This week the folks at Google have begun their traditional giving away of a series of devices with the Chromebook Pixel. This device is the highest-definition display-toting notebook on the market running Chrome, and it works with a touchscreen interface to round-off its abilities as Google’s choice for “best notebook in the world.” This system is the same unit SlashGear reviewed earlier this year.
The initial Google I/O 2013 keynote was split essentially down the middle for Chrome and Android news, with an announcement of a Samsung GALAXY S 4 coming with a Nexus-style build of Android coming aside this Chromebook’s re-introduction. The Pixel has not had a hardware update since its inception – this system will be the same as it was when it was first introduced.
This system was introduced alongside a program called Google Play for Education. This system allows classrooms to gain access to a series of apps that are curated by Google for use by an education-centric group. This system is child friendly and works for both Android and inside web browsers, and will be rolling out soon.
It was made clear that the Chromebook Pixel will be a major part of Google’s initiatives with Chrome, especially here now with the web browser and the operating system crossing-over more than ever. Google made it clear that the web browser would be getting the same abilities regardless of its mobile or desktop iteration, and the Chromebook Pixel will bring that to developers this week at Google I/O 2013.
The folks at Google have this week at Google I/O let it be known that they’re bringing HTML5 Autocomplete functions to the Chrome mobile web browser for Android. This system will help bring back the massive amounts of users (over 90%, according to Google), that abandon in-browser product purchases on their smartphones and tablets.
Your information saved in Chrome in your desktop browser will be able to sync with your mobile web browser on Android. This means you’ll fill out a form, for example, with your name, address, payment information, all the good stuff, you’ll be able to save it (as you have been able for quite some time). The big deal here is that this information will be able to be accessed instantly from your mobile Chrome web browser at a tap.
The mobile web browser Chrome for Android allows you to sign-in with your Google account to sync with whichever iteration of Chrome you’ve already signed-in with. A change on one will be able to be brought up on another, history is the same, tabs can be accessed cross-device, and now forms will be able to be filled automatically.
This system will be rolling out for Android in the very near future – at the moment we’re waiting to see how close it is to iOS. Every other update to Chrome mentioned today has been instant and/or cross-device as well as cross-platform. Chrome is being pushed here at Google I/O 2013 as a single system more now than ever before.
Here at Google I/O, the company is discussing their Chrome web browser, and they’ve announced that the browser has reached 750 million active users, which is up from 450 million users last year, which is quite the increase. However, the company showed off how they’re working to evolve the Chrome browser in order to enjoy desktop experiences on mobile devices.
The company demoed a web app running on a Chromebook Pixel, which is an interactive app for the upcoming movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The app shows an overhead view of the world, which is pinchable, so you can zoom in and out to explore the various areas on the map. Google eventually showed off the same web app on a Nexus 10 running the Chrome mobile browser.
The web app shows an all-3D environment, but unfortunately, it ran a little poorly during the on-stage demo, with really low framerates and a lot of stutters. We’re not sure if the Chromebook Pixel can’t keep up or if the internet isn’t doing its job. The web app is based on webGL, and since it’s a web app, you can access it through mobile and have the same experience on both desktop and mobile devices.
It’s certainly an interesting concept, and it seems Google is adamant about decreasing the separation between the desktop experience and the mobile experience, making both as equal as possible. Browsing the web on a tablet isn’t the same as browsing the web on a desktop or laptop, but Google is looking to change that with Chrome, and they’re planning to come out with some relevant features for Chrome later this year.
Furthermore, Google announced some improvements to the Chrome mobile web browser that will bring it up to par with the desktop version, including a new Checkout button that makes shopping easier on mobile devices. It’s essentially a one-click process that saves you time from having to enter in multiple fields by typing on the small keyboard. It’s essentially Google’s first step to creating a simpler web browser. Stay tuned for more Google I/O news coming up!
What would a Google liveblog be without some updates on Android activations? Well, in case you’re curious, the newest figure is 900 million — a big jump from the 400 million activations reported last year. What’s more, Google says there have been 48 billion app installations to date, including 2.8 billion in the last month alone, with revenue per user 2.5 times what it was a year ago. To put that in context, that’s not far off Apple’s latest numbers: the company has logged just under 50 billion downloads of its own.
Moving on to Chrome, meanwhile, Google is touting 750 million active users, and that includes not just the desktop, but phones and tablets too. That’s up from 450 million users at this time last year, with 300 million switching over in the past 12 months. Finally, if you want to get really granular, Google also gave an update on its Google Cloud Messaging service, which was announced last year. Apparently, 60 percent of apps are now using GCM, and 17 billion messages are pushed through the service per day. We’ll let you chew on that for a moment while you follow the liveblog, but it seems to us now would be a good time to start placing bets on when we hit the 1-billion-activations mark.
Welcome to Wired’s live blog of the Google IO keynote. What should we expect today? We know it won’t be a roll-up of Chrome and Android, no matter how much that might make sense. But we are hoping for an …
It’s day zero at Google I/O 2013, the company’s developer event made for and by developer groups and Google to strengthen their world of software, services, and everything in-between. SlashGear has gotten the opportunity to step behind-the-scenes at this event on registration day – that is, the day before everything begins. Here we’ll begin to explore what’s actually at the event with the hard evidence that only comes from on-site investigation right in the midst of the big setup.
The Moscone Center once again plays host to Google I/O with an experience on the first of three floors that’s quite similar to 2012. This year attendees are given their official badges and T-shirts in a center console where Google employees are charged with scanning QR-codes and making sure everyone is who they say they are.
A massive Google I/O sign rests against the main wall of the center with a color-changing I and O, cycling through blues and pinks in a comforting haze. We’re wondering where these massive 3D letters go once the week is over – perhaps a special giveaway on a letter-by-letter basis?
The ground level also holds a pop-up Google Store where attendees can purchase various Google-branded oddities. Bags, clothing, cases, and toys are in effect. This store encourages – as it did in 2012 – users to utilize their Google Wallet to purchase the goods.
On the second floor (or first floor, if you’re German), you’ll find a massive Google+ presence where users are encouraged to sign-in with the social network. A deck with Office Hours is set up for developers to learn how they might integrate Google+ into their own software. This area has a series of live hang-out portals which we’re sure will be popping up this week.
This level is dedicated to several Google services and Google partners, each of them set up to present to any developer – or press member, or anyone else in attendance – that wishes to learn more.
BONUS FIND: here you’ll see an unopened box of special-edition Android collectable figures from Dead Zebra. We promise we didn’t peek!
Google Glass has its own section on level 2, users able to have a peek at the current iteration of the device as well as participate in talks on the future of the device. We’re expecting more information on the future of the headset in the main keynote address in the morning as well as in more than one chat later in the week.
You’ll find Glass being set aside in a massive section all its own on this level, mind you, while items like Google Maps are part of a series of towers up the center of the room. The amount of space Glass gets here says a lot about how important the device is to the company.
Up on the top level of the center, Google has made a massive show of both Android and Chrome. To one side, attendees are greeted by flying Androids and their floor-bound kin in a display not unlike what we saw at Mobile World Congress 2012 and 2011. It seems that this location has become the heart of the Android press event presentation – and perhaps rightfully so.
Turn around 360 degrees and you’ll find a fabulous display – not yet turned on, as it were – of Chrome. One setup shows the highest-end Chrome OS hardware to date in an array that’ll certainly be a sight to behold once it’s turned on.
Three large semi-transparent displays show Chrome in an impressive display that’ll certainly play host to some shows of power for both the web browser and the operating system.
Androids large and small – but mostly large – litter the top level in both complete and nearly complete states. A massive pair of black-framed glasses remain wet with paint less than a day before the main event is set to begin. An eye-bursting array of pink and blue squares blasts in a checkerboard grid above the fray. It’s here that the fun will begin soon – and very soon.
Have a peek at SlashGear’s Google I/O tag portal for more information on this array of Google action taking place Wednesday the 15th of May, 2013, till Friday. If you’re pumped up about any specific session or event, send us a note – we’d be glad to have a peek at it and report back to you, our valued readers!
Pay close attention starting tomorrow morning at 8AM PST in-particular – the big keynote event will be covered piece-by-piece right here on SlashGear!
BONUS: We’re on-site with and through Glass as well. Have a peek at a couple videos filmed by Vincent Nguyen with Google’s headset here and let us know what you think of the method and the quality.
Above you’ll find a general layout look at the first level of Google I/O 2013 and below you’ll hear a bit of information from the BBC’s own Rory Cellan-Jones. He’ll let you know exactly what he thinks about the gadget world and how important Glass is to it – stay tuned – #throughglass!
Google I/O, Google’s yearly developer conference, kicks off tomorrow. Last year brought us, among other things, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and Google Glass-wearing skydivers falling through the sky to San Francisco’s Moscone Center. What will this year’s event hold?
Increasingly, we buy a device because it’s going to work with our other devices and existing apps. We don’t want just the gadget itself; we want the ecosystem it inhabits. And Google’s ecosystem is fractured.
There is a new Android chief in town, and it seems that he has hinted that there will be no merger of Chrome and Android platforms in the foreseeable future – at least not for the coming year, and perhaps […]
Google’s big Android shakeup, replacing OS founder Andy Rubin with Sundar Pichai back in March and thus bringing Android and Chrome under the same umbrella, won’t lead to a merge in the short-term, but developers can expect big software – though perhaps not hardware – news at Google I/O this week, the new chief says. The big developer event this week will focus predominantly on getting the most out of Chrome and Android, not launching new hardware or combining them, Pichai told Wired, though the freshly-empowered exec also took the time to discuss Google’s broader attitudes to mobility and personal devices. Perhaps most controversially, Pichai isn’t convinced that people-centric Android modifications, like Facebook Home, quite deliver what they should. “I think life is multifaceted” he argues, “people are a huge part of it, but not the center and be-all of everything.”
Although chatter of Android and Chrome being brought closer together has been circulating for some time now, rumors of a merge were accelerated when Rubin made his surprise announcement that he was seeking other challenges within Google. Given Pichai’s existing role as the head of the Chrome browser and the Chrome OS platform, it seemingly telegraphed Google’s intentions loud and clear when he was named Rubin’s replacement.
Google had already been clear that Android and Chrome will stay separate for the meantime, with chairman Eric Schmidt insisting that no current plans had been drawn up for a merge. That’s a point of view Pichai shares, saying that even as the new head of Android, he doesn’t feel the urge to instantly enmesh his fiefdoms.
“I don’t think my views have changed much,” Pichai argues, suggesting that each has its own strengths and its own success in the market. “Android and Chrome are both large, open platforms, growing very fast. I think that they will play a strong role, not merely exist.”
Nonetheless, just as Matias Duarte told us back at Mobile World Congress, there are undeniably areas of overlap between the platforms. Different screens may have different priorities and demand different compromises and form-factors, but there will be places where Google can streamline to the benefit of users, developers, and device manufacturers, Pichai suggests:
“At Google we ask how to bring together something seamless and beautiful and intuitive across all these screens. The picture may look different a year or two from from now, but in the short term, we have Android and we have Chrome, and we are not changing course … We want to do the right things at each stage, for users and developers. We are trying to find commonalities. On the browser layer, we share a lot of stuff. We will increasingly do more things like that. And maybe there’s a more synergistic answer down the line” Sundar Pichai, senior VP, Google
That evolved attitude toward a more holistic software ecosystem – blending where appropriate; keeping separate where not – will be showcased at Google I/O this week, Pichai hints. “It’s going to be different. It’s not a time when we have much in the way of launches of new products or a new operating system” he explains. “Both on Android and Chrome, we’re going to focus this I/O on all of the kinds of things we’re doing for developers, so that they can write better things.”
Hardware or software or both, SlashGear will be bringing back all the news from Google I/O, which kicks off on Wednesday, May 15 and runs to the end of the week.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
