Google accelerates Glass rollout

Google has said that it will not put Glass on sale to the general public until next year but, in a manner that one source likened to its gradual rollout of Gmail, existing owners will be able to invite a limited number of friends to buy the device.In a web post on Monday,quantum analyzer Google said that it would allow these Glass “Explorers” to invite up to three people to buy the device, over the coming weeks.“More Explorers means more feedback, and more feedback means better Glass,” said Google in the posting.Banner Pen It also said that an update to the Glass hardware would soon be released, bringing improvements such as prescription lenses.Google’s approach of “viral” referrals and incremental improvement to the product is common in online services but unusual in technology hardware, which is more typically launched as a finished device at a glitzy Apple-style event.The futuristic gadget shows updates from a tethered smartphone on a small screen just above the wearer’s eye and can be used to take photographs and videos. It is controlled by voice commands,vacuum flask beginning with the phrase “OK Glass”.Google has championed a variety of applications for the device, from filming active sports and cookery videos to teaching aids and even a fashion accessory in a recent issue of Vogue magazine. Updates have brought functions such as navigation directions, and developers from social networks to media organisations have created apps for Glass’s small screen. 

However, while Glass has become a familiar sight at technology conferences in Silicon Valley, it has yet to win over the public amid concerns ranging from personal privacy to social etiquette.Part of the goal of the slow and steady expansion is to help people become more familiar with Glass ahead of a full consumer rollout, which is expected in mid to late 2014,Scrap metal baler sources say.Glass was first unveiled a year ago at the Google I/O developer event, where attendees could order the futuristic device for $1,500. Developers received their first units this year.A spokesman for Google X, the experimental lab which is developing Glass alongside the self-driving car and other innovations, declined to comment beyond the posting.In July, Google said in a posting that it was “starting to test out other ways of expanding the program so that additional Explorers can join”. Earlier in the summer, academic researchers were given the opportunity to try the devices. This autumn, Google began a roadshow across American cities,vacuum bottle starting in Durham, North Carolina, to let the public try the technology.The expansion of Glass comes as other electronics companies explore their own wearable technologies. Samsung, which released a smartwatch a few weeks ago, may be working on smart glasses, according to designs revealed in patent filings, while Apple is also working on an iWatch, sources say.