Google-io-2016

 

9 most important things from the Google I/O keynote — from androidcentral.com by Jen Karner

Excerpt:
Here’s a breakdown of the nine big things Google brought to I/O 2016.

  1. Now on Steroids — Google Assistant
  2. Google Home — Amazon Who?
  3. Allo — A smarter messenger
  4. Duo — Standalone video chat
  5. Everything Android N
  6. Android Wear 2.0
  7. The future — Android Instant Apps
  8. New Android Studio
  9. New Firebase tools

 

CEO Sundar Pichai comes in at the 14:40 mark:

 

 

I/O: Building the next evolution of Google — from googleblog.blogspot.com

Excerpts:

Which is why we’re pleased to introduce…the Google assistant. The assistant is conversational—an ongoing two-way dialogue between you and Google that understands your world and helps you get things done. It makes it easy to buy movie tickets while on the go, to find that perfect restaurant for your family to grab a quick bite before the movie starts, and then help you navigate to the theater. It’s a Google for you, by you.
…
Google Home is a voice-activated product that brings the Google assistant to any room in your house. It lets you enjoy entertainment, manage everyday tasks, and get answers from Google—all using conversational speech. With a simple voice command, you can ask Google Home to play a song, set a timer for the oven, check your flight, or turn on your lights. It’s designed to fit your home with customizable bases in different colors and materials. Google Home will be released later this year.

 

 

 

Google takes a new approach to native apps with Instant Apps for Android — from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois, Sarah Perez

Excerpt:

Mobile apps often provide a better user experience than browser-based web apps, but you first have to find them, download them, and then try not to forget you installed them. Now, Google wants us to rethink what mobile apps are and how we interact with them.

Instant Apps, a new Android feature Google announced at its I/O developer conference today but plans to roll out very slowly, wants to bridge this gap between mobile apps and web apps by allowing you to use native apps almost instantly — even when you haven’t previously installed them — simply by tapping on a URL.

 

 

Google isn’t launching a standalone VR headset…yet — from uploadvr.com

Excerpt:

To the disappointment of many, Google Vice President of Virtual Reality Clay Bavor did not announce the much-rumoured (and now discredited) standalone VR HMD at today’s Google I/O keynote.

Instead, the company announced a new platform for VR on the upcoming Android N to live on called Daydream. Much like Google’s pre-existing philosophy of creating specs and then pushing the job of building hardware to other manufacturers, the group is providing the boundaries for the initial public push of VR on Android, and letting third-parties build the phones for it.

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Google’s Android VR Platform is Called ‘Daydream’ and Comes with a Controller — from vrguru.com by Constantin Sumanariu

Excerpt:

Speaking at the opening keynote for this week’s Google I/O developer conference, the company’s head of VR Clay Bavor announced that the latest version of Android, the unnamed Android N, would be getting a VR mode. Google calls the initiative to get the Android ecosystem ready for VR ‘Daydream’, and it sounds like a massive extension of the groundwork laid by Google Cardboard.

 

 

Conversational AI device: Google Home — from postscapes.com

Excerpt:

Google finally has its answer to Amazon’s voice-activated personal assistant device, Echo. It’s called Google Home, and it was announced today at the I/O developer conference.

 

 

Movies, TV Shows and More Comes to Daydream VR Platform — from vrguru.com by Constantin Sumanariu

 

 

 

 

Allo is Google’s new, insanely smart messaging app that learns over time — from androidcentral.com by Jared DiPane

Excerpt:

Google has announced a new smart messaging app, Allo. The app is based on your phone number, and it will continue to learn from you over time, making it smarter each day. In addition to this, you can add more emotion to your messages, in ways that you couldn’t before. You will be able to “whisper” or “shout” your message, and the font size will change depending on which you select. This is accomplished by pressing the send button and dragging up or down to change the level of emotion.

 

 

 

Google follows Facebook into chatbots — from marketwatch.com by Jennifer Booton
Google’s new home assistant and messenger service will be powered by AI

Excerpt:

Like Facebook’s bots, the Google assistant is designed to be conversational. It will play on the company’s investment in natural language processing, talking to users in a dialogue format that feels like normal conversation, and helping users buy movie tickets, make dinner reservations and get directions. The announcement comes one month after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Messenger with chatbots, which serves basically the same function.

 

 

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