Friday Poll: Will you buy first-generation Google Glass? - CNET

Google Glass could work over shades, too.

(Credit: Google)

Google Glass eyewear has both an extreme cool factor and an extreme dork factor.

On one hand, an eye interface device is sweetly sci-fi. On the other hand, everyone will know you're sporting a set of Google Glass spectacles if you wear them out in public. It's even more obvious than a Bluetooth headset.

I fall on the happily nerdy side of the equation. If Google Glass just fell into my lap, I'd put it on and wear it around in a heartbeat. There is an obstacle preventing the device from falling into my lap.

Actually, there are 1,500 of them. The initial price for the first-generation Google Glass is 1,500 smackaroos. That's a lot of smackaroos needed to join Google on the bleeding edge of eye-worn, voice-activated smartphone interfaces.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin's recent comments about Glass indicate that the price of the device on its first wide release will be lower than the $1,500 set for the earliest test adopters, but we've gotten no firm details on the actual cost. I'm guessing it will be quite a bit more than $9.99.

Google Glass will work with both Android and iOS phones, so the potential user base is plenty big. Early adopters have already gotten the chance to convince Google to let them into the "Google Glass Explorer" club for testing pre-release versions. The rest of us will have to wait until later in the year.

Looking beyond price issues, there's always a little bit of risk in being the one of the first to invest in a new technology. You may end up wistfully watching the second generation Google Glass announcement someday down the line, wishing you had held out for all the cool new features.

When it comes to Google Glass, are you ready to jump in on the first generation? Maybe you've already pitched your case to join the Explorer group. Maybe you have absolutely no interest in Google Glass at all. Vote in our poll and talk it up in the comments.