It has now been a year since the old Android Market was rebranded as the much more all-encompassing Google Play Store, and to commemorate the occasion, the Big G is running a whole week of deals for its users.
If you had any doubt about the existence or the availability of Google Play Store gift cards, then the company themselves have dropped one of the biggest hints yet that their arrival is extremely imminent. We've been hearing about the gift cards for quite some time now, with various logs showing up in certain retail databases, but Google has updated one of their own support pages with extensive information about the cards and the balance of individual Play accounts.
Google Glass is certainly one of the most exciting technologies to arrive in recent years, and one individual from Cleveland, Ohio has already tried to sell a pair on Internet auction site eBay. The listing, which was littered with errors in spelling and grammar from an individual claiming to be an "early adapter", had all the hallmarks of a scam, and having reached an eye-watering $15,000 with a day still to go, was eventually taken down by eBay.
It feels like Google Glass is on the tip of everyone's tongues right now, even more so since developers got their hands on a unit recently. We're sure you're more than aware of Google Glass already, but for those that haven't been paying attention or somehow managed to miss the next big thing in technology, then here's the skinny; Google Glass is a computer. On your Head. With a camera.
When It comes to the Web, or indeed any field within the technology industry, Google is never far away with its own service or product looking to revolutionize (or at least Googlize) the way we do things. With the likes of Spotify and Pandora currently seen as two of the main players in the streaming music game, The Big G, it is claimed, wants a piece of the action, and with Apple trying to get its own iTunes Match service off the ground, Google would once again be locking horns with one of its fiercest rivals.
There's been a marked surge of interest lately in Google's Project Glass, and with the Mountain View company having offered something of a progress report to interested parties earlier this week, further details have today emerged concerning the release, compatibility, and cost. According to reports, the wearable, augmented reality spectacles will be compatible not only with Android, but also iOS, and with the consumer-ready version said to be arriving before the end of the year, prices are being touted at just below the $1,500 mark.
There's scarcely an industry within the digital spectrum that Google hasn't tried its hand at, and having made a decent start to its notebook ventures with a fleet of Chromebook machines, the Mountain View company is looking to step things up a notch or two. This is according to the Wall Street Journal, which states the search giant is planning to release Chromebooks later this year with touchscreen panels, and after several reports singing a similar tune, it's looking increasingly likely that the Big G does have something up its sleeve.
Google is, quite literally, looking to change the way we view our digital world with the innovation Project Glass, and although we've seen a few glimpses of life through the company's digitized lens, the Mountain View-based search giant has today released a video outlining how users may one day interact with the UI. Following on from the news of prototypes being issued to select individuals, the video shows how the wearer uses the phrase "OK Glass" to kick the spectacles into action, prompting them to record video, take photos, send messages, start Google+ Hangouts, and more. It's arguably the most exciting insight we have been given into Glass thus far, and we have the full two-minute clip of the prototype in action after the break.
Google has teamed up with a couple of big-name manufacturers to deliver a slew of successful Nexus devices to market, but one constant criticism of the series has been the underperformance of the camera. That all looks set to change, according to one Google executive, Vic Gundotra, who has promised the next line of Nexus smartphones will offer snappers which deliver crisper, altogether better shots by packing, in the words of the Google chief, "insanely great cameras."
Apple's owning its own retail stores is often pointed to as the key differentiator over the competition. It's this end-to-end retail relationship with its customers that has seen Apple being propelled from a position to the market leader that it is today. It's a relationship that has seen that competition only dream of having the same relationship with its customers, with Microsoft seeking to emulate it with little success.
