Google Glass on Sale for a Brief Time Thursday

Jason O. Gilbert
·Technology Editor
Updated
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(Google)

UPDATE: Google Glass won’t be on sale for long. A Google spokesperson emailed Yahoo Tech with the following statement:

“This link was created to accommodate potential Explorers who were still in the pipeline from last week’s sale. We’re shutting it down shortly. As always, we will continue to experiment with ways to expand the Explorer program in the weeks and months ahead.”

There you have it. This isn’t the big day for Google Glass; Google simply opened orders back up for those who got stuck during April 15’s one-day sale. You’ll have to wait until later this year if you want your next chance at ordering Glass.

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ORIGINAL STORY:

Google’s glasses are headed to the masses.

On Thursday afternoon, Google made Google Glass available to purchase online. This marks the first time, aside from a one-day stunt, that anyone could buy the controversial, Internet-connected headset.

Previously, Glass was available only to so-called Explorers — either developers who had earned the right to buy Glass first by attending a Google conference, or else winners of contests on Twitter and Google+. Google also opened up sales of Glass to everyone for one day only, on April 15 of this year.

Google Glass costs $1,500 and is still marked on Google’s website as an Explorer Edition. Google has used the “Explorer” term to signify that neither Glass itself, nor the software it runs, is yet complete.

Glass is worn like a pair of glasses, and pairs with your smartphone to deliver notifications to a small display in front of the right eye. It works with both Android phones and the iPhone. Wearers can read emails, surf Twitter and send text messages without needing to take their phone out of their pockets; a small microphone enables voice recognition, and sound is played for the wearer through a technique called bone conduction.

Glass has attracted much controversy since it was released in beta form last year. It has raised privacy concerns — the hardware features a camera that faces outward — and has caused some violence in San Francisco. A Google Glass exec recently admitted that he expected the backlash, and said that backlash was a “necessary symptom of a company that’s trying to be disruptive.” Google has also set to tamp down privacy criticisms in blog posts and public appearances.

If you’ve got $1,500 and want to try out Glass, you can buy it right here.