Google Glass XE9 Update Released OTA

We were expecting the XE9 update for Google Glass for a while and here it is. The XE9 update has been released OTA to all Google Glass Explorers starting of yesterday and it does come with some nice new features.

Xe9 comes with Vignettes, Sound Search, Google Search can now play videos, new Google Now cards for transit, reminders, nearby attractions, photo spots, search results now provide news too, along with other minor improvements.

As we already expected, XE9 also brings the remote control function to Google Glass, soon after the MyGlass app came with this feature.

Vignettes allows you to take a photo and add your Glass display to it, so people can see what you were looking at on the display at the moment you took it. To use this function, take a normal picture and then tap to make the Vignette. You will now have a photo with a small screenshot of your Glass’ display.

Google Search can now find and play videos for you. Just add the word video at the end of your search query and it will return you videos (e.g. “How to use Google Glass video”). Then tap to play the video.

Sound Search. This feature’s name is a bit confusing and it has nothing to do with your voice. If you long press the touchpad and then swipe forward, Google Glass will start listening to background noises and try to recognize the song you’re listening to. This also works with the voice command “ok Glass, Google what song is this?”

New Google Now Cards. Google continues bringing new cards for Google New and this is pretty cool, You can now get public transit directions, set reminders on your phone and tablet and have the alarm triggered on Glass, find out about nearby attractions and photo spots.

Google Search now returns news results too, just like on the web, which is pretty neat, because it only does that when there are news about that subject.

Google Apps accounts are now supported. You no longer need a Gmail address to use Google Glass, so you can use your company email too.

Searches performed on Glass are now saved in your search history.