The make(out)-or-break(up) for Google Glass

Is she making eyes at me? Or checking the baseball scores?

I have a confession to make.
Please don't tell everyone, but I'd like to kiss someone who's wearing Google Glass.
In fact, if you really push me up against this wall and make me talk, I'd also like to kiss someone while wearing Google Glass.
It's not that I don't think Google Glass is stranger than walking up to a stranger and putting your finger in his or her ear.
It's precisely because of Google Glass's sheer strangeness that I want to know whether it would alter my approach to love.
Would I think -- or even feel -- something different? Would I have to dip my head to an unforeseen angle in order to avoid being poked? Most importantly, would I care whether the camera is on or off?
Sadly, some who bowed, scraped, and applied to own one of the these gadgets have already begun to experiment with seeing how Google Glass might alter their love lives.
Rosa Golijan of NBC's Today.com has thrust herself into this new life with a gusto that Matt Lauer would envy.
She says she's been on "half-a dozen" dates with men while wearing her new object of attraction.
I wondered, naturally, whether these half-a-dozen dates were with half-a-dozen men.
She told me: "Half a dozen different fellas, with some of whom I've had additional dates afterward. (Glass was worn on those, too.)"
You must decide whether these men are brave, foolhardy, or merely enchanted by Golijan regardless of her eyewear.
Golijan does concede that the contraption "sure makes the awkward moments more awkward."
Oddly, she says that her dates didn't seem so worried that she might photograph them through her lens. Rather, wearing Google Glass seemed to turn her into a rockstarish object of attraction, which meant that whenever she was out, everyone wanted to talk about them or even try them on.
She admitted that one date had become not best pleased when other men sidled up in alleged fascination with her gadget.
Now to the question that you (and I) want answered: "Yes, friends, Glass can get in the way, uh, physically. I've got no issues making out with glasses on. But things got weird once when a fella started kissing me while I was still wearing the headset. God forbid two Glass wearers ever hit things off."
When two wearers of normal glasses kiss, they often resort to simply taking them off. Should you not have tried this, please just believe me.
But there's a temptation with Google Glass to leave them on, simply because you remain an object of wonder. Perhaps, indeed, they begin to define you.
I did wonder whether, over time, she had created a more disciplined regimen with respect to, perhaps, taking them off at certain appropriate -- or even important -- moments.
Golijan told me: "I've (very gradually) gotten better when it comes to dealing with interruptions!:) That was bound to improve over time."
Yes, Sean Penn says the same thing.
Perhaps, in time, women wearing Glass will find it easier than men wearing these prized objects.
I say this because I asked my colleague Lori Grunin how she would feel if a date turned up be-Glassed.

ATIV Odyssey for US Cellular leaked in promo materials

US Cellular's been promising a WP8 handset for quite some time now, and it looks like the company's about to deliver exactly that. As you might recall, US Cellular's last Windows Phone offering was the entry-level ZTE Render which ran WP7.5 (Tango). We recently obtained promo materials for an ATIV Odyssey with US Cellular branding. This Samsung device, which is currently available on Verizon, packs a 4-inch WVGA Super AMOLED display, 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of built-in storage (with microSD expansion), LTE and NFC support, plus a five-megapixel autofocus camera with flash. While none of this is official (yet), we fully expect US Cellular to make a proper announcement real soon now. Until then, check out the gallery below for some of the aforementioned promo material.

V-Moda's outrageously sweet portable DAC and headphone amp

The V Moda Vamp Verza

(Credit: V Moda)

I've reviewed a number of portable headphone amps over the years, but they just took the analog output of a phone or MP3 player and made it sound better. Ideally, you want to totally bypass the player's digital converters, but up until recently that was a very expensive proposition. The V-Moda Vamp Verza cuts the price to less than half, and works with iPhones, iPads, and iPods, as well as Androids and computers. I'm really impressed with the little Vamp Verza's sound.


The look and concept were designed by V-Moda's Val Kolton in Milan, Italy, but the Vamp Verza is one of the few audio devices that's still made in Japan. It's a great looking piece of gear, but since it's really designed to be used in tandem with a phone, Kolton also designed the machined Metallo case ($101) specifically for iPhones or Samsung Galaxys. The Verza and Metallo case together form a sleek phone/audio system. The 'Verza comes in three colors: white/orange, red/black, and matte-black; the all-metal construction gives it a high-end look and feel.
Kolton listened to a bunch of converter chip sets and amplifier circuits to get the best possible sound with Apple and Android phones. He couldn't find one that sounded great with both Apple and Android phones, so the Vamp Verza houses two separate digital-to-analog converters. For iDevices (iPod/iPhone/iPad) there's an Asahi Kasei Microsystems AKM 4353 DAC chip; for USB-DAC and Android, the Vamp Verza uses a BurrBrown PCM2902 converter. Both converters offer the same maximum resolution of 16-bit/48-kHz sampling rate.

The Vamp Verza, with an iPod Classic and JH-13 in-ear headphones

(Credit: Steve Guttenberg/CNET)

I was thrilled to see the Vamp Verza has an actual volume control knob, which I consider a huge improvement over up/down buttons. The knob makes it easy to zero in on exactly the volume you want.
Partnering the Vamp Verza with my iPod Classic and V-Moda Crossfade M-100 full-size headphones seemed like a good place to start. No doubt about it, the M-100's sound was transformed by the Verza, the bass firmed up, so the Black Keys' visceral kicks kicked harder than ever. Crosby, Stills & Nash's vocal sound was far more natural, and straight ahead piano jazz CDs definition and clarity were much improved.
Comparing the iPod's headphone jack with the Vamp Verza's, it sounds like it's providing a more direct connection to the music. Miles Davis' trumpet cuts through more, the bassline on Paul Simon's "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" is easier to follow on the Vamp Verza. The iPod Classic sans Verza sounds veiled, softer, and blurry by comparison.
My Jerry Harvey JH13 in-ear headphones with the Vamp Zerza were a terrific combination. The Los Lobos' "Live at the Fillmore" concert CD had a remarkably spacious sound; the Vamp Verza opened up the JH13's stereo image a lot. In-ear headphones tend to keep the image inside your head, but the Vamp Verza pulled the sound out. Nice!
The two high-impedance (250+ ohm), full-size headphones I tried -- Sennheiser HD 580 and Beyerdynamnic T 90 -- were sonically underwhelming with the Vamp Verza. Switching over to a low impedance (50 ohm) headphone, the Hifiman HE-400, the Vamp Verza regained its composure, and the sound was incredibly clear, dynamic and lively. Bass power was spectacular. I also compared the Vamp Verza with the new $479 ADL X1 iDevice-only digital converter-headphone amp, and it was a close contest. The ADL has a slightly warmer, richer tonal balance, but still has plenty of detail. I'll have more to say about the ADL in a few weeks.
I also used the Vamp Verza on my desktop as a USB DAC/sound card, hooked up to the Adam Audio F5 self-powered speakers. The sound was rich, highly detailed and dynamic. Activating the Vamp Verza's 3D processor generated a much bigger and more spacious soundfield, but I preferred straight stereo with the speakers.
The Vamp Verza comes with a USB-to-Micro-USB cable, a 3-inch USB-to-Apple 30-pin cable, a 4-inch Android Micro-USB-to-Micro-USB cable, and two V-Moda rubber bands to secure a smartphone or iPod to the Vamp Verza. The Verza's DACs will work with iPhone 5 and the new iPads with Lightning connectors soon; V-Moda is getting ready to ship its Tuono, a "short" Lightning adapter this summer. The price hasn't been set yet, but will probably be $20 or $25.
You don't have to take my word for how good this thing sounds -- you can buy the Vamp Verza for $598 from the V-Moda Web site (or Amazon) with a 60-day return policy, and there's no restocking fee. Other V-Moda outlets may not offer such generous return options.

Policy refresher: Appeals process

We’re continuing our policy refresher series today, taking a closer look at what happens when we detect content that doesn’t comply with our policies.

As we've talked about often on this blog we maintain a set of policies for AdSense designed to foster a healthy ecosystem and protect our publishers, advertisers and users. The vast majority of content on AdSense publisher sites follows these policies. However, sometimes, our systems do find content that doesn't comply, in which case we'll send a notice to the affected publisher. Notifications can be viewed by signing in to your AdSense account and visiting the Messages page, under your Home tab. Additionally, notifications are sent to the email address associated with your AdSense account. A notification will outline whether it is a site warning/disabling or an account disabling issue. If it is a site warning then you have 72 hours to make changes and do not need to contact us. If your account has been disabled then you should review this help center article to find out more about why we would disable an entire account. The rest of this post will deal with what to do if you receive a site disabling notification.

The first step is to understand the nature of the violation. For more about the different causes and how we define them, you can visit our Help Center and review our program policies.

In some cases, you may be eligible to appeal. If this is the case, please take note of the following considerations in formulating your appeal:

• Make sure you understand the violation: each time we send a notification we include a snippet explaining the violation. If you still have questions following this, our Help Center contains a variety of information on program policies. We also encourage you to seek advice in our Forum - our Top Contributors have a lot of policy knowledge.
• Check your entire site: with each notification we send you a URL as an example of the violation. Keep in mind that this is only an example, the violation may be present on other pages on your site, and we expect you to take appropriate action throughout your entire site. In many cases publishers have found Google’s search operators, specifically the “site:” operator, to come in handy, particularly for content violations.
• Be thorough: we understand that AdSense means a lot to you, and having ad serving disabled may cost you revenue. Take your time when filing your appeal and look through your entire site. Writing a thorough appeal is more important than filing an appeal quickly.
• Tell us how you ensure that this won't happen again: if you were notified about a content violation, tell us what systems you have put in place to ensure that content violating our program policies won't be placed alongside AdSense ads again. Webmasters with large websites might talk about updating filters or hiring human reviewers, while blog owners may tell us that they have familiarized themselves with our adult content policy better, and ensure not to post certain type pictures again.
• Send us examples: were you notified for content violations? In that case send us some example URLs where you removed AdSense ads from. Were you notified because of ad implementation issues? Send us an example URL with your improved implementation - for some cases we will require pages with AdSense ad code implemented, even though ad serving is disabled.
• Err on the side of caution: you may disagree with our decision to disable ad serving to your site, but keep in mind that our policies exist to protect the entire network of users, advertisers and publishers.

We know that your sites are important to you. Please understand that we don't take these decisions lightly. For more information on appeals best practices, take a look at this help center article.

Posted by Dan Zilic - AdSense Team
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