CrunchGear

Welcome To The Google Glass Freak Show
Hands-On With Sergey Brin’s Personal Set Of Google Glass
Hands-On With The Google Nexus 7
Google Glass Explorer Edition Available For Pre-Order At Google I/O, $1,500 And Shipping Next Year
Google Wins The Internet With A Live Skydiving Demo Of Google Glass (Now With Video!)
Google Nexus 7 Fully Revealed: Tegra 3, 7-Inch IPS Display, $199 For 8GB, $249 For 16GB
Here’s The First Pic Of The Nexus 7, Google’s Answer To The Kindle Fire And The iPad
The Google Nexus Tablet: The Top 6 Must-Have Features
Microsoft’s Greek Headquarters Attacked By Arsonists

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 04:08 PM PDT

In the land of tech, we bloggers rarely if ever have to step in front of the camera. But now that Google has launched Google Glass into the world, the camera has turned on us in a fit of rage. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the freak show that is Google Glass.

First up is TC’s own Peter Ha, looking anything but suave in Google Glass. He also apparently forgot his shirt at the hotel.

Of course Mr. Joshua “Late Night” Topolsky would get some time with Google’s Project Glass. He looks so happy wearing the future.

Out of the bunch here, Google Glass looks most at home on cnet’s Rafe Needleman. He looks rather content seeing the world through Google’s eye.

Then there’s AllThingsD’s Liz Gannes. One look into her eyes and you know she feels ridiculous wearing Sergey’s glasses.

Google’s elite were out in force championing the company’s latest pet project. Here’s Vic Gundotra, Senior VP of Social, sporting the Google Glass — in a mighty fine sweater, too.

Like Needleman above, ExtremeTech’s David Cardinal wears Google Glasses with a bit of old world charm. That said, look at the right eye: It seems that Google Glasses makes a rather large blindspot.

Right now it’s unclear if Google’s Project Glass will really become the future. Google I/O attendees can pre-order the device for $1500. I think Arrington got it right earlier today in saying, “the future. I can imagine in a couple of years we’ll all be wearing these at events. Then a couple of years after that maybe we’ll look back and think we all looked like idiots.”

Hands-On With Sergey Brin’s Personal Set Of Google Glass

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 02:37 PM PDT

Outside of approved Googlers, a handful of folks have just been given a canned demo of Google Glass, including myself. I’m living in the future and the future is now!

While brief, I demoed Sergey’s own personal set of Glass. They’re extremely lightweight and worked over my existing pair of eyeglasses. In its current iteration, the battery pack is situated on the right side and counterbalances the circuitry and camera hub, so it feels pretty weightless.

The demo itself was fed through the one lens on the right side of some fireworks and audio with the latter only coming in through the right side. Per Sergey’s suggestion I cupped my right ear to really hear the audio. Panning your head around offers up an AR experience. Video quality was fairly poor but, again, these are prototypes and Sergey admitted the demo is old.

Notifications are currently served up to Glass wearers via a “ding” that prompts the user to tilt his or her head up to read the actual message.

I’ll have a bit more on Glass later today but here’s a higher-res photo with another pair of Glasses.

Read more here: Project Glass Is The Future Of Google

Hands-On With The Google Nexus 7

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 01:04 PM PDT

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Built specifically for Google Play consumption, the Nexus 7 tablet built by Asus seems to be Google’s answer to both the iPad and Kindle Fire. So how does it stack up and just how buttery smooth is Jelly Bean?

It’s nearly impossible to say after only a few minutes with the device, but on a superficial level, it’s pretty nice. With an IPS display the screen is vibrant with fairly decent viewing angles. HD videos look sharp. Speaker placement is a bit weird but audio quality sounds pretty good. The textured rear looks and feels high-end.

Jelly Bean is noticeably smoother and faster, including app launching. Due to the screen dimensions, I’m not really digging the magazine experience, though. The ability to go from the normal magazine layout to a text-only format is a nice feature akin to most every other read it later app iOS and Android users have grown accustomed to.

Social sharing between the Nexus 7 and Q for audio and video is seamless and works quite well.

But that’s it for now. I’ll have a more in-depth look at the Nexus 7 later today.

Google Glass Explorer Edition Available For Pre-Order At Google I/O, $1,500 And Shipping Next Year

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 11:38 AM PDT

Google Glass is real and will soon be shipping. Sergey Brin just took the stage at Google I/O, won the Internet with an amazing skydiving demo of the device and then announced that Google Glass is available for pre-ordering. Named Glass Explorer Edition, it’s available to those at Google I/O and costs a whopping $1,500. Plus, the device will not ship until next year. But Google Glass is real. This is big.

Google spent about 30 minutes explaining and showing off Google Glass at today’s I/O keynote. But it was strange. The presentation wasn’t as polished as the keynote’s other events. It felt off the cuff. As Sergey explained at the end of the event, Google still doesn’t know all the use cases of Google Glass. The company is still building not only the product, but also the philosophy behind Glass. That’s why Google is making Glass available to those that really love Google. It needs help.

Right now Glass Explorer Edition is only for the US and the device is only available for pre-order by I/O attendees. Sergey explained that there are some regulatory issues to resolve prior to International shipping.

Google Wins The Internet With A Live Skydiving Demo Of Google Glass (Now With Video!)

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 11:09 AM PDT

Well, that was unexpected. Google’s Sergey Brin just stepped on stage at Moscone West to deliver a demo of Google Glass, and it involves a Google+ hangout conducted via their connected eyewear. Oh, and some guys just jumped out of a zeppelin.

“Being able to share what you’re seeing is amazing,” Brin said. Four skydivers all equipped with Google Glass hardware just plummeted toward the ground in San Francisco, and video quality in the hangout as about as good as one would expect considering the circumstances. In fact, the hardware may have changed a bit since early demos, as the video seems considerably clearer than the infamous trampoline video that made the rounds a few weeks back.

(Hat tip to CNET for posting the video)

To emphasize how cool the concept of seamless video sharing is, a small crew of bikers performed a few flips off of a carefully-placed mount, and two people took the Glass on a ride as they ran down the side of the Moscone Center.

The current iteration of Glass hardware obviously has a camera and microphone capable of recording video and audio, and it also sports a touchpad for navigation along its right side (though that hasn’t really been a secret). To keep users abreast of their surroundings, it also packs gyroscope, accelerometers, and a handful of other sensors.

Glass’s lead designer feels that “Glass as a whole is meant to be close to your senses, not block them,” which prompted her and the team to mount the display slightly above users’ eyes instead of directly in front of them. They also focused on making the device both physically and visually light, so as not to impact either a user’s comfort or their sense of style. All of the components were shifted to one side, which allowed Google to design different form factor for their Glass frames — some of which we may have seen before.

One of Google’s big plans for Glass was to help users capture and share the world as they see it, but that’s clearly not all. As we’ve seen in the concept video, it’s also about facilitating communication and putting more information — think navigation information, or a user’s current speed. The possibilities are certainly “incredible,” but why is Google showing it off? According to Brin, it was because of three things — Google thought it was amazing (it is), it’s very visually striking, and because they wanted to appeal to the developer community. As such, U.S. based developers will be able to pre-order a beta build only at I/O, for the low, low price of $1500.

Click to view slideshow.

Google Nexus 7 Fully Revealed: Tegra 3, 7-Inch IPS Display, $199 For 8GB, $249 For 16GB

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 09:26 AM PDT

And like that, Google is officially in the tablet hardware business. Google is mere minutes away from kicking off its yearly I/O conference and perhaps the biggest news of the show, the announcement of the Nexus 7, was spoiled by the Google Play Store. Here is the Google/Asus Nexus 7 in all its glory.

Both 8GB and 16GB models pack a 7-inch 1280×800 HD display (216 ppi) back-lit IPS display covered in “Scratch-resistant Corning glass”. A Tegra 3 SoC powers Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) and Google promises the 4325 mAh battery should provide up to 8 hours of use. There’s NFC, GPS and a 1.2MP front-facing camera.

Contrary to the leak early today, ICS’s menu bar is still intact with a row of icons positioned above it. You can see Jelly Bean’s slightly tweaked interface in the video below.

Pricing is inline with the rumors. The 8GB will go for $199 with the 16GB hitting at $249. For a limited time, buyers will get $25 in Google Play store credit with the purchase. Google is taking pre-orders now with shipping expected in 2-3 weeks.

The video might not work. Here’s the direct link. (update: the video is now private.)

Here’s The First Pic Of The Nexus 7, Google’s Answer To The Kindle Fire And The iPad

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 09:09 AM PDT

Hello, bezel.

Google is set to kick off its yearly developer’s conference in less than 30 minutes. Big things are expected including the announcement of Google’s long-rumored Nexus tablet. Well, here it is. The Google Play Store inadvertently leaked the Nexus 7 early.

Right now all we have is the image above but it’s very telling. Apparently Google changed up the tablet OS. The pic above shows a user interface similar to that of a smartphone. The menu bar of ICS is out and a row of icons is in its place. Then, embedded within the massive bezel is a front-facing camera, a feature solely missing from the Kindle Fire.

You can make the image appear if you jump over to the device section on the Google Play store, open the banner image in a new tab and change the URL to say “nexus_7_banner_001.png” rather than “galaxy_nexus_banner_005.png”.

Of course right now several key details are missing including the price, release date and information concerning the new interface. All should be revealed within an hour or two, though.

The Google Nexus Tablet: The Top 6 Must-Have Features

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 07:26 AM PDT

Google I/O is nearly upon us, and all signs point to Google revealing a tablet later today. The device leaked and then over the last few hours several high-level sources confirmed the device’s existence. It’s likely a low-end, 7-inch tablet powered by Google’s latest mobile operating system, Jelly Bean.

Try as they might, Google has yet to deliver an answer to the iPad. Most Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich tablets were flops, and it’s devices like the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet that have managed to make an impact though they hide their Android underpinnings beneath custom user interfaces. Apple is dominating in the tablet wars and with Microsoft officially throwing down with the high-priced Surface, the Google Nexus Tablet must be a success.

Killer Display

The Google Nexus Tablet needs a halo spec. It needs something out of the norm to champion its cause. It needs a killer display.

Apple raised the bar with the new iPad and its retina display. It’s unlikely that Google will use a super-high resolution display in the Nexus Tablet, but it needs a display better than something like the Kindle Fire. The Nexus Tablet’s display just has to be the best at its low price point, and that shouldn’t be that hard. Early leaks place a 1280 x 800 IPS display inside the Nexus Tablet — that’s significantly better than the 1024 x 600 Fire’s screen.

Something Special

Amazon launched the Kindle Fire right. Hopefully Google was paying attention. The Fire looks different and has several features exclusive to the device.

The Kindle Fire received a lot of traction at launch thanks to its Silk Browser. This browser promised faster web load times by routing the traffic through an Amazon server which compressed the data and delivered it to the tablet. Never mind that the Silk Browser doesn’t work that well, the feature sounded awesome at launch and gave Amazon a lot to brag about. Google needs something to brag about.

3rd Party Content Integration

Google content services suck. Rather than using Google Books and Play Movies, Google would be smart to utilize successful 3rd party apps to serve up the content. This crazy theory would put Amazon and Netflix as the main providers of books, movies, and music. In a sense this would kill the so-called pure Android experience usually associated with Nexus devices, but it would also make the device a lot more tempting to the average consumer. This move might also steal some Kindle Fire owners board with their devices but not willing to buy a more expensive device.

Expandable Storage

If the rumors hold true, the Google Nexus Tablet has a relatively small amount of onboard storage. But that’s fine for most people — as long as they can stick a microSD card into the thing.

The iPad’s lack of removable storage is still a sour spot among even its most fervent supporters. A simply memory card slot increases the amount of use cases while making it easier for owners to add and remove items from the device. For better or worse, Apple tends to route data to an iDevice through iTunes. But Google wisely doesn’t rely on desktop software for its devices.

Competitive Pricing

All the rumors state that the Google Nexus Tablet will likely be priced competitively with the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet. Expect a price tag between $199 and $249.

The correct price will make or break the Nexus Tablet. Samsung, Motorola, and all the rest have yet to break the iPad’s hold on the $500 price point. Google would not be successful either at that level either, but the Kindle Fire has lost a good amount of its hype lately. Google might be able to sneak in and grab the number two spot from Amazon — the right price is crucial.

An Immediate Launch

The Google Nexus Tablet needs to launch sooner rather than later. Microsoft made a potentially grave mistake announcing the Surface tablet months prior to its release.

That said, Google has a history of sending I/O attendees home with its latest devices. Over the past few years Google handed developers smartphones, tablets, and hotspots. It wouldn’t be surprising to see that Google hid a few Nexus Tablets under the seats this year.

Microsoft’s Greek Headquarters Attacked By Arsonists

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 06:03 AM PDT

A police investigator gathers evidence following an attack on Microsoft's Greek headquarters at Marousi suburb, north of Athens

[Insert distasteful joke here regarding Windows Phone 7 lack of upgrade path to WinPhone 8]

Athens saw daylight a little earlier than normal today. At approximately 4:45 AM local time, arsonists rammed a van laden with gas cans into the front of Microsoft’s Greek HQ and set it ablaze. According to a Reuters’ report, the security guards were held at gunpoint, but also away from the fire. No one was injured in the attack.

Videos and pictures show Microsoft’s HQ are still intact although heavily damaged. “Staff were told not to come to work today, and probably also tomorrow,”Lia Komninou, Microsoft spokeswoman, said on Skai TV today.

The police have not yet named suspects.

[Something something something people still sore over Windows Vista]