GOOGLE i / O 2013: DAY ONE

Android going stellar...

GOOGLE i / O 2013:
DAY ONE

Good evening, Synapse Circuit Readers! Yes, as predicted – sort of – the first day was dedicated to the Android and Chrome developers and I was quite impressed... Here’s a snapshot...

DEVELOPING
I have to say that it was a great eye opener to see that Google were busy developing their products: Search, Maps, Development Tools, Educational Apps and there was a wonderful key speech from CEO Larry Page...

900 MILLION AND COUNTING
There’s no denying that Android is the dominant mobile operating system on the planet; so far there are 900 million activations – I wonder how many of those activations are owned by one individual – I now own 8 Android handsets (primarily because after the 2 year contract has expired my handsets are worthless)!



GOOGLE NOW / SEARCH / MAPS / PLUS
Wow! Google Search will be available on the Chrome web browser... Just say the magic words, “Hey, Google...” and the search is activated like it is on the mobile. Search is based on “hot” words instead of key words! It’s more conversational very much like the Star Trek computer Google aspire to!

Google Maps looked stunning! The map is now the interface and the maps are personalized and it works with Google Plus! Also the maps go further as to explore a 3D representation of a shop or restaurant. I loved how you can zoom out to see the Earth in orbit in real time! Spectacular!

Google Plus has gotten an update that looks stunning!

Then there’s their automated photo enhancing feature that allows for the largest pixels that your camera is capable of. We are given 15GB of storage! Cool!





EXCITEMENT
It was great to see some new web media developments with WebP image format that allows for transparency and animation; it’s 30% more efficient than JPEG! WebP is a lossless format! Then there’s the promising new video format, WP9! Again, 30% more efficient than H.264! It means a lot to web and app designers. It also means that we’ll be using less mobile data! Awesome! 



SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 GOOGLE
Yes, Hugo Barra showed off a Samsung Galaxy S4 that runs stock Android! It’s what I expected to be honest... I have always said that Samsung ought to give users the option to remove TouchWiz and use their innovations as widgets! It’ll cost over $600! Oooh! Ouch! But I think it will sell simply because the S4 is a fantastic handset! The S4 is yet to be beaten!



INSPIRATIONAL: LARRY PAGE
Listening to Larry Page’s speech was inspirational! I so agree that if the major players in technology stopped being overly concerned with money then technology can move along even faster than the snail’s pace it is at right now. Page hinted that major development of Android has stalled because of problems with Oracle (owners of Java technology that Android depends upon)... But we’ll see if there’s news specifically on a new Android version, 4.3.

I will be covering tomorrow’s event too! See you then!  

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