One of the bigger reveals so far at IO 2011 was Google Music, the cloud locker and streaming service Google has been not-so-secretly working on. Also unveiled was an updated Music App for Android, which replaces the stock player on Android 2.2+ with one that offers seamless integration with your Google Music Beta account. Music […]
Are you ready to welcome our experimental toy robot overlords? They’re adorable, and they’re taking no prisoners here at Google I/O. Hasbro and Google are collaborating to bring these little critters to life by docking a Nexus S brain to an exoskeleton-like body containing a battery, a Bluetooth radio and a bunch servomotors (the kind you find in RC models). The battery powers the dock and provides additional juice to the phone which in turn controls the servos via Bluetooth. Where things get interesting is that these toy robots don’t just act based on a set of rules programmed into the Nexus S, but actually react to their environment (using the handset’s sensors, front-facing camera, and touchscreen) and communicate with Google’s cloud services over WiFi (for facial and object recognition) in order to enhance their behavior. Shake them and they get dizzy, rub their display and they get happy / angry, show them a Decepticon card and they cower away. They will also take a picture of you, decide if you are friend or foe, and respond accordingly. Predictably, Hasbro is sticking with gender stereotypes by providing basic male and female “personalities,” complete with accessorized docks. Check out these experimental creatures in our gallery and hit the break for our hands-on video. Just don’t go in expecting a price and release — it’s prototype cuteness only for now.
Continue reading Hasbro’s experimental Nexus-powered robot toy hands-on at Google I/O (video)
Hasbro’s experimental Nexus-powered robot toy hands-on at Google I/O (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 05:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The HTC EVO 3D and LG Optimus 3D just got themselves a new buddy in the three-dee picture-taking arena in the shape of Sharp’s Aquos Phone SH-12C. We know, that name just rolls off the tongue. What’s remarkable about the 12C is that the dual cameras on its back go all the way up to 8 megapixels (to the EVO 3D’s 5), which will be creating quite the tasty workload for the 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 chip contained within. A qHD (540 x 960) screen resolution also keeps up with HTC’s latest, though the 4.2-inch, 3D-capable display on the Aquos offers more pixel density and less in absolute real estate. Android 2.3, replete with some evident customizations, will serve as the OS, and 720p video recording in 3D will also be available when Sharp launches the 12C in Japan on May 20th. Rest of the world? Well, we can dream about it right now.
Sharp Aquos Phone SH-12C has 3D cameras, qHD resolution, Gingerbread filling originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 05:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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For now, the HTC Flyer can console itself for not having a second core (like all the other guys) by noting that its 1.5GHz clock speed is faster than any other tablet. Pretty soon, however, the choice between speed and core count might not have to be made at all, as ZiiLabs has just announced new dual-core and quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 systems-on-chip that run at the same 1500MHz speed as the Flyer. Dubbed ZMS-20 and ZMS-40, respectively, they’re taking the ZMS-08 legacy of focusing on HD video decoding even further, while also throwing in specific optimizations for Android Honeycomb tablets. The earlier-gen SOC was only picked up by parent company Creative, who inserted it in its ZiiO tablets, so let’s hope the new silicon proves compelling enough for us to see it in more manufacturers’ slates. Full PR and an intro video follow after the break.
ZiiLabs outs dual-core ZMS-20 and quad-core ZMS-40 for Honeycomb tablets, clocks ’em at 1.5GHz originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 04:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Ready to get your bump on? You’d better be because Google’s planning to bring peer-to-peer NFC sharing to the Ice Cream Sandwich release of Android. Imagine it: 0-click contact, web page, and YouTube video sharing between your NFC-equipped Android smartphones and tablets. Just bring the devices together and voila, data shared without launching an application or navigating through the UI. Google plans to build this functionality into as many systems apps as it can while providing the API to developers to 0-click enable their third-party applications. Watch it go down phone-to-phone and phone-to-tablet (prototype) after the break. It’s the future, get used to it.
Continue reading Android 0-click NFC sharing demonstrated in Ice Cream Sandwich (video)
Android 0-click NFC sharing demonstrated in Ice Cream Sandwich (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 May 2011 01:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Had enough Google for the week? We thought not. We’re still cranking on content from the (admittedly momentous) first day, but we’ll be taking a break just after lunch tomorrow (May 11th in the great state of California) to bring you blow-by-blow coverage of the outfit’s final keynote for I/O 2011. It’ll be hard to top the bevy of introductions from today, but we’re guessing Google’s down for trying to top itself. We’ll see you tomorrow, and if you’re looking to follow along as it happens, you can bookmark our liveblog page right here.
06:30AM – Hawaii
09:30AM – Pacific
10:30AM – Mountain
11:30AM – Central
12:30PM – Eastern
05:30PM – London
06:30PM – Paris
08:30PM – Moscow / Dubai
12:30AM – Perth (May 12th)
12:30AM – Shenzhen (May 12th)
01:30AM – Tokyo (May 12th)
02:30AM – Sydney (May 12th)
Google I/O 2011 continues tomorrow, get your (second) liveblog right here! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 May 2011 21:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A gaggle of happy Google I/O attendees listens to the latest Android platform updates. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com
SAN FRANCISCO — Many Android customers know the frustration of buying a new phone, only to find out that they can’t get the latest version of Android on it.
Google has heard their cries, and replied with a plan to get the most-recent updates onto more people’s phones.
At its I/O conference here Tuesday, Google announced a new initiative to fight against software version fragmentation across Android devices. In a partnership with manufacturers and wireless carriers, Google is developing guidelines for how quickly device owners will receive updates to their software.
Beginning today, any new Android smartphones or tablets you buy from participating partners and carriers will receive the most-current version of the Android software, for up to 18 months after the device’s initial release.
Essentially, this means that your phone won’t be made irrelevant through lack of software updates, even when the next generation of smartphones hits the market.
“It’s essentially a logistics problem,” said Android head honcho Andy Rubin at a press conference Tuesday. “We’re not just building one phone, there are over 100 different devices based on Android. And all the operators have different product specs and qualifications.”
Initial partners include major Android-device manufacturers HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG. Also included are the big four U.S. carriers: Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile. Rubin says that Google is open to as many more partners as want to join.
Fragmentation has been a side effect of Android’s success in the marketplace. The more phones that use the operating system, the more different versions of the OS are out there. Because of the way a phone’s OS dovetails with its underlying circuitry, it’s not always easy to deliver OS upgrades. On top of that, carriers and manufacturers have an incentive to encourage you to buy the latest models rather than indefinitely upgrading your old phone.
While fragmentation among Android phones declined last year, it’s still a concern for many customers and for developers.
Rubin and other Google employees didn’t announce any specific details on how manufacturers and carriers would be held to the agreement. Instead, Rubin colored the announcement as “getting [manufacturers and carriers] to the table” to discuss the problem of fragmentation. “Before we could get people to the table, it was impossible to achieve anything.”
Now that the partners are sitting at the table, Rubin claims the work can be done. But with so few details provided thus far, it’s difficult to say how Google and its partners will be able to keep a plethora of new devices current. If you take into account manufacturers with custom interfaces — like HTC’s Sense or Motorola’s Motoblur — things get even trickier.
And it’s difficult to imagine the incentive manufacturers have to keep old hardware current. As technology improves at a faster pace, more handsets are released with beefier hardware specs, like the spate of dual-core phones and tablets hitting the market this year. With more and more devices being churned out at a faster pace, manufacturers more than likely want you to throw your old handsets away and buy the latest and greatest.
The limited-edition Galaxy Tab has Google's Android mascot all over its white back. Photo by Jim Merithew/Wired.com
Google gave everyone attending its developer conference a free Android tablet.
Now, a couple enterprising attendees have already listed the swag on eBay, where the tablets are nearing a bid price of $1,000.
The tablet is a limited edition Galaxy Tab 10.1, with a special white backing adorned with a repeating image of the Android mascot. It’s running Android 3.0 “Honeycomb,” making it only the second tablet to run that version of the operating system (after the Motorola Xoom) that we’ve seen in the office. (Update 12:55pm Pacific: The LG Optimus Pad and Asus Eee Pad Transformer also run Android 3.0, but we haven’t tested them yet.) Wired’s reviewers called an earlier version of the Galaxy Tab the “iPad’s first solid contender.”
It’s an unusually rich bit of swag to give the conference’s 5,500 expected attendees, especially considering that tickets were going for just $450. But Google is known for giving lavish hardware gifts to its developers, and attendees at previous years’ Google I/O conferences got limited-edition Android phones.
The regular-edition Galaxy Tab 10.1 goes for $500-$700, depending on capacity and features.
So even though a nice, shiny new Galaxy Tab might be an irresistible toy for an Android developer, it’s a fair bet that $1,000 is even more tempting.
SAN FRANCISCO — The next Android operating system for smartphones will include some features that were previously exclusive to Android tablets, Google announced Tuesday.
Dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich,” the platform will debut some time in the fourth quarter of 2011, Google officials said during the company’s I/O developer conference.
“We want one OS that runs everywhere,” Android engineer Mike Claren said at the conference.
Ice Cream Sandwich-powered smartphones will ship with enhancements introduced in Android Honeycomb, Google’s operating system for tablets. Some of these new features include a holographic user interface, enhanced multitasking abilities and the ability to connect the smartphone with a USB device, such as a mouse or an Xbox controller.
The release of Ice Cream Sandwich has been highly anticipated by the Android developer community. Android version 3.0 (Honeycomb) first debuted on Motorola’s Xoom tablet in February, touting a host of enhancements and features new to the Android platform. Developers have been waiting for Google to release the Honeycomb source code, in order to bring some of these features to smartphones.
So far, Google has refused to do so. After a long period of silence and a whole lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt, Google issued a statement to members of the press in March: “While we’re excited to offer these new features to Android tablets, we have more work to do before we can deliver them to other device types including phones. Until then, we’ve decided not to release Honeycomb to open source.”
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s February comments at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona shed light on why the company was holding out. Schmidt said that features from Gingerbread — the most recent software release for Android smartphones — and features from the tablet-optimized Honeycomb software would be combined in the next iteration of Android.
“Google is making sure that the OEMs [original equipment manufacturers], who are all desperate to differentiate their products, won’t take the Honeycomb source code and slap it on a bunch of bad products,” Gartner Research analyst Ken Dulaney told Wired.com in an interview. “The bottom line is, this is the right way to do it.”
The Android platform has been incredibly popular since its debut in 2008. To date, over 4.5 billion apps from the Android Market have been installed, according to Hugo Barra, director of Android Product Management. Today, Barra said, the Android Market officially has over 200,000 apps.
To tide over those eager for a new version of Android, Google will be rolling out a new version of its Honeycomb software, version 3.1, over the next few weeks. Owners of Verizon’s Motorola Xoom tablet will be the first to receive the new software.
Google’s Android mascot, flanked by phones running the popular platform. Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Google’s Android mobile platform is a force to be reckoned with. In the three years since the operating system first landed on a phone, Google booted top phone manufacturers RIM, Apple and Nokia from their resting places as market leaders. Two of every five phones sold in 2011 will be Android devices, according to estimates by IDC research.
Among other things, Android’s explosive growth is due to its enthusiastic community of developers. In part, they’re the ones who fuel platform growth by expanding the application ecosystem.
They inject apps like Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja into the Android Market, games which have superseded their place in the tech world and made their way into mainstream pop culture. Developers create the content we want, fueling the sales of new devices and furthering Google’s mobile platform.
And Google wants to take care of its own.
Google’s fourth annual developer conference, Google I/O, kicks off on Tuesday in downtown San Francisco. In its biggest I/O yet, the conference will feature 110 individual developer sessions with more than 250 speakers spanning two days. More than 5,500 developers are expected to attend.
Basically, it’s a coding geek’s Mardi Gras.
It’s also where we often get the first look at Google’s huge new product releases. At the first I/O in 2008, Google engineers demo’d a walk-through of the first smartphone ever powered by Google’s Android platform. Shortly thereafter, the G1 was released on T-Mobile.
According to Google’s blog post published Monday, this year’s keynotes will focus on two big areas of development for the company: the Android mobile platform, and the company’s Chrome browser.
This year’s hotly speculated Android announcement: “Ice Cream Sandwich,” the next generation of the software.
In February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt dropped hints of what was to come for the platform. Schmidt said that in the next release of the Android software, Google will combine features from the phone-based Gingerbread version and the tablet-optimized Honeycomb version.
Ever since Schmidt dropped the news that Ice Cream Sandwich would bring the two versions together, developers have eagerly awaited news of the latest iteration of the platform.
“I don’t necessarily expect a release of Ice Cream Sandwich,” software developer Chris Soyars told Wired.com, “but probably a time frame of what’s to be expected over the next few months.” Soyars is one of the top team members of CyanogenMod, a highly popular Android-modification software build.
Anticipation of the release has only been amplified by Google’s refusal to release the source code for its Honeycomb software. Google’s decision has been relatively unpopular in the developer community, which espouses “open” principles in regards to software source code.
But some think Google’s decision to hold Honeycomb was a good idea. “If you open up Honeycomb, it gives everyone the freedom to take it and make bad versions of it on phones,” Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney told Wired.com. “They’re doing the right thing by telling people to wait for Ice Cream [Sandwich],” Dulaney said.
Developers like Soyars are hoping that Google sticks to its tentative Android-software release cycle of 6 months between each major version, which would slot an Ice Cream Sandwich debut for sometime in August. Honeycomb, the most recent Android software distribution, first debuted on the Motorola Xoom in February.
Not all of Google’s big announcements have been successful ones. Google Wave was supposed to be the next big thing after its 2009 I/O debut, only to be killed by the company 15 months after its release.
Google TV was the star of last year’s I/O, but has gained only a lackluster following because of a lack of integration with Google apps, as well as problems with television networks blocking Google TV devices from delivering their content.
After its mediocre year on the market, Google may update us on its plans for Google TV at this year’s conference. “If there is an announcement related to Google TV,” said Soyars, “it is likely it would be to announce some type of refresh, including the market,” including possibly integrating the Android Market for phones into the Google TV platform. “I know it’s something they’ve been working on,” Soyars said.
Last year the company introduced a cloud-based music system, which would allow you to access your tracks from your phone, laptop or other web-connected device. If Google were able to launch this, it could put the company in a great position to take on Apple’s iTunes, which still requires you to physically connect your device for music syncing. But it’s been a year since Google demoed the product, and we haven’t heard much in the interim.
Also possible are updates on Google’s social initiatives, though reports suggest that we won’t be hearing much on this front. According to sources speaking to AllThingsDigital, all we may see is a bit of info on Google’s “+1″ button, a feature similar to the Facebook “Like” button. Google has been criticized in the past for being behind in developing social applications, losing out to competitor Facebook.
Tickets to the conference went on sale in early February at $450 a pop. Despite the high entrance fee, the conference sold out in 59 minutes. Aftermarket prices on eBay have reached upward of a grand.
Those who missed out on tickets and don’t want to pay the eBay premium can watch a live stream at Google’s I/O Live web site.
Soyars won’t be in attendance: On the day tickets were released, he got shut out. “I’m hoping to go next year,” Soyers said. “There’s just so many workshops and talks that are great for developers like me.”
Google I/O takes place Tuesday, May 10, and Wednesday, May 11, at Moscone West in San Francisco. Watch for coverage on Webmonkey, here on Gadget Lab and across Wired.com.
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