GoogleIo2012
Latest
Photos of Google's Vic Gundotra wearing the latest, blue-hued Glass prototype
Sergey Brin briefly pulled out a light blue prototype of Google Glass whilst on stage at Google I/O, and as it turns out, those are evidently the latest and greatest models that the company is willing to wear around. We ran into social exec Vic Gundotra after this morning's keynote, only to find him donning precisely the same set that was teased on stage. We asked if the blue was just part of Google's experimentation with coloring Glass, and he chuckled while confessing that he wasn't authorized to speak further about the project or its ambitions. Still, the man looks good in blue. And something tells us you would, too.
Google Maps offline for Android is available today in version 6.9, also Compass Mode for Street View
Google showed off offline Google Maps at its event earlier this month, and now during I/O it's ready to turn the feature on. We've got a couple of video trailers for offline Google Maps here (embedded after the break), users with Android 2.2 devices and above should keep an eye on Google Play for the new version of the app. Also new in this version is the Compass Mode for Street View shown off today, that lets you look around places as though you were there based on your device's gyroscope and even go inside. We're not all seeing it on our devices yet, but the updated version has already been spotted on a Galaxy Nexus or two.
Google unveils $1,500 Project Glass Explorer Edition, takes pre-orders for 2013 only at Google I/O
We've been wondering when non-Googlers could get their hands on Project Glass in earnest, and now we know: the company is opening up pre-orders for Glass Explorer Edition, a developer version of its heads-up display glasses. How much it's changed from the prototypes isn't yet known, but Google has said that it's been steadily working on refining the hardware along with the software. Sadly, the first crack at the wearable technology isn't coming to the broader masses just yet. Orders are only available to Google I/O attendees, and they cost a pretty hefty $1,500 for their release sometime next year. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!
Google's Project Glass gets some more details
Google's Project Glass has been one of the most anticipated and hyped projects to come out of Google in quite some time. After a rather epic demo the company finally gave us a slightly deeper look at the wearable computer of our (supposed) future. Inside is the usual set of components you'd expect inside any mobile phone. There's a "powerful" CPU and "lots" of RAM (though, there was no mention of specifics) alongside an accelerometer, gyroscope and wireless radios for pulling in data. There's a mic for voice commands, a speaker and a camera, which can also be controlled by the touchpad that lines the side of the wearable device. All of those components sit off to one side, though Google says they're still well-balanced and actually lighter than some pairs of sunglasses. The tiny transparent display doesn't actually sit directly in front of your eye. It's slightly above your line of vision, so that it shouldn't interfere with your normal life. Sergey Brin had three different prototypes on stage -- a light blue pair, a white pair and a black pair -- indicating that personalization and style were concerns. And that's a good thing since Glass is meant to be worn in public. Ultimately Google hopes that the project will be the next step in its quest to make information quickly and universally accessible. The ability to capture images from the first person perspective seems to be key to the device. In a new demo video, a new mother waxes about how hard it is to capture those perfect moments with her child. She "smiles at faces not devices" which makes sticking a D5 in the baby's face a bad idea. If you're impatient and lucky enough to have been at IO (and live in the US), you can actually pre-order an Explorer Edition of the wearable computer for $1,500. The dev focused units will be shipping early next year. But, be warned, this is not a mass consumer item and will likely be more than a little rough around the edges. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!
Sergey Brin demos Project Glass onstage at Google I/O (video)
It's hard to ignore Google's X Lab-born Project Glass. News of the slim-lined, sci-fi goggles' existence first surfaced this past February and it wasn't long after that Mountain View's own elite began to flaunt the heads-up display in public. While little of the device's true purpose and functionality is known, we have been privy to certain features over the past few months, like photo sharing to Google+ and even its ability to overlay Maps. Though product lead Steve Lee shrugged off rumors of a late 2012 launch, it does appear the company's itching to spill a few more (jelly) beans at today's I/O conference. To do that, Sergey Brin rushed onstage at Google I/O wearing the glass units to give us a brief live action demo courtesy of a skydive over San Francisco. Video of the jump, performed by four divers in a blimp, was streamed live through Google Hangouts to attendees at the Moscone Center. In keeping with the extreme vibe of this demonstration, the showcase was handed off to bikers on the rooftop, also outfitted with the lenses, who jumped from building to building via ramp and then eventually cycled into the arena and right up to Sergey, himself. As a finishing touch, Brin also snapped a shot of the team using his own headset. All told, it's a pretty incredible way to once again officially tease this forward-looking tech. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub! Update: Google's posted the entire segment by itself, it's embedded after the break if you want to relive every step (stage to blimp and back to stage, with a few handoffs in between) as it happened. %Gallery-159280%
Google+ has 250 million users, more mobile than desktop
Google wasn't going to leave its budding social layer (don't call it a network) out of today's IO fun. It gave itself a bit of a pat on the back for (probably) exceeding people's expectations. For all the jokes that have been made (some of them on this very site) at Google+'s expense, it's racked up more than 250 million users. Sure, only 150 million actually active, but simply getting people signed up is a victory in itself. And, hey, about 50 percent of them sign on every day. More interestingly, Vic Gundotra says that more users are signing in with the mobile app than visiting the desktop site. That's great news to go along with the dedicated tablet version that was also announced. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub! %Gallery-159276%
Google+ on Android, iPad goes tablet-sized
Google+ just got a makeover very recently, but it was still very much oriented towards phones -- that's been solved as of today. The social networking app is now optimized for Android tablets and the iPad, with a whole new navigation system and Hangout video chats suited to bigger screens. The layout is landscape-friendly and, if you have a new iPad, will take advantage of every pixel on that Retina display. Android users can get the update today; iPad owners will have to wait for a release coming "soon." Android phone owners are getting some of the benefits of the supersized interface in their own, more modest screen sizes as well. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!
Google Nexus Q is 'Designed and Manufactured in the U.S.A.'
Google didn't touch on it during its keynote, but The New York Times' John Markoff has the story on one fairly unique feature of its new Nexus Q home media device: the base of the unit proudly boasts that it's "Designed and Manufactured in the U.S.A." That includes an unnamed company in the Midwest that manufactures the metal base and another in Southern California that makes the case, while the device itself was reportedly being assembled just last week at a large factory 15 minutes away from Google's HQ. According to Google, it hopes that people will be willing to pay more for the device as a result ($299, if you missed it), but it has no plans to play up the "Made in the U.S.A." angle in its marketing. Wired also has an in-depth piece of its own on the making of the device -- you can find it linked below as well. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!
Google makes the Nexus 7 tablet official: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a $199 price (video)
Some of the mystery has been taken out of it, but Google has officially taken the wraps off of the Nexus 7, its first reference-grade tablet. The 7-inch slate is the first and currently only device shipping with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and takes advantage of its optimization for smaller tablet screens, magazines and movies -- it's also the first to ship with a finished Chrome for Android. Like what was widely suspected, the tablet is built by ASUS (shades of Eee Pad MeMO ME370T, anyone?) and mostly draws our attention in terms of what we get for the money: that quad-core Tegra 3, 1.2-megapixel front camera, NFC and 1280 x 800, IPS-based LCD are traits we'd normally look for in a pricier tablet. How much pricier, you ask? Google is asking just $199 for a dainty 8GB model and $249 for a 16GB version -- that's a lot of speed for the money, especially with a $25 Google Play credit and a slew of bundled content. There's no SD card slot, however. We'll test the Nexus 7 as soon as we can, but you can swing by Google Play (and possibly local stores) to order one in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US with a mid-July shipping window. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub! %Gallery-159263%
Google brings incremental app updates, added encryption measures to Android
Google has just announced a new feature for Google Play that's sure to please anyone who's sat through an app update that never seemed to end. It now offers what it calls "Smart App Updates," which will let developers provide incremental updates to apps instead of forcing people to download a whole new APK for every minor update. On average, Google says those should be about a third the size of typical updates. What's more, the company has also announced that it's bringing added encryption measures to Android, which will let paid apps be encrypted with a device-specific key that makes them harder to rip and share. Both features will be supported on Android devices running Gingerbread or above. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!
Google Play hits 600,000 apps, 20 billion total installs
Google during its I/O keynote hit a symbolic milestone: it now has 600,000 apps in the Google Play Store. As well, the store is clearly hitting a brisk pace in adoption, with 1.5 billion downloads every month and 20 billion since Android began. Free apps are available in 190 countries, with paid apps in 132. The app and download counts stack up fairly well to Apple's own claims, although not universally: it's just short of the App Store's 650,000 apps, but Apple can still point to 30 billion total downloads. Google also hasn't said how many apps are explicitly tablet-friendly versus 225,000 iPad-oriented apps. Either way, Google can say that it has largely erased the app quantity deficit, and that's no mean feat.
Google Now revamps search integration in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Google just officially unveiled its next iteration for Android -- Jelly Bean 4.1 -- and now we're getting to see the various "buttery" improvements the company's worked into the OS. Hugo Barra, Director of Product Management, took to the I/O 2012 stage to detail the refinements introduced to its search integration. The entire experience has been redesigned from the ground-up with a fresher UI and a "faster, more natural" voice search ability. That refreshed interface borrows from the recently outed Knowledge Graph, displaying queries for weather, Wikipedia and restaurants in graphical card format. That same layout extends to voice search, now spoken by a much more human-sounding voice. You can also dismiss the cards with a simple swipe, exposing the full list of search results beneath. But that's not the whole story, the company's also introducing Google Now -- a new form of search that ties your browsing and navigation histories together to anticipate your needs. In the demo, Barra showcased how the new system could help to calculate a user's commute, replete with alternate route suggestions and even scheduling info, recommend nearby restaurants as they're passed and keep users abreast of impending appointments with departure time recommendations. Excited for this next search-based step in Android? Then look for it to hit Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S and Xoom devices as part of the 4.1 update coming mid-July.%Gallery-159259% Keep up with the latest Google news by checking out our I/O keynote liveblog and event hub!
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean home screen revealed, automatically accommodates your apps and widgets
It's a pain manually moving apps and widgets on Android screens, ain't it? Well, at Google I/O 2012, the folks in Mountain View have just given us some Jelly Bean salve to soothe that irritation. The latest Android OS automatically arranges onscreen icons around any new widgets or apps you choose to insert. Not only that, but you can also remove any unwanted apps and widgets with a simple swipe up and off the home screen to delete them. A welcome Android addition, to be sure, but it begs the question, when will us non-Nexus owners get to enjoy it? Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!
Android Jelly Bean input options include updated keyboard, offline voice dictation
On stage at Google I/O, the company is showing off its newest features for Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which include a new keyboard with SwiftKey-like word prediction, and voice typing that works even when you're offline. From the demo on stage it worked quickly without the annoying lag of waiting for the server to process your words we've experienced from voice control so far. There are 18 new input languages including Persian and Hindi, although offline voice dictation is US English only for now. Also mentioned on stage are new audio cues for blind users, and support for Braille. Check out our Google I/O 2012 live blog for all the details. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!
Project Butter improves Android 4.1's speed to a silky-smooth 60FPS
As part of its unveiling of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Google has unveiled Project Butter, a major effort to squash Android's frequent problems with device lag, as well as Systrace to help diagnose performance. Project Butter lets the CPU and graphics run in parallel, rather than crash into each other, and has a big impact on both real and perceived speed: the entire interface runs at 60 frames per second on sufficiently fast hardware. Graphics are now triple-buffered to keep scrolling and transitions humming along, and the processor will swing into full gear the moment you touch the screen to keep input lag to a minimum. Systrace, in the meantime, will help developers stamp out what performance hiccups remain. The tracing tool will be a part of the Jelly Bean SDK, so every coder can get an app running in tip-top shape. Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!
Google: 400 million Android devices, one million activations a day
Google has just kicked off its I/O keynote with some big new numbers to share. It now says there are 400 million activated Android devices out there, and one million activations per day. That's up from the 100 million activated devices it announced at Google I/O last year, and 200 million it announced last fall, while the activations per day are up from the 900k it confirmed just earlier this month. As Google was quick to point out, that translates to about 12 devices activated every second, and it's happy to note that things are "definitely not slowing down." Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012's opening keynote at our event hub!
Google cuts the price of the Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ to $349, adds Jelly Bean
Jeez Louise, Google's 2012 I/O opening keynote has barely begun and much of the news has already leaked out on the company's own Play Store. Add this to the list: Google is dropping the price of the HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus to $349 from $399, and is updating its flagship phone with the next, soon-to-be-unveiled version of Android, Jelly Bean. That screenshot up there should answer some of your most likely questions, but here's the short version: it'll be compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile in the US, and roughly 200 other GSM carriers everywhere else in the world (no surprise here). As for the software, well, we have enough early intel about Jelly Bean to know that's Android 4.1 running on a seven-month-old handset. As for what that jump from 4.0 to 4.1 entails, you can expect quite a few stories from us, but this official announcement should be as good a place as any to start. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Live from Google I/O 2012's opening keynote!
June is drawing to a close and we're back in San Francisco for what will be the last major event of the month. It's Google's I/O developer conference and it starts today with the first keynote. Set your browsers here and refresh at the time below to join us in this great American liveblog! June 27, 2012 12:30 PM EDT
Google's Nexus 7 cover turns up on the Play store, will set you back $20
Not surprisingly, Google will have some accessories for its new Nexus 7 tablet, including a cover that also leaked out a bit early through Google Play (and spotted by MoDaCo's Paul O'Brien). As you can see, it will cover both the front and back of the device, and set you back a fairly reasonable $20. Available at least in dark grey, it has a matte (seemingly textured) finish, and provides access to both the tablet's headphone jacket and charging port.
$399 Triad speakers for Nexus Q surface in Google Play store
Well, we certainly know what's coming at 12:30. In addition to outing the Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus Q media-streaming device, the Play store has a listing for $399 Triad bookshelf speakers "designed to optimize the sound quality of the Nexus Q." The listed specs peg each speaker at 14 pounds, with a 1-inch fabric dome tweeter and a 6.5-inch proprietary woofer. The speakers' range is 75 Hz - 20 kHz, and according to the page they will ship in two to three weeks -- only in the US.
