Samsung and Google working together on 'Gear Glass'

A new rumor points to a Glass knockoff from Samsung coming in the spring, but could it be with Google's blessing?

I'll be shocked if Samsung so blatantly rips off the Glass name. This is a company that likes to drown its products in its own branding, marketing, and irritating software. The only way "Gear Glass" makes sense to me is if it were to be done in partnership with Google, like the Google Play version of the Galaxy S4.

If that's what is actually in the works -- a Samsung-branded version of Google Glassthat could be packaged with a new Samsung Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Gear watch this spring, all for under say ... $700 with a carrier contract -- then this rumor definitely has my attention.

Of course, it could also be that this rumor is total bunk, or that the name "Gear Glass" is more of a codename and not the official name of a Glass knockoff in the works. Or maybe I'm wrong and Samsung would have no qualms with ripping off the name.

Last we heard was that Google Glass won't be coming out until 2014. We'll see if it rolls out direct from Google first, or if it launches for consumers in all kinds of "flavors" like Warby ParkerGlass and perhaps "Gear Glass."

Let us know in the comments who you'd like to see make their own version of Glass, be it Samsung or another name.People who stare at you while you're wearing Google Glass think you're a cyborg from some "Star Trek" spinoff, scanning and doing impossibly invasive things that they aren't privy to. The illusion is greater than the reality. Google Glass could be an augmented-reality Google Goggles-like "reality scanner," but it isn't right now.

Sharing pictures and video via Google Glass is limited to your Gmail contacts and Google+circles, but there are extra oddities: you can currently add only 10 of your Gmail contacts to Glass, and via a Web interface management tool that's not on Glass itself. Google Circles have to be set up for sharing before you start (all pictures and videos automatically upload to a private folder on Google+, however).

That extra layer of careful social management almost feels Nintendo-like, in the sense that Nintendo's hardware has often relied on "friend codes" to manage online connections. This fixes some of Glass' perceived privacy issues, but in the end, yes, you can still record video in a very discreet manner, then share it online.

The point here: Google Glass does a certain set of tasks, and certainly not all the ones most people think of when it comes to some wearable Internet-connected display. Glass isn't a true phone replacement, or camera replacement, or tablet replacement -- not yet. As a hands-free accessory, it can only do so much, and it doesn't mirror everything I can see on my phone. In that sense, I currently feel the urge to go back to my phone screen and not lean on using Glass.