Android and Me » Google I/O

Android Hub, Google’s first home entertainment system

Taylor Wimberly — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:50:05 +0000

Today the Wall St. Journal reports that Google is working on a “home-entertainment system that streams music wirelessly throughout the home and would be marketed under the company’s own brand.” They don’t mention the name of the device, but a separate source tells us it is being called Android Hub.

The Journal also says that people briefed on the company’s plans think Google’s box may stream other digital media besides music and they expect it to be unveiled later this year. We would wager at Google IO from June 27-29.

Last year at Google IO, Android@Home was given a brief demonstration. Google said they had partnered with “several industry players” to build a home automation framework that could “work with any device, from any manufacturer.”

From what we have gathered, it sounds like this Android Hub product will be Google’s next-generation of Google TV, minus the actual “Google TV” branding. Google recently sent a request to the FCC to test some entertainment devices that contained WiFi and Bluetooth, and we think Android Hub is one of those.

Google TV failed pretty miserably, but we know that Google plans to revive it with new hardware powered by low-cost ARM processors. I think some consumers were actually confused by the Google TV name, so calling it Android Hub would make sense.

My speculation is that Android Hub will be a set top box, that is WiFi, Bluetooth, and NFC enabled. Look for it to be sold at a mass market price around $99-149. The device will run the latest version of Android and have limited internal storage. Media will be streamed from Google’s services and personal media will be stored in Google’s upcoming cloud storage platform. It will have full access to the Android Market for apps, movies, music, and other goods.

Hopefully some more information will be dug up over the coming days. We will update this story when we have additional details to report.

Google I/O 2012 to be a day longer, moved to June 27-29

Edgar Cervantes — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:19:59 +0000

The Android platform has been evolving rapidly, and Google keeps growing with its many services and products. These are two of the main reasons why Google I/O has become one of the biggest events in the tech industry. Last year, tickets sold out in less than an hour, and things are becoming quite difficult for our fellow coders. We definitely expect this Google I/O 2012 to be a huge event as well.

Google knows this event is very important for developers and has decided to extend the event by one day. The event will now last three days (instead of two), so attendees will be able to spend more time learning what makes the Google world spin.

Sadly, though, this extension comes with a bit of a down side. Those who are eagerly waiting for next year’s Google I/O will have to wait a bit longer. Google I/O usually takes place in April, but this has also been changed. Next year’s Google developer conference has been pushed a couple months back. Next year’s event is scheduled for June 27-29, so get ready to see what is to come. This is Google’s advice:

In the meantime, be sure to brush up on your coding skills. They’ll come in handy when the new application process opens in February. That’s all we can tell you for now, but we’d advise against making travel arrangements until then.Monica TranGoogle Inc.

The event will still be held in San Francisco, CA, at the Moscone Center. There ya go, guys. Get ready for some coding awesomeness (and free stuff!). What do you guys think we could see at next year’s Google I/O? Maybe Android’s next version, Jelly Bean?

Google I/O 2012 dates announced; who’s going?

Edgar Cervantes — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:11:56 +0000

It may be a bit early to start talking about this. And with all the Ice Cream Sandwich and Nexus hype, many of you probably don’t want to worry about it yet. Nevertheless, Google has announced the dates for the 2012 Google I/O. The event will be held in San Francisco and is scheduled for April 24-25.

We still cannot predict what will come from next year’s Google I/O, but it is Google’s biggest yearly event covering everything related to the Search Giant. With Android as the strongest smartphone OS in the world, we’ll surely be covering some exciting smartphone news. Google TV will also be featured. Who knows, maybe we’ll hear about the Android version coming after Ice Cream Sandwich?

Those who’d like to attend the event will have to compete against every developer and tech reporter out there. This year tickets were sold out in less than an hour. It can only be expected that the next conference will see much fiercer competition. Prices are still not announced, but we would assume they’ll be quite similar to this year’s. In 2011, registration cost between $450-$550, depending on the date. So be ready to pay at least that much.

Who’s planning to go to Google I/O? You’d better be ready to sign up right when registration opens. What do you guys think we could be seeing in terms of the Android platform?

Updates, or lack thereof, on the Android Update Alliance

Justin Shapcott — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:52:08 +0000

At this year’s Google I/O to much excitement in the crowd (and, no doubt, the thousands watching online), Google announced the Android Update Alliance. This partnership between Google, manufacturers and carriers set the noble goal of keeping Android devices updated in a timely manner for a duration of at least eighteen months.

Details were scarce at the time of the announcement, however. We were given a list of the companies involved in the partnership and little else about how the Alliance would go about its business. Unfortunately, in the past three months not much has changed on this front.

Things we still don’t know about the Android Update Alliance:

Is Google working with the manufacturers and carriers to get these updates out the door? Or is Google merely setting forth a guideline and expecting adherence?
Are devices released before this announcement that are still within this eighteen month update time frame intended to be a part of this agreement?
Are there any guidelines relating to how long it should take for devices to receive an update after a new version of Android is released?
Are minor version updates (which often include important security fixes) intended to be released as part of this agreement?
Who determines if a device is capable of receiving an upgrade?

We have seen a lot of devices getting updates lately, so we can reasonably assume that the Alliance is, in fact, doing what it has set out to do… for the most part. There are a number of devices released early this year that are still running outdated versions of Android. Some are even being released now with outdated versions. Perhaps the answers to the above questions can shine some light on the situation.

Report Card

Not content with merely estimating how the various carriers and manufacturers were doing with their updates, we set out to determine the actual update status of each phone available from the participants in the Alliance. We gathered details about each device and its current version (including some devices from carriers and manufacturers that are not part of the Alliance) for comparison. Some devices included in the Alliance are no longer being sold by carriers (but most are still within their 18 month time-frame). In order to visualize our findings, we’ve built a few charts to share with you.

The first gives an overview of the number of phones running 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 grouped according to their manufacturer:

And then we determined which phones from each manufacturer were getting updates:

We could see it’s kind of a mixed bag when it comes to updating devices that were already out at the time of the announcement. For instance, the oldest phone available for purchase (the HTC EVO 4G) has been able to jump from 2.1 to 2.3, and the HTC MyTouch 3G Slide, which is around the same age, has only taken one step up from 2.1 to 2.2 so far. Of those manufacturers participating in the Alliance, HTC has been the most successful in updating their preexisting devices. LG, Motorola and Samsung have some work to do here.

On the bright side, though, the majority of devices released after the announcement have been launched with some form of Gingerbread. At the front of the pack are HTC and Sony Ericsson; all their newest devices are on the latest and greatest. Motorola and Samsung have launched a few devices on older versions, but this may be due to them being lower-end. In other cases, the carrier didn’t request the latest version.

When looking on the carrier side, only Sprint in the US and Vodafone in Europe are currently carrying more up-to-date than out-of-date devices. AT&T has promised to update all their 2011 lineup, so expect their numbers to change soon. T-Mobile and Verizon aren’t really making the grade so far, but we’re still hoping they’ll turn that around.

Of course, a lot of these stats hinge on the answers to the above questions about the scope of the agreement. If the expectation is indeed that all devices within their eighteen month window will be updated, then it boils down to what the expected time frame to release updates is. It has been over three months since Google I/O and the announcement of the Android Update Alliance, and while we are seeing movement in the right direction, we’re not quite there yet.

What do you guys think about the lack of information on the Android Update Alliance? What do you think is a reasonable timeline for updating? If you want to see the massive list of versions for almost every Android phone, check out the epic listing below:

Google Music starts sending out invites, do you have yours yet?

Edgar Cervantes — Wed, 18 May 2011 20:27:37 +0000

Music Beta by Google was one of the most important announcements at Google I/O, and we have all been waiting impatiently to get our taste of Google’s new toy. The same morning that this long awaited service was unveiled, its official site went up, allowing everyone to request an invitation to be part of Google Music’s beta testing. Well, it seems that the time has come, and many of those that requested invites, have been receiving them today (Not me… Yet).

Music beta may be Google’s main attraction for now, being its new toy, but we tend to forget that it is still in beta. In fact, the service started having its first issues yesterday. Google Music showed its imperfections for a 3-4 hour period, when new invitees were unable to access the Google Music Manager (uploading tool). New users started reporting that the music manager would ask them to log in repeatedly, despite the fact that they already were. Also, Music Beta’s site started displaying the following message: “Your computer or network may be sending automated queries.To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.” We have to remember that we are signing up for a beta product, so we should expect some issues, but Google will be working hard to fix them. Aside from these issues, users seem to be very satisfied, and it is definitely exciting that Google is allowing us to check it out.

Though Amazon beat Google and Apple on releasing a cloud music player, all of us (Android enthusiasts) have been waiting for Google Music to show up. The Amazon Cloud Player is not bad at all, but it is a given that Google Music should simply work better, and be more integrated with the Android platform. The uploading process is very slow with Amazon, and it seems like Google has done a better job at this. Music Beta accomplishes this by giving you a piece of software that will upload your 20,000 songs to Google’s servers more seamlessly, as opposed to Amazon, which requires you to do it through your web browser (at a very slow rate).

Have you guys gotten some love from Google yet? If you have received the invite, please let us know how Google Music is working for you! If not, sit tight and wait with me, hopefully we will get it soon. Also, check out Chris’ introduction video about Music Beta for a good look at what Google has in store for us.

A developer’s look at the new Android Market features announced at I/O

Justin Shapcott — Thu, 12 May 2011 01:33:00 +0000

Today, Google’s Eric Chu announced a number of new features available now (or soon, in some cases) in the Android Market. While many of these changes come in the form of user features, I believe that their true value lies in their benefit to developers. Accordingly, I’d like to take this opportunity to look at the new features from the viewpoint of a developer.

Paid Apps for 99 More Countries

Perhaps the most important new feature to developers is the availability of paid apps to buyers in an additional 99 countries. For those keeping track, that more than quadruples the number of countries where Android users can purchase apps to 131 in total. This is huge for reasons that don’t even need explaining. The oft-cited reasoning that Android app pirating exists due to the lack of availability of these paid apps makes this an even more important enhancement, (reference: Lack of paid apps in Android Market contributes to app piracy, and Android Paid-App Shortage ‘Fuels Piracy’). And if this reasoning is valid, hopefully this new availability will curtail some, or most, of that piracy (Hey, I can dream can’t I?). Of course, there’s a flip side to this coin and that is that the corresponding announcement of additional seller countries never came. In my opinion, this is going to have to be the next hurdle Google strives to overcome.

More App Discovery

Several new ways to discover apps were also announced. The new Trending Apps list features apps that have great download velocity in the short term, giving users a way to know what apps and games are hot right now. Similarly, there are now lists showing the Top New Free and Paid Apps and Games which will put focus on freshness. You can think of this as a combination of the Top and Just In listings. This is important because previously the Top lists were all-time (or some other long-term, we’re not entirely sure) and it was very difficult for newer developers, or newer apps, to break into these lists. Of course, the previous lists aren’t going away, there will just be new lists. With these changes, it gives new developers some momentum from which to build upon.

Two additional discovery features were announced, Editor’s Choice and Top Developer badges. These will allow users to quickly find those apps and developers which are notable, but may not actually be on the other listings. From the sound of it, these will be hand-picked by Google, and will be prominently displayed, making it a huge incentive to get picked, and a huge boost to revenues when it happens.

Device-Availability, Larger Sizes, Multiple Versions & Better Stats

Among the specifically developer-centric enhancements, we find the ability to see and control which devices our apps are available to, larger app sizes of up to 4GB (the Market will host and manage the download of large assets), the ability to upload multiple versions of the app and have the market automatically deliver the appropriate version for the requesting device (a feature that has been requested several times at the Google Code Issue Tracker for Android, (reference: Issue 5501 and Issue 4851), and better statistics and reporting capabilities. With these new features, developers have a much better opportunity to provide the best experience for users, and maximize their revenue stream.

All in all, I think these are a great set of enhancements, not just for users, but developers as well. It should be a lot easier for developers to distribute, promote, and monetize their apps and games now that Google finally appears to be really working on their side.

Google I/O day 2 giveaways: Verizon 4G LTE hotspot and Chrome notebook

Edgar Cervantes — Wed, 11 May 2011 17:01:20 +0000

Samsung seems to really be taking the stage away this year, at least when it comes to giveaways. Yesterday, all Google I/O attendees got a free Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which is a huge giveaway by itself. We have just found out that Samsung’s Honeycomb tablet is not the only thing developers are going home with tonight. Samsung (along with Verizon) is also giving away a 4G LTE hotspot device to everyone at the Moscone center today.

Though this device should theoretically get from 5-12 MB down speeds, some speed tests out there have shown that it can reach higher than 20 (far surpassing many home connections, even). This device will surely keep all developers happy and well connected, and for free, things can not get any better! Don’t we wish we were there?

Update:

Google has just announced that they will also give away a Chrome notebook to everyone at Google I/O. The notebooks are not in San Francisco just yet though. Google I/O attendees will be receiving more information in the near future, and the Chrome notebooks should be available by June 15th.

Altogether, developers are walking out with three devices today: a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, a Samsung 4G LTE hotspot, and a Chrome notebook. You are some lucky guys!

Check out Google’s new ad for Chrome OS. Do you guys think Chrome OS is the way to go? Would you use it instead of Windows or Mac?

Dancing Android robot shows up at Google I/O (Video) (Update: Purchasing the costume)

Edgar Cervantes — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:01:59 +0000

Sony Ericsson’s dancing Android robot has been spotted a couple times before (first in Taiwan, then in Malaysia). Google I/O is probably about the most important yearly event for Android, and this fun guy has been missing in action for a while. Bringing this fancy performer to Google I/O was just the right thing to do, and last night our friend Phil Nickinson from Android Central caught the famous Andy robot partying it up at Google’s dance floor.

Well, that was a long night, Android robot… We are sure you had fun. For those that want to check out this guy’s past performances, the other videos are posted below. Who else was there to see this guy? Let’s hope that he comes back to the U.S. sometime soon!

Update:

Our reader “BIGMERF” (first commenter) mentioned that this Android robot would be a good costume to sport next Halloween. Surely, many of us would love to own such a nice suit this year, but are you willing to pay $2,295 dollars for it? Our friends at Phandroid have reported that this is the price to pay for one of these costumes. Certainly not very affordable, at least for most of us, but if you really want it, there it is!

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 gets rooted in less than a day

Nick Gray — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:27:09 +0000

What happens when you hand out an unreleased Android tablet to 5,000 developers at Google I/O? Google was probably hoping that all 5,000 developers would get excited about Honeycomb and start creating new apps to take advantage of the tablet UI framework. But that’s not what’s happened so far. It’s been less than 24 hours since Google handed out the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and @_mrbirdman_ and a few others from AllDroid.org have managed to gain root access.

Rooting the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 appears to be a fairly simple process. Simply mount the tablet’s file system, adb a zip file and then reboot the tablet. We have not tried this ourselves yet, but it sounds like a few people have been able to replicate the process and successfully gain root access.

Has anyone here managed to root their Galaxy Tab 10.1 yet? Be sure to let us know how things go.

Google chronicles the growth of Android over the past year.

Nick Gray — Tue, 10 May 2011 18:42:00 +0000

It’s no secret that Google and Apple are battling it out for dominance in the mobile and tablet sectors. Apple had an amazing head start which left a lot of analysts wondering if Google would succeed with their mobile platform. As you already know, Android has outperformed everyone’s expectations, shooting to the top of almost every chart in only two and a half years.

Google may not say much about the competition, but the first graphic they showed at Google I/O 2011 (pictured above) tells the whole story. Here are some of the Android highlights that Google shared today:

100 million activated Android devices
400,000 new Android devices activated every day
200,000 free and paid applications available in Android Market
4.5 billion applications installed from Android Market
310 devices in 112 countries

Considering that one year ago Google announced that they were activating 100,000 devices per day, we’re having a hard time imagining what the numbers are going to look like a year from now. With new services like Google Music Beta, Movie Rentals, and the new enhancements in Honeycomb 3.1, Google is finally focusing on the little refinements which will knit more Google services into the Android framework and deliver a more complete mobile OS.