The Google Glass Explorer program might be over, but you haven't seen the last of the search giant's high-tech specs.
It remains unclear what fans can expect from Google's next wearable. But according to The New York Times, it won't be the same-old thing, and we won't see it until it's ready for primetime.
Nest Labs chief Tony Fadell is heading up the next version of Glass, and will "redesign the product from scratch," the Times said, citing several people with knowledge of Fadell's plan. Meanwhile, in an Apple-like approach (Fadell was once an Apple exec), "there will be no public experimentation."
"Early Glass efforts have broken ground and allowed us to learn what's important to consumers and enterprises alike," Fadell said in a statement published by the newspaper. "I'm excited to be working with Ivy to provide direction and support as she leads the team and we work together to integrate those learnings into future products."
Glass debuted in April 2012 as "Project Glass." Later that year, Google started accepting pre-orders for a very early "Explorer Edition" of the specs. For awhile, they were very hard to get, and had to be picked up in person. It was not until last year that Google opened up public sales of the glasses, which have remained in Google's "Google X" moonshot division.
"The team within Google X knew the product wasn't even close to ready for primetime," a former Google employee told the Times about early versions of Glass.
Google co-founder and X project manager Sergey Brin was also aware of Glass's limitations, but insisted the prototype be made public for user feedback, not kept in a top-secret lab. So the Glass Explorer program was born, promising a geeks and journalists a first look at the device, for $1,500.
But in the past few years, interest has waned, and then, three weeks ago, Google suddenly announced the closure of its Explorer Program, "so we can focus on what's coming next." Jan. 19 marked the end of Glass sales.
"In the meantime, we're continuing to build for the future, and you'll start to see future versions of Glass when they're ready," the company wrote in a blog post.
For more, see PCMag's review of Google Glass Explorer Edition Version 2.0 and the slideshow above.