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Sarah Tew/CNET
If you’re wearing Google Glass , you can name that tune in one — if you’re in the UK. Popular music recognition app Shazam was named today as one of a raft of new services for the high-tech specs, but only for British Glass-wearers.
Shazam is a smartphone app that listens to the music playing wherever you are and tells you what it is — useful when you’re getting down in the club. It now comes to Google Glass, and all you have to do is say “OK Google, what’s that song?” to find out not only the name of the top tuneage belting out of the speakers, but also see the lyrics scrolling across the tiny screen over your right eye.
Shazam is based in the musical mecca that is Hammersmith, West London, so it makes sense that it’s striking a chord with Glass in the UK. Speaking to CNET, a Shazam spokesperson said that the whole Glass concept is experimental, but that Shazam is likely to come to the US fairly soon.
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Google Glass is a piece of wearable technology that looks like a pair of glasses without the lenses. Attached to the right temple — that’s the proper name for the arm of a pair of a glasses, nomenclature fans — is a tiny screen. On the screen you can check your Gmail messages, search the Web, navigate along a journey or use other various other apps. Apps are known as Glassware. Glassware is controlled by tapping or swiping on the side of the specs, tilting your head, or announcing “OK Google” and telling Glass what to do.
Glass makes phone calls with a mic and a “bone conduction” speaker, or headphones. It also has a built-in camera to take hands-free photos and video.
Other new apps announced today include British newspaper The Guardian and StarChart, which displays constellations on the screen in a head-up — way, way up — display. You start stargazing by saying “OK Google — Explore the stars,” and star charts appear. You can switch between day and night mode, and what’s really cool is if you look down, you’re seeing the stars on the other side of the world — you’re effectively looking through the Earth at the stars beyond.
Google Glass went on sale in Britain today, the first time it’s available outside the US. Glass costs £1,000 in Britain and $1,500 in the US.
