Google Glass: science fiction you can wear – The Verge

Google Glass will return in 2015 with Intel inside, says WSJ

2014-12-01T04:06:53-05:00

2015 will see Google launch a new model of its Glass headset, which will be powered by an Intel chip and offer longer battery life than the current Explorer Edition, according to The Wall Street Journal. Google Glass has already been through a couple of small iterative upgrades - one to add compatibility with prescription lenses and another to double the RAM - but the shift to a new processor could signal a more thorough overhaul of the entire wearable.

Limited battery life and a forbidding, four-figure price tag have militated against Glass' widespread adoption up until now. With a more modern processor and a refreshed design, it could see …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google is recruiting Glass converts with free demos

2014-07-17T04:10:02-04:00

CNET reports that Google sent out emails on Wednesday inviting the public to "sit down with a Glass Guide" and partake in a first-hand experience of the company's futuristic Google Glass headset. Those interested will need to schedule appointments at one of the "Basecamps" - service centers for Google Glass - located in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. Prospective buyers are allowed to bring a second person, so long as their companion is older than 13.

Google Glass is currently available in the United Kingdom and the US, although it should be noted that the product is still in open beta. The $1,500 wearable device is still being tweak …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google Glass pioneer moves to Amazon

2014-07-14T04:35:03-04:00

Babak Parviz, the man who founded and led the Google X project that gave rise to Google Glass, has moved to work at Amazon. Revealing the news on his Google+ page, the Iranian-American scientist describes himself as "super excited" but doesn't disclose any details about what he'll be developing next. The focus of Parviz's research so far has been the pursuit of an intelligent contact lens that would both obtain readings about its wearer through sensors and provide information via augmented reality visual overlays. In many ways, Google Glass is the compromise solution on the way to that goal.

Babak Parviz is playing with Fire

Now that he's jo …

Read the full story at The Verge.

I turned Google Glass into opera glasses

2014-06-27T10:00:04-04:00

In 1983, at a showing of Strauss' Elektra, the Canadian Opera Company changed opera forever. It introduced a concept that its creator termed surtitles, which projected translated lyrics alongside the performers. It allowed viewers to read the dialogue as they heard it sung in German, rather than having to read the plot beforehand or buy a paper libretto with the text. It also launched a veritable culture war.

To some, projections allowed audiences to appreciate operas on a new level. To others, they were a pointless, tasteless, even "pathetic" distraction. Metropolitan Opera music director James Levine was quoted in 1985 saying that the Met …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Where was Glass at Google I/O?

2014-06-25T17:15:39-04:00

Google Glass was totally invisible at I/O 2014.

Two years ago, Google co-founder Sergey Brin had a friend put on Glass and stream his dive from a plane to the top of San Francisco's Moscone Center. The mood was one of excitement and almost awe - few people had even seen Glass in person at that point, let alone used it. Things were quieter at the I/O 2013 keynote, but workshops later in the week taught developers how to work with their headsets, which had started arriving just a month earlier. "There's a real opportunity for Glass to become mainstream," said product director Steve Lee in a fireside chat.

Google has been nothing but positive …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google refreshes Glass hardware, but current owners won’t get upgraded

2014-06-24T16:58:40-04:00

Google's plan to sell its Glass headset in an extended public beta test was a rather unusual move. It's not often you see consumer hardware get tested in public, particularly something like Glass that has raised a number of privacy concerns since it became available. However, Google says that the benefit of its extended public test period is that it can keep improving the device based on user feedback in advance of its eventual consumer launch - as such, the company is announcing a slightly modified version of Glass, both on the software and hardware front.

The biggest change in terms of pure hardware is that Google has decided to double th …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google Glass is now available in the UK

2014-06-23T12:51:41-04:00

Google Glass is finally expanding beyond the United States and opening up sales in the UK. The Explorer program is accepting its first-ever international signups starting immediately. Glass is priced at £1,000 (around $1,700 USD), and UK buyers also have the option of purchasing prescription frames. If you're not ready to lay down that much cash right away, Google seems hopeful that a demonstration may sway you; it's planning to publicly showcase Glass in London on June 27th and 28th. The company will be setting up shop between 10AM and 8PM on Stable Street, and you can RSVP now to reserve your chance to sample Glass and chat with the Google …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Kill from behind cover with Google Glass

2014-06-04T02:44:11-04:00

Austin startup TrackingPoint is best known for its precision-guided firearms, expensive weaponry purportedly capable of turning anyone into a veritable marksman. In this minute-long concept video, the company shows how wearable technology can be used in conjunction with its products to further augment a person's shooting abilities. The testosterone-laced montage features a stern-faced, bearded man firing shots from unlikely angles while a narrator extols the system's benefits. Most notably, the technology the company is working on is supposed to allow "for accurate shots around corners, unsupported positions, behind the back, to the side, an …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google Glass now available in ‘chic’ new designs

2014-06-03T02:52:08-04:00

Google Glass" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/12804583/Navigator_Orchid_Mist_Flash_3x4_Blue__1_.0.1410356832.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100" />

Google has announced a new range of Google Glass headsets created in collaboration with fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg's studio, DVF. The range, the first Glass headsets designed by a company outside of Google to see release, has five new frames and eight shades in two styles. The designs will go on sale from June 23rd, and will be available from online fashion retailer Net-a-Porter and Google itself. DVF-designed frames with Glass and prescriptive lenses will cost $1,725, while von Furstenberg's sunglasses plus Glass will cost $1,620.

The range, made in collaboration with Google and called "DVF | Made for Glass," will be shown off …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Watch tennis from Roger Federer’s perspective with Google Glass

2014-05-24T13:04:05-04:00

You'll never play tennis like Roger Federer, but that doesn't mean you can't see the court from his point of view. The 17-time Grand Slam champion donned Google Glass recently at the search giant's headquarters in Mountain View for a friendly sparring match with current coach (and former world number one) Stefan Edberg. As if elite levels of tennis weren't impressive enough, seeing it through Federer's eyes shows just how different the game they're playing is from your amateur efforts on the court. "It was really fun shooting this video," Federer tells the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). "It's not often you get to explore new angl …

Read the full story at The Verge.