Google I/O

Google X VP Megan Smith

If you’re a woman in the tech industry and interested in learning coding, you can now apply to Google for vouchers for online lessons from c<>de school.

The initiative follows Google publishing a diversity report showing that only 30 percent of its employees are women, the company stating that this is “miles from where we want to be.” Google VP Megan Smith did reveal some progress, however, reporting that twice as many women were attending I/O this year compared to last year … 
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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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There is both a lot happening at this year’s Google I/O and very little, depending where you look.  Obviously, if you are a developer who builds Android and even web apps, you are a kid in a candy store. If you are looking for new hardware, there isn’t much that wasn’t out there already.  Neither Google co-founder took the stage this year after successive years where Sergey Brin led the introduction of Google Glass (which is all but absent this year) and Larry Page led an epic Q&A last year.

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Google I/O is all about developers and while revealing that Mountain View has paid out over $5 billion to devs since last year’s show, Sundar Pichai took the time to thank the people building products on Mountain View’s platforms. As the Android boss prepared to wrap up today’s keynote, he acknowledged that developers don’t make the trip to I/O just to talk about statistics and that they also attend the event to get their hands on the latest gadgets.

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Google I/O starts today, and as per usual, the company is kicking things off with a huge 2-hour press event set to start at 9 AM PT. The event is said to be bringing a multitude of new products and service announcements, rumored to include the “L” version of Android, Android Wear smartwatches, a new line of “Android Silver” smartphones, a second-generation Chromebook Pixel, an “Android TV” set-top box, Project Tango tablets, and Google Glass announcements.

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We’ve been hearing quite a bit  recently about the upcoming Moto X+1, which is expected to be Motorola’s next flagship smartphone. Now, 9to5Google has received what appears to be a promotional render for what is said to be that device from a source we consider reliable.

While a lot of information has already been leaked about this phone, one new feature revealed by this source is the apparent inclusion of a front-facing speaker at the bottom of the phone, though the purpose for that hardware (beyond possible music playback or speakerphone support) is still uncertain.

The source says it’s possible this phone will be revealed at Google’s I/O developer conference. If that’s the case, it would make sense for promotional images to start floating around about this time as the company prepares to unveil the next-gen device.

We’ve also gotten our hands on two separate images from a second render from the same source which is embedded below:

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Reddit user Doopl has come across two screenshots of what appears to be the “L” release of Android. The screenshots come via the Chromium Issue Tracker, which has been the source of leaks many times in the past. The images show a Google login dialog box that looks entirely different than what you’ll currently see on an Android 4.4 device.

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Google’s annual I/O conference is only two days away but leaks and rumors leading up to this year’s show have been going strong for quite a while. In an effort to brace ourselves for Mountain View’s latest contributions to the tech world, we’ve decided to discuss what we might be seeing in the next couple of days. While some of these items are a given, others are a mix of rumors and speculation. There’s no guarantee that everything listed here will be announced during I/O, but we eventually expect to see these projects from Google at some point in time. That being said, here are some things that we might see this year in San Francisco.

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Android Wear is expected to be a major part of Google’s showing next week during its I/O conference and to give a hint of what’s on deck, the company has released a new video overlooking what its new platform has to offer. This introduction demo highlights Mountain View’s intentions for its new software, discussing what separates it from the Android experience on a smartphone, detailing its focus on convenience.

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Google I/O 2014 is set to kick off on June 25th and in preparation for the event, Google has released its official app for I/O. The app allows you to easily and quickly view the conference agenda with details such as topics, speakers, and partners for each event. You can also add events to your schedule and receive reminder notifications before they start.

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Google has just announced a official development kit for its Project Tango. The tablet is incredibly powerful, packing an NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor and 4GB of RAM. It’s also got 128GB of storage under the hood. There’s also all kinds of sensors, insulting motion tracking cameras, integrated depth sending, and LTE. There are three cameras on the back of the device for motion tracking, too.

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Google is about to launch a new Android TV platform at its upcoming Google I/O conference in June, according to a new report from GigaOM. The report claims the new platform will be a revamped vision of what Google already has with its Google TV platform and will focus mainly on online content and Android gaming rather than integrating with existing pay TV services:

Android TV won’t be another device, but rather a platform that manufacturers of TVs and set-top boxes can use to bring streaming services to the television. In that way, it is similar to Google TV, the platform the company unveiled at its 2010 Google I/O conference. But while Google TV was focused on marrying existing pay TV services with apps, Android TV will at least initially be all about online media services and Android-based video games.

Google has apparently been making deals with partners in the lead up to launching the new platform, some of which are said to include Netflix and Hulu Plus as well as hardware partners that will build and sell the Android TV devices. The report also shared some details on the Android TV UI:
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Last week, Google itself tweeted out an image that showed a slightly redesigned dialer app on Android. Not much appeared to be different in the app, though the action bar at the top was a new shade of blue, as opposed to gray. Now, more screenshots of a redesigned dialer app have leaked via an XDA thread.

These images show a few more changes, especially to the contacts portion of the dialer app. Instead of a list like the current dialer app, these images show a picture-heavy design with cards for each contact. If you have an image of the person, you’ll see it on the card, but if not, you’ll see a random color. Overall it looks very similar to the Gmail app and fits in well with the leaked Android app icons and calendar app.

The images come from a friend of the XDA user, who could very well be a Google employee judging by the contact names. Google has said before that it is refocusing on design, and with Google I/O 2014 right around the corner, it seems very plausible that we will see some redesigned apps be unveiled at the event.

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While handling some customer support, the Google Nexus Twitter account has apparently tweeted out a screenshot of a redesigned Dialer app by accident. The interface does not look all that different. The most noticeable change is that the action bar at the top of the interface blue in the leaked screenshot, whereas it is gray in the most recent build of KitKat.

Changing the action bar from gray to blue fits with Google’s recent trend of beautifying all of its apps with more color. We’ve seen more colorful Android app icons leak in recent weeks, in addition to a redesigned Gmail app and Calendar app.

Google is putting its focus back on design with the latest version of Android and at this year’s Google I/O. It would certainly make sense to introduce app redesigns at the event, too. And it looks like we can expect a new Dialer app to be one.

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With Google I/O 2014, Google switched to a lottery-based system for selling tickets. This means that anyone can register for a spot in the draw, but only a select number of people will get the opportunity to shell out $900 for a ticket. This, of course, means that no one is guaranteed entry into the event. It wouldn’t be Google if they didn’t throw some fun into the process. Only this time, the fun guarantees an entry into I/O (via Android Police).

Google has placed a handful of goog.gl links throughout its Developer sites, including within images, texts, and even the source code of pages. Unfortunately, each link is only valid for one spot, and Google doesn’t remove them when they’ve been claimed. So more than likely, any link you find has already been claimed.

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Registration for Google I/O is officially open. The registration window will be available through April 18th, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. PDT. The event is scheduled to take place June 25th – 26th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.

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