Google Glass will get one software update a month with new features, polish and bug fixes
Steve Lee, Product Director for Google Glass, Isabelle Olsson, the lead industrial designer on Glass, Senior Developer Advocate Timothy Jordan and Glass engineer Charles Mendis held a chat with developers and press on Thursday at the Google I/O conference.
Jordan announced that Google didn’t have an updated timeline for the release of Glass (it previously said that it would be showing up for consumers next year) but did confirm that it had ‘invited’ all 2,000 Explorers who had pre-ordered at Google I/O last year to pick up their glass.
During the chat, Lee announced that Google would be shipping one software update every month with new features, polish and bug fixes. Many of the updates would incorporate suggestions from developers and Glass Explorers.
As far as what kinds of apps they would individually like to see on Glass, Lee says he’d love to see fitness apps on the device. Mendis says that he’d love to see payment apps integrated with the app, especially when he’s shopping with his kids. Olsson said she loves Karaoke and wouldn’t mind seeing some sort of experience show up on Glass.
Continue reading here: Google Glass will get one software update a month with new features, polish and bug fixes
Welcome Back, Me!
My phone buzzes. It’s a message from Eric Eldon. He, Alexia, and I had been talkin’ for a few weeks about the idea of me returning to TechCrunch, and we’d just locked in the following Monday — that is, today — as my (re)start date. “Start thinking about your intro post,” read the text.
So I thought about it. A lot. I drafted it probably a dozen times in my head, crumpling up each version and tossing it in the trash before the figurative ink had even dried.
Monday’s here. Intro post time. Screw it*, we’ll do it live.
You see, I suck at talking about myself. Need me to break some news? Done. Need me to liveblog an event with a few hundred thousand people waiting on every keystroke? Hell yeah, I’m down. Opinions? I TOTALLY HAVE THEM! Need me to write a few paragraphs about myself? lolnope. [Insert joke about me being doomed because TechCrunch only writes about itself here.]
For those who know me: I missed you, too. To make up for not calling for the past year, please accept the above picture of me snuggling with a puppy as a form of penance and/or hitting on you.
For those who don’t: I’m Greg. I first joined TechCrunch as Mobile Editor back in early 2008 — which, if I recall correctly, is riiiight before we moved things out of Arrington’s house. I spent the next few years breakin’ all sorts of stories and generally loving life. Then my boss got fired and things got weird, so I left.
I spent a few months helping to get the ball rolling at PandoDaily before recognizing that I had a pretty ridiculous urge to go learn to build things (be they virtual, physical, or a combination of the two). I did some coding. I did some wood working. I did some 3d printing. I fired lasers (lots, and lots of lasers.) I had an itch, so I scratched it, and I return a smarter dude and a better writer because of it.
I watched from afar as Eric and Alexia took up the reins at TC, quite certain that they’d smoothen out the myriad bumps and bruises that popped up after the acquisition. They’ve done an incredible job — so when the question of whether or not I’d come back came up, I jumped at the opportunity. I love TC, and I love this team. I’m glad to be back.
Oh, right, follow me on Twitter.
[*I totally could have said "Fuck it" instead of "Screw it" here. Totally-real-and-not-made-up-right-now fact: Every TechCrunch writer gets an allotment of 5-10 expletives to drop per month, and they're like rollover minutes. As a TC alum coming back after about a year away, I've got like, buckets of fucks saved up. I just wanted to avoid swearing** in my first post back, you know?]
[** I almost made it, too.]
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Congrats Ingrid, On Your One-Year Anniversary At Techmeme
Ingrid Lunden began working for Techmeme in February of 2012, after an extensive career at paidContent.org and regular freelance work for publications such as the Financial Times. Today, she celebrates her one-year anniversary with Techmeme.
Ingrid is passionate about all new technology, but has specific interest in mobile, digital media, advertising. Her dedication to the intersection of these spaces has made her a true Techmeme star. We expect to see many more years where her stellar 2012 came from.
Lunden’s combination of smarts and sharpness have led to such notable Techmeme headlines as Mobile Phone Network Truphone Raises $118M Led By Russian Tycoon Roman Abramovich, At $473M Valuation and Yandex Confirms Wonder, A Voice-Powered Social Search App, As A U.S. ‘Experiment,’ Gets Legal Advice On Why It Shouldn’t Irk Facebook, and domestic news favorites like AOL Q4 2012 Beats The Street On Sales Of $600M, Showing Its First Revenue Growth In 8 Years.
Techmeme’s greatest asset, Lunden is a Swiss Army knife of experience and in-depth understanding, as analytical as she can be quick.
When approached for comment on her first year at Techmeme, Lunden responded with the following:
“It’s been good, busy and intense. Challenging, but fun. I love the people and the subject, and I love the buzz. I love the people I work with and most of the people I write about.”
The headline says it all. Literally.
Excerpt from: Congrats Ingrid, On Your One-Year Anniversary At Techmeme
Tamagotchi Comes To Android, But After All These Years I’m No Better At Caring For Virtual Pets
Namco Bandai has released a new Android Tamagotchi app called Tamagotchi L.i.f.e. The acronym standards for “love is fun everywhere,” which is arguable depending on which stage of love you’re in, and which probably accounts for its February 14 release date. But is Tamagotchi L.i.f.e. itself fun everywhere? I’ve been playing it today to find out. And by playing I mostly mean ignoring.
The Android Tamagotchi is very similar to the one that used to live in its own dedicated hardware keychain, and there’s even an emulator mode you start off in what looks exactly like the toy itself with its familiar egg-ish appearance. Part of the appeal of the game is that you can unlock new egg cases to house your Tamaotchi in this mode, controlling it with three virtual buttons and viewing you virtual pet as the single color blob of pixels that may inspire some nostalgia.
Doing it this way provokes ample frustration, however, as soon as you realize that you’re using a space-aged device with full touch capabilities and a gorgeous display. But Namco Bandai knows this, so they’ve provided a zoomed in mode that brings you up close and personal with your Tamagotchi, rendered in two colors instead of one, with touch interaction and the ability to tap on icons directly to feed it, bathe it, medicate it or scold it.
You can also now play Rock, Paper, Scissors with your Tamagotchi! But to do that well you have to lose, since your virtual pet only gets satisfaction out of the game if it wins or ties. I actually found losing to be pretty difficult, which means I think that my Tamagotchi isn’t very fond of me. And it probably doesn’t help that every time I open the app it’s rolling or sliding or however it moves in an agitated little circle next to at least three poops. This despite the fact that I don’t feed it.
Tamagotchi L.i.f.e. is free, but that’s a curse as much as it is a benefit, since that comes with an extremely tacky-looking and hard to miss add plastered on the bottom of the screen all the time. I wanted to like this game because I remember when Tamagotchis were a thing, but this app just made me feel inadequate as a caretaker, and I’ve got enough of that going on in my real life. My advice? Stay tuned, there are much more exciting things on the horizon.
Read the rest here: Tamagotchi Comes To Android, But After All These Years I’m No Better At Caring For Virtual Pets
Foursquare’s first location to log 1 million check-ins is Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport
Foursquare on Monday announced a big milestone: the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) has become the first location on the mobile social network to pass 1,000,000 check-ins. The number is a big one for the service, and it’s completely unsurprising that it’s an airport to get the title.
Foursquare of course notes ATL is one of the most highly-trafficked airports in the world. Along with checking in at ATL, airport-goers have shared their experiences by leaving over 2,000 tips behind for future travelers, including regarding suggestions regarding where to find power outlets, a quiet place for a nap, or the shortest taxi line.
According to the company’s data, Monday is the airport’s biggest day for travel, and Terminal B sees the most traffic on average. Here’s how the check-ins look like in heatmap form:
Foursquare passed the 3 billion check-in mark back in November 2012. That means ATL makes up less than 0.03 percent of all the service’s check-ins, which is still quite sizeable if you remember it’s just one place.
The concept of checking-in was a very hard one for many to wrap their head around in the early days of Foursquare. Yet people love to announce on Facebook and Twitter when they arrive at an airport, implying that they are travelling somewhere (usually for vacation), and Foursquare quickly leveraged this trend.
It therefore is both expected and rather fitting that an airport was the first to hit the 1 million mark. We wouldn’t be surprised if the next couple of places to hit the same milestone on Foursquare were also all airports. In fact, we’re more interested to see what the first non-airport location to hit 1 million check-ins will be. Hopefully it won’t be a coffee shop.
See also – After nearly 3 billion check-ins, Foursquare reveals its top places across the US for 2012 and Foursquare now includes the business’s Twitter handle when you tweet your check-in from that location
Image credit: Vjeran Lisjak
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