Google Glass tester? Don't dare try to sell your new toy.
Lucky enough to land a pair of Google Glass spectacles? Well, don't even think about lending them out or pawning them off,聽unless you want a聽聽piece of hardware on your hands.聽
According to the Google Glass terms of service ( to CNET), Glass users may not "resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person without Google's authorization."
If they do, the terms聽, "Google reserves the right to deactivate the device, and neither [the user] nor the unauthorized person using the device will be entitled to any refund, product support, or product warranty."
In other words, if you decide to sell your Glass headset to your best friend for a couple thousand bucks, and Google catches wind of the transaction, the Mountain View giant can remotely wipe out the capabilities of the glasses, leaving your buddy with a futuristic-looking but useless chunk of plastic.
As the Los Angeles Times , the restriction on reselling/loans likely has two purposes: it helps keep Glass away from competitors, and it helps prevent testers from charging exorbitant prices for the gear.聽
Wired has a report on a Philadelphia man named Ed who put his Glass goggles up on eBay, and watched as the bids reached $90,000.
"After getting a message on Twitter from Google saying I had been selected as part of the program a couple weeks ago," said Ed, who asked that Wired only use his first name, "it just came to mind if they are giving out to a limited number of people, I could put it out there on eBay and sell it for a lot more than $1,500."聽He later removed the listing from eBay.聽
On Wednesday, Google announced that the first Glass tester units were rolling "off the production line" and into the hands of testers. "We鈥檝e been waiting for this day for a long time, and it鈥檚 been both thrilling and surreal to watch it happen," Google reps in a Google+ post. "We鈥檙e currently notifying our Explorers who signed up at Google I/O 2012, and they鈥檒l be receiving Glass in waves in the coming weeks."聽
Spot a Google Glass headset in the wild? Let us know. And in the meantime, for聽more tech news, follow us on聽.
