Android By Russell Holly Apr. 15, 2014 8:02 am
It was made clear a month ago that there was a huge update heading to Google Glass, but there was no real indicator as to when that update was coming. Now, just before Google Glass opens up to the entire US for one day, Google has announced that this big update will be arriving on headsets later this week.
There’s a lot of reasons for Glass explorers to be excited about with this new update. It’s the first that has arrived on the headset in several months, which was an unusual twist after Google promised and delivered on monthly updates for nearly a year.
This update upgrades the device to Android KitKat, the most recent version of Android, and along with that comes a host of new features. While being updated to KitKat itself is not a user-facing feature, the battery life and performance boost that will come with this version of the OS should be noticeable.
Google published a small list of the user-facing features with an explanation that a full list would be available later this week, and it looks like most of these are about optimizing the UI. Photos and videos that are taken one after the other are now bundled in the timeline so they take up less space, and users will have the ability to edit the order of voice commands that appear when you say “OK Glass” or navigate the command menu. Users will also have the ability to send crash reports straight from the device now, including a field where you can speak whatever the problem is and have it added to the report.
This will be the first time that one of Google’s updates to Glass is removing a feature, though according to the team responsible it’s a quality control issue. Video chat through Google Hangouts will be stripped from Glass with this update, after Google determined that less than 10% of the users take advantage of the feature due to the video quality. Even with a perfect Internet connection, Glass often struggles to make video chats enjoyable for both parties. It’s possible that this feature will return at a later date, but after this update it won’t be in the list of actions. Instead, users will be able to reply to incoming Hangout messages with photos though a new UI.
There’s not an exact time for this update, or any indicator that monthly updates will return with this update, but it’s a huge step forward for Google and the undoubtedly massive new wave of Glass explorers to enjoy with their new hardware.
More...
There’s a lot of reasons for Glass explorers to be excited about with this new update. It’s the first that has arrived on the headset in several months, which was an unusual twist after Google promised and delivered on monthly updates for nearly a year.
This update upgrades the device to Android KitKat, the most recent version of Android, and along with that comes a host of new features. While being updated to KitKat itself is not a user-facing feature, the battery life and performance boost that will come with this version of the OS should be noticeable.
Google published a small list of the user-facing features with an explanation that a full list would be available later this week, and it looks like most of these are about optimizing the UI. Photos and videos that are taken one after the other are now bundled in the timeline so they take up less space, and users will have the ability to edit the order of voice commands that appear when you say “OK Glass” or navigate the command menu. Users will also have the ability to send crash reports straight from the device now, including a field where you can speak whatever the problem is and have it added to the report.
This will be the first time that one of Google’s updates to Glass is removing a feature, though according to the team responsible it’s a quality control issue. Video chat through Google Hangouts will be stripped from Glass with this update, after Google determined that less than 10% of the users take advantage of the feature due to the video quality. Even with a perfect Internet connection, Glass often struggles to make video chats enjoyable for both parties. It’s possible that this feature will return at a later date, but after this update it won’t be in the list of actions. Instead, users will be able to reply to incoming Hangout messages with photos though a new UI.
There’s not an exact time for this update, or any indicator that monthly updates will return with this update, but it’s a huge step forward for Google and the undoubtedly massive new wave of Glass explorers to enjoy with their new hardware.
More...
