Google I/O 2013 kicked out today, opening with a 3 hour keynote highlighting new products and improvements coming to the Android and Chrome platforms from Google.
Developers
- Android Studio – a new IDE for Android which is powered by IntelliJ IDEA. Available today as free download.
- Google Play services 3.1 – adds support for four new APIs.
- Google Play games services – Google+ social features into your games. Support for achievements, leaderboards and matchmaking.
- Location APIs – allowing apps to add location and context awareness.
- Google Cloud Messaging Improvements – bidirectional XMPP messaging between server and devices, plus synced notifications.
- Cross-Platform Single Sign On – Allows users to sign in once on all their devices using Google+.
- Google Play Developer Console – new features in console
- App translations
- Revenue Graphs
- Alpha and beta testing
- Staged Rollouts
- Optimisation tips
- Google Analytics
- Referral tracking
- Google App Engine to support PHP and Cloud Storage, targeting Amazon EC2 customers
Google Play
- Google Play website redesign
- Google Play Music All Access – Subscription based music streaming. It provides unlimited access to music for $9.99/month (or $7.99/month before 30th June) Currently US only, but coming to other countries very soon.
- You can combine your library of music stored in the cloud with Google’s streaming library.
- Google Play Music website redesign supporting new All Access service.
- Updated Google Play Music Android app supporting new All Access service.
- Google Play for Education – Google Play can now manage mass deployment of apps to education tablets with payments handled by school purchase orders.
- Google Play Books app updated with a new user interface and support for cloud-syncing ePubs and PDFs. You can now upload ePUB and PDF documents via the web, and they will sync to all your devices.
Google+
- Complete redesign of Google+ stream.
- New Google+ Photo features
- Can now pick your best photos from each library, known as Highlights
- Google+ is able to auto-enhance all your photos
- Google+ is able to make your photos “Awesome” by adding HDR, making people smile in photos, turning your photos into GIFs.
- Hangouts – a new unified messaging service. It supports single or group text chat with pictures and supports video chat. It is available within Google+ and Gmail, as well as an Android app (which replaces Google Talk), iOS app and Chrome extension.
- Hangouts app coming to Glass
Search
- Google Voice Search coming to Chrome and Chrome OS. Just say “Ok, Google…”
- Google Search now recognises hot words, such as “show me photos from New York” or “when does my flight leave”
- Google Search app updated supporting new cards. Location-based Reminders, details on music, TV, books, video games and public transit.
Maps
- All-new Google Maps for the web. New user interface with benefits from WebGL technologies. Integrating Google Earth into Google Maps, with no plugin required.
- Redesigned Google Maps Android app and all-new iPad app coming this summer.
Gmail
- Gmail messages now have action boxes, which allows you to take certain actions on an email message. For instance, a email message about an event can be added to your Google Calendar, or an email about a flight will display an action box about that flight.
- US Gmail users can now send money as an attachment using Google Wallet. Furthermore Google Wallet is now supported on HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 2.
Google TV
- Google TV updated to Android 4.2.2, Chrome is now a separate app. Users will gain the benefits of Android Jelly Bean, plus improved updating system making updates quicker for OEMs. Chrome is now a separate and can benefit from a six-week update cycle, plus the browser now supports hardware-based content protection for DRM content.
- New Google TV hardware to be released later this year.
YouTube
- YouTube to support VP9 video streaming
- YouTube for Google TV has been updated with a new home screen UI and support for paid subscriptions.
Android
- 900 million devices activated
- 48 billion apps downloaded
- Samsung Galaxy S4 with stock Android and guarantee updates. Available from Google Play Store from 26th June for $649
Chrome
- 750 million active users – World’s most-popular browser
- Data Compression coming to Chrome for Mobile coming weeks.
You can watch to full 3 and half hour keynote on YouTube, including Larry Page’s Q&A session.