The story of the Nokia Normandy project to get Android on low cost smartphones got some more real today with yet another leak of the phones, this time with some OS shots on them. If what we’re seeing is legit, and most evleaks are, this one has two SIM card slots and very thick custom overlay. I can’t wait to see if these are released so I can not buy one. Expand Expanding Close
Since the initial release of Google Glass at Google I/O last May, people have been calling for the ability to attach prescription lenses to the product. Over the last month, talk of this has heated up with images of Glass with prescription lenses being leaked and much more. Today, however, Glasses company Wetley has released its prescription frames and lenses for Google Glass and they are available for ordering now, dubbed GGRX.
Easily mounted, no tools required – takes seconds to mount/dismount
Frame is stainless steel – 30% lighter than typical frame materials – extremely durable
Lens are polycarbonate – highly impact resistant and durabl
Comes with Crizal Premium Anti-Reflective coating at no additional cost – reduces eye fatigue and strain
Made decision early to eschew cheaper materials (plastic frame, CR-39 lenses.)
Can accommodate almost any prescription
Also offer lens upgrades, tinting options, and anti-fog coating (some units, not all)
The frames are made of stainless steel and the company touts that the mounting process is incredibly simply and requires no tools whatsoever. There are a variety of options available for purchase and they start at $99. The first option is the frame only. In order to get lenses, you would have to take the frame to your local optometrist. The next option are single vision prescription lenses, which start at $149.99. Next up are progressive prescription lenses at $249.99. Sunglasses with a gray tint and no prescription are available for $139.99, while sunglasses with prescription capabilities are also available.
GGRX frames are available now at OpticsPlanet.com. Full press release after the jump:
In an announcement shared on Google’s Enterprise blog by Boston’s chief information officer, the city has announced it will officially migrate some 76,000 city employees, police officers, teachers, and students to using Google Apps and email services from a variety of alternative systems including Microsoft Exchange.
The Boston official noted the city’s success in adopting Google Apps, particularly for boston.gov email addresses for every city official, due to the minimal effort in maintaining the system thanks to Google’s existing and scaling infrastructure. Expand Expanding Close
In a Blogpost today, Google announced the Open Automotive Alliance (OAA). The move seems to indicate that Google is hoping to repeat its Open Handset Alliance but with cars. It currently has Audi, GM, Honda, Hyundai and Nvidia signed up but is open to anyone who wants to join.
The OAA would bring open source Android to cars and a common platform that could go from tablets to phones to cars and back again. For Google, it gets to spread its influence to yet more places and in turn gather more data for advertising and other purposes. Expand Expanding Close
In a surprising weekend announcement, Bitspin has announced that it has been acquired by Google (via Android Police). Bitspin is the company behind the Timely alarm clock app, which has become one of the most popular and well designed apps on the Play Store. It has received between 1 million and 5 million downloads since it’s release and has an overall rating of 4.4 stars out of 5. The developers are also the minds behind the Tasks to-do app, although it’s published under a different name on the Play Store.
We’re thrilled to announce that Bitspin is joining Google, where we’ll continue to do what we love: building great products that are delightful to use.
For new and existing users, Timely will continue to work as it always has. Thanks to everyone who has downloaded our app and provided feedback along the way; we truly appreciate all your support.
After teasing the app for what seemed like years, BlackBerry finally released its BBM client to Android last October, to a somewhat surprising number of downloads. Today, the company has released a private beta of the app that includes the promised Channels feature, as well as voice chat support (via Engadget).
Channels is BlackBerry’s stab at a social network. The company describes it as something similar to Tumblr. Voice chat is exactly what it sounds like. It’s essentially Skype, but baked right in to the BBM app. Users can call each other, for free, over WiFi networks. This is something that Android users have been wanting for a while now in Google’s Hangouts app, so it’s surprising to see BlackBerry beat Google to the punch.
The update is available via the BlackBerry Beta Zone now. There’s no word on public availability, or when/if the update will come to iOS.
Over the last few months, interest 4k TVs, monitors, and content has increased dramatically. YouTube has been streaming content in 4k for a while now, but using Flash. GigaOm is now reporting, however, that at CES next week, YouTube will introduce 4k streaming using its new VP9 codec. This is a new royalty-free codec developer by Google as an alternative to H.265 video codec used by other 4k video implementations.
Back in 2010, Google tried to gain traction with its VP8 codec, but due to tough competition and a lack of hardware support, those plans didn’t exactly pan out. In order to avoid the same issues with VP9, Google has already lined up a large number of hardware partners. At CES, LG, Panasonic and Sony will be demonstrating 4k content with the VP9 codec, while 19 other companies have agreed to support the codec, including ARM, Intel, Broadcom, Marvell, Toshiba, Sharp, and Samsung.
There’s been no shortage of critique regarding Google Glass, its future, privacy, and of course cost. A new Google+ write-up by the most famous “Glasshole” Robert Scoble raises a number of issues relating to Glass and the potential for it to be both wildly popular and doomed before it even gets started. Scoble lists a number of reasons why it’s possible that Glass could be both successful or find itself on the shelf of great Google products that were introduced before their time.
I’m not always in full agreement with Wired’s Mat Honan, but his I, Glasshole piece definitely struck a chord with me and my mostly similar experiences with Google Glass. I can agree with almost everything he’s said on the experience of owning and operating them, at least to an extent.
The biggest point to bring home is the outward awkwardness, but I wouldn’t characterize it as 100% negative across the board like Honan’s experience. He said that even in a room full of Wired writers he’s still ostracized for wearing them. That may be true, but at certain events like his Google event image, they felt pretty normal. I wasn’t at the one pictured, but at Google I/O every 4-5 people at the show were wearing them, even if Google’s own presenters weren’t. No one was uncomfortable in that environment. I imagine it isn’t uncomfortable at Google or any number of the places that are beta testing the Glass in large numbers relative to the population.
At home or in the general public, I agree – it is definitely jarring wearing them around. You get the same kind of attention that you’d get if you had a massive headwound at the grocery store or if you were waving a light saber around on the way to the coffee shop. The attention isn’t entirely negative, but it is certainly one of discomfort and curiosity. Some people ask about them and want to find out what the experience is like. I’ve let tons of people wear mine, and those who’ve tried have usually thought they were ‘cool’.
I’ve found a good way to mitigate the attention is to wear a low lying baseball cap coupled with the Oakley Blades wrap around shades attachment. With this setup, about 90% of the people don’t notice the Glass and just think you are some dork wearing Oakley Blades from 1987. Clearly, Google could innovate here – getting them on normal glasses hides the appearance. They’ve already promised a prescription lens attachement and even shown off some demos.
The 2014 model Glass, as I am now calling them, won’t do much for the appearance. The inclusion of a mono or stereo headset is just going to complicate the setup rather than simplify it. Note the left stereo earpiece comes out of the same right side hole as the right side ear piece.
I feel a little claustrophobic looking at them, and I imagine the final consumer version will have the earpiece coming out of either the back or the other side of the glasses.
As the hours tick away to the end of 2013, Google Play Music is still offering a few freebies to help ring in the new year. Under the “Best Tracks of 2013,” Google is giving away some of the following songs:
Update: According to an internal Verizon memo obtained by Droid-Life, the Moto G will be available from the carrier on January 9th.
It’s no secret that we are big fans of the Moto G here at 9to5Google. As of right now, the device is available unlocked from both Motorola and Amazon in 8GB and 16GB varieties for $179 and $199 respectively. According to a leaked image shared on Google+, the device will soon be coming for an even cheaper price.
As Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt makes his own predictions for 2014, I’m turning the subject over to you…the 9to5Google reader. There’s absolutely no shortage of topics to cover or “what ifs” for Google in 2014. Given the various branch directions that Android, Chrome OS and the company itself can go, it’s a loaded question. With recent reports indicating Chrome OS is on the rise, could we see Microsoft running scared in 2014 against the impending threat of low-cost hardware with an operating system that costs manufacturers absolutely nothing?
A new report out of the Wall Street Journal indicates Audi and Google will jointly announce a new in-car entertainment and information system at next weeks Consumer Electronics Show. The aim of both companies is to “allow drivers and passengers to access music, navigation, apps, and services that are similar to those widely available now on Android-powered smartphones.”
Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside is in the precarious position of living up to incredible expectations as a Google owned company while still keeping the Motorola name in the spotlight. In an interview with the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Woodside talked that very issue and more.
The latest version of Picasa includes an additional bit of software called Google+ Auto Backup, as reported by Google Operating System. The new software can be used to automatically backup photos and videos from user-selected directories to your Google+ account. Interestingly, the app has nothing to do with the Picasa service, even though it ships exclusively with the Picasa app.
The app can save unlimited 2048px photos to your account, or upload full-quality versions at the expense of Google Drive space. It can also intelligently copy media from storage cards and other devices that are attached to the system. Furthermore, the app can be configured to backup all media to a designated location on the local hard drive, putting all of your backed-up media in one convenient place.
Have you wondered how Google calculates those sometimes kinda/sorta/maybe accurate estimated time of arrival quotes on Google Maps? Of course you have, I know I have and thanks to Quora and former ex-Google engineer Matt Laroche (via BGR), we have something of an answer:
Google Glass is making its way onto the football field in the friendly confines of the Stanford football program. The university that graduated both of the Google founders as well as many of execs and programmers is evaluating the Google Glass according to the LA Times. Stanford’s football offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren went through Friday’s Rose Bowl media session wearing Goggle Glass.
“It’s my my way of paying homage to Nerd Nation,” he said, adding, “Our relationship with Google is obviously very strong and I’m the tech member of our staff. “I’m the guy that wants to unwrap toys like this on Christmas.”Bloomgren said he could envision the practical application of the video technology eventually making its was onto the field.
It isn’t just the coaching staff. Stanford’s cheerleaders are also checking out the headgear for practical purposes. During the Stanford vs. Notre Dame game a company called Crowdlogic outfitted the Stanford cheerleaders with Glass to broadcast what they were seeing to the Jumbotron in real time.
As the clock continues to click away to January 1st, we’re taking a look at our last top 9to5Google subject post of 2013. This time around we’ve saved the best for last as we look back at the last year in Android and the top 5 most read stories as determined by you, the 9to5Google reader. Perhaps the inevitable news is that 3 out of 5 or 60% of the top stories surround KitKat and its release. There were quite a few happenings in Android this year, but none more notable than the launch of the latest version of Android which has long been known as Key Lime Pie. Ultimately, Google decided on KitKat and announced the release with a partnership with the KitKat candy bar…which is exactly our kind of partnership. Facebook took its own stab at Android this year with Facebook Home and the HTC First, a story we’ll get to a little later on. I think it’s safe to call 2013 more of an evolutionary year in Android more so than revolutionary, but still another year where the platform surged in growth and adoption.
For the second time this year, Google’s Android Developers Blog is highlighting some of the best designed apps for the Android platform. We all know that app design guidelines can be used to ensure a great user experience so it’s no surprise Google chose 11 apps this time around that “go above and beyond the [design] guidelines.”
Amazon has never been a company to provide specific sales numbers, but their just-issued press release shows us that Android, Kindle and Chromebooks dominated their holiday shopping season. Surprisingly, or perhaps not surprising at all is the Chromecast, which is the best seller in the Computers and Accessories category outselling the company’s own Kindle Fire lineup as well as Apple TV and the Roku 3 Streaming Media player.
By now it’ll come as absolutely no surprise that Google has gone all in on Google+, it’s clearly a major part of the company’s future roadmap. We know that with the evolution of every new feature on Google+, it’s one more step in the search engine giants plans to allow the don’t-call-it-a-social-service to dominate the social world.
RapGenius, a popular lyrical website that recently earned $15 million in venture fund capital is now firmly in the sights of Google’s webspam team. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s webspam team says his company is investigating RapGenius for attempting to improve its position on search result pages by scamming links. RapGenius, a business highly dependent on search engine traffic could suffer severely if Google decides to take permanent action against the site.
