The developers who signed up (and paid) for the Glass Explorers programme last year at Google I/O must be ecstatic today, as Google have sent out emails notifying those lucky ducks that the units have started rolling off the production line, and will begin shipping very soon. Not enough Glass(es?) have been manufactured yet to send them all out at once though, so they’ll be shipped in batches when they’re ready.
Google have also released the specs for the Glass units today, and there isn’t really anything surprising there:
- Display: 640×360 resolution display (which Google says is the equivalent of a 25″ high-definition screen from 8 feet away”;
- Camera: 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p video;
- Audio: Bone conduction transducer audio (a frightening way of saying that Glass won’t need headphones to let you hear it, it uses your skull to conduct the sound to your ears);
- Storage: 16 GB flash memory (12 GB usable space);
- Wireless connectivity: 802.11b/g Wi-Fi (no -n, I’m afraid) and Bluetooth;
- Battery: Apparently one full day of battery life with typical usage. Charges by microUSB;
Google says that Glass will be compatible with any bluetooth-enabled phone, but I strongly doubt that connecting it to a Nokia 6310 will get you anywhere. Users of Android phones will be able to send their phone’s SMS and GPS data to their Glass unit with a companion application, which has gone live on the Play Store today. Apparently you can download it in the US, even without actually having a Glass unit to test it on, but it’s blocked in the Play Store for us in Australia. Much like almost every Android application Google is putting out these days, it looks very much like Google Now.
Well friends, it seems that Glass is definitely happening now, and it’s only a matter of time before Google will make it available to Australia. I can’t wait to see what applications the developers can come up with, because even though I know, to the very fibre of my soul that I must have it, I cannot justify giving Google all of my money just yet.
Lots of people seem to be saying why no 4g and all that, but surely the major purpose of Google Glass is to integrate and tether to your phone as like an additional accessory to your phone, not actually BE the phone? Correct me if I am wrong
am i right in thinking the only way to opertate this is via talking?
I believe there is a touchpad on one of the rims.
No wireless n, when smartphones are coming out with ac? Strange. Guessing the minimum physical footprint of the n and above chips must have been too high, until someone creates a slimline n chip of course.
The S4 has 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac.
But I guess Wireless G has a 50Mbps transfer rate so I think the limiting factor will be your network connection. It is not as though you’d be streaming HD movies to a ‘one-eyed’ screen.
No 4g? does that mean it’d need a wifi hot spot from your phone?
I can’t wait for it to be integrated with Ingress.
It’d either need to be connected to your phone via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. I’m not sure which one would be better for your battery life though, but either way it’s not ideal.
bluetooth 4.0 is battery efficient 🙂
Except Android has no support for the BLE stack currently that makes Bluetooth battery efficient. Hoping this will be changed in KLP then we can get all the BLE Accesories like heart rate monitors etc and Fitbit compatability.
Its actually a good thing thats its there is an wifi only option. if it was going to be with sim like the pixel first it would bemost likely 4G only and not be able to run on 3G which is bad for us…. second they will need build it for it to work on our network since we arent like the US “not big enough market” will be said and most likely wont see the glass be sold here at all. Also battery life with wifi online is much better for a pair of glasses that is constantly on…… Read more »
Yep, it’s wifi-only I believe.
Do you a 4G transmitter strapped to your brain all day?