Google I/O 2011: countdown

[diogen]

This must be an interesting gathering. What would be interesting to watch:

1. What the new CEO Page says and how long his speech will last...
2. Ice Cream (next Android OS version).
3. Chrome the browser
4. Chrome the OS
5. "Cloud" related topics
6. YouTube as Netflix competitor?
etc.

Diogen.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I know we will see GoogleTV 2.0 announced today... DISH announced this last week at Team Summit.

 

[diogen]

Also, they are rumored to play hardball (just like Amazon) with their
cloud music service: it will be introduced without labels' support...
Google will announce a cloud music service today- The Inquirer

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

So far:

- Honeycomb gets to 3.1 (available today, on Xoom)
- Same version runs next Google TV (starting this summer; includes Market)
- Ice Cream Sandwich to be released in Q4, same for phones and tablets

Diogen.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

DISH told me July for the Google TV software update.

 

[diogen]

Android statistics:

- 100M total activations
- 400K daily acitvations
- 36 OEMs
- 310 devices
- 112 countries
- 215 carriers
- 450K developers
- 200K apps
- 4.5B app installs

and the rate is accelerating...

Diogen.

EDIT:
And there are guidelines for timely updates with solid support
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/10/google-partners-with-oems-and-carriers-to-guarantee-android-upda/

 

[diogen]

Update:

- Android Market (not YouTube) gets into the movie renting business
Android Market launches movie rentals, thousands of titles available from $1.99 -- Engadget
Thousands of titles, $2 apiece...

- Music Beta by Google (they like the Beta moniker )
Google Music to stream 20,000 songs for free, official! (updated) -- Engadget

- Home automation (love it!)
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/10/google-announces-android-at-home-framework/

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

Geeez...

That's not bad for a one hour presentation...

Even more is promised for tomorrow...

Diogen.

EDIT:
Q&A period
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/10/google-clarifies-18-month-android-upgrade-program-details-far-f/

 

[tomcrown1]

Google lied to the current google tv users as andorid market place was promised for this spring.

 

[diogen]

RE: Movie rentals
Both Android Market and YouTube will do it...
YouTube and Google Movies rentals can be consumed on either platform -- Engadget

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

To summarize - it was the Android day!

The OS is stabilized and doing very well on the smartphone side of things.
Even the new features will work on Gingerbread 2.3.4 that my 16 months old Nexus One runs just fine!
It's missing a few things - NFC, front camera, 11N - but I'd skip them even today...

The fragmentation/contamination of Android here has been addressed and it most likely will get better.

Obviously, 3.0 was a placeholder. And so most likely will be 3.1 (cleanup release).
Just to stake the ground and prevent Apple from monopolizing the market from the getgo.
I doubt the source code for Honeycomb will ever be published...

IceCream will be the "equalizer". Probably prepped for the holiday season.
Most likely dynamically reconfiguring itself depending on the device it will be installed.

The Android ecosystem is getting ready to explode.
While the music and movie offers are more Apple-esque games (I have hardly any interest in), its GoogleTV
and - especially! - home automation components are great news. DIY HA is becoming feasible!

I hope tomorrow will be the Chrome day!

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

I hope tomorrow will be the Chrome day!

And so it most likely will be...
Google to offer $20-a-month 'student package' for a Chrome laptop? -- Engadget

Maybe the ChromeOS can be installed on the ASUS Transformer?

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

I doubt the source code for Honeycomb will ever be published....

No, it won't. From the man himself
From I/O 2011 - Confirmed: Honeycomb source will never exist on its own

It will piss off a bunch of open source "purists" but is the right thing to do...

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

As expected, Day 2 was a Chrome event...
Live from Google I/O 2011's day 2 keynote! -- Engadget

In short:

- Chrome-the-browser gets its app store (Google takes a flat 5% fee)
- Apps run in tabs, including Games (e.g. Angry Birds)
- Chromebook, aka ChromeOS running netbooks
- Essentially the same as the Chrome-the-brobwser but no OS underneath
- Acer ($400) and Samsung ($420) chromebooks shown (WiFi only)
- June 15th go on sale at BestBuy and Amazon. Fully hackable!!
- Intel mentioned, i.e. Intel CPU support
- Chromebook for students ($20/month) and business ($28/month)

It looks like Google increased the list of their enemies tenfold: IBM, Microsoft, Dell, HP, etc.

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

It was an interesting event, to put it mildly...

On June 15th we'll witness Marc Andreessen's idea come to life: a computer - Chromebook - run by a browser, no OS needed.
This was the idea that awakened Microsoft (Gates?) to the Internet challenge and eventually killed Andreessen's creation - Netscape.

It is hard to judge how successful the Chromebook will be but it certainly won't make Google friends in the PC industry.
Just like Cisco's (lame?) entry into the server market, this is far from being a guaranteed success...

This I/O event showed again the difference in how Google and Apple treat their developer base:
Apple "converts" them into their religion, Google literally buys the developers' souls with gadgets (Samsung tablet, MiFi, Chromebook).

I really like the idea of Google entering the home automation market.
Times when you should have had at least $100K to even think about HA are gone for good.

I think this Google gathering will be felt in many segments of the gadget-land for some time.

Page's CEO term started on a high note, I believe...

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

Just in case you missed the announcement, Angry Birds is now on the web
Angry Birds
and it has a hack
Get All Angry Birds Levels in Chrome HTML5 Version with a quick hackWes Bos | Wes Bos

Plays in IE9 too...

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

A good summary of the Google gathering
For Google, what a difference a year makes | This is my next...

Diogen.

 

[diogen]

IceCream will be the "equalizer". Probably prepped for the holiday season.
Most likely dynamically reconfiguring itself depending on the device it will be installed.

Even Honeycomb can do that!
Android Honeycomb has hidden Gingerbread interface, enabled by higher LCD density -- Engadget

And the criteria what GUI to use is the screen pixel density! Sounds reasonable...

Diogen.