What has been seen cannot be unseen.
The Google Glass backlash has already begun. Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) wearable computer is coming under fire for being dorky, privacy-infringing, and even racist.
In IT Blogwatch, bloggers realize that Scoble in the shower is the least of our worries.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment.
Marcus Wohlsen notes Glass' "inherent dorkiness":
Google Glass is too dorky to succeed....
Disagree? ...some of the smartest people in tech predicted that the Segway would change the world [but] it won’t. Why? Because Segways are lame. [And] walking around with a camera mounted on the side of your face at all times makes you look dorky....
[This] is what happens when Silicon Valley spends too much time talking to itself [or] when important tech people spend a little too much time congratulating each other. ... [It] underscores the tone-deafness that can envelop Silicon Valley when VIPs get a little too excited. ... Scoble in the shower. MORE
Tom Foremski agrees, citing the WhiteMenGlass meme:
A friend who is a prominent geek...and very comfortable with self-promotion, is very concerned about posting a picture of himself wearing Google Glass....if my friend is concerned about posting a picture of himself wearing Glass, what about other geeks?
...Memes such as these can be product killers. ...does [Google] know what to do in response to negative sentiment? ... . MORE
Darlene Storm is ahead of the curve, as usual:
If someone gives you a slow wink, you might take pause. ... If someone wearing Google Glass winks at you, then it could be a creeper's covert command...to take your picture....
[There's] a “huge list of features” regarding eye gestures, such as winking to take a photo....
Maybe Google won’t be like Apple, secretly keeping Siri data for "up to two years," yet it is doubtful that a new social etiquette for Glass will be enough to protect privacy. MORE
How? Mike DiGiovanni obliges:
winky [is] a way to enable the wink gesture. ... The screen can be off while you wink, this means completely hands and mouth free photo taking....
So why do we need this app? ... Glass [checks] to see if the wink gesture should be enabled and then turns it off if it shouldn't. This turns on the wink gesture, and makes sure that Glass won't be able to disable it. MORE
Meanwhile, Darko is a lover of the run-on sentence:
I'm still wondering how they will get around the problem of looking like a conspicuous douche [like] all the bluetools currently wearing bluetooth headsets all the time, once they make the switch to wearing Google Glass every waking moment and you know they will. MORE
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