I loved my Palm Pilot and really admired Handspring. This is a great look at a critical part of tech history. For me, these devices gave me the first glimpse into what the internet could, and eventually would, become.
Tag: mobile
Amazon Frames, Google Glass and the Reinvented Future of Connected Eyewear
Today I logged into Amazon and the first thing I see is this ad:
I’m surprised that I missed the announcement for Alexa Frames. Looks like these have actually been on the market for a few years. Though not as feature-rich as the old Google glasses, they are definitely more discrete and attractive.
This got me wondering about the status of Google Glass, and what similar products are on the market. With a little research, I found this piece about Google Glass. Now, I’ve known that the product is far from dead as there’s now Google Glass Enterprise Edition. But it has been more of a niche thing (here’s a post from the Verge from last February about it).
As far as other products, I found this: Focals By North. Looks pretty interesting, but not ready for the mainstream yet. This video is from 2019, so perhaps they’ve updated things in the meantime.
I think that the glasses will hold a significant part of the future of mobile computing. In particular, I’m curious about the ways VR/AR will be integrated into these glasses. Or how they won’t be.
The Cyber World
It’s sometimes hard to imagine, but I remember a world without PC’s, iPods, cellphones and the like. Though it really wasn’t that long ago, in some ways it was a lifetime. The impact of these, and related, technologies on our culture has been immense. These devices have changed the way we date, flirt, communicate, learn, yadda yadda. My life has kept me in the thick of it. I love these devices, and have been an early adopter (as much as I could afford to be, at least).
Back in the mid-80’s, a good friend of mine crafted a bulletin board with his Commodore 64 (ah, now there was a machine). This, the predecessor of the blog, the webpage, etc, was so cool a way to communicate…to me, at least. I wasn’t any cheaper than a phone call, and a hell of a lot more expensive than a letter. My poor dad…and his phone bill! I did brutalize it with his first subscription to Prodigy, too.
The changes since have been mind-blowing, and thrilling. And I’m looking forward to seeing all that’s to come!