Google Glass smartglasses are finally available in the UK for £1,000, two years after they were extravagantly launched by skydivers in the US.

The smartglasses have been praised by adherents who describe it as the evolution of wearable computing, while Google co-founder Sergey Brin has called them a way to "free your eyes", and described smartphones as "emasculating".

But they have also been the object of privacy objections, ridicule and even muggings in the US.

The devices, costing £1,000, are now available for purchase by anyone over 18 years old and with a UK credit card and address.

Google Glass consists of a pair of glasses with a small prism-based translucent screen-mounted above the right eye. It can take pictures or video from a front-facing camera, controlled by a voice command or a swipe on the right-hand armature, and is designed to display at-a-glance information on its screen which is visible only to the user. It runs a variant of Google’s Android mobile software, and relies on a smartphone for its data connectivity. Google says it offers about a day's battery life, or 45 minutes' continuous video recording.

“We know there’s a pent-up demand for Glass, from all over the world,” Ivy Ross, the new head of Glass, told the Guardian. “As we start to branch out we picked the UK first because we think it has a history of embracing technology, design and fashion, and I think there’s a resurgence happening in technology in the UK.”

(theguardian)