Tag Archives: Google I/O
Google I/O Live Brings the Conference to Your PC
Posted on 07. Apr, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 
0 Comments
Google’s I/O developer conference has become the preeminent event for the company, it’s the place where the keynote sessions always unveil new initiatives. Last year, the launch of Google TV was part of the conference and this year there surely will be some big news regading Google’s ever-expanding set of services and features.
But it’s much harder to go to I/O nowawdays, with tickets for this year selling out in under an hour. As a result, Google is bringing more than just live keynotes to you own computer with I/O LIve.
A whole slate of Chrome and Android sessions are expected this year, making it easy for learning about these new technologies without ever having to leave home. You can see a listing of all the sessions that are available here. The largest sessions will be livestreamed and all of them will eventually be posted for later study. Everything will be captioned and machine translated for other languages.
Google I/O has become a hot conference, partly because the company is expected to give away some cool gadget goodies in relation to the price. Thankfully, those who want to be a part of the action don’t have to pay the expenses to actually travel to learn something new.
Are you looking to brush up on your Chrome technical skills with I/O Live? What kind of news do you expect to hear at the keynotes?
Google I/O Sells Out in Under an Hour
Posted on 07. Feb, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments
Want to go to Google I/O? Who doesn’t? But doesn’t look like you’re going to be attending unless you’ve already registered. Google’s VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra Tweeted earlier today that tickets were sold out in 59 minutes. In 2010, the tickets took 50 days to sell out, and 2009 took three whole months.
Not for you.
What’s changed? Android, and Chrome too. Judging by the early sessions, a lot of stuff can be built on these two platforms. Sessions such as “Storing your Data on Google’s Cloud”, “Building Web Apps for Google TV” and “Re-introducing the Chrome Dev Tools to Web App Developers” are included in the early list of sessions.
It also doesn’t hurt that the investment in going to Google I/O almost guarantees you some Google hardware. Last year the attendees were gifted with a couple of Android phones. What’s stopping Google from giving away the latest Android superphone and a Cr-48 to everyone there?
via TechCrunch
Video: A Demo Of Google TV
Posted on 20. Aug, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Curious about Google TV? Aren’t we all. AndroidandMe is saying that the set top box will be available from DISH Network for $300, and at Google I/O the company showed off some of its best features. Here is another clip that shows more of this new dynamic for TV that is arriving sometime this fall.
There’s a lot of content that is going to be accessible from this box. Plus, did you see them accessing the internet? Yeah, that’s Chrome. Now, if only there was a tablet to complement this…
Chrome OS, Android 3.0 in Q4 – Is There Room For Both?
Posted on 05. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments
It’s being reported that Android 3.0 will be available during the fourth quarter and most likely in November smartphones with the Google’s newest version of their mobile OS will be released by major wireless carriers. Also coming at the end of the year is Google’s Music service, which was shown off to some degree at Google I/O with a demonstration of a wireless device streaming songs from a computer to a phone through App Engine, the company’s cloud API.
One interesting thing to note about Android 3.0: it will have support for tablet devices that have screens larger than 4″. That makes it hard to determine where a Chrome OS tablet will fit in to the mix, as we have seen on Chromium.org evidence that there will be touch capability available to the manufacturers of the computer-based operating system.
It’s starting to look like although Google will spend huge amounts of resources on developing both Android and Chrome OS, the level of adoption for computer devices using each individual operating system will be left to device manufacturers. While mobile phone companies such as HTC and Motorola have seen enormous success with Android, there’s no stopping the deep pocketed PC manufacturers from developing innovative devices loaded with Chrome OS.
There’s still a deep separation between computers and smartphones, so at this point having a division of the two makes sense. Also, having consumer electronics manufacturer’s battle it out in terms of who can make the best hardware products loaded with Google’s OSs makes total sense, and is a very smart move for the company.
The bottom line is that Google will stay on the sidelines for any type of Nexus One-branded product of their own, providing its support for both OS platforms and if the two eventually merge into one in a matter of years – with perhaps Android the underlying system and Chrome on top for complex web applications – then so be it.
Google Knows that Their Growth Requires Outside Developers
Posted on 28. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
The barrage of information that came out of last week’s Google I/O conference is still hard to swallow, but one thing is clear that developer conferences for Google are going to become a focal point for the company going forward. Giving away the new Sprint HTC Evo phone certainly shows where they want folks to concentrate on, but anything that developers not employed by Google create is a win-win situation for both parties.
At one point, Eric Schmidt referred to the developers at the conference as customers, and rightly so. Not only are they customers, but they are part of the Google growth engine. What many naysayers who slam Google for their disruptive efforts don’t seem realize sometimes is that a great deal of wealth has come from what they have been able to do in search, advertising and most recently the mobile phone.
The fantastic business environment from creating new technology platforms that are less like Microsoft and closer to the Apple model is going to pay off for those who plug into them. Therefore, opportunity is beginning to trickle down into outside developers with all of the APIs that are being released by Google to allow for increased innovation, a level at which only those outside the company can foster for added growth beyond the company’s internal efforts to create new services.
That’s because being inside of a big company like Google now requires a lot of scrutiny and approval to get new ideas from within to the mass market. With the legal issues and public criticism the company has faced in 2010, don’t be surprised to see Google spend more time developing platforms and interfaces to develop upon as opposed to working on individual services/features that can now easily be done by those outside of the walls of Mountain View.
How Chrome to Phone Works
Posted on 23. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 7 Comments
As demonstrated in the first day of the Google I/O conference, further integration between Android and other Google offerings is going to be one of the most tantalizing developments coming up in the next year along with Google TV. The ability to be able to seamlessly move information from Chrome to your Android-enabled device is going to be really useful, plus the fact that developers are going to be able to use this feature to come up with some interesting applications.
The key underpinning to how Chrome to phone works is by utilizing yet another technology that was shown off at I/O called the Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) Framework. First, a user must install the Chrome extension and respective Android application. What this will do is notify the Android application that user data being pushed from Chrome browser that is now stored in the cloud is available for download. This will work great for pushing small amounts of data to a user’s phone such as links containing maps or other websites, as well as messages.
This appears to possibly be the way that Android devices will be able to stream content that resides on a PC such as music to phones that was demonstrated at I/O. The way that will be done is through another application, provided by a company called Simplify Media that Google acquired not too long ago for an undisclosed amount. It sounds as if that will be a more complex process (much more data) if Google bought another company to provide the technology to make streaming happen from device to device, but it shows the potential of what this type of integration can provide for in the future.
Bottom line? It will be great to have things that can be sent from Chrome browser to Android phones, although I would suspect at some point that the browser itself would need to be added to future versions of Android. It was clear during the Day One Keynote that Android browser is still on the mobile operating system, although a recent version of V8 that Chrome uses is integrated on Froyo.
Also, when will users be able to send snippets of data from their phones to their PCs, utilizing this service in the opposite direction?
thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/21/10
Posted on 21. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
The Google-AdMob deal has been approved by the FTC, citing competition with Apple’s iAd platform in the mobile market.
Lilliputing has a review of the Compaq Airlife 100, a netbook that ships with the Android operating system.
Left out of a lot of I/O coverage was Google’s release of its Prediction API, which analyzes historical data to predict future outcomes.
Will Google and Rupert Murdoch eventually work together on a pay model for publishers on the internet?
Is Google’s decision to open source On2′s VP8 video codec with the WebM initiative going to create a big mess?
Why Google TV Makes My Current Television Really Boring
Posted on 21. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments
While I knew for weeks that Google TV was going to be announced at the annual I/O developers conference that was held this week, I did not expect to see such a radical change in the way that people might be watching television soon. Sure, there were a lot of whiz-bang features and we don’t know how they will play out once the actual product reaches stores. But the reality is that my TV is just plain terrible right now compared to what Google TV can offer me.
The ability to use the web and TV at the same time? Check. An input device that I can use to do this? Check. Apps for television? Certainly. Integration with my Android-powered phone? Well, of course.
For the past decade, those of us who grew up with computers have had no choice but to sit on the couch with an uncomfortably hot laptop while watching TV at the same time. It’s really become an annoyance and the conglomerate cable/satellite providers never saw any reason to make a change since they were already getting fat profits from TV and internet service while keeping them separate entities. But along comes the ever-disrupting Google gathering its own band of partners to make the television experience very much different.
It was clear that Google had been working on this for some time (2.5 years), and the ability to add in services to Google TV that we already use on the web makes a ton of sense. Take television subtitles being translated into other languages, powered by Google Translate. This is just one example that shows more Google services will likely trickle down into even more features for Google TV that will make it very difficult for the competition. Not to mention the potential advertising implications that this will have for Google.
So, as it stands, my current television viewing has taken a dive. It’s not interactive; I cannot easily search for the specific shows that I want. I’m still squinting at a fourteen inch display when I watch Hulu or check out videos on YouTube. It’s been a real revelation to me now how bad my video viewing experiences currently are, but for now I’m stuck with them.
thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/20/10
Posted on 20. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Android 2.2 has been announced with Adobe Flash integrated in the browser, new developer tools and new ways to connect to your PC.
Here is the official blog post on Google TV, complete with a video overview of the new technology.
Everyone at Google I/O got one of Sprint’s HTC Evo smartphones, which is loaded with features and runs on 4G.
According to a chart shown at Day One of Google I/O, the number of Chrome browser users is now at 70 million.
The Consumer Watchdog group has launched Inside Google “to educate the public and opinion leaders about Google’s dangerous dominance”.
Google I/O Day 2: Android 2.2, an In-Depth Look at Google TV
Posted on 20. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 4 Comments
Some big platform changes were announced today at the second day of the Google I/O developer conference. Many exciting things were shown with the new version of Android, dubbed Froyo, as well as Google TV which is running a version of Android, along with some other technologies. Some exciting things were annpounced with Froyo along with some good humor ribbing against Apple.
Android
Some key changes for Android, shown off of the conference on a Nexus One, included the ability to send intents from the Chrome browser over the your mobile device. With this, there is an extension that runs in Chrome that allows you to send an “intent” over to your phone. This is all done with a new cloud to device API that Google will soon be offering.
The Google folks also showed off a method by which you can stream your music from your home computer to your smartphone, possibly showing off what will become an iTunes competitor.
Big changes are coming to the Android browser, with the V8 JavaScript Engine being ported over to make what is being called “the world’s fastest mobile browser”. Also, tethering from the phone was presented. I’m not sure how the wireless carriers are going to feel about all the bandwidth that could possibly be used (UPDATE: they will make the decision to enable it or not), but they showed off the Nexus One as a mobile hotspot with an Apple iPad connecting to it.
Google TV
Built with Android, Chrome and Flash this is an entirely new platform that allows all of the greatest features ported to TV. With these three technologies, you get fast browsing, Android applications and interactive content that works with Flash such as the video site Hulu.
Three reasons Google TV is being launched, in terms of current television limitations:
1. In the past, the web was “dumbed” down for TV.
2. TV is a closed system.
3. Right now, you must choose between TV and the web.
Instead of having to scan through guides on a traditional set-top box, Google TV will allow you to search for programs much like you would via the web using a keyboard:
Search results are then displayed, and you can see how this will be able to be integrated into search for the web on your television as well, breaking down the barrier between the two:
As you can see, you are able to choose the source of the video you want to see, where you can utilize a traditional video channel, or you can go to a specific web site. The great thing about using the web video (possibly with the help of Chrome) is that sites are already capable of showing video on Google TV; they do not have to do anything special:
This can then be run in full screen from Amazon’s site:
Of course, YouTube will be a big player in Google TV, offering nontraditional programming right in your TV:
You can go back and watch what you want, whenever you want, and an example of this was the State of the Union address directly from the White House website:
Plus this uses all the existing content that is already available on the web. You can even use your android phone as a remote – and talk to it to define your search terms. There is so much information on this new development, there will be more posts to come on this.
It is expected that Google TV will be coming through DISH Network, Sony, Logitech and Best Buy. The platform will also be open source in the middle of 2011.
Google I/O Day 1: HTML5, Open Source Video and Interesting Apps
Posted on 19. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
While many expected big announcements at Google I/O, Day One featured mostly a build-up to what is expected to be much larger announcements at the second keynote that is happening tomorrow morning. Some of the rumors that have been heard about Android and Google TV did not come to fruition, at least for today.
A big revelation is the fact that Google’s $124.6 million purchase of video codec firm On2 will allow the company’s VP8 technology to be open sourced in a initiative known as WebM. This is going to be embraced by an array of web-centric companies, including Opera, Mozilla and Skype.
Some interesting web-based software companies were featured like the TV-Guide-ish Clicker.tv and MugTug, which is a browser-based image editing software that is powered by HTML5′s 2D canvas technology:
Heavily presented at today’s keynote were advancing technologies that are propelling the web. Interestingly, the CEOs of both Mozilla and Opera had a chance to talk and then the Chrome Web Store was announced which clearly will only be run within Google’s own Chrome browser and eventually Chrome OS.
We’ll be intently watching tomorrow, however, and keep posting updates as fast as we can.
thechromesource Daily: Links for 5/19/10
Posted on 19. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Predictive pre-connections are coming to Chrome 6 to make it even faster. Here is a breakdown of what this is.
Wave, a collaborative service that has been in testing since last year’s Google I/O, no longer requires an invite.
VMWare and Google are going to be partnering up for better integration and deployment of Google Apps.
Google Storage for Developers has been announced, with 100GB of storage and 300GB monthly bandwidth for no charge.
The Google App Engine for Business has been introduced, allowing developers to quickly create new enterprise applications.
Here is Google’s official breakdown of all the announcements that occurred during I/O’s Day One.
