latest
Google is killing a product for good that sparked controversy 10 years ago
Google Glass has only been available for enterprises for years, but now it's really dead
Remember Google Glass? It may be a distant memory by now, but ten years ago, Google put out one of its first large-scale AR experiments. These AR glasses had a big, life-enhancing prospect — a head-mounted device with a head-up display that you could interact with using your voice. After sparking initial interest among tech enthusiasts, the general public was offended by the idea of people walking around with a camera constantly pointed at others, with the term "glassholes" soon coined. Google was forced to abondon its plans, and the product was only left alive for enterprise uses with the Google Glass Enterprise Edition, which saw a revision in 2019 with the Enterprise Edition 2. Now, though, it's dead-dead. Like, dead for good.
Google I/O 2012 set a high-water mark for innovative hardware that has yet to be approached again
Take a trip down memory lane
Although this year's Google developer conference was well over a month ago, today marks the tenth anniversary of I/O 2012, a landmark event for the company — in both good and bad. While we've lamented the loss of joy and whimsy from recent Google events, this particular occasion was anything but. Not only did the company announce some of its most and least loved products on stage within the span of a couple of hours, but it also took to the skies in one of the most daring — and infamous — stunts in I/O history.
Google teases standalone AR glasses with an unknown release date
Google Glass is seeing the light of the world again?
Google had a whole slew of hardware to announce at Google I/O 2022, including the Pixel 6a, the Pixel Watch, a new Tensor-powered tablet, and a tease of the Pixel 7, but it probably surprised everybody by teasing a new pair of wearable glasses that are all but Google Glass reincarnated, 10 years after it initially saw the light of world at Google I/O 2012. The new glasses will make it possible to add subtitles to the world around you, which Google pitches as a great tool for those hard-of-hearing or those who are separated by language barriers.
Read update
Google doesn't always knock it out of the park with new products and services, and you don't need to look any further than Google Glass to know that. Glass was a forward-looking idea that might have easily been incorporated into the company's family of devices, but it just didn't seem to land with consumers and dropped off the radar almost as soon as it was introduced — only to pop back up a few years ago for enterprise users. Google may not be done with AR hardware just yet, though, as it confirms the acquisition of microLED firm Raxium.
Even Google Glass has Meet now because it's not 2020 if you can't make video calls on it
Everyone, meet Meet
Two things that apparently just won't die are coming together in some kind of union — Google Meet is headed for beta tests in workplaces that have deployed Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2.
The original Google Glass Explorer Edition made a big entrance when it quite literally fell from the heavens during Google I/O 2013. While that model never really stood a chance as a consumer product, it became the starting point for Google Glass Enterprise Edition. It seems to have worked out because a second generation launched last year, and as of today, Google is expanding availability to an even larger audience... of developers.
It’s been a wild ride, but Google is officially ending support for the Explorer Edition of Glass. The headset was announced back in 2012 to a bit of a public backlash, with people worried about being recorded by Glass users. While it did have its fans, it wasn't long before Google pulled the plug and refocused efforts on enterprise users. Now one final Glass update is available that will remove the connection to backend services, along with the ability to use a Google account with the hardware.
Google has announced that it is re-adopting its Glass division — a longtime staple of Alphabet's moonshot incubator, X — and releasing the first major upgrade to its AR smart glasses product for enterprise customers. With the Glass Enterprise Edition 2 comes beefier components and potentially wider deployment opportunities.
Google Glass didn't ever have much of a presence in the consumer space, but Google did eventually find a use for it — big businesses. In 2017, the company began selling Glass to enterprise customers, and now photos of the next generation have been published by Anatel (the Brazilian equivalent to the FCC).
Despite all of the product's problems, I still wish Google had decided to release Google Glass to the general public (the $1,500 Explorer edition doesn't count). The company decided that medical institutions and industry were the markets for Glass, and now Olympus is following suit with its 'EyeTrek INSIGHT EI-10 Smart Glasses.'
In the battle to become our smart assistant of choice, Amazon's Alexa is currently losing out in one key area: mobile. Apple's iPhones have Siri, and Android phones have the Google Assistant, but with the failure of the Fire phone, Alexa isn't the convenient choice on any smartphone. According to a report in the Financial Times, Amazon plans to address this issue by launching a pair of 'smart glasses' that can interact with Alexa.
What's that strange feeling? Almost like I've seen a ghost. Oh, Google Glass isn't dead after all? That'll be it. There have been recent signs that the seemingly abandoned experimental wearable might be making a return in one form or another, more than 2 years after the Glass Explorer Program officially ended. The first was an update to the MyGlass app last month, after lying dormant for nearly 3 years. This was followed the next day by a mysterious firmware update making its way to any Glass Explorer Edition units still in use. Google has confirmed that was regular maintenance to the consumer device, and not related to this fresh news about the Glass Enterprise Edition that Alphabet's experimental X subsidiary (formerly Google[x]) has been busy working on for the last two years.
Google's attempt to make a wearable face computer didn't go so well, but maybe the masses just weren't ready. Now, Google Glass is reportedly on its way to businesses with a new Enterprise Edition. This assumes even businesses have a use for Glass. Google has yet to acknowledge the existence of this device, but images are now up on the FCC's website. It looks a lot like the original Explorer Edition Glass.
We heard earlier this year that it was back to the drawing board for Glass, but Google apparently plans to squeak out another iteration of the existing model before that time. 9to5Google has published a list of details about the hardware that it says will launch sometime soon.
The Google Glass team announced today, in a post to its Google+ page, that Glass is "graduating from Google[x] labs," presumably still marching toward a "real" consumer launch.
Google Glass still isn't lighting up the world almost two years after release, but it looks like at least one major electronics corporation has taken notice. Sony's primary production division announced its new Single-Lens Display Module today. It's a wearable device that's remarkably similar to Glass in basic structure, with the major difference being that it can be attached to any normal pair of glasses or sunglasses.
Though the hardware was mildly refreshed back in June, Google Glass has been running on much the same internals for the better part of two years. With the rise of Android Wear, at least some of us were wondering whether Google still intended to bring its head-mounted wearable system to retail at all. According to the latest report from the Wall Street Journal, Google is indeed planning at least one more version of Glass, this time running on an Intel chipset. The new hardware will reportedly be released next year.
Let's change the way we think about Google Glass for a moment. At the end of the day, they're just too jarring for the average person to feel comfortable wearing in public. To people who don't know what they are, they're weird. To people who do, they're $1,500 worth of easily-stolen accessory being flaunted on your face.