This post was published 10 years, 4 months ago. Due to the rapidly evolving world of technology, some material it contains may no longer be applicable.
This years I/O went off with a bang! (Well after a few minutes of complete silence on the live stream!) Google has already covered the vast majority of what we outlined in our What We Expect post (and some we didn’t!) and we have yet to finish the first day. It’s important to remember that most of the big announcements as far as consumers are concerned are probably out-of-the-way now the keynote is done but it is still possible we could be in for a few more surprises for everyone!
Anyway, here are some of our best bits from the day. We will be writing articles on many of them over the next few days (yes days, we are a small team and Google announced a LOT). We will link to the articles as we do them from the list here.
- Android “L” is coming in the Autumn but preview Nexus factory images and SDK will be available TOMORROW
- Three Android Wear devices announced (Samsung Gear Live, LG G Watch and Moto 360)
- Android TV and car (Android Auto) made official
- Android TV to heavily embrace gaming and connection to smartphones and tablets,
- Android Auto runs from your phone so hardware updates not an issue
- Android apps are coming to Chrome OS
- Whole new visual style including new icons, nav buttons and heavy card based theme
- New notification system with privacy levels so that they can show on the lockscreen and heads-up
- Android Wear full SDK to be released tomorrow
- Gear Live and G Watch to go on sale on the Play Store tomorrow! (360 to follow a month!)
- I/O attendees will get a free G Watch or Gear Live AND a Moto 360 when it launches
- Android TV will work as a Chromecast as well
- Android Wear devices can be used to control Android TV
- All Android platforms will now be updated as one and can be developed for under one SDK (Wear, Auto, TV, Phone etc)
- You will soon be able to cast your screen to Chromecast / Google TV with almost zero latency
- Google has acquired even more companies
- Android has surpassed 1 billion users
- Google makes Apples WWDC stats look as stupid and shows how they were wrong
- ART will be the default in Android L
- True native editing is coming to Google Docs
- Android notifications will be mirrored to Chrome OS
- Google Now cards for Chromecast activities
- Android Day Dream style feature for Chromecast
- Casting now possible without being on the same Wi-Fi network
- Lot’s of impressive usage and sales stats
- Google has partnered with almost everyone
- Everything announced is coming out this year (so far)
- HTC have promised Android L updates within 90 days of release for all One devices back to M7
- All Android Wear devices are waterproof
- Android Wear devices have no speaker or camera – no direct voice or video calls!
- Android to get a kill switch feature
- Protester had to be kicked out
- Android will feature a built-in power saver and improvements to battery life know as “Project Volta”
- Desktop level graphics performance is coming to Android
- Android L is 64-bit ready
- Android L features a new keyboard
- New design philosophy known as “Material Design” think cards, lots of cards
- Google didn’t feel the need to take direct jabs or bad mouth other companies – much more polite than Apple
- Your phone can be unlocked by proximity to your Android Wear watch
- We are getting ANOTHER new dialer!
- No name given other than “L” thus far
- Design guidelines for apps and web becoming one (Project Hera)
- Web apps can now feature in multi-tasking and run like native apps
- New Gmail app
- Almost all AOSP apps totally reworked
- Updates to Roboto font
- All animations Android system, app and web animations should now be 60 FPS!
- Android Silver is now Android One, focused on developing markets like India
- New Android Logo confirmed
- Android now has 62% of the tablet market
- Little Green Dude team tweeted throughout the whole keynote and have very tired fingers!
I am sure there is other stuff not mentioned here and those are very brief points we hope to expand on soon! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Now get some rest guys, tomorrow we go again!