Google I/O – things I’d like to see from Google’s biggest event.

Design, Develop and Distribute. These are the secret ingredients chosen to create a perfect little world. But Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction, publicity. Thus the Google I/O was born.

Google I/O is the biggest developers conference in the world presently, but that’s not all it is. Yes, you can officially put your geek hat on cause in a matter of 2 days, that small bug eyed, braces wearing, cracked spectacles adjusting, shirt tucking scrawny kid will finally have a reason to rejoice. There’s just so much for Google to talk about, but what is it you really want to know?

(click on the headings or hyperlinked words to know more)

 

Google’s Android Silver

Google’s sparked rumors a few months ago that they’d be cutting the Nexus line short and focusing on a more pure, premium version of android, also known as Android Silver. I’m really excited about Silver because it’s the first step Google’s taken to bring the operating system under their control, even if it means sacrificing a popular business opportunity (that’s still a rumor, no one quite knows if the Nexus series is actually shutting down).

Nexus 6 concept (gottobemobile.com)

Nexus 8 concept (source: phonearena.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google’s not focused on making a profit and any argument you make can be countered by the fact that they’ve spent millions of dollars developing Android and eventually giving it out for free. What Google wants to ensure, finally, is that the devices which use Android Silver are premium quality devices. They’ve laid down a set of rules (or what I like to call the Silver Standard) and a device can only run Android Silver if it meets a certain standard. Now this has several implications of it’s own like who’ll fall under Google and why would anyone want to sport Android Silver. The answer might be…Samsung.

Hello Silver Standard! (source: computerbild.de)

Goodbye everyone. (source: unleashthephones.com)

Samsung’s been exploiting the smartphone market with their hyped, over priced, under performing devices which they claim are the best in the world. Google’s Nexus 4, 5 and 7 were premium quality devices running the latest version of android at almost half the price of any equivalent Samsung device in the market at that time. They delivered what is now termed as ‘flagship killer’ devices, thus breaking the myth – ‘if you want quality, you gotta pay the price.’

I think Android Silver is a way for Google to get a grip on their OS and to make sure that we get our money’s worth with our devices. While LG and Moto are the leading contenders for the first Android Silver devices, the likes of HTC, Samsung and Sony may choose to avoid Silver altogether. Considering that Google’s primary objective is to deliver these devices at a reasonable price, it’ll be tough for a profit-hungry organization to collaborate with the Silver OS. Whether it’ll be a success remains open for discussion, but I’d sure like to hear the progress made in it’s development. In fact, a massive overhaul in user experience and design wouldn’t be too bad either.

Project Ara

Google is as resourceful as they are witty and determined. They bought and sold Motorola within a matter of 3 years, but they managed to retain most of the patents from Moto’s sturdy yet frugal design concepts. From the remains of the patents rose a powerful concept for a project or Project Ara.

Home made mobiles. (source: trustedreviews.com)

Piece by piece. (source: slashgear.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project Ara is a modular phone concept. Modular phones have been toyed with for a few years now but no one’s ever dreamed of actually bringing them to life. Google and Motorola collaborated to begin working on the first modular phone. The project was met with criticism and awe alike. If Project Ara actually manages to make it to the market, it could mean a dramatic shift in sales toward the Google/Moto phones. The customizability of Project Ara is what makes it so eye-catching and the prospect of owning just one phone to meet all your needs speaks for itself. Project Ara has a Feb 2015 deadline but not much has been revealed about this tightly wrapped project either, which is another one of Google’s feathers I’d like to know more about.

 Google Plus Overhaul

There are more Google Plus accounts than there are Twitter and Facebook, yet there’s hardly any traffic on it and that’s because Google Plus needs a massive redesign.

Out with the old. (source: thehindu.com)

In with the new. (source: theverge.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trends in Social Networking have changed since Facebook first changed the concept of social networking and although Google wasn’t bothered about the idea of people not warming up to Google Plus, their advertising strategy has taken on the shape of Cerberus and Google doesn’t want to leave any man behind, especially with Apple and Microsoft close on their tail.

While they may not care so much about Social Networking, they certainly need to capture a larger audience with Google Plus. I’m not suggesting they make it another social networking site. I’m just saying they should look into a more attractive way for users to start using a platform along similar lines. But Google has an amazing fan following and although Plus isn’t the most attractive site to use, it still gets 25 % more traffic than Twitter in a month with over 300 million visitors. It’s the time they spend on it that’s the problem. Just imagine it a little more effort was put into refining the Google Plus experience.

Google Wear

One of the most anticipated announcements for the conference is the line of Google wearable accessories. And with android being the most likely OS across them all, it’s bound to make synchronizing with our android devices extremely simple.

Moto’s 360 degree turn. (source: hypebeast.com)

LG’s edge. (source: entrepreneur.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve seen a lot of companies release wearable devices this year. The Pebble Steel was the most sleek and least taxing of the lot while Samsung’s wearable watches (a whole range of wrist watches) are more colourful and appealing. Google’s Android Wear line, once again in collaboration with either LG or Motorola, will set the stage for wearable devices to come in the next few years, with a Google Glass like experience without the hassles of the glass itself. They’re also looking to expand beyond the wearable watches business, which would be interesting.

Google Glass

Speaking of Google Glass, Google has some major announcements regarding the official launch of their much anticipated Google Glass. While they have been given out for beta testing, it hasn’t been sold officially.

How it works. (source: gadgetshow.channel5.com)

How it looks (source: theverge.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google Glass is poised at $1500 and integrated a range of intrusive and non-intrusive features, which might be the reason it’s widely spoken about (infamous). It incorporates features such as live video capturing, instant snapshots, message integration, an all in one fitness tracker, Google Play Music and much more. But is the world ready for Google Glass in it’s current state?

The major concern with Google Glass is the ability to record videos and take photos without any visible indication of the same. This has caused an outrage among Google haters, who’ve reportedly beaten the life out of Google Glass owners. I mean no one wants to live in the constant fear of having their every movement recorded by an unknown/known person. There are also reports of Glass owners facing severe headaches after prolonged use of the Glass, not to mention it’s battery life. If they can begin by tweaking these minor issues, maybe the world will be more bought over by GG.

 

Google’s Terminators

Two of the most shocking buy-overs by Google for me were Boston Dynamics and DeepMind Technologies.

The Mind of a Human. (source: digitaltrends.com)

Body of a Robot. (source: nytimes.com)

 

Boston Dynamics researches and creates robots while DeepMind works on Aritificial Intelligence. If reports are to be believed, they’re collaborating in an effort to make robots learn the way humans do. Has it finally happened? Is Google just a cover up? Are we going to see Skynet become a reality? And why do they need these robots anyway (other than world domination and an army of killing machines)? I hope they give us a little insight on what the companies are working on.

Google X

Google revealed 8 major projects under the Google X banner, one of which was Google Glass. Another project of theirs which recently took off (and came crashing down, literally) was Project Loon, Google’s answer to connecting everyone to the internet. And more recently announced and displayed was Google’s Self Driving Cars.

Beyond our sight. (source: dailymail.co.uk)

Too close for comfort. (source: thenextweb.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the other projects have yet to be talked about, or given insight to anyway. They’ve major plans for  Makani Power– a wind energy company, contact lenses that monitor glucose in tears, an artificial neural network for speech recognition and the web of things. So what’s the update on these projects? Was there any prior thought given to them? Will we see any of them in the near future or are these just heavy R & D projects?

 

Android 5.0

And finally, we’re back to where we started. It’s been almost a year since they announced the launch of KitKat (Android 4.4). It’s probably time for a new version of Android to release.

Android A-K (source: blogs.systoolsgroup.com)

Android Lollipop. (source: telekom-presse.at)

 

 

 

 

 

Following the naming hierarchy, Android 5.0 is rumored to be called Android Lollipop. I like the idea of naming every successor with the next letter of the alphabet but Lollipop? Wouldn’t that lay the platform for a slur of vulgar jokes? But it’s probably inevitable, seeing as the previous versions are also edible items. And 5.0 needs to change the way android interacts. I’m honestly getting a little tired (and bored) of watching android interact the same way on every phone. And it’s been a really long time since 4.0 came out so why not change the platform altogether, hopefully for the better.

 

Last Thoughts

It’s going to be a big week to developers and especially Google lovers. We’ll get to see the latest and greatest that technology has to offer but at the same time, I urge you to question their feasibility and issues. The world is developing far too quickly but at what cost? Do we need to see certain things come to life in the first place? And what’s the intent behind the development of certain projects/products. Read more about these projects and learn about them before you purchase anything. You’ll never know when it might affect you.

 

As always, I’d like to thank the sources for their amazing photos.

 

Tecknow- Edition 1

Welcome to my first edition of One Ahead. I’ll be covering, in as concise a manner possible, the most significant tech news from around the world. So let’s begin!

The Next Nexus Tab

A new Nexus tab is rumored for sometimes this year, but it’s all just speculation. There has been no concrete evidence to support this claim but the next Nexus Tab, the Nexus 9, is rumored to be manufactured by HTC (where Asus built the previous one). The Verge  reported earlier that the Nexus 9 might come with a 2048 x 1440 resolution, 8.9-inch display, 2 GB of RAM and houses the very powerful Nvidia Tegra K1 processor. Android Police estimates that the 16 GB and 32 GB versions will be out for $399 and $ 499 respectively, with a slightly more expensive 4G LTE version expected to release after.

Nexus 9 rumors. (source: digitaltrends.com)

Google I/O

The Google I/O conference comes just a few weeks after Apple’s WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) and the I/O conferences are primarily for developers, but that doesn’t mean we won’t get some critical information about their upcoming projects. Google has gone on a buying spree over the last few years, picking up some of the most progressive companies to add to their repertoire like Nest,  Skybox, Deep Mind, and Waze. It’ll be interesting to see if Google finally let’s us in on what they’re planning to do with all these companies, whether in collaboration or not.

Google’s Developer Conference. (source: unlockunit.com)

Driverless Car

Cruise Animation is a semi alternative to Google’s Driverless Car  at a much more affordable price. It comes from a startup called Y Combinator and their technology is called Cruise. It incorporates an array of sensors and radars which has the capability to detect obstacles on the road and avoid them without your intervention. It can also brake, accelerate and steer by itself. But it can’t guide you from one place to another nor can it drive by itself the entire way. It can, however, provide a momentary solution and works with the press of a button, like Cruise Control. Unlike Google’s overambitious $100,000 self driving car, the Cruise is poised at $ 10,000 and can apparently be added as an aftermarket solution.

The Cruise. (source:TheVerge.com)

Microsoft’s OneDrive Expansion

On the eve of Google’s I/O conference, Microsoft announced that they’d be increasing their storage capacity to 1 TB for Office 365 users, which is an exponential burst compared to the currently existing 20 and 50 GB of storage respectively. Microsoft firmly believes that they can bring in the productivity and have stated openly that no one else can like them. They were clearly trying to stab Google just before the I/O conference. Google still manages to provide it’s services for free, although a limit of 15 GB could be looked at as abysmal next to Microsoft’s 1024 GB!

One Drive Expands. (source: betanews.com)

3-D Printed Car

A company called Local Motors, which is renowned for it’s ‘beyond the horizon’ way of working, has now come out with a 3-D Printed Electric Vehicle, the designs for which were inspired by fans from their community. Apparently they held a contest, from which they chose one decisive winner but also incorporated several design aspects from the runners up, and are now working on the first official 3-D electric vehicle which can stretch the boundaries of your imagination.

Local Motor’s 3-D Printed Car. (source: webmania.co)

Harley’s Electric Bike

The Gold Standard for motorcycle creation has raised the bar for it’s competitors this week, announcing their first Electric Motorcycle.  Harley announced that they’re going to be working on Project LiveWire, their first endeavor in the electric vehicle segment. While it sounds promising, it remains to be seen what their strategy is for cross country and long distance trips. Meanwhile, rumors are about that BMW and Bosch are also working on a similar project. Will we finally see motorcycle manufacturers shift towards the electric revolution?

Harley’s LiveWire. (source: treehugger.com)

Toyota’s Hover Cars

Toyota’s looking to give birth to our childhood dreams, even if it’s not a full fledged version of the same. Toyota is researching  Hovering Cars, a new breed of vehicles which will levitate slightly off the ground. It won’t be moving in 3 dimensional space, but the aim is to improve efficiency by getting the vehicle off the ground and reducing friction. Their lips are sealed regarding further details of course, and it’ll be interesting to see just how it’ll manage to stay afloat.

Toyota’s Hovering Car Concept. (source: autoevolution.com)

The One Ahead

It’s been a fascinating week for the automobile industry and despite all the creativity and innovation going into such a laborious field, it’s Google which has managed to capture the headlines with it’s I/O conference. Such is the world today. Nothing is ever good enough. As always, I want to thank the websites for their amazing photos. I’d also like to thank The Verge (of which I’m an avid follower) for the basic source material for my articles.