Got our #EuropaReport tickets!! I love hard-science movies. #cantwait!

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TheGlassLog: #Glassware review: #CNN for #Glass: Super Service, Kind of Crappy Content

An example of a CNN card on Glass. Seems cool enough–and it is! No NYTimes-for-Glass-style disappointment here.

The CNN service* for Glass is actually pretty awesome. It leaves New York Times for Glass in the dust, actually. You enable it like any other Google-sanctioned service (just go to your myglass page) but when the content shows up, you get a nice bang for your buck.

But first things, first. Once you enable it and then authorize it, on the next page, another page on CNN’s server will appear to you. On it, is a list of categories.

This is what the categories page for CNN for Glass looks like. Not much granularity there, huh? I hope they add more categories, or better yet, let us enter our own tags/keywords to determine the kind of news we get. #fingerscrossed!

Select the kind of news you would like delivered to your eyeball. I left only “Top Stories” selected, for reasons I’ll get into in a bit.

When CNN content is delivered to your Glass, you’ll see a card like the one at the top of this post. Tap the touchpad on the side of Glass and that will “open the book” and show you this:

The internal story card for a story delivered by the CNN for Glass service. Don’t worry, it gets way cooler.

Now, at this point, you may think this is just like the sucky New York Times for Glass service. It’s not–this is a description card for an actual video you can access by swiping forward on the touchpad. And this video is substantial. This is not some New-York-Times-for-Glass-style “tease,” this is a whole news story, as though you’d just turned on CNN to see it. Sure, it’s nothing like the giant, 20-minute news stories they cover on Democracy Now, but then, DN doesn’t have a Glass service yet. So, I’ll take what I can get!

I don’t have a screenshot of the dolphin story because, for some reason, when I play the video on Glass, it doesn’t show up under the “screencast” tab in the “MyGlass” app on my Android phone. I don’t know why this is. I suspect CNN doesn’t want there to be anyway to bootleg their stories. This is absurd since, 1) who would want to bootleg their often not-so-great stories? And 2) the video quality is pretty bad. It reminds me of the way old 3gp videos looked on my old MotoSLVR phone back in 2007.

But this brings up a good point. CNN is a terrible news organization. They have 24 hours to fill on TV and they fill it with mostly shallow reporting, fluff pieces and useless commentary that often does more harm than good when it comes to informing the public. With 24 hours available, you’d think they could fill it with plenty of deep, thought-provoking stories and reporting, but NOPE. Sadly, the content they deliver to Glass is just like the content they deliver to your TV.

Don’t get me wrong–during my first night with Glass, I had a video served from CNN that covered protests in Egypt that was an incredible experience. I often joke about how it felt like the Egyptian protest story was “breaking on my eyeball.” In all seriousness, though, watching this breaking news story from the other side of the planet gave me chills and prompted me to say while I was still watching it:

“This… this, right here, is the future.”

And it is! News coverage being served to each of us, personally, on a level more intimate than most people will ever experience with us. You’re not just inviting news reporters into your living room–you’re inviting them into your face.

And this is where CNN is letting us Glass Users down. For every one, truly important story I see on Glass, they serve up four or five really useless stories. The dolphin story above was really fascinating, but was it really a “top story” that I needed delivered to my eye? Not really.

Here are some more examples of news items that, I feel, really don’t belong in the categories they were included in, nor do I think anyone would really need them delivered through Glass:

Of all the important stories breaking in the US at any given moment, was this really one of them???

Whoopdie-shit! Why do I need this news ON MY FACE? I DO NOT KNOW. What’s really funny is that this story was the next story to show up on Glass after the one I included above, about the pet bear. Two stupid animal stories in a row? What the hell, CNN?!?

Ah, now TRULY, CNN, this IS a TOP STORY…in a way that I don’t understand.

I STAND CORRECTED. VERILY, THIS IS THE MOST TOP-EST OF THE TOP STORIES. Sigh… come on, CNN… really?

In Conclusion

I really love CNN for Glass. Having video delivered to me like this service does is brilliant. But even narrowing down my categories to just “Top Stories” doesn’t filter out all of the stupid stuff. CNN needs to get back on it’s game and start giving real news to people who are so serious about real news they wear a computer on their face. Sure, it’s nice to cover light stories every once in a while, but I don’t think anyone with Glass is really interested in receiving MOSTLY those kinds of stories in such an immediate fashion, as Glass does. I’m willing to bet that my fellow Glassmates are only interested in getting serious and breaking news stories delivered to their eyeball.

Why else would we be wearing Glass?

I hope CNN gives us either more control over the kind of news they serve to Glass or that they start to do a better job delivering us real news, across the board. I’d prefer the latter, but the former would be better than nothing.

Thanks so much for reading TheGlassLog at thepete.com! Please check back tomorrow for another post in TheGlassLog or subscribe to my blog’s rss feed or get my blog in your inbox!

*Please remember, I don’t refer to Glass “apps” but call them services, instead. Unless I am referring to what are called “native apps,” which are installed and run locally, on Glass, itself. I have not written about native apps, just yet. What Google is calling an “app” runs on a server someplace. I also refer to a “bookshelf” rather than calling it a “stream” when I refer to where you find all of your content on Glass. Read more here.

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@NYTimes reports on how JPMorgan can, effectively, bribe the USG to avoid trials or, you know, consequences.

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From the article:

JPMorgan Chase is pulling out its checkbook to help mend frayed relationships with the government.

More:

The hefty payouts started on Tuesday when JPMorgan struck a $410 million settlement with the nation’s top energy regulator, which had accused the bank of devising “manipulative schemes” to transform “money-losing power plants into powerful profit centers.” The agreement was a record fine for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, whose most recent settlement with a big bank totaled only $1.6 million.

More:

The bank’s new approach comes down, at least in part, to dollars and cents. While the settlements are expensive, they pale in comparison to the sort of legal bills that come with long — and embarrassing — legal battles.

More:

The conciliatory tack also reflects a growing recognition among bank executives that JPMorgan was swiftly losing credibility in Washington. At least eight federal agencies are investigating the bank, and some regulators have portrayed JPMorgan as something of a bully.

Wow. Seems like bribing the government is a great way to avoid accountability–not to mention a jail term!

Life is so much easier when you’re rich!

Read the whole article: dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/jpmorgan-to-pay-410-million-in-power-market-manipulation-case/

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@NYTimes reports on House Food Stamps bill that will cut 5 million from program. #screwrepublicans

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Damn. I should have gotten two of these last week. #熱燗が大好きですよ！！

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TheGlassLog: #Glassware review: The New York Times for #Glass is kind of pointless

What you see when the New York Times delivers “content” to Glass.

One of the first services* to become available and officially sanctioned by Google was the New York Times service for Glass. I get their daily headlines email so I thought this would be great. I’d get the headlines throughout the day as the stories broke rather than having to wait until the next morning, right? Well, not so much. In fact, it’s almost like the New York Times service for Glass is a big tease.



You enable the New York Times service just like any other Google-sanctioned service: by going to your myglass page and flipping the “enable” “switch.” Before you know it, you’ll see a card like the one above appear on your Glass. The one above is more like a book than a card (see this previous TheGlassLog post for more). This is mainly because it has more “cards” inside of it. Each photo thumbnail image you see above represents a story included inside the book.

To access the included stories, tap on the touchpad once while viewing the above card. Then you’ll see a card for the first included story, like this, for example:

This is what a story card looks like. Savor it. The New York Times does not give you much more content than this.

You’ll be able to swipe forward and backward to navigate through the included story cards. However, there are usually only one or two to navigate through and they are almost never “breaking stories” which makes me wonder why I need them delivered directly to my eyeball.

So, that’s pretty much it. The only other thing you can do at this point is tap on the touchpad again to get the option to “Read aloud” the article:

Once you see that, another tap results in you hearing this:

Yep, that’s right. That’s it. You can’t do anything else, either. You can’t tap again to read the whole article or have the whole thing read to you. I am honestly not sure what the point of this is. You can’t forward it to yourself (as is possible with the near perfect but semi-hobbled Glass Feeds service), you can’t bookmark it or even share it with anyone. It’s like we’ve gone back in time and this is one of those news briefs we used to get during commercial breaks, right before the show came back on.

But it’s the 21st century and we’re used to clicking on things to get further information, which you can’t do here. So, in general, the New York Times service for Glass really seems utterly useless to me. Sorry if that seems harsh, but what am I supposed to do with a photo and couple of sentences of news?

In Conclusion

So, you can see why the NYT service is just a big tease. It tempts us with its headlines but gives us no way to get at them without sufficient effort.

Thanks so much for reading TheGlassLog at thepete.com! Next time I’ll review the CNN service for Glass! Please check back tomorrow or subscribe to my blog’s rss feed or get my blog in your inbox!

Read past posts in TheGlassLog!

*Please remember, I don’t refer to Glass “apps” but call them services, instead. Unless I am referring to what are called “native apps,” which are installed and run locally, on Glass, itself. I have not written about native apps, just yet. What Google is calling an “app” runs on a server someplace. I also refer to a “bookshelf” rather than calling it a “stream” when I refer to where you find all of your content on Glass. Read more here.

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But NOT GUILTY of aiding the enemy for giving USG secrets to Wikileaks! #betterthannothing

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Just sold these to a fellow in France! They were the first shoes I bought in #NYC over 5 years ago! #Converse #Chucks #ChuckTaylors

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@NYTimes reports on the city of Richmond, CA using Eminent Domain to buy potentially defaulted loans from banks to PROTECT home owners. YES.

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From the article:

The city is offering to buy the loans at what it considers the fair market value. In a hypothetical example, a home mortgaged for $400,000 is now worth $200,000. The city plans to buy the loan for $160,000, or about 80 percent of the value of the home, a discount that factors in the risk of default.

Then, the city would write down the debt to $190,000 and allow the homeowner to refinance at the new amount, probably through a government program. The $30,000 difference goes to the city, the investors who put up the money to buy the loan, closing costs and M.R.P. The homeowner would go from owing twice what the home is worth to having $10,000 in equity.

This is awesome. I love this because the banks are getting shafted as much as home buyers usually are. But this makes sense for the city of Richmond to do since, if they don’t, they’ll lose a huge amount of productive citizens.

This is one of the few good ways Eminent Domain should be used. Read the article here: www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/business/in-a-shift-eminent-domain-saves-homes.html

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TheGlassLog: Twitter for #Glass needs work: I am mostly seeing Tweets from @WarrenEllis (and like 3 other people)

So, yeah, for some reason, when I have the Twitter service for Glass enabled, I get Tweets posted by just a handful of people. For some stranger reason, most of the tweets I get are from British comic book writer Warren Ellis. Having his Tweets delivered to my eyeball can be a mixed blessing. >_<</p>

So, there are two Twitter services* for Glass. One is officially sanctioned and visible on each Glass-user’s myglass page on Google. Then, there is an unofficial service you can use called “Social Sharing for Glass” from Jon Gottfried. Though, I think it used to be called “GlassTweet” but was changed due to Google demanding no one use “Glass” in the title of their product. Regardless, neither Gottfried’s nor the officially sanctioned service work very well. This may not be the fault of the devs, but the limitations of the current Glass OS. I’m coming at this from a user’s perspective, so I can’t comment on what is definitely going on behind the scenes.



Please read/skip to the end if you just want a way to Tweet from Glass.

OPTION #1: The Officially Sanctioned Twitter for Glass

This is the card you’ll find after enabling the officially sanctioned Twitter for Glass service.

All you have to do to try this out is go to your myglass page and enable the service. In anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or so, you’ll start seeing tweets pop up in on your bookshelf (aka your stream*). But here’s the first problem I ran into with the official Twitter service. I don’t get every tweet in my Twitterstream. I get tweets from just a handful of people and most of the tweets I get are from writer Warren Ellis.

See above right, for what a Tweet from Warren Ellis looks like.

The thing about mostly getting Warren Ellis’ Tweets delivered to my eyeball is that I also get his retweets. These can be as colorful as Ellis’ own Tweets. Again, a mixed blessing when we’re talking eyeball-based delivery.

I don’t understand what the official service is doing so, I don’t understand why it’s only grabbing from a handful of people I follow. I don’t know if this works this way for everyone, or what. I’m just explaining that this is what happens with me.

Now, if you want to post a photo to Twitter, you can do that. But if you want to say anything with it, you’re out of luck. For some reason, I can’t get the caption to stick. The way you share a photo is simple. You swipe to the photo on your bookshelf. Tap the touchpad once and you’ll see a “share” graphic appear over the photo. Tap the touchpad again and you’ll see your share cards–these are all the circles on Google+ or services elsewhere you can share your photo with. Swipe forward until you see the above Twitter card and tap. Before you tap, decide if you want to include a caption. This is because once you tap the Twitter card, you’ll have seconds to tap again if you want the opportunity to speak your caption. Once you do tap again, you’ll see the mic icon appear. Once you do, start speaking. Not that it will matter since the caption won’t be included when it reaches your Twitter stream. At least, it never is when I do it.

I should also mention that any mentions of you (aka @ replies) and DMs (Direct Messages) do arrive on your bookshelf/in your stream just fine. That is, unless the sender types in an Asian alphabet. SIGH.

Apparently, Glass (or some network in between Glass and Twitter) doesn’t support Asian characters. This is a serious bummer since I’m a huge Japanophile and have been studying Japanese for quite a few years.

OPTION #2: Jon Gottfried’s Social Sharing for Glass

This is the card you’ll see once you enable the “Social Sharing for Glass” service.

I found this service where I have found most of the services I use, via glass-apps.org, which is a directory of Glass Apps. The only directory of Glass Apps that I know of. I’d love to hear about others as the blog attached to this directory isn’t super active leading me to believe that the directory may not be updated promptly.

Now, Social Sharing for Glass doesn’t deliver tweets to you but does allow you to post tweets. Unfortunately, I’ve not much to say about this service as it has the same problems as the official client. Photos make it to Twitter, but captions don’t.

I think this is because Google has included the code to allow caption-recording/transcribing but both Twitter services don’t utilize that code.

Getting Tweets on Glass Without using a Twitter Service

There’s a private “Glass-owners-only” forum, in which I found a really obvious solution for the problem of getting your Tweets on Glass–that is to go into your Twitter settings and then into the “Mobile” section and enter your cell phone number. This has to be the cell phone number of the Android phone you’ve linked Glass to. My understanding is that you then have to activate mobile notifications for each individual Twitter user from whom you’d like to get tweets texted to you. This sounds like a lot of work to me, but I’m a freak and follow way too many people.

Tweeting from Glass Without using a Twitter Service

There are two ways to post Tweets and both require you to create a recipe on the automation website IFTTT.com.

First, you can “install” the non-Google-sanctioned Blogger service for Glass by Christopher Bartholomew which you can get from myglassapps.org. Once enabled, you will find a Blogger card on your bookshelf.

This is the card you’ll see after you enable the Blogger service for Glass. I see a name change in its future, too.

Tap it once and swipe forward until you see the word “pin”.

Tap the touchpad. This will make this card permanently available on the other side of the home screen when you swipe. To access it, just go to the home screen and swipe backward (or “eye-to-ear” as the Google fitting people explain). Then tap the card and tap again when you see the word “Reply” appear. Then speak your tweet. You’re not technically replying to anything, it’s just easier for the dev to create a service that uses the existing code already in Glass’ OS. It treats your “reply” like a new message and posts it to your Blogger blog. The words you’ve just spoken will be in the body of the Blogger post. You will get a confirmation card from the Blogger service. If you want your spoken tweet to be a proper post your Blogger blog, then you can tap this card and tap again once you see “reply” appear. From there, you speak your post title.

Before doing all that, log into IFTTT.com and create a recipe that will look for new posts on your Blogger blog and then cross post them to Twitter. You’ll need to make sure that the recipe pastes the body of the post into the Tweet and not the title of the post.

The Glass Feed card–your usericon should hopefully vary

Second, there is the Glass Feed service (not to be mistaken with the Glass Feeds service, which is something different). Glass Feed, from Arthur van Hoff, is kind of ingenious. It creates a feed out of what ever you share with it. In fact, you set it up the exact same way you set up the Blogger service (minus the extra step of being able to add a title to the RSS feed item–the caption you speak becomes the title). You also have to finish by logging into IFTTTT.com and creating a recipe. This time, however it has to look for new entries in the RSS feed address you will get when you sign up with the Glass Feed service.

And voila. As of early August, 2013, this is how you get and send Tweets from and to Glass.

I have just discovered Friends+Me but have not had a chance to try it out yet. It promises to “share Google+ to anywhere.” Not quite. Look past their slogan and it’s easy to discover that they will only allow you to cross post to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. That’s hardly “anywhere” but it will get the job done if you don’t mind posting to G+ first.

*Please remember, I don’t refer to Glass “apps” but call them services, instead. Unless I am referring to what are called “native apps,” which are installed and run locally, on Glass, itself. I have not written about native apps, just yet. What Google is calling an “app” runs on a server someplace. I also refer to a “bookshelf” rather than calling it a “stream” when I refer to where you find all of your content on Glass. Read more here.

Thanks so much for reading TheGlassLog at thepete.com! Next time I’ll be writing about the terrible New York Times service for Glass! Read past posts in TheGlassLog!

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yesterday we saw skunk. Can you see it? #throughglass

Taken with thepete’s Glass.

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TheTweeted: Really, @Twitter? There isn't a rule on here that...

Really, @twitter? There isn’t a rule on here that prohibits threats of rape? #Really? twitter.com/femfreq/status… cc: @femfreq

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