Google Glass gets its first firmware update in three years, world barely notices

Remember Google Glass? A few years ago, many tech pundits were calling Google’s wearable technology product the next big thing, and the true successor to smartphones for portable computing. However, there hasn’t been any major activity on that front for several years. This week, hopes for a revival were stoked as Google released the first update for existing Glass products since October 2014.

The support page for the firmware update shows that it now adds native support for pairing a Google Glass device with Bluetooth products. Android Police reports that they got their Glass device to work, at least in part, with a Bluetooth keyboard. The release notes adds this update also contains some unnamed “bug fixes and performance improvements”.

The big question: why is Google even bothering to release an update for its Glass products in the first place? It’s possible that the company is very quietly testing some next-generation eyewear devices and some of that work was folded into an update for anyone who might still be rocking the old school Glass product. Google has been publishing patent applications for the past couple of years centering on those kinds of products, but we would seem to be no closer to a new Glass device being officially revealed than we were back in 2014.

Would you like to see Google launch a new version of Glass, or do you think has its time come and gone? Let us know how you feel in the comments!