Google Glass Goes On Public Sale Today

Google Glass is doing a one-day public sale today.

Beginning at 9 a.m. ET, Google will sell its wearable computing device, Glass, for $1,500 plus tax. Buyers will also get a sunglasses shade or one of Google's newly-introduced prescription glasses frames with their purchase. The one-day sale is an expansion of Google's Glass Explorer program, which began back in 2012. "Every day we get requests from those of you who haven't found a way into the program yet, and we want your feedback too," Google said in a post on Google+ last Thursday. "…We're excited to meet our new Explorers, and we can't wait to hear your thoughts about Glass."

Will anybody here buy one?

Google Files To Trademark "Glass"

Google wants to trademark the word "glass." Mashable reports that the US Patent Office has a couple of problems with that.

The tech giant wants the trademark, of course, for its Google Glass eyewear. It already has the trademark for "Google Glass," but is seeking an additional trademark for the word "Glass" by itself, styled in the futuristic font Google uses in its packaging and marketing. The first issue is that the Glass trademark might be too similar to other glass trademarks or pending trademarks since, as it turns out, Google's not the first company to apply for a glass trademark. It's not even the first computer software/hardware related glass trademark application on file. The letter from the USPTO includes various approved or pending applications for design marks such as "glass," "looking glass," "iGlass," "smartglass" and "teleglass." The second issue is that even if Google got a trademark on Glass — distinctive font and all — the USPTO doesn't think glass is a term that can be trademarked under federal law, which says that you can't trademark words that describe a product. It also sees "glass" as "merely descriptive."

Google contends nobody will confuse their product with others because everybody knows about Google Glass. They also claim that the US Patent Office is wrong to categorize the word "glass" as descriptive because Google Glass units contain no actual glass.

SAN FRANCISCO: Woman Claims She Was Assaulted For Wearing Google Glass

A San Francisco woman claims that she was assaulted by bar patrons who were angry that she might be recording them with her Google Glass. 

Slocum called the incident "the weirdest event," claiming that several people at the bar were "showing animosity" towards her, at which point she turned on the video. She also says that other bar patrons were "trying to shield themselves as if I was recording them" even though she claims the device was not recording at that point. "They clearly didn't understand it, they didn't know how it worked." At the 1:31 mark in the video below, however, a bar patron can clearly be seen in Slocum's recorded video hiding his face — directly in conflict with her own account.

Local television reports below.

Google Glass Gets Creepier

A Google Glass app titled NameTag will allow the user to access online information about a stranger merely by looking at them.

NameTag uses facial recognition technology that will allow you to take a snapshot of the person you forgot or the cute person at the bar and send the picture to NameTag’s servers, where it will be compared to pictures available on social media sites. If a match is found, then the picture is sent back with the person’s name, as well as other significant personal details, including hobbies, interests, and even their current relationship status. If a criminal record is also found in the public record, it will flash in nice big red letters.

Google says that facial recognition apps are against their developer policies and will not be available through them. Nevertheless, Sen. Al Franken is concerned and has written the creators of NameTag to ask that they not release it.

“According to promotional materials, NameTag lets strangers get a broad range of personal information—including a person’s name, photos, and dating website profiles—simply by looking at that person’s face with the Glass camera,” writes Franken. “This is apparently done without that person’s knowledge or consent, which crosses a bright line for privacy and personal safety.” We may well be heading toward a world in which facial recognition is as ubiquitous (and maybe as welcome) as caller i.d., but Franken wants Tussey to hold off until the law catches up with what technology is capable of.

NameTag's developers posted a demo in December.

Homeland Security Descends On AMC Theatres Patron Wearing Google Glass

AMC Theatres has banned patrons from wearing Google Glass after Homeland Security yanked a patron wearing the device out of one of their Ohio multiplexes. Via the Guardian:

Writing anonymously on The Gadgeteer blog, the man explained that halfway into the screening at an AMC in Columbus, Ohio, he was hauled out by police and officers from homeland security's ICE unit, which monitors piracy. "A guy comes near my seat, shoves a badge that had some sort of a shield on it, yanks the Google Glass off my face and says 'Follow me outside immediately'," said the man, who was taken into a room for interrogation. His Glass had been switched off during the movie, and he was wearing it for its prescription lenses. "After a long time somebody came with a laptop and an USB cable at which point he told me it was my last chance to come clean. I repeated for the hundredth time there is nothing to come clean about and this is a big misunderstanding so the [ICE officer] finally connected my Glass to the computer, downloaded all my personal photos and started going though them one by one … Then they went through my phone, and five minutes later they concluded I had done nothing wrong." He wasn't apologised to, but was offered four free movie passes, which "infuriated" him.

AMC says they are "very concerned" about the potential for stealing movies via Google Glass. The Motion Picture Association of America disagrees: "Google Glass is an incredible innovation in the mobile sphere, and we have seen no proof that it is currently a significant threat that could result in content theft." (Tipped by JMG reader Kevin)

RELATED: As I mentioned here recently, I ran Miami-area theaters for AMC back in the stone age of VHS when movie pirates would occasionally bribe employees to smuggle new releases out of the projection booth for overnight duplication. It was quite the operation back in those days as the films arrived on six to ten small reels in two 50-lb canisters. Pirates, with the aid of an employee, had to break the film back down onto the small reels, take it elsewhere, splice it back together, then film it off their own screen. A couple of days later the tapes would appear at shops across South America. More often, however, they would just slip into one of our early matinees and make a shitty handheld recording off our own screen, a la Seinfeld. We threw them out all the time, but the local cops weren't very interested in making arrests.

OK Glass, Pull Out

There's a new porn app for Google Glass users.

The first attempt, an app called Tits and Glass, allowed Glass users to stream pornographic images to their headset. The app was promptly banned from Google's app store, but was recently reinstated. Now a new app for Glass developed by Lebanese product design student Sherif Maktabi and called Sex with Google Glass lets couples use the wearable technology to record their intimate activities, and — if both partners are wearing a headset — even see sex through their partner's eyes by streaming the view from their respective devices. The app is controlled through groan-worthy voice commands. For example, saying "Ok Glass, it's time" begins the recording process. Once sex is over, recording is ended by the voice command "OK Glass, pull out." Video can be replayed for up to five hours before being automatically deleted from the app.

How long before we get a porn version of Being John Malkovich?

CALIFORNIA: Court Tosses Ticket For Driving With Google Glass

A California court yesterday threw out the first-ever ticket for driving while wearing Google Glass, saying that there was no proof that the device had been in actual use. Advocates for the device had launched a social media campaign in support of the driver.

Southern California resident Cecilia Abadie appeared in San Diego traffic court on Thursday for speeding and for wearing Google Glass while driving. It is considered the first time someone has been cited for wearing the face-mounted technology while driving. Commissioner John Blair threw out both charges, stating there wasn't enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Google Glass was turned on at the time. It is only illegal to wear the device while driving if it is operational. Abadie was pulled over in October for speeding by the California Highway Patrol. The officer then cited her for wearing Google Glass under California vehicle code 27602, which prohibits operating a video-display in front of the driver's head rest where it can distract the driver. The law was originally drafted to keep people from watching TV while driving.

Three states specifically outlaw using the device while driving: Delaware, West Virginia and New Jersey. A similar bill was introduced in New York earlier this week. 

NEW YORK: Assembly Gets Bill To Ban Google Glass Use While Driving

New York state Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) has introduced a bill banning the use of Google Glass while driving.

"I will continue the fight to keep our highways safe as I have done for many years,” said Ortiz, who referred to Google Glass as "extremely dangerous technology." Ortiz was also responsible for spearheading a bill in 2001 to outlaw the use of handheld cellphones while driving. He hopes the new legislation will expand the existing law to include Google's high-tech specs, he said. Ortiz cited the case of a California woman who was ticketed for speeding while wearing the $1,500 glasses in October as an example of why this legislation is needed. The woman, Cecilia Abadie, posted her ticket online, asking for legal advice.

Google opposes the bill.

Google Glass has the potential to make driving safer, not more dangerous, the Google spokesman said. An app called DriveSafe, created by developer Jake Steinerman, keeps drivers awake, alert, and informed while behind the wheel, the spokesman said. By simply saying, "OK Glass, keep me awake," the Glass wearer gets audible alerts if Google Glass senses that the driver is dozing off behind the wheel. "I think those trying to ban Glass while driving stems from a fear of the unknown," said Steinerman, who said he regularly drives while wearing his Google Glass.

Google Glass is still not available to the general public.

CA Woman Ticketed For Glassholery

A California woman has gotten the first-ever ticket for driving while wearing Google Glass. Via Dennis Romero at LA Weekly:

Google Glass enthusiast Cecilia Abadie says she was ticketed for using the internet-connected device even though, she claims, it wasn't active when she was driving. The computer scientist posted her California Highway Patrol souvenir for the world to see on her Google+ page last night. The ticket says "Driving with Monitor visible to Driver (Google Glass)." Abadie was also cited for going 85 in a 65 miles per hour zone during yesterday's stop. "The speeding was justified as I was in a 65 mph zone and thought I was on a 75mph zone," she says in comments to her Google+ post.

According to the above-linked article, California law stipulates that drivers may not be exposed to a monitor except for GPS devices. I haven't owned a car in nearly two decades, but don't many vehicles have a monitor embedded right in the dashboard these days?

Google Patents "Pay Per Gaze"

This is more than a little bit freaky.

Google claims a system that can provide a reliable, low cost, and unobtrusive, eye tracking system could have a variety of useful everyday applications. In particular, it outlines a method for billing advertisers based on the number of times users look at an advert – either online or offline, via a billboard, magazine or newspaper. The pay-per-gaze technology is designed for use with a "head mounted gaze tracking device" such as Google Glass. By tracking eye movement, the device would be able to determine which, if any, of the identified items within the external scenes viewed by the user are advertisements and charge advertisers on a per-gaze basis.

But you'll be able to opt-out. So it's OK!

Porn Industry Eyes Google Glass

You knew this was coming.

Because Google Glass is worn just like a regular pair of glasses at eye level, it allows users to take videos and photos from a distinctly first-person perspective and upload them directly to the Internet. Porn shot from that vantage point, POV style, has, according to Boyer, been popular for quite some time. “Obviously a device that allows you to shoot high-quality video in a truly hands-free fashion will make shooting POV porn that much easier,” Boyer noted.

Crazy Eyes Tests Google Glass