Google Announcements You May Have Missed – Google I/O [Updated]

Google is currently holding its annual Google I/O developer event. The company has made a slew of announcements. There is a lot to keep track of, so here is a compilation of some things Google has ann...
Google Announcements You May Have Missed – Google I/O [Updated]
Written by Chris Crum

Google is currently holding its annual Google I/O developer event. The company has made a slew of announcements. There is a lot to keep track of, so here is a compilation of some things Google has announced since the event started.

Google announced some new Android stats. These include (but are not limited to):

– 100 million device activations worldwide
– 36 OEMs
– 215 carriers
– 450k Android developers
– 310 Devices
– 112 countries
– 200,000 apps available in the Android Market
– 4.5 billion app installs
– Over 400,000 devices activated per day

They opened the presentation with this picture:

Google announced Google Music beta, the long-awaited music offering, which is so far only focused on the music you already own. It’s already been getting some harsh criticism, and is so far only open via invitation

Google announced the addition of movie rentals to the Android Market, which is likely to be very popular. The company also announced that the Android Market will be coming to Google TV this summer, which should in turn help the popularity of that. Vizio and Samsung are also now partners on Google TV.

An Android update was launched in version 3.1, adding and improving upon features to Honeycomb, and that the next version of Android – Ice Cream Sandwich – will be out in Q4.

Google unveiled the Open Accessory and Android @ Home initiatives, which will combine to get Android integrated with more electronics throughout your house (even existing appliances that you already own).

Google is letting AdWords advertisers target tablets, beyond just the iPad. They also tweaked the traffic estimate algorithm.

The company announced a new version of Google App Engine, and that it will the product will graduate from preview status this year.

Google announced a partnership between EMC VNX Storage and the Google Search Appliance, which will see a new connector developed by the former.

Google launched the Google Places API. This returns info about Places including establishments, geographic locations, and prominent points of interests for use in third-party apps.

Google launched the Page Speed Online API. This allows developers to integrate performance analysis in their tools and web performance dashboards.

Google announced that Google Storage for developers is open to all and has some new features.

The company announced the general availability of the Google Prediction API. With this, developers can create apps that use Google’s prediction capabilities. Ford is already taking advantage to make smarter cars.

Google announced that it will be publishing its “learnings and insights about digital marketing trends” at the website Think Insights with Google.

In a session at the event, Google reportedly announced a version of Chrome Frame for IE that doesn’t require admin rights to install.

A new phone in Google’s Nexus line is expected this year.

The company announced that Chrome is up from 70 million users at last year’s Google I/O to 160 million active users now.

Google announced new Google “Chromebooks” – Chrome OS-based Notebooks from Samsung and Acer coming next month. Devices will be available for order on June 15 – Amazon.com and BestBuy.com in the U.S. and at various retailers in six other countries.

In addition, Google announced monthly subscriptions for Chromebooks for businesses and schools. These will begin at $28 per user for business and $20 per user for educational institutions.

Also briefly mentioned was a “Chromebox” from Samsung – a device that offers Chrome OS for the desktop, which will simply be released “later”.

Google announced that it is expanding the Chrome Web Store around the world in 41 languages for free apps. In addition, in-app payments are now available for apps in the Chrome Web Store.

Angry Birds is now available in the Chrome Web Store as well. Google collaborated with Angry Birds maker Rovio to bring Angry Birds to the web.

Google launched a new Books API to help developers write apps to query the over 15 million books that are searchable at books.google.com.

The company previewed the +1 button for publishers, revealing some stats that it may show, and said that it will be available in the coming weeks.

Google launched a new web resource for developers called the Guide to the App Galaxy.

They’ve made new additions to the Fusion Tables API.

They announced the availability of the ChromeVox screen reader for Chrome and Chrome OS. This is a Chrome extension that lets developers test web apps with a screen reader inside the browser so they can do better accessibility testing.

They announced new charts and features from Google Chart Tools.

They launched App Engine tooling for Android, giving Android developers new tools to build cloud-aware apps.

They demonstrated P2P NFC for Android for Ice Cream Sandwich.

They made web fonts faster with the Text= parameter for Google Web Fonts.

Google launched the Tasks API, which developers can use to create rich apps that integrate with Google Tasks.

They released rosjava, which is described as a pure Java port of ROS (in partnership with Willlow Garage), which is designed to enable the development of advanced Android apps for robotics.

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