A tantalising glimpse at tomorrow – Google reveals Glass ‘how to’ (video)

1 May 2013

A year ahead of the expected consumer launch of Google Glass, Google has published a ‘how to’ video demonstrating how to set up Google Glass and how users will interact with the device.

At present, only about 1,500 members of the industry who attended Google’s developers conference I/O last year (and who happened have enough spare change to throw down US$1,500 without thinking about it) have in the past few weeks received their first copy of Glass.

Tech blogger Robert Scoble has been so transfixed by his experience with Google Glass that he has vowed to never take the eyewear off, even taking to wearing it in the shower.

Significantly, Scoble predicts that upon launch, Google Glass is likely to go on sale for between US$200 (the cost on the device’s bill of materials) and US$500, making Google Glass more realistic an option for consumers.

The video Google produced last night shows first-time users how to use Google Glass and it is apparent why Google is putting so much effort into its Google Now card-based context system on Android, iOS, Chrome, and eventually on its homepage.

By swiping a panel on the arm of the device back and forth, users can toggle through various cards that provide information, like weather, travel information and more based on where the user is and what time it is.

The video also demonstrates how intuitive the controls are. By swiping right, users will see information from the past, like messages, videos and photos, and tapping the device allows users to share a photo and send it to selected friends.

Just swiping down puts the device in stand-by mode.

Tantalising indeed.

Could Glass be coming to consumers sooner than we think?

 

However, producing this video at this time – just weeks ahead of I/O 2013 in San Francisco, California – might be a hint that potentially some bigger news may be in the offing. Just thinking out loud: perhaps Google will make a significant announcement about the wider availability of Google Glass. Going further, might we speculate that the consumer launch might be sooner than we have been led to believe?

All will be revealed at I/O on 15 May, where most of the action will be mostly around Android and Chrome but will kick off with a marathon three-hour long keynote.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com