Google glasses: Streaming info to your eyeballs

When smartphones came out, it seemed like a leap in convenience to be able to carry important information on us at all times, instead of leaving it with our computers.

But soon, it may seem onerous to reach for your phone, turn it on and find the right app to get a piece of information, when you could instead just wear a pair of glasses that directly stream information to your eyeballs.

By year’s end, Google is set to release glasses that do exactly that in real time, so you won’t constantly have to reach into your purse or pocket.

The glasses, which will be Android-based, will cost about as much as a smartphone ($250-$600) and feature a 3G or 4G data connection and GPS and motion sensors and, of course, they’ll sport a screen a few inches away from the eye.

Here are some other key features:

• A unique navigation system that scrolls and clicks with a tilt of the head: Seth Weintraub, a 9 to 5 Google blogger who broke the story says, “We are told it is very quick to learn and once the user is adept at navigation, it becomes second nature and almost indistinguishable to outside users.”
• A low-resolution built-in camera: It will monitor the world in real time and overlay relevant information about the location, nearby buildings and friends who happen to be in the area.
• The ability to send data to the cloud: Then, the wearer can tap into services such as Google Latitude to share his/her location, Google Goggles to search images and figure out what he/she is looking at, Google Maps to find out what else is nearby, and to check in to places.

They’ll look like Oakley Thumps (pictured above), and Google expects that users won’t wear them all the time but only when they want the augmented reality view.

The glasses are being developed at the Google X offices, a secret lab that works on futuristic projects such as robots and space elevators.

"Internally, the Google X team has been actively discussing the privacy implications of the glasses and the company wants to ensure that people know if they are being recorded by someone wearing a pair of glasses with a built-in camera."

For now, Google isn’t yet thinking about developing business models from the glasses, but will wait to see if the glasses take off first.

Meanwhile, Apple is also reportedly working on wearable computing, the inform of a computer that straps around the wrist.

Meanwhile, Google is said to be building a $120 million electronics facility for testing “precision optical technology.”

HR: Dress Well and Look Clean Cut for Job Interviews

When seriously looking for a new and challenging position, have you considered the fact that not only your CV is a little scruffy but that your appearance may also need a bit of polishing, too.

Well, you could be right, because that is just the conclusion of a recent survey of 514 HR professionals.

The survey results emphasise the role personal grooming plays in one's career growth and job search success. 90% of the HR professionals surveyed said that a job seeker's visual appearance i.e. whether he or she looks presentable, neat and clean, is the most important factor to making a good first impression prior to a job interview.

Your appearance is more important than eye contact and a firm handshake. It's an arguable point, that well-groomed candidates project more confidence than candidates who don't pay close attention to their appearance. This is certainly backed up by more than 90 percent of the HR respondents.

Candidates who show up for job interviews with a five-o'clock shadow, grit under their fingernails, wearing wrinkled or dirty clothes, or with their hair in disarray, come off as unprofessional and put themselves at a serious disadvantage, allegedly.

More than 50 percent of HR professionals surveyed said that candidates who show up for job interviews looking slovenly or unkempt give them the impression that they are not fully committed to the situation and may not even want the job.

What's more, well-groomed employees tend to be more successful than slovenly employees: 84% of HR professionals said that neat, clean employees climb the corporate ladder faster than employees who aren't well-groomed. HR professionals estimated that 20% of their employees are 'slobs'. How very judgemental!

Lest you dismiss these HR professionals as shallow and superficial, you should consider the fact that many of the non-HR IT executives interviewed, say that candidates should always show up for job interviews looking well-groomed.

Some more enlightened IT executives and professionals believe that 'substance' should always trump 'style' in a job interview i.e. that an individual's personal appearance shouldn't matter so long as he or she possesses the knowledge, skills and experience required to do the job.

The HR Response to this is that those IT professionals who prefer 'substance' need to accept that 'substance' and 'style' are not mutually exclusive and that the best candidates can house both.