We at Ausdroid have been quite busy this week, jetting around the country to attend various commitments, but one place we didn’t make it was Google IO 2011.
As is usually the case with Google IO, a lot of Android news came about, and we’ve not (yet) had the time to cover it all. However, we’re now proud to present our wrap of the Google IO 2011 event, and all the big announcements.
Hit us up after the break for the lowdown.
Freebies!
Every attendee received a Galaxy Tab 10.1s, some portable Wi-Fi gear, some Sony Xperia Plays, and heaps more. It’s a shame that we, and more Australians, weren’t able to attend – this is some pretty sweet kit.
New version of Android announced, and released
Android Honeycomb was updated to version 3.1, and it added support for a heap of cool new things, such as native resizable widgets, USB host support, inline HTML5 playback (videos, people) and a heap more.
To me, the coolest of these announcements is USB host support – this means you can plug external peripherals into your Honeycomb 3.1 powered devices – like keyboards, gaming controllers, cameras or perhaps even external storage. All leading to the point where a Honeycomb 3.1 powered tablet can be used truly independently from – and almost as a replacement of – a standalone computer.
The Motorola Xoom will be the first device to receive the update, and should be receiving it, or have already received it, by now.
The next version of Android officially named Ice-Cream Sandwich
In keeping with Google’s naming convention for Android – dessert items – the next version of Android will be known as Ice Cream Sandwich, and will converge the latest features from Gingerbread and Honeycomb into a unified OS for tablets and phones. We don’t know an awful lot about killer features for ICS yet, except that the holographic UI from Honeycomb will likely come across, and there will be more advanced application frameworks to allow developers to create more unique applications for the platform.
Google Music and movie rentals announced
However, in disappointing news, they won’t initially be available to users in Australia. There have been a couple of posts around the web indicating that the Music service isn’t all that – at least, not yet – but it shows promise. As with most things, rocky beginnings can lead to very good outcomes, and no doubt Google Music will fall into this category.
Google Music can (in beta) sync music wirelessly from the cloud, and can import all your music from places including your iTunes library (only those songs not protected by DRM, however), and can even import playlists (depending on the source of your data, Google Music may or may not recognise these).
Guys, a more in depth wrap up will come. We understand you guys are a little disappointed that we didn’t rock I/O as much as we should have. Timing was a huge factor, this is not an excuse however, and we will break down I/O over the next few days, including the 18 month upgrade promise, the ADK, etc, in more detailed post. This article was to give everyone a “short and quick” summery of some of the things that happened, not a commentary..
Guys, we just wanted to give the high level summary, not an in-depth overview. We didn’t discuss non-Android news, because we’re not really that interested in it.. this is Ausdroid, not Ausgoogle.. we have a narrow focus and we’re proud of it. Sorry you didn’t enjoy our story.
I thought the article had enough information to be interesting to someone who wasn’t already up to date with the news from Google IO. I appreciate the time that editors put into bringing us information free of charge. I do think corrections or suggestions from commenters can be helpful, especially when they are done in a friendly way.
Also your swag list is wrong, the guys got a Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1, a verizon LTE wifi hotspot, plus a chromebook. The game devs got a Sony Xperia Plays as well.
Sorry guys, but this is a pretty piss poor wrap of google io 2011, readers should wonder over to engadget who have a much better review
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/12/google-i-o-2011-recap-chromebooks-music-beta-movies-and-more/
Chromebook?
well going by ausdroid that didn’t happen!
tbh i think this is a pretty poor effort to summarise the entire google i/o conference (especially since they didn’t add the relevant info such as the lack of availibility of music beta in Australia) but that being said, the title is imply that the summary is focused on android
i found day 2 (chrome keynote) to be more interesting as the info was far newer and hasn’t been speculated/leaked all over other sites
Even if it was android focused, what about the android wrist watches, the ADK devices for robots and home automation? What about the demo of that cool music streaming box? What about the Android open accessory standard? The bike demo? And the big numbers, Google reaches 100 millionth Android activations and now seeing 400,000 Android devices activated daily!! Then there is the best piece of news that popped out…… Google now requesting OEMs to commit to a 18 month Android software upgrade program after the device is released, with timeframes around how long they can wait before an update is… Read more »
absolutely, i couldn’t agree more with the last part. i was astonished to hear that they are pressuring manufacturers to sign on to that agreement – this ridding of android fragmentation is one of the most exciting pieces of tech news i have heard in quite some time (albeit with the caveat that hardware must be compatible – but that is a given). come to think of it that is very strange that it went unmentioned by Ausdroid given that they have been riding this very point for quite some time. i suspect the dudes here are too drunk celebrating… Read more »