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Pandora's Google Glass app puts music right into your bones

Web's top radio service launches app for Google's wearable computer, letting owners pick stations with voice commands and listen through earbuds or bone-conduction feature.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials
  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
Joan E. Solsman

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Pandora's new app for Google Glass lets wearers select a station or create a new one with voice commands. Pandora

Pandora's app for Google Glass launches Wednesday, putting the top Internet radio provider's stations just a voice command away.

Glass, Google's $1,500 head-mounted, voice-activated computer, became available for public purchase in May but remains a niche device. Pandora's head of business development, Ian Geller, said the point of the Glass app was to see how wearables and radio work well together -- and where they flop.

"We can live in a world where people will have a closer connection to their music because they're wearing it somewhere on their bodies," he said. "It's less about us than about making bets on winners. We're trying to figure out the ultimate use."

Built by Pandora out of an internal hackathon project, the app plays music for wearers in three possible ways: through a built-in speaker and bone conduction, no headphones required; with a single earbud included in the device's kit; and with a double-earbud accessory like a micro-USB headset.

Wearers access their personalized radio stations. Voice commands can select an existing station and create a new one, while tapping the touchpad can "thumb-up" and "thumb-down" tracks as well as pause, skip and stop songs.