On the second day of Google’s I/O Developers conference, the company announced the availability of more “glassware” applications for its heavily hyped wearable computing device. Google Glass applications including CNN, Elle, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and Evernote are available now to early Glass adopters, The New York Times reported. The applications join Path and The New York Times’ own app, which were previously the only other third-party apps available for the device. Each application will bring something unique to Google Glass. The CNN application, for example, allows users to be notified with news alerts for a specific topic, while the Evernote app will let users send notes, such as a grocery list, to Glass for reference later on.
Given the potential safety and privacy concerns surrounding Google Glass, Google has put some very tight restrictions on what kinds of applications developers can build for the headset. Or has it? Technology Review reports that Google will hold a session at its Google I/O conference this week dedicated specifically to giving developers root access to Glass and teaching them how to create experimental applications. Developers who hack into Glass will render their warranties null and void, of course, but Google still wants them to take that risk and test the limits of what Glass can do. Technology Review says that such hacks into Glass may be crucial to shaping the platform since Google still hasn’t finalized what features the headset will have when it’s released to consumers next year.
Google’s annual Google I/O conference is the biggest event of the year for Android and the rest of Google’s always expanding product portfolio. Google’s keynote at this year’s I/O is set to be an absolute beast, with three straight hours of announcements and demos set to kick off at 12:00 p.m. EDT, 9:00 a.m. PDT. The next-generation Nexus 7 is expected to be among the stars of the keynote, as is a new version of Android and maybe even Google’s X Phone. What else does Google have in store for us? Live streaming video of the Google I/O keynote can be viewed below, and all of our I/O coverage can be found on this page. More →
Google Glass is expected to be a pretty big focus at Google I/O this year, but it’s still unclear how the public at large will receive Google’s connected eyewear when it launches next year. In an effort to assess its odds in the U.S. market, BiTE Interactive commissioned YouGov to conduct a study on the matter. According to a poll of 1,000 American smartphone owners aged 18 and above, “only” one in 10 respondents said they would be willing to wear Google Glass regularly, regardless of the device’s price. The study also found that 45% of those polled said they believe Google Glass is “too socially awkward” or “too irritating” to wear, and 44% said they simply don’t find any of Glass’ known features to be desirable. More →
The arrival of Google Glass, along with smartwatches from Apple, Samsung and LG, could help the wearable-computer market swell to become a $6 billion industry by 2016, Bloomberg reported. Companies and independent developers have been quick to adopt these new platforms and are looking to get a head start on the next big app market. More →
Although we’ve long heard rumors about Google’s plans to open its own brick and mortar retail stores to showcase its Android and Chrome products, a new report suggests that the company may open stores dedicated solely to its wearable computing device. According to Business Insider, Google’s rumored retail stores will cater specifically to customers looking to buy Google Glass. The Glass brand will reportedly be front and center, with Glass specialists on site to help users test the highly anticipated device. Earlier reports had claimed that Google was interested in opening retail stores in several major metropolitan areas across the United States ahead of this year’s holiday season.
The consumer electronics industry has gotten pretty boring lately. That’s not to say the new products that have debuted recently are boring, but we’re definitely in a period marked by iteration. Each new smartphone closely resembles the smartphone that came before it, each new tablet is a tweak and a spec bump away from its predecessor, and Windows 8 hasn’t reinvented the PC like we had hoped. The timing couldn’t have been better for Google to shake things up with Google Glass, the curious connected eyewear that will launch next year. But is Glass really the next big thing or are we all just so bored that anything seems like a breath of fresh air?
According to some pundits, Google Glass is a doomed geeky gadget destined to follow the Segway into obscurity. If that’s the case, creating an etiquette guide for Google’s connected eyewear seems like a huge waste of time. The Wall Street Journal apparently has some faith in the device though, and it recently published a list of guidelines it wants Google Glass owners to follow once the device launches to the public in 2014. More →
When your product is being ridiculed on Saturday Night Live long before it actually releases, it’s safe to say that you’ve got a major potential image problem. This is the situation that Google now faces with its Google Glass headset after Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen skewered Google’s new device on a Weekend Update segment. In the skit, Armisen struggled to get Glass to implement a Wi-Fi password and he jerked his head around awkwardly while sifting through assorted menus before getting busted for watching porn on Glass in public. The skit’s depiction of Glass users as hapless dorks is not a flattering one and is likely something that Google will have to work very hard to combat if it doesn’t want Glass to become the next Segway. A full video of the skit is posted below. More →
If you thought Google Glass was a major potential distraction before, just wait until Glass users start spending hours getting cute cat pictures projected onto their eyeballs. Developer Malcolm Nguyen has created his own homemade Reddit app for Google Glass that includes the top 25 posts from your own Reddit front page and refreshes every hour. It also gives users the ability to vote posts and comments up or down, and the ability to both share links and to leave your own comments. More →
Google Glass has taken a lot of criticism this week from people who think that it will go down as a piece of technology that sounds like a terrific idea but that never reaches mass appeal because it’s perceived as dorky, much like the Segway and Bluetooth headsets. I have to admit that I find this argument very compelling because it seems that Glass will, much like the justifiably loathed Bluetooth earpieces, make its users come across as anti-social cyborgs who are so caught up in their own little digital worlds that they won’t pay attention to what’s going on around them. More →
Is Google Glass the next major revolutionary portable communications device or is it just a novelty item that will be used by socially awkward dorks? That’s the question that Wired’s Marcus Wohlsen tried to answer while coming down definitively on the side of “Glass is for dorks.” In his argument, Wohlsen knocks the “inherent antisocialness of Google Glass” and says that Glass “is what happens when Silicon Valley spends too much time talking to itself.” He then goes on to compare Glass unfavorably with pocket protectors, the Segway and Bluetooth headsets, all of which sound like reasonable ideas but have been scorned by all but society’s misfits. While it’s unclear that Glass really deserves to be compared to the very dorky Segway just yet, Wohlsen does have a point that perceptions of Glass will rapidly sour if Glass users are generally oblivious to their surroundings, and if they don’t pay attention when talking to others because they’re too busy looking at weather reports being projected onto their eyeballs.
