Google updates Glass with video player, improved voice commands, additional Now cards

Google updates Glass with video player, improved voice commands, additional Now cards

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.

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Source: Google

Fidelity Market Monitor app brings stock alerts, news and fanciful financials to Google Glass

Fidelity Market Monitor app brings stock alerts, news and fanciful financials to Google Glass

You know, it makes sense: an app for the one percent, tailor-made for a $1,500 headset. Fidelity’s Market Monitor app for Google Glass might just be the most impressive program to debut for the device, particularly considering the class of individual who would take advantage. In the trading world, missing an alert or notification by even three seconds could be the difference between million and millions, with this app enabling Fidelity customers to request real-time stock quotes and receive alerts dealing with companies in their portfolio. In a concept video describing what’s possible (embedded just after the break), we even see a wearer snap a photo of a Google logo, and the app translates the photo into a stock quote for GOOG.

We’re guessing that it’s only a matter of time before every other financial institution follows suit, which will likely lead to each and every CNBC anchor wearing a set whilst on air. Also, we’re hearing from a “reliable source” that both Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf will be joined by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Wall Street: Glass on Glass on Glass.

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Source: Fidelity Labs (1), (2)

OK Glass, pew pew pew: developer creates alien shooter for Google Glass

OK Glass, pew pew pew developer creates alien shooter for Glass

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.

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Via: GigaOm

Source: Google Plus (Kenji Castro)

BMW i8 to use smartphone-style hardened glass for noise and weight reductions

BMW i8 to use smartphonestyle hardened glass for noise and weight reduction

We’re used to seeing toughened glass on our phones and tablets, where it protects screens from chips and cracks. BMW, however, plans to use the substance on a much grander scale — the automaker just revealed that its upcoming i8 hybrid will be the first mass-produced car to use hardened glass. The currently unnamed material will reduce noise and weight in windows behind the windshield. As BMW doesn’t have to use thick glass to maintain strength, it can produce acoustically damped windows that weigh half as much as they would otherwise. We’ll have to wait until the i8’s arrival in 2014 to see how well this component choice works on the road, but it could lead to a future of lighter cars that still offer quiet interiors.

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Via: Autoblog

Source: BMW

Brew2Go Non-Spill Portable Beer Glass

brew2goI 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 ]

Two Monumental Ways Google Glass Could Help the Blind

Most of the applications you see for Google Glass seem like gratuitous throwaways. But this experiment by OpenGlass showing how the technology can be used to help the blind promises so much more awesome than a gimmick.

Read more…

    

Google taps film students with Glass Creative Collective

Google taps film students with Glass Creative Collective

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.

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Via: CNET

Source: Google Glass (Google+)

UK government considering fines for drivers wearing Google Glass

UK government considering fines for drivers wearing Google Glass

Wondering what West Virginia and Britain have in common? This. After hearing that a bill in WV would outlaw Google Glass for motorists in the state, a new report from Stuff suggests that the United Kingdom is considering something comparable. A Department for Transport spokesperson was quoted as saying the following:

“We are aware of the impending rollout of Google Glass and are in discussion with the Police to ensure that individuals do not use this technology while driving. It is important that drivers give their full attention to the road when they are behind the wheel and do not behave in a way that stops them from observing what is happening on the road.”

He went on to affirm that a range of penalties already exist in order to punish drivers who aren’t “paying proper attention to the road,” and while a law has yet to be passed targetting Glass specifically, it certainly sounds as if that type of modification is on the table. Silver lining? North Korea has yet to issue a similarly depressing condemnation of the headset.

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Via: Cult of Android

Source: Stuff

Google Offers Glass Explorers An Invite To Make A Friend A Glasshole, Too

google glass

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.

Google tells some Glass Explorers to invite a friend

Google tells some Glass Explorers to invite a friend

Mountain View’s kept itself as the gatekeeper for Google Glass with dev signups at I/O and a social media contest, but now it’s letting some users spread the wearable computing love. Google+ is lighting up with reports that Glass Explorers are receiving emails from Page and Co. allowing them to invite a friend to snag a device by joining the program. In order to be eligible, invitees must be a US resident, at least 18 years of age, and willing to pick up the hardware in San Francisco, New York or Los Angeles. Google’s told us that a “small subset of Explorers” have received the message in its continuing effort to expand the affair. Earlier today, the search giant announced that it cast a wider net for Explorers by enlisting five film schools to suss out how the contraption can be used for everything from character development to production. Head past the break for the full list of institutions.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Marketing Land, Zagg