What Google TV needs is a makeover, and a splashy re-launch. It needs to shows us why it’s different now, why it’s better. Google needs to convince users, developers, and manufacturers that the Android they love on cell phones can work on the big screen in their living room as well. Then Google needs to prove it, fast.
David Pierce: “Google TV: Silent But No Forgotten at I/O 2013”
Foot-dragging on Google TV seems like such a wasted opportunity, but I’m afraid it will take Apple’s long-rumored big TV move for Google to make any real effort.
Google I/O Master Speculation Post (Updated)
This year’s Google I/O is shaping up to be a monster. With Android, Chrome, Google TV, Google Glass, Motorola, YouTube, Music, and all of Google’s various apps, there’s a ton of potential for significant updates and changes come mid-May. Here’s a list of all the I/O rumors I’ve heard so far, and a few extra, roughly by certainty:
Follwing Facebook, Twitter Is Exploring New Ways For Android Users To Discover Tweets
This is exactly why Facebook Home is good thing for Android (though maybe not for Google and Google+ in particular).
Futuristic User Interface 01:
Cyberpunk UI and Huds from Anime movies
Fantastic series of sci-fi UIs from various movies and animes
Reblogged from visualpunker with 1,380 notes / #ui #sci fi #sci-fi #HUD #future #tech #gif
These are the best times we’ve ever had in search. I have done this for 22 years, and I’ve been at Google for 12 years, so I should know. This is the most exciting time – every morning I come into work more excited than ever. Strap in. It’s all happening in our lifetimes.
Amit Singhal on Google’s ongoing quest to build a Star Trek computer (via Slate)
Worldwide PC shipments totaled 76.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13), down -13.9% compared to the same quarter in 2012 and worse than the forecast decline of -7.7%, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. The extent of the year-on-year contraction marked the worst quarter since IDC began tracking the PC market quarterly in 1994. The results also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year shipment declines.
The Windows 8 experiment is not working. All eyes on “Blue.” (via BGR)
I actually think this is really good for Android. Most app developers put most of their energy into iPhone.
Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook Home.
He’s not entirely wrong. The HTC First is apparently running stock Android underneath and it’s got most of the Google apps (Play Store, Now, Gmail, YouTube, Maps, etc…not sure about G+).
I’m expecting more changes to lockscreen widgets in Key Lime Pie too, so if Facebook Home helps to popularize those, it’s another net win for Android as a whole.
Designing for iOS first is harming mobile app development
Ian G. Clifton, a developer for A.R.O., argues that building for the App Store first means many of Android’s best features are not utilized to their fullest.
Amazon to acquire Goodreads
I am distinctly less willing to give reviews to Amazon than Goodreads. Then again, maybe Amazon/Goodreads will actually start suggesting useful things now.
Besides the undulating beauty of starling murmurations, they display astonishing coordination. Huge flocks are immediately responsive to whatever movement cues occur within their dense broods. Each throng seems to be governed by a group mind and appears to be acting as a single organism, so quickly do they shift direction and flow into new shapes. Small clouds of starlings charge onto the scene from offstage as if bent on collision, then integrate perfectly and instantly with the larger formation. Sinews of movement spin off from the main clutch yet remain connected elastically by tendrils that eventually snap them gracefully back to the fold. A sense of unification commands the entire performance.
Brad Hill: “Tech is a flock of starlings”
Google Crawler that gave the system ability to make lightening fast connections and also bring up recommendations. It is one of the main reasons it cannot be open sourced. The systems is too intertwined with Google’s search and other infrastructure to be sold as well.
Google Reader creator Chris Wetherell (via GigaOm)
Motorola Removes Almost All Moto Bloat in Jelly Bean for DROID RAZR, Goes With Stock Google Apps Instead
Good news for stock Android/Google lovers.
2013 will certainly be a significant milestone for mobile devices, smartphones and beyond. It’s likely to be the first year in which tablets out-ship notebooks in the US. And in the coming years, this will lead to a confluence of high-end tablets and ultra-mobile notebooks as the world figures out how these devices co-exist, blend, hybridize, and/or merge.
David Kanter with a crazy deep dive into the current state of the mobile CPU industry on Ars
Chromebook Pixel is Google’s play to go premium, but are we ready?
It makes sense in the long run to have a high-end Chromebook. And having used a Chromebook for months now as a second computer, I can tell you the OS is more than “just a browser.” But the price tag on the Pixel is a shocker, especially when the software is clearly not ready for touch yet and there seem to be a bunch of other improvements just around the corner (unified messaging, rich notifications, Google Now integration, etc.).
Why release it now and not at Google I/O in three months?
