Communications Major

How Google Glass went from the hottest thing in wearable tech to the Edsel of Silicon Valley.

Google has tried again and again to prove that Glass, its wearable gadget, can look less geek, more chic. In its latest effort, the company announced that it's partnering with designer Diane von Furstenberg for a limited-edition line.

Last week, Sarah Slocum, a San Francisco-based tech writer, wore Google Glass to a bar and was cursed out and assaulted by two women who ripped the Glass off her face. In Facebook post responding to the attack, Slocum called it a “hate crime,” but the media response has ranged from hostile to dismissive. Newser's Matt Cantor referred to Slocum as a "Glasshole" and New York magazine's Adam Martin called her argument an "overly fraught discussion of some idiocy that happened on the kind of drunken night you would usually want to forget.

Headphone use has hardly ever raised eyebrows. So why did Google Glass spark a recent conflict at a San Francisco bar?