- 04.07.14
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[Photo: Reinhard Hunger for Fast Company]
Google I/O Keynote
On May 28, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. PT / 12:30 p.m. ET, Google will hold the keynote at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. Expect news on all of its platforms: the web, Android, Chrome, and more. Fast Company's Harry McCracken, John Brownlee, and Jared Newman will be there to cover it in person and will share developments as they happen.
Did you miss the event? You can watch the keynote video here and read a quick recap of they keynote's highlights here.
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That means you can charge your Retina MacBook from the same charger as your Android phone! I'm a dork. That excites me.
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I can't wait until USB-C is everywhere, including, I hope, on iPhones.
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Android M now automatically learns what apps or people you share with most, with a sort of dynamic sharing feature.
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Lots of little tweaks: Simpler volume controls, floating toolbar for copy/paste. Faster sharing to your favorite apps/contacts.
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Android M will be available in Q3, and will be released as a dev beta today for more recent Nexus devices.
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David Singlet, the director of Android Wear, just came on the stage. He's wearing a hoodie. Take a drink.
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No metrics on number of users. Maybe because it's not so great.
Over 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014 | Canalys
Over 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014 out of a total of 4.6 million smart wearable bands. Though the Moto 360 remained supply constrained through Q4, Motorola was the clear leader among Android Wear vendors. -
David Singleton, Director of Android Wear takes the stage at I/O 2015
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Android Wear is spending a lot of effort to make the watch useful when a phone isn't around. I wish the Apple Watch worked well without a phone.
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The next release of Android Wear, rolling out in the next few weeks, will support wrist gestures, always be on, an emoji recognizer, and new app launcher.
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Android Wear changes include new features designed to make it easier for you to quickly see what time it is, which is a commentary of sorts on the general state of smartwatches.
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Google seems to be rehashing some details from Android Wear's May update: www.fastcompany.com/3045869/app-economy/android-wears-new-strategy-for-success-in-the-apple-watch-era
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Apps will have the same functionality as Android Wear watchfaces, and be always on, if you have an OLED display Android Wear watch. "Always just a glance away."
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You can also now scroll through notifications just by making a flicking gesture with your wrist. Neat.
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This is Android Wear's killer feature: you can sketch an emoji on the watchface, and it'll recognize what you wanted to send and translate it to the appropriate emoji, then send it!
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"Ok Google, call a car" now works on Android Wear with Uber. Lyft launched that feature last year.
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Unlike Apple Watch, Android Wear developers can actually tap into all of a device's sensors.
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Android Wear apps have direct access to a bunch of sensors, unlike Apple Watch ones.
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4000 Android Wear apps so far, a year after release. I'm not quite sure if that's impressive or a bit disappointing. Apple Watch had 3000 on day one.
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4,000 apps specifically for Android Wear. (This doesn't include what Google has called "tens of thousands" of apps whose notifications are optimized for the smartwatch.)
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@HarryMcCracken: 3,000 junkie ones, half of which didn't work, and the other half needed to be redesigned.
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Sundar Pichai is talking about the Internet of Things.
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Sounds like Google is going to get more out of the $3 billion it spent on Nest, with an IoT OS called Project Brillo.
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So Project Brillo is actually the name of the underlying operating system of Google's IoT.
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I suppose, like Kit Kat, they worked out some sort of trademark deal!
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Brillo: good enough for Andy Warhol, good enough for Google.
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It sounds like Brillo's communications language, Weave, will actually be something you can bake into any app pretty easily, no matter what platform you run on.
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Brillo will be in developer preview in Q3, and the full stack will be available by the end of Q4, 2015.
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I wonder how well Android can work on devices which might use not-very-powerful chips and have no display of their own.
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Pichai saying that Android voice recognition has gotten dramatically better. And it does seem to be remarkably good these days.
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Sundar Pichai just tipped that Google's new Photos functionality will help them sort photos according to content, just like Flickr.
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Pichai outlining new Inbox features. Now that it works with Google Apps accounts, I may try to use it as my primary business email client.
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Flickr can already sort images according to whether they have animals, nature, patterns, people, lots of depth of field, or others, in them. But my guess is Google can get a lot more granular. That's exciting.
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Aparna Chennapragada, who runs Google Now, is onstage talking about new features. I interviewed her recently.
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How Google Makes Sure Google Now Is Useful, Personal, And Efficient--And Not Creepy
Fast CompanyGoogle Now honcho Aparna Chennapragada on the art of turning information into bite-sized, actionable cards.
