With XE9 Update, Google Glass Gets Remote Control, Google Apps Support & More

Google Glass owners can now control the device remotely via their Android phone or tablet. That remote control capability is just one of several updates announced Monday as part of the latest software update for Glass.

This monthly update is the XE9 update and here are a few of the new features:

Remote Control

With XE9, Glass can now be controlled via the Android phone or tablet that it’s paired with. That’s made possible by a recent update to the MyGlass Android app — an app that includes a “screencast” tool that shows on the Android screen exactly what is showing on the Glass display. (That app is how we make our Glass screenshots, for example.)

With those two software updates combined, the screencast feature does more than show what’s on the Glass display — it also serves the same role as the Glass’ touchpad, meaning users can use their Android device to shoot video, photos, do searches and anything else that’s possible with Glass.

Photo Vignettes

Another new feature is called Vignettes. It lets Glass owners overlay whatever is on their display with a photo that’s taken via the camera button on Glass. As I was looking at my local weather forecast Monday afternoon, I took a scenic photo and the vignette tool combined them like this:

It’s certainly not the most useful feature, although some app makers and brands might use it to promote their Glass apps. To some degree, it replaces the functionality offered by the GlassSim.com website.

Google Apps Support

Google is in the process of letting Google Apps account holders use those accounts with Glass. The detailed release notes say that “most Google Apps are supported and we’ll continue testing and adding services as we go.” Glass owners need to do a factory reset on the device in order to setup Glass with their Apps account.

This latest software update is heavy on new search capabilities, which I’ve written about in this Search Engine Land article: Google Glass Gets Universal Search: News, Video, Sound Results & More.