Back in May I talked about being chosen as one of the Google Glass explorers. It took two solid months, but it’s finally here. Google Glass has officially made it to St. Louis!

The Journey

Glass Explorers were offered 3 locations to pick up their Glass: New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. So, I was off to San Francisco. I flew into town a day early to meet with my cousin who works at Google for a tour of the Mountain View campus. I was beyond excited to say the least. It was like a college campus on steroids. There were pools, volleyball courts, Frisbee, pool tables, slides, work-out rooms, free food around every corner, bikes, a wellness center, and that is just what I saw in an hour tour! Can you imagine working in such a creative environment?

Take a peek at some of my photos below…

Getting Glass

My glass experience started with a gorgeous view of the bay bridge. We walked into the Glass guide area and were immediately greeted by Googlers wearing all the different colors of Glass. The setting was very cool and industrial. We were offered drinks, so of course I chose champagne which I added a little orange juice to later. There were also tasty cookies and treats.

Upon setting up my Glass appointment, I had to choose the color I wanted. I chose the safe shale color…I actually held up color highlighters to my head to try to make a decision. I was pleased to find a bar with all the colors available to try on, in case I changed my mind on color, which I did! After consulting with several Glass guides, I chose the more exciting Sky color.

After the big color decision, I was off to meet with my guide and learn the ropes. I was lucky enough to have Chrissy as my guide; she was amazing. You are presented with a fabulous Google goodie bag with your Glass and all the fun gear. It was a long time coming and super surreal to finally peel back the plastic over the Glass to reveal my new technology.

It certainly takes some getting used to. It is like having a rear-view mirror on all the time. The technology is rather intuitive, which was surprising given how different this product is to anything else on the market.

Here are the photos from the experience…

Through Glass

Wearing Glass for the first time in public was an interesting experience. Many people would stop me and ask questions or I would hear them talking about me as they passed, whispering about whether or not I was wearing Glass. When I got to St. Louis the reaction was a bit different. People were looking at me like I was Leela from Futurama!

I am especially loving the hands-free photo function. It is perfect for photos of children and dogs and makes it effortless. I can literally take a photo and share it to a social network in a matter of seconds. The picture quality is also impressive. The first person point of view is really incredible. Take a look at the picture of me below. That is from the perspective of an individual that is 6’7, towering over me.

Here are my first photos through Glass…

There have been a few glitches along the way.

1. It is a little frustrating to connect to the internet. You have to log on to a p.c. and then scan a QR code. It also does not remember multiple sources so every time you want to switch, you have to find a p.c. and scan a code from your homepage.

2. You have to share photos in order to access them off of Glass. You can however, share them to a private G+ circle and then access them there.

3. The apps, like the New York Times, can be overwhelming. I tried it and my feed was full of unnecessary articles from them that I was too irritated to delete.

4. You can’t share video to twitter.

5. When you connect Glass to your phone, it changes settings and switched all my settings from vibrate to ring tone. Just a little frustrating to go back and change them all.

What I hope to see soon

1. A foursquare app so I can take a picture and check in without reaching for my phone.

2. A more organized feed. Maybe a menu for social, apps, email, etc so I don’t have to scroll through everything each time.

3. Easier access to wifi. Mostly, I need it to remember my common wifi connections and automatically find them for me.

 

Overall, I absolutely love Glass. My journey with Glass in St. Louis starts now, so stay tuned for more first-person views of everything you love about The Lou!

 

Brought to you by Mills Apartments