Listeners of our members’ show, Hemispheric Views One Prime Plus, may recall that we spoke about the ad-free photo-sharing service Glass in episode 012, ‘TumblrJimbo!’. Quite amusingly, I was the only one left on the network after both Andrew and Jason decided to leave. I loved using the app, which felt right at home on the iPhone.
Feeling somewhat dejected and lonely after Andrew and Jason’s departure, however, I decided to leave too.
Well, well, well… fast-forward several months and suddenly, both of my co-hosts had rejoined! 😂 I was tempted to return as well but then thought, ‘Eh, do I actually have a reason to do this?’ I decided to forget about it and move on; life was fine without the service and I considered it a hassle to resurrect my account and hopefully keep my original username.
Well, well, well… fast-forward to September 2022 and I rejoined Glass too! 🤣 Fortunately, my username was also still available!
What was the tipping point? I bought a new mirrorless camera: the Olympus OMD EM-10 MK IV. I’ve had my Canon 500D DSLR for years and wanted to try something smaller and lighter for family shots and occasionally carrying around town. The EM-10 MK IV fits that bill and became a new motivation to return to the network.
I plan to speak more about the camera itself on an upcoming regular episode of Hemispheric Views—so stay tuned for that—but for now, I simply wish to express how happy I am that I’ve returned to Glass. The iPhone experience continues to be fantastic, however I’m thrilled that it now has an iPad equivalent, which is undoubtedly better for enjoying photos at a larger size.
Even with an iPad app, I still had an itch that needed to be scratched: a Mac app. I have no idea whether the makers of Glass intend to release a Mac version, so I took matters into my own hands. (I’m making it sound like I put a lot more work into it than I actually did.) Using the Mac app Unite, I simply transformed the glass.photo website into a Mac app that now lives in my dock, and the experience is wonderful. It’s lovely to dip into the feed occasionally on the Studio Display, have a scroll, then leave.
I find myself thinking about the early experience of Instagram; I joined when it launched in October 2010 as an iPhone-only app and thought that it was a terrific service. Sadly we’ve all witnessed how that’s gone since.
Anyway, if you haven’t tried Glass before, give it a go. If you have tried it before but weren’t convinced, perhaps the availability of an iPad app or the ability to make your own Mac version will see you return, as I did.
For now, check out my profile at glass.photo/martinfeld; I am by no means a pro photographer, so I welcome any feedback! 📷
This post was originally written in September 2022 for Hemispheric News; subscribe at the Patreon site One Prime Plus to receive this monthly newsletter and other benefits that are linked to the Hemispheric Views podcast.
Lounge Ruminator 