Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin showed up at the TED conference yesterday, where he talked up Google Glass and stated that breakthrough wearable computing device will ship later this year for less than $1,500. Google had previously charged developers $1,500 for the Explorer edition of the product at Google I/O in 2012.

Brin expanded on some of the reasons behind the project. He called ‘the cellphone a nervous habit’ to which people resort to when they are in social situations. He said that Google Glass takes that away.

He called human interaction with the cellphone ‘emasculating’ and stated that his wife continued to use a BlackBerry. Brin also shot down the eBay listing that promised Google Glass for $15,000. He advised people to wait for the real thing.

Under the Google ChromeBook program, many OEMs design and sell their own hardware, which is essentially run on Google’s Chrome OS. Apparently, Google has ambitious plans for ChromeBooks on the lines of the Nexus program for Android smartphones and it is planning to launch a super high resolution ChromeBook that has been designed by its own engineers and will have an Ultra-high resolution display similar to the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. All this has come to light thanks to a mysterious video that popped up on the web and now has been revealed to be from Slinky.me whose servers were hacked and the video was lifted from it.

The video tantalises a purely Google made ChromeBook that has a resolution of 2560×1700 pixels and has a touch screen and carries a more unique design than the average ChromeBook. That said no specs have been revealed. Notably, Slinky CEO apologized to Google co-founder Sergey Brin on Google+ in a public post. Additionally, developer François Beaufort claims that he knows of a laptop codenamed ‘Link’ that has 4 million pixels and touch screen capabilities that is being tested at Google’s Mountain View campus. And the fact that 4 million pixels convert to a resolution of 2560×1700 pixels can be no coincidence.

Either this could be one of surprise launches that Google is planning for Google I/O in May or this could be an incredibly orchestrated fan made fake video. Only time will tell.

Wired Magazine’s Steven Levy has always had special access to Google. Heck, he wrote In the Plex, a book that catalogued how the company operated. Today, he published an exclusive interview with Google CEO Larry Page and the interview not only gives some unique insight in the way how he runs the company but some very interesting revelations were made. Perhaps the most interesting revelation was that Larry Page wanted to build Google Glass 14 years back when he was still in Stanford University building Google with Sergey Brin.

Page had spelled out the specs for what we now know as Google Glass back in 2002, but then Page went on to state that he wanted to do it even before, but he never had the guts to pull it off.  He stated Google X was about making unique breakthrough products and not iterative products that the company was already the best at. He talked about giving users a wildly better user experience.

Besides this, he also took potshots at both Apple and Facebook. When asked about Steve Jobs’ thermonuclear war against Android, he replied, “How well is that working?” Additionally he said that Facebook was doing a really bad job with its products without going into specifics.

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Perhaps the most vivid technology news related memory of 2012, was when Sergey Brin waltzed into Vic Gundotra’s Google I/O keynote to showcase an incredible demo of Google Glass. At the event Google offered the Google Glass Explorer edition to developer as a pre-order for a cool $1,500. It appears six months later there is more Glass news as Google has announced two developer events in San Francisco and New York respectively for developers to play around with Glass. Developers will be given a unit each for two days and will be given an introduction to Glass, its Mirror API which will be followed by a development hackathon.

Google is calling this the Glass Foundry. The second day of the event will have special judges and a round of demonstrations. People who have received the invite much register by January 18 4PM PST as there is limited space. Google will send out mails to registered developers confirming their slot and telling them how to proceed further. The San Francisco leg kicks of on January 28, while the New York leg will begin on February 1.

The Google invite states “Join us for an early look at Glass and two full days of hacking on the upcoming Google Mirror API in San Francisco or New York. These hackathons are just for developers in the Explorer program and we’re calling them the Glass Foundry. It’s the first opportunity for a group of developers to get together and develop for Glass.”

Image Credit: Sergey Brin

Google is celebrating its fourteenth birthday with a doodle which features a cake theme with fourteen candles signifying the birthday. Weirdly though 27 September is not the actual birthday, as founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin filed for incorporation on September 4, 1998.

Till 2005, however, the company was celebrating its birthday on September 7, but the company changed this trend from 2005 onward from where it has always celebrated its birthday on September 27. When one clicks on the doodle, it showcases all the popular products the company has released over the years.

We have seen some pretty awesome live product demos but never seen something like this. EVER. Last night, Google’s Sergey Brin orchestrated the most breathtaking product demo that probably no one has even dreamed about pulling off, leave alone daring to attempt it. Brin’s stunt involved a team of skydivers, rapplers, bikers and just about everything you could ever imagine but it wasn’t gimmicky at all! Read on to find out what he did as well as watch the entire stunt.

The demo started with a group of skydivers who were hovering a mile above Moscone Center where Google I/O is taking place. Sergey initiates a group Hangout and the skydivers are able to participate and literally show their point of view from Google Glasses they are wearing. They jump off the blimp and land on the roof of Moscone Center with their Glasses transmitting everything they can see even during the dive. They deliver a package (you can see Brin holding it in the photograph above) to a pair of bikers, who deliver it to a couple of rapplers who rapple down the exterior walls of Moscone Center. Finally the package is delivered to Brin. Mind you, all of them are wearing a Google Glass and their visuals are being shown on the big screen when they have the package!

Now be prepared to get your mind blown!

Google co-founder Sergey Brin showed off a demo of the Google Glasses at Google I/O. He announced that Google was taking pre-orders for the Google Glasses Explorer Edition for $1,500 arriving in 2013, which was only meant for Google I/O attendees.

He showed off a demo of the device where four divers jumped of a blimp which was live streamed at the event via a Google+ Hangout. Another showcase involved bikers on the rooftop who jumped who jumped from building to building via a ramp and then eventually cycled into the arena and right up to Sergey Brin at the event. Head down below for the official demo.

It’s no secret that Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin has been hanging out a lot wearing the coveted Google Glass. Over the past few weeks the Google Glass has become perhaps the most talked about piece of technology. While Sergey has been seen in many photos with the Google Glass, he has not let anyone touch the device, but today Wired is reporting that Sergey Brin appeared on The Gavin Newsom Show with California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom where the Brin allowed the Mr Newsom wear the mysterious device.

Mr Newsom spoke about the Google Glass experience to Wired and he said “You can easily forget you have them on, and sense the capacity of use in the future.” He also added that it felt incredibly light and comfortable.

Thankfully there is even a video of the whole talk show where Sergey Brin is seen navigating the device via a touchpad on the right hand side. He can be seen sliding his finger back and forth to locate a photo of Gavin Newsom after taking a snap.

Unfortunately, when pressed about how the photo was taken, Sergey Brin did not answer.

Newsome is said to have been very impressed with quality of the glasses even though Sergey Brin has claimed it to be a rough prototype. He believes that the technology is a quite further along in the development cycle, more than what most people imagine.

Brin reportedly told Newsome that he hopes to bring these Glasses to the market sometime next year though at the same time he seemed to be quite skeptical about the release of the product.

Newsome further revealed that Sergey Brin’s primary role at Google is handling Google X and the Glasses have been in development for the past two years with Brin overseeing development of the product himself for the last year.

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While here at BGR India, we do cover every major news as and when something happens in our mobile industry. But a few sections of our tech world are so vast that sometimes it seems impossible to write about every single event. With our dedicated weekend reading column, we will try to compile each and every single piece of important news belonging to one particular segment be it about a vendor or a carrier or an operating system under one single blog post. The idea is to cover the most trending topics. So today, our first ever weekend reading article will be about Android.

Google CEO is focused on a budget Android tablet
First up is the line are the talks about a low-cost Android tablet by Google. Yup, a budget Google-branded Android tablet which CEO Larry Page has sort of spoken about in a quarterly call meeting. Page has gone far to say, considering “the success of lower priced tablets that run Android,” Google is “quite focused” upon this segment. Some sources believe that the Google Nexus tablet, which may aim to tackle the budget market instead of following in the flagship footsteps of its smartphone brethren, is already finished.

Sony’s SmartWatch launched, gets connected to your Android handset
Sony has launched SmartWatch which can get connected to your Android smartphone and allows users to read text messages, social updates and e-mail, manage calls, and control music. However, SmartWatch isn’t Sony’s first foray into watch segment as the company had launched another watch that interacted with Android phones called the LiveView two years ago.

Now electronically do your signature on Android device
Adobe has released an update to its Adobe Reader mobile application because of which you will now be able to draw your signature with your fingers. Through integration between Adobe Reader and Adobe EchoSign eSignature service, users can gain real-time visibility into the signature process and status of contracts. This gives users the assurance that their signed documents have been received, and can be easily organized and managed. The update adds new capabilities that give users the ability to annotate and comment on PDF files, as well as fill out forms-capable PDF files.

Google Goggles for Android updated with Speed
Google’s barcode, image, object scanning app for Android smartphones – the Goggles, has been updated to version 1.8. The new version now does barcode recognition twice as fast as older editions and it is now possible to save recognized objects from the continuous scanning mode to the search history.

Google+ for Android updated with hashtags and link previews
Apart from completely redesigning the Google+ network, the Internet giant has also released a new update for the Google+ app for the Android platform. This update has brought the experience of this app closer to the desktop web version as users can now view web snippets or previews when sharing links inside the app. Support for hashtags has also been added.

Android tops in China leaving Apple and others behind in market share
Android platform was the most popular mobile operating system last year in China as it captured a massive chunk of 68.4 percent share of the Chinese mobile market. Manufacturers such as ZTE and Huawei helped propel the OS to new heights by offering low-cost devices via local wireless carriers. Android’s success came at the expense of Nokia, whose Symbian operating system share reduced to nearly 18.7 percent. Apple also lagged behind as it managed to grab 5.7 percent market share.

Google’s Project Glass, Android-powered wearable glasses coming in future
Google and company has recently taken the wraps off its Android-powered wearable glasses which it aims to pursue and turn into reality. Called Project Glass, these would most probably be paired with the user’s phone and give augmented reality-style layered information or bring up notifications from the phone.

Since the team had asked consumers for their inputs, one question was put up numerable times on multiple social networks whether these can work for those who wear spectacles. Yes guys, these will work as Google has released a mockup showing a new model working over prescription eyeglasses. The Internet giant is working on multiple versions that will work for everyone and obviously wouldn’t want to leave potential buyers out.