Yesterday we told you about the updates to Google Maps that were announced during the keynote at Google I/O. Today we're going to give a quick run-down on everything else that was announced, from new Android Developer tools to a music subscription service. The Keynote itself can be found on YouTube and all of the sessions can be found here. Enough wasting time, let's dive right in!
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“Nexified” Samsung Galaxy S4
We'll start with one of the more simple announcements, that Google will be launching an unlocked, stock Android running version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 that will be sold directly by Google through the Play Store. This is the answer to some Android users' prayers, particularly those who wanted more storage and LTE in an Android phone that had the pure Google experience. The only downside is that it will retail for $649, but that's to be expected for an unsubsidized phone with these specs.
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Play Music All Access
One of the biggest announcements of the day was the new music subscription service for Google Play Music. Google Play Music already offered a digital music locker service for up to 20,000 of your own songs and a music store like iTunes, but the subscription service takes it to a whole 'nother level.
With the subscription service folks, will be able to access Google's full library of music and their own personal music all from the same app. The service will cost $9.99/month, but if you sign up before June 30 for the free 30-day trial. the subscription will be discounted to $7.99/month.
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Google Hangouts
Google Hangouts is a new app directly from Google to replace the Google Talk chat app. It looks great, but it still doesn't deliver on a unified messaging platform. Still, it's a nice looking app to message other folks that use G+. The app has permissions for receiving, reading and sending SMS messages but it doesn't appear to be using it at the moment, and also has no support for Google Voice either. It's possible this could change with Android 4.3.
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New Google Services
We didn't see the announcement of the next Android OS, but Google did launch a ton of new tools, services, and APIs that are sure to please many developers (which is the type of person Google I/O is geared toward). Updates to Google Cloud Messenger, synchronized notifications (finally!), more battery-friendly APIs (everybody wants longer battery life), app translations within the Android Developer console, and perhaps the best announcement: Android Studio. Android Studio is an integrated development environment where Android Developers will be able to view their code in real-time, visualize how their code and actual app looks across multiple platforms, among many other things. It's a great new tool for Android developers.
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Google Play Game Services
This was leaked before I/O, but was officially launched yesterday. With Google Play Games comes clod-based saves so now Android users can pick up the same game from their tablet that they were playing on their phone, along with the capability to see new achievements and leader boards. Google also announced a multiplayer feature that will be hosted on Google services using the Google+ sign-in to create games with friends and others from around the world.
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Googe Play for Education
Google also announced a new education initiative. It seems that Google will be working with schools to get more tablets and technology into classrooms for students. They're launching a new education specific store that will be able to push grade-specific apps to all devices in a classroom or school, and are working with developers to get more and more apps approved and ready to go by this fall. This will be something to watch in the future.
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Google Search
Google launched an update to the Google Search app that added more functionality to Google Now, with the new abilities to add reminders, add public transit updates and preview multimedia that a person might like. On the Chrome side, handsfree voice search will be coming soon to Chroma and Chrome OS.
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Chrome Updates
Google talked about how Chrome is continually being optimized, highlighting new image formats (WebP), Javascript optimization, and the new data optimization tweaks for Chrome Beta for Android that can help reduce data usage by as much as 50%.
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Google+ Updates
One of the largest, easiest-to-see improvements announced at Google I/O was the overhaul of Google+. They announced a ton of new photo features and a new, updated layout for the site. The new photo features are pretty impressive, with the “cloud” providing photo enhancements and choosing your “best” photos to highlight. It's really something you need to see. One can only assume that Google hopes this will help convert more and more users to Google+, as it still lags behind Facebook in monthly users and time spent on the social network.
There you have it folks, just a short summary of highlights from the Google I/O keynote yesterday. We'd also like to mention that the new Google Maps has gone live for some. We signed up yesterday, received an email to try the preview this afternoon. So far it's pretty awesome. We'll be adding our update to yesterday's post so check it out.