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Hey, sweetheart, nice iPhone. Nice Android, too. It matches your Hello Kitty mug and bra. In fact, it’s downright “emasculating,” according to Google co-founder and Professional Computer Face Sergey Brin. So, stop throwing your manliness away.
It takes a lot for an asinine comment at TED to surface above the asinine sea-froth that is TED itself, and yet, CNET reports:
Speaking at the TED Conference today in Long Beach, Calif., Brin told the audience that smartphones are “emasculating.” “You’re standing around and just rubbing this featureless piece of glass,” he said.
I’ve never felt like my smartphone drains my masculinity, but that could be due to not having very much to begin with, or because I’m always using apps where I tap boobs and stuff. Guy stuff. Macho guy stuff. But Sergey disagrees: there’s something fundamentally emasculating about using a smartphone. Touching the glass. It’s hard to say what about “rubbing” a “piece of glass” is castrating smartphone users, or what a more virile alternative would be. But it’s hard to imagine Google Glass, Brin’s obvious foil to the standard smartphone, as anything remotely virile: it’s a hugely dorky face accessory that has to be delicately spoken to or — yep! — rubbed in order to function.
I mean, just look at that guy. [CNET]
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this from someone whose name is an anagram of Beery Grins
Aaaaaand once again, I am reminded why I don’t come to Giz as often as I did.
Don’t worry, we probably won’t find our cursor hovering over Geek Power much either.
OoooooooooH, Catty (or should that be Katty)
Fear not Ms Hannaford, no plans to drive you out of business exist (currently). 
are you sure Sergey is using the word emasculating in reference to masculinity? As his comment makes more sense if you imagine the more general definition of the work.
he is either stupid or you have the wrong end of the stick.
I still don’t understand how Google Glass is going to be allowed in this country. You can imagine the Daily Mail headlines already for a start. Ironically the photo of Sergey above is one reason why it will fail, he looks like he’s leering at somebody and he could be photographing them or filming them as he does that!
There are so many issues with privacy and protection of children that I can’t see it happening. For example, didn’t they recently have to force phones to make a noise when a photograph was taken in Japan because of all the dirty pervs taking sneaky pictures up women’s skirts?
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/07/pervert-alert-j/
well, it’s not illegal in any way. the proliferation of cctv has largely been forgotten about. so will this in time. for personal use you can easily purchase ‘spy’ cameras for the clandestine collection of images in public.
I thought the law was pretty clear-cut on this : in public places, you have never had “an expectation of privacy” anyway, which is the cornerstone of other laws prohibiting e.g. public nudity or drunken behaviour.
So you can shoot whatever pics you want; it’s what you do with them after that that’s the problem. And it would be trivial for Google to fix, anyway – stick an LED on the front that glows when recording, for example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography_and_the_law#United_Kingdom
As I understand it, there’s an LED on the front to indicate the camera is in use to comply with photography awareness laws.
To be fair though, how do you know that guy over there isn’t taking photos of you while pretending to text, or that handheld gamer over there isn’t taking 3D photos of you while pretending to play Mario Kart? What’s stopping that guy with the sketchpad over there from drawing you or the people you love?
I think up-skirt shots are a horrendous violation of privacy if you get found out.
And you would know Mr Flynn, We miss you on G+ Messenger
I’m not going to take much clause from a guy who dresses like a tramp and says smartphones are “emasculating”. What am I to use? A brick? I’m sorry we are not well-off Google co-founders.
Also a derogatory sexist comment stating that smartphones are ‘for girls’ and thereby implying men should get better smartphone devices.
Hopefully you are aware that the “derogatory sexist comment” was made by Mr Biddle, not Mr Brin.
Indeed! Mr Biddle either doesn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘emasculate’ or has opted to distort Sergey Brin’s intended meaning. In a nutshell, Sergey Brin was explaining how Google Glass can provide a more natural way (using speech) to interact with people and find information. I believe he meant that vs Google Glass, rubbing away at a phone’s surface separates or “emasculates” people from their interactions/ info.
Could always do the time honoured tradition of just talking to someone in order to interact with people and find information.
Thats crazy talk. You’ll catch all kinds of diseases doing that!
How ironic – Biddle and Giz accusing other people of asininity.
My moral compass would be all in a spin if I couldn’t rely on rich misogynists to vocalise their wisdom and share it with the world.
i wouldnt call them emasculating really, but people who queue up for days on end to get the next model (apple fanboys/girls being the prime example)are really sacrificing their dignity in my eyes
It’s a fad as much as the fanaticism surround film releases these days. It just becomes something that people want to be ‘first’ for.
…is he aware that Google also make “featureless piece of glass” smartphones that he’s dissing?
Sergey Brin appears to have the chest of a ten year old girl.
He needs all the ‘manliness’ he can get!! And seriously, does he think ‘Charisma’ is an aftershave?
How did you know about my hello kitty mug and bra D:?