Your humble TheGlassLogger learning how to shoot video by navigating the bookshelves of Glass at Google’s “Glass Store” on the 8th floor above the Chelsea Market.
Let me explain how Google has decided we should use Glass. Imagine you are standing next to a book case, perpendicular to it. It’a a book case that has one shelf and that shelf is exactly to the right of your head. When you tap the touchpad that is the side of the Glass device, itself, one of the books on the shelf slides out so you can see it. Google calls each of these “books” cards, but that’s confusing to me for reasons that will become clear in a bit. So, I’m going to stick with calling them “books.”
Swipe forward on the touchpad and the book is replaced by what ever book is behind you on the bookshelf. Swipe backward on the touchpad and what ever is in front of you on the bookshelf becomes visible. Just imagine each swipe is pushing those books forward or backward on the shell. The default book is always the Home Screen which displays the time and the phrase “ok glass” (you know, just in case you forget o_O).
C’est ne pas une App
Here’s why there Google’s idea of a Glass app is not an app. When you install a Google Glass “app” you do it via a web interface. When you do this, you’re essentially turning on a service. For instance, when you enable the CNN “app” you are essentially telling CNN that you would like to be served “cards” featuring their content. In the vocabulary of the post you are reading now, you are telling CNN to put books on your bookshelf with their content inside. As you can see, this isn’t an “app,” it’s really a service. Granted, it is possible to install Android apps on Glass, but it’s not easy or practical to do.
When the CNN service delivers a book to you, you’ll hear a chime. To see it, just tap the touchpad and swipe forward, to “slide” the bookshelf forward. You see the “cover” of the CNN “book”. You’ll know it’s got content inside for you because, in the upper righthand corner, you’ll see a little folded-down page corner. Tap the touchpad again and you’ll see the first “page” of the book. It will be a description of the story they are delivering to you. Swipe forward on the touchpad to move to the second “page” inside the “book.” The second page of a book from CNN is always a video. This is the best part about the CNN service, in my opinion. My first night with Glass I was served a video of protests erupting in Cairo. It was visceral having the story reported directly to my eyeball. It felt much more like I was there than it does when I’m staring across the room at my TV.
In the case of the New York Times service for Glass, the book they serve you has a cover showing you how many pages are inside of it. Tap on the touchpad to open the book and then swipe forward to move through the stories.
So, you can see why the “cards” metaphor Google uses is a little confusing. My metaphor isn’t perfect either, perhaps calling them “folders” instead of “books” since the word “folders” isn’t as easily misunderstood. But you don’t have a “foldershelf”. Anyway, the point is, “cards” don’t have interiors and are usually thought of single things that aren’t directly related (we say “web pages” not “web cards,” right?). Plus Google already uses the “folded-down page corner” icon to signify there is more content behind the card, soooo… calling them “books” makes more sense to me.
At least now you understand when an app isn’t an app.
Thanks for reading TheGlassLog. Next time, I’ll get into why using Glass, at this point isn’t quite as cool as you might think. Read past posts in TheGlassLog!
via thepete.com http://thepete.com/theglasslog-when-an-app-isnt-an-app-how-google-glass-really-works-and-how-it-doesnt-run-apps/
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