Brian Explains the Ins and Outs of Google I/O 2012

Brian Explains the Ins and Outs of Google I/O 2012:
This post was written by Appsolute Genius CEO Brian Cauble. You can follow him on Twitter here: @briancauble
Less than a month ago, we posted about Apple’s annual developers conference (WWDC) and Apple’s iOS 6.0!  Last week it was Google’s turn to make a big splash at Google I/O, their developer conference, where Google announced the latest Android release and some interesting new hardware.  Android 4.1, aka “Jelly Bean,” was announced and will be released in July sometime for Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, and Motorola Xoom devices.  Here’s what you need to know about the latest release.
If you’re an Android phone or tablet user, here’s what you need to know:

• “Project Butter” was the code name for what amounted to enhancements in the user interface on Android devices.  Google has improved the frame rate (60 fps) and has added touch prediction to make the user interface more responsive.  This is an important update, as Android devices have always felt a little sluggish to me.  However, in our opinion, this amounts to more of a fix than an entirely new feature.
• Voice typing is now available offline.  This means that you still dictate to your phone even when you don’t have an internet connection.  Expect Apple and Siri to announce this some time in the near future.
• One of the more interesting features Google announced is a Siri-like voice search that uses the Knowledge Graph to deliver richer search results.  For instance, searching for the NY Yankee’s schedule could actually return a card with the month’s schedule of games instead of a link to the schedule.
• Google Now reminds me of the new Passbook from iOS in some ways, but it’s definitely a different implementation.  Google Now will do things like help you find alternative routes in traffic, monitor flight times, and manage your schedule proactively.  It’s a nice feature — if you don’t mind telling Google a lot about your habits!
• Notifications have been a strong suit for Android for a while.  Jelly Bean will now allow users to integrate to apps into notifications.  For example, if you get a Facebook notification, you can share the notification without opening Facebook.
• Two major hardware announcements were made last week: the Nexus 7 tablet and the Nexus Queue.  The Nexus 7 is a $199 7″, .75 lb tablet with a HD display, Quad-core CPU, and 12-core GPU (graphics processor).  I’d predict that this will be a nice competitor to the Kindle Fire.  The Nexus Q is a $299 social media player.  It will allow you to control it from Android devices, play music from the cloud with your friends, and network a group of them together to play music throughout a house.  This is Google’s first real hardware venture, and it is very slick.  However, it will be limited to Android users and requires a separate speaker, so we predict it will be a niche product.

If you’ve created an Android app or are considering creating an app, here’s what you need to consider:

• For a while, we’ve been recommending that most of our customers should not create an Android tablet app unless they have a substantial budget.  We believe that the announcement of the Nexus 7 tablet doesn’t change that recommendation yet, but we do think that more people will be buying Android tablets with this and the Amazon Kindle Fire at 7″ and $199.  Keep on eye on the Android tablet!
• All paid apps will now be encrypted with a device-specific key in Jelly Bean.  This is very important if you have a paid Android app and will reduce the piracy of your apps.
• Android Beam uses NFC to allow Android to more easily share images and data between Android users.
• C2DM is now just called Google Cloud Messaging. They’ve increased the amount of data that can be sent to make it a richer service and increased the amount of messages that can be sent a day to several million. All for free. Paying for push messaging is sooooo 2010!