Google I/O 2011: Post Review

It's been 4 days after Google I/O. But the new things that Google has brought to us are still fresh and exciting to me. They talked about a lot of stuffs like HTML 5, hardware acceleration, WebGL, and etc. Most attentions are attracted by the two major products Google own: Android and Chrome.

Android 3.1: Ice Cream Sandwich

This logo just makes me hungry... Why does Google always use dessert to code Android?

Anyways, the next version of Android 3.1 is believed to be the greatest update Google ever has. From the picture above, I guess you can tell Android 3.1 is called Ice Cream Sandwich. At this version, there will be no tablet or cell phone version. This can run on both devices without any difficulties. The first wave of update has come to Motorola XOOM 3G version in US.

Android@Home

Google is taking a step further and it's beyond what others have done. Android won't be just a phone or tablet. It will control your house appliances as well. During Google I/O, they demonstrated using Android to control the lights and the sound system. They also said the first light bulb that could work with Android will be out at the end of this year.

Google Chrome HTML 5 Speech Input API

In the latest Google Chrome 11 stable, Google brings everybody the HTML 5 speech input API. This API allows users to speak to the browser and it can detect what you are saying. If you'd like to try it, you can follow these steps:

1. Let's try Google search box first. So first go to Google homepage. You can try it on Youtube or, I think, anything that has a search box.
2. Hit Ctrl+Shift+C to call out the developer tool. Or you can move you mouse on the search box and right click to select Inspect Element.
3. On the bottom, there would be a highlighted code. Right-click it and select Add attribute.
4. This is what you are going to type: "x-webkit-speech" without the quotation marks.
5. If you follow these correctly, you will see a microphone at the right side of the search box. Click it and try it yourself. It works English but not sure about others since it doesn't recognize my Mandarin.

WebGL Innovation

For those people who don't know, WebGL uses HTML and JavaScript to create 3D computer graphics on any compatible browsers. At Google I/O, they released a project that used WebGL to create 3D interactive graphics with music. So it's like music video but you can control what's moving and where's going in the video. They call it creating dreams. You can check out the details at ROME TECH.

Chromebook Details

As the final, more details have been released about the cloud-based operating system: Chrome OS. What's Chrome OS? Have you noticed that the first time use your laptop that you just bought from the stores is getting slower and slower as the time progresses? And you need to update it every certain time to protect yourself from viruses infections. The solution for all of it is the Chrome OS. Google decides to use the web, or the cloud, as the platform for the users, and software so we can access everything from everywhere at whenever we want. It's secure because of the sandbox system and verified boot. Don't worry about the updates and pathes because Google takes care all of it. So you can say Chrome OS is the web itself, and since everything's on the web, even if you throw your Chromebook into the ocean and it gets swallowed by a shark, you can still access your data on the web.

For business solution, Chromebook can be loaned $28 a month per user in the company and provides the software updates as well as hardware maintenance. For education, that'll be $20 a month per student in the school. I think it's really, really cheap.



Here's a video for you to watch if you are having hard time explaining what a Chromebook is.




Samsung and Acer
On keynote day 2, Samsung and Acer released their Chromebooks.

Samsung Specs:

• Intel Atom N570 1.66 GHz
• 16GB mSATA SSD
• 12.1-inch screen
• 1280×800 Resolution
• 8.5-hour battery life
• USB 2.0 x 2
• Front Webcam
• WiFi : USD$ 429

Acer Specs:

• Intel Atom N570 1.66GHz 
• 16GB SSD
• 12.1-inch screen
• 8-hour boot
• Instant-On
• 6.5-hour battery life
• USD$ 350

If you look closely, these two machines have similar and almost identical specs, except for Samsung has longer battery life and beautiful shape. But is that worth 80 dollars more? That's for you guys to find out.

Google Chromebook: http://www.google.com/chromebook/

This year Google I/O does show some really interesting and innovating stuffs. In the movie we always see people use a tablet of some sort to control the light and other appliances. Now the project Android@Home brings Android to actually do this type of things. It will be a really interesting year. I'm so looking forward to it.