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Google I/O 2011 – 1st day Keynote

May 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The first keynote of the Google I/O 2011 focuses completely on the Android platform. Here are some of the highlights.

Android

  • 100 million activations
  • 4.5 billion installs of applications
  • over 200,000 applications
  • Honeycomb 3.1 update available very soon
  • 3.1 can act as USB host – directly connect USB devices to your Android tablet (camera, keyboard, game controller)
  • Also coming to Google TV this summer

Next release Ice Cream Sandwich

  • Q4 2011 targeted launch
  • Focus on choice of device: available for phones, tablets, and tablets turning into laptops(!)
  • New tools to accommodate different screen sizes
  • Completely Open Source
  • Demo of feedback from position of head vs. tablet, Android’s version of Photobooth. More useful demo: on video chat with multiple speakers system focuses automatically on the person speaking.

Android Cloud services

  • Android market expanded to movies.
  • $3.99 rental for 30 days
  • Ability to make movie rentals available offline (for viewing on for example airplane)
  • Available across all devices, phone, tablet, laptop and PC.
  • Music Beta by Google
  • Makes music available across all devices
  • Instant mix based on a selected song
  • Adding music over the air – never have to use a cable again, no syncing (hey, Apple!)
  • Make Available Offline also available for music
  • When getting new phone, all that is needed is signing into Google account
  • Rolling out in beta, up to 20,000 songs, free while in beta

Industry partnership

  • New platform releases rolling out faster based on new industry partnership
  • New updates automatically for 18 months as long as hardware supports

More

  • Android Open Accessory API
  • Takes openness to a new level by allowing hardware by 3rd parties
  • Demo of exercise bike connected to Android phone, automatically starts CardioQuest application, and bike detects that CardioQuest is running and relinquishes control to phone.
  • API for Gingerbread and Honeycomb available today
  • Starting out with USB, Bluetooth available later
  • ADK (Accessories Development Kit) based on Arduino.
  • Demo of Labyrinth game where controller is an Android tablet.
  • Completely open, no NDA, no fees, no approval process.
  • Android@Home
  • New protocol to allow devices to communicate with each other and with Android – Partnering with Lightning Science – LED lightbulbs and switches – by end of year.
  • Android@Home hub – project Tungsten. Demo of music playing through multiple devices. Combination of Music and @Home to identify music cds and automatically start playing them

 

Filed Under: Features, Miscellaneous Tagged With: , , , ,

Google rumored to launch Chrome OS tablet on November 26th

August 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Download Squad reported Wednesday that Google is rumored to be building a Chrome OS tablet with HTC. It’s supposed to launch on November 26th, Black Friday.

Concept art from Google of Chrome OS tablet

Although that sounds like good news, I’m kinda disappointed that it’s not going to be an Android tablet. After the recent Android tablets from third parties (most notably/notoriously the “KMart tablet”), I hoped this rumor would be Google’s tablet version of the Nexus One. Google is now trying to cover the same market (tablets) with two different platforms (Android and Chrome OS). I think that could be a serious mistake: developers already have to choose between iPhone/iPad and Android, and now you’re adding a third platform in the mix. And that new platform is from the same company as one of the previous choices.

That doesn’t mean I’m not excited about the news. I hope it’s true, and I guess I’ll have to start saving up my money for Black Friday (or Cyber Monday).

Filed Under: Lifestyle Tagged With: , , ,

The wrong arguments to buy an iPhone or an HTC phone

July 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In TWiT Leo and friends mentioned the two videos made by a Best Buy (ex-)employee, describing which wrong arguments people use to chose an iPhone over an HTC:

And then of course, there are also the equally wrong arguments to chose an HTC over an iPhone:

P.S. Wonder how these movies are made? Check out Xtranormal!

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: , , , ,

Android Multi-Touch tablet prototype

May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Zedomax blog has a preview of an Android tablet running Android at the Adobe exhibit at Web 2.0. Although the preview shows off a lot of the functions (including the ability to run Flash and Air applications on the tablet), there are two distinct disadvantages for an Android/Flash tablet:

  1. The number of apps available for Android versus the iPad
    Currently Apple has more than 180,000 apps, versus Android about 50,000 apps. I hate to quote Balmer, but “Developers! Developers! Developers!”. If I have a platform where the 1 millionth device just shipped, versus a new platform, I’d go with the 1 million device user base.
  2. The different user interface a (touch) tablet requires versus a mouse drive app.
    Examples of this are hover functions, double-click, etc., which have to be redesigned for a touch interface.
One of the big advantages would be the ability to put an app on an Android tablet without having to go through a vetting process at Apple that is less than transparent. Also, chances are the device will be cheaper, based on Google‘s philosophy that the more people use the web, the better it is for Google.
I guess we’ll have to wait until the end of the year to see what the Android tablet will look like, how much it will cost, and how it will perform.
Filed Under: Macintosh Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,