Google I/O 2017 is currently underway in San Francisco, California, where the company is showcasing some of the products they’ve been working on over the past few months. While a plethora of news and announcements were made at the opening keynote, these are just a few of the standout reveals this year.
Google Lens
Google Lens was the main product the company featured at the Google I/O 2017 keynote. It’s a standalone piece of technology that’s augmented by Google Assistant to make your smartphone’s camera a tad smarter. In essence, it brings Google’s defunct Google Glasses project to your smartphone. Point your camera at a restaurant and the app will immediately display its ratings and user reviews. Use the app to scan a concert poster and expect to be spoon fed information about the band playing there. The most useful example and one that Google demoed was pointing Google Lens at the WiFi credentials that are on the back of a router which will instantly add the WiFi hotspot to your smartphone.
Android O
Of course, no Google I/O is ever complete without hints about the company’s upcoming mobile OS and Google I/O 2017 is no different with the upcoming version of Android being highlighted. Android O, as it is currently codenamed (start guessing what savoury item it’ll be named after), is continuing in the steps of Nougat by improving the battery life of a smartphone. The major boost to battery life for Android O is better resource management; apps will no longer hoard resources when they run in the background. Instead, an app will be old data when it puts in a request, rather than being fed real-time information. For instance, an app running in the background that constantly pings a location will be given the last known location of the user. However, once it runs in the foreground it will regain the ability to activate the GPS.
Read more about Android O here.
Google Home receives a suite of new features
Google Home is already a popular smart speaker, rivalling the Amazon Echo, but in the Google I/O 2017 keynote, the company revealed it has added a host of new functions to the device. Premier among them is the ability to phone your friends and family through the speaker. Yes, Google Home is turning into a phone. Google Home users will be able to place free calls to the United States and Canada over the next few months, though they won’t be able to receive phone calls. This is due to Google’s cautious approach to privacy concerns. Users can either tie the smart speaker to their smartphone’s number or use a private number Google provides. Furthermore, Google Home can now control HBO Now, Hulu, SoundCloud, Deezer, etc.
Virtual Reality headsets are on the way
Google is no stranger to the realm of VR with Android Nougat introducing Daydream, the virtual reality platform. However, all of Google’s VR (and AR) ambitions thus far have revolved around smartphones. No more. The company unveiled that upcoming headsets manufactured by partners such as HTC and Lenovo are coming soon. These VR headsets will not require either a powerful PC or a smartphone to power them. When it comes to tracking VR space, Google is utilising something called WorldSense, which is powered by Tango, Google’s augmented reality technology that we saw on the Lenovo Phab 2 smartphone.
There’s a lot more news that will be coming out from Google over the next few days and we’ll be sure to update you all on the latest and biggest hits!
