Simon Sunde

"Fail early and fail often."

14Jul

Hands-on w/Google Glass

Hands-on w/Google Glass

Google Glass – the controversial wearable that everyone sneer at, until they try it themselves. Then they’re suddenly awfully nice. Today I gained an understanding of why that is. Personally, I’ve been eager to try them ever since the first demoes were send out to developers.
However the odds wasn’t really in my favor, considering they’re only available in the US.

If I should try to describe the experience, when wearing Google Glass, I would compare it with having the screen of you mobile phone in the top corner of your eye. It performs hands-free tasks, like browsing the web or taking a picture and upload it to social media. Furthermore it’s powered by this instinctive software, that lets you know if your flight is being delayed, how the weather is going to be, an the route for the airport – all that, without even asking. It has no speaker, but communicates to the inner-ear through a bone conducting transducer, which personalizes the sound. So no one can hear what you might be watching or listening to (which is pretty cool).

Other specs (for the geeks):

    Titanium frame
    Adjustable notepads fits any face.
    Photos – 5MP
    Video – 720p
    Wi-fi – 802.11 b/g
    Bluetooth
    12 GB of usable memory, synced with Google cloud storage. 16 GB Flash total.
    Battery: one day of typical use.
    Display: equivalent of a 25 inch high definition screen from eight feet away.

On the software part, it’s all still very beta. That’s actually how i got to play with this $1500 bad boy. I was a participant in a prototype evaluation. A Communication & IT student (like myself), is developing an app he calls ‘Reader’ as a part of his Master Thesis: Augmenting the reading experience with Google Glass. Twitter: @jacob_funch

Watch the introduction video here: Reader for Google Glass

When I heard Jacob was looking for participants, I signed-up immediately. To help a fellow student. That’s important. Sure. But I would be lying, if I didn’t admit that I also did it to satisfy my ginormous tech-geeky side as well.
Below you’ll see a happy guy. I almost forgot to take them off, because it felt so right. So long Google Glass – until we meet again.

Captured happiness.

Captured happiness.

2Jul

Strive to change

Strive to change

I have always been fascinated by innovation to an immensely extend. A fascination only exceeded by an interest to the people who stands behind it. Often they’re considered unique, geniuses or in other ways unusual. The truth might be, that some of them really are! However, the most certain truth is that we’re all innovators by nature.

Think of a time when you started something, that wasn’t supposed to happen. It might have been a courageous act, or it might just be something like adding a new ingredient to a dish you’ve been cooking hundreds of times before. You might saved a life. You might perfected a recipe. Or neither.
Nevertheless, you were innovative. You changed the outcome of something, just because you had a thought. Now, you might haven’t changed the course of the world, but that isn’t really the concept of innovation anyway.

Succesfull innovation is about context and perspective. What might seem like an epiphany one place, can be completely worthless in another. The spices you add to your dish, might not be in everyones taste. The kind of innovation that might be needed in the West can be absolutely purposeless in the East.
In order to be a true innovator, you’ll need to be familiarized with the things you wish to change, and adjust your perspective according to it. Furthermore you’ll have to contemplate the context of the problem you’re trying to solve.

Some of the most successful startups, started out by wanting to solve a problem they were familiar with. AirBNB, Apple and Google are amongst some of them. Even though they’re all billion dollar companies now, they all started from the same foundation:

They’re striving to change behavior – not adapt to it!

This is what innovative startups set out to do. That’s why I love ‘em. That’s why we love ‘em. They improve, they disrupt, they create – and the people behind them do it, because they can’t imagine to do anything else, other than what they believe in.

It’s in human nature to adapt, that’s how we survive; physically, socially and psychologically. However, I believe that there’s more to life than survival. Taking a historical perspective, it would seem that i’m right. Through human history we’ve continued to improve our transcendence, way beyond adaptation and survival. Innovation has brought us to where we are today, and it’s going to bring us beyond our wildest imagination. We’re all part of it. The only question is “to what extend do you wish to be a part of it?”