While the Google Glass headset does some cool stuff, it still needs to interface with a traditional smartphone to do things like navigation, and text messaging. Until now, the optical wonder would only pair for these functions with an Android smartphone running the Glass companion app.
This will change very soon, however, one of the Google representatives in its New York office told me when I picked up my own unit yesterday afternoon. Glass, the Google employee told me, will soon be able to handle these features independent of the device the user has paired it to (and maybe even independent of the Glass companion app).
Glass will currently interface with any iPhone over Bluetooth, or use any Wi-Fi connection to get online. However, iPhone users are currently unable to get turn-by-turn directions through Glass, which is arguably one of the most useful features for the headset.
Ideally, enabling Glass to work with the iPhone will lead to the ability to access navigation feature on the phone. It’s not known if this could be accomplished via the built-in Apple Maps app for navigation, or if the iPhone will need to have Google’s own Google Maps app installed.
Google Glass remains a pricey gadget, $1,500 a pair being the going rate. The Google Glass official tech specs page states the Glass Explorer editions feature a five-megapixel camera with 720p video capture and sixteen gigabytes of storage, 12GB of which is usable.
