Mark Zuckerberg is a Huge Fan of Google Glass; Gets it Demoed by Sergey Brin

[dgstorm]

Two tech titans recently came together for a practically secret meeting, but the details of that meeting turned out to be far more innocent and intriguing than you might surmise. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg, cofounder of Facebook, and Sergei Brin, cofounder of Google, had just such a meeting. Very few in the press where allowed to attend (and no pics were taken), not because it was some secret backroom deal, but because it was for far more personal reasons than you might guess. Apparently, Mark Zuckerberg may be one of the biggest fans on the planet for Google's new invention, Google Glass. This meeting was a personal demo of the product by Sergei Brin.

It turns out both of these tech-lords are backers of "Breakthrough Prize For Life Sciences," and they took their shared location (University of California, San Francisco’s Mission Bay medical campus) at the event as an opportunity for Mr. Brin to show off Google Glass to Mr. Zuckerberg. It was also somewhat of an informal business meeting in a back corner of UCSF’s Genentech Hall, so Zuckerberg could talk to Brin about the highly anticipated augmented reality spectacles. It's not an official collaboration between the two companies, but is more of an informal feedback opportunity between two super-geeks who love technology. Here are a few quotes (some of them are out of order) from the Forbes article detailing this meeting,

“I can’t wait to get my own,” said Zuckerberg of Glass, while Brin tried to adjust his own pair on the Facebook CEO’s head.

While it was undoubtedly informal, the meeting of the minds from two of Silicon Valley’s most powerful corporations showed that Facebook was ready to develop for Glass. According to Zuckerberg, Facebook has a team of three engineers, led by a former Google employee, waiting for the product to be shipped to them so they can start building applications.

Zuckerberg’s questioning continued through out the 10-minute interaction, later asking if it was possible to send data from Glass without going through Google’s servers. Brin said that was currently not possible.

The Facebook CEO was undeterred, constantly reminding Brin of how excited he was to get his own pair. Unlike the handful of early adopters, however, Zuckerberg will not have to submit any application or pay any fee. Brin said he was excited see what the Menlo Park, Calif.-based social networking company had to offer.

“I’m not a social media expert,” he admitted to Zuckerberg.

“I’m not a Glass expert,” the Facebook cofounder replied, smiling.

“How do you look out from this without looking awkward?” asked the black hoodie-wearing Facebook CEO. “You know, how are you supposed to use these this without breaking eye contact?”

That was shortly followed by: “Can you get indoor directions?”

Brin, sporting a black beard and white Lululemon long sleeve, thoughtfully considered the inquiry, before answering with a polite, “No, there’s no way to specify destination indoors.”

While Zuckerberg excitedly tried on the device, he made sure that few photos were snapped. Despite being the CEO of a social network of more than a billion individuals who share pictures and status updates every second, he asked that the handful of observers only take private photos of him and Brin.

“Wait , this isn’t supposed to be a thing,” he laughed nervously.

Not supposed to be a thing? Indeed... when two of the globe's most famous technology pioneers come together with a shared interest, of course it will become "a thing."

Source: Forbes

 

[AsrMatt]

One picture did get leaked:

 

[Dusty]

Glass seems cool until you remember Google makes a large sum of money by showing you targeted ads. Note that they didn't mention that part in their intro video.