Google Glass

Auto Added by WPeMatico

Google’s Glass dreams live on with the arrival of enterprise hardware

Google Glass was ahead of its time. That’s not to say that the people who wore it out in public didn’t look like giant dorks, of course, but in hindsight it seems safe to say that the world just wasn’t ready for wearable augmented reality. The phenomenon has, however, seen a resurgence among enterprise applications, courtesy of companies like Epson and Microsoft.

Google’s ready to ride that wave. In May, the company announced the arrival of the second version of its Enterprise Edition of Glass. Today, the headset is available for developers as a direct purchase from a handful of resellers. The Android-based device, which graduated from Google X mid last year, looks remarkably like the earliest versions of Glass, albeit with a slightly refined design.

Seven years after the arrival of the original model, the Glass Enterprise 2 isn’t cheap, either. It runs $1,000 from partner sites. There are a few suggestions for potential applications, including card text, imaging samples and QR scanning.

As Lucas noted in his initial write-up, the Glass system is much more limited than the likes of the latest HoloLens, which is focused on a more XR experience. Google, instead, is focused on lightweight usability — which could certainly serve as an advantage in certain settings. Key applications for the product include settings like construction sites, where contextual environmental information can otherwise be difficult to access.

Powered by WPeMatico

Snapchat is stuck in the uncanny valley of AR glasses

 “Timing”, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said cryptically when asked what the greatest threat was for Snap Inc. “I think the big risks are always the really big product ideas that we’re investing in that are just hard to get right” he told the Goldman Sachs conference two weeks ago. The statements got lost amongst flashier quotes. He defended the Snapchat redesign… Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

Why Snapchat Spectacles failed

 How come only 0.08% of Snapchat’s users bought its camera sunglasses? Hundreds of thousands of pairs of Spectacles sit rotting in warehouses after the company bungled the launch. Initial hype and lines for its roving, limited time only Snapbot vending machines led Snap to overestimate demand but underdeliver on quality and content. Massive piles of assembled and unassembled… Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

Google Glass never really left

 When Google released a new enterprise version of Glass on Tuesday, a bevy of headlines suggested Glass was back. But it never really left. Even though the Explorer program aimed at consumers ended in January, 2015, Google has continued to sell Glass to businesses. In that context, yesterday’s release wasn’t a comeback so much as a continuation of an enterprise strategy for Glass. Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

Google Glass is back with hardware focused on the enterprise

 Google Glass arguably always only made sense as an enterprise-focused product, but now it’s officially back and customized for those applications, with Glass Enterprise Edition (EE). The wearable head-mounted display has long had a place in the enterprise, even as its death as an experimental consumer product was being widely reported, but now we know a bit more about the EE hardware… Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

Imagining five retro technologies as startup pitches

 Silicon Valley is a bubble. Go into any SoMa coffee shop and you’ll hear founders and investors alike singing the praises of Hyperloop and flying cars — sci-fi tropes reincarnated by billionaires with a god complex. This isn’t to say these technologies shouldn’t be pursued, but sometimes it’s healthy to remember that we are effectively pulling a Facebook… Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

Face computers slowly find their place in business

Man using smart glasses at a construction site. Remember Google Glass? How could you not? Born with great fanfare just four short years ago, the device quickly became the object of derision. People who wore them were “Glassholes.” There were hyper-privacy concerns related to wearing a head-mounted camera, and even the Glass Explorer program, which limited availability, seemed to contribute to the disdain people felt. Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

Mobile Virtual Reality Is The Ghost Of Christmas Past

scrooge-ghost-crop The worlds of gaming, sports, live music, commerce and adult entertainment are all primed for a revolutionary consumption shift with the advent of virtual reality (VR). Fantasy shall become reality; a new age of immersive entertainment lies just around the corner. And just as the world progressed from radio to television, so too shall it do so with VR. Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

How Tech Titans Know To Pull The Plug On Projects

pullplug Not every new idea is destined to be great. Sometimes even the most promising concepts end up in the scrap pile. You probably never heard about Google Here, but the project was so big that Alphabet CEO Larry Page himself made the final decision to abandon it. Aimed at smartphone users, Here would have allowed companies to interact with users by location. For instance, someone in a Gap… Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

Startup Brain Power Uses Google Glass To Develop Apps For Kids With Autism

Brain Power Ned Sahin Though many developers have begun to abandon Google Glass, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup called Brain Power believes that the hardware still has plenty of possibilities for children with autism. Brain Power develops Google Glass apps, as well as hardware add-ons, that help kids learn social and communication skills while at the same time providing feedback to caregivers. Brain… Read More

Powered by WPeMatico