[News]10 Biggest Announcements from Google I/O 2017

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2017-05-19 22:25

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Edited by Rudraksh at 2017-05-19 19:57

 
So, Google just concluded its annual developer conference, I/O 2017. And here's a recap of the 10 Major announcements that were made.

#1. Android Surpasses 2 Billion monthly active devices

 
CEO Sundar Pichai revealed at the start of the keynote that there are now 2 billion monthly active android devices. Which include phones, tablets, wearables, TVs and all the other devices that use Android.

#2. Google Assistant can see and understand the world around you - Thanks to Google Lens

 
Google Assistant will now use your device's camera to analyse your surroundings and display the relevant content. So now you can see a restaurant's rating when pointing your device's camera at the storefront.

#3. Google Assistant comes to iOS

 
Just in case, you dont like Siri, (which you wont )
You can try Google Assistant. It will be available as a standalone app.

#4. Google Home turns into a phone

 
Like Amazon, Google is turning its smart speaker into a mobile phone. In the coming months, all Home owners will be able to place free calls to the United States and Canada. By default, Google uses a private number for this feature — but you’ve got the option of tying it to your own mobile phone number.

#5. Google Home gets way more useful

Google’s smart speaker was already one of the best ones on the market, but the company announced a suite of other new features and updates beyond calling to Home that make it much more powerful. Home is now going to be able to control HBO Now, Hulu, SoundCloud, Deezer, and more. Even better, Google is opening up access to Home’s Bluetooth radio, meaning you can treat it just like any other Bluetooth speaker.

#6. Google Photos adds Books and effortless sharing

Google Photos is getting a slew of great additions. The app will now recommend that you share photos you’ve taken with people that it recognizes as being in the shot. Google calls this Suggested Sharing. It’s also introducing Shared Libraries, which allow families to collectively add images to a central collection more easily. But Google is emphasizing control, here: you can share your entire photo library, share only from a certain date, or share photos that include certain things like your kids.

#7. Google Standalone VR headsets coming soon

 
Google’s VR ambitions are expanding beyond Daydream’s current form, which involves strapping your smartphone to your face. The company announced that upcoming headsets from partners including HTC and Lenovo won’t require a smartphone or PC to power the user’s VR experience. You just put it on and it works. The headsets track virtual space with something Google calls “WorldSense,” powered by technology from its Tango augmented reality system. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear exactly when this standalone vision will become reality. Google just offers a vague “coming soon.”

#8. The first Android O beta is available now

 
Google is launching its preview program for Android O, and the first beta is being released today. We’re still in the pretty early days of Android O’s development, so you shouldn’t install this preview on your everyday smartphone. But if you’re dying to check out the big new features — improved notifications, picture-in-picture, and more — you can enroll a compatible Pixel or Nexus device and begin testing out Android O.

#9. Android Go - Android for entry-level devices

 
Bringing the “next billion” users online with smartphone technology has been a major focus for Pichai since he took over as Google CEO in 2015. Today, the company announced one way it’s going to try to reach that goal: Android Go, a version of the mobile operating system built for entry-level devices that’s optimized for being used in data-restricted environments.

#10. Google's new AI chip could turn the clould into its next Android.

Pichai was quick to hammer home the point that his company’s future depends on artificial intelligence, specifically the machine learning techniques that let algorithms learn on their own and improve over time. This technology underpins everything from its Assistant and search to Google Photos and the AlphaGo system. During the opening remarks of the I/O keynote today, Pichai announced Google’s next-generation Tensor Processing Unit, a specially designed chip for machine learning that works on the company’s TensorFlow platform.



Source: The Verge