Immortal HD Camcorder Sunglasses

 This review was going to be  good chance to finally get back to first person vlogs but Wondering if this will be not setting up to its good adverts and really this is old tech too. From Rip Google Glass over a few weeks ago from when it refused to charge to then not actually being able to use the camera once taking it apart to disconnect the battery. So a Replacement was found  for a auction price of £39.70 and not without its share of troubles. From being charged twice since the first payment did not go through and well that was the main trouble before this review even started. But enjoy the video below

The Packaging: 

This I will admit is clean and simple, black with the immortal logo, a red  pair of urls (which no longer works, since 2016 according to the wayback machine)  and the sort of White rectangle with red dot logo for a I in this case. But to be fair, this was brand new even when it is on a reduced auction. One Side did show the specs and the bottom did show the Bar-code and also the CE logos too. 

The front of the box

The Top of the box 

The Right side of the box 

The Left side of the box

The bottom of the Box 

Then it was time to look in and it was really nicely packed, sure it is very environment unfriendly but this was a older product of over 5 years ago. but it did come with 

• Glasses Pouch which is a zip
• 5V 1A UK Plug
• 5v 0.5A Car Charger
• Mini USB Cable
• extra pair of ear bits 
• Case with unbranded class 4 Micro SD Card 8GB (Please do not use for this, Class 4 is shocking)
• The Glasses itself
• Clear Lenses 

The bits in the box 

The user Guide 

some ear bits 

The Mini USb Cable 

The side view of the plug 

The plug with the details 

The Car charger 

the 8GB class 4 Micro SD Card + Adapter 

The Glasses themselves 

As we look to the Glasses Case we finally can unseal the cellofane and well its a nice rubber and waterproof design, with the frames quite bulky but not nerdy and the button is easy to find and not too hard to press if using the right hand. Also some clear frames are included too. The only thing I will say is the connectors have that annoying rubber latch which my fingers cannot easily access. But that is for the waterproofing I can understand, actually on that note, these are splash proof, do not swim with them since they will not support it. 

The Front of the Case

The Back of the Case 

Opening the case up 

Looking at the front of the glasses 

The button and the immortal logo 

The Same on the other side except it is a non working button 

The bottom of the glasses 

The Mini USB Connector 

The Micro SD Card Slot 

The back of the glasses

Which then it means that is mostly how it goes, but it has a nice twist that you can unclip the lenses which makes it easier for say darker places or where sunglasses are banned. And they are firmly in place so they do not become loose too, once the click is pushed in anyway. 

The frame with the gap at the top right 

The Frame with the gap at the top left 

The front of the glasses with the clear lens on 

So then, it was time to set them up. 

Charging and Wearing: 

First the charging is easy once the cap is off for the Mini USB and the cable i had spare was used, which charged nicely and instead of the included Class 4 8GB Card, I used a Sandisk 32GB Card since Class 10 is much more useful  Then it was time to kill some time then record, at the time of recording the dog and cat were having a bit of banter and she was really getting on my nerves and bit me halfway through the filming (well after filming and then waiting for it to charge) But, well the way it works is. 

1. Put them on
2. Hold the button for 5 seconds (2 seconds apparently didn't work for me) 
3. Record for a bit the green light is solid and blue light is flashing
4. Hold the button for 5 seconds to stop recording. The LEDs will turn off. 

Wearing it was amazing and made me look cool. 

The pose with the UV Lens

The Pose with the clear lens, reminds me of the googles in Science and DT years ago, (12 now) 

The selfie outside when walking Rosie

Another one for good measure 

But It was then time to record and well.....

Recording

It only recorded for 10 seconds, I panic, since this means it was a waste of money like the Snapchat Spectacles would be, since this has the benefit of using USB for transfer, which leads to the next stage. Letting it charge overnight was the best fix to get the  recording to be longer. 

There is no stabilization on these which back in the release of this, is understandable, since well it was only 3 years or so which stabilization is used, But even when recording and walking, it feels very judder-y , even Glass had more stable recording. Also the colour looks quite faded too, the sound is better outside then indoors from what I've seen so far. 

It does look okay here, 

There is lots of higher contrast here which is not ideal 

The path looks faded 

The river does look faded

Now it does remind me of the action camera as well, the similar colour fading here But it means a bit of editing work for using it in future vlogs, We'll have to hope it goes well for later. Thank something for the NO FISH EYE, that would have made using this worse by far. 

Transferring to PC and Mac: 

Lets be clear, this actually is easier than I thought and one of the issues with the cheaper ones is the recording for the Camera Glasses is in a AVI container with a MJPEG Codec, which the quality of that is shocking, With luck, the codec used here is H.264 which is much easier to record and import for apps like Vegas and FCP X, which well, it did import the footage. 

The laptop and the glasses connected 

Importing the footage which Mac OS sees it as storage device, not android (which means compatible for 10.14 or higher) 

When it comes to windows, it works fine too, since This PC picks it up easily, and we can also inspect the folder layout which is 

Root > DCIM > 100xxx > Files 

Now this means that only videos are supported and no  photos can be taken. But enjoy to see the time stamps and the video files details below: 

The Layout of the SD Card 

The details of the video file

If .MOV does not work, you an rename the file to have the .MP4 container instead and it does work as shown here 

One thing that is annoying is that the timestamp (Not on video, but the date in the file details) mentions 2011 and sadly so far there is no fix so far which that link did make no change, since the text file was removed after recording. This means it will be a bit of hassle to try to make the timestamp on there when editing. But ah well. The good thing is that the Time stamp is not shown on the recording else it null and voids using this. 

Conclusion: 

Well this actually is something more to it for the casual use, it works like glass, but the quality is no way as good as glass at all, sure the sound is less tinny but it also feels less in that way as well. But it does make it easier for using and more comfortable to wear and looks cool compares to the dad jokes at me looking like an cyborg with glass on. And that makes a bit of difference. 

With all of that said 

omracer's Rating: 5/10

The Good Points: 

• Reasonable Value for money (good value if it was not double charged and the paypal hassle)
• Good Build Quality 
• Records in H.264 and not MJPEG (Container is .MOV but can be renamed to .MP4) 
• Supports Micro SD Card, even a class 10 V1 and V3 32GB, 
• Reasonable bitrate of 6 mbps - 7 mbps
• Easy to wear
• Interchangeable lenses

The Bad Points: 

• Camera has no stabilization in the sensor/lens
• Colour on footage looks faded/washed out
• Button needs to be pressed for 5 seconds to start and stop, not 2 seconds as in the guide
• Does not take any pictures, just a video file 
• Sound can be buzzing when quiet

And that's a wrap for this review , now there are some more reviews I;m getting sorted out since due to family things, I do get more time to myself, even with something special to save up for (which these are to be used in future), I've had some more plans of reviews in the coming weeks and months, 2 of them are Kickstarters. Which time will tell when I get to film and review those. 

omracer

Google Glass Explorer Edition

Well, i can't say much on the back story except i've wanted this for a long while, then i saw a chance to get it at a good price, then i bought it. £800. But with a speedy delivery and the product looking pristine, it was a time to give it a review. Enjoy a video review. The blogpost will go into some more detail than what might be shown.

The packaging and contents.

So this is quite a wide box as well as a very plain design, of course with googles design and font but very basic. Which might put people who didn't know what this was off, but with the explorer edition, it is a very niche product, so the packaging shouldn't be something to be focusing on. Yes, the contents isn't as much as you would expect but it all fits in nicely. You get with this: 

• Google Glass 
• A pouch which is hardened to give it extra protection 
• 1 small mono earphone for better communication with busy areas 
• some nose handles which are different sizes
• a pouch with a quick FAQ and also the above (it was always in the pouch)
• A unique style micro usb cable (thats all, no mains charger with the item)

XE - eXplorer Edition

A Blank side

Glass at the top of the box

The opposite side of the XE logo which has all the trademarks, EAN codes and serial numbers

Unrelated note, as i was reviewing this, my cat decided to play with a bag 

The bottom of the box

The inside of the top of the box, which explains how to set the thing up

Glass itself. With all the labels of what each button does

Underneath the space glass is, is the cable and the pouch which includes the FAQ and spare nose buds

A short guide on how to use the pouch

This is the guide of how to use the mono earpiece, with the top side of the earpiece

The bottom side of the earpiece, yes its also a micro usb connection

One side of the pouch, the top is where my thumb is 

The other side, there isn't any difference 

The spare nose pads with different sizes

Part one of the FAQ

Part two of the FAQ. 

Now this was quite a fair bit, with CLEAR instructions which is a bonus for anyone new to this type of this, (yes that is including me). But it was ina a amazing condition and well its nice to see how much effort google has put in for this product, even if it technically a beta (not fully finished).

Glass itself and setting up

So. Glass looks nice, but did it feel right, well i can say. Sort of, it wasn't a too loose fitting but it was so tight that it blocked my nose, which is a good thing but in high action situations, it could prove dangerous. to both me and glass. Also GLASS IS NOT WATERPROOF. So just be careful of when it rains. There was actually something in the FAQ saying about scuba diving, which made it clear its not waterproof.

A look at glass from the top left

#GoogleGlass #selfie

So with it fitting and all, setting it up was not too bad. Sure i had to make the battery charge, but you need to have it turned on before you can (No offline charging). Which while i left it off during lunch, it was not charging. 

After a tutorial on how to use the touchpad and also using MyGlass to pair it up. It was done via bluetooth, it did look like it was going to fail, then it worked and connected to my main gmail. No problems there. Then when i took a photo, the app on my phone let me know there were photos taken. 

The app on my phone (yup the zp810) it was quite clean looking. 

Also the lockscreen is simple to use and you can control the interface with either voice or with the touchpad. You can just say "ok glass" then it lists you some of the options to say what to do. Searching google, call someone, check the battery (with an app in glassware), take a photo, record a video and much more. Oh and you can get twitter and facebook for this, i've not tried it yet but i might do soon. But i'll list what apps i DO have on there below:

The apps i've got installed on there. 

The photos and videos.

Now this is one of the cruical things i wanted google glass for, which will help my vlogs look better. and from what i've done on glass currently....they do.  The pictures are not 16:9 which is a slight pity but i can't do much from there without a launcher and a 3rd part camera, which i'm not ready to do just yet. But the video is a nice 720p, the audio is ok but i do here some distortion, but nothing to be shocked about. I'll show you details of the quality and the images below:

The first image with google glass, this was done while recording the review

This is the info of the above file

Another indoor pic

The details of the above pic

A pic of the garden

Details of the above pic.

Now the video quality is pretty good as well. 720p at 4mbits (DVD quality some people would call it). Now here is a instagrammed clip and the details of the original file before uploading. 

Oh and at this point, if you copy the orginal file from google glass to an android phone then upload to instagram. it directly accepts it and uploads it. So NO conversion required. Sadly since its too good of a quality for snapchat sharing, you have to convert it.

Info for the orginal clip before it was instagrammed 

With that in mind, it makes importing to video programs like iMovie and Movie Studio easy to use with less hassle. Again, you might hear some distortion in the audio, which is a very minor flaw, also there is no light on the front, so there isn't a torch function to use.

The Potential.

With this you can do alot more than what people think it can do. The Glassware store has plenty of unique apps which either are games (including a Zombie running game) to fitness apps to even the news, the actual news of NYT or even the Guardian. Since this is running a variation of Android 4.0.3 (If you notice the guide on setting up sideloading, it mentions 4.0.3 ). There is a fair whack of apps that can load that even though are not supported, they might run. There are alot of test but i will check on what it could run soon. Since there is a touchpad, navigation isn't too much of a problem with apps from the normal playstore (to a degree). But there are some apps that need to be added. Such as an app for Airplane mode. Now this isn't for that exact reason (going on an airplane) but it does give it the best battery life if i want to get decent vlogs on this.

Installing adb wasn't too bad, Following this Guide was simple. But when it came to getting the drivers for glass installed, that turned out to be simple too, but adb just wasn't recognising it, uninstall wiping the drivers and reinstalling from windows update worked. But then it was the trouble of being unathorized. Which then finding THIS had made it work. Also i found a good screen monitor for Android in General. ASM its called.

Sadly after various attempts, i was unable to get airplane mode to work. Maybe since XE21.x is out, it might be too new for the Airplane mode app and even Launchy doesn't work properly, it won't let you change apps via the touchpad at least, voice it might be but i was quite quiet. But its things like this that give it alot more potential.  

The Part conclusion. 

So with the device working, the design looking neat, the features slightly packed and the quality of content is pretty high, it is sort of a vloggers ideal, with easy record features, as well as a personal assistant right within eyesight. But the cost is the most putting off factor, which if i didn't save up enough, i would of avoided it altogether. With that being a major gripe, it sometimes makes you regret forking out for it, but it will change my mind when its put to good use. 

The Pros: 

• Slick design.
• Easy to use.
• 720p recording.
• Pairs with your phone so you can call and text people if need be via bluetooth or wifi. I noticed my texts appeared without me realising.
• Quite nice fitting on the nose to keep it stable.

The Cons:

• Relies on a network connection thats reliable, with tethering to phones or wifi. 
• No GPS, so you can't have tracking software without the above.
• no 16:9 picture option.
• \THE PRICE OF IT, MORE THAN A CAR. 
• You might get evil or weird looks or even kicked out of some places (not confirmed)

With all this in mind. I'm considering giving it a 6/10. But this will give for some amazing FP (First person footage). Firework displays will be easier to capture the moments and it could also be like having your friends always there for you. 

Lets see what the future with glass has in store for me. 

omracer