Google Demos Gmail, NYT Apps for Glass

This week during SXSW, Google showcased a number of apps that will be offered for its Glass specs when they finally go retail including The New York Times, Evernote, Skitch, Path and Gmail. The app demos are just one of many recent Glass sightings, as Google is becoming more public with its tech wear as the 4Q13 retail release draws near. The specs are expected to cost between $1000 and $1500 USD.

According to Engadget, Gmail will alert the Glass user that a message has arrived by displaying the sender's picture and subject line to the screen. Using a voice command, the user can then tell the Glass specs to display the full message, and another voice command to email the sender a response. Too cool.

As for the New York Times, the Glass wearer can verbally ask for news, and the app will deliver a headline, a byline, an accompanying image, and the number of hours since the article was published. If the user wants to read the article, he/simply taps the specs and the story will be read aloud. Engadget adds that Google and the NYT are also testing a breaking news feature where notifications regarding fresh stories will appear as they're published.

As for Evernote and Skitch, Glass can send images to these services through its share functionality. Social networking app Path will show curated updates on the screen, and will allow users to add emoticons to a friend's post and reply with comments.

"This is just where we started with a few friends to test the API in its early stage," teased Google Glass developer evangelist Timothy Jordan.

Back in February during the TED Conference in Long Beach, California, a Google Glass-sporting Sergey Brin said that smartphones are "emasculating", that users are standing around rubbing a featureless piece of glass. Another Glass app also made an appearance last week, a project partially funded by Google that can detect friends based on their clothing.

Despite all the cool features Glass will ultimately offer, users may still face issues when out in public. Just recently the owner of a Seattle, Washington bar banned the upcoming specs, saying that the bar is a private place that people visit.

"First you have to understand the culture of the 5 Point, which is a sometimes seedy, maybe notorious place. People want to go there and be not known … and definitely don’t want to be secretly filmed or videotaped and immediately put on the Internet."

Guess that means visitors of the 5 Point Café will need to check their Gmail the old fashioned way: via smartphone.

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