Porn producers eyeing Google's Project Glass for POV films

Hey, you knew this was going to happen, right? The adage rings true: A tech product isn't really successful until the porn industry, erm, hops on it. And while Google's Project Glass -- that space-age monocle that shoots video as well as brings info to eyeball level -- won't be available publicly for a couple of years, the adult industry is already licking its chops over the, erm, practical value of Project Glass, particularly for point-of-view (aka POV) scenes.

Pink Visual's Quentin Boyer told PCMag that "a device that allows you to shoot high quality video in a truly hands-free fashion will make shooting POV porn that much easier." A spokesperson for MiKandi, which provides a sort of porn portal in the form of an Android app, told industry pub XBIZ "we're already dreaming up ways to use the glasses to get shots (sex-related and otherwise) that just aren't feasible using a traditional camera setup."

As for us? We're just hoping we don't end up seeing the point of view shots of the bottom of a Cheetos bag with all the nerds that'll be playing with this thing. Here's to the future.

More: PCMag, XBIZ

Google’s JBQ speaks out on Android updates, Google selling the Galaxy Nexus and more

Jean-Baptiste Queru is the technical lead for the Android Open Source Project at Google. When he talks, we tend to listen. Many a time now, JBQ (as he’s more commonly known) has come to the aid of speculating bloggers and explained situations with updates, Nexus devices and much more. Today, with the Sony Tablet S getting updated to Android 4 and Google selling the Galaxy Nexus directly recently, JBQ took a moment to share his thoughts on updates on Google+.

When it comes to Sony updating their Tablet S, JBQ says that the five months time it took them to complete the update was, “very reasonable.” He continues on to say that the changes from Android 3 (Honeycomb) and Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) to Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) are huge. A lot has changed from previous versions of Android to now, and the only reason Sony has managed to stay as up to date as they are is thanks to their contributions to the AOSP. ASUS’ updates have also been very timely, but that’s because of the tight relationship between ASUS and NVIDIA. Both companies are extremely focused on keeping their products up to date.

Continuing on the subject of updates, JBQ isn’t too happy on how the Nexus program is playing out. But Google selling the Nexus directly will help that:

The part that blows my mind is that some variants of the Google-engineered flagship devices still haven't received Ice Cream Sandwich (or are stuck with older versions of Ice Cream Sandwich) because of delays introduced by operator approvals. I'm very glad that Google is back in the business of selling phones directly without any middlemen to interfere, and I'll be even happier when I see that program expanded to more countries.JBQGoogle

Personally, I take two important things out of this. For one, Google is most definitely aware of the woes delayed updates cause. Especially when it comes to Nexus devices. And number two, those delays aren’t going to change if you buy a carrier regulated device. If you really, truly want your updates from Google, you have to buy your device from Google.

While none of that may be new information (in fact, it’s starting to feel like we’re beating a dead horse here), it’s especially relevant after this past weeks news of Google deciding to sell the Galaxy Nexus directly. Even the support website for the Google sold GSM Nexus will be directly managed by Google. And that’s all there is to it.

What do you think of a five month wait between updates for carrier regulated devices? Is that too long, or is it worth the wait? And while we’re at it, is anyone planning to buy an unlocked Nexus from Google? Have you already? Let us know in the comments.

Stock Talk: Google's earnings call, stock split and not a whole lot of Android

Today Google announced its latest set of financial results.  Not too shabby, either. Google's also splitting its stock by way of introducing a new class of shares. It sounds all complicated and stuff, but it’s really no big deal.  I’ll do my best to explain it in plain English for everyone.

First let’s look at Google’s results:

Google generated $10.65 billion in revenue for the first three months of 2012. That’s a mighty healthy 24 percent growth from the year-ago period. Operating income was up 32 percent.  Earnings per share (EPS) was $10.08, compared to $8.08 last year. In case you see headlines highlighting different earnings per share, keep in mind Wall Street usually cares about the “non GAAP” earnings, which is what we're talking about here.

The financials tell us that Google is growing at a good clip, and earnings are keeping pace with revenue growth. All of that is good news. Considering how dominant Google is in search and content advertising, it’s not like we were expecting profit margins to shrink. 

The stock market likes the numbers so far. The $10.08 in EPS compares to Wall Street expectations of $9.64. Google stock was trading up about 3 percent in after-hours trading.

Google’s augmented reality glasses get real, enter testing

Google’s Project Glass is the team quietly working on Google’s augmented-reality glasses project, which will provide users with smartphone functionality without the smartphone. On it’s Google+ brand page, the Project Glass team has announced that the glasses are real, and have begun testing at Google HQ.

While it’ll still be months (or years) before the glasses are officially up for public consumption, Google has released a nifty video to show us what the future of augmented reality could be.

We recently conducted a poll as to whether people were actually interested in Google glasses, and a whopping 66% of you responded with a resounding YES! Obviously, people who read Android and Me are the early adopters, and we have to wonder how Android-powered glasses would perform in the general public. The glasses are rumored to go on sale sometime next year, and will likely cost about as much as today’s smartphones, so we won’t have to wait too long to see our dreams for a  Star Trek future come to life.

Who out there is as stoked as we are for Google’s glasses vision to come to reality? Sound off in the comments.

Google's revenue up 24 percent over 2011; stock split announced

Google this afternoon released its first-quarter 2012 earnings results. And as you can imagine, there are a lot of zeros in them. Specifically, revenue was at $10.65 billion for Q1 2012, 24 percent higher than in Q1 2011. Cash on hand at the end of March was $49.3 billion, and Google added about 600 jobs in Q1.

Additionally, Google announced what essentially is a stock split, creating a new class of non-voting capital stock that will be awarded via a dividend to existing stockholders in a one-to-one manner.

We'll be listening in on the conference call in a few minutes to see if there's any Android-specific news.

Source: Google Q1 2012 Earnings; Founders Letter

Stock Talk: Google's earnings call, stock split and not a whole lot of Android

Today Google announced its latest set of financial results.  Not too shabby, either. Google's also splitting its stock by way of introducing a new class of shares. It sounds all complicated and stuff, but it’s really no big deal.  I’ll do my best to explain it in plain English for everyone.

First let’s look at Google’s results:

Google generated $10.65 billion in revenue for the first three months of 2012. That’s a mighty healthy 24 percent growth from the year-ago period. Operating income was up 32 percent.  Earnings per share (EPS) was $10.08, compared to $8.08 last year. In case you see headlines highlighting different earnings per share, keep in mind Wall Street usually cares about the “non GAAP” earnings, which is what we're talking about here.

The financials tell us that Google is growing at a good clip, and earnings are keeping pace with revenue growth. All of that is good news. Considering how dominant Google is in search and content advertising, it’s not like we were expecting profit margins to shrink. 

The stock market likes the numbers so far. The $10.08 in EPS compares to Wall Street expectations of $9.64. Google stock was trading up about 3 percent in after-hours trading.

Not your usual stock split

Google is an “expensive” stock at over $650 per hare. So it's splitting the shares 2 for 1. Keep in mind that the price of a share has absolutely nothing at all to do with making it expensive or cheap.  The price of one share tells you nothing unless you know how much of the company it represents. 

A stock split means a single share becomes two shares. The price of the stock will drop in half as a result. It’s the equivalent of cutting your piece of pizza into two. You still have the same amount of pie. No biggie. It just looks less expensive to retail investors who want to feel they’re getting a deal.

Google actually is creating a new class of shares, too. So if you have a share of Class A stock (with voting rights), you’ll now get one new share of Class C stock.  The new class of shares has no voting rights. Sergey, Larry and Eric don’t end up with any more voting control as a result of this.  Unless I’m missing something, I don’t see how this new share structure changes anything. (We'll learn more when the full proxy documentation is released.) So for now, let’s move on.

Very little Android info on the conference call?

Google didn’t throw any new metrics at us. CEO Larry Page reminded us of Android’s 850,000 daily activations number. But that’s from late February. Some might consider it a mild disappointment that the number isn’t higher after another month and a half of time to grow. But it's hard to argue that Android activations make Google the clear leader in the smartphone OS. Page commented about how the OS is “pretty important,” and there have only been a few leading OS developments in his lifetime. I completely agree. There also were several reminders about how Google's leadership runs the company with long-term goals in mind, and not necessarily quarter by quarter.

Especially from Google’s perspective, I think winning the OS battle matters a lot. Other operating systems don’t need to bake in Google apps, and therefore don’t need to bake in Google advertising.  Even an alternative OS that does bake in Google apps may strike a deal to be treated much like an AdSense publisher. The OS maker expects a cut of the revenue.

So, Google’s interest in controlling the OS helps it keep a larger chunk of the revenue pie. This is important as more and more mobile advertising will take place outside of the browser.

Oh, and finally ... there no new info on a Google branded tablet. 

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Chris Umiastowski is a former sell-side equity analyst at Orion Securities and TD Securities. Before that, he was an engineer for Nortel Networks. Chris is co-host of the Mobile Nations Stock Talk podcast.

Blind man drives to Taco Bell in Google’s self-driving car

“Look, Ma, no hands,” said Steve Mahan, who is legally blind, as he rode around in one of Google’s self-driving vehicles. ”No hands, no feet. This is some of the best driving I’ve ever done.”

Google announced their self-driving car project in 2010 to make driving safer, more enjoyable, and more efficient. They recently felt it was mature enough to show off, after several years of testing and completing over 200,000 miles of computer-led driving.

A three minute video which documents the technical experiment was placed on YouTube where it went viral and has already received over 500,000 views. It’s not every day you see a blind man in the driver’s seat of a moving car, so check out the clip below to preview Google’s technology that could change Steve’s life.

“Yes, this test was legal,” a Google representative told PCMag.com in a statement. “It was performed on a carefully designed course, and we filmed in partnership with the local police department. We also placed one of our project experts in the passenger seat who could stop the vehicle if it became necessary.”

Don’t be surprised if you start to see self-driving cars in the coming years. Nevada has already approved rules for self-driving cars and more states will follow.