The Google news continues to flow ahead of I/O! Hot on the heels of the news that Google will preview the Android “L” release at I/O later this week, El Goog just made a big announcement regarding its Glass eyewear.
Google says that Glass will now ship with 2GB of RAM in tow, up from the 1GB of RAM that came loaded in previous versions. This RAM increase should lead to improved performance with Google’s wearable.
Along with this RAM increase, Google is adding a viewfinder to Glass to make capturing photos easier. Users just need to say “OK Glass, show the viewfinder” and they’ll be presented with 4 white Ls in Glass’s corners that will help in framing a shot.
Finally, Google is adding new Google Now cards to Glass that will remind you where you parked your car and let you know when packages are being shipped to you.
In other Glass news, Google says that there are 12 new Glassware apps coming to its wearable device. The group of new apps is pretty varied, including the Runtastic personal training software, The Guardian news app, Shazam music recognition and a Zombies, Run! game. The full list of new Glassware is as follows:
- Runtastic is your personal trainer. You’ll have a collection of workouts to help whip you into shape or push you to reach your fitness goals.
- 94Fifty Basketball works with the 94Fifty Smart Sensor Basketball to help you with your game. It measures muscle memory that the human eye can’t see. You’ll get feedback after each shot to help you shoot like Ray Allen. (ok, maybe not Ray Allen but maybe it’ll help you make varsity.)
- The Guardian keeps you up to date on breaking news alerts and lets you save the articles you want to read later.
- Duolingo makes learning a new language feel more like a game and less like high school Spanish class.
- GuidiGO is your personal tour guide. Choose from 27 destinations and over 250 guided tours. Relive the Impressionist history of Montmartre, the magic of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, or the hidden secrets of San Francisco!
- Allthecooks is no stranger to Glass, but they’ve added some new features to keep your hands free while cooking. You can now use voice commands to switch between recipes and directions.
- Zombies, Run! Because let’s face it, running is more fun when you’re being chased by zombies.
- Star Chart lets you look up at the sky and explore the stars, planets and constellations above.
- Shazam on Glass can tell you the name of the track and artist of a song that’s playing around you. Just say “OK Glass, Recognize this song.”
- Goal.com lets you keep up with everything happening in the world of football. (World Cup fans, we’re looking at you.)
- Livestream let’s you broadcast live video, read chat messages from your audience and share your point of view via social networks.
- musiXmatch picks up on the music playing around you and shows you the song lyrics for songs in any language.
Overall these are some pretty significant improvements for Glass. The added RAM makes Glass more attractive to folks that haven’t yet purchased a unit but have been on the fence, while existing users are getting a ton of new features and Glassware.
Do you own Google Glass? If not, does today’s news make you want a unit?
Via +GoogleGlass (1), (2)
