Today, Google I/O continues. No not another keynote (thank goodness). But developer sessions are going on all day today and tomorrow. During the “Developing for Glass” session today at Moscone Center, Google announced a number of new partner apps. Facebook and Twitter were highlighted and also included apps like Evernote, Elle, CNN, and Tumblr. This is in addition to the New York Times and Path apps announced earlier this year.
The CNN app sends video to Glass via updates, and streams news to a browsable feed. It can also alert the user when there’s a breaking news story in a category that they want to follow, and those alerts can be customized to show up at a specific time of day. The notifications also show up as text, but can also be read aloud using the Mirror API.
Next up is the Twitter app, which provides your stream, as well as posting capabilities and the power to snap photos from Glass and post them directly to your Twitter stream. Glass Developer Evangelist, Timothy Jordan took the stage and emphasized the DM capabilities on Twitter for Glass and how the messages add to a thread that become bundled on Glass.
Facebook for Glass essentially acts as a new photo sharing tool, giving users a chance to immediately post pics to their Facebook timeline, and to then add captions and descriptions to those images by using voice input once they are posted. The pictures can also be deleted immediately if you wish. Jordan described the simple sharing and annotation features as exemplary of how a Glass app is supposed to work.
Evernote on Project Glass keeps its note-taking roll, it gives users the ability to have their notes shared to Glass from the web or mobile apps. Content is also translated to simple text by the Glass service and displayed as simple short paginated messages.
If you’re one of those lucky enough to be an Explorer or a developer with access to Project Glass, you’ll be able to play with these apps later today as they will all be available today. It’s nice to see Project Glass getting a solid app-ecosystem already. I definitely can’t wait for the consumer release next year.