Google Glass Explorers have been busy developing apps for the device with the Mirror API that launched alongside the hardware. Developers may have found themselves running into some limitations, but that will be fixed in the future.
During the Developing for Glass session at Google I/O, Timothy Jordan, Senior Developer Advocate for Project Glass, announced that the Glass team is working on a Glass Developer Kit. Unlike the Mirror API, which only supports apps that push content, the Glass Developer Kit will allow for the creation of offline apps.
More importantly, the Glass Developer Kit will also give developers access to the hardware itself. Some hackers have already gained access to the hardware through software exploits, but there hasn’t been any official way to get at the hardware yet. There is no word yet, however, as to how deep the hardware access will go. Hackers have shown that Glass can do some pretty scary things so I’m a little unsure of how deep Google will let developers go.
So, when will the Glass Developer Kit be available to developers? Google says it will be out sometime in the future. We don’t know when that future is, but we’ll let you know when the future becomes now.
Jordan’s Developing for Glass session is not up on YouTube yet, but the live feed that originally aired it is. Jordan’s session starts at the 1:06 mark:
In other Glass news, Twitter has just launched an official app for Glass. Other services like Facebook, Tumblr, CNN and Evernote have also launched official apps today.
[h/t: Engadget]