More HoloLens thoughts
As the hands on reviews come in and the information available becomes clearer things do get a little better. I was switching between live blogs and the "live" web cast (it constantly froze, repeated sections and then skipped ahead several minutes, so calling it live is a bit of a stretch) so I didn't catch all of the information. The live blogs were obviously not repeating every word.
Anyway, I had assumed that HoloLens was still a ways off. But according to an article on thurott.com it appears as though it is expected to launch with Windows 10. With the API's already baked in and Build on the horizon in a few months the situation is arguably better than I painted it before.
But, things are not automatically golden. I still haven't seen a price. And I doubt it will be consumer friendly. Google Glass comes to mind. This might actually make Glass look cheap though. But the argument I made about Glass seems to have panned out. While Glass was generally well received by those who bought into it, it never really got widespread adoption. I actually NEVER saw one unit. And the project is now dead.
On the flipside, Microsoft seems to work better with industry partners. So, it may be able to stay in the shadows while the tech gets fleshed out. It is kind of similar to how every other scientific endeavour seems to rely on Kinect.
Cost is going to be high for early adopters of this tech though as it was with Glass. If Microsoft has accepted that and is willing to pander it more towards the tech community until the manufacturing prices can go down it might have a chance.
The other pivotal aspect will be apps. This tech SCREAMS potential. The kinds of demos they showed the reviewers were awesome, but just scratching the surface. Some obvious ones to add on top of things demoed would be fashion and beauty apps (look in the mirror and see exactly what a certain hair style, makeup or outfit would look like on you) or interior design (see what a different colour would look like on your walls, or how a room would look with certain furniture items in it).
They demoed assisted repairs with an expert seeing what you're seeing and being able to annotate the things you're seeing to help you accomplish something, but imagine unassisted support! Locating and repairing something in a car for instance. Locations of parts are pretty universal within a given make, model and year so all the headset needs to do is line up the portions of the car you're working on and you don't even need a live mechanic to walk you through it.
Furthermore, the headset is basically a full blown Windows 10 computer. Let me effectively turn any sized surface into my monitor. If the thing can connect to a KB and mouse, that would be awesome.
But this post wasn't about possibilities. Maybe save that for another one. This post was just meant to upgrade my outlook on this from being the ballpark of ApplePay to being in the ballpark of Google Glass (which I peg at better odds than ApplePay and worse odds than Windows Phone).
While my bet is that I won't be able to justify buying HoloLens... if it is in my price range I just might.
Anyway, I had assumed that HoloLens was still a ways off. But according to an article on thurott.com it appears as though it is expected to launch with Windows 10. With the API's already baked in and Build on the horizon in a few months the situation is arguably better than I painted it before.
But, things are not automatically golden. I still haven't seen a price. And I doubt it will be consumer friendly. Google Glass comes to mind. This might actually make Glass look cheap though. But the argument I made about Glass seems to have panned out. While Glass was generally well received by those who bought into it, it never really got widespread adoption. I actually NEVER saw one unit. And the project is now dead.
On the flipside, Microsoft seems to work better with industry partners. So, it may be able to stay in the shadows while the tech gets fleshed out. It is kind of similar to how every other scientific endeavour seems to rely on Kinect.
Cost is going to be high for early adopters of this tech though as it was with Glass. If Microsoft has accepted that and is willing to pander it more towards the tech community until the manufacturing prices can go down it might have a chance.
The other pivotal aspect will be apps. This tech SCREAMS potential. The kinds of demos they showed the reviewers were awesome, but just scratching the surface. Some obvious ones to add on top of things demoed would be fashion and beauty apps (look in the mirror and see exactly what a certain hair style, makeup or outfit would look like on you) or interior design (see what a different colour would look like on your walls, or how a room would look with certain furniture items in it).
They demoed assisted repairs with an expert seeing what you're seeing and being able to annotate the things you're seeing to help you accomplish something, but imagine unassisted support! Locating and repairing something in a car for instance. Locations of parts are pretty universal within a given make, model and year so all the headset needs to do is line up the portions of the car you're working on and you don't even need a live mechanic to walk you through it.
Furthermore, the headset is basically a full blown Windows 10 computer. Let me effectively turn any sized surface into my monitor. If the thing can connect to a KB and mouse, that would be awesome.
But this post wasn't about possibilities. Maybe save that for another one. This post was just meant to upgrade my outlook on this from being the ballpark of ApplePay to being in the ballpark of Google Glass (which I peg at better odds than ApplePay and worse odds than Windows Phone).
While my bet is that I won't be able to justify buying HoloLens... if it is in my price range I just might.
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