Chance Miller

Way back in 2012, Google announced that it was acquiring the mobile document editing company Quickoffice. At the time, Google said that it had no intentions on shutting the service down, but would also work to integrate the unique features of QuickOffice into its own suite of editing apps. Following the announcements of new features for Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets at I/O, the company has announced that Quickoffice will soon be shutting down (via The Google Operating System Blog).

“With the integration of Quickoffice into the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps, the Quickoffice app will be unpublished from Google Play and the App Store in the coming weeks. Existing users with the app can continue to use it, but no features will be added and new users will not be able to install the app.”

Quickoffice for Android was last updated on February 14th of this year, while the iOS client hasn’t seen an update since January 6th. We knew that eventually, Google would be forced to shut down Quickoffice to focus exclusively on the Google Drive suite of apps. Google never promised to keep Quickoffice running forever.

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At Google I/O this year, the company unveiled a trio of new operating systems, Android TV, Android Auto, and Android Wear. All of these operating systems, of course, run with an interface designed by Google itself. There was doubt, however, surrounding whether manufacturers would be allowed to overlay their own interface on top, like many do with Android. While speaking with Ars Technica, Google’s engineering director David Burke put an end to our doubts and confirmed that OEMs will not be allowed to overlay their interfaces on top of Android Auto, Android TV, or Android Wear.

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After an interview this morning on how Google came up with idea for Material Design, Google vice president of design Matias Duarte sat down with The Verge for another interview. In the talk, Duarte discussed a variety of things that Google set out to achieve with Android “L” and the Material design aspect of it.

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In a sit down interview with Gizmodo, Google’s Vice President of Design Matias Duarte talked about the company’s “L” release of Android in extensive detail. Duarte talked about a variety of aspects of the new design language and how it came to be. Duarte said that the idea of Material Design originated when Google realized that it had a very big problem. The company wanted to design an interface that anyone, developers and users, could take advantage of.

We had a really big problem. It wasn’t just a problem about going beyond phones and tablets, which was clearly something we wanted to do—we wanted to design for all these different screen sizes. And it wasn’t just the problem of going to multiple platforms and form-factors, right? It’s not just Android and web across all these form-factors. And it also wasn’t just the problem of “We want a design system that’s good for Google.” We wanted it to be a design system that anybody can use to really express their brand and their identity and their needs and capabilities.

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Google this morning rolled out an update to the Maps app on Android with a feature that will certainly make Google I/O 2014 attendees happy. Bumping the app to version 8.1.1, the update resolves the issues surrounding Android Wear’s compatibility with Google Maps.

Many Google I/O attendees noted that the Maps integration with the new Android Wear devices was entirely nonexistent, despite Google’s on-stage demos. Today’s update, however, adds integration between Wear and Maps like Google showed us during its keynote. With Maps on a smartwatch, you can search for a location and start navigation directly from your wrist. The watch, of course, still communicates with your phone for the data.

Now that Google has officially released the full Android Wear SDK, we expect to see a lot of apps updated with Android Wear support over the coming days and weeks. You can download the Google Maps update on the Play Store now.

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For several months now we’ve been hearing rumors that Google’s new Android Silver program was going to replace the Nexus line of devices. This, of course, caused some uproar among the stock Android faithful. David Burke, head of Android engineering and the Nexus program at Google, spoke out in an interview today to put those rumors to rest. Speaking to Read Write, Burke said that people are simply getting excited about the concept of something new (Android Silver) and forgetting about Google’s reasons for the Nexus line in the first place.

“People just get excited by concepts and forget why we do things. We are still invested in Nexus,” he said. “People have been commenting about Nexus because there is something else and they think that means the end of Nexus. That is the totally wrong conclusion to make.”

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After calling it the biggest update in Android’s history, Google yesterday announced that it would be making its Android “L” update available, albeit in preview/beta form, to developers today. The files were posted on the company’s official developer website earlier, and since then I’ve installed the preview on my Nexus 5 and been digging through it, seeing what kind of changes I could find, both mentioned and unmentioned by Google…

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After its keynote yesterday, Google gave all of its I/O attendees a makeshift virtual reality headset, dubbed Cardboard, because well, it was made out of Cardboard. On its website, Google broke down all the parts you would need if you wanted to build one on your own. It looked relatively easy, but with out the pre-perferated cardboard that Google gave out, it could be tricky. Dodocase, the company behind some of the best looking iPad and iPhone cases, decided to take advantage of the hype surrounding Cardboard and release a kit for making your own.

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Just as the Google announced it would be during its I/O keynote yesterday, the developer preview of the “L” version of Android is now live. Google claims that this update is the “biggest release in Android history” with over 5,000 new APIs, in addition to a new design, look, and feel. Developers can download the everything they need for Android “L” from the developer website.

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During a session at its I/O developer conference today, Google announced that it’s partnering with LG to build a tablet that’s part of its Project Tango program to release to consumers next year. Google earlier this month announced that it was releasing a prototype Tango tablet, but only for developers. The version made by LG will be intended for consumers, and presumably, cheaper than the $1024 developer version.

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After launching a red color variant earlier this year, it looks like Google is now planning to release a yellow Nexus 5 sometime soon. If you look on the official Android website and scroll down to the Nexus 5 section, you’ll now see that the description touts it as being available in “black, white, red, and yellow.” Prior to the red model of the Nexus 5 launching, there were some whispers of a yellow variant, but nothing ever came of them.

Seeing that the yellow Nexus 5 is listed on the official Android website, it seems likely that it is legit. The only question now is when it will launch officially on the Play Store. We’d assume that the shade of the yellow used will be similar to the bright yellow used on the official Google bumper for the Nexus 5.

With Google I/O taking place this week, it seems like the perfect time to launch a new color variant of the company’s flagship device. Keep your eyes on the Play Store.

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In addition to its slew of announcements at I/O earlier today, Google this evening rolled out a major update its Search app on Android. Bumping the app to version 3.5.14, the update adds several new features, but the biggest is the ability to activate a voice search from anywhere within the operating system. This feature was initially reported on back in April, but is only now making its way to the app.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36cIFCJvQs

Google announced a variety of new services and products today at Google I/O, including the “L” version of Android, Android Auto, Android TV, Google Fit, and Android Wear. In an effort to help us all digest this onslaught of news, Google this evening posted a 2-minute video on YouTube showing how all of those services can seamlessly work together to make your life easier.

The video, seen above, shows a man performing daily routine, but with all of Google’s new services. He’s using an Android “L” smartphone paired with an Android Wear watch, paired with a car with Android Auto, paired with Android TV. And, of course, an obligatory cute dog. The video makes it look like it all works pretty seamlessly together. But unfortunately, we’re still quite aways away from this becoming reality.

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Last month, Motorola announced that it was accepting design submissions for watch faces for its Moto 360 smartwatch. We showed you some of the best and most interesting submissions last month, as well, but today, Motorola has finally announced the winner of its contest. In a blog post, Motorola announced that out of the 1,300 submitted designs, David Pascual’s watch face was deemed the best. You can see his design at the top of this page.

Motorola says that Pascual wins one of the very first Moto 360s and the chance for his design to be featured on the watch when it ships. It’s unclear exactly what Pascual has to do for his design to be featured on the watch, but we’re guessing there’s some sort of licensing.

You can view all of the Moto 360 watch face designs on Google+. The Moto 360 is slated to go on sale later this summer.

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While unveiling the swag it was giving to developers at Google I/O, Sundar Pichai also announced that attendees were getting a piece of cardboard. It turns out that the piece of cardboard is a makeshift virtual reality headset. The company also released a companion app for Cardboard. Essentially, it allows you to slot your device into a cardboard viewer and look at it through a viewfinder and special lenses.

The result is Cardboard, a no-frills enclosure that transforms a phone into a basic VR headset, and the accompanying open software toolkit that makes writing VR software as simple as building a web or mobile app.

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As was rumored earlier this month, Google today announced its new Google Fit platform. The service, similar to Apple’s HealthKit, will track all of your health metrics, including sleep, steps, biking, and much more. Google Fit will be built directly into the upcoming “L” version of Android. The “L” version of Android is expected to come out at the same time as iOS 8 and Apple’s HealthKit Platform.

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During its annual developer conference today, Google announced several new enterprise features that are coming to Android with its “L” update and a new “Android for Work” program. Thanks to a plethora of new APIs, the “L” version of Android will be able to seamlessly unify personal and business apps and data. Google claims that currently, many employees are required to carry two phones: one for work and one for personal use.

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On stage at its Google I/O developer conference, the company talked wearables, as we expected it to. Google says that Android users check their phones “an average of 125 times a day,” so the company hopes that Android Wear paired with various wearables will help cut down on this number. Demoing it on an LG G Watch, Google showed more details about the Android Wear interface. The company also announced that starting today, the full Android Wear SDK is available to developers. Most importantly, Google announced that the LG G Watch will be available on Google Play today, although a price is still yet to be determined. The company also announced that the the Samsung Gear Live will be available today, as well. The Moto 360 will be available later this summer.

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While introducing its “L” release of Android on stage at Google I/O, the company announced that this version of Android runs on the ART, or Android Runtime. Previous versions of Android ran on the Dalvik runtime, but the “L” version of Android is dropping it in its entirety.  Googler David Burke introduced this change on stage and said that the switch to ART should make Android run “twice as fast” as it did with Dalvik. Burke also said that developers won’t have to make many changes to switch to ART.

ART is a 64-bit runtime that includes a variety of changes. It’s designed to support a mix of AOT and JIT, and is cross-platform with support for ARM, x86, and MIPS. ART is much better for “garbage collection,” Burke said, in addition to being better about managing RAM. Graphic support is also much improved with ART. It supports graphic qualities like tessellation, geometry shaders, and many other things designed for gamers. Burke remarked that “You’re going to see new high-end tablets and phones with PC gaming capabilities.”

As part of the new ART-based operating system, Google introduced Project Volta, designed for improving battery life.

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Earlier today, Bloomberg published a profile of Android head Sundar Pichai in which it was stated that Google has several Android TV announcements slated for its I/O developer conference tomorrow. The WSJ has now published another report corroborating the earlier profile. According to the report, Google on Wednesday will unveil at least one “small set-top box” running its new Android TV operating system.

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