It would be perfectly understandable if you were a bit frazzled on the release of Google Glass. We are always told that they are not out yet, but then we flick the TV station and see certain people walking around Hollywood sporting a pair at premiers. The reason behind it is that there is a bunch of people who own a pair for reasons to do with ‘testing’ purposes. Being the wife of Larry Page also wouldn’t harm your chances at being able to don a pair.
These people who did manage to pick up a copy are called Google Glass Explorers and their main goal is to find any issues and basically ‘explore’ for new ideas and see how they go.
There was no particular ruling on who could pick up a pair, only a few prerequisites: Live in the United Sates and can personally pick up a pair from either the New York or San Francisco office. They would not mail them out to anybody.
Now these Glass Explorers have the chance to invite three friends to join them in the experience. What’s even better is that the three people, plus the original member who had them can go back to the offices and pick up a brand new set that are updated instead of the old ones.
Because of all the feedback they had received from the people wearing them in the program, Google then went back and made a vast array of changes to the hardware, for improving the overall experience. This hardware is now ready in the newer glasses that they will be picking up.
This is a huge project for Google and in a very sensitive area — one that nobody is quite sure how the world will take it the new tech innovation. Whenever we are stepping outside of mobiles and more into the wearable tech market, the worlds perspective of a gadget can dramatically change. The last thing the popular Mountain View company wants is for this to flop so they are proceeding with great caution and making sure it is delivered in just the right manner. At the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do. But giving customers Glasses that have software issues — much like what we see in Smartphones — would be a big no-no.
Dates are subject to change, but as it stands today Glass is expected to be released at the 2014 Google I/O event. Being such a big event for the company, you would expect this time period to stand for the utmost best of their ability. Only a major issue would cause this to bounce off course and end up being late, and it’s almost certain not to come any sooner given the fact that this year’s event has already been and gone.
Over the past month we have seen empty Google Glass packages show up at Best Buy stores.
Google has also been working hard on developing gestures for Glass. We know this because of the recent patent issues for making heart shapes with hands and the company Flutter who specialize in gesture recognition.