Top 10 Google Glass features: Translators, how-to guides and augmented reality
We break down the best reasons to explore Google's wearable tech
Since Google first launched its Glass Explorer programme in the US in 2012, UK buyers have viewed the technology with cautious curiosity.
However, early revelations about the tech and an ongoing lack of updates from Google, about if and when it would expand the Glass Explorer programme outside of the US, meant that until now interest in the technology has never really exploded.
Luckily with Google Glass now on sale in the UK, interest in the wearable technology has reignited, and businesses and general consumers across the nation are wondering how and if it can help them.
Here to help answer these questions, having extensively played with Google Glass at the London launch, we've created a definitive list of the wearable tech's best features.
10. Push updates from news services
These days it's hard to avoid the news. Twitter Timelines run wild whenever something big breaks, phone apps buzz with alerts, and friends rush to text, "Oh my god, have you heard..." and Google Glass will take this to a whole new level.
Now, wearers of the Glass kit will be able to have updates sent right to their eyes. This will remove that tiresome need to turn your head down to look at your phone or worse get it out of your pocket, and remove the need to have to click to visit your favourite news website or watch your Twitter Timeline.
It will only be a matter time before you're on a train and you hear someone exclaim loudly that a celebrity has been arrested, and turn to see they're wearing Google Glass.
Top 10 Google Glass features: Translators, how-to guides and augmented reality
We break down the best reasons to explore Google's wearable tech
9. Directions
Smartphones have transformed the way we navigate. Only a few years ago we had to rely on huge atlases in our cars for directions, or dog-eared travel guidebooks to navigate cities, but now we just whip out our smartphones.
However, this can be tiring, as you constantly have to get your phone out to check you're on the right track, and in some places it may not be the best idea to have a glowing £500 smartphone broadcasting a map that shows you're lost.
With Glass directions, though, you can keep the screen open and showing your route the entire time, in perfect orientation, with a little more discretion - aside from the fact there's a £1,000 piece of kit on your face.
Perhaps more exciting than this, though, is the notion that developers could make apps that would present information on landmarks and locations as you pass by, helping you proactively learn more about an area, and help you become that irritating know-it-all tour guide you always wanted to be.
8. Augmented reality
Always likely to be a popular application of Google Glass is augmented reality, which has had some solid support on the platform.
Layar was an early entrant, and it will let users give voice commands to scan an image or object to get information on it. This - effectively an extra ‘layer' of information - was announced in the spring.
Augmented reality, is, some say, Glass's killer app and has many potential benefits. Health and leisure users may like to compete in a race against a virtual opponent, see Race Yourself, which can see you pursued by a virtual truck. The function could also be used in galleries and museums as an alternative to headsets and recordings, for example.
Augmented reality could also be used to present soldiers with up-to-date maps and other briefings. A similar role in the emergency services such as fire and rescue is also very likely.
Top 10 Google Glass features: Translators, how-to guides and augmented reality
We break down the best reasons to explore Google's wearable tech
7. Instant camera
One of the joys of modern tech is that everything comes with high-quality cameras. This means you can snap at any moment and never miss a thing. Well, not quite.
Although smartphones mean we always have a camera to hand, we've all known that frustration when we can't quite unlock it quick enough to grab a shot of that amazing scene unfolding in front of us.
With Google Glass on your noggin, though, you can just say a few magic words and instantly the photo is taken. Hey presto, no more missed shots.
Of course, just be careful where you do this, as the lure of a good photo shouldn't come at the risk of being arrested, chased down the street or beaten up.
6. 24/7 email access
Smartphones have already made it so its hard for any worker to switch off and completely detach from work, with the ever-looming buzz in your pocket that occurs when a new email comes in, offering a stark reminder that the wheels of commerce are still turning.
While this is slightly scary as it makes it difficult to have any downtime, the technology has made it easier to stay productive on the move and ensure you're always on top of your workload. We think that, by the time of its release, thanks to its improved voice command and push update services Glass will have the potential to take this to the next level, so you can see and manage any incoming messages with the blink of an eye.
5. Language translator
One of the best features we've seen on Glass so far is Word Lens. Word Lens is an innovative application owned by Google that's designed to make Glass translate any text you're looking at.
The app is currently available in a number of European languages including English, French, German, Spanish and Italian - though the company plans to expand the number of languages available in the very near future.
As we noted in our 2014 eyes-on review of the app, World Lens is a very impressive Glass service that simply requires you to say, "OK Glass: translate," to activate it. Once activated we simply had to look at the piece of text and tap the language we wanted it translated to using the trackpad.
Playing with the tech we found, not only was Word Lens accurate, it was also very quick and was able to translate posters and information boards in seconds. Considering most UK citizens have abysmal foreign language skills, we're thinking services such as World Lens will become an invaluable Glass feature in the very near future.
Top 10 Google Glass features: Translators, how-to guides and augmented reality
We break down the best reasons to explore Google's wearable tech
4. How-to guides
Tutorials are a big part of the internet experience, and YouTubers can get face-to-face counselling and advice on many, many areas.
Whether you want to learn how to dance, how to fix an engine, or how to tattoo or your own eyebrows, there is an online guide available.
Glass will revolutionise this experience and let people learning a skill, or a trade, get the information direct to their face, hands free and on the job.
Education and learning will benefit greatly, and soon teachers might be communicating with their students through Glass, and students will be able to fact-check and revise through the same mechanisms.
In areas such as medicine, for example, precise and highly complex procedures carried out in first-person view can be preserved, stored and studied. It's still early days for Glass in the classroom, but it is likely to change learning.
3. Healthcare
Google's been making a big deal about Glass's potential application in the healthcare industry, and for good reason.
As well as offering all the basic message and productivity applications and services you'd expect, such as access to email, Glass's augmented reality and cloud services offering mean it could literally be a lifesaver for hospitals.
For example, imagine how useful it would be for a doctor if, using Google Glass, he could automatically pull up patient records and see their health history in real time simply by looking at the person in his care.
While this may sound slightly sci-fi, the technology is closer to achieving this than you may think, and already competing smartglass companies, such as Epson, have begun developing similar solutions for its own smart goggles.
Top 10 Google Glass features: Translators, how-to guides and augmented reality
We break down the best reasons to explore Google's wearable tech
2. Big man on campus
Given its price and relative exclusivity Google Glass represents itself as something of a status symbol.
The man in the street possibly has no immediate use for it, and nor do the chaps in the office post room. The big boss does though. The CEO, and probably the CIO, are the perfect people to use Google Glass.
They must have immediate access to information, and they must have it as soon as they want it, ask their assistants.
In a business environment Glass comes into its own and offers users instant information gratification. Everything from staff salaries to performance information is at their disposal.
Enterprise adoption of new technology is nothing new, and in most enterprises the latest gadgets - see the early days of Blackberry - readily installed on desks and in pockets. Glass is unlikely to buck this trend.
1. It's open source
One of the most important things to remember when talking about Google Glass is that it's still in the prototyping stage.
While you can now buy Glass in the UK, it's still a product in testing and the Explorer version is designed to help Google develop the technology and get developers interested in creating applications for it.
As an open platform, this means that while Google has already had some success with getting key developers to create interesting applications for Glass, we've currently only seen the tip of the iceberg.
Given the buzz around Glass and the improvements we've noticed since our original 2013 experience of the technology, to our latest 2014 encounter, we can't help but feel the best is yet to come.