Google held its annual developer conference: Google I/O, on June 27th, 2012 in San Francisco. It is showing the key new developments in Google products from Android to Google+.
Google I/O is an annual developer-focused conference held by Google in San Francisco, California. Google I/O features highly technical, in-depth sessions focused on building web, mobile, and enterprise applications with Google and open web technologies such as Android, Chrome, Chrome OS, Google APIs, Google Web Toolkit, App Engine, and more.
This year, Google I/O introduced several new products and services. This conference is held on June 27–29, 2012.
Google Chrome
During the Google I/O 2012 developers conference, Google's VP of Chrome and Apps, Sundar Pichai, announced that Chrome is currently the most popular browser in the world. Pichai added that Google Chrome is up to 310 million active users, which is a significant increase from the 160 million users from last year.
"Chrome was built for a better web, but we want to make sure Chrome works as a layer for your personalized web," said Pichai. "It works consistently and seamlessly across all of your devices." Chrome will be now available for the Apple's products.
It was also announced that a universal app for iOS 4.3 or later. The free Google Chrome app is now available through the App Store. The universal app works equally well on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Adding the Google browser to iOS devices means Google users will be able to get a more consistent experience across multiple devices. Brian Rakowski, vice president of Chrome, showed off how the browser will work on iOS devices.
Chrome made updates to Apps ecosystem for a further enhancements to users' apps platform for Chrome, evolving packaged apps architecture with improved capabilities, enhanced offline mode, and new access points.
Chromebook and Chromebox
Samsung's new Series 5 Chromebook and Series 3 Chromebox will feature the latest version of the Chrome OS, which was heavily demoed during the I/O event.
Chromebook is a personal computer running Google Chrome OS as its operating system. The devices comprise a distinct class of personal computer falling between a cloud client and traditional laptop. The first Chromebooks are manufactured by Acer Inc. and Samsung, announced at the last year's Google I/O conference (May 2011). Chromeboxes on the other hand, are the desktop variants of Chromebooks.
Chromebook and Chromebox devices will be available at Best Buy stores all over the U.S. and will be available in the U.K. at Dixon's stores as well.
Google Android Jelly Bean
Android Jelly Bean, or Android version 4.1, is introduced at the event by Google for smartphones and tablets.
Hugo Barra, Director of Android Product Development, talked about momentum. "Last year we announced Android across 100 million devices. Now there are 400 million android devices." With about 12 new Android devices every second, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean builds on what Google created with Ice Cream Sandwich.
Boasting a new Google search experience on Android, Project butter is the marquee addition to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. This new OS from Google is sporting the new and improved Vsync, offering triple buffering, and much better touch responsiveness, Project Butter aims to dramatically improve the user experience.
Barra added, "People spend a lot of time on the home screen with Android" to that end, Jelly Bean offers a much improved user experience when interracting with and customizing the home screen.
Widgets have always been a hallmark of the Android experience, and now with Jelly Bean, manipulating and customizing widgets should be a much smoother experience.
With earlier iterations of Android placing widgets and icons can be tricky, now, with Jelly Bean, icons will get out of the way and make room for widgets. In the demo at Google IO 2012, Jelly Bean has the ability to resize a widget to fit in a home screen.
Jelly Bean also boasts a new predictive keyboard and offers offline voice typing. It is available with a new camera app as well as expansive notifications. Jelly Bean was released to the open source community in mid July and the SDK is currently available at Android's developers' website.
Google Nexus 7 Tablet
Google unveiled the seven-inch tablet running Jelly Bean. The Google Nexus 7 is also designed to work seamlessly with the new Google Play store for apps, videos and music.
The Nexus 7 is available for pre-order in the Play Store in 8GB and 16GB versions, and expected to ship within 2-3 weeks. Prices start at $199 for the 8GB version, rising to $249 for the 16GB. The Nexus 7 will come with a $25 coupon that users can use at the Google Play store.
The Nexus 7 is designed to be a "serious gaming device," manufactured by Asus. Google hopes that game developers will take full advantage of the device's NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset with its quad-core CPU and 12 core GPU.
Google Now
Introducing Google Now. Essentially Google's version of Siri, a virtual personal assistant that enables its user to do pretty much anything by asking rather than typing or tapping. Google Now will learn things about its user in order to serve up more relevant information.
It is revealed that Google Now can keep track of users' search histories, calendars and more to stay up-to-date on what they might want. In effect, a Google Now-equipped device will learn things about its user in order to serve up more relevant information. Google Now will bring up "cards" with relevant information and notifications.
Google Now relies heavily on Google's Knowledge Graph, which attempts to understand what the user is actually looking for rather than just scanning search criteria, and should benefit from Google's 2010 acquisition of voice specialists Phonetic Arts for its voice output.
Unlike in previous versions of Android, dictation also works without a data connection. Next up came voice search, which Barra said "is much faster, and it speaks back to you using the power of the Knowledge Graph."
Google announced that they are adding 18 new input languages, as well as additional features like an external braille input, improving accessibility for those with specific needs.
In the demos shown off at I/O, Google Now seems even more competent than Apple's Siri, whose shortcomings often result in hilarious, but inconvenient, errors. And unlike Siri, Google Now will play the part of digital assistant without the user needing constantly work to access it.
Google Now is native, available on Android Jelly Bean OS and devices.
Project Google Glass
Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin, held a presentation to show off Google Glass. The presentation started off with a demo: Google engineers jumped out of a plane, biked across roof-tops and rappelled down the Moscone Conference Center. All while broadcasting multiple live point-of-view Google Hangout videos from their glasses.
Project Glass is a research and development program by Google to develop an augmented reality head-mounted display (HMD). Although not yet publicly available, they were made available to the developers attending the conference at $1500 per device. Brin announced at the conference that only eligible I/O attendees will receive a Google Glass explorer addition, which is not for consumers. And, they're only accepting orders at the conference. The device will be sold at the end of the year 2013.
The Nexus Q
Google announced the Nexus Q, an Android computer sphere built for the home and offering media streaming and social networking features. Nexus Q is described as a "small Android-powered computer". The Nexus Q is a nearly spherical device that ties in with Android devices for cloud streaming of you media content.
The Nexus Q is powered by an OMAP 6640 processor, the same chips as the Galaxy Nexus. It is equipped with optical digital audio and HDMI output to connect to your television and speakers, as well as a built-in 25 watt amp.
It also features additional connectivity through dual band Wi-Fi, ethernet, Bluetooth, NFC connection, and a micro USB port that Google says will "encourage general hackability."
Google is also billing the Nexus Q as a social streaming device. This means that friends can sync their own Android devices and media libraries to the Nexus Q when visiting, with the Nexus Q again streaming that content from the Google Play cloud.
Google is making the Nexus Q available for pre-order starting $299 directly from the Google Play store, and will begin shipping the device in mid-July.
Other Products, Updates and Enhancements
- Google+: The Google+ app got updated with another new interface that addresses most of the issues it had with the last version, and provides true support for tablet devices. A new Google+ feature called Events also allows users to send fancy online invitations to calendar events and automatically create a page with everyone’s photos after the event has finished. Google also announced the Google+ platform for mobile, including SDKs for Android and iOS (available soon), and mobile web optimized social plugins. With the Google+ Hangout API introduced 3 months earlier, at I/O, Google introduced a new set of featured apps built by developers around the world that provide fun and entertaining activities for its users.
- Google Play: The Play Store has also had a makeover, and now allows users to remotely update or uninstall apps. Magazines have also arrived allowing you to access your favorite publications online. It is now offering magazines, TV shows, and movies for sale. Content is now available for US only at the moment. New developer tools is now available for Google TV.
- Google Maps: Google Maps API now features a number of enhancements to Styled Maps that offer more precise control over both the selection of map features to style, and the ways users can style them. Google Maps now enables users to access Google Maps without a data connection. Google Maps API now also enables developers to add transit data, including public transit directions, to their maps and apps. Google Maps offers improved data visualization and interactivity for developers with the additions of Heat Maps and Symbols.
- Google Drive: Google also announced that its Drive service, which lets people store and share documents, will now work on iOS devices as well. The service will also work on Chrome OS devices. "We brought many of the best features of Drive to mobile," said Clay Bavor, director of product for Google Apps. The next version (version 2) of the Google Drive SDK with a number of updates including an expanded API, a simplified developer experience and mobile app support.
- Google Earth: Google Earth reveals its 3D feature for Android. This comprehensive 3D experience is possible due to advanced image processing. Using 45-degree aerial imagery, Google Earth is able to automatically recreate entire metropolitan areas in 3D. An updated version of Google Earth for iOS will be also be available soon.
- Google App Engine: Google App Engine 1.7.0 is released to serve their applications via HTTPS on custom domains. Google is offering both SNI and VIP based SSL, which provide both a low cost and universally supported option, respectively. This release comes with many improvements and updates.
- YouTube: At this year’s Google I/O, Google is continuing on with the mission to further improve YouTube. Google announced new APIs and developer tools, as well as a showcase of some of the most innovative apps built with YouTube. A new mobile app for Android was introduced to bring channel guide to Android, making playback faster on the go.
- Google Compute Engine: Google introduced Google Compute Engine, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service product that lets people run Linux Virtual Machines (VMs) on the same infrastructure that powers Google. This goes beyond just giving people greater flexibility and control.
- Mobile App Analytics and Google Analytics App For Android: Measurements for marketers and developers optimized for Android mobile phones. Mobile App Analytics aims for mobile app marketers and developers for Google Play, while Google Analytics for Android is a mobile optimized app for the desktop Google Analytics.
All attendees at the Google I/O got a Nexus 7, Nexus Q and Galaxy Nexus. Overall, Google I/O has been a huge success and raised the bar for technology events.