As far as wearable computing is concerned, Google Glass is one of the most eyed projects ever since it was demoed. At the ongoing SXSW 2013 being held at the Austin Convention Center, Google raised the curtains on its Google Glass flaunting the device's capabilities from an apps perspective.
The Verge, present at the event mentioned that each Glass integration must abide by four principles: "design for glass," "don't get in the way," "keep it timely," and "avoid the unexpected."
The search giant demonstrated third-party apps such as Gmail, Path, Evernote, Skitch and New York Times. The Verge mentions that all information is placed in a Timeline cards interface and uses Google's Mirror API to process the data.
Google Glass developer evangelist Timothy Jordan started with the New York Times app. Ask for any news and Glass pulls up a headline, byline, a story image and the time in hours since the article was first posted. Furthermore, users can have the news article text read aloud to them by tapping their eye wear. A breaking news feature is in the works where notifications regarding important stories will appear as they're published.
Gmail also gained some attention with its very own app. An email sender's image and subject line will appear on the device's screen, and users can reply by dictating their messages via Google's voice recognition. The Gmail subscription, however, as The Verge points out, can be configured only for receiving "Important" emails.
Evernote and Skitch also received a fair share of the limelight showing off the ability to send images to the services through Glass' share functionality. Once a picture is clicked, you can swipe the trackpad to access a Share mode, swipe to Skitch, and tap it to share a picture.
Jordan further demonstrated cross platform image sharing, describing a scenario where you could take a photo at a meeting using Glass, post it to Skitch, and later, use your tablet to annotate the image and save it to Evernote.
Social networking app, Path can receive curated updates on Google's Glass and also allow users to add emoticons and reply to other posts with comments. "Path sends me pictures from the people I know really well and the people that I love. I can tap on any one of them to comment or choose an emoticon without breaking my stride. It's made for Glass, it's timely, and it's never really unexpected. It's a community I already curated on Path," Jordan said.
In case this doesn't seem enough to check out Google Glass, Jordan says, "This is just where we started with a few friends to test the API in its early stage."