By Millie Tadewaldt, Contributor

It’s been about a month since I made the ultimate futuristic fashion statement… that is, a month since I picked up my sky blue Google Glass from the Big G’s sprawling headquarters in Silicon Valley.  In my four weeks as a Google Glass Explorer, I’ve given a lot of thought to this innovative new product: how it could influence my work and personal lives, what disruptions it could lead to, and how it might affect society at large once more than a few thousand people get their hands on it. Google Glass is an ambitious device that is still very much still in alpha: the firmware is minimally-featured, battery life is short, and, without wider adoption, availability of apps and collaborative opportunities for use are lacking.  But, if Google can get users past some of these hurdles, there is much promise for Glass to seriously change the way people interact with the digital world (and the physical world, too). To pick up a Glass, we “Explorers” must attend a fitting in one of a few select Google campus locations.  I’m fortunate to live just up the road from Mountain View, so my husband and I hopped on the 101 one Saturday for the quick one hour drive to Google HQ.  My arrival at the designated building had a Willy Wonka-esque vibe to it: friendly, attractive Glass Guides milled about outside and welcomed us with a huge smile and flutes of champagne. I was given a hands-on lesson in using my new Glass, and then a tour around the campus, a perfect opportunity to try out my new gadget. It was a fun, unique and loyalty-building experience and Google managed it perfectly. Glass is a unique device: most navigation is done either verbally, or through swiping gestures on the outside of a plastic box that sits next to your temple.  The critical part of my initial Glass experience was quickly learning how to use the thing, and it was a huge help to have a friendly Guide sitting next to me, using her own Glass in parallel.  Given how helpful my Guide was, and how relatively technologically-savvy I like to think I am, I found myself immediately wondering how Google would be able onboard the general public when the device eventually enters mass-production. Relatedly, Glass is also a very solitary experience. I discovered this the next week when I offered to do a “demo” of Glass to some coworkers in my office.  We blocked an hour and all sat down at a conference table to give it a try. But, we quickly realized that this “demo” consisted of one of my colleagues wearing the Glass while I clumsily tried to explain it from memory.  I was definitely not as smooth as my Guide had been!  Glass has a handy Guest Mode that you turn on for sharing with friends, but there’s currently no easy way to switch between Google accounts without actually resetting the device to factory settings. This is, of …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest