As we sit and reflect on yesterday and the marathon that was the Google I/O 2013 keynote address, we realize that there are plenty of things to be excited about as well as some some glaring omissions that left a lot of us scratching our heads. Even with all of the awesome application updates that were put on display on the stage in San Francisco, there was almost a complete lack of hardware information save for a stock Samsung Galaxy S IV.
Going in to the show most people thought that Google Glass, the star of last years presentation would feature prominently. Since the recent release of the “Explorer Editions” of the spectacles, which have been shown on everything from Newt Gingrich’s face to Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, Google Glass has been the talk of the mobile computing world. Well there was no skydiving, bike riding, “mountain climbing”, or even much of a mention on stage of Google’s newest hardware project, but the keynote didn’t end the conference and there is still plenty going on away from the main stage.
One thing that users can look forward to regarding glass is future compatibility with Google’s refresh of the chat application Google Talk, which was renamed and upgraded to Hangouts during yesterday’s event. It’s clear that even though Google Glass has the ability to participate in and even host video chats, the higher ups have a bigger plans on how the technology will be used to allow people to communicate with each other.
Google’s senior vice president of engineering, Vic Gundotra, told Joanna Stern of ABC News:
“Hangouts is the answer. Our focus is on face-to-face to face communications. The Hangout app we just showed is going to be available for Glass.”
Interviewed along with Vice President of Engineering for Google Plus David Besbris, Gundotra said that the work on the application was still ongoing and added a cryptic “stay tuned” when asked about deeper social integration. One such rumor making the rounds is getting information (name, age, etc) on a person just by looking at them while wearing a set of Google Glass.
Currently The Glass Explorer Edition is only available to select people and comes with a $1,500 price tag. The expectation is that the wearable technology will see a mass release either later this year or early in 2014.
Source: ABC News