Getting your Google Glass app into Google’s official app directory is not an easy task, but Google recently introduced six new applications — and this time, there are some bigger names thrown in the mix. Those added recently include Shazam, Goal.com, musiXmatch, Star Chart, The Guardian, and Zombies, Run! and you can get them now on your Glass device.
Update: Google Glass is now available on the Play Store in the UK for £1,000 and is available in black, red, white, charcoal and blue. Google says the device will ship from its warehouse in one or two business days. Glass still carries the Explorer tag and does not appear to be any different than the U.S. variant. You can view Glass on the Play Store here.
Original post: Ahead of Google I/O this week, Google Glass is now listed as being available in the United Kingdom on the Play Store support page. When the Nest Thermostat became available on Google Play, it too was prematurely posted on the Play Store support page for country availability. Should the support page be correct, the UK would be the first country besides the United States in which you can purchase Glass.
The Diane von Furstenberg frames and sunglasses for Google Glass first leaked earlier this month have now gone on sale.
If you already have Glass, you can buy the frames and shades from the Google Glass Store. The frames are $225 while the shades are $120 …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Google Glass may be taking the world by storm but that doesn’t mean everyone is completely aware of Mountain View’s new wearable. Just because people have heard of something, doesn’t mean they’re completely familiar with it. Mountain View’s famous eyewear might be making its mark on popular culture, however it’s yet to fully reach the elderly.
LiveLens, a quick-and-easy video live streaming platform, has launched a Google Glass app (via TheNextWeb) alongside its already-available iOS and Android apps, allowing users to stream video straight from their heads via Google’s head-mounted computer. The service sets itself apart by focusing social features, and offers the ability for users to monetize their videos — which is part of where the company hopes to make money.
Google Glass notably doesn’t sport the best battery life right now, making live streaming of any kind mostly impractical. But since Glass itself is made to be an interface that lets you quickly accomplish a task and get back to the real world, quicker and shorter live streams might be the very niche use case for this app. People with huge social media followings are the target user for this app, and those are the same people who likely would have fans willing to tune in (or even pay) to watch a few minutes of exclusive first-person streaming video.
Notably, the live streaming company simply dubbed Livestream also has its own video streaming application for Google Glass, which lets you do many of the same things as this entry from LiveLens.
It appears that Google Glass is actually coming to the movies relatively soon, despite news that the device has been banned in one of the country’s well-known movie theater chains. In this case, the Hunger Games craze continues between movie releases with a fan-made film called “Mockingjay: Burn”, but interestingly, it could very well be one of the first Hollywood-produced films to include footage both of and from Google’s head-mounted computer.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Google Glass may not have the best reputation in the workplace, but Mountain View is trying to change that. Today, the company announced its first wave of Glass at Work Certified Partners. This daring new brood looking to push Google’s wearable computer into the enterprise market include partners like APX Labs, Augmedix, CrowdOptic, GuidiGO and Wearable Intelligence.
Father’s Day is almost here and as a nice way to celebrate dear old dad, Google has released a new Through Glass video of proud poppas having fun with their offsprings. A sweet gesture for sure, however we also can’t help but wonder if Mountain View might be subliminally telling you to buy the old man some high-tech eyewear. While we probably just tainted this heartwarming moment, watching about 30 seconds of children having a blast with their fathers should probably bring a smile to your face.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmAQi3C0-50]
From the operating room to the classroom, Glass has been well received by the healthcare industry. So much in fact, that app makers are jumping on the bandwagon to produce Glassware specifically tailored for physicians. Spearheading this effort is Drchrono, an electronic medical records company based in Mountain View California.
A few months ago, the producer of The Daily Show got in contact with me and asked if I could pull together a few people who would be a good fit for a taping related to Google Glass that the show was going to do in San Francisco. I put him in touch with four Glass Explorers located in the area, and the video you’ll find after the break was the result.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Last week, CrowdOptic, a company that makes video streaming software for wearable devices, announced a partnership with UCSF in hopes of improving patient care and physician training. The first set of tests will involve recording surgeries being performed for offsite broadcast (similar to what we’ve seen before), but CrowdOptic’s software goes one step further by letting physicians in the room share videos streams. Today, the company today told 9to5Google that they’re including a new yet-to-be officially announced feature: a quick way to ensure HIPAA compliance.
If you’re among the elite group of people who ponied up $1,500 for Glass, you’ll be glad to know that Google’s popular wearable computer has learned a few new tricks. First off the bat is an upcoming update to MyGlass for Android that will instantly display pictures on your compatible phone as soon as you open the app. To launch the apps’ new filters and editing tools, simply tap a photo. Once finished, you can then export the finished product to your favorite photo sharing app like Facebook, Instagram or VSCO.
It doesn’t come at any surprise, but Alamo Drafthouse — a large American movie theater chain — has decided to implement a company-wide policy banning customers from using Google Glass (via Deadline) once trailers have begun rolling. CEO Tim League just today made the policy official, but he deserves some major respect for the amount of patience he had before making the call on this new technology.
Expand
Expanding
Close
If you can believe it, Google Glass was announced nearly two years ago at Google I/O 2012, becoming available to “Explorers” for the steep price of $1,500. The device didn’t actually ship until nearly a year later, in February 2013, but multiple beta versions of Glass have been in these select few hands since. As for a date when the device would finally go public, Sergey Brin recently said at the Code Conference that Glass would be released this year “plus or minus,” leaving the question as open-ended as ever.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Shop X, the Glassware brainchild of Glass Explorer Ryan Kopinksy, is a great way to create and view shopping lists on Google Glass. The app has been widely praised by the Glass community for quite some time, but it previously had to be sideloaded if you wanted to install it. No longer, as Shop X can now be grabbed on MyGlass along the likes of Noble Ackerson’s LynxFit and well-known apps like Foursquare and Facebook.
To use the app, all you have to do is say “Ok, Glass” followed by “Take a Note.” List as many items as you want across a wide variety of grocery categories, and then give the app a second to process the information. Once it’s done, you’ll receive cards on your Glass home screen that are made up of all the items you listed sorted into categories. Check out the video embedded below showing the basics of how the app works.
As listed on the software’s official MyGlass listing:
Shop X enables you to create your shopping list by voice command. The items in your shopping list are sorted by category and can be checked off whenever you are done with the category. Shop X will sync your shopping list with the cloud so you can access and manage it from any device.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i7IWmRhOIU
Update: Statement from the USAA after the break…
Google Glass continues to receive a lot of press attention, with much of it being in a negative light due to the device’s camera. And this may be the beginning of yet another saga of Glass bannings, as 9to5Google has learned that USAA, provider of home, life, and auto insurance as well as banking for families of military members, has banned Google Glass from being used by its employees.
Expand
Expanding
Close
When engaged in a firefight, soldiers often have t0 break cover to take a shot at a target. This almost always puts them in harm’s way and can possibly result in severe injury or even death. There has to be a better way, right? Precision guided firearm maker TrackingPoint sure seems to think so. The company is currently tinkering with Google Glass and is working on pairing its ShotView mobile app with Mountain View’s wearable.
A Google+ post on the official Glass page revealed a new collection of Glass accessories from fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg. After the post went public, however, Google apparently deleted it. It’s possible the announcement went out a little early, but nothing on the Internet is ever truly gone.
Google X’s Jacob Barlow shared the post on his own page, thus preserving the announcement for all to see. The collection will be available for purchase on June 23rd. It will include five new frames eight sunglass models. You can find some more photos of the DVF collection below, along with the full announcement.
Expand
Expanding
Close
A new app for Google Glass has been released today, which essentially hopes to turn the head-mounted computer into a Karaoke machine. The real value that this app has — especially considering that Glass is still beta, and $1,5000 — can’t really be quantified at the moment, but there’s no doubt that the idea is intriguing.
Expand
Expanding
Close
While on stage at the Code Conference, Google co-founder Sergey Brin talked Google Glass with Re/Code editors Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. When asked about the commercial availability of the product, Brin said that he hopes it will be available to all consumers by the end of the year. He remarked that “Google Glass will be a commercial product this year…plus or minus.” The timeline for Glass has been a bit cloudy since its announcement, but hopefully Google finally follows through this time around.
A new app for Google Glass has been prototyped, which intends to bring the conveniences of online reading — namely, quick definitions and translations — to the offline hard-copy book reading experience. The app is called Reader for Glass (not to be confused with Google Reader), and is being developed by Jacob Funch, a graduate school student working on his master’s thesis …
Expand
Expanding
Close
A surgeon in the U.K. is now the first to live stream video of a surgical operation via Google Glass (via The Telegraph). The landmark surgery, which removed cancer from a 78 year-old patient’s liver and bowel, was viewed in live time by 13,000 medical students from 115 countries, and is clearly yet another example of a situation in which this innovative device doing good for humanity …
Expand
Expanding
Close
We’ve seen Glass hit the hardwood, the OR and the campus, so how about the tennis court? Tennis greats Roger Federer and Stefan Edberg recently swung by Google’s offices to check out the company’s new wearable and of course a friendly match ensued. The onscreen action broadcasts from Federer’s eyewear and while it won’t make you a Grand Slam winner, it’ll give you a closer insight of a tennis champ’s perspective of the game.
Glass may now be available to all US adult residents willing to pay the price, but that doesn’t mean that people in other regions aren’t sampling Google’s famous wearable computer. The Dubai police force is currently performing real world testing of the high-tech eyewear, hoping that it will help its officers when dealing with unruly motorists or wanted vehicles.
