Google ends Glass Explorer program, hints at future versions

Updated on Thursday, January 15, 2015 at 2:57PM by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Many people have been recently wondering if there was still hope for Google Glass. The once aggressive wearable project seems to have sputtered and gone silent.

Google, just announced via its Google Plus page that it is closing its Explorer Program. January 19 will be the last day for interested parties to purchase the exisiting Google Glass hardware and that Google Glass is exiting the Google X labs and is being transitioned to its own team at Google. Hit jump for the juicy details.

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Google Glass 'approved' for Canada, but does anyone still care?

After over a year, Google Glass is apparently approved for Canada.Explorer Brian Buquoi received the above note with his replacement Glass which says that Google Glass has been approved by industry Canada, which means it is likely one step away from being made available to Canadians.

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WishList: Navdy is like Google Glass for your car's windshield

Google Glass may be ideal for various situations but not for driving since it acts as a distraction. Navdy, which is available for pre-order at US $319 with shipping, is a HUD (Heads Up Display) that projects navigation, alerts and notifications from your dashboard to your windshield so you don't have take your eyes off the road and thus minimizing the distraction. Navdy also promises touchless gestures a la Kinect in order to navigate or swipe away incoming calls and it includes voice recognition as well. Navdy will work with iOS and Android phones and can also integrate with a car's computer and existing set-up. This potentially game changing alert, navigation and notification HUD is expected to ship early 2015.

Source: Navdy

Babak Parviz, the man behind Google Glass, leaves for Amazon

The man behind Google Glass has left the Plex and has moved on to Amazon. Babak Parviz, who was part of the A-Team at the Google X skunkworks (responsible for self-driving cars, Google Glass and other moonshot projects), is the latest of Google's elite to exit the company. His destination is Amazon which has recently released its first smartphone and has a stable of Kindle tablets and TV streaming devices as well as a lot of interest in mobile technology.

Parviz confirmed the move in his Google + bio page.

Having worked at companies ranging from tiny start-ups to huge corporations and universities in Europe and the US, I have found each one to be fun in its own unique way.

I founded and led a few efforts at Google (among them, Google Glass and Google Contact Lenses are public so far :) prior to moving to Amazon and work on a few other things now…

Replacing Parviz as the head of Google Glass is Ivy Ross, formerly of Bausch & Lomb. No word on what Parviz will be working on at Amazon but it should be pretty exciting.

Source: TechCrunch