First batch of Google Glass ready to ship out

We already knew that Google Glass will be coming soon thanks to the Android companion app and the specs of the device getting announced officially. Google has now announced that the company is ready to ship the first batches of Glass to those who qualified for the pre-order process.

The company wants to start shipping Glass as soon as possible, but is waiting for the full production run to get completed so it can fulfil all the pre-orders. Glass will be shipped out in batches to the 2,000 ‘Glass Explorers’ who signed up for early bird editions of the device Google’s I/O developer conference in San Francisco last year.

Glass has an impressive screen, and its app uses the card UI

“We are producing enough for everyone, but only a portion of them (Glass) are ready today. Therefore we will be notifying you in waves,” Google said in an email statement.

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The early batches of Glass only cover only those Google I/O early birds, but Google also has to deliver more of the wearables to those who won the #ifihadglass Twitter contest. That will most likely happen after the second production run. That Google is taking its time in shipping a mere 2000 Glass devices suggests that there is still some way to go before production of the device is smoothened out for the mass market. At the moment, only the select few developers will be getting their devices. Foxconn, the manufacturing partner for Apple’s iPhone, is also producing Glass for Google in the US.

Earlier, Google released the developer guidelines for its Glass Mirror API. Access to the API is still in limited preview and only developers who have access to the Glass hardware will be able to work with the API. The guidelines themselves make for an interesting reading.

According to Google, developers should make sure their apps are created with Glass in mind and testing on Glass appears to be a strict pre-requisite before submission. Google was also specific about not letting the Glass experience get in the way of everyday activities.

Google has urged developers to not include ads in the apps that are submitted for Glass, nor submit a paid app. Similarly, it has asked developers to make sure their apps don’t annoy users with frequent and loud notifications. Given that Glass will probably be worn all day, this last guideline will please users. Developers have also been urged not to surprise users with unexpected functionality.