Google I/O 2015: All the action from San Francisco

So Google I/O 2015 is underway, with a quite a few announcements to chew on from that keynote. Check out our live blog below for all the details, or stay tuned to dna SciTech for a summary later today. And remember, newest updates are at the top. 
 

A shoutout to Project Loon, giant baloons that provide 10Mbps speeds to a massive area and stay in the air for about 100 days. Google says they're partnering with companies like Telefonica and Telestra.

Pichai is back on stage now, talking about self-driving cars. "Our cars have covered over a million miles without causing a single accident."

Google's driver-less car prototypes have driven a million miles. Here's what they see. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #io15 pic.twitter.com/hVd6dyxbPd — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

And yes, YouTube is going to be the player for these videos. Not surprising, considering how it already supports 360-degree videos.

YouTube will support Jump-created VR video, starting in a few months. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/0jWGB4EOmj — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

With 16 GoPro's on a rig tho, I assume that'll be expensive as hell. Not exactly a public access product, it'll probably be better to build.

Better news. GoPro is going to build and sell Jump-ready camera rigs. 

There's a camera rig, an assembler, and a special player. You need 16 cameras for the rig but, if you have them, Google is opening out the plans to the public thiis summer. 

Jump: Capture VR video and share in Google Cardboard. GoPro to build the rig. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/hGaQwLoS7q — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

Bavor talking about something called Jump. It's a project to let users make their own VR experience. 

"Hundreds of classes around the world have already gone on Expeditions. Other teachers can sign up online if they want to join."

Google Expeditions is a new project they have for VR in teaching. a number of Google Cardboard devices, a tablet that they're all synchronised to, and the teacher can just tap to launch the entire class into a VR trip to anywhere.

And just like last year, everyone at the event gets one. And in a curious trend at this conference, the Cardboard SDK is now compatible with iOS too.

"The old Cardboard was great but phones got a lot bigger this last year." So now there's a new Cardboard design, with a cardboard button instead of a magnet.

The new carboard now: 1. Takes 3 steps to assemble 2. Fits 6-inch phones 3. Has a better button 4. Now supports iOS pic.twitter.com/LvlYGPZ29O — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

"Today, there's more than 1 million Google Cardboard users in the world.

YES!!! It's finally about VR. Clay Bavor, VP of Product Management, is up on stage for that.

A famiy-friendly section, with only apps that are marked with the "Family-friendly star". Also character badges to let you search for all apps and movies with "Star Wars" or "Spiderman" or "Dora the Explorer."

The Google Play Store will now have a 'family star' for showing family-rated apps. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #io15 pic.twitter.com/jNEFZka6R3 — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

Personalisation and customisation for the Play Store now. The Play Store will organise apps on your home page according to your habits and searches. And searches are more intuitive, eg. searching "shopping" will bring up fashion and coupon apps. 

Ellie Powers, Product Manager of Google Play, on stage now. "With more than a billion users on Play, the ecosystem is incredibly diverse."

Developer home pages are also a thing now. A company description, as well as all the apps from them on one page.

Google seems to be applying their analytics to the Play store. Developers can, through the admin page, see how many people look at the app, not just downloads.

Introducing Universal App Campaigns, where you tell Google how much you're willing to spend on a marketing campaign, and the right ads will appear in the right places.

Cloud Messaging, which handles 70 billion messages daily, is now open to iOS as well. 

App indexing allows devs to insert app results into Google Search results. And it's free.

Cloud Test Lab, based off the company they bought Appurify. It'll let you run your app on the top 20 rated devices through the cloud, give you crash reports, logs, and even screenshots.

Android Studio 1.3, with full C++ debugging support. Also Polymer 1.0, which has easy UI building, with drag and drop elements. 

He's talking to all the developers in attendance now, and how Google is helping them create better apps, faster. 

Jason Titus, Director of Developer Products on stage.

New buffs to Google Maps. Apparently we have the Indian railway transit system support in Google Maps. And Maps offline will still have autocorrect, still let you search for places, and will still give you turn by turn navigation directions. 

Google Maps, including turn-by-turn voice directions, to be available offline. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/mgty3bhmCk — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

A special mention for India and it's slow bandwith speeds (Hallelujah). Pages load only text with basic placeholders for pictures when the phone detects a slow internet connection. You can also save a page offline for later perusal. 

Google is customising search result pages to make them faster and lighter, starting in Indonesia. 4x faster load time, 80% lesser data used. 

The optimized search result page loads 4x quicker, with 80% lower data usage. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/aAx55UkgQY — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

"We're taking many products and rethinking them where speed, size and connectivity are issues to contend with."

Three OEMs launched phones in India last year, and now they're in Nepal, Bangladesh, The Philippines, and Turkey.

She's mentioning Android One, the effort to make good quality smartphones available for an affordable price in developing nations. 

Jen Fitzpatrick on stage talking about reaching out to the next billion users. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/WHaAJSmCwR — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

Jen Fitzpatrick on stage now to talk about Google Translate

And starting today, everyone will be able to store unlimited photos and videos for free. 16MP photos and 1080p videos. Huge applause. ANd it's going to be available for Android, iOS,and photos.google.com later today

Share photos on photos.google.com. Whoever you send it to can view it without needing an app. 

Swipe left to open the photos assistant with animation and edit features. And a new selection mechanism. Instead of pecking at each photo one by one, just click, hold, and drag.

That's insane. He just did a search for "snowstorm in Toronto" and it found him the pictures. My brain is flipping out.

Oh wow. We're seeing a demo of how  machine learning improves the new organisation ability. With absolutely no tags, we're looking at Sabharwal's photos grouped by people, places and themes. That's insane

Google Photos auto-organizes photos by face, location etc. All privately. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/06SCA3nfhh — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

There's a home for all your photos. Everything in one place, from all your signed in devices. You see them across days. But just pinch to see them across months, and moreso across years too. Much better. that actually looks much easier to view. 

Google Photos: Now 'view pinch' to see photos by day, month, year. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/mDylJeu3Oa

— dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

Ah yes, he's talking about how we have too many photos and no way to organise them. It's the New Google Photos. 

We're looking at pictures of his daughter graduating preschool. I'm sure there's a point here. 

Anil Sabharwal on stage now, Director of Photos. 

Another demo shows that despite mispronouncing a dish named Spanakotiropita (Oh cmon, that's just unfair) Google Now recognises it and displays search results.

'Now on Tap' extracts context from apps and provides information and guidance. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/FyPEHfPwbh — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

Our demo shows that you can be listening to Skrillex (Oh God why?) and simply say "OK Google" to ask a question in the middle of it. Or when looking at an email that says, "Want to watch that Tomorrowland movie?" you tap on the movie name and hold the home button to immediately display a description of the movie, as well as ratings. 

Now on Tap in Android M. Intelligent answers to contextual questions within apps. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #io15 pic.twitter.com/5bcRbLiqAq — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

"Working on a new capability to assist you whenever you need it. We're calling it Now on Tap."

Strange. I just spoke to another AI developer today who said that our progress will only be made by understanding context. But more on that later.

Aparna Chennapragada, DIrector of Google Now on stage. "To assist you, we need to e able to do 3 things. Understand context, bring you answers proactively, and help you take action."

Now, Google Now. Aparna Chennapragada take the stage. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/6mSPAJUp5Y — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

Talking about the beefed up Google Now. "Machine Learning and Deep Neural Nets are making Google's voice search queries smarter."

Any Android device will detect a Brillo/Weave IoT device, with the same setup process. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #io15 pic.twitter.com/GKt9wccaks — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

 

Quite the picture Pichai paints. "Write a recipe on your smartphone, and have your smart oven preheat to the temperature."

Talking about Weave now. It's a framework for your devices to talk to your phone as well as the cloud. "A certification program through Weave."

Announced: Weave. The programming language for the Internet of Things. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/BYNXnDm2ZA — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

And there's the announcement for Android Brillo. Brillo is a scaled down version of Android, built specifically for low power, low processing devices, like smart locks.

Sundar Pichai back on stage. Talking about connecting parking meters and everyday items. OMG it's the Internet of Things. Finally!

Sundar Pichai back on stage talking Internet of Things. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/bOVp3PCHTH — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

More app control from the smartwatch now. Change your channel on Spotify, ping your lost car with the Ford app, even adjust your home's air conditioning before you get there.

Android Wear analyzes golf swings, Shazam a song from the watch. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/8cW8AINbcI — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

Seven Android Wear watch variations present today. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/B3F9lqrE0S — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

 

Next up, Android Wear updates. On stage is David Singleton. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/122UUKwiKf — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

 

New added drop down menu for all the volume meters. 

Apparently Google has also been working on a new Type-C USB. It's reversible, charges 3 to 5 times faster, and you can even use your cable to have your phone charge another phone. Woah.

Something new now, they're calling it device "dozing". Android M will incorporate movement sensors that will let your phone or tablet go into a sort of hibernate mode to save battery if it's been unmoved for a long time. Lasts upto two times longer Burke says.

Android M has new Doze feature: detects motion to learn if the device is used. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/cenEw71P7o — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

Since fingerprint scanners are gettign standardised, Android M will allow fingerprint authentication for Android Pay. And this will all work for in-app purchases as well.

Android M now standardizes the phone's fingerprint sensor for authorization. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/xDxKQqKzIl — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

Onto Android Pay now. You use a virtual account number to pay, that's created whenever you save a new card. Just unlock your phone and tap. 

Onto the web experience now. We're taking about Chrome custom tabs. Basically, instead of having apps like Pinterest opening a web page in their own browser (which can at time be poorly designed) it opens a web page in a custom built Chrome page, that also has custom buttons and options made for the app. 

They're changing app permissions so that you don't have to agree to all the permissions requested by an app to be able to use it. You can agree to, say, only location but not camera, and still use the app. And you can revoke permissions later too. I personally love this new model. and it doesn't affect your update.

App permissions simplified. Permissions asked only at use, not at install. http://t.co/6aeMaTYAjH #dnaTech #io15 pic.twitter.com/UA5MoHTD27 — dna (@dna) May 28, 2015

"The central them of M is improving the core experience."

VP of Engineering Dave Burk on stage now, to talk about Android M

HBO NOW is cming to Google Play and Chromecast

"Android is evolving for mobile, and we're taking it beyond as well."

"This is the moment of mobile, and the smartphone"

And Senior VP Sundar Pichai is on stage. We're streaming in 6 continents he says

And we're off! 270 degree screens around the room showing us various comets, stars, and the like from our solar system......Strange.....