Google's Project Glass is one of the most fascinating developments in the technology industry, and with the Big G having recently released the big Google Glass XE11 update for the wearable tech, things seem to be pushing along just nicely. The progress continues in a similar fashion with the news that music playback features are headed to Glass. As of today, the search giant has added new functionality that allows users to find songs, browse playlists and enjoy their music, and the whole system will be controlled by voice commands. Furthermore, the company will also be selling stereo earbuds by the end of the month especially tailored to Glass. Full details after the break.
Whilst it has been rather easy to get caught up in the hype surrounding Glass, plenty of valid questions have been raised and yet to be properly addressed. Questions such as how will those with prescription lenses be able to use the wearable tech? And perhaps even more importantly, will fashion-conscious people want to wear Glass in its current form factor? Rochester Optical appears to be working on solutions to all of these issues by developing designs to work with those frequently playing sport, individuals looking to retain a certain style or image, or those folks wearing glasses by force rather than choice.
Google's Glass is still in beta, and as such, has only been offered to select individuals thus far. The Explorer Edition now has a more relaxed program allowing a broader range of interested parties to get involved, but selling the device on has hitherto been strictly prohibited. While the resale of Glass is still very much against the search company's terms of service, Google will no longer be deactivating the wearable tech if users are caught doing so, something that has occurred up until now. So, in essence, it's still an illegal act, but in this case, the police (being Google) will be turning a blind eye to those looking to sell Glass for potential profit.
Google Glass has been a revolutionary product in many ways, but with certain limitations. The high price point has yet kept it out of general consumer reach, but aside from that, another major contributor to this was the fact that developers didn’t really have a lot of options to expand the capabilities of the new hardware. In fact, all that they had access to was the standard Android SDK for testing and playing, which was far insufficient. Now, starting November 19, Google is hosting a hackathon where the Glassware Development Kit (GDK) will be made available to developers, as outlined in an invite sent out by Google for developers.
There's always going to be a subset of the technology loving community that simply can't force themselves to get on-board with a particular piece of tech, but the overall opinion about Google Glass seems overwhelmingly positive thus far. The good news coming from Google today is that reports of a Google Glass Explorer Program expansion are most definitely true with Google themselves confirming the imminent introduction of an invite system.
Next year should follow the usual prose when it comes to the technology industry, but one project that stands out as, quite literally, a potential eye-opener, is Google's Glass. Having first been teased last year, it has been developed and enhanced considerably during its tenure as the Big G's most exciting up-and-coming, and such is the level of work being put in behind the scenes, that it would seem as though the search giant is already working on a model beyond the inaugural Google Glass Explorer Edition.
Google's Project Glass has caused quite a bit of a stir since it's announcement last year, and with plenty of developers having sampled the technology and demonstrated what it's capable of via Google Glass Explorer Edition, we're excited for its eventual release early next year. But while Google appears unchallenged by its biggest rivals when it comes to this new technology, it has been revealed that Apple considered such device, and although it reached prototype stage, the Cupertino company simply could not find the time to take things any further.
It's fairly safe to say at this point that there is no love lost between Google and Apple, and the latter has used its Siri digital assistant to poke fun at some of Google's properties in the past. With that in mind, it's no great surprise that Siri is in fact no great fan of what is perhaps Google's most popular product that nobody can buy.
Not many tech releases can claim to have created more of a fuss and anticipation than both the next generation gaming consoles, but the hype surrounding Google Glass is certainly giving the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 a run for their money. At present, only certain individuals have managed to get their hands on a unit of the wearable tech for testing and development of the Android-based ecosystem, but it would seem Google is now offering some of those testers a chance to invite a friend to the process, provided they're willing to pick their very own pair from selected distribution outlets.
Google Glass may only be in the hands of developers, creative individuals and one or two competition winners, but that hasn't prevented the world of tech from getting itself excited about the search giant's wearable tech. Last month, we saw one such creative, Adam Bell, had managed to route iOS notifications through to Glass using a contraption he'd thrown together, and now, a tweak has emerged offering a simpler way for such a process to be achieved. More details and where to download from, can be found right after the break.
