glass

Qualcomm CEO discusses Sharp ties, doesn't reveal much

LAS VEGAS--Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said the company is working with Sharp on some next-generation technology that will make device screens much brighter, but revealed little else when asked about the chipmaker's recent investment in the ailing electronics maker.

When asked at a CES 2013 press Q&A why the company invested in Sharp and how open-ended that relationship was, Jacobs said the companies are working together on technologies and will continue to work on licensing. Many consumers aren't familiar with Qualcomm, but the company's processors power most of the world's smartphones.

Jacobs said the … Read more

Future vision: Wearable tech that requires FDA approval

LAS VEGAS--The rush is on to market eyeglasses that augment your vision with a dose of media -- from the much-celebrated Google Glass project to a pair of specs made by Visux that my colleague Scott Stein sported the other night here at CES 2013.

And then there's Innovega, which is at CES this year to show off its version of augmented-reality eyewear -- a setup that tries to one-up the others by offering a full-blown media experience through glasses. If all goes as planned, people eventually will be able to watch HD movies or become fully immersed in … Read more

Wearing the future: Hands on with Vuzix M100 Smart Glasses

LAS VEGAS--Cyborgs, meet your gear. The Vuzix M100 Smart Glasses, a wearable Bluetooth/Wi-Fi headpiece with a built-in HD camera and WQVGA floating eyepiece display, are on hand to try out at CES 2013. Previously seen in nonworking prototype form at the end of last year, the M100 Smart Glasses will run on Android and eventually iOS and be available by summer 2013 (fall for iOS, pending app approval).

"It would feel like you're looking at a screen the size of your phone, but the image floats out in space," Vuzix President and Chief Executive Paul Travers … Read more

Tougher Gorilla Glass 3 means more-scratch-proof screens

Corning's goal: to shatter its own status quo when it comes to the strength of its Gorilla Glass screens for consumer electronics.

At CES, the glass maker will debut Gorilla Glass 3, the company's latest effort in the daily battle against scratched, splintered, and shattered device screens.

By studying glass' atomic structure and bonding properties, Corning's team was able to "invent another kind of glass" that makes the substance less brittle, and less prone to scratches, says David Velasquez, Gorilla Glass' director of marketing and commercial operations.

Corning terms this additional fortitude "native damage … Read more

Google Glass development charges ahead

It's been six months since Google unveiled its Google Glass project, and it appears the tech giant is still hard at work ironing out the kinks to get the product ready for consumption.

In an interview with IEEE Spectrum published today, the head of the Google Glass project, Babak Parviz, said his team is continuing to try out new ideas and that both the software and hardware development is coming along.

"We constantly try out new ideas of how this platform can be used," Parviz told IEEE Spectrum. "We're also trying to make the platform … Read more

Flexy iPhone someday? Apple patents method to bend glass

Apple has patented a method that could help propel traditional glass screens into a flexible future.

The new patent, first discovered by Wired, was awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. U.S. patent 8,336,334 details a method of using heat while bending glass over a mold in order to encourage a particular shape -- and so who's to say that Apple's iPhone and iPad might not one day sport the curved equivalent of a traditional, straight glass screen?

Apple's not alone in exploring the possibility of flexible screens for gadgets. Samsung, for … Read more

Google Glass

Count on Google to deliver the future before you're even quite ready to receive it, and to deliver it via a team of skydivers with Sergey Brin in tow. The company made clear its lofty ambitions for the Google Glass project -- the aptly named effort to put a smartphone's brains in a pair of interactive spectacles -- with an unprecedented press event at Google I/O in June.

Google says it wants Google Glass to help users interact with the virtual world without distracting them from the real world. The tech community responded with excitement, poring over … Read more

Xbox SmartGlass Android app now supports 7-inch tablets

Owners of the Google Nexus 7 and other 7-inch Android tablets can now remotely control their Xbox 360 consoles via a free app.

Updated yesterday, the Xbox SmartGlass for Android app acts as a second screen for your Xbox console. You can use the app on your phone or tablet to navigate your Xbox dashboard, control videos and music playing on your console, search Microsoft's Xbox catalog, and surf the Internet.

Until yesterday, the app worked only on certain Android devices. The release notes for the update don't list which 7-inch tablets the app now supports. But logging … Read more

Nexus 7 explodes in China, Asus runs to rescue

The Nexus 7 has been one of the smokin' hot tablets of 2012, and unfortunately for one user in China, that was literally the case.

The user posted the photo above to a forum on Baidu (China's home-grown answer to Google), claiming that the device began smoking while plugged in and charging on its original factory charger. In the process, the guts of the tablet seem to have been totally torched.… Read more