The Google conference kicked off Wednesday and on the very first day of the event, the company has swayed the developers with amazing new software and hardware launches.
Meanwhile, the company has announced that it will be gifting Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus Q home streaming device, as well as a Galaxy Nexus smartphone to 6,000 developers. The products will cost almost $850 to buy at retail!
A quite impressive gift indeed but looking at the superb list of products that the Internet giant has already launched on the first day and many more that are expected to come in next two days, developers would have anyways given their heart away to Google.
Of all the products that are launched so far, check out the top 5:
1. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Google released the next version of its Android OS and following the trend of naming its OS after various desserts in alphabetical order, the new OS has been named as Jelly Bean.
Android 4.1 or Jelly Bean will now enhance the speed and smoothness of the phone. CNET says VSync and Triple Buffering that are provided in the new Android OS will to enhance the touch responsiveness.
Other impressive features of the new OS include offline voice typing, auto arranging of icons, and a predictive keyboard. Moreover, some tweaks have been made to the camera app, revamped notification, a Siri-like feature called Google Now and Android Beam have also been introduced in the new operating system.
The update will be available over-the-air to Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, and Motorola Xoom in mid-July.
2. Google Nexus 7 Tablet
Google on its first day of I/O conference has unveiled a 7-inch tablet, named Nexus 7.
Built by Asustek, the latest Nexus tablet comes with features like 7-inch 1280 x 800 IPS display, quad-core Tegra 3 processor, Android's newly launched 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, 1.2-megapixel camera, 1GB of RAM, Near Field Communication technology and a 4,325mAh battery. The tablet has dimension of 7.82 x4.72x.41-inches (HxWxD) and weighs only 0.75 pounds.
Nexus 7 can also connect to its Google's online offerings like YouTube and Google Play.
"Nexus 7 is an ideal device for reading books. The form factor and weight are just right," said Chris Yerga, Google director of engineering for Android.
Google will start shipping the tablet next month at $199.
3. Google Nexus Q
Google has announced its first home entertainment device called Nexus Q. The new device, powered by OMAP4460 processor, will stream media content such as HD movies, YouTube clips, music and Google TV content from the cloud and personal collection to TV and speaker systems stream.
The Nexus Q, tagged as the world's first "social streaming device," is a spherical unit that comes with a 25 W amp, 1 GB RAM and 16 GB of flash memory and 32 RBG LEDs that keep the machine glow with a stream of circling multicolored light.
Micro HDMI (Type D), TOSLink Optical audio (S/PDIF), Ethernet, Banana jack speaker output, and a Micro AB USB can be connected.
The Nexus Q will be available in mid-July in the US for $299.
4. Project Glass
Google's Project Glass glasses are the ones you always fantasized about. The futuristic, Internet-connected glasses are, however, for real, announced company co-founder Sergey Brin. Launched on the first day of the event, prototypes of the glass will be sold to developers for $1,500 and will not be available for public now.
The magic glass comprises of a tiny camera, display screen and processor fitted over the upper corner of a pair of glasses. The glass displays information, transmits video or still images before a user's eyes.
"This is new technology and we really want you to shape it," Brin said at the Google I/O conference for computer programmers in San Francisco. "We want to get it out into the hands of passionate people as soon as possible."
5. Google+ Updates
Google+, which was launched only a year back and which enjoys membership of about 250 million registered users, is getting a major revamp. According to the presentation at the Google's I/O conference, Google+ will have its very own app for tablets. The app will help users send invites to friends for events, share photos and more.
While Google's own social networking platform is lagging much behind Facebook in terms of user base, the new app will give a nice boost to Google+.
The tablet application will provide live updates and an exclusive API called Google+ History. History will let user post their past statuses, updates, purchases, pictures, and more to their Google+ timeline from a variety of social and mobile services, VentureBeat reports. These updates will be displayed in tiles format and will be called "moments."
