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Well, folks, Google I/O has come and gone. It only lasted two days, but what sweet two days they were. Attendees received Galaxy Tab 10.1s, Verizon 4G MiFi units, were promised ChromeBooks, scored Sony Ericsson Xperia Plays and a lot more. It isn’t all about the freebies, though.
Android 3.1 was announced and launched, Ice Cream Sandwich was officially acknowledged by Google, Android @ Home in conjunction with Android Open Accessory showed the future of home automation and remote control, accessories and more. Over 400,000 devices are activated each day while more than 200,000 apps sit in the Android market. (And there have been 4.5 billion installs to date.)
Google Music beta launched (and here’s how to set it up if you’re lucky enough to get an invite), you can now rent movies in the Android market, Andy Rubin says a new Nexus is coming and Honeycomb is coming to Google TV with the Android market. The Android market has gotten another major facelift and Google wants carriers and manufacturers to deliver Android updates 18 months from the day the device is released.
And I know this isn’t a Chrome blog (you can find one of those by visiting ChromeSpot.com), but that stuff is totally votable. Google announced a newer version of Chrome OS with an improved file manager, Samsung and Acer are both bringing ChromeBooks, schools and businesses can rent them for a fee and a whole lot more. We even went hands-on with an early build of Samsung’s model.
Yeah, that’s more than enough for two days. So what was your favorite out of all of these announcements? There’s a poll below and you should already know what to do with that. Be sure to share further thoughts in the comments section below!
[polldaddy poll=5041225]
wtf it’s done already?!?! :(
3.1, would have said Google Music but of course Google doesn’t like Canada.
not many do
:D
*Announcements not annoucnements
18 month promise definitely
I expected most of the Android stuff thus the Chromebook was nice to see. I’m actually impressed with them though I think they have a limited use case–not for everyone.
Im pretty disappointed to be honest…
What have we got…
We know officially that Ice Cream Sandwich is coming and its merging honeycomb and gingerbread… but everyone knew that anyway. And not overly exciting about it coming to GoogleTV.
Google Music Beta isnt exactly that exciting, Id rather not have to upload my files would like a proper cloud solution with the labels on board, and as much as it pains me to say this, Apple are in the best position for this.
Android@Home:disqus … meh, kinda cool, but its going to be a while before it takes off and is it really anything more than a gimick? I dont find standing up and moving across the room to a light switch all that difficult to be honest. And the Project Tungsten stuff is just apple TV essentially.
The Chrome OS stuff was also a little disappointing, not much seems to be going on there. And the laptops mentioned are expensive, for that money I could buy a proper netbook that can do everything a chromebook can with the potential of dual booting windows and chrome OS.
There not a lot in terms of announcements that have really got me going WOW! I would have loved to have seen an example of how ice cream sandwich will look on a phone and a tablet side by side…. maybe they arent at that position yet. But Google didnt really seem to deliver on anything mind blowing or tell us much that we hadnt already guessed. Hell, even Google Music Beta was announced a few hours earlier than the actually IO conference.
Here is my top moments:
1. Honeycomb 3.1 Xoom update
2. Google Music
3. Google Movies
Worst moments:
1. Honeycomb 3.1 Xoom update only rolling out to Verizon US customers and not Canada right away..
2. Google Music U.S only
3. Google Movies U.S. only
4. Still haven’t gotten the 2.3.4 update on my Nexus S I9020A (canadian model)
So pretty dissapointed overall…I don’t understand how Apple manages to have lot less limits outside of the U.S. If google wants to compete..they need to stop having us wait outside of the U.S. for that long…still waiting on Google Voice…
Most important for me it’s Ice cream sandwich, Honeycomb for G-TV and new Nexus since I have a Nexus S and Logitech G-TV.
My top 2 announcements:
1) The 18-month android update agreement with most of the big OEMs & carriers so you can’t be left in the dust with an initial release. Would have been better if there was a MINUMUM timeframe for updates AFTER EACH google release, though, since carriers could still choose to skip all intermediate updates and only push a half-assed update to the last version in the 18-month window.
2) USB host support in 3.1 and IceCreamSandwich! That’s huge (even if expected).
3.1, as a recent acer iconia a500 owner i’m very interested in being able to plug usb gamepads, perhaps finally i’ll be able to play fifa and mini squadron like nature intended
New Nexus Phone as confirmed in a Q&A with Mr. Andy Rubin.
Definitely the new Nexus phone, since the Nexus S was such a FAIL!…