Gadgetory

whoo-hoo glass isn't ready for the masses yet the augmented reality headset has technical problems that still need to be overcome the software is still in active development battery life isn't that great and we're not even sure what we want to do with a tiny screen on our face anyway but before we figure all that out Google needs to make sure the glass can work for everybody the Google glass Explorer program has been slowly expanding over the past year but I've never used them that's because I have prescription glasses but now Google is releasing four different frames that work with prescription lenses so I can finally see what life is like through glass well there have been rumors that Google would partner with Warby Parker or other established glasses makers today the company is announcing that it's going out on its own with four new frames instead of completely redesigning glass Google kept the electronic parts the same you just attach that part with a tiny screw to the new glasses Google calls these four frames and titanium collection and sure enough each is made of the metal the designs are simple and fairly elegant you might say restrained and the design goal was to try to pare down the broad categories of glass of shapes into their most iconic forms Google calls a bold curved thin and split we started looking at what are people's favorite styles and what are things on the market and when you look at it there are only about eight kinds of styles that people actually do wear so we looked at those and took inspiration from those but then made them more iconic and simplify them into kind of this silhouette there's also a few new sunglasses that we clipped onto the original glass headband now Google isn't filling your prescriptions you'll need to pony up the 225 dollars to buy the frames on top of the 1500 bucks you're already spending on the base unit then you're going to need to get your lenses cut afterwards Google has a list of eye care professionals it recommends but it's not the massive expansion of the glass Explorer program that many even waiting for and though the four frames are pretty good they're certainly not going to appeal to every person's tastes the glasses are surprisingly comfortable and just slightly less weird-looking than glass on its own they're thin and light I guess you could say inoffensive which for a set of hardware designed to put a screen and camera above your right eye ball is kind of exactly what you'd want now we're definitely focusing on slow expanding the Explorer program and of course with these this release of this new collection it opens it up to a lot more people the frames are simple and elegant with clean lines and they're pretty light too I don't know if it's going to make people want to try Google glass but at least now they'll be able to see for themselves