Google Glass is now on sale for 24 hours only, are you buying it? Take our poll at the bottom of this post and let us know. In order to be able to purchase a Glass headset, the consumer must be a resident of the United States and be legally classed as an adult. Oh, they must also be willing to part with $1,500 plus local sales tax. That bit’s important.
With Google clearly feeling extremely confident about the future of Glass, and with a whole heap of new users likely to come on board, Google has announced that Glass Updates are back. Owners of the powerful Glass headset will be able to update its firmware later this week and receive a number of powerful updates that should boost the overall Glass experience for end-users.
It's an accepted fact that Apple changed the face of the smartphone industry with the introduction of the iPhone back in 2007, and even though it has only been seven years, it feels as though we've always been tapping home screen icons and gesturing our way through interfaces. Not only did the iPhone completely turn the market on its head, but Google's in-development Android interface - which didn't, at the time of the Apple smartphone's announcement, support touch input - also had to be completely re-thought.
Google Glass is an exciting and developing product, but it does have its fair share of naysayers. One of the common critiques of the Big G's face computer is that it's ugly, and while you may disagree with this assessment, it's fair to say that in a style-conscious society, Google will need to smarten up the current design. Having signed up a deal with Luxottica Group, the company behind Ray-Ban and Oakley, late last month, the search giant has outlined its intention to blend fashion with technology, and the concept below gives a very appealing, albeit idealistic idea of what said specs could look like.
As well as trying to make significant inroads in the field of wearable technology with Project Glass, Google has also demonstrated how it intends to shake-up the smartphone world with Project Ara. In case you happened to miss the previous coverage, the Project Ara team is currently working on the development of modular smartphones, consisting of a skeletal backbone that can be upgraded by means of interchangeable modules. The product, which will likely be intended for the lower-end markets to start with, could eventually challenge the modern day smartphone as we know it, and today, some new images have emerged of the development process in full flow.
Google's Android 4.4.3 update may well be on the way for select devices, but while this rudimentary bump could be rolled out in the next couple of weeks, something much more significant is said to be on the horizon. Currently referred to as 'Project Hera,' the future implementation will aim to bring an aligned, synchronized experience across Android, Chrome and Web apps, with users able to carry out tasks in a seamless manner throughout the range of Google platforms.
A set of internal documents has revealed that Google is all set to make an assault on the soon-to-be bloated set-top TV device industry. The internal Google documents reveal that the Internet services company is deriving inspiration from existing products such as the Roku, Apple TV and Amazon's new Fire TV to introduce an intelligent set-top box known as Android TV that will hopefully serve as a powerful alternative to the existing solutions on the market.
Android's biggest weakness may be the huge numbers in which smartphones running the software have sold, but it's fairly safe to say at this point that phones and tablets running various flavors of Android are less than secure. In fact, the hacking of Android-powered devices is such a problem that it's been the beneficiary of plenty of attention from the security fraternity.
Independently of the forthcoming Android 4.4.3 update, which should begin to trickle out to the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 in the very near future, Google plans to add some useful new features to the native camera app of its mobile operating system. According to a newly emerged report, the standalone app will be given a complete makeover, delivering a revamped UI, improved panorama and more.
It's that time of the year again at which point the really funny folks come out to play. Google is always game for a joke or two on April 1st, and has begun the tomfoolery with a little adjustment to its famed Maps app. Essentially, it brings a Pokémon Challenge element to the revered navigation tool, and since it's now April Fools' day in many parts of the world already, the Big G has already delivered its prank to tech fans.
