Google Glass color choices: will yours be custom coded?

As Google’s introduction of Glass as the premiere wearable face-based computer starts the world thinking about what they’ll be placing on their head in the near future, so too do the creators of these machines begin to consider what forms they’ll come in. When you create a device that rests on the temples of the user, you’ve got to consider more than just the components inside – color, comfort, and everyday usability are real concerns. Lead Industrial Designer for Google Glass Isabelle Olsson spoke up this month on the development of the final (and first) form of Google Glass, specifically on its first five colors.

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Isabelle Olsson: We developed five different colors to kind of satisfy different personalities – and also what you look good in. It’s kind of counter-intuitive, a lot of people think “oh Charcoal, that’s going to go with everything, that’s my favorite color.” And me, myself, because I wear a lot of black.

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But after wearing it around for almost a year – different colors – we started to see how important color was, and how non-intuitive it was, and how people develop, like, an attachment to the specific colors. So every time we’d do a new prototype, and all the colors were not available, people would come and like, scream at me: “I want my tangerine back!”

We chose five – we didn’t want to overwhelm people, and there is a range. So we have a couple of bright ones, and then we have three, kind of, neutrals.

And I think the cotton one is kind of bold and neutral at the same time. And I think shale looks good on almost everybody and is a little bit less heavy than charcoal. But then Charles rocked charcoal because of the dark skin, so it looks really good.

Colors are much more important than you would ever imagine. If it’s up to me, I would keep on doing cool colors.

One of the benefits we’ve had with the way we’ve developed this project is that we’ve had these monthly prototypes. Every month we’d come out with a new prototype. And everybody on the team has been wearing them.

So what we did, quite early on, was to produce a range of colors – just two of each – and then I basically looked at which colors are people fighting over. It’s kind of a fun indication. So that was kind of a way to see what was popular and what resonated with people.

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O: But then also seeing – I mean, we have a very diverse team, so we just, by observing people wearing it around, seeing what works, seeing what doesn’t work. I would force people to try on different things.

So it’s kind of an intuition, and having an eye for it, and just kind of experimenting. And again we wanted a few poppy colors for people who are like, “hey, come and talk to me”, and then a few more subdued for people who kind of want to stand out a little bit less.

Each of the images above come from Google I/O 2012, where the platform was given its first major introduction on-stage by Google. While Olsson spoke there as well, the words shared above come from a fireside chat with prospective developers at Google I/O 2013 – photos below show the fireside chat as it occurred, adding a bit of context to a couple of the comments above, specifically the one about Charles.

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From left to right, those participating in the chat were: Steve Lee, Product Director at Glass, Charles Mendis, Engineer on Glass, Isabelle Olsson, Lead Industrial Designer of Glass, and Timothy Jordan, Senior Developer Advocate at Google for Glass. Here you’ll also find a pre-production Glass unit with a sepia tone as well as a frame for Glass without the computer board attached.

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Olsson also shared more information on her three design principles central to creating the final Glass product: Lightness, Simplicity, and Scalability. In these, Google created a device that they hope will be easy to incorporate into a user’s everyday life. Color was considered at the same time as social implications.

Is the color of Glass more important than the color of your smartphone? Is wearing glass more apparent to those around you than your use of a smartphone? Consider that!

These articles are part of SlashGear’s Creator Series for Google Glass – please feel free to share what bits and pieces of Glass you’re interested in and what you’d like to know more about while we continue exploring!


Google Glass color choices: will yours be custom coded? is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Acer Aspire R7 Hands-on: Spock’s Choice

This week SlashGear is having a peek at the Acer Aspire R7 notebook – that rather unique piece of machinery you saw advertised last month aside teasers for the newest Star Trek movie. It’s no surprise that this device was chosen to take on that role as its mysterious – and here we find rather enticing – abilities allow it to look like a rather familiar starship. With Acer’s “Ezel” hinge, the Aspire R7 can take on several shapes – including that of the Kirk-captained Enterprise.

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Up in front the user will be working with a 15-inch display at 1080p resolution, this run by an 3rd generation Intel Ivy Bridge processor – we’ve got i5 but you’ll have the option of i7 as well, depending on when you check the device out. Inside is Windows 8 right out of the box, and the display has 10-finger touch sensitivity.

Also inside you’ll find 6GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive, not to mention a 24GB solid state drive as well. The whole machine weighs in at approximately 5.5 pounds, which is right there on the edge of “this is kind of heavy” and “oh this isn’t as heavy as it looks”.

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Under the machine you’ll notice some rather sizable bumpers. These pieces of rubbery material hold the notebook hybrid in place while you’re swiveling your display around and offer a bit of a bump so your speakers can blast out the bottom and the sides. You’re also working with some Dolby technology there for sound – and we’re already sure it’s loud.

As it was with the Star Trek Into Darkness film, so too was this machine available starting on the 17th of May. It’ll run a prospective owner $999 USD, and we’ll be letting you know if it’s all worth it soon – stay tuned for SlashGear’s full review!

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Acer Aspire R7 Hands-on: Spock’s Choice is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Verizon Samsung GALAXY S 4 Unboxing and Hands-on

The Verizon version of the Samsung GALAXY S 4 has arrived – and it’s surprisingly clean. While the Samsung Galaxy Note II came with a strangely placed Verizon logo on its home button, this device keeps with the common look on its outsides. On the other hand, inside, there’s a slightly different situation going on.

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The Samsung GALAXY S 4 works with a 5-inch 1080 x 1920 pixels Super AMOLED display, that coming in at 441 PPI. This machine is 5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 inches and weighs in at 4.59 oz, coming with a hard plastic back and a pane of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 up front.

On this smartphone’s right side you’ll find a power button in the upper 1/3rd region, while on the left side in the same place you’ll find the volume rocker. The front works with capacitive back and menu buttons and a physical home button, while the back works with a 13-megapixel camera and a single LED flash.

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This iteration of the device has a collection of style differences inside compared to the version on other carriers. Little bits and pieces, like moving the toggle for Blocking Mode from the notifications icons collection and pushing it to “My Device” in settings. Apps have been taken away and added too, of course, most of them coming directly from the carrier itself.

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Some other apps that are missing from the Verizon version – for whatever reason – are ChatON, Samsung Apps, and the Samsung Optical Reader. It would seem that Verizon has told Samsung that they’ll need to keep their app store out of the mix in favor of Verizon’s, while it’s unclear why the Optical Reader has been axed. ChatON is anybody’s guess.

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Below the fold you’ll notice some of the changes that do take place on many Verizon phones vs AT&T, starting with a long press on the device’s Home button. Holding down the GALAXY S 4′s Home button will bring up a selection of apps being used for easy switching – this being a standard since Android 4.0 Jelly Bean. Below this, though, Verizon has opted to use text to signify Task Manager, Google, and Close All, where AT&T’s model – and others – show icons instead.

Stick around while we review this device and its Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor as well as its dual-recording abilities with front-facing 2 megapixel camera. For those of you that can’t wait, have a peek at SlashGear’s Samsung GALAXY S 4 Review from its initial release earlier this year – April to be more precise.

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Verizon Samsung GALAXY S 4 Unboxing and Hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google Glass gains ClockworkMod Recovery for future hacks: have a peek!

This week the folks at CyanogenMod, far and away the most popular 3rd party ROM development group, have revealed their first shot at ClockworkMod Recovery for Google Glass. This interface is one of the bare-bones first steps toward creating a slew of customized user interfaces for Google Glass, starting here with the Explorer Edition of the device. CyanogenMod developer Brint Kriebel (aka bekit) has been so kind as to provide us with some up-close photos of the software on his own Glass device, too.

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Now before you get too pumped up about this situation, you should mind the fact that if you do unlock your Glass device, you’ll be voiding your warrantee provided by Google. This is the same for most devices on the market today running Android, so keep a weather eye when you’re hacking along.

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What you’re seeing here is a screen rather similar to that which you’d see if you were working with ClockworkMod Recovery on an Android smartphone or tablet. Here with Glass, the user will be using the camera shutter to scroll through menus and the power button to select items inside Recovery – on a smartphone, this is done with a device’s volume buttons and power button.

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Kriebel has tested several elements inside this version of Recovery, but notes that he’s not yet tested any installations – since none yet exist. Once developers begin to create odd packages for Glass and zip them up real nice, Recovery will be able to flash them to the device with a button tap.

I have successfully tested the following:
  access via adb (including Koush’s new adb backup)
  wipe data/factory reset
  mount/unmount partitions
  backup/restore
  auto disable of stock recovery re-flash
  auto root
– Kriebel (bekit)

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Users wishing to work with this custom Recovery for Google Glass can head over to Brint Kriebel’s Google+ post to grab the link to the file image. If you’re feeling brave, let us know how it all goes – and if you’ve got any fabulous customized bits and pieces you’ve installed with Recovery, too!

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Google Glass gains ClockworkMod Recovery for future hacks: have a peek! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Solar Impulse: interviewing a man on an 18-hour solar-powered flight

This week CEO of Solar Impulse André Borschberg is piloting a solar-powered airplane from Phoenix Arizona to Dallas Texas in a record-breaking 18 hour flight. SlashGear got the rare opportunity to participate in this flight earlier today in an interview with Borschberg while he flew over Highway 85. This was an in-flight interview done from a Samsung Galaxy Note II to Solar Impulse’s base station and up with a satellite connection to the plane.

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The flight took off Wednesday May 22nd at 04:47AM MST (UTC-7) from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and is scheduled to land at 01:00AM CDT (UTC-5) at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The total distance covered will be 868 miles (1396.8 km) – and as you might be aware, the speed at which this plane travels this distance isn’t exactly speedy – you can drive between these spots much quicker.

But that’s not the point – instead it’s traveling this distance without fuel – without non-sustainable energy, rather. Have a peek at our in-flight interview here and read all about it below – and stick with SlashGear for more information on this flight as it continues across the USA.

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AB: It’s an unbelievable feeling to see how this technology works. You have to imagine that I am sitting in an airplane, I will be flying in it all day – I will be climbing to 27,000 feet, and at the same time I will be filling up the batteries.

So the more I will be flying, the more energy I will be able to collect. This is for us a good demonstration of what this technology can do.

To be able to fly this airplane, and to be able to fly this airplane day and night – we worked hard to reduce the energy consumption of this airplane, and developed technology that can be used on the ground. It can be used with solar sets in homes, batteries in cars, the insulation materials in refrigerators.

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AB: We believe that these technologies have a great future – to develop new products, to develop new jobs, to develop new industries.

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The largest buyers of our parts – by far – do not come from the aviation world. These companies, like Solvay, like Bayer, like Schindler, like Omega – are in completely different industries. Their interest is to develop new products for their own applications, for their own customers.

We have insulation materials that we developed here which insulate better than what we had up to now, that are lighter. These insulation materials are going into cars, some of them are going into refrigerators, so I think there are opportunities for the direct use of many of these products.

The flight today is a step toward making flight around the world possible. It was important to test this airplane in different kinds of weather, different weather systems in the United States – I mean, you saw what happened in Texas [in the tornado on the 15th] and Oklahoma [in the tornado on the 20th] as it’s not easy to steer such an airplane in difficult conditions. So that is for us a first important goal.

On Media Connections and the In-flight Interview

AB: It’s a good opportunity to discuss with media, and also with partners – and with schools. I had many discussions with schools where children could ask questions and we could discuss what we are doing and why we are doing it.

Of course it all depends on the flying conditions. Currently the weather is extremely good, so it’s not extremely difficult to talk to news.

The arrival in Dallas will be challenging, because it’s windy. It’s windy on the ground and it’s windy around the airport, so getting to this approach phase, we will not be able to give interviews.

What’s Next?

AB: This airplane is fully sustainable, but the big challenge is to make the pilot sustainable. That’s why we are constructing a second airplane – which is being constructed in Switzerland – and this second airplane will be designed for travel over long distances, over the ocean, and we plan to do the next trip 5 days and 5 nights, non-stop, with one pilot onboard only – with this second plane.

With this one, we limit ourselves to 24 hours because the airplane has to be manually steered all the time.

You can continue to watch Borschberg make this flight live at Solar Impulse Live – tell him we say hello!


Solar Impulse: interviewing a man on an 18-hour solar-powered flight is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Chrome 27 brings desktop features to Android, we go hands-on

Today the Android version of the Chrome web browser has been updated to “Chrome 27″, this bringing with it the first wave of desktop abilities promised at Google I/O 2013. This update will be a free update for users – as always – and is optimized for both smartphone and tablet-sized devices. As it is in Chrome on one platform, so too shall it be on the other.

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As outlined in bits back during the Google I/O 2013 main keynote, this mobile experience will be expanding to work with expanded abilities in the webGL department and more Google Wallet features than you can shake a finger at. For now though, the upgrade begins with autocomplete action.

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In addition to the autocompletion of forms run by Chrome’s cross-device abilities to remember what you’ve saved, you’ll now have client-side certificate support. When a site requires you to use a certificate, Chrome for your Android device will now be able to assist you – and install, too.

This upgrade will allow Tab history on tablets – just a long-press on your browser back button will pull it up. You’ll also have a bunch of fixes on the back end you’ll never see – performance and stability updates, for the most part.

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Chrome 27 bring with it Fullscreen on phones – this is the first time you’ll have been able to pull up and allow the internet – not your tab bar – taking up your entire display. Unfortunately it does appear that your notifications menu – set by Android itself – will have to stay.

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Finally you’ll be working with simpler searching. If you type a term into the box that Google calls its “Omnibox”, also known as the URL bar, you’ll find your search query to remain there as you’re searching. While some platforms require that you type your term over completely each time you want to search, this allows you to make minor corrections in spelling or spacing, if need be.

This update to Chrome is available right this minute through Google Play for Android devices. If you don’t yet have Chrome on your Android device, picking it up at any point is a totally free affair as well.

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Chrome 27 brings desktop features to Android, we go hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Verizon invites Jennifer Lopez on stage for Viva Movil team-up

This week at CTIA 2013, Verizon announced a partnership with Latino-centric mobile carrier brand Viva Movil – and they did it with the company’s top shareholder Jennifer Lopez. Speaking about how the Latino population is up at 50 million strong – and growing – Verizon’s own chief operating officer Marni Walden made it clear: this company wants to expand through an exclusive partnership with Viva Movil.

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This partnership will be working with one of Verizon’s largest premium retailers Moorehead Communications as well as Brightstar. Walden introduced Jennifer Lopez who represents Viva Movil as a celebrity and a leader in the Latino community – she says – and speaks about statistics and bits and pieces that make it appear that Verizon with Viva Movil will be in the best position possible to address the Spanish-speaking market segment in the near future.

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Lopez spoke about an exclusive line of accessories that she’s created herself. At the moment it would appear that this includes iPhone 5 cases – but it’s likely that other devices will be included as well.

“There’s no specific place for Latinos to really, really be catered to, which is why we did this. But anyone can come in and enjoy this.” – Jennifer Lopez, Chief Creative Officer for Viva Movil

The company “Viva Movil, by Jennifer Lopez”, as she called it, will be opening up today online. The first store will be open on June 15 and it’ll be open in New York City. More physical stores will be opening across the USA – 15 in all, for starters, – in places like L.A. and Miami.

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Verizon invites Jennifer Lopez on stage for Viva Movil team-up is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google Glass team talks hardware principles: Lightness, Simplicity, Scalability

As a sort of a “Part 2″ or even “Part 3″ of the Glass chat series SlashGear has appearing this week and last, today’s words with Google Glass’ lead industrial designer Isabelle Olsson lend some insight on the device’s road to final hardware. Speaking on how the original Glass prototypes eventually became the device you see today, Ollson shared three principles that allowed the team to solidify their process.

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This is only one segment of the extended fireside chat shared with Google I/O attendees earlier this month. Also included in the chat were Senior Developer Advocate at Google for Project Glass Timothy Jordan, Product Director for Google Glass Steve Lee, and Google Glass Engineer Charles Mendis.

This team left knowledge on the social implications of Glass, of when Glass would eventually be released to the public, and on modular fashion and the detachability of the Glass computer module.

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Isabelle Olsson: We took a reductionist approach. We removed everything that wasn’t absolutely essential. And then in addition to that, I formed three principles to guide the team through this ambitious, messy process. Those are:

• Lightness
• Simplicity
• Scalability

And those are not just fancy words: they mean something. 

Lightness

O: So when it comes to lightness, it’s fairly straightforward. We are obsessed with weight. Not in the same way the fashion industry is – but we do care about every single gram. Because if it’s not light, you’re not gonna want to wear it for more than 10 minutes. And it’s not only about lightness but about balance. How it’s balanced on your face, and the way we designed it with our construction methods, and material choices, and how we place the components.

It weighs less than most sunglasses and regular glasses on the market. It’s pretty cool.

Simplicity

O: But it’s not only about physical lightness, it’s about visible lightness. We took the approach of hiding some of the largest components on the board behind the frame, so we could create this one, clean, simple appearance from the side. 

Scalability

O: When I joined the project, we thought we needed 50 different adjustment mechanisms, but that wouldn’t make a good user experience. So we scaled it down to this one adjustment mechanism.

We make Glass modular. In this stage, this means you’re able to remove the board from the main frame. This is pretty cool. This opens up a lot of possibilities. It opens up possibilities for not only functionality but also scalability.

SlashGear will be exploring Google Glass in each of its software updates up to and through the point at which it becomes a consumer product in 2014. The Glass team have let it be known that upgrades in software will be sent each month – at least – and that the final consumer product may look similar to what we’re seeing in the Explorer Edition that everyone is wearing out in public today, or it could have several modifications in hardware as well by then.

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Google Glass team talks hardware principles: Lightness, Simplicity, Scalability is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Malaysia’s Yes 4G adds WiMAX to Samsung Chromebook, aims to transform local education

Malaysia's Yes 4G launches Samsung Chromebook with WiMAX, aims to transform local education

Samsung’s Exynos 5-based Chromebook may have been available since last October, but how about one equipped with WiMAX radio? Graced with the presence of Google and Samsung reps in Kuala Lumpur (including a video message from Google SVP Sundar Pichai), today Malaysian carrier Yes 4G unveiled this rather special laptop for the local consumers. In fact, we should have seen this coming as Google’s official blog did hint this last month, but we failed to catch that blurred “Yes 4G” logo on the laptop in the blog’s photo.

As Google mentioned, the ultimate goal here is to help transform Malaysia’s education using the Chromebook. And now we know that this ambition will be backed by Yes 4G’s rapidly growing WiMAX network — from the initial 1,200 base stations in 2010 to today’s 4,000, covering 85 percent of the peninsula; and the carrier will expand into the eastern side with 700 more sites by the end of this year. This is especially important for the rural areas, where many schools still lack access to water and electricity. As a partner of the Malaysian Ministry of Education’s 1BestariNet project, Yes 4G’s parent company YTL Communications has so far ensured that 7,000 local state schools are covered by its WiMAX network, with the remaining 3,000 to be connected over the next six months.

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Source: Yes

Google Glass creators talk “staring” and the social implications of wearables

As Google Glass continues to be a unique sort of hardware / software platform in the industry, so too do the creators of the wearable computer stay hot commodities for question and answer sessions. In the feature you’re about to see, two members of the main Glass creation and development team discuss the social etiquette

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