Mountain View's Biggest Event of The Year: Google I/0 2013!

The first event of its kind started in May 2008. You can read on Google's website how “modest” they were (or not aware of their future success yet) back in 2008. They described the event as “a developer event, [where] we preview a set of functions and applications enabling website owners to easily make their sites social by adding registration, invitations, members gallery, message posting and reviews, plus applications built by the OpenSocial developer community”. Five years later, it’s the event that everyone wants to attend!

This week, it's ... THE WEEK! It's Google I/O 2013! 

What's exactly the event about? It is simply considered as the Mountain View's biggest event of the year. Just that, nothing more. But when it's about Google, it's almost big anyway! More precisely, it’s an annual conference for developers devoted to Google-based technologies that covers every aspect of Google Apps, including Android, Chrome, Maps, Google APIs, App Engine, etc. Google presents it as an event where you will “be inspired by the tech world's latest web, mobile and social breakthroughs to create simple, life-improving technologies and viable businesses among a rich and diverse community of cutting edge developers”.

Google keeps many secrets; not only in Google X Labs, but also for the signification of the letters, if letters they are, "I" and "O". Most of the online articles state that it stands for Google input/output (term used to describe any program, operation or device that transfers data to or from a computer and to or from a peripheral device), while other articles believe that it stands for "Innovation/Open". At the end of the day, what matters are the new technologies!

The event begins on May 15th (tomorrow) and ends on May 17th (Friday). For a full detailed program: click here. There is a lot to say about it, but I don't think I will have the time to summarize all these information and rumors about it. Therefore, I strongly recommend you to read the great article on The Verge website (click here) and to following them during the next few days! I have copied-pasted the most interesting parts:

"Android 4.3: With Android 5.0 (likely codenamed Key Lime Pie) reportedly still in development, we may have to settle for a more incremental Jelly Bean update in the meantime. Android 4.3 is already showing up in server logs, and is said to finally support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and the OpenGL for Embedded Systems 3.0 graphics specification. BLE is designed to conserve battery life on mobile devices that connect to peripherals like speakers and smartwatches; OpenGL enables advanced visual effects for gaming and graphics-intensive applications. Those are the features we believe are most likely to be part of 4.3 — a small list, to be sure. The update will likely contain more, but so far Google has managed to keep it mostly under wraps".

"Gaming center for Android: Google Play Services leaked over the weekend, suggesting a forthcoming Android equivalent for iOS' Game Center. The suite of services appears to include achievements, in-game chat, matchmaking, cloud save syncing, and leaderboards. The services also appear to integrate with Google's MyGlass app, according to some code snippets spotted there. Possibly related: the company recently hired a chief game designer".

"Messaging: Some of the loudest chatter in the run-up to Google has centered on the possibility of a new cross-platform messenger service. Codenamed Babel, the iMessage rival will reportedly sync messages across Android, Chrome, iOS, Google+, and the Gmail web client. At a time when messages are fragmenting across an ever-increasing number of apps, Google’s solution could pose an immediate threat to up-and-comers like WhatsApp and Kik as well as carriers’ lucrative SMS revenues. More important: this thing is said to have 800 emoji".

"Google TV: Google hasn’t told us what to expect from its perennially underperforming smart TV division, but it did tell us to expect something: "Stay tuned for #GoogleTV news at I/O," the company said in March in a post on Google+. Consider us tuned".

But also and perhaps a new phone, tablet, etc...

On Monday, Google posted on their blog (click here) that they will be using a software built with the Google Cloud Platform, allowing them to "collect and visualize ambient data about the conference, such as temperature, humidity, air quality, in real time! Altogether, the sensors network will provide over 4,000 continuous data streams". Even if it might seem a little bit creepy, Google is convinced that "networked sensor technology is in the early stages of revolutionizing business logistics, city planning, and consumer products. We are looking forward to sharing the Data Sensing Lab with Google I/O attendees, because we want to show how using open hardware together with the Google Cloud Platform can make this technology accessible to anyone". Let's see ..

Google I/O 2013 countdown has begun!!!