Allo is Google’s new messaging app, another attempt from the company to take on the massive messaging space.
Featuring a new mode called whisper-shout, which lets you reduce or increase the size of the chat text before sending, Indicating your intent for the message.
The new app uses Google’s intelligent machine learning, to auto-predict replies and reduces typing by several times.
The Google Assistant sits within the messaging app and helps you do things like book movies, or reserve a table using open table. Things for which you would usually need to leave the app.
You can also have a one on one with the Google Assistant, asking questions and playing games with the virtual messaging buddy.
Allo will also include an incognito mode, which will encrypt messages end to end for the users.
Google at Google I/O started today has launched the Google Assistant, merging many Google technologies, including “Okay Google”.
Sundar Pichai showed off the assistant at the Google I/O, with real-time results and a conversationalist response system. The idea is to help in follow up question and to do tasks that you have wanted your virtual assistants to do.
The assistant will work across devices and Google strengths, at home, at work or in the car. A device called Google Home will work as a home management system. The unit will be launched later this year with the customizable bottom. It has a wireless speaker, but it does a lot more than that, as it contains the Google Assistant inbuilt.
It will do basics, like set alarms, make lists and reminders, but will also control various home network devices, like Nest Equipment, lights etc.
Later on you will be able to order groceries or flowers, or even have the living room ready before you reach home, with the right music, lighting, and temprature along with your home delivery food order.
Mixed up with the Google Assistant, serches will allow follow up questions and a single one line conversation with a more natural reply. “Skynet” Anyone?
Although the information was already leaked ahead of the time, the final announcement has been made. Talking at the Google I/O conference the company has taken wraps off the next major release of Google Maps for Android and iOS. The new design targeted at a personalized approach to the maps use, sports a rating system and offers experience from various retail merchants.
Like a friend drawing you a map to her favorite restaurant, with only the roads and landmarks you need to get there, the new Google Maps instantly changes to highlight information that matters most.
And the more you interact with the map, the better it gets. When you set your Home and Work locations, star favorite places, write reviews and share with friends, Google Maps will build even more useful maps with recommendations for places you might enjoy.
Calling the desktop version a treasure chest of “immersive imagery”, Google says the redesigned map itself is now the user interface.
Easier to find the best local places In addition to a customized map, we’ve also made it easier to uncover the best local gems. Search results are labeled directly on the map with brief place descriptions and icons that highlight business categories and other useful information – like restaurants that are recommended by your Google+ friends. Info cards provide helpful information such as business hours, and ratings and reviews so you can quickly decide where to eat, drink and play.
Of course, no map would be complete without amazing images for exploring the world. The new carousel gathers all Google Maps imagery in one spot enabling you to fly through cities, walk canyon trails, climb mountains, and even swim the oceans. And on a WebGL-enabled browser, like Google Chrome, the carousel is also where you’ll find the Earth view which directly integrates the beautiful 3D experience from Google Earth into the new maps.
Check out the Google Maps Blog below for more details, and if you are already on board, click the maps preview link to signup for an invite.
Just before the Google I/O event the sign-up page for “the new Google Maps” briefly went live showing off atleast one of the things Google has planned for the mega yearly event. Droid-Life managed to grab some screenshots, indicating that the company is working on a smarter Google Maps, which will show the cartography based on the information you are looking for. Users will use a “smarter search box” to highlight just the “things that matter most”.
Ground Transportation, Flights and even Google Earth has been integrated directly into the main Google Maps, making for a more seamless approach towards the mapping use.
Google at the I/O Conference has announced that the usage of their web browser Chrome has almost doubled since last year and now tops 310 Million users. 1 TB of data is downloaded daily by these users, and according to Google the speedy browser has saved users 13 years of total browsing time.
While the whole world was skeptical, Google just went ahead and put Chrome mobile on iOS. Both iPad and iPhone users will get the app, either with incognito browsing, syncing and that unique tabbed browsing interface intact.
With the restrictions on the Apple App Store the Chrome webkit will not be allowed on iOS, but either way the download is now live!
Google has launched their first media player along with their new OS and Tablet at the I/O conference. Powered by an OMAP 4460 CPU. the Nexus Q is Google’s small, sphere-shaped device that will work with the Nexus 7 tablet and other Android devices to stream media from the cloud. The Player has 1 GB of Ram and 16GB Flash Storage.
Nexus Q streams your favorite entertainment directly from the cloud to your living room. Just use the Google Play and YouTube apps on your Android phone or tablet to surf an ocean of music, TV, movies and videos, and Nexus Q will play it all on the biggest speakers and screen in the house. The Nexus Q will stream your music from the cloud or your device, It will also playback YouTube content and movies directly on a Large Screen TV connected to it.
Multiple users can access and change the streaming media at a party, all they need is an Android Device, and a connection to the same WiFi Network. Get ready to fight over what music plays at the party.
Nexus Q has a audiophile-grade amplifier built in so you can hook your speakers right up, or use an optical or HDMI cable to connect Nexus Q to your AV receiver or HDTV. Once you’re playing, you can control the volume from your phone or tablet, or simply by turning the top half of Nexus Q. Just touch the top LED to mute the sound completely, Ingenious.
The 32 LEDs that ring Nexus Q shift and change color in time to your music. Choose your favorite effect and put your Nexus Q where it can be seen, and touched. You can connect multiple Nexus Qs to fill your house with sound. Select the devices you want to play on from within the Google Play apps or YouTube.
Google has officially taken the curtain down from what is the next big mobile OS for the company. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean brings to Android what ICS missed out on. The biggest change according to Google is something they like to call “project butter” which now allows the the whole interface to run at 60fps. While the difference in speed is a few milliseconds, you will notice the difference when a Jelly Bean device is placed next to a ICS device.
The home screen has been tweaked, adding features like dynamically resizing widgets,that resize and move unwanted apps and icons out of the way. The camera app, which was already a highlight of ICS, has gotten even better in 4.1. Now, the gallery is slickly integrated, allowing you to quickly pull up the photo you just took with a swipe to the left. Something like what you would see in the Windows Phone Camera app.
Deleting images is as simple as swiping a pic off the screen. The unique undo button allows you to recover a photo you might have accidentally deleted. Google Android Jelly Bean 4.1 brings something that most smartphone users have asked for in the past year, voice to text without data. The language model in Jelly Bean adapts over time, and the keyboard even guesses what the next word will be before you’ve started typing it. With improved text-to-speech capabilities, voice typing on Android is even better; it works even when you don’t have a data connection, so you can type with your voice everywhere you go.
Jelly Bean also bring advanced Accessibility to the mix, With Jelly Bean, blind users can use ‘Gesture Mode’ to reliably navigate the UI using touch and swipe gestures in combination with speech output. Jelly Bean also adds support for accessibility plugins to enable external Braille input and output devices via USB and Bluetooth.
Taking note from the Galaxy S3 the new Jelly Bean OS for Android brings Android Beam to every smartphone running it, with just a simple tap, in addition to sharing contacts, web pages, YouTube videos, directions, and apps. Just touch two NFC-enabled Android devices back-to-back, then tap to beam whatever’s on the screen to your friend. Instantly pair your Android phone or tablet to Bluetooth devices like headsets or speakers that support the Simple Secure Pairing standard by just tapping them together – no more syncing or searching required.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean also Improves Google Search on the phone OS, it has a new look-and-feel, and has faster and more natural Voice Search.Predictive input lets you select your search criteria, before you even ask. The new Knowledge Graph is used to show you search results in a richer way. It’s easier to quickly get answers and explore and browse search results.
With JB 4.1 and the new “Google Now” tells you today’s weather before you start your day, how much traffic to expect before you leave for work, when the next train will arrive as you’re standing on the platform, or your favorite team’s score while they’re playing. The Knowledge database build around your likes and wants and build your phone to become more and more personal over time.
Looks like Google is planning to release a series of Nexus devices this year, including some tablets, on Google Android 5.0. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google is planning to partner with a variety of OEMs (in order to have up to five Pure Google Nexus devices available at once. All of these devices will ship with Android 5.0 Jelly bean
This move is likely to be announced at the next Google I/O conference.
Google just announced movie rentals in the Android Market at its I/O conference. You can choose b/w thousands of movies and download and view them with a single click. “Pinning” mirrors the experience with apps and books, you can select it on your PC and download to the device in the background for offline viewing.Devices with Android 2.2 or higher will support this service and it should be made available to everyone in the coming weeks.Tablets however will get this service in the new 3.1 OS upgrade.
Renting works in a simple manner 30 days to watch the downloaded movie and 24 hour window once you start watching. Prices range from 48 Rs. upwards and about 280 Rs. for High Definition popular movies.
Google has just officially announced that they are working on the next build of Android that works together on all devices. In their own words “One OS that runs everywhere.” This OS will adapt to its device identifying the smartphone from a tablet and customizing itself to fit the bill properly. The launch of ICS is scheduled for Q4 2011.
