Google Glass & things this week

2 minutes estimated reading time

Google Glass and IBM

An IBM video from 2000 did a pretty good use case and flaws of Google Glass. Good work (I presume by Ogilvy & Mather, but I maybe wrong). Looking on the bright side of things for Google Glass, this probably protects them from IP court cases, given the ad could be cited as prior art. All of this makes me wonder why companies like Google when working on Google Glass aren’t doing desk research looking for content like this through to science fiction and the challenges flagged up or unanswered questions. More related content here.

Five years ago I would have wanted to watch this because Oakley was some kind of engineering wonderland, now I watch it curious to know how Kevin Spacey’s voice over would clash with the conservative designs currently coming out of Oakley post-Luxxotica takeover. Funnily enough the voiceover would have worked almost as well with his appearance in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

My colleague Phee went for a Gorkana briefing with the Wall Street Journal, as a Storify embed.

Apple made a really nice 30-second spot to promote the MacBook Air range. The ad plays on how consumers personalise their computers as an analog for love. I started modifying the shell of my laptop as an anti-theft measure. Prior Apple laptops becoming so popular my customisations were limited to the software layer. Organising my desktop and having a desktop wallpaper of my own.

One day a client tried to walk off with my laptop (they actually had a Lenovo), I managed to stop them, but then decided to customise it so there was no question of who’s laptop it was. Less about love, more about basic survival. For many of my geekier friends, a laptop lid, like a t-shirt is a billboard sharing their advocacy of a development language or the Open Source movement.

There is something WestWorld-esque about the faceless robots in this film about K-league baseball team Hanwha Eagles and their devoted supporters. The film also makes an interesting point about how fandom and participation have changed with online participation mediated though the robots. It’s a fascinating approach and a next stage in consumer behaviour.