Google Glass to Hit Store Shelves This Year

Will reportedly cost less than $1,500 A year ago, Google Glass was said to be heading for a late-2012 retail debut with a price tag in line with that of current smartphones. A few months later, Google co-founder Sergey Brin put paid to that rumor when he revealed early 2014 as the most likely timeframe for the launch in an interview with Bloomberg. Well, that was back then. The latest update is that Glass will be available a bit sooner than that. Google Glass product director Steve Lee told The Verge's Joshua Topolsky at the search giant's New York headquarters that the Glass team aims to have the augmented reality head-mounted display ready for the consumer market "by the end of this year”, and that they don’t think of it as a niche product but something that “can help every human being.” "We wondered, what if we brought technology closer to your senses? Would that allow you to more quickly get information and connect with other people but do so in a way â€" with a design â€" that gets out of your way when you’re not interacting with technology? That’s sort of what led us to Glass,” Lee said. "It’s a new wearable technology. It’s a very ambitious way to tackle this problem, but that’s really sort of the underpinning of why we worked on Glass." For those who can’t wait till the end of the year, Google is running a competition called #ifIhadglas. The competition, open only to U.S. residents above the age of 18, will earn those chosen the right to pr