Google I/O Conference 2011 Highlights

by Jordan Yerman | May 10, 2011 at 09:07 am

10154 views | 1 Recommendation | 18 comments

Google I/O Conference Announcements: New Android, Google Music, NFC

The Google I/O Development Conference is underway at San Francisco's Moscone Center. The image onstage of the little green Android eating an apple makes Google's message even more clear than ever.

Android dominates the smartphone market, even though the iPhone gets most of the press and hipster love. Google's Android team doesn't have anyone who's Steve-Jobs famous, so the keynote was delivered by Senior VP of engineering Vic Gundotra, with the help of a giant ball maze.

Highlights from the Keynote

Google Music enters free beta. Request an invite and you can download and store up to 20,000 songs. The service won't be free once it leaves beta, obviously.
Android 3.1 (Honeycomb): tablet-only, and will expand to Google TV. Will be able to handle USB inputs like cameras and keyboards.
Ice Cream Sandwich: the next version of Android for smartphones will drop in Q4 of 2011.
Android Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK): configure external hardware to work with an Android device. USB only for now, but Bluetooth support coming soon. Android's ADK, like its SKD, is free. Have fun configuring Eclipse, and remember that Stuffit Expander will break the installation process.
Movie rentals from Android Market- 30-day rental period for use on any Android device, with a 24-hour play period once the movie starts. (My Android phone would run out of power way before a movie got to the good parts)
Project Tungsten: This is some House of Tomorrow sh*t. Use Android and the Android at Home framework to sync services in your home: music, video, alarm clock, lights, refrigerator... basically, it's Farmville IRL.
NFC: near-field communication isn't big in the US yet, but Google wants to be ready. RFID devices are examples of NFC technology, but there's greater potential than read-only RFID tags. You could rip a CD to your laptop or phone by holding the disc up to the device: no spinning necessary. Getting that to work two ways will be the next step.

The 5,000 developers attendance all got a free Samsung Galaxy tablet: beyond an Oprah-style "everybody gets a tablet!" moment, this kick-starts actual development on the new hardware.

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Maria Tilt (not verified)

at 12:12 on May 10th, 2011

If anyone's looking for a Google Music Beta invite, I found a blog giving them out for free. I figured that the waiting list would be too long, so I tried the blog out, and got my invite about an hour later. Nice.I don't know if they have any remaining invites, but if you want to try your luck here's the site:freegooglemusicbetainvites.blogspot.com

Melvin Wood (not verified)

at 16:54 on May 10th, 2011

The iphone has some great apps, just a pity its a really bad phone.

Perspective (not verified)

at 15:24 on May 10th, 2011

"Android dominates the smartphone market, even though the iPhone gets most of the press and hipster love."The press, the hipster love, the revenues, the profits, etc. The iPhone is a bigger business, by itself, than Google. That's why it gets the press. Android's only positive metric is "smartphone marketshare," since they still lag behind overall install base (iOS was recently reported to hold a 59% advantage) and total devices sold (Android's 100 million are dwarfed by iOS' 180 million). So no, Android doesn't "dominate" the smartphone market. It holds the marketshare lead, but the fact here is that the iPhone, which is less than 4 years old, is already more profitable than either Google or the aggregate totals of Android OEMs. Thanks for playing.

Reggie Rowell (not verified)

at 15:34 on May 10th, 2011

Is "even though the iPhone gets most of the press and hipster love" tech speak for iPhone gets most of the profits?

Andre Richards (not verified)

at 16:40 on May 10th, 2011

That struck me as an odd statement too. Everyone I know who has an iPhone are professionals, right across the board, not a hipster in sight. In fact, doesn't the popularity of the iPhone sort of negate any hipster love? I thought they were into cheap and tacky as a fashion statement, which to me, sounds a lot like Android.Oh but whatever. You know, it gives you instant geek cred to diss Apple nowadays which is handy for tech writers who don't have much else to offer.

Darwinosx (not verified)

at 16:52 on May 10th, 2011

Its not just odd its idiotic. Like the millions of people all over the world who buy iPhones are all "hipsters".Meanwhile Google would kill to have Apples' revenues not to mention their app store.

Sarah Villiers (not verified)

at 16:52 on May 10th, 2011

Are you joking practically every school child has an iphone these days.

Christopher_75 (not verified)

at 15:40 on May 10th, 2011

Holy shit, I hope I never click a link leading to this site again. Obnoxious popups are irritating to me, and should be, quite frankly, embarrassing for you.

qka (not verified)

at 19:15 on May 10th, 2011

What popups? I don't see any. Seriously, there are solutions to the popup problem. Unless you are still using using IE6 or something equally antique.

Player_16 (not verified)

at 20:08 on May 10th, 2011

'Obnoxious popups'? What's those? I turned my popup-blocker on and rarely -and I mean RARELY- see those.

Monkey Jim (not verified)

at 09:02 on May 11th, 2011

Pop ups are a real problem on this site, whatever browser is used. It's really poor practice to push adverts in this way.

bobcb (not verified)

at 16:08 on May 10th, 2011

even the most die hard Android fan had to find todays announcements lackluster at best.

Darrell Spice, Jr. (not verified)

at 16:15 on May 10th, 2011

"Android dominates the smartphone market, even though the iPhone gets most of the press and hipster love."Could that be because the nearly 2 year old iPhone 3GS is outselling some of the new Android models?And of course "smartphone market" conveniently dismisses the sales of the iPod Touch and iPad, even though the vast majority of apps don't need to be on a phone. The few exceptions would be those apps like this rotary dialer.

Travis Mason-Bushman (not verified)

at 17:56 on May 10th, 2011

Great article, Jordan! Your cheerful spouting of Android propaganda and anti-Apple clichés has made my decision to never trust any of this site's "Tech-Biz" coverage an easy one.

Luc VonLucson (not verified)

at 18:34 on May 10th, 2011

> You could rip a CD to your laptop or phone by holding the disc up to the device: no spinning necessary. Getting that to work two ways will be the next stepWhat is this thing "a CD"?

Hamranhansenhansen (not verified)

at 18:36 on May 10th, 2011

Android dominates the low-end and free smartphone market. Apple dominates the high-end smartphone market, the tablet market, the media player market, and the high-end PC market. Android and Apple do not even compete in phones, because Apple does not sell a low-end smartphone.

Apple also takes over 50% of all mobile handset profits (not just smartphones) while Android takes less than 5%. Which of those is dominating phones?

Dave Andersen (not verified)

at 23:01 on May 10th, 2011

"Android dominates the smartphone market, even though the iPhone gets most of the press and hipster love."I went to the local phone store today and asked the sales thingy for an Android. He couldn't find any. He did have HTC and Motorola and Samsung and LG smartphones though. I checked them out but decided to buy an iPhone instead even though I'm not a hipster.iPhone dominated those other smartphones.

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