Google I/O 2014: 10 Big Developments
Google unveiled everything from Android to wearable news at its annual developers show. Here are the developments that matter most.
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It's A Wearable World
In his opening-day presentation at Google I/O 2014, the company's annual developers' conference in San Francisco, Sundar Pichai, Google's senior VP of Android, Chrome, and apps, claimed that more than a million people worldwide were watching the keynote's live stream. Given the global reach of Google, this estimate doesn't sound far-fetched.
In a lengthy keynote that seemed to cover every facet of the company's increasingly diverse interests, one trend shone through: Wearable devices are a big deal. Presentations focused mostly on Android and Chrome, and how Google is evolving its software and services beyond smartphones and tablets. These efforts are designed to accommodate the emerging Internet of Things, a sensor-laden ecosystem of wearables, home automation gadgets, connected cars, and machine-to-machine (M2M) devices for the enterprise.
The inevitable stats were impressive. The number of people around the world who actively use Android devices nearly doubled from 530 million a year ago to more than one billion today. And Android now has 62% of global tablet shipments, up from 46% a year ago.
Getting all of these tablets, phones, and other devices to work together is a key concern for Google and its competitors. After all, recent history shows that mobile platforms that fall behind may never catch up.
"Users increasingly are living in a multi-screen world," said Pichai. "You are using other connected devices -- the television in your living room. You're increasingly wearing things on your body. When you get into your car, you expect a connected experience. We want to work to create a seamless experience across all these connected devices."
One significant challenge in realizing this vision, however, involves developing devices and services that become "contextually aware," knowing when users are home and want to be entertained, when they're traveling, and when they're at work.
Voice, arguably the most intuitive means of human interaction, will play a major role in this contextually aware environment. In Google's vision, the smartphone becomes the hub of this personal ecosystem, a logical approach if what the company says is true: Android users check their phones an average of 125 times every day.
One high-profile product that went unmentioned during Wednesday's keynote was Google Glass, perhaps because there's nothing new to announce (unlikely), or because the cutting-edge wearable needs a break from endless public scrutiny and scorn.
This slideshow provides an overview of the major initiatives announced during the I/O conference. Here's the takeaway: Google's focus may be on Android wearables and getting developers to write apps for them, but the search giant is juggling multiple, highly ambitious projects. Some of these may fail, of course, but even the duds are interesting in their own way. Which developments do you like or dislike most? Tell us in the comments section.
Sundar Pichai announced Google's Android One initiative, which is designed to bring "high-quality, affordable smartphones" to billions of potential customers in developing nations. By developing a set of hardware reference platforms, Google plans to create a "turnkey solution" for OEMs in these markets, said Pichai. It's developing the first Android One device with Micromax, a mobile handset manufacturer in India. Expected to cost less than $100 when it ships this fall, this handset will feature a 4.5-inch display, dual SIMs, a removable SD card, and an FM radio. It will run a stock version of Android, but OEMs will be able to add "locally relevant" apps.
Google's motivations here aren't purely altruistic, as the company needs inexpensive, quality handsets to expand its mobile search business globally. But whatever the machinations behind Android One, the project sounds like good news for consumers in emerging markets.
Google offered a sneak peak at the next version of Android, currently code-named "L." The motivation behind Android L is to create a user experience that extends beyond phones and tablets to wearables, cars, TVs, and other devices, said Google VP of design Matias Duarte. A major component of L is "Material Design," a suite of design tools that allows app developers to specify an elevation value for any UI surface, as well as create numerous visual enhancements that retain a consistent look and feel across multiple devices. Google says it's adding more than 5,000 new APIs to Android L, as well as new animation capabilities, 3D reviews with real-time shadows, notifications on the lock screen, better graphics, and a bunch of other goodies to enhance the user experience.
Animation and 3D trickery, not to mention the usual suspects -- CPU, display, WiFi, cellular, GPS, and Bluetooth -- drain a phone's battery in a hurry. Google's latest effort to boost Android battery life is called Project Volta, which includes Battery Historian, a tool that shows which apps and processes were draining power at a particular point in time. Other power-saving enhancements include Job Scheduler API, which developers can use to schedule maintenance tasks or app updates when a phone is connected to its charger, and Battery Saver mode for clocking down the CPU, lowering the refresh rate, and even turning off background data usage to conserve power. A Nexus 5 phone running in Battery Saver mode can gain up to an extra 90 minutes of life in a typical day's use, Google claims.
Recent advances in miniaturization have enabled companies to build a "powerful computer small enough to wear comfortably on your body all day long," David Singleton, Android director of engineering, told the I/O keynote crowd. But maybe attendees knew that already, as Google unveiled its Android Wear initiative three months prior to I/O 2014. The project allows developers to use the same set of tools to build apps for smartwatches, fitness bands, and other wearables.
Android Wear is designed to show relevant, concise information on a square or circular screen, ideally saving you from having to reach for your phone 120-plus times a day. For instance, the Android-based LG G Watch's display, above right, is always on and vibrates when notifications arrive. You swipe up to navigate through a stream of information cards from both Google Now and apps running on your phone or watch.
Voice is expected to be a big deal in the wearable world, so naturally Google is adding voice commands to Android Wear. One I/O keynote demo featuring the Lyft ride-sharing service showed how a simple voice command to your smartwatch, "OK, Google, call me a car," would bring a Lyft driver to your door. (The app auto-detects your location.) Hopefully there's room for good old-fashioned competition in this voice-driven scenario. What if you prefer Uber or another car service instead? And then there's the question of how well voice input might work on a noisy street corner, or outside a bustling airport terminal. Despite these concerns, however, voice interaction may very well be the best way to interact with tiny fitness bands, eyeglasses, and smartwatches.
Today's interaction between cars and smartphones is pretty clunky. And drivers who text are a menace to society. In January, Google and a group of automakers and tech companies launched the Open Automotive Alliance, an effort to get Android into vehicles. At I/O, Google announced Android Auto, a project to make the OS friendlier for car-based apps, particularly in the areas of communication, music, and navigation. Android Auto is voice-enabled to reduce distractions. For instance, when you connect your Android phone to your car (via cable in the demo), the Android Auto UI appears on the car's display. You then use the car's controls and voice commands to navigate Android Auto, even though the apps are running on the phone. This approach greatly simplifies software updates and is great for GPS maps, at least in theory. With Apple pushing its competing CarPlay system, hopefully car buyers won't have to choose between iOS- and Android-enabled rides.
Google is trying to invade your living room again. Its first attempt, Google TV, fizzled out after nearly four years and two incarnations. Consumers yawned. Now comes Android TV, which brings Android's strengths, such as mobile content and voice input, to TVs, says Google. The OS works with virtual controller apps running on a phone or tablet, or with compatible TV remotes. Google is shooting for simplicity here, a clear departure from the overly complex Google TV, which at one point supported a QWERTY keyboard and full Web browsing. Android TV's main screen has content recommendations and links to installed apps like Netflix and iHeartRadio. Google's voice-search capability shows great potential for simplifying queries, particularly if you're not sure of a movie's title but know other relevant information, such as "Oscar-nominated movie from 2005." You also can stream music or video directly from an Android device to a compatible TV or set-top box.
People watch TV an average of 5 hours per day, Google claims. (OK, maybe not everywhere in the world, but likely true in many developed countries.) The other 19 hours? Your TV is dark and cold. Well, Google sees your HDTV as a "large, beautiful canvas," one that Chromecast can send images to via the company's new Backdrop service. You can personalize this image feed to suit your tastes, and add personal photos too. While other TV apps, such as Yahoo's Flickr and Google's own Picasa running on a Roku device, have photo gallery features, Backdrop's image library is far more comprehensive. Another new feature: Google Cast now lets you mirror any Android device to a TV. Some mobile apps like Google Earth are ideal candidates for the big screen, the company says.
Google boasted in the I/O keynote that all 10 of the top 10 highest-rated laptops on Amazon (at that time) were Chromebooks. Fact-checking reporters quickly discovered that this was only sort-of true. Seven of those 10 Chromebooks actually were variations of one model, the Acer C720, and three were different color editions of the HP Chromebook 14. While misleading, Google's claim did have merit. Demand is growing for Chromebooks -- low-cost, Web-centric laptops that exist outside the Windows/Mac duopoly -- particularly among cash-strapped K-12 schools in the US. And Amazon's customer ratings for Chromebooks are generally quite positive.
What's next for Chromebook? Google plans to tighten interactions between the laptop and Android. For instance, if your Android phone is with you when you open your Chromebook, Google will automatically detect the phone's presence, unlock the laptop, and sign you into your apps and services. It already has added Google Now cards -- a popular Android feature -- to the Chromebook, and will soon show incoming call notifications and text messages from Android devices on the laptop. Google also is working to enable Android apps to run on Chromebooks, although this effort is in its early stages.
Google wants more enterprises to adopt its platforms, apps, and services. It's undertaking a variety of projects to achieve this goal, but one effort that really stands out is called Native Office Editing. Here's why it's a big deal: Enterprises standardized on Microsoft Office years (or decades) ago, and the need for document compatibility has kept many of them from moving to competing productivity suites like Google Docs. So in 2012, Google bought QuickOffice, a suite compatible with Microsoft Office, and begin working to integrate QuickOffice with Google Docs.
Well, that day has come. Google says it has integrated native editing of Microsoft Office documents into Google Docs. This means that when you get a Microsoft Word file via email, you can edit it as a Word doc in Google Docs. In the past, Google would've converted the Word doc to a Google Docs file. After editing the document, you can save it in Word format, a handy collaboration feature for mixed Docs/Office workplaces. Native Office Editing may sound ho-hum, but it could play a vital role in breaking Microsoft Office's stranglehold on the enterprise.
Google wants more enterprises to adopt its platforms, apps, and services. It's undertaking a variety of projects to achieve this goal, but one effort that really stands out is called Native Office Editing. Here's why it's a big deal: Enterprises standardized on Microsoft Office years (or decades) ago, and the need for document compatibility has kept many of them from moving to competing productivity suites like Google Docs. So in 2012, Google bought QuickOffice, a suite compatible with Microsoft Office, and begin working to integrate QuickOffice with Google Docs.
Well, that day has come. Google says it has integrated native editing of Microsoft Office documents into Google Docs. This means that when you get a Microsoft Word file via email, you can edit it as a Word doc in Google Docs. In the past, Google would've converted the Word doc to a Google Docs file. After editing the document, you can save it in Word format, a handy collaboration feature for mixed Docs/Office workplaces. Native Office Editing may sound ho-hum, but it could play a vital role in breaking Microsoft Office's stranglehold on the enterprise.
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