glass

AUSTIN, Texas -- An open-source Android gaming console and 3D printers ready to scan you Tron-style were what the organizers of the annual South by Southwest Interactive conference here wanted badge-holders to care about.

Instead, people chose Grumpy Cat.

The annual show took a hard turn toward hardware in an attempt to expand its mandate, but badge holders swerved in another direction -- toward memes.

Hardware was unusually ever-present but remarkably unappreciated. It was as if conference organizers, who put new devices center stage in keynote presentations, wanted to intentionally shift the show's focus away from consumer Internet applications … Read more

The opposition will congregate in dark corners.

They will whisper with their mouths, while their eyes will scan the room for spies wearing strange spectacles.

The spies will likely be men. How many women would really like to waft down the street wearing Google Glass?

It won't be easy. Once you've been cybernated, there's no turning back. Which is why the refuseniks are already meeting in shaded corners of the Web.

One site is called "Stop The Cyborgs." It claims to be "fighting the algorithmic future one bit at a time."… Read more

It took less than an hour for Google's developer conference, Google I/O, to sell out today.

The event, which will be held May 15-17 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, has always been a popular draw for the developer community. About 50 minutes after the tickets went on sale at 7 a.m. PT today, the "sold out" message appeared. On the registration page instead was a note that the keynotes and top sessions will be available on computer, phone, or tablet.

Google I/O has been the venue for the announcement of major releases … Read more

Injecting new technologies into cultures can be tricky.

When the telephone was first introduced in the 19th century, people had major concerns about health risks as well as fears that unwanted ears would be listening in on their conversations. Some people avoided using the telephone, believing the new device would adversely impact relationships in their community or that they could contract diseases through the telephone from parties breathing on the other line.

Nearly 100 years later, the first cell phone, which weighed in at 2.5 pounds and cost nearly $4,000, was greeted with skepticism, concerns about health risks, … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Did you see the hundreds of people walking around SXSW this week sporting Google Glass and promoting the search giant's much-hyped new augmented reality product?

Don't be disappointed if you missed them. It didn't happen.

Google was in town this week, showing off its hot high-tech eyewear, both at a branded booth alongside a series of other prototype products, and later at a panel. But it didn't avail itself of the chance to give the vast majority of the thousands of geeks at SXSW a peek at Google Glass. If the company was hoping to … Read more

Google Glass fans who wear actual glasses will also be able to don the wearable tech, without abandoning their prescription glasses, according to a Team Glass post today.

The company said one of the most asked questions about Glass was whether Google is making a prescription version. Clearly, Google has seen the value of making Glass versions for those beholden to their corrective lenses.

"The Glass design is modular, so you will be able to add frames and lenses that match your prescription. We understand how important this is and we've been working hard on it," Project … Read more

Google is showing off its wearable tech again, this time with an app-filled presentation at South by Southwest Interactive.

The presentation, which Engadget captured in Austin today, showed apps from The New York Times, Evernote, Skitch, and Path.

Of course, there was also a Gmail app. When an e-mail arrives, Google Glass wearers can use voice command to prompt Google's e-mail service to deliver the sender's image and subject line to the glasses' screen. Users can then tell the app what to write back.

The New York Times application will deliver an article in the form of an … Read more