Tales of a Google Glass Explorer: Two Weeks with Google Glass

I have had Google Glass for two weeks now, and if I had one word to describe it, I would have to say, Awesome! Especially after the XE7 software update with its new features and enhancements. 

First, lets start with the device itself. Google gives you two attachments: a clear attachment and a Maui Jim sunglass attachment. During the heatwave over the July 4th weekend I have been using the sunglass attachment and it works very well, and looks stylish. The device, unfortunately, is not balanced as all the computing parts are on the right side. (For a complete breakdown check out this great post over at Catwig.

The device fits on your face very comfortably though, with or without, the attachments. They feel like sunglasses, or regular glasses, albeit a tad bit heavier. 

After a few days, it feels normal to have Glass on. It sits on your face and feels rather unobtrusive. You don’t see the prism in your perspective and only see the screen when looking up and while it's activated. I have the "head wake up detection" set to 20 degrees, which allows me to tilt my head up to wake up glass. Sort of like a “what's up" head gesture.

You do get a lot of different looks from people while wearing glass, ranging from the inquisitive look, to the “look at this douche bag” look. I have been averaging about 5 people a day asking me about Glass, and I do about 2 demos a day. The most common response with the demos is, “Wow this is so cool!”, followed by being asked if I could take a picture of them with their smart phone while they have Glass on. Of the 5 people a day, I would say 3 out of the 5 would buy it if the price is right when it is released to the masses ($300-$500).

Now, on to daily use of Glass. A typical day for me is to put Google glass on in the morning while getting ready for work. Immediately, I am greeted by the OK Glass screen and scroll my timeline, which shows the weather forecast for home and work, meetings for the day, today’s top stories, and traffic to work; essentially my Google Now. 

When I head to work, I use Navigation which puts the HUD up in my prism, along with turn by turn directions through the bone induction speaker. Once I get to work, my automatic check in kicks in which is shared with my friends on Google Plus. Glass is tethered via bluetooth to my Nexus 4 for data and other functionality (GPS, Voice, Text). I turn off Google Voice forwarding from 9 to 5 to the Nexus so I don’t get personal phone calls. I get my voicemail to text transcriptions through Glass with a notification. Important emails come to my Glass, as well as Twitter Direct Messages throughout the day allowing me to read them quickly and even reply if need be.

The great thing about Glass is that I can be sitting in my office working on a spreadsheet or report and hear notifications. By nodding my head upwards I can see my text, email, meeting reminder or Twitter DM without pulling my hands and eyes away from what I'm doing. When I am close to leaving the office, I can take a quick glance at how the traffic is on the way home. With XE7, you now have the ability to view web pages and YouTube videos with Glass. Here is a demo video from SlashgearTV:

This adds a whole new dimension to Glass allowing you to be less dependent on pulling a phone out of your pocket. You basically pan and zoom websites using your head and the touchpad, even allowing you to play videos and click on links! However, Glass runs extremely hot after a few minutes of browsing for me. 

Throughout the day, I can take quick pictures/videos and post them to Twitter, Facebook, or Google Plus by sharing them privately, publicly, or direct to contacts. Taking pictures with Glass is very simple, either with the voice commands, or using the button directly on Glass. The advantage to Glass is since the camera is on you at all times you can capture moments quickly.

To post a status update to social media direct from Glass, I added the posting email address of each social network as a contact, along with a picture of the social network as the contact pic. What this allows me to do is say, for example, "Ok Glass, Send a message to, Twitter, 'Having a great time at my family reunion.'"

I love Glass right now and I just see it getting better and better with the new software updates and apps that are rolling out. I will start reviewing some of these as well as provide another update on Glass when version XE8 rolls out.

Until then, if you want to know more about Glass follow me on Twitter @wlassalle or Google Plus gplus.to/wlassalle .