Google announced yesterday that a major software update is coming to Glass this week. As U.S. shoppers today got a one-day chance to buy Glass, the update has already begun to roll out. The key change in build XE16 is likely to be the bump to Android 4.4 KitKat which brings better battery life and promises to make Glass more reliable.
Our most exciting update is subtle, but big. We’ve been working on a significant upgrade to a new version of the Glass software. It’s not a change you can see, but it brings improved battery life and makes Glass more reliable and easier to update in the future. And now that Glass runs Android KitKat, developers can write Glassware using the latest Android SDK goodness, along with new features from our GDK.
Among the new and improved features found in the update are photo bundles where media such as photos, videos and vignettes will be collected into bundles to cut down on swiping and improved photo sharing in Hangouts including the ability to take a new picture to reply to a message. Voice commands will now be sorted by recency and frequency making it easier to see and easily access your most commonly used commands.
Google also decided to remove video calls from Glass. It explained that the decision was made because video calls were not living up to its standards. With only 10% of Glass Explorers, Google decided to drop the feature “until the experience is better.” It did not provide any timeline as to when that might be and pointed out that third-party developers are already working on other video streaming services.
Google is still expected to launch a consumer version of Glass later this year.
Source : +GoogleGlass