Google I/O 2014 - "Live" blogging.

Google I/O 2014

Beginning a bit late due to technical problems.
10:10 Intro video finishes.
Sundar Pichai
VP Android Chrome and Apps.
597 extended events. (I'm at the Denver one - about 60 people present.)
20% female participation up from 8% last year. (3 females at Denver event -- 5% or so.)
Global Smartphone Shipments
315 Million 2013.
Android 1 billion 30-day active users.
Various usage stats.
Android tablet 62% of global market. (Doesn't include Kindle.)
YouTube usage: 28% from Android. 42% from Android.
Android One - qualify vendors.. reference platforms. Stock Android, Play Auto-installs, Automatic Updates. Will be updated like Nexus.
Pichai is intentionally using a sub-$100 phone.

Platform Evolution

How Android and Chrome will be changing.
L preview.
500 new APIs.
Form factors beyond mobile.
Android, Chrome, across all of Google - one consistent UX.
Material Design.
Drew inspiration from Paper and Ink.
Elevation built-in to Android API.
Baseline Grids built-in to API design.
Roboto font available everywhere.
Rich touch animated feedback.
New transition animations.
Incremental, yet "bold" changes in UX.
Material Design used via Polymer. (Is Polymer ready?)
google.com/design -- a common design style guide.

Highlights of L release

New Material theme
New animation capibilites
3d views with realtime shadows
Shared transitions with "Hero".
Enhanced notifications.
Personal unlocking ... determine if it is in a trusted environment. For example unlock in presence of a watch.

Chrome for Mobile

Mobile Web Experience
Material Design fully integrated.
Chrome being integrated with Apps... am a bit confused about how.
Search results can link directly into Apps.

Peformance

Will run on ART.
Truly cross-platform.
2x faster than Dalvik... no need to recompile.
Much better GC -- faster and less often.
64-bit - no Java code modifications needed.
Support for more sophisticated graphics - Android Extension Pack.
Battery Life improvements.
Project Volta
Battery Historian - to help understand where the issues are.
JobScheduler API
Battery Server - I think it gives users control over performance vs battery life.

Principles behind user experiences

Contextually Aware
Voice Enabled
Seamless -- pick up where you left off
Mobile First

AndroidWear

Demo of AW.
11:04
Mentions "Chrome Call".
I find the constant picture changes in Material Design rather annoying. (Essentially every screen has it's own image backing it.)

Developer capabilities in AW

Notifications automatically from phone to wrist.
Voice replies
Notification pages.
Stack multiple notifications.
Google Maps support.
Full AW SDK available today.
Custom UI
Sensors API
Voice Actions
Send Data
Payment via Watch
Showing a recipe app on phone/wrist.
All watches shown today are water resistant (safe for cooking).
"Ok, Google call me a car"... uses "Lift" app.
LG "G" watch available later today on the Play Store.
Samsung has an AW watch.
Moto 360 later this summer.

Android for the car

Open Automotive Alliance
Announcing Android Auto
Navigation Communication Music
Contextually Aware
Completely voice enabled
It is phone based much like Android Wear
Google Play Music, Maps
Android Auto SDK
11:25
Overview of Android Auto SDK
Will come out with the L release later this year

Android Living Room (TV)

Announcing Android TV (wouldn't that be reintroducing?)
Adds voice input
Android TV app on phone -- Demo
Will be a part of L release.
Has Games app support. Ouch Apple!
Android Wear supported as a remote
Games work over all Android platforms (Phone, Tablet and TV). Ouch again Apple.
Android TV works as Chromecast as well.
Gaming consoles as well.
Sony, Sharp and one other are adopting Android TV.
Others including Asus.
TV SDK available now.

Google Cast and ChromeCast

Google cast ready devices.
Google cast SDK
chromecast.com/apps
Can now share without being on same Wifi... how?
Can cast G+ photos to TV screen.
Backdrop will roll out to all Chromecast users later this summer.
Mirroring from any Android device. Has great performance... tinniest lag I've ever seen.
11:49
The Android Authority folks will probably collapse from exhaustion today.

ChromeOS

Speed, Simplicity, Security. 6x growth from last year.
Unlock capabilities from Android L will be on Chromebooks too.
Notification from phones on CB's too.
Android apps on CBs!
Preview today... showing Demo.
Not clear how much Developer intervention is needed.
Connecting work and home phones/laptops/tablets?
Data separation and security.
No developer modification needed.
Bulk deployment of apps by businesses.
Business guaranteed updates for Android.
Docs/Sheets/Slides separate apps for Android.
Native Office Editing built into Google Docs.
Seemless, saves back to MS format.
Google Docs colaborative features work in the MS files too.
Drive for Work
Encryption in transit and on-server
Enhanced Admin Controls.
Audit and Activity APIs
$10 per month per user unlimited.
12:02
May be winding up.

Google Cloud Platform

I just have trouble getting excited about Google Cloud... much prefer Joyent (NodeJS), OpenStack or AWS.
Four new tools:
CloudSave ... a new easy to use API with no server side coding. Prefs, other. It is in Cloud DataStore.
Cloud Debugging
Cloud Tracing
Cloud Monitor

Moving from Code to Data

Data and Analytics Challenges...
Don't use Map Reduce any more (doesn't work for hexabytes of data).
Cloud Dataflow - Analytics for Hexabytes of Data.
They've really made this keynote too long.
Appurify seems to have been bought by Google
Google Fit APIs -- very brief overview.
Play store improvements - Saved Games
Carrier-billed payments.