eye.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass Frame\nThey may not look like it, but Google Glass is quite comfortable.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass Front\nThey sit gently on your nose\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass Lightweight\nAnd never feel unbalanced.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass No Lens\nThough it's odd to wear something like this without lenses.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass Closeup\nEven up close, the workmanship is superb.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass Bottom\nFew seams to look at.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass  Prism\nLook in this prism to see your screen.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass Battery\nThis is where you'll find the battery and bone-conduction audio.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass Port\nJust one port on Google Glass and it's for charging.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass Frame View\nThese babies sit comfortably on your nose.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWearing Google Glass \nThis is me, wearing Google Glass.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIt stands to reason that a nerd like me would love Google Glass. The wearable technology has it all: A tiny screen projection that hovers in front of your face, voice commands and instant response to your most critical desires. Plus, it makes you look a little bit like you\u2019ve joined the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, that\u2019s not why it\u2019s the future. Google Glass could be the next big thing because it\u2019s a piece of powerful, yet elegant consumer technology that anyone can use with almost no training.\nIt\u2019s been a few days since I first got my hands on the lightweight and not at all bad-looking eyewear, and with each passing moment, I am more convinced that extraordinary promise resides in this high-tech monocle. \nOver the last two days, I showcased it for television audiences, using a Samsung Galaxy S3 Android phone to screencast what I see on my screen for the viewing audience. Despite my relatively limited time with Google Glass, the segments went smoothly and I was constantly amazed at the reception Google Glass received. People are intrigued and about as excited as they were when the first Apple iPhone hit the scene. This is a paradigm shift; a game changer.\nAt the Today show, I had been hesitant to let the anchors wear Google Glass. It\u2019s a touch-sensitive device and (unless you put it in guest mode), a gesture can change a setting. I told them to be careful and then gave Matt Lauer a brief tutorial. Soon he was taking pictures and issuing commands to Glass. Then he started passing it around to his co-anchors: Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, and Natalie Morales. Matt trained all of them. Each took photos and video. Only Roker got briefly stuck in a phone-call loop.\nThat wasn\u2019t his fault. The method for navigating Google Glass is somewhat new. Yes, it\u2019s still intuitive, but only after you understand that a tap or head nod wakes Google Glass up and puts it to sleep. Things you\u2019ve done before are brought forward to your view by a swipe forward, and the future (or what you may encounter in your day) is found by swiping back. More interesting is that in menus with lists, looking up and down will take you up and down through the menu options. You can also use up and down gestures to dive in and out of menus.\nI guess some of this sounds complicated, but I swear to you, I have now witnessed people learning this in minutes.\nWearing It\n\n\nGoogle Glass Images\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAl Roker Hams It Up for Glass\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGlass Captures Today Show\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass Captures Wall Street\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass at NYSE\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass from the Today Show Set\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass of Savannah Guthrie, Matt Lauer, Al Roker\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass of Today Show 9 a.m. Team\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass of Willie Geist\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGoogle Glass View From Today Show Anchor Chair\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNatalie Morales Smiles for Matt, Wearing Glass\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQuick Google Glass of Subway\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSvannah Guthrie Smiles for Glass\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nToday Show Smiles for Matt Lauer\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTo prepare for my segments, I started wearing Google Glass as often as possible. This is kind of a problem for me. The current units do not fit over most prescription glasses. I wear glasses every day, all day long. Still, I got used to squinting to see things in the distance and reading the somewhat blurry Google Glass screen just above my eye. Google isn\u2019t saying when prescription models will be available, but the future is easy to see: The current model has a snap-in sunglass visor. I assume prescription lenses could be made to fit in a very similar fashion.\nAfter a few hours of wearing Google Glass, I almost forgot I was wearing them. For a pair that was not even precisely fitted for my head, they fit perfectly. This is saying something. I\u2019ve had new pairs of glasses that, after a few hours of wear, felt less comfortable than Google Glass. It\u2019s all the more surprising when you look at Google Glass: They\u2019re the picture of design imbalance. All the technology \u2014 projector, prism, cameras, microphone, bone-conduction audio and battery \u2014 are all on one side. The reality, though, is that they manage to feel perfectly balanced. \nTest Drive\nGoogle Glass is capable of a number of tricks that you\u2019ll end up finding far more useful than you expected. \nOnce you wake up Google Glass, you see the time (in rather large type) and \u201COkay Glass\u201D right underneath it. That\u2019s your control command. I found that I could yell or whisper this and Google Glass sprang into action. It did have trouble in some noisy areas, but most of the time, I could get Glass\u2019 attention and then get something done.\nThe two most obvious options, and the ones you\u2019ll likely use the most, are \u201CTake a picture\u201D and \u201CRecord a video.\u201D The former captures a relatively sharp 5-megapixel image. The second grabs just 10 second of 720 p video (that\u2019s the default; you can change it in settings). You can see some of the video I captured with Google Glass below.\n\nAll of this media goes right up to your Google+ account, where they are private by default. \nFull disclosure: This Google Glass unit isn't mine. It's one of two units Mashable will receive, thanks to having attended Google I/O 2012. We bought both of them (for $1,600 a pop!). As a result, all that media ended up in my co-worker\u2019s account. Still, even through this glass darkly, I could see the benefit of having an always-accessible life recorder on your head and connected to your social media account.\nGoogle Glass is also incredible easy to connect. It works with any Bluetooth-enabled phone (yes, even the iPhone), but the best experience will be found with an Android phone running Google's \u201CMyGlass\" companion app.\nI downloaded the free app from Google Play and used it to effortlessly add Wi-Fi hotspots to Google Glass and could also have used it to connect the eyewear to my Gmail account. It was also useful for the aforementioned screencasting (not possible on iOS phones).\nThere are, by the way, ample settings and controls right within the device. You have to find \u201CSettings,\u201D which are in the \"future\" direction, and then swipe through to find the desired control. Among them are the degree of head tilt you need to turn on Google Glass (the less the better since random big head nods make you look at little weird), Wi-Fi settings, tethering, battery charge level and storage space.\nEvery once in a while I would get confused about which direction to swipe, but I invariably managed to swipe my way home (to \u201COkay Glass\u201D).\nUnderstanding and Getting Around\nGoogle Glass does not have a cellular radio built in, but it can make calls via Bluetooth through your phone. To be truly useful, however, it does need Wi-Fi access.\nAt various times I switched between my office Wi-Fi and the one available on the Today show set. Such data access enables key features like Google search and content-centric apps like The New York Times reader app. That app, while interesting, is probably not the best showcase for Google Glass. It can deliver the latest headlines, but when you ask Google Glass to read you one of the stories, which it does in a somewhat robotic, feminine voice, it only reads the first few sentences. I was left wanting more.\nIf you say \u201CGoogle,\u201D you\u2019re really enabling the personal assistant side of Google Glass. I asked it, \u201CDo I need an umbrella?\u201D and it responded, \u201CNo, it isn\u2019t raining in New York. It\u2019s 60 degrees and overcast,\u201D while showing me a weather forecast screen. When I asked for a translation: \u201CHow to say \u2018Hello\u2019 in Japanese,\u201D it instantly responded with, \u2018konichiwa.\u2019 \u201D \nAs with the best consumer electronics, this all just worked. I never trained Google Glass on my voice, nor did I need to overly enunciate. Sure, my co-workers  \u2014  and virtually everyone else \u2014 looked at me like I was crazy when I tried this stuff out, but I didn\u2019t care. It made me happy.\nGoogle Glass also has built-in GPS, which means it\u2019s ready to help get you where you\u2019re going by car or on foot.  The problem is that I spend most of my time in the city, and Google Glass seemed unable to offer transit directions \u2014 an odd omission since Google Maps is so expert at the same task.\n Connecting\nWhat you see and capture is instantly shareable (on Google+), but if you really want excitement, you can launch a Google Hangout right from Google Glass. Hangouts, like other key features, require Wi-Fi and a Google+ account, but otherwise, it\u2019s simple and smart. I had fun connecting with Christina Warren who, instead of seeing me on her screen, saw the view from my Google Glass Camera. You can imagine the possibilities.\n Caveats\nGoogle Glass is by no means perfect (it did crash on me once), or even done. Battery life lasts a day, but only if you don't use photos and, especially, record a lot of video. That can cut your battery reserves way, way down. \nThere are still very few apps (though we hear rumors of Twitter for Glass, which would be a huge score), plus it costs over $1,500. There\u2019s also the fact that you can\u2019t actually buy Google Glass \u2014 that is, unless you attended Google I/O last year or made it onto the Google Glass Explorer program (8,000 people). \nThat hefty price, by the way, may be in place to intentionally quell consumer demand. I think Google really wants to get this experience right. Now that a whole lot more people are testing it (but those with some understanding of the platform and intentions), Google can get critical feedback and debugging for near-term improvements. \n\nYes, you can Vine with Google Glass\u2014sort of vine.co/v/bxEJjuAUVhD\n\u2014 Lance Ulanoff (@LanceUlanoff) April 30, 2013\n\nI bet that, a year or so from now, when Google Glass is available at the local Best Buy, the price will be much lower (there may also be tiers based on storage space).\nOh, and remember that voice command system? It doesn\u2019t know who you are and if Google Glass hears someone else say \u201COkay Glass,\u201D it can react.\nEasily the biggest concern, though, is privacy. Wherever I wore Google Glass I would get looks. No one asked about them, but I could see them regarding the device with interest and, maybe, a bit of concern. Today weatherman Al Roker peppered me with questions about privacy. As I explained, it\u2019s hard to surreptitiously film someone. When Google Glass is on, you can see the screen illumination \u2013- from the outside. Roker said, \u201CWhat if you\u2019re walking behind someone?\u201D Yeah, I guess that could happen, but then they\u2019d likely hear you saying \u201COkay Glass. Take a picture.\u201D\nIt\u2019s a fair concern, but Google Glass is not a spying tool. It sits above the eye, not in front of it. To use it, I looked somewhat up. If I want a spy tool, put it right in front of my eye, so I can look at the person I\u2019m talking to, while filming someone else.\nTech You Wear Is Where It\u2019s At\nI don\u2019t know if Google Glass is the apex of wearable technology. In fact, I\u2019m convinced it\u2019s not. Instead, I see it as the first, major and likely successful step on a long journey. One day, when we\u2019re putting on our smart watch, buttoning our invisibility shirt, tucking it into our bionic pants and gently touching the Google dot on our temple, we\u2019ll look back on Google Glass with fondness and deep appreciation for what it started.\nImages by Mashable\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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