For those not in the loop, Google I/O (Input/Output) is an annual conference hosted by Google for developers from all around the world. The entire conference occurs in San Francisco at the Moscone Center spanning a total of three days (June 27-29). During this time, they hold multiple developer seminars and information sessions to help introduce third party developers to their products and upcoming technologies.
The company also took this opportunity to release and announce some of their new innovations. Through the span of two keynotes, Google’s executive staff managed to blow people away by introducing their new products. Android received an upgrade with Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean”. The main feature is called “Project Butter” which basically introduces a fixed frame rate of 60fps to reduce screen lag and create a “buttery” smooth user experience. It also introduces Google Now, which is a smart and aware assistant similar to iOS’s Siri. Their flagship tablet for Jelly Bean is the Nexus 7, a Google branded tablet with a 7” display, about 10 hours of battery power, and an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor.
The Nexus Q is a brand new device being marketed as a “social streaming media player”. It connects to the Google Play store to stream music, videos and more. The “social” part of it all is that your friends with Android devices can connect to it and also control what’s playing. Google Compute Engine, acting as Google’s response to Amazon Web Services, allows you to borrow Google’s remote computational power for a price.
Google Drive received added offline functionality for collaborative document editing as well as an iOS app. Chrome now covers most platforms, with the introduction of an iOS app, and it was noted that it has surpassed all other browsers in number of users. They also demoed the browser’s capabilities by playing Bulletstorm and showing off a Cirque Du Soleil interactive 3D experience. Chromebooks, which are laptops running Google’s Chrome OS, are now being publicly sold. They are effectively just a browser and your favourite web apps. However, given the Chrome demos, this seems like a viable option for already existing laptops at a lower price range. Project Glass, Google’s wearable computer announced earlier this year, got a “beta” version price tag for I/O attendees at $1500. Not only that, but the company’s co-founder managed to demo the device Tony Stark-style with people skydiving, performing BMX tricks, and wall climbing to show off the Glass’ video chatting capabilities.
However, the best part of all of this were the extended sessions held around the world. For those developers who couldn’t make it out to sunny California, Google provided free meetups and sessions in multiple locations around the world. One of these was held at their offices here in Kitchener, at the Lang Tannery Building on June 28. The day was mainly an opportunity to meet other developers and learn about Google’s products. It was a conference style day filled with events, demos, raffles and meals. It is also open to students and you manage to get some swag after it all. The day started with a bit of mingling and demos in the showroom area of the Tannery. Eventually, when everyone found a seat and had brunch (featuring pancakes on a stick), they had a Q&A panel made up of Google Engineers and startups funded or acquired by Google in Canada. This being said, you could note that the Google team worked hard to create a day for local developers with an emphasis on Canada. They even managed to invite Hon. Gary Goodyear, Minister of Science and Technology, to answer some questions about Canada’s involvement in technology and research.
Later in the day, they featured a live stream of the keynote from San Francisco and multiple developer information sessions. Better yet, the Canadian Googlers even held some of these sessions locally. The schedule was formed in a way for you to choose your own adventure. You had to choose 4 sessions to take part of. These sessions included Rocking the Tech Interview, Integrating G+ into Mobile Apps, Making Great Android Apps, Chrome Developer Tools Evolution, Advanced CSS/HTML5 (Held by Google and Adobe Engineers), and many more.
I must note, they also provided lunch for the day. All cooked by their wonderful Google chefs, it featured sushi, delicious hors d’oeuvres, a salad bar and most importantly an open bar of beer and wine. I encourage any developers or aspiring developers in the area to take advantage of this next year. You gain insight on Google’s operations as well as get to enjoy a day in their office. You also get a slice of the I/O experience without forking over the ticket price and travel cost.
For more information on I/O and videos of the conference, including the skydiving, visit developers.google.com/events/io/.
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