This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
The net's most hated man
•
,
•
1 comment
The futuristic augmented reality glasses prototype showcased by Google this week could be closer to launch than previously thought, as the company’s co-founder was spotted wearing a pair of them at a recent social event. Tech pundit Robert Scoble tweeted last night a photo of Sergey Brin sporting a pair in San Francisco, saying “The Google Glasses are real!”
Google revealed its futuristic dream to mass-produce the hybrid glasses in a video showing the metallic glasses frame with a thin device above the right eye that can display information typically handled by smartphones, such as taking pictures, checking the weather, getting directions or scheduling meetings.
The video is titled “One day…” and Google didn’t indicate when Project Glass would be available to the public. Earlier reports scooping this story indicate it could be by the end of the year for $250 to $500, but Google is keeping quiet on such dates.
Image Credit: Robert ScobleWith Sergey Brin wearing a prototype of the glasses in public already, it’s possible they are closer to launch than the video concept let slip. Scoble also noted that Brin “wouldn't let me wear the Google Glasses but I could see they were flashing info to him,” and “they look very light weight. Not much different than a regular set of glasses.”
What’s interesting about the Google Glasses prototype Brin was wearing is that although they looked self-contained, he was wearing a backpack during the charity evening – which some speculate it could have been some sort of battery pack to power the unfinished prototype.
Meanwhile, my PCWorld colleagues Howard Baldwin and Ed Oswald have opposing viewpoints on Google's Project Glass eyewear, including the potential privacy issues.
Google revealed its futuristic dream to mass-produce the hybrid glasses in a video showing the metallic glasses frame with a thin device above the right eye that can display information typically handled by smartphones, such as taking pictures, checking the weather, getting directions or scheduling meetings.
The video is titled “One day…” and Google didn’t indicate when Project Glass would be available to the public. Earlier reports scooping this story indicate it could be by the end of the year for $250 to $500, but Google is keeping quiet on such dates.
Image Credit: Robert ScobleWith Sergey Brin wearing a prototype of the glasses in public already, it’s possible they are closer to launch than the video concept let slip. Scoble also noted that Brin “wouldn't let me wear the Google Glasses but I could see they were flashing info to him,” and “they look very light weight. Not much different than a regular set of glasses.” What’s interesting about the Google Glasses prototype Brin was wearing is that although they looked self-contained, he was wearing a backpack during the charity evening – which some speculate it could have been some sort of battery pack to power the unfinished prototype.
Meanwhile, my PCWorld colleagues Howard Baldwin and Ed Oswald have opposing viewpoints on Google's Project Glass eyewear, including the potential privacy issues.
Read his Facebook post on this below.
I'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.
For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.
We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.
That's why we're committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.
We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.
These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram's experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure.
This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.
We're looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we're going to be able to build together.
I'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.
For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.
We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.
That's why we're committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.
We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.
These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram's experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure.
This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.
We're looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we're going to be able to build together.
