Hasta La Gadget!

It’s a big day for Glass. Google’s pre-production wearable just scored a variety of additional features, including a video player, improved voice control, voice-activated Path and Evernote updates, #hashtags, boosted SMS support and additional Google Now cards. Let’s break them down.

With the new video player, you can tap a video to play it, tap again to pause, and swipe backward or forward to rewind or skip. Path and Evernote users can update those apps by saying “okay glass, post an update” for Path or “okay glass, take a note” for Evernote. Speaking of which, voice controls are improved across the board, so you can now chat with Glass a bit more naturally. Instead of saying “okay glass” and waiting for a cue, you can speak in complete sentences, without pausing.

On the cards front, there’s a new method for adjusting volume controls, even while you’re on a phone or video call. There are also Google Now cards to remind you of upcoming hotel or restaurant reservations, identify movie showtimes, or catch an emergency alert. Today’s release, XE8, is expected to roll out to users over the next few days. Catch the full release notes at the source link below.

Filed under: Displays, Wearables, Google

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Source: Google

Developers (or should we say “Explorers”) are coming up with all sorts of nifty ideas for Google Glass, and games are certainly getting their fair share of attention. Admittedly, we haven’t seen anything quite like Psyclops, an alien shooter that’s currently in the works by developer Sean McCracken. The premise of the game isn’t new — alien ships are attacking our home planet and it’s our sworn duty to protect Earth by blowing them up — but the method is: use Glass as your viewfinder, line the baddies up with the center of the display and hold for a moment to lock your position and fire. Sean thinks of the game as a “3D Space Invaders mixed with Missile Command,” which sounds like a perfect mashup. There’s no word on when fellow Glass users will be able to enjoy the title, but you’ll find video evidence of its existence below. Just don’t expect Lt. Commander Data to save you with his flashlight when you get hooked.

Filed under: Google

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Via: GigaOm

Source: Google Plus (Kenji Castro)

I suppose there is a strange unifying factor about the local tavern or your favorite watering hole, where everyone gets together to celebrate one another’s triumphs as well as sadness. If your favorite sports team wins, then you drink to celebrate, but if they let their fans down and endure another year of disappointment, then it is all the same – one would drown his sorrows in the nectar of the gods as well. Having said that, having the right kind of drinking utensils and equipment would go a long way in enjoying your drink, and there is nothing quite like the feeling of ice cold beer sloshing down your throat. The thing is, your bar might run out of a chilled beer mug that changes the experience somewhat, which is why you can opt to settle for the £16.99 Brew2Go Non-Spill Portable Beer Glass that comes in black, clear and red options.

The Brew2Go Non-Spill Portable Beer Glass allows you to ensure that your beer remains nice and cold even as you move around and about the place, and as its name implies, it will ensure that unwanted bugs (as well as other impurities, such as someone drunk who might mistake your normal mug for an ashtray) will remain out of bounds, all the while ensuring that you get to savor your drink right down to the very last drop.

The Brew2Go can also be said to be an environmentally friendly way to consume your beer without having to settle for throwaway cups that add to our landfill. It comes in a double-wall insulation configuration, ensuring that your drinks remain nice and cool despite being in your sweaty hand, and it is made out of robust, BPA-free, SAN acrylic, making it ideal to bring with you wherever you are. Definitely the first choice festival drinking glass for regular drinkers, no?

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[ Brew2Go Non-Spill Portable Beer Glass copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Glass hasn’t exactly been revered for its brilliant image quality, but that’s not stopping Google from making a push among budding filmmakers. The Glass Creative Collective, a partnership with film and design schools, is intended to familiarize students at a handful of institutions with the video-capture wearable. Several colleges, including the Rhode Island School of Design, UCLA and the University of Southern California are on board — students will reportedly begin exploring the device as a filmmaking tool beginning this fall. Glass could be a fit for documentary filmmaking, and for capturing point-of-view footage, of course, but performance limitations would likely prevent it from taking on a starring role in any production. We’re a bit skeptical that the Creative Collective will be a booming success, but Google’s promised to circle back with results once the program gets off the ground.

Filed under: Cameras, Displays, Wearables, Alt, Google

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Via: CNET

Source: Google Glass (Google+)

Google is bringing more Glass Explorers into the program, and it’s doing that the best way it knows how: by letting current users invite a friend. Those among you old enough to remember when Gmail first started will remember this was once the only method to get on board with that service, and now Glass-owning folks can ask a single friend to join them in testing out Glass before its wide consumer release.

Current Glass members are getting emails from Google detailing how they can bring someone new on board, as Zagg’s community blog notes tonight. Explorers invited via this extension to the original program, which Google seeded via invites sent out to lucky winners selected from a Twitter hashtag-based competition, must be U.S. residents, 18 or older, and able to pick up Glass in person in SF, NYC or LA. Google likes to welcome new Glass users in person, as you might recall from the first round of device releases.

Glass will likely still cost the $1,500 the company charged its first round of Explorers, but the expansion of the program hopefully means we’re inching closer to the day when Google decides to make Glass available for the general public. That’s not happening until at least 2014, according to the latest from the company, however, and all that this latest program extension means is that Google is likely looking to draw feedback on the experimental platform from a wider group of beta testers.

New developments in the works for Glass include the native app SDK, which will allow software to run on Glass itself, independent of an attached smartphone. The so-called Glass Development Kit (GDK) isn’t yet out for public release, but it’s based on the Android SDK and Google is telling developers to try their ideas there first if they’re getting impatient. So Explorers old and new could have some exciting new software to play with very soon.

If you’ve been jonesing for some face computing, now’s the time to start harassing that Glass-wearing friend.