Project Glass

Intel's Vaunt smart glasses are real, and they're arguably the most realistic vision of how wearable computing can escape the "Glasshole" reputation. Fruit of the chip-maker's efforts to develop super-low-power processors for lightweight headsets, they may look like regular fashion frames but there's a laser surprise hidden inside. Just as important as what Vaunt's smart glasses can do, though, is the ways in which Intel has tried to circumnavigate its ill-fated predecessors.

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You now have a chance to get your hands on an unreleased follow-up to one of the biggest tech hardware flops in recent history: an Enterprise Edition of the Google Glass wearable. A listing for one has turned up for sale on eBay, making it a surprising find of a device that was only rumored to be in development in recent months. While it may look like the original Google Glass that debuted back in 2013 — dozens of which can also be found on eBay — the auction offers some of the first public images of the modifications made for enterprise users.

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Today we're getting our first good look at Google Glass version 2, also known (for now) as Google Glass: Enterprise Edition. This version of the device has a few changes in its hardware - the most apparent of which is the removal of the metal bar that attached the glass unit to the opposite side of the wearer's head. There's also a ball joint for the eyepiece. But what's most important here is the addition of a single light - right near the front-facing camera.

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The second edition Google Glass header has appeared, and it looks... very similar to the first. This is what Google calls the "Enterprise Edition" of the headset, aiming it directly at the industry that decided it was a device that'd be helpful - businesses. Using this headset in the line of duty in a wide variety of trades has been a real boon for the popularity of the device, and here it would appear that it's been kept afloat by the segment that Google doesn't normally go after - not with as much veracity as the consumer world, anyway.

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Wearables like Glass may have struggled in public, but Volkswagen is all-smiles with its trial of "3D smart glasses" in car manufacturing. The automaker has kicked off tests to see whether head-mounted computers can speed up parts picking, with employees at its Wolfsburg plant in northern Germany relying on the wearables to not only guide them around the vast number of components that go into a modern vehicle, but make sure they pick up the right piece.

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Glass may not have been the wearable revolution Google hoped, but the latest rumors suggest the reborn Project Aura is now working on a trio of successors. The team, which rebranded earlier this year and reportedly busied itself working on an enterprise wearable for users less swayed by fashion and more by functionality, is now said to have both consumers and businesses in mind.

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Not all of Google's ambitious, sometimes insane, projects become as successful as it might have dreamed, no matter how expensive that dream was. Such was the fate of Google Glass, it seemed, the company's real first wearable, predating even Android Wear. That dream, however, never really died and might soon be making a comeback, with a fresh new name and some fresh new faces. Supposedly now called Project Aura, at least internally, the new team will be manned interestingly by some of Amazon's own lost engineers.

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The second big release for Google Glass is on its way, but not in the way the remaining "Glass for Fun" enthusiasts might've hoped. Instead it would seem that those pushing for an enterprise angle for the headset have gotten their wish. This second-generation Google Glass won't be built for the public. It'll be built for businesses. While the possibility remains that Glass for Fun could pop up, for now it's more of a pipe dream for the average citizen and lover of leisure.

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Samsung may be next on the list of hardware companies to deliver a smart headset with dual-Google Glass-like displays, 3D cameras, and augmented reality/holography. This device does not yet have a formal name, instead opting in early registration documents as a "wearable display apparatus" only. The image you see before you is not the same as Samsung's earlier Google Glass competitor seen back in January of 2014 - this headset is brand new. It's wireless, and it's sporting virtual imagery the likes of which we've never seen before.

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The Apple Watch has been launched today - more or less - and is being proliferated around the world through the eyes and ears of onlookers. While some consumers have gotten their devices, most of the population of the world has yet to jump aboard the smartwatch train - or even the wearables train. As such, we've had a talk with Andrej Kostresevic, CEO for Nomads, about what it'll take to bring the smartwatch to the public, starting with the idea that Android Wear has a "lack of friction" and the idea that Google Glass "failed."

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Google Glass version 2, hopefully without the sort of styling only a geek could love and more everyday functionality, is already in progress, Google's eyewear partner has confirmed. The head-worn wearable's demise in its Explorer Edition form was heralded by some as an admission that the project was a failure, but Google insisted that a phased roadmap was always the intention. Now, one of the key players involved in that roadmap has spoken up.

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Google's Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette spoke up this afternoon during the company's Q4 2014 earnings call about Glass. Briefly mentioning Glass as an example of a project that needed to "take a pause", Pichette continued by suggesting that Google sometimes does have to "take the tough calls." He didn't say the company would be closing shop on Google Glass, but he got just about as close to saying such a thing as he could without the media making the call - and they still just might.

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