It’s a beautiful day in San Francisco, California today — the perfect setting for the Google’s 2011 global developer conference, better known as Google I/O. The battalion of Google staffers is currently putting the finishing touches on the Moscone Center before it’s swarmed by Android enthusiasts, developers and the press, and we’re here to bring you the action live. What does Google have up its sleeves for this year? We’ll find out soon enough. The Day 1 keynote kicks off at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time, 12:00 p.m. Eastern, and we’ll be live blogging it right here in this post. Be sure to check back then for the live coverage, and don’t forget to refresh the page for all the details as they break!
12:54PM:Thank you and have a great Google IO. That’s it folks. Thanks for tuning in!
12:53PM:We’re seeing the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1… and we’re all getting one.
12:51PM:We’re getting a recap of what we’ve covered.
12:48PM:Next, we’re working on something called Project Tungsten. You can enjoy your music throughout your house, syncronized, via this Tungsten boxes. And these protocols will be completely open to developers.”
12:46PM:“To bring this vision to reality we’re partnering with Lighting Science. You can buy Android@Home light bulbs beginning later this year.”
12:44PM:We’re seeing a demo “Hello World” type application that is controlling the stage lights.
12:44PM:“We want to think of every device in your home as a potential Android IO device.”
12:43PM:“So we’re going to go one step further and talk about what the ultimate accessory is: your home. We call this vision ANdroid@Home.”
12:42PM:“This program is completely open. No NDAs, no feeds, no restrictions.”
12:41PM:More information is at accessories.android.com
12:40PM:We’re seeing a demo of someone moving a XOOM tablet that is controlling a physical labyrinth board.
12:39PM:Open Accessory supports USB now and will support Bluetooth in the future. They are also releasing a hardware development boards.”
12:38PM:We’re seeing a demo of the Life Fitness bike controlling gameplay on an Android devices that encourages and tracks progress.
12:37PM:“Today we’re announcing Android Open Accesory” which will provide hardware makers the ability to create hardware that will work with any mobile device.”
12:36PM:“
12:35PM:“Now we want to talk about ‘more’. ABout our vision for the future.”
12:34PM:“We’re jointly announcing today, that devices from our partners will receive updates for 18 months as long as the hardware allows.”
12:34PM:“We’re creating a new team that will determine how quickly devices will get updates when we push out new Android platforms and for how long they will get those updates.”
12:32PM:“It will roll out in stages, to the U.S. only at first. All those attending Google IO that are based in the United States will get an invite (eat your heart out), others interested can visit music.google.com/about to apply for the beta.”
12:32PM:“We’re really excited about this service. We’re rolling it out in beta today, you can add up to 20,000 songs to your library and… at least while it’s in beta… the service is free.”
12:31PM:“The best part? If I get a brand new phone all I have to do is sign in, my music is now right there right away.”
12:30PM:“We cache music that is recently played. So you instantly have access to songs when offline. You can also pin songs to your device, making them available offline at all times.”
12:29PM:“My phone connects to the cloud. I’ll never have to use a cable to get songs on my device again!”
12:28PM:“We have a new feature called ‘Instant mix’. Select a song and Instant Mix picks 25 songs that are similar. Unlike other services, Mix actually listens to your track and finds similar sounds tracks… it’s truly ingenius.” ZING!
12:27PM:“Applications will be available for both PC and Mac. It will help you get the content you already own into the cloud.”
12:26PM:Paul Joyce is on stage: “Today we’re introducing Music Beta by Google. No wires, no syncing. You music is stored in the cloud so you can stop worrying about storage and starting enjoying your music.”
12:25PM:“We just talked about movies, what’s the other content we love?” MUSIC!
12:25PM:“Verizon XOOM 3G users will begin getting Android 3.1 today and it will include the movies rental feature. It will be available on smartphones running Android 2.2 and higher in the next few weeks.”
12:23PM:“In addition to playing back movies we can rent movies directly from a smartphone or tablet. There is a new section in the Market with categories and featured content; similar to the applications and books sections.”
12:22PM:“We enable offline viewing with a feature called ‘pinning’. What this means is that these movies will be automatically downloaded to the device and viewable offline; like when you’re on an airplane.”
12:22PM:“Movies have a 30-day rental period. Once you being watching you’ll have 24-hours to complete viewing. You can also stream the movie over your browser and watch on your computer.”
12:20PM:“Starting today, users can rent movies from the Android Market and stream them directly to their devices using the cloud.”
12:19PM:“Now we’re going to shift topics and talk about media. We’re going to announce a new service.”
12:18PM:We’re seeing a demo of head tracking and OpenGL. Running on the GPU, the device’s camera can track your movements and orient the screen and applications to your point of view.
12:15PM:“We’re taking our Honeycomb holographic UI and mutitaking UI to Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS from now on).”
12:14PM:“Let’s look a little further down the road. Our next mobile release: Ice Cream Sandwich. We’re targeting a Q4 launch and it will be our most ambitious launch to date.”
12:13PM:“Android 3.1 is not just for tablets, it’s coming to Android 3.1 this summer. Google TV will also be getting the Android Market.”
12:12PM:New features include: a new multitasking functionality, resizable widgets, Android 3.1 devices can act like USB hosts (allows you to download images directly from digital camera to tablet; supports game controllers, keyboards, mice, etc.)
12:10PM:“Today, we’re announcing Android 3.1 for Verizon XOOM owners.”
12:09PM:We’re about to see some demos!
12:09PM:“This wraps up the momentum section. Now we’re going to cover Mobile and show you 2 exciting new services that we’re announcing today.”
12:08PM:“It took the Android ecosystem to see 1B application installs. 5 months to get to 2B. And today, we have 4.5B application installs.”
12:07PM:“Today, we’ve announced that we’ve hit over 200,000 apps in the ANdroid Market.”
12:07PM:“Today we’re activating over 400,000 Android devices every day.”
12:06PM:“There are over 312 devices in over 120 countries.”
12:06PM:“We’ve activated over 100 million ANdroid devices worldwide.”
12:05PM:“Remember this device?” *holds up a G1* “We were on one carrier in one country, and now, we’re everywhere.”
12:04PM:“Today we are going to focus on three things: mobile, momentum, and ‘more’”
12:04PM:
12:04PM:
12:03PM:“We are humbled by your enthusiasm and thank you for sharing your most precious resource: your time.”
12:02PM:“We want to thank you for making Android the global phenomenon it has become. This year, for the first time we did something new. We allowed developers to set up their own viewing parties.”
12:01PM:Now taking the stage, senior Vice President Vic Gondtra
11:58AM:Voice over PA: “We should begin in 2 minutes.”
11:54AM:Five minute warning. Get your popcorn ready!
11:50AM:Here’s what we see on stage: a Life Fitness exercise bike, a main speaking podium, a podium left of center with a video-based projector and a few Apple laptops, and a right of center podium with two Android devices hooked up to speakers.
11:43AM:We’ve found out seats! There is a great buzz in the room. Google VP Andy Rubin is a few rows in front of us, and we’re ready to rock. T-minus 17 minutes!
