Yesterday and today Google hosted its renowned developer’s conference dubbed Google I/O 2011. Literally thousands of developers flocked to San Fransisco’s Moscone Center to find out what Google’s been cooking up on their end. This year’s event proved to be leaps and bounds more exciting than last year’s conference. Google introduced their new cloud-based music service called Music Beta; they unveiled Ice Cream Sandwich, the next version of Android that promises to bridge the gap between Gingerbread and Honeycomb; Android is going into the home automation business with Google’s impressive initiative Android@Home; Chrome OS is finally ready for the big leagues–Samsung and Acer are prepping Chromebooks for mass consumption; and Angry Birds has landed in the browser!
So much to discuss–it’s all a hop, skip and a jump after the break.
Music Beta by Google: This new service lets you upload your personal music collection to the cloud for streaming to your computer and Android devices. Since all of your music is stored in the cloud, syncing content across devices is a snap. For example, if you add tracks to your collection and create a new playlist on your computer these changes will automatically and instantly come into effect on your Android phone and tablet. Speaking of playlists, Google has come up with their version of Apple’s Genius playlist creation; Instant Mix automatically builds new playlists of songs from your collection that go great together. Google claims that the mystical algorithms that run in the background actually listen to your songs to determine which ones sound great together. To get back to basics, Music Beta relies on the cloud so you can access your music library from any computer or Android device. To access cloud storage one must be connected to the Internet. So what happens when you want to listen to some tunes but have no Internet connection? Music Beta automatically locally stores your recently played tracks on the device your using, so you’ll always have access to at least some songs. And when you are connected to the Internet, you can tell Music Beta what exactly you want it to store locally (i.e. specific albums, artists and playlists). Music Beta officially launches today in the U.S. and allows users to store up to 20,000 songs in their cloud library for free. The service is available by invitation only, so go here to submit a request: http://music.google.com. Google specifies that the service is free “at least while it’s in beta.” Verizon Motorola Xoom owners will receive first dibs on invites. Music Beta is accessible on PC and Mac browsers, on Android 2.2+ devices and Android tablets so long as you have installed the latest version of the Music app.
Android Honeycomb & Ice Cream Sandwich: Google has put forth a new mantra–“one OS everywhere.” As it stands right now, the latest Android OS running on smartphones is Gingerbread (v2.3). Honeycomb (v3.0) runs on the handful of next-gen Android-based tablets that are on the market today. With Ice Cream Sandwich Google intends to deliver one operating system that works everywhere, regardless of device. In other words, Honeycomb will be transformed into a smartphone-friendly OS. Honeycomb’s snazzy holographic user interface, enhanced multitasking, the new launcher, and richer widgets will all be ported to smartphones later this year. Whether or not it will put an end to Android fragmentation is an entirely different story. At the conference Google shed some light on this issue. America’s big four wireless carriers and a handful of phone manufacturers have climbed aboard Google’s new initiative to bring Android OS updates to a wide range of devices in a more timely fashion. Google is saying that new devices from participating partners will receive the latest Android platform upgrades for 18 months after the device is first released. We’ll see if anything comes of this in due time. In the meantime, Google is releasing a new version of Honeycomb (v3.1) and it brings software fixes and refinements to the tablet-based OS including resizeable widgets, a new scrollable task switcher, and support for a vast amount of USB devices including game controllers. At the conference they hooked up an Xbox 360 controller to a tablet and navigated through a game with it! In addition, users will now be able to import photos directly from their digital camera to a tablet. The update also brings the new Movies app that’ll let users rent movies right on the tablet. Honeycomb 3.1 is coming to Verizon Motorola Xoom 3G owners first, then it will slowly trickle out to Xoom WiFi owners and other Android tablets. A specific time table was not announced; hello fragmentation, we meet again. One last thing. Google TV will also be outfitted with the update, and it will bring the Android Market and all its apps to the big screen. Developers will have access to the Honeycomb SDK to build apps tailor-made for Google TV. Current hardware partners include Samsung, Vizio, Logitech and Sony. Expect 3.1 to hit GTVs later this summer.
Android Open Accessory & Android@Home: Currently Android lives on smartphones, tablets, and TVs. Google is ready to bring the platform to the next level. With Android Open Accessory, Google wants to help developers start building new hardware accessories that will work across all Android devices. In essence, Google will be supplying developers with an API and in turn devs will take advantage of it by incorporating it into their own software. Google wants hardware and software devs to get creative starting today; they’ve managed to piece together a reference hardware design they call “ADK” that’s based on Arduino and packs a USB port (Bluetooth support is coming soon). An early example of Android Open Accessory’s potential is being referred to as Android@Home. This home automation initiative is spearheaded by Google allows Android apps to discover, connect and communicate with appliances and devices in your home. In the future you might be using your Android-based device to control the lights in your living room, your dish washing machine, and it may even serve as your garage opener. At the conference, Google demoed Project Tungsten; they embedded an RFID chip into a CD case and when they physically tapped the CD case onto a glowing orb the CD’s contents were automagically added to a Music Beta cloud library and with a second tap the tunes began to play. The potential is huge here, as I’m sure you can tell. I can’t wait to see what developers come up with! Expect to see the first wave of open accessories to hit the market later this year.
Android Market Movies & Android stats: Shortly after vastly expanding YouTube’s movie library, Google announced that the Android Market will be another new outlet to browse and rent popular titles from major Hollywood studios. Rental instructions (30 days to begin watching, once played rental will vanish in 24 hours) and pricing remains the same across the Market and YouTube. The movies section of the Market can be viewed here https://market.android.com/movies on a PC, and on-the-goers can access it on Android 2.2+ smartphones and Honeycomb 3.1+ devices (as mentioned above, the 3.1 update will come packaged with the Movies app).
Let’s wrap up all things Android with some impressive stats. At the conference Google was more than happy to report that there are over 100 million activated Android devices in existence, and there are 400,000 new Android devices activated every day. The Android Market is home to 200,000 free and paid applications and Android users have installed upwards of 4.5 billion apps. Clearly Android is a fast-growing platform, and it’s good to see that the G-Men are hard at work improving the core software that runs all these devices. 2011 is shaping up to be a very exciting year for the little green bot that could.
Chrome OS: We already know so much about Chrome OS, so I won’t waste your time here. Let’s dive into the new announcements. On the software side, Google has added a new and improved file manager to the OS. When you connect a digital camera to a Chrome OS laptop, for example, you can easily drag and drop files between the two devices. A simplistic media player is also included; playing MP3s is a snap, and when a movie is selected users will have the option to view it in a pull-out box or full-screen mode. Also, Google is making Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs all accessible offline. These features are nothing to call home about, but they are certainly welcome additions to the young OS. A bit more exciting is news that Netflix and Hulu will be supported at launch.
Now let’s switch over to hardware talk. In December Google announced the first notebook to run Chrome OS–the plain yet elegant Cr-48. It served as reference hardware in the early public beta program for the OS. Thanks to tons of user feedback, Google is able to move ahead with plans to bring Chrome OS to the masses. They’ve teamed up with laptop manufacturers Samsung and Acer to unleash the first batch of “Chromebooks” unto the world. The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook comes in a slim 0.79-inch package and weighs 3.3 pounds. Specs include: 12.1-inch Super Bright display (1280 x 800, 300 nits), Intel Core 2 Duo N570 1.66Ghz processor, 16GB mSATA solid state drive, 1 megapixel webcam, built-in digital microphone and stereo speakers, 2 USB ports, support for SD/SDHC/MMC, 802.11 WiFi, full-sized Chrome keyboard, multitouch trackpad, 8.5 hour battery life. Sammy’s Chromebook launches June 15 in “titan silver” and white favors. Pricing starts at $429.99 for the WiFi-only model and goes up to $499.99 for for the WiFi + 3G model. Verizon will provide the 3G service. What does Acer have in store? The Acer Chromebook weighs just 2.95 pounds and packs a 11.6-inch display, Intel Atom N570 processor, 16GB solid state drive, webcam with microphone, 2 USB ports, 4-in-1 memory card slot, 1 HDMI port, dual-band WiFi, full-sized Chrome keyboard, fully-clickable trackpad, and 6 hours of battery life. The WiFi-only variant will cost $349.99 and the world-mode 3G model has yet to be fully fleshed out, though VZW is the confirmed supporting carrier. Acer’s Chromebook will release alongside Sammy’s on June 15 in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain. Keep an eye on these Amazon and Best Buy Chrome portals for the latest updates concerning availability. (At the conference, Google briefly teased a “Chromebox” made by Samsung; perhaps the web-specific OS will one day reign as a desktop client. But let’s see how it fares in the laptop sector first.)
Following the announcement of new hardware, Google detailed their initiative to help businesses and schools who “struggle with the same complex, costly and insecure computers as the rest of us.” Google plans to provide Chromebooks and cloud management consoles to companies that want it. For a monthly fee, businesses and schools will be able to remotely administer and manage users, devices, applications and policies and enjoy enterprise-level support, device warranties and replacements, and regular hardware refreshes. Chromebooks for Business will cost $28 per user and $20 per user for schools. At low prices like these, Google might just scoop up a truckload of brand new customers from the enterprise and educational industries.
Chrome Web Store: Google announced that the Chrome Web Store will be available in 41 languages and to all estimated 160 million users of the Chrome browser. Also, Google is making it easy for developers to incorporate in-app payments to their apps; a single line of code is all that is necessary to make it happen. The search giant then dropped this bombshell: It will charge developers a flat five percent fee for in-app purchases, as opposed to the average fee of thirty percent that can be found elsewhere in the industry. And here’s some super cool news. Rovio Mobile is bringing the uber-popular smartphone/tablet game Angry Birds to the browser! In fact, it’s already been brought and it’s f-r-e-e free. Download it from the Chrome Web Store today, right now, this second, and say goodbye to all productivity. The game comes bundled with some Chrome-exclusive items and worlds. In-app purchases are coming to the game in the near future, so you won’t have to wait long to nab the Mighty Eagle. The browser-based app supports Web GL, Canvas, hardware acceleration for HD mode, offline gameplay.
And that about does it for Google I/O 2011. Google is really pushing its mobile (Android) and desktop (Chrome, Chrome OS) platforms to the limit in terms of their potentialities. The G-Men are supplying the potent software; now it is up to the developers’ imaginations to come up with inspiring products.