Google starts distributing Glass to US winners, but with strict conditions

by FP Staff Apr 18, 2013 With inputs from Associated Press

Google is starting to distribute its new Internet-connected glasses, something seen as the next breakthrough in mobile computing.

Google has picked 8,000 people in the US who entered a contest. The winners will have to pay $1,500 apiece for a test version of Google Glass. The company also took an unspecified number of orders from computer programmers.

Google said Wednesday it started making the glasses available on Tuesday, though it may take weeks for recipients to get them.

The excitement stems from a belief that Google Glass is at the forefront of a new wave of technology known as “wearable computing.” Published reports say that Google, Apple Inc. and others also are working on Internet-connected wristwatches.

Google hopes to lower prices by the time it’s on the mass market next year.

However according to this report in Wired, Google is being pretty well.. anal about the product.

“The company’s terms of service on the limited-edition wearable computer specifically states, “you may not resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person. If you resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person without Google’s authorization, Google reserves the right to deactivate the device, and neither you nor the unauthorized person using the device will be entitled to any refund, product support, or product warranty”, said the report.

And no, you can’t game Google, because the company knows if the eyewear was transferred because each device is registered under the buyer’s Google account.

Wired says the terms of use came to light when one of the first would-be owners of the device abruptly halted an eBay auction because he feared reprisals from Google.

Of course this could be only because the device is in a test stage and Google doesn’t want anyone else making money off them. We expect that the restrictions will be lifted when they are made available in the mass market.

Or so we hope. The thought of a draconian anal technology company that already knows way too much about us is in a word, scary!

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