On the eve of Google’s biggest annual event, the I/O developer’s conference, Google Glass is getting a number of hardware and software updates, along with nearly a dozen new apps.
(Photo by lawrencegs and used via Creative Commons license.)
New Glass Hardware
The company just announced a new version of the Glass hardware that doubles its RAM to 2GB. Glass product manager Steve Lee tells The Verge that the upgrade should make Glass “a bit faster and more reliable,” and “will allow for more Glassware to run in parallel and for each Glassware to start more quickly.” (Glassware is Google’s name for apps that run on Glass.)
This upgraded version of Glass is shipping now in both the US and the UK, where the Glass Explorer program just launched yesterday.
New Software Update
Google also says a new Glass software update is on the way this week, and called out one notable new feature: a viewfinder that will allow users to pre-frame photos. (This was one of my 14 Things Glass Needs from about a year ago. Patience is a virtue, my mom always said.)
New Glass Apps
Explorers will also find 11 new Glass apps, and one updated app, in the official Glassware directory. Some of the new apps announced today are from names you should recognize:
The Guardian
Shazam
Runtastic
Goal.com
Duolingo
There are now more than 60 official apps in the Glassware directory, and hundreds of others that Google hasn’t reviewed.
It’s interesting to watch all of these Glass-related announcements come out before I/O, while other Google departments appear to be very quiet so far this week. I’d say it suggests that there won’t be many Glass developments happening tomorrow and Thursday during the conference.
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