Glass connections

During the last week, I've spent much some major time off exploring in Oregon, driving through the desert east of the mountains as well as the Columbia Gorge, en route to visiting Portland and Corvallis. It's been a lot of fun, with Glass and otherwise, and then on my return to reality, had to spend a few days catching up on professional deadlines, so left the Glass alone.

In addition to my own experiences during the last seven days, I really enjoyed the finding the new George Takei video on Glass, the first in his new AARP-sponsored series on technology (see above). And I also discovered the professor for my new Coursera course, from Northwestern University, "Understanding Media by Understanding Google", is a fellow #glassexplorer! Dr. Owen Youngman blogs about his experiences, too (example - http://owenyoungman.com/2013/06/20/throughglass/).

And now on to more adventures #throughglass!

My Glass experiences also on Goin' Mobile, Jim Lyons Observations

While I have and will continue to use this blog as the primary journal for my #GoogleExplorer experiences, I have included some of my adventures with Glass in two other blog posts I would like to highlight here.

Last month, in my monthly Observations, in the blog of the same name, I looked at my hands-on experiences with another product, the Berg Cloud Little Printer. But for fun, and did a little side-by-side with my Glass experiences (and yes, I admit, and maybe because now as a college professor, I can't resist the opportunity, from time to time at least, to "compare and contrast"). That post can be found both at The Imaging Channel (see "Go Go Go Little Printer") and my own JimLyonsObservations.blogspot.com - which gives me the opportunity, again, to thank my friends at 1105 Media for hosting me!

More recently, I wrote about my first month as a Glass Explorer, in a post at another 1105 property, Workflow. You can find that tale at "Google Glass - A Bluetooth Headset on Steroids?". This title, which is furthered explained in my post, is not intended as a "diss", but rather the way I have come to think of Glass, at least in the first month of being a "on-head" Explorer.

I would be flattered if any of my readers here would care to venture to these other posts, and thrilled if you would offer commentary!

Not exactly Fashion Week!

The big news coverage regarding Google Glass last week involved its presence at New York's Fashion Week. As pointed out by this example from HuffPo, product placement was in high gear.

But my big news was wearing glass to a Boise State Broncos football game at Bronco Stadium, home to the legendary blue turf. The turf has always been photogenic, and on Friday afternoon and evening, it was no exception. Plus, from our seats near the very top of the south endzone, the view of the surrounding city and foothills was stunning, with an ever-changing tableau of sun-drenched cloud formations which eventually turned into rain clouds, bringing more much needed moisture to our end-of-summer, parched environment.

As far as wearing Glass, let's just say it was not exactly Fashion Week! Note that "selfies" with Glass still require the good old front-hall-closet mirror of something similar! And outside of photography, I should add that XE9's "Sound Search" was a kick, helping to identify many of the stadium's selections for between-plays music.

(My earlier post, Blue Turf #ThroughGlass, includes some of the aforementioned photos.)

Boise State Blue Turf - #ThroughGlass for the first time?

Bronco Stadium on September 13 2013 focused on Stueckle Sky Center - West Side of Stadium

Last night, the Boise State Broncos hosted the Air Force Academy Falcons in an unusual Friday evening game. The site was Bronco Stadium, home to the "blue turf" field which has become nationally famous along with BSU's rise to college football prominence over the previous decade. And I was lucky enough to have sought-after game tickets!

Though of the "nosebleed" variety - located high above the stadium's south end zone - our seats proved to be an excellent vantage point for viewing, #throughglass, the field as well as most of the stadium, as well as the beautiful city of Boise and its surrounding foothills. In addition, the unsettled weather of late included an ever-changing view of swirling clouds which put on a show from late afternoon until dusk.

Shadows on the famous Blue Turf pre-game

Having Glass in the Stadium was a kick for capturing images and a few short videos (see example posted on YouTube), and I also used "Sound Search" to identify some of the music blasting from the stadium's recently upgraded sound system. Overall it was a great experience (after a close game in the first half, BSU pulled away to win, 42-20), and having Glass along was fun. And I'm just wondering if I am the first #GlassExplorer to record our famous team, stadium, and most of all, our beloved "Smurf Turf"?

As game began the clouds became more threatening leading to a half-time rain storm

XE9 - Sound Search the best Glass demo yet?

Ask a baby boomer the first thing that pops into their heads when they hear the word "Shazam" and certainly at least a few will come up with something like, "What Gomer Pyle said", from that old Andy Griffith spin-off from the 1960s. And yes, it's embarrassing to even admit that.

Others, more with the world of today, would know it's the name of a popular Smartphone app/service used for almost magically identifying a song by "listening" to it. Shazam (and its competitors) have been around for awhile (I actually remember first being exposed to the company and its technology's capabilities at a long-ago Demo conference).

With a little practice, I was bringing up song id's with ease, though it sometimes takes a second try and purists would no doubt say it comes up with too many "greatest hits" responses

With the coming of the latest Glass operating system, XE9, on September 9th, we Explorers have that capability built into our devices. The top image (via a screenshot using MyGlass on my Nexus 7), shows the screen during the "listening" step. And the one immediately above shows I was getting good results, after just a little experimentation.

The official app note describes the function and its operation as follows: "3. Sound Search: When you hear a song, but can’t remember the name or artist, just long press your Glass touchpad and swipe forward for sound search."  And note that the "#3" indicates Sound Search is but one of several new features, which also include Vignettes, YouTube videos in search results, and Hosted Google Apps Accounts, but my impression of those will need to wait for future posts.

Fun to see another's Teaching #ThroughGlass exploration!

I've enjoyed encountering at least a few fellow Explorers via traditional Social Media (LinkedIn, Twitter, and yes, Google+) in addition to the official forum available to us via Google.

One came around about a fellow Teaching #ThroughGlass experience, reminiscent of mine back 10 days or so. Here's the "Google Glass Obsessed" post, complete with Glass-wearing student pics. My moment from last Tuesday (8/27) was documented on Instagram -

http://instagram.com/p/di1FLbHuBm/

As for me, and today's exploration plan? I am excited to be getting ready for the twilight golf tournament, where I will definitely be trying some glass tricks!

Mea culpa - Glass working!

Just a quick and happy post to note that my Glass is NOT broken! Apparently my micro USB cable is to blame, but this is good news. In the mean time (before I returned home from travels, where I could expand my troubleshooting options), I was contacted by a very helpful Glass Guide, who suggested trying a few things before assuming I had a RMA on my hands.

While the Glass Support website suggests* that the included Glass charger should more-or-less be used exclusively, trying a variety of cable/charger combos seems to be part of the troubleshooting regimen, so I don't feel too bad about using others that I have.

(* While there are thousands of Micro USB chargers out there, Glass is designed and tested with the included charger in mind. Use it and preserve long and prosperous Glass use.)

And the really happy part of this news is that I will have a working Glass for the Twilight Golf Scramble coming up Friday - should be a blast!

Alas - Broken Glass! :(

Mid-way through my Labor-Day-weekend trip to see the grandchildren and other family members, my Glass stopped taking a charge. Rather than the pulsing LED that indicated a charge was being accepted via its micro-USB connection (hooked to wall charger or Windows laptop USB), I get an intermittent light of the non-pulsing variety, and an inability of the device to turn on.

Thanks to the online Explorer community, as well as a pretty quick followup from a Google Guide, I'm feeling ok that a quick and satisfactory repair/replacement cycle will commence once I return from my trip Tuesday afternoon. And as I remember from vintage Tom Peters management education, there's always the "we want to sell you a lemon" upside, so stay tuned!

Glass and grandchildren

When I applied to become a Google Glass Explorer, I quite naturally offered to base my evaluation applying the perspective of status as a proud baby boomer. I have many hobbies and interests, as well as quite a few professional activities, thus a plethora of ideas for using my Glass have come to mind. Some of them have been attempted in at least limited fashion already, with others waiting in the wings, and with many more yet to be imagined, no doubt.

Going back to that boomer thing, one of the most significant stages I have entered recently, along with so many others in my cohort,  is the grandparent stage. And I am finding that a hands-free, voice-activated photo and video-capture device can come in pretty handy - once the kids get used to grandpa (seemingly) talking to himself!

Here's a bubble blowing clip from last weekend's visit with the kids.