Google Glass Experience: Part 1 - Connectivity

Technology is headed in the direction of integrating

• Wearable devices
• Augmented reality
• Artificial intelligence
• Natural language processing and
• Connected devices - Internet

Google Glass is an example of how some of these technologies can come together.

I recently got Google Glass and will be chronicling my experiences with it.  This series (hopefully) of posts will cover my specific situations and again hopefully the solutions for the problems I face.

Connecting Glass to the Web at Work

While Glass can take pictures or record videos without Internet connectivity, it becomes more useful when connected.  

My Situation:

1. Phone: iPhone 5 running iOS 7.1.2 (this is a work phone - does not reflect my choice)
2. WiFi at work 
1. Public Wifi with ToS (Requires to go to a website to accept terms of service to get access)
2. Enterprise WiFi - WPA2 - enterprise

Glass can get connected in 2 ways

1. Via Bluetooth tethering with a smartphone or tablet which has Internet connectivity via
1. Cellular data plan OR
2. WiFi
2. Direct connection from Glass to WiFi.  Glass cannot connect to WiFi that is
1. Public but requires Terms of service acceptance on a website
2. WPA2- enterprise

So in my case option # 2 (Direct connection to WiFi at work) is out.

For option # 1, let us consider the 2 most popular OS's

1. Android - works seamlessly - just pair the device to Glass via Bluetooth and all your troubles are over!  It will use either the phone/tablet's cellular data plan or use data from the WiFi that the phone/tablet is connected to.
2. iOS - while it is easy to pair Glass with the iPhone, it WILL NOT connect even to the WiFi signal unless the "Personal Hotspot" feature is turned on.  The problem is that this requires an additional monthly charge even though you might just be using the phone to connect to WiFi. which is either free or you have paid for.

Need to set up Personal Hotspot on iOS

So in short there is not way to use Google Glass at work without paying an additional monthly fee it seems.

Ideally Apple needs to enable the Hotspot feature automatically when the phone is connected to WiFi and need us to pay or take additional steps (e.g. use shared data plans) only if we use cellular data.  

My Solution (s):

1. Use an old Android device 
• Pair this device to Glass; Connect the Andorid device the Public WiFi at work and thus connect Glass to the Public WiFi.  The problem is the need to carry an additional device and keep it charged
2. Use a MiFi - again same problems (additional device, charging).
3. There is another potential solution that I have not tried yet.

Another issue is setting up WiFi on Glass

If you have an Android device, that you pair with Glass, the MyGlass App on the device will work seamlessly in setting up the WiFi on Glass.

You can also use the MyGlass app on iPhone or visit http://www.google.com/myglass to set up the WiFi.  This requires scanning a QR code using Glass.  When I tried to set up Glass to connect to a MiFi using this method it did not work (both with iPhone and browser) but it worked first time with an old Android tablet.

MyGlass Dashboard 

Example of QR code to set up WiFi

Summary:

Glass at least at this stage is difficult to connect to the Internet if you have the same WiFi situation as I do and do not have an Android device.  

Look Ma, no Chromecast!

Chromecast is making the news recently.   A cheap device/platform agnostic solution for casting content from any smart device to a large screen and then controlling the content from the original device seems magical.

The device is sold out and there is a 2-3 waiting period Google Play.  I had resigned myself to waiting it out and then this morning I was able to test it without the device!

What I mean is that I was able to test the functionality without actually having the device. 

I have an LG Smart TV which is connected to my iPhone with a LG TV Remote app.  This app allows the iPhone to be a fully functioning remote for the TV.  I was trying to watch the Ashes (England vs. Australia) Cricket match.  I checked my iPhone to see if it was available on YouTube (Willow Channel).  I found that the highlights were available and an then I noticed the Google Cast icon on the upper right of the YouTube App screen.  I tapped it and  the option came up to share on my Smart TV.

Casting a YouTube video from iPhone to Smart TV

I chose the TV and in a couple of seconds the match was being streamed to the Smart TV.  I could control the video from my iPhone.  

Controlling the content on the large screen via iPhone

watching the casted content on large screen

Seeing how well it worked, I can hardly wait for the device so this process can be extended to other apps and Chrome tabs.

Getting my Google ecosytem on an iPhone 5

If you have been following this blog, you saw that our workplace recently switched from a BB to an iPhone. While the iPhone 5 is a wonderful device, the BB clearly was excellent for what it did - email, phone and BB messaging, connecting to resources behind our corporate firewall etc.

Playing around with the iPhone, I have been trying to customize it to suit my daily workflow.  Here is a snapshot of where I am right now.  Clearly this will evolve as I use it more and as new apps become available or existing apps get updated.

Chrome works better for me than Safari as it keeps track of my favorites and recently closed tabs and tabs on my other devices.  It allows me to share to Google+ easily (no workarounds like this).

Gmail app works much better than gmail on the iPhone mail app as it lets me do labels and organize in Gmail more easily.

I have been using Google Voice since it was "Grand Central" or something similar sounding.  It has terrific features and I still trying to figure out the best way to integrate it with iPhone 5 and iMessaging.  Unlike an Android device, the iPhone does not allow automatic calling via Google Voice.  So right now I have both on my the Phone and GV on my home screen.

Of course, I have a link to the Google Maps mobile web page but also have the iOS Maps app but that will go away as soon as the Google Maps gets released for iOS 6.

I also have a shortcut to the mobile Google reader web page on another screen.

I am probably being a bit passive aggressive about this but I think there is at least some logic behind this?  And yes I should be catching up with my e-mail rather than blogging!

iPhone 5 - Should it have a back button?

As I posted earlier, our workplace moved from BB to iPhone 5.  The iPhone will be the only supported device for corporate e-mail.

As I use the iPhone, I realize that it seems to be missing something very simple that I have gotten used to using on both the BB and the Android.

The home button at the bottom has to serve the purpose of 3 buttons on Android 

Consider these cases:

• You get an e-mail with a hyperlink.  You click on the hyperlink and it displays the web page in the browser.  Now you want to return to the e-mail.  How do you do it?
• You are reading Google news.  You click on an item of interest and it opens a new tab.  Now you want to go back to the news stream.  How do you do it?

I cannot find a way to do it in iOS with one click.  Maybe I am missing something but seems like a simple oversight. 

The first versions of iOS did not allow multiple apps to run concurrently I believe.  Maybe there was no need for a back button then.  Seems it is high time for iOS to get this IMHO.

Another issue is the height and width of the iPhone 5 combined with a "back" navigation button at the top of the screen makes it very difficult to have a one-handed operation.  

Android has a back button along with the home button and a button to show the running apps at the bottom of the screen.  In the Google News example above, the back button closes the newly opened tab and takes you back to where you were in the news stream with a single click!  

The back button is integrated into all Android devices at the bottom left.