After a long time in development, and some limited public appearance through developer’s and ‘home’ versions… it appears as though Google Glass will again fail to meet its target release date, with the ‘end of 2014′ plan looking increasingly less likely, according to sources.

Reuters report that the planned consumer release of Google Glass is likely to face further delays, with a release date now set to be pushed backwards to some point in 2015.

The rumoured delay reportedly comes not as a result of what Google developers are doing, but rather what their third-party app developers are not, with rumours that they are losing interest in the format and withdrawing from the process of making apps for the wearable technology device.

The current tally of apps supporting the product is noted as being close to 100, but Google seem reluctant to appear on the market without names such as Twitter, who recently stopped their support for the time being. Also having to deal with the loss of a number of ‘major employees’ who were with the Google X Labs project from the start, the plans appear to be hitting turbulence at the worst possible time.

Google claim they remain fully-committed to the cause they started, with the Glass brand’s ‘head of business operations’ Chris O’Neill summarising: “We are completely energized and as energized as ever about the opportunity that wearables and Glass in particular represent.”

With Google presumably too far in to back out completely from this innovative augmented-reality venture, the question around Google Glass now reverts back to: when will it be released?

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The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has made notable breakthroughs in the technology and gaming industry by bringing content even more to life (even if users generally have to wear a heavy wired headset whilst doing so), and are looking to further enhance these attributes with their latest add-on.

The brand are looking to incorporate hand motion control into their sets via a new mount on offer for $20, a product to be known as ‘Leap Motion‘.

Leap Rift is attached to the headset with designs of eliminating a user’s need for a control pad, with the system generating a ‘wire frame’ of the wearer’s hands in front of them for an internal reference, where hand movements can then be monitored with gesture recognition, enabling control of the device in all sections of Oculus Rift.

Having also released a ‘beta senior developer’s kit’ to encourage new features for the new Oculus Rift/Leap Motion combined option, the innovative brand are certainly looking to further their image of headset-related progress, alongside a new ‘prototype built-in sensor’ known as Dragonfly potentially implemented into future releases.

Building towards a full consumer release in 2015, will the Oculus Rift be able to leave a bigger opening impression than previously anticipated with all these add-ons, or will they literally and figuratively weigh them down?

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When visiting Google Street View and choosing desirable locations to view, users will often like to try and fully immerse themselves in the image, attempting to ignore anything outside their computer screen to imagine for a small moment that they are there.

For the hardcore viewer that likes three specific locations in particular, that realism may be taken up a notch, with the introduction of third-party ‘audio support’ on the ground-level map browser via hearing aid specialists Amplifon.

The Italian company have developed a set of ‘stereophonic sounds’ that were recorded in their chosen locations (Balboa Park in San Diego (USA), Hapuna Beach on Big Island (Hawaii, USA), and Place du Palais in Monaco) and displayed them with the corresponding images through their website.

Speaking of the ‘ambient noise’ (which includes people talking, bells, and waves, amongst other sounds that dynamically change volume based on where in the area the user ‘is’), Amplifon said of the new service: “Utilising the Web Audio API platform, sounds are designated as though they were ordinary Google Maps markers, but instead of an image and information being assigned to the marker, a sound is instead.”

Potentially an idea for Google themselves to incorporate, will Amplifon’s proposal for an even more immersive experience pave the way to more and more add-ons until the mapping industry turns one step short of teleportation?

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With this week marking the official public launch of Google Glass (albeit only in $1,500 ‘Explorer’ beta form at this time, available since Wednesday (15 May)), it appears as though a range of competitors are starting to emerge with more formal claims of their competing products, starting with South Korean company Samsung.

With a product that they certainly won’t be able to get into trouble with biggest rivals Apple over, Samsung have reportedly moved closer to an unveiling of their own augmented reality headset, a report from Business Korea suggesting that the ‘Samsung Gear Glass’ will come out in September.

Believed to be running on a ‘next-generation’ edition of Samsung’s own operating system Tizen rather than Google’s Android brand, Samsung’s product will naturally be expected to carry many similarities to Google’s pioneering device in terms of look and function. Previous patent hints have implied that with the product codename of ‘Earphone’, it could be expected that Samsung are planning to one-up Google by incorporating mobile phone-based functionality into their set.

All rumours, including those that it will be ‘more powerful’ than Google Glass, will have to wait until another day to be officially confirmed by Samsung, with the leading competitor to be the second HUD-with-earpiece on the market could be held off until early September to make a full showcase of its powers, with other hints suggesting that the IFA trade show in Berlin (Germany) will be a prime location for such a display. For now, though, Samsung have neither confirmed nor denied that the Gear Glass will exist…

Meanwhile, Google themselves are managed to increased their output of content for their Google Glass product, with another app provider that has revealed a unique feature that will be seen (or not) on the augmented reality headwear. Future customers, prepare to start tapping at air or jerking your head around to type:

In a move that would edge the world one step closer to Samsung’s proposed dream of augmented flexi-viewing of day-to-day life, rumours have emerged surrounding the first-ever Amazon smartphone.

Such a product has been rumoured for a long time, with further rumours establishing the likelyhood that the screen of it will be 3D-capable, rumours which are now close to being confirmed, according to leaked reports by BGR.

The device, still yet to be confirmed by the online retail specialists, is one which is set to be able to utilise ‘unique gesture controls’, as opposed to a finger-based touchscreen (or the tried-and-apparently-now-slipping flexible screens). More literally on top of that fact, a key function of this currently hypothetical handset is reportedly to display ‘additional details’ if the device is tilted in a different direction, a feate believed to be accomplished via ‘retina-tracking technology’ embedded within four corner-based ‘front-facing cameras’ carrying sensors.

An example given is that labels are set to appear underneath app icons in order to offer a description of their function, whilst, tilting the device in a maps service can bring up a business’ Yelp ratings in an almost augmented-reality presentation format above the map location. For Amazon’s more in-house services, the innovation is thought to include integration of IMDb ratings and information on top of a title in Amazon’s video stores, and tilting to display alternative imagery on any product within Amazon’s main retail site.

Adding to the augmented reality side of the phone’s potential, it is thought that a further feature could be the ability to use the rear-facing camera as a means of ‘reading’ and interpreting written documents or general text on real-life objects into more legible computerised versions that can instantly be converted into a passage of text on-screen, in a similar manner to language translation services available around the internet.

However, the innovations could be at the cost of what consumers are now used to, with plans also reportedly featuring the potential removal of any touchscreen menu buttons, with tilting again the method of control in that area of the product, though innovation will again come in the movements triggering ’tiles’ to appear in ‘X-ray’ format overlaying the existing screen.

Whether or not such options will be available upon Amazon’s highly-anticipated announcement remains to be seen, though there could be an assumption that whatever released, unlike Apple’s recent slowing of innovative features, will at least be… something different…