Tag Archives: GoogleGlass

Google is taking Glass on a road trip across the US, try it on in a city near you

Posted on by

Google is taking Glass on a road trip across the US, offers everyone a chance to try it

It's still not ready to sell Glass to non-"Explorers", but Google is now at least willing to give more folks an opportunity to try it. The company announced today that's its kicking off a road trip across the US, which will see it make stops in a number of cities where you'll be able to meet some of the team behind Glass and try on the device yourself. That begins in Durham, North Carolina on October 5th, although the company isn't confirming any additional cities just yet (for the time being, it's only saying to keep an eye on its Google+ page). If you're able to make it to Durham, though, you can RSVP for the event at the source link below.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: Glass Durham, Google+

Gaming the system: Edward Thorp and the wearable computer that beat Vegas

Posted on by

DNP The Unlikely Father of Wearable Computing

"My name is Edward Thorp."

"My name is Edward Thorp."

"My name is Edward Thorp."

It's 1964 and Edward Thorp is on the television game show To Tell The Truth, sitting alongside two other well-dressed men also claiming to be Edward Thorp, a man so adept at card counting that he'd been barred from Las Vegas casinos. Thorp, the quiet man on the right, every bit the mathematics professor with black-rimmed glasses and close-cropped hair, is the real deal.

Two years earlier, Thorp's book, Beat the Dealer, was published, explaining the system for winning at blackjack he developed based on the mathematical theory of probability. The system worked so well that Las Vegas casinos actually changed the rules of blackjack to give the dealer an added advantage. Those changes would prove to be short-lived, but Thorp's book would go on to become a massive bestseller, and remains a key guide to the game of blackjack to this day.

That all this happened as the computer age was flourishing in the 1960s isn't coincidental. While working to beat the house, Thorp was also working at one of the hotbeds of that revolution: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There, he had access to two things that would prove invaluable to his research. One was the room-filling IBM 704 computer, without which, he writes in Beat the Dealer, "the analysis on which this book is based would have been impossible."

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Daily Roundup: Motorola Droid Maxx review, Google buys Bump, and more!

Posted on by

DNP The Daily RoundUp

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

Comments

Google Glass no longer requires tethering plan for smartphone data sharing

Posted on by

Google Glass no longer requires tethering plan for smartphone data sharing

An Explorer Edition of Glass is already a pricey piece of tech, and smartphone tethering plans required to give it a mobile internet connection have only made ownership that much more expensive. However, there's good news for Google's guinea pigs: the latest update to the headgear quietly implemented a way around the additional monthly fees. With XE9 loaded onto headsets, the companion Android app pipes data to and from the hardware, bypassing both the smartphone's Bluetooth tethering settings and extra plan previously needed from some carriers. To match the change, the application's notification icon sports two arrows to signify the flow of info. We doubt telcos will be fazed by this development for now, but we don't know if that'll hold once Glass arrives on shelves and hits the streets en masse. We've contacted Google to find out if the feature will make it to retail units.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Google patent hints at Glass: Hipster Edition

Posted on by

Google patent hints at Glass Hipster Edition

So, while Google Glass: Explorer and Prescription editions are designed to sit on the right side of your head, wouldn't it be great if the wearable was, you know, built into an actual pair of glasses? That's the thinking behind Mountain View's latest patent, which incorporates the device into a thick pair of specs. Compared to the current versions, this concept (pictured, after the break) splits the camera and display modules across the frame. Presumably, therefore, wiring would run inside the frame and across the nose bridge -- and we'd hope that the greater real estate would also accommodate a bigger battery. While this particular design may never get further than a pile of paper on Sergey Brin's desk, the near-sighted futurists among us can always hope.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: USPTO

GoPro CEO Nicholas Woodman on building a Google Glass-style wearable: don’t count on it

Posted on by

GoPro CEO Nicholas Woodman on building a Google Glassstyle wearable don't count on it

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple years, odds are you've seen one of Nicholas Woodman's little cube cameras strapped to someone's chest or stuck to a car. Today at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013, the GoPro CEO was asked if he'd be interested in moving beyond the cube and mount form factor and into something more svelte, Glass-like, even. While he found value in Google Glass' ability to shoot first-person video, Woodman isn't so keen on such a device due to its limited use case (it can really only be worn on your face). "The Google Glass form factor doesn't provide the versatility that has been so key to GoPro's success," he said, before going on to extol the virtues of having a camera that can be mounted on your chest, your car or pretty much anywhere. Essentially, he sees the fact that GoPro can provide any point of view for video as a key selling point for his cameras.

Instead, Woodman sees Glass (or other such wearables) as an excellent way for folks to interact with GoPro cameras. He pointed out the camera line's functionality with current smartphones -- using a handset as a remote control, or previewing and sharing footage, noting that wearables could provide similar features, only in hands-free fashion. So, we won't see any new GoPro models meant solely for wearing, but you can bet we'll be seeing a GoPro Glass app at some point.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Apple reportedly built wearable visor prototypes, ‘didn’t have time’ to bring them to market

Posted on by

Considering that Apple's patented nearly every tech concept under the sun, the revelation that it dabbled with a wearable display of some sort is hardly earth-shattering. According to Tony Fadell, Nest CEO and former Senior VP at Apple, Cupertino built a bunch of wearable tech prototypes but "didn't have time" to further develop them. Fadell describes Apple's approach as "visors, so it's like you're sitting in a theater," which sounds decidedly more like a VR headset or head-mounted display than something like Google Glass. Still, Apple dismissing one of Google's the year's most hyped concepts in favor of focusing on its streamlined device lineup? That's quite a burn to Mountain View.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: 9to5Google

Source: Co.Design

Google Glass update adds ‘vignettes,’ sound search and more

Posted on by

Google Glass update adds 'vignettes,' sound search and more

Glass still isn't quite ready for the consumer, but Google's wearable platform just keeps getting better and more powerful thanks to frequent software updates. Today's version bump brings YouTube to your search results and also grants access to those with Google Apps accounts. It also brings the Shazam-like Sound Search from Android to your head-mounted display. Most interesting though, is Vignettes, which allows you to lay your current Glass display over a photo to produce an image like the one you see above. Think of it like a screenshot tool for your real, very nerdy life. One can only imagine that eventually Vignettes will get a video mode, but for now its still photos only. If you're one of the lucky Explorers you can download the update now. The rest of you will have to live vicariously through the photos at the source.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Source: Google Glass (Google+), XE9 Release Notes

MyGlass update lets you control Google Glass UI with an Android device

Posted on by

MyGlass update lets you control Google Glass UI with an Android device

As anyone who's stuck Google Glass on their head knows, controlling its UI via swipes, nods and voice commands can sometimes be... awkward. Now you can do it remotely, thanks to an update to the MyGlass companion Android app. It uses Glass' so-called screencast experience, which is a way of letting other users see what you're seeing on Glass from their Android device's screen. Now a Glass user can "touch/swipe/tap to control the Glass UI through the screencast experience," according to the blurb on Play. Some Google+ users have noted that the remote control part is not working yet and probably requires a matching Glass update. You can grab it at the source, but Google has helpfully pointed out that "if you don't have Glass, then... it'll be a waste of time."

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Source: Google Play