Google Glass Prescription Frames Now Available

Google Glass just got a little cooler, with Mountain View announcing the “Titanium” line of prescription frames for its connected eyewear. Support for users who wear prescription glasses has been among the most requested additions to Glass and users can now choose between four frames designed in-house by Google.

The four new styles are called “Split,” “Thin,” “Bold” and “Curve” and yes, hipsters rejoice: at least two of them strongly resemble Ray Ban’s Wayfarer frames. Each is available for $225 in addition to the $1,500 Google charges for Glass. Customers will also need to have prescription lenses cut for the frames. The Glass module itself is identical to the second version released by Google with an optional earbud, according to Ars Technica.

Google says the Titanium line reflects the most popular frame styles that people wear.

"When you walk into a glasses store they have thousands of styles," lead Glass designer Isabelle Olsson told The Verge, “[but] when you start to categorize them you realize that there are only about six to eight styles that people wear."

Glass is still available only through Google’s Explorer program and it’s likely that the final retail version, expected later this year, will look considerably different from the models currently out in the wild. For now, the company says that its primary aim with the Titanium frames is to avoid an overly DIY experience.

"The most important thing when you design something that's supposed to be modular is that it doesn’t feel like Lego," she says. "It needed to feel like once it's on there, it feels like a complete product, versus something that feels hodge-podged together," Olsson said.  

At $1,725, one would hope that prescription Google Glass doesn’t feel “hodgepodged together,” but then again, the privilege of being a Glasshole has never really been about the value.