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As March comes to a close and we collectively prepare ourselves for April Fool’s Day tomorrow, there’s 10’s of thousands of Google Glass Explorers out there with another thought on their mind: “Where’s my Google Glass OTA update?” When the Glass Explorer program first launched, the Glass Team told Explorers that they’d be receiving monthly updates as they tweaked and grew this new platform, even mentioning it at Google IO 2013. As of today, Glass hasn’t been updated since December 17 of last year, nearly 3 and a half months ago.
It’s been a while…
Back in December, Glass Explorers were told that the XE12 update would include January’s update too. XE12 included Wink to take a picture, a lock screen, additions to Play Music, Hangouts, YouTube, and plenty more. This indeed was a sizable and welcomed update.
Come February though, Explorers were anxious for their promised update. On the last day of February, Glass Team member Teresa updated the official community with a bit of sad, but good news. The sad news, no update was coming in February, the good news, Glass was being updated to Android’s latest release, KitKat. The reason behind the delay was simple. The Glass Team didn’t want to push out buggy software to Explorers, ruining the overall experience. Who wants buggy software? Not I. Google did however give Glass owners a tiny update, adding Google+ Community posting support. So there’s that.
Now, here we are a month later, having gone through all of March without an update to Glass and Explorers are starting to wonder what’s going on. Certainly a bit of frustration is justified, seeing as the price to get Glass is a hefty one at $1,500 and Glass owners want to feel that their purchase wasn’t done in vain.
Everyone likes updates.
It’s like getting something new for free. Besides making us excited, updates show that the platform is moving forward and progressing. Watching the platform progress is very satisfying, because Explorers are participating in an entirely new technological space. That said, in the grand scheme of things, Glass Explorers are going to eventually get a more polished and better product. Just be patient. If Explorers are getting bored with Glass, there’s plenty of new Glassware, both official and unofficial to try.
Brace yourselves. KitKat is coming.
Besides the OTA update delay due to the KitKat upgrade, Google most likely has some surprises up their sleeve to enhance the functionality of Glass. Google mentioned that developers would love what they have in store for the impending update. Like what? Who knows?
A few months back, Robert Scoble took to Google+ to rant about Glass and features he’d like to see coming to the platform. From his list, I’d personally love to see better photo management and more context. For example, right now you have to wait until you can plug Glass in for photos to begin uploading. While we don’t want photos uploading all of the time due to battery life, it would be nice to have photos uploaded on case by case basis if they were needed sooner than later. I’d also like to see Glass become more contexually aware. Scoble mentioned that while on stage, he shouldn’t get Tweet’s dinging in his ear. Glass should know that he’s in a meeting, from his Google Calendar, and disable certain services temporarily. Taking the contextual idea a bit further, it would be helpful if all pictures, videos, timeline cards, etc., were all bundled together for easier viewing or just for the sake of organization after an event or meeting ended.
Hold tight fellow Glass Explorers. I’m sure the wait will be worth it.
Unless Google retires it out of nowhere like they do half the things they come out with. -_-
Actually waiting to push out updates until things are relatively bug free is actually a good thing and something Google should apply to the main Android OS release cycle. Perhaps they are waiting for Android 4.4.3 to use as the update version for Glass given that there are so many problems with 4.4 / 4.4.1 / 4.4.2
I never understood why pics just didn’t get synced to your smartphone via Bluetooth (or at the very least give us that option). It so frustrating to have to share it, in order to upload it to Google+, just to have to download it onto my smartphone. Even Galaxy Gear got this right.
Also, the fact that Glass is still running ICS — and not KitKat or Android Wear — makes almost no sense (at least from this side of things). It’s being developed by Google, how is it not running the most up-to-date version?
There’s also like a million and 1 bugs I’d like to get fixed: screen freezes, Glass not charging, etc..
they get synced with galaxy gear ;)
Chances are it’s not running the most up to date version of Android already is because Glass is coming out of Project X and not the Android team. I’m sure there’s a slight internal war going on, similarly to the Nexus Q and Google TV. Hopefully the upcoming update resolves some of this.
Does anyone actually like wearing these things after the first week? Perhaps google is re-thinking the entire concept.
9 months going strong for me. If I’m not at home, I’m wearing Glass.
Same for me!!!!
While I find them extremely useful, they definitely aren’t for everyone. The concept is great, and it’s still in it’s early stages. The future for Glass is bright.
mute based on calendar would be great for the days certain folks in certain hangouts are blowing up my glass while I am in meetings. just saying.
Perhaps they are waiting for Android 4.4.3 to use as the update version for Glass given that there are so many problems with 4.4/ 4.4.1/4.4.2 http://qr.net/rJ7d
I agree. They’re waiting for a more stable release of KitKat, that way bugs from one platform aren’t showing up or hurting another.
It is useless (and dead).
Glass is old hat. Android Wear based watches are the new black.
I used one for about 2 weeks then returned it. I just couldn’t think of enough uses to justify the cost. It’s also, in my opinion, not quiet there yet from a build perspective (yes, I know it’s a pre-release). Hopefully, they are going to launch a much improved consumer version in the future.
If the development cycle gets extended out to a few months, you know they’re probably working on a large deliverable. How do you envision Glass’s experience after it gets updated to the latest Android build? Would it be fair to call Glass an “Android Wear” device? I think so.
Videos show the Android Wear experience compliments Glass perfectly. If it wasn’t for the XE program the team wouldn’t have been able to collect real-world usage data and allow Google to build the best experience around future Android Wear devices, including Glass. They’re consistently asking us for feedback, and I know they’re working on putting together the appropriate solution.
Releases generally involve more than just engineering, it comes down to business and timing. Teresa from the Glass team stated they’re no longer guaranteeing monthly updates, and this is going to be a big year for wearables… At this point we just have to be patient.
I smell a Google Glass bargain bin coming soon. $15.95 and one is yours.
You might say its the “Wave” of the future :)
They better announce GOOGLE GLASS consumer price soon or i’ll just might as well buy ANDROID WEAR