Google Glasses - Is It the Future?

You may or may not have heard of the Google Glass project.

If you have not heard about it check out the Google+ page about it https://plus.google.com/111626127367496192147#111626127367496192147/posts

But in short its a set of Augmented Reality glasses that you wear and this allows Google to provide information realvant to what you are doing, which is then shown on the eye piece, such information can be place location information, emails, or even recording what you see and stream it live. I guess it is probably like the Apple iPad and going to be shipped without instructions

Will It Work

Ok the idea is sound, having something we can use to provide real-time information to us directly without the need to get out a phone or look at a map. So in theory Yes the project has real potential, as bridging the gap between the internet information we want and where we are is great, this in essence is what Augemented Reality is all about.

The application of the Glass project and design are the key to its success. I personally see that major benefits of the project as being the real world stuff that will make a difference, I dont think that being able to read emails in a tiny window will really work, think Google the current trend is tablets, and why is that because they are bigger than a smartphone by not as heavy as a iPad, laptop, people will not read email on a set of Google Glasses.

I think my thoughts on Google Glass split into the following.

Pros

1. Live streaming and recording, ideal for emergency services, military to keep in touch with base and improve communication between members. Now soldiers can actually see where their colleagues are, making tactics, not to mention rescue a whole lot easier. this would also be ideal for training scenarios. I love the idea of being able to record my mountain bike trips and watch them back later.
2. On the spot information, such as information about things you see right in front of you, such as "how is this statue by" or "what is that movie about". But more to the point stuff like car sales could really benefit, as when you are viewing a car you could see what you need to look for, as well as realtime pricing or insurance information.
3. In general any information that changes realtime will be useful via Google glass, train information, bus information, flight information, traffic news, etc.
4. In short, think terminator, I want to be able to get information about what I can see now. This one factor is the success story of the Glass Project.
5. Google Glasses would be a perfect replacement to my GPS device I use for walking.

You get the idea the Glass project is perfect for getting up to date information to you when you need it, or recording what you see as you see it from your point of view.

Cons

Although the idea is a good one, I think its just that a good idea and like any good idea it will win or lose in the application and design, this in my view is where Google need to think hard. Mainly due to the follow.

1. The chosen design is wrong, no one will wear a pair of glasses that only has one lens, well being honest a select view people will but a very small minority.
2. Coverage, and this will be the make or break of the whole project, as already people are having problems with mobile phone coverage and mobile internet, and although Google can set up a cool test in ideal conditions "big blimp giving signal", what about someone in a poor coverage area, or more to the point a solider in a war zone with signal being blocked? If the glasses dont get coverage they wont work.
3. Without a targeted niche the whole project will fail, so rather than sell the project to everyone, Google need to target a few areas as an overal augmented reality pair of glasses just will not be popular enough or different enough from current smartphones to make people buy them.
4. Lack of true location information using GPS and supported mapping.
5. Screen (or lack or) size, in short the thought that anyone is going to read emails on their Google Glasses is one that should be thrown out the window, they are too small for that application.

Solutions and Some Ideas

I have a few ideas that should happen to make the Google Glass project more of a success, these include

1. Google Glasses need to be made to either look more like a pair of normal glasses or sunglasses / shades or be able to clip in to existing glasses as a kind of add on. Almost like giving your regular glasses super powers, after all if you already wear glasses, why not have super ones, the key here is that the design need to be incorporated and not a clearly visible thing attached to your Glasses, as is the case for the initial design of Google Glass for prescription glasses wearers.
2. Google Glasses need to be able to work even without signal. So I should be able to upload information to my Glasses for information that I want in real time, but in reality is not realtime information, such as maps, directions, movie info, car info or anything else I may want that is not really real time information.
3. Battery Life. In short there should be none, Google Glasses should be self sufficient in terms of power or at the very least have the internal battery backed up by solar power, so I never need to worry about losing power, especially due to the applications they can be used for.
4. Syncing with my computer and the internet, just like my Google Docs account I have a folder on my PC and everything I put in there automatically syncs to my online Google Docs account. This is how Glasses should work, I should be able to connect them to my computer and they automatically sync stored information onto my computer, such as videos I have recorded, photos I have taken or any other information, this can then be synced to my online Google Glasses account so I can share photos, videos and anything else with people online, just like I do with Google Docs
5. I would love the idea that true location information is shown and recorded, meaning that a huge potential market of anyone who users a GPS or map will be able to use Glasses for exploration. I do a lot of walking and would love to be able to see my location live on a map. The beauty of this is that if I could upload a digital map to my Glasses I would not even need mobile coverage for this to work, as GPS work pretty much everywhere. With tracklog data being recorded and video when I want it to be, meaning when I get back I can review my trip just like I do now using my current GPS device and camera.
6. A better form of input, such as projected keyboard would make the glasses a true go anywhere laptop, tablet replacement.

Ok so these are just a few of my ideas for Google Glass, and I hope that this project is a success as I love the idea of being able to record stuff I do and see live information about things around me. But I still think the project has a way to go to be a viable sales option.

But I wish Google every success in the Google Glass project and I look forward to wearing them in the future.

Thanks
Sean J Connolly
@SeanJC

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RIM posts first loss in 7 years, considers splitting firm

So I have been and continue to be a very avid Blackberry user, and have happily used a BlackBerry for almost 5 years now. So when I saw the latest news that RIM have posted a loss and are on the brink of splitting their company I thought, that is so not the right thing to do. That brings us to this blog post.

OK so RIM  are taking a battering from other handsets, particularly Apple and Android handsets with profits falling to the brink of staff cuts, almost 5000 at the time of writing.

What I find funny and quite annoying is that RIM hired JP Morgan to come up wth strategy to save the company, and what did they come up with, yes you guessed it staff cuts and possbly splitting the firm in two. One for the handsets and one for messaging. This advice is so far from what RIM need to do its laughable.

Remember RIM you need to spend money to make money, making your company smaller is not the way to go to increase profits.

Now here is what is wrong and what should be done, well kinda.

1. Firstly the problem is that RIM have failed to keep up to date with the continued move into applications, and that has left the Blackberry OS too far behind the competition. So people like myself who use a blackberry are in a position where we can not get the same amount applications for our handsets. Answer open up the development of applications for the Blackberry OS, but dont go too far as to make it opensource. 
2. On the apps front, dont just port old apps to your new operating sytem, develop new applications to keep up with the times, porting is good but you need new innovations.
3. Now it appears to me that RIM are totally missing the spot when it comes to keeping up to date with their market, the mobile phone market has changed since they first came around and although messaging has moved on, RIM and the Blackberry handsets have not, and are still targeting older users with enterprise solutions, however alot of handset sold are to young people, and in some cases mid to late teens if not younger. This is the market that RIM is missing out on, although alot of people use BBM their overal handset use is limited to this and this alone, and as this is where the RIM story began they need to focus more on how this can be utilised.
4. Email, simple really RIM are not fully pushing the fact that their handsets are still the best for Email as they operate true push email, no other handset offer this type of email with the service and experience that RIM does. So as the world is continuing to move towards mobile workers, I dont see how they can be making such huge losses. This market would allow RIM to kinda burn the candle at both ends, by targeting people who want to use mobile email.

Splitting the Company. Dont Do It!!

Ok word of warning to RIM, don't split your company into two, as you cannot have Blackberry Messaging and Email without the handset, so in splitting the company and lets say selling the handset side will only lead to problems, due to the loss of control of the one thing that makes RIM and Blackberry unique the "Blackberry" handset. This will also lead to increased costs in the future as who ever did buy the handset side, will either expect payment for RIM to use Blackberry services on their handset, or and this is more likely they will pay a license fee for the use of Blackberry service, this fee will be less that the current income RIM makes from handset and messagin licensing to service providers.

So in short RIM dont split up your company, as you cannot have Blackberry messaging without the handsets.

In Closing

OK so I have loads of ideas that could save RIM, and before you go saying "what do I know" I have worked with some of the largest companies on the planet, Orange, Microsoft, Google to name but a few and have always been able and continue to spot opportunities and bring saving and improvement to companies, and not by cutting staff.

In a nutshell RIM needs to give up the idea of splitting the company, and look to add a better offering of applications to its arsenal, and finally broaden the target market, push the likes of BBM and its benefits, mainly cost compared to SMS, to the younger generation and push the benefits of a true push email experience to the slightly olders users, also make people aware that in order to use Blackberry email you dont need to have enterprise architecture to support it.

So Thorsten Heins if your reading this and want to save RIM, you know where I am and only have to ask. I dont even charge anywhere near as much as JP Morgan, but always get results.

Thanks
Sean J Connolly

 FaceBook Me
Follow Me @potissimus

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FaceBook Develops Inbuilt SPAM System aka Gives Users Personal Email Addresses

You may or may not have seen that FaceBook recently issued all users with their own FaceBook email address.

What does this mean?

What in essence it means is that you now have an email address you can use with the FaceBook messaging system, the email takes the form of {username}@facebook.com and any email sent to that email will appear in your FaceBook messages, just like direct messages sent via FaceBook.

This does means that now your FaceBook account is freely open to receive SPAM from people who are not your facebook friends, so get ready for the marketing material.

Why?

This email is an attempt by FaceBook to further get people to use the website and become more relient on FaceBook, by bringing use of the website into your main stream life. So no longer will you ust use FaceBook to keep up to date with your friends, but you will now use it for direct communications with people that may not be your FaceBook friends.

It is a direct attempt by FaceBook to increase the user numbers and use of the website, as they continue to face an uphill struggle to define exactly what FaceBook is and where it fits into peoples lives. This now takes a direct attack on GMail and other email systems, but just on a different style and a direct attempt to increase user engagement on FaceBook.

Its not so bad though as it does mean that you can use FaceBook as your messaging system and not get stuff you dont want to your main account.

What if I dont like this?

First off you have the email address no matter what, and as its free so I would just leave it at that and either use it or not, its your choice.

The only thing I would say is that your FaceBook email will now be shown on your profile as your default email, so if you dont want to use it you need to change this back to your original email address, which is straight forward, just do the following.

1. Go to your profile page on FaceBook i.e facebook.com/you, either go to your private facebook url directly or just click your name on the right of the facebook screen.
2. Click on the about section, the bit with your work, education, location, etc on the left handside under your name and profile pic.
3. Scroll down to to the Contact info section, just on the right below your basic info, click on Edit.
4. You should now see a popup with all your emails listed at the top.
5. Next to the FaceBook email click next to the circle and change the option in the drop down to hidden from timeline, then if you want an email shown on your timeline, next to the one you want click next to the circle with a line through it and select shown on timeline.
6. Then just scroll down and click save.

Thats it you are now showing your original email rather than your FaceBook one.

SPAM

Now here is my prediction for the FaceBook email future, in one word SPAM. by using peoples usernames means that anyone can create a huge email list of facebook users, and anyone with any development skill at all and using the FaceBook Open Graph API can now harvest a vast amount of email addresses, to which they can send spam, in fact just by spending sometime on FaceBook can turn up usernames and thus email addresses.

What this means is that unlike normal email systems with inbuilt SPAM filters the email system is an open door to crap, and the most you get is a small yellow triangle warning you of the inability to authenticate the sender. But you still get the SPAM. You dont have to be friends with people to send them FaceBook email, so lets open the FaceBook SPAM floodgates.

Thanks
Sean J Connolly
 FaceBook Me
Follow Me @Potissimus

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