Since the first trickle of Google Glass hardware began filtering out to the general public, the company responsible for the heads-up display sent out a message to the world: “These are going to chosen ones, and the rest of you will have to wait.”

Unfortunately, with more people poking, prodding, and forming their opinions about the device in the months that followed the hardware’s initial distribution, that divide seems only to be growing wider. Google Glass, it appears, may be for “Glassholes” only, as some have taken to labeling users.

First and foremost, of course, are privacy concerns. Yesterday, Rackspace released the findings of a study executed in parnership with Centre for Creative and Social Technology (CAST) at Goldsmiths, University of London that polled 4,000 adults from both the U.S. and UK about their feelings towards cloud technologies and Google Glass specifically. While some conceded that cloud technologies have enriched their lives (and 18% of people said they used wearable technology), there was a strong consensus that Google Glass’s privacy wasn’t enough to convince them. More than half of those polled said that their privacy concerns are a barrier to adoption, two-thirds believe Google Glass should have regulations, and one in five wanted the device to be banned entirely.

No matter how many times Google itself says otherwise, Google Glass is developing a reputation as a privacy breacher, and that’s something only really tech-forward people won’t flinch at.

If the privacy doesn’t irk users, then the price may. The introductory price for the developer model of Google Glass is $1,500 — more than a higher-end laptop and certainly more than any peripheral device out there. Heck, it’s even more than the cost of a 3D printer.

And, of course, wearing a cyborg-like face shield isn’t going to earn people any points at a party. There’s an inherent narcissism in Google Glass that stems from its use case — a wearer projects that he or she is more concerned with making sure that a notification is never missed than talking with other people.

The wearable technology movement is just getting going, of course, and Google Glass may simply be too different for most people to get their heads around. Even one of Google Glass’s biggest proponents, Rackspace’s Robert Scoble, told IBTimeson Monday, “It’s an expensive product and it’s a new product, but it’s a product that’s going to kick off 20 years of wearables, and I don’t think we’re going to know what this product means fully for 20 years.”

Bleeding-edge adopters, now is your time to become a Glasshole. For everyone else, it might be a while.

AMD continues to soldier forward in the PC market, but CEO Rory Read wants the company to get at least 20 percent of its revenue from other sources by the end of this year. Some of this money will come in from next-generation game consoles like the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One. And some of it, according to a report from PC World, will soon be coming from Android tablets and Chromebooks.

"We are very committed to Windows 8; we think it's a great operating system, but we also see a market for Android and Chrome developing as well," AMD Senior Vice President and General Manager Lisa Su said at this week's Computex trade show. This runs counter to her statements from earlier this year, when the company was "betting heavily on Windows 8" and had no immediate plans to support Android.

Su didn't give a timeframe for when either Chrome OS or Android versions compatible with AMD chips would be available. However, the company did recently announce some low-voltage APUs (codenamed Temash) with TDPs of as little as 3.9 watts that could easily fit into this type of device. Those chips will supposedly be shipping soon, if they aren't already.

Moving to support other operating systems is a smart move for AMD, if one that they're a bit late with. Undercutting Intel on price has long been part of the company's business strategy, and both Chromebooks and Android tablets are continually trying to push prices lower. Current sub-$249 Chromebooks are powered by both ARM and Intel, and ARM-based Android tablets under $199 are also plentiful (and Intel is reportedly aiming for that price point with its forthcoming Bay Trail Atoms). At the right price, AMD's OK-CPU-good-integrated-GPU combination could be just what these devices are looking for.

Google’s Maps Engine, its enterprise-focused service for developers who need to be able to create their own maps based on custom data, launched about two years ago and has been available commercially since last year. Today, Google is adding more functionality to the platform by launching an API for Maps Engine that allows developers to take their custom data, import it into Maps Engine and then use it in their own applications. The idea here, Google tells me, is to let organizations use Google’s fast mapping cloud infrastructure to layer their data on top of Google Maps and share them with their employees and customers.

You may be thinking that Google already has a Maps API, but as Dylan Lorimer, Google’s product manager for the Maps Engine API, told me, the regular Maps API mostly focuses on giving developers access to Google’s own mapping content. The Maps Engine API is meant to handle developers’ own data. The whole system, by the way, runs on Spanner, Google’s distributed global database.

The API, which was previously considered “experimental,” allows enterprise developers to easily upload, read and modify their data programmatically. Thanks to this new API, Lorimer noted, developers can now create maps and customized applications that align with their brands and also expose their data to any developer they designate.

FedEx, for example, has been testing the API for a while now, and part of its store locator is already powered by it today. As FedEx IT manager Pat Doyle told me, the company has been using Maps Engine to power its store locator since January, after it decided to completely rearchitect its system to use Google’s services.

The company worked closely with Google on this and some of its ideas flowed into the Maps Engine API, including, for example, an easier way to do server-side sorting for results around a specific location. Using the API, FedEx currently updates its store hours for its more than 50,000 stores every 15 minutes (each store currently has about 150 data points attached to it), so if a power outage or natural disaster closes a store, that will be reflected on the site within minutes.

As Doyle noted, the system has been 100 percent reliable so far, and the company’s analytics show that more of its users now find what they are looking for when they use the store locator. You can also see a bit more about how FedEx did this in this video.

The API currently only supports a somewhat limited slice of Maps Engines’ features, which also include basic spacial queries and manipulating vector data, but the team plans to expand the API quite a bit in the near future. Lorimer also stressed when I talked to him that Google has always been interested in bringing features like this to the larger developer community — that is, those without a pricey enterprise Maps Engine account. Google has nothing to announce about this right now, but it’s safe to assume that we will hear more about this API in the future.

If you thought you could slip into the shadows and go unnoticed by someone wearing Google Glass, it’s not going to happen. Google is pushing a software update to Glass devices to improve the camera in low light. The new feature automatically detects a low-light situation and compensates to get a more detailed, brighter picture.

The Glass team is piggybacking the improvement for bright light photos as well. After the software updated is installed, Glass will automatically take HDR, or High Dynamic Range, photos in low light or bright situations. Several of the latest smartphones support HDR photography, which quickly captures multiple images at various exposure levels. The pictures are then combined to provide an improved picture with boosted brightness in low-lit areas and toned down pixels where overexposure is detected.

Google is sharing an image gallery with before and after images that illustrate the camera improvements on Glass. Here’s an example of two similar images, first without the new software and then with the update:

Without Software Update

With New Software 9

Another small feature addition is the ability to caption photos directly from Glass. When sharing a photo from the wearable device, Glass will prompt for a caption. Users can tap the side touchpad of Glass and then speak their caption before sharing the image.

While the software update may appear very incremental, Google is holding to its promise of new features in monthly software updates for Glass. That means Glass owners can expect a steady stream of new features, both big and small, for their connected glasses.

There's no doubt that anyone who loves Android, Chrome, or Google in general wanted to be at I/O this year. Unfortunately, most of us didn't get the opportunity to experience everything I/O has to offer in person, but Google livestreams basically all events, so we got to watch I/O from afar.

While it lacked certain things that we expected to see (like a new version of Android), that didn't stop the wow! moments from coming through – Google Games, Play Music All Access, new and improved Google Maps, Android's domination on the smartphone market, and so much more. To give everyone the opportunity to "relive the magic" of those moments, Google has released a 5-minute highlights video from this year's I/O session. Whether you were at I/O this year, simply watched the livestream, or missed the event altogether, this one is worth watching.

That little ol' company down in Mountain View is cooking up a new HTML5 design tool, according to a recent blog post by the Goog's advertising arm, DoubleClick. Simply dubbed Google Web Designer, it's ostensibly designed for creative professionals to create "engaging web content" and is integrated with DoubleClick Studio and AdMob right out of the gate. Its advertising roots aside however, it looks like anyone with the proper knowhow could use it to create a web page, similar to the much-neglected Google Sites. Of course, we won't know much more about the tool until it launches, which is said to be "in the coming months."

Google is readying to move the Google App Engine Search API from experimental to preview status with plans to charge for operations and storage. The news comes from an email sent by a Google product manager to developers experimenting with the Search API. He asked just one thing in the email: to keep the news confidential until the public release in a few weeks.

And of course, what follows? A developer leaks the letter.

The search API, released about a year ago, allows developers to add full-text search to their apps. Features include searching specific fields and ranges as well as more advanced features like scoring and snippeting.

In the email sent today, Google App Engine Product Marketing Manager Chris Ramsdale said that there will be few if any changes to the API before it goes into GA. He states that Google will be improving the robustness of the API so they can offer an attractive service level agreement (SLA). And finally, he writes, Google will start charging for storage and operations with the preview release.

Here’s the pricing that Ramsdale includes in the email:

 A free quota will be offered as a promotion for search users. 

Google App Engine has had a string of news since Google I/O. On Monday it announced the launch of its Mobile Backend Starter that allows Android developers to deploy a basic cloud infrastructure for their apps that runs on Google’s App Engine.

We reached out to Google’s spokespeople for this story. We will update the post with their comments when we hear back from them.

The Google Glass Explorer program is all about experimentation, hacking, and learning. With that in mind, Google has already posted the factory image for the XE6 update from earlier today. Hooray for openness! You know... if you're lucky enough to be in the super-exclusive Explorer program.

The XE6 update is 334MB and can be used to flash Glass back to its factory settings. There is also a pre-rooted bootloader image for XE6 to make rooting a snap. Well, it's more like typing five lines of code, but that's still pretty easy. These files join the pre-existing XE5 system image that was posted late last month.

Downloads are hosted on the Google Glass Developer site down below. Just remember: rooting and unlocking your device can make updates a pain, and you might break your $1500 face computer. Exercise caution, but please make cool stuff.

During CES, Redbox and Verizon mentioned Google TV among the platforms getting an app and now they've delivered. The Redbox Instant app for Google TV is in the Google Play market, however only owners of second gen hardware will be able to make full use of it. As the folks at Google TV Friends found, it can be side loaded on the Logitech Revue for example and even play previews, however it won't rent any movies. At Google I/O Redbox explained to GigaOm that support would be restricted, while showing off a newer version of the app that will be released after the Jelly Bean Google TV update hits and mentioning a Roku version on the way. Redbox's support page explains the lack of support for first generation hardware is because only newer devices have the necessary DRM support, owners of those boxes can install the app from the link below.

Google has updated Chrome for iOS to version 27, bringing with it a number of new features aimed at Apple users looking for a Siri alternative. Like the recently updated desktop and Android versions, iOS users can verbally ask Chrome a question and get a verbal response. Chrome now talks back to you when it answers your questions. Most of the time. You can see an example video at the bottom of the page.

In my tests, the vocal response is great for basic inquiries for things you might need on the fly. I got verbal answers for questions like "Where is Fast & Furious 6 playing?" and "What is the population of Atlanta?" When I asked it to tell me the original lead singer of the punk band Black Flag it took me to a simple search results page and remained silent. Perhaps Chrome isn't a punk fan, but it probably has more to do with Google's Knowledge Graph.

Voice search in Chrome is now more accurate and faster than Apple's proprietary Siri. It won't let you send text messages or make calls like Siri, but for search, Chrome is the clear winner.

The update also speeds up page reloading, even with a weak or unavailable connection. You can find the latest update in the Apple store now.

Gmail 4.5 started rolling out today to Android devices (have you installed your update yet?), and immediately some of you noticed that it has definitely shuffled some things around. The bottom bar moved up top, the navigation is now on the left, and the multi-select checkboxes are gone. Don't worry, though - multi-select functionality hasn't disappeared. In fact, it's still very easy to use.

With the addition of sender images, two separate scenarios exist for using good old multi-select. Let me demonstrate.

Sender Images Enabled

Sender images are kind of neat - they instantly let you tell what kind of correspondence you're looking at in a very visual way. I personally love them. Some of you may not - if you are one of those people, go to the next section.

By the way, in case you haven't figured it out yet, if a sender image is missing, the first letter of the sender's name is used instead.

Here's the thing about sender images - they are your multi-select checkboxes. Just tap them. Easy, right?

  

Sender Images Disabled

So you hate sender images and decided to disable them. Don't worry - you can still select multiple messages. Just long-press one of the emails until it gets highlighted and then simply single tap others. A little bit more effort, but it still works and works well.

 

Now if we could get an option to restore the bottom button bar, I'd be a happy camper.

Google is apparently gearing up for two significant announcements for the developer community in June. The company has recently posted two YouTube videos on its Developer website, with each of these videos hinting at a ‘Chrome Mobile special event’ due to take place in June.

One of these videos cites a June 7 event that will take place between 1:00p.m. and 1:30p.m. EDT. The video stops short of citing exactly what kind of event this would be, although many have guessed that Google will be announcing something big on the said date.

The second of these events, again hinted in a YouTube video, is scheduled on June 13, and will take place from 11:00a.m. to 11:30a.m. EDT. Similar in fashion with the first video, this second video divulges no other information about the nature of the event.

However, many have speculated that these events may be about Google announcing Mobile Chrome for Android and iOS devices. That is certainly a possibility, but we haven’t found any hints that the coming events will be about this.

Google recently concluded its I/O event, and if the company has a major announcement, it could have made it at the event. However, the fact that Google is bringing together two new, brief events to make some kind of announcements hints that the company is gearing up to present something recent. Another possibility in this regard is that Google may unveil a Android-supporting Chrome. But then, all these are speculations based on thin ice.

Source: Google 1/2

Oracle lost a patent and copyright case against Google last year when a Northern California District judge ruled that APIs, or “declaring code,” cannot be copyrighted. But Oracle is now appealing that decision, hoping that the "structure, sequence, and organization" of its Java APIs will be protected under copyright law.

On Friday, the Application Developers Alliance along with Rackspace, TMSOFT, and Stack Exchange filed an amicus brief in the appeals case, which is being heard by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. (The Federal Circuit normally only hears patent cases, but is taking on this copyright case because it was joined with patent infringement allegations by Oracle in the original case.) In the brief, the interested parties explain that for the past several decades, declaring code has been understood to be outside of copyright, while implementing code is protected by copyright. “Were this Court to accept Oracle’s position, almost every player in the industry would be susceptible to suits for copyright infringement when using declaring code,” the brief states.

The group of developers also says that the court can't solve software developers' liability problem by allowing APIs to be copyrighted and then applying a fair use doctrine to determine whether they infringed, either. “If liability for the entire market were determined based on a case-by-case determination of fair use (an already unpredictable doctrine), developers would be unable to adequately predict their exposure.”

Since Oracle brought its appeal to the Federal Circuit in February of this year, Microsoft, EMC, and Netapp have together filed an amicus brief in favor of Oracle's position, saying that without copyrighted APIs, the software industry would become destabilized.

Naturally, the signatories on this week's amicus brief disagree. “It's like using the + sign to mean addition,” wrote Joel Spolsky, Chairman of the Application Developers Alliance Board of Directors and CEO and Co-founder of Stack Exchange, in a press release on Friday. “Letting one company copyright APIs would be like letting one company have a monopoly on the use of the + sign. It's nothing more than a ridiculous, shameful attempt to abuse the legal system for the purpose of extortion.”

Lambda Labs, an early-stage startup out of San Francisco, is preparing to release a facial recognition API for developers working on Google Glass apps. The API will be available to interested developers within a week, company co-founder Stephen Balaban says. The move comes on the heels of a Congressional inquiry into Google’s new wearable technology, which is still very much in the prototype phase.

The startup’s facial recognition API, launched into beta last year, is already used by 1,000 developers, including several major international firms. It now sees over 5 million API calls per month, and is growing at 15 percent month-over-month. Balaban also says that the company has been cash-flow positive since November.

Now that same API has been tailored specifically for Google Glass apps to enable both facial and object recognition.

Applied to Glass, the technology will enable apps such as “remember this face,” “find your friends in a crowd,” “networking event interest matching,” “intelligent contact books,” and more, Balaban explains. (You can see what apps developers are tweeting about here.)

As potentially amazing/horrifying as that technology sounds, any apps using the technology couldn’t do so in real time – that is, you couldn’t just walk around automatically recognizing people you see through Glass. The way Google’s Mirror API works right now is that you first have to snap a photo, send it to the developer’s servers, then get the notification back. The lag time on that would be several seconds at least, and would depend on how fast you could take a photo and share it. A forthcoming Glass software development kit (SDK), though, may change that.

“There is nothing in the Glass Terms of Service that explicitly prevents us from doing this. However, there is a risk that Google may change the ToS in an attempt to stop us from providing this functionality,” Balaban says. ”This is the first face recognition toolkit for Glass, so we’re just not sure how Google, or the privacy caucus, will react.”

The privacy caucus he’s referring to has to do with the Congressional inquiry from earlier this month where eight members of Congress reached out to Google CEO Larry Page with over half a dozen questions about Glass’ capabilities and the potential impacts to user privacy. The Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, a group led by Texas Republican Joe Barton, wanted to know if Glass would collect data from users without their consent, whether or not Google would consider privacy before approving third-party apps, and a host of other things.

One of those questions was whether or not Glass would have support for facial recognition. That’s something Steve Lee, Glass director of product management, has already answered. In a statement offered to The New York Times, he replied, “We’ve consistently said that we won’t add new face recognition features to our services unless we have strong privacy protections in place.”

That’s not a solid “no,” of course. It’s more of a “no, for now.” Glass is simply too new of a technology to begin limiting what it will or will not do, at least in such definitive terms.

Facial recognition, however, doesn’t appear to be specifically prohibited in Google’s API policies, which inform Glass developers what they can and can’t do in their applications. That means, for now at least, Lambda’s facial recognition API for Glass developers would be permitted.

The only cause that would impact its use, according to Google’s policies, is one that says Glass is “not intended for use in connection with applications and services that might be subject to industry-specific privacy regulations.”

Obviously, lawmakers could still enact such a policy, if they chose to do so.

“Assuming Google and Joe Barton’s Privacy Caucus don’t attempt to stop us, [the API] will be available to everybody within the week,” Balaban says.

Google, it should be noted, has long since had the technology to build apps capable of facial recognition itself, but has always tread very carefully to not incite a privacy backlash.

In 2011, there were reports that Google was developing a mobile app that would allow users to snap pictures of people’s faces to access their personal information. That app never arrived, but facial recognition has since made an appearance within Google’s photo-sharing service Google+ Photos (previously Picasa), where users can now opt in to have their face recognized. This makes finding “pictures and videos of you easy,” explains the company’s documentation on the technology.

Perhaps one day, users will be able to “opt in” to having Glass apps identify their faces, too?

Time – and Congress’s reaction – will tell.

The success of Google Now has motivated the search giant to take the next step and launch a phone in head-to-head competition with Apple that will take predictive technology to a whole new and possibly creepy level.

If you remember Google bought Motorola and the new Moto X, slated to launch later this fall, is the first big product to come out of that marriage. Motorola head Dennis Woodside teased the crowd at D11 by announcing he had the phone in his pocket but wasn’t ready to show it off. 

The phone, which will be made in Texas, will be loaded with a sophisticated array of sensors that will keep tabs on what the user is doing 24 hours a day. The Moto X will know if you’re in the car, walking, biking or out for a run and adapt itself to your activities. 

The phone will also use contextual information to anticipate why you’re taking the device out and adapt itself to the situation. If you’re near a picturesque setting you might pull out your phone and discover the camera already activated. If it’s near mealtime you might find maps listing nearby restaurants specializing in your favorite foods and whether you’ve been there before. 

Imagine a phone custom made to provide Google with a wealth of new data about your every move and that’s a glimpse into Moto X. What will be interesting is finding out if users want any company knowing that much about them. Any phone these days can be used to monitor your location and movements but an array of sophisticated new sensors sending a constant data stream combined with everything Google already knows about you is definitely some next level tech. 

Sales figures after the phone is launched will tell us whether consumers are willing to trade privacy for convenience or if Google has ventured into territory their customers are unwilling to explore.