This morning, there were two news stories about Google Glass.

The first, Woodbridge man one of those chosen to test new Google Glass technology is from an interview I did with Jim Shelton from the Register about Google Glass about a week ago.

The second, Anaylsis & Video | Google Glass Review is by a friend who is also a Glass Explorer, and was not as impressed as I am. He writes:

It falls short because in the end the only people who likely will be willing to immerse themselves in 24/7 digital living are the several thousand “Glass Explorers” Google invited to purchase the $1500 product.

I responded:

As one of the other Glass Explorers in Connecticut, I would like to present a contrasting viewpoint. I received my Google Glass just over a month ago, and I'm very pleased with it.

It is true that currently, everything that I can do with Google Glass, I can do with a Smartphone. It is also true that just about everything I can do with a smartphone, I can do with a laptop and a digital camera.

However, I find it easier to take and share pictures and videos with Glass than it is to take and share pictures with a smartphone, just as I find that task easier on a smartphone than I do with a laptop and a camera.

Yet looking only at the current applications of a prototype seems a bit narrow. I have chosen to explore Glass, not for what it can currently do, but for what it will be possible to do in the future with it. I've already started developing apps for Glass as well as brainstorming with other Glass Explorers around the world.

One of the most exciting areas is looking at Glass as a sensor in health care and in grids for big data analysis.

As I commented in my interview in the New Haven Register, I believe that Google Glass is to wearable computing what the Apple Newton was to PDAs and Smartphones.

People maligned the Apple Newton, and its product life was not spectacular. Yet it laid the groundwork for PDAs and smartphones. Lon is probably right, the only people willing to spend $1,500 on a prototype are innovators and early adopters. Everyone else is likely to wait until wearable computing becomes more developed and ubiquitous. At that point, I'll set my Google Glass next to my Apple Newton and the core memory from an old PDP-8.

I didn't address the price point issue. I do believe that $1,500 is steep for participating in a development program with a prototype, but not out of line.

On the other hand, I expect that by the time the third generation of wearable computing comes out, older versions will be in the $200-$300 range.