Google I/O starts tomorrow. Discussing Android development on the Games forum got me looking forward to the news that will start coming quick and wondering what surprises - if any - may be announced.
Jelly Bean is pretty much a given. Not much information about what precisely that will imply, but I’m guessing the focus in this iteration will be largely on apps.
Google Assistant (the counter to Siri) is strongly rumored; it remains to be seen whether they can deliver anything that really ups the ante on that field. Living in a non-English speaking part of the world, I’m not likely to get a lot of use out of this, but my technical curiousity is looking forward to seeing what they manage in this field.
Nexus Tablet - Google’s answer to the Kindle Fire. This is another given - it will be a 7-inch, fairly well-specced tablet at $200 or $250, and running Jelly Bean. I would be more excited about this if I didn’t already have a tablet and actually needed a 7" device, but it’s certainly going to be interesting to see what impact this may have on the market.
The item that really interests me - and which was hinted at a bit during GDC - is that of Google Games. Supposedly a merger of Google+ Games, Android, and Chrome web store under a single umbrella - complete with social gaming and multiplayer support and a payment system that is streamlined with Google Play. It’s been almost two years since Gamecenter - I’m going to be really annoyed if this does not happen very soon.
Common to all of these rumors is that they are very reactive announcements. I wonder whether we will see anything really new? Google Glasses perhaps? I’m sceptical about that arriving so soon, though.
Thoughts? Anyone heard about anything really exciting that is likely to come out over the next couple of days?
Tell me about it. Windows also has crap latency in its native stack. Thank god for ASIO or my whole hacking project would be doomed on Windows. Fortunately Win8 kept desktop mode because Metro audio latency will probably suck too…
Yes, it’s a huge drag that only Apple has really gotten the corporate concept that audio latency matters. I am hoping Microsoft will get dragged into the “latency matters” world as they keep working on Kinect 2 and get into the head-mounted game, where latency is even more critical than in audio. But it’s just as likely that audio latency will continue to be a non-issue… and YES IT TOTALLY SUCKS.
Damn shame to hear that Android is in the same ballpark, only with no ASIO to provide you an end-run around the crap native stuff.
I’ll be interested in the first release of an Android SDK library for Glass, but I suspect that won’t be for a while yet. There are undoubtedly a few trusted developers under contract now, though.
Okay, the Nexus Q just made the Google Play digital library worthwhile. Love being able to share my entire library at a friend’s. $299 is a bit steep, though.
The Nexus Q looks great, but $299 is way too much. $199 is better, and $99 is probably about right. I mean, it’s basically a (much better) Roku, or an AppleTV that doesn’t suck ass, or a 360 minus the ability to play fancy-ass games, and not even the 360 is $300 any more.
Jellybean looks great – you can really see Matias Duarte’s hand at work on the Android tiller.
It’s not a much better roku. Roku has hundreds of channels streaming internet video, and you can buy one for $50. AppleTV has a dozen or so channels, and it’s $99. GoogleTV has real apps, can stream tons of video, and with Plex is adept at local media.
Unless they somehow forgot to mention it during the keynote, Nexus Q doesn’t support apps, it just streams from google play. It can’t even fucking play netflix.
I figured they were trying to escape the stigma of the failed googletv branding, but then they said $299 and it was facepalm time.
If you’re still watching, they just did an awesome live Glass demo with skydivers, rapellers, and stunt bicylers and are discussing it now. It’s not consumer ready, but it’s neat technology.
You think so? I find listening to those guys directly painful. “So… eh… we have this incredibly powerful device… eh… its quite cool, don’t you think. We can do this and this and this… and that would be really cool, right?”
They did. They jumped out a frickin plane and broadcast it live from six separate perspectives to a google+ hangout from little cameras on their eyeglasses.
