Tag: Google Glass

Google toys with Glass again

Posted on February 6, 2015 by - News

glassesAfter an ignominious end to the much hyped Google Glasses, it appears the company hasn’t abandoned the whole effort.
According to a feature in the New York Times, a jewellery designer and a former Apple product executive are working at Google to redesign the thing from scratch.
Ivy Ross apparently runs Google’s “smart eyewear division” while Tony Fadell who created Nest are going back to the Glass drawing board.
Fadell told the NY Times that early Glass experiments had “broken ground” and he and Ivy are learning the dismal lessons of the past by redesigning the things from scratch and not releasing product until it is ready.
Diane von Furstenberg wore a red pair of Google Glasses at a fashion show in 2012, while models on the catwalk wore different coloured ones.
She told the NY Times that Google Glass was the first time people talked about wearable technology.
Actually, as a matter of fact, it’s not.  In the early 90s Dutch firm Philips talked about putting a computer in a tie while later that decade the CEO of IBM told an audience at the Comdex trade show that we’d soon be wearing shoes with computers inside them.

 

Tesco takes Google Glass plunge

Posted on January 14, 2015 by - News

Google's Eric "Google Glass" SchmidtUK megagrocer Tesco said it has developed an application that lets the few people with Google Glasses shop until they drop.
The Tesco Grocery “glassware” allows you to browse groceries, check out their nutritional value and add them to your shopping basket.
How does it work?  According to Tesco, it works alongside customer accounts and adds products to an “online basket” to be later reviewed and ordered using your computer, your tablet or your smartphone.
Pablo Coberly, an engineer at Tesco Labs, said: “We don’t envisage Glass becoming the new platform for shopping as its functionality is different, and more immediate.”
He continued: “Instead, it complements other devices and integrates shopping into everyday life because products can be ordered or added as and when customers realise they need replacing.”
Coberly said that the future of its app will be driven by customer needs and Tesco has kept the functionality “very basic” given the early stages of customer use.

 

Google Glass saved by Intel

Posted on December 1, 2014 by - News

spexIt looks as though Google Glass will have a fresh leash of life after it has emerged Intel is to get involved in the project.

Reports recently suggested that Glass was on its last gasp, with several employees leaving Google to spend more time with their families.

But, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Intel is going to take an active role in future development of the spectacles.

Firstly, a Texas Instrument chip will disappear from the frame to be replaced with an Intel device based on its Quark X86 technology.

And Intel, which is now a firm believer in the concept of electronic “wearables”, will do some selling and promotion of Google Glass to manufacturers, the healthcare industry and other vertical sectors, said the Journal.

The report said the next version of Glass will have a better battery life and probably more memory.

Intel has had a chequered career in any products outside its core X86 PC business, and was very late to the game in the mobile and tablet markets.

Goggle Glass goes dim

Posted on November 17, 2014 by - News

OgleA cunning plan by Google to let us snoop on each other and record it on the internet now appears to be an idea without legs.

Information on the superinformation highway – that is to say from Vanity Fair and Reuters suggests that Google co-founder Sergey Brin is tired of the idea.

Reuters reports that the beta version of Google Glass, which will set you back a cool $1,500, has lost interest not only from end users but from developers too – a sure kiss of death for any bit of hardware you may care to name.

Further, there appears to be ennui in the Google Plex, with Reuters further reporting that a number of employees dedicated to the x-ray specs have quit the coop for pastures new.

Further a consortium which appeared to be hoping to finance the Glass “egosystem” – as computer execs call the cloud of vultures that circle round a possible bright new shiny bit of tech bling, appears to have shuffled off its mortal case.

And Vanity Fair?  It has a different take on the whole Google Glass phenomenon and that involves love….

TSMC boss bets on wearable devices

Posted on July 8, 2013 by - News

gglassTSMC CEO Morris Chang was one of the first industry leaders to truly recognise the potential of smart devices and unlike many tech execs, he runs a very tight ship, with an emphasis on good working conditions. Small wonder, then, that TSMC often ranks as one of the top employers in Taiwan.

Now that his smartphone optimism has been vindicated and then some, he is starting to talk up wearable gear. In a recent interview we admitted that he doesn’t wear a smart watch or Google Glass, but he still thinks they are the next big thing, Forbes reports.

“When you wear the Glass, you look like a man from Mars,” he said. However, over the next decade things might change. “I don’t think they are very practical yet, now, but the idea is being very actively worked on, so in 10 years we will certainly have practical wearables.”

Needless to say, a potential wearable tech boom would be a boon for TSMC. The foundry already supplies about 70 percent of the world’s application processors. Smart watches and Google Glass like devices would need bespoke chips. They can’t really use off the shelf SoC designs because they need something a bit more frugal, and this is where TSMC hopes to step in.

Chang believes that “a lot more things” will be mobile ten years from now and nobody is disputing the allure of wearable tech. However, at this early stage few consumers will be willing to spend a lot on what are essentially immature products with limited functionality. It is up to big vendors to get more developers on board and make cheap wearable gear a reality – a process that will take years, but in a decade or so we could see plenty more Martians on the street.