Winning Google Glass tweets from the Silicon Prairie

Kansas City, Kan. was the first to get Google Fiber, but who’ll be the first to get Google Glass? The latest innovation from the internet giant could hit each corner of the Silicon Prairie later this year through its Glass Explorer program, an invite-only opportunity to purchase the $1,500 device. Last year, Google gave developers…

Kansas City, Kan. was the first to get Google Fiber, but who’ll be the first to get Google Glass? The latest innovation from the internet giant could hit each corner of the Silicon Prairie later this year through its Glass Explorer program, an invite-only opportunity to purchase the $1,500 device.

Last year, Google gave developers an exclusive pre-order opportunity, and earlier this year, some of those developers got to play around with the device—Lincoln, Neb.-based Android developer Israel Knight (left) was one of them.* In February, came the general public’s first chance at Glass. Individuals who wanted to test out the device were invited to post a message on Google+ or Twitter consisting of 50 words or less and containing the hashtag #ifihadglass.

The contest ran for one week, February 20-27, and from March 26 to April 2, Google sent out its invitations. If the invitees want to take Google up on its offer, they’ll need to attend a Google Glass event in either New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles to pick up the device. The date of that event is unknown, but Google’s Project Glass director Steve Lee told The Verge the plan is to have the product in stores by year’s end.

Thanks to a project by Stanford University graduate student Andrej Karpathy—he mapped the location of Google Glass invitees on Twitter—we’ve rounded up more than 40 individuals who have received invitations. In all, Google extended invites to 8,000 people on Twitter and Google+.

Also, on the topic of Silicon Prairie and Google Glass, it’s worth noting Lee is an Iowa native.

If you see someone we missed, please let us know in the comments or by email, editor@siliconprairienews.com.

Omaha

Lincoln


Elsewhere in Nebraska

Des Moines


Elsewhere in Iowa

Kansas City

Elsewhere in Kansas

Elsewhere in Missouri

Sioux Falls

 

Update April 10: When published, the article incorrectly stated that Israel Knight tried on Glass last year at Google I/O. He tried on the device at Google’s Glass Foundry event in February.

Note: Fred Bauters contributed to this post.

Credits: Israel Knight photo from twitter.com.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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