All eyes were on Google yesterday at it’s I/O developers conference yesterday, where there was much speculation about the arrival of a music service and future developments of the Android mobile OS.
On both counts observers were not disappointed, as the search giant unveiled a vision of a single operating system operating across platforms, from smartphones to tablets and even TVs.
Keynote
Yesterday’s Android-centric keynote speech looked at the latest version of Homeycomb (version 3.1, available now) for tablets and 2.4 Ice Cream Sandwich for smartphones – the latter due for release in Q4 this year.
Honeycomb 3.1 sees a number of performance tweaks, as well as a wider array of widgets and USB host devices like keyboards, games controller and external hard drives.
Ice Cream Sandwich was shown to have additions like peer-to-peer networking and a an mobile payments solution based on NFC codes.
At the presentation it was outlined how Android could be deployed over devices running Google TV and that Sony, Logitech, Vizio and Samsung wouold release Android TVs this year.
Music
As for music there was little surprise when Google Music Beta was unveiled. A system for organising music users already have on their devices, Google Music Beta allows users to upload and manage their music in the cloud, for playback on any supported devices. In an interesting twist, it was noted that no major label has given permission for its content to be used in this way.
Movie rentals also made their debut. Operating on a model similar to the iTunes store, movies will have a 30-day expiration date from time of renting, or 24 hours from when the film is first played. Costs per title are also slightly lower, with back catalogue films available for as little as $1.99.
Unlike Apple TV, which relies on a streaming-only model, films can be downloaded to any Android device for continuous viewing (say, on long haul flights where there is no available connection).
Google I/O continues today.
Niall Kitson
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