Google Glass
Google could be in the midst of offering something new with reports that the company has recently been granted new patents by the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office.
Google announced last week that it would be ending sales of its Google Glass on Monday, which now has consumers and analysts wondering what it meant for the future of the wearable tech, or if a Google Glass 2 can be expected soon.
Although Google Glass has yet to hit mainstream and be available to the rest of us, rumor has it that a second iteration of the newsmaking device is already in the works.
Google, through project co-founders Brian Otis and Babak Parviz, confirmed on their blog Thursday, that it is currently beta-testing its wearable high-tech contact lens.
In an ironic nod to overblown technology news headlines, blogger and noted Google Glass-in-shower enthusiast Robert Scoble titled his latest Google+ post "Scoble says Google Glass is doomed." Scoble then lists the reasons why Google Glass will not take off when its consumer edition released (expected sometime in 2014).
Integrated music, something that would seem an immediate design priority for a piece of wearable computing that rests on one's ears, is indeed finally headed to Google Glass.
It's probably not a big surprise, but South Korean IT giant Samsung looks to be preparing to challenge Google on the smartglasses front, patenting its own wearable computing "sports glasses" design in Korea.
As we approach the 2014 release date of Google Glass, tinkerers and app developers have innovating several apps for the new smartglasses. Even though the wearable computing devices are still in the "explorer" phase, where just a few thousand Google Glass beta editions have been sold to a few lucky developers, technophiles, and journalists, a lot of applications for the smartglasses have been fiddled with.
While the Google Glass smartglasses are still in its preliminary trial phase, called the Google "Glass Explorer" program, some competitors to the augmented reality devices are on the horizon. One is already available, and its price is already set at $600.
Metaio, an augmented reality software company, has come up with an interactive automobile manual that promises to make tune ups hands-free and easy. The company demonstrated the app in a video, using Google Glass.
Google Glass just got a little more user-friendly, or at least friendly to its users' wallets. In the most recent software update, Google has eliminated the need for an additional data-tethering plan, by allowing Google Glass to stream data directly from its companion Android app.
Google Glass keeps getting more and more features, and the most recent system update, released on Monday, is no exception.
A Google Glass release date in 2014 is looking pretty certain, now that the smartglass's rumored app store, "Boutique," has been confirmed to debut in 2014, according to details in a lengthy New York Times feature on the Mountain View's new wearable computing devices.
Google has bought a few technology patents from the Taiwanese company Hon Hai Precision, probably known to most of you as Foxconn, taking another step towards releasing a consumer version of Google Glass.
In Field Trip, Google Glass might have found its killer app.
