Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Samsung rumored to debut Galaxy Glass at IFA

The world of wearable tech is continuing to heat up, with more and more companies introducing new hardware. Sources from The Korea Times report that Samsung, eager to get in on the smart glasses fun, is planning to debut its latest piece of wearable tech at IFA. These smart glasses are, ironically enough, said to be dubbed as Galaxy Glass, an innovative name that Samsung surely worked hard to come up with. Samsung and Google did recently strike a patent-licensing agreement, so technically Google has promised not to sue Samsung over the name.

Galaxy Glass is going to have functionality similar to that of the Galaxy Gear. We can expect to see the ability to display notifications, listen to music, take pictures, receive phone calls and, knowing Samsung, there will also be a whole host of other features that you’ll probably use once. Continuing with the Galaxy Gear similarities, Galaxy Glass will pair with your smartphone.

Details are scarce when it comes to the design, but we can probably expect something similar to Google Glass. The patent application for Samsung’s smart glasses shows that the device may have a look similar to traditional glasses look, but with a translucent display that can display information. One of Samsung’s officials, gave the following quote about the device:

The new smart glass to be introduced by Samsung is a new concept of wearable device that can lead to an exciting culture of communication. The smart glass will present our aim to lead the new market with proven capability. Wearable devices can’t generate profits immediately. Steady releases of devices are showing our firm commitment as a leader in new markets.AnonymousSamsung

Smart glasses are still a very new concept, and we’re interested to see Samsung’s take on them. That said, we can’t help but worry that this could be a typical Samsung release like the Galaxy Gear or Galaxy Round, which were created with the sole purpose of being the first out there. Even if it takes a little longer, we’d love to see Samsung create something really useful with Galaxy Glass. Maybe Samsung will even make a nice version of TouchWiz for it.

What features would you like to see in Galaxy Glass?