Hasta La Gadget!

If you’re not one of the lucky few who met Google’s requirements (be a U.S. citizen attending IO) and don’t have $1,500 to drop on an early dev unit of an unproven technology, you might be wondering, “when can I get my hands on Glass?” The answer, straight from Sergey Brin’s mouth, is 2014… hopefully. The Google big wig told Bloomberg that, if all goes according to plan, Google Glass will become available to consumers en masse sometime in 2014. Of course, how much cheaper they’ll be two years from now is anyone’s guess. But we wouldn’t expect the first-gen to be an impulse purchase. When you check out the video after the break, you might notice that Sergey is wearing a new set of Glass glasses (how’s that for awkward sounding), these ones with some snap in shades. If you’re wondering if progress could be made any faster, we wouldn’t count on it. Brin says he spends more than half his time on this project — which means Google is putting a lot of stock in the future of wearable computers. Check out the complete interview after the break.

Continue reading Sergey Brin hopes to bring Google Glass to market in 2014

Sergey Brin hopes to bring Google Glass to market in 2014 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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$1,500? That’s a lot for some highfalutin’ glasses, but we just couldn’t resist. After wrapping up with the keynote, both myself and Darren Murph hopped in line and signed up for our very own pairs of Project Glass Explorer Edition devices. After completing a not-particularly-thorough sign-up process — which, by the way, does not ask for a credit card — those who agree to the terms of service receive an actual piece of glass with their number floating in the middle. This will match the serial number of the Project Glass device that will be shipped sometime next year. When will lucky numbers 782 and 788 be rolled? You can be sure you’ll be first to know.

Filed under: Wearables

Visualized: photos of the glass block you get when you pre-order Project Glass originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did you keep up with everything Google announced at today’s I/O keynote? Believe us, we had a difficult time too. Covering everything from Jelly Bean to jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, there was plenty to keep the audience oohing and ahhing. It makes sense to have this plethora of news in one handy place, right? After the break you’ll find every piece of action that Sergey and Friends covered in Moscone West this morning — as well as the video of the keynote — so make sure to save a little extra time for yourself to enjoy every last bit of it.

Continue reading Google I/O keynote roundup: Project Glass, Nexus 7, Nexus Q and Jelly Bean

Google I/O keynote roundup: Project Glass, Nexus 7, Nexus Q and Jelly Bean originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, that was unexpected. Google’s Sergey Brin just stepped on stage at Moscone West to deliver a demo of Google Glass, and it involves a Google+ hangout conducted via their connected eyewear. Oh, and some guys just jumped out of a zeppelin.

“Being able to share what you’re seeing is amazing,” Brin said. Four skydivers all equipped with Google Glass hardware just plummeted toward the ground in San Francisco, and video quality in the hangout as about as good as one would expect considering the circumstances. In fact, the hardware may have changed a bit since early demos, as the video seems considerably clearer than the infamous trampoline video that made the rounds a few weeks back.

(Hat tip to CNET for posting the video)

To emphasize how cool the concept of seamless video sharing is, a small crew of bikers performed a few flips off of a carefully-placed mount, and two people took the Glass on a ride as they ran down the side of the Moscone Center.

The current iteration of Glass hardware obviously has a camera and microphone capable of recording video and audio, and it also sports a touchpad for navigation along its right side (though that hasn’t really been a secret). To keep users abreast of their surroundings, it also packs gyroscope, accelerometers, and a handful of other sensors.

Glass’s lead designer feels that “Glass as a whole is meant to be close to your senses, not block them,” which prompted her and the team to mount the display slightly above users’ eyes instead of directly in front of them. They also focused on making the device both physically and visually light, so as not to impact either a user’s comfort or their sense of style. All of the components were shifted to one side, which allowed Google to design different form factor for their Glass frames — some of which we may have seen before.

One of Google’s big plans for Glass was to help users capture and share the world as they see it, but that’s clearly not all. As we’ve seen in the concept video, it’s also about facilitating communication and putting more information — think navigation information, or a user’s current speed. The possibilities are certainly “incredible,” but why is Google showing it off? According to Brin, it was because of three things — Google thought it was amazing (it is), it’s very visually striking, and because they wanted to appeal to the developer community. As such, U.S. based developers will be able to pre-order a beta build only at I/O, for the low, low price of $1500.

Click to view slideshow.