- \n
- Google predicts 900 million Android device activations this year (2013).<\/span><\/li>\n
- 400 Million devices activated in 2012, up 300 million from 2011.<\/span><\/li>\n
- 48 billion app installs from Google Play since launch, over 100k apps available.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Developer revenue for apps is 2.5x higher this year thanks to emerging markets picking up Android.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Desktop version of Chrome has 750 million active users worldwide.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Google helped roll out 4G network coverage for 10,000 schools across Malaysia, who teach their students how to use the internet with the Chromebook.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Google](\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Google-Play-Games-600x188.jpg\")
<\/a>Google Play Games services<\/p><\/div>\n
Google Play Services:<\/h3>\n
- \n
- Locking in your location using GPS, WiFi and Cellular signals now saps 1% of battery life per hour.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Geofencing allows Maps to interface with other APIs to trigger actons when you enter or leave a specific area.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Accelerometer now recognises if you’re walking, cycling, running or driving.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Universal sign-in is a new feature that keeps you logged into your favourite websites and services across devices using Google+.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Google Cloud Messaging, which is how apps talk to servers, has been streamlined and now offers full duplex communication, lowering battery strain.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Notifications now appear on all devices, and removing it from one removes it on all devices as well.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Google Games Services:<\/h3>\n
- \n
- GGS now supports achievements and leaderboards (as we previously reported) and can be synced\/shared using Google+ through your private circles.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Multiplayer matchmaking is also supported, although this wasn’t detailed as to how it works, e.g. whether its related to gamer score or your location.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Cloud syncing of your games allows you to pick up and play from any of your devices that support the game.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Google Play All Access Music:<\/h3>\n
- \n
- All Access is a subscription service like Apple’s iCloud, syncs \u00a0music across your devices for $9.99 a month, available to use right now and there is a trial service.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Music now gets recommended to you as Google+ learns what you like and what you listen to most. If you listen to a particular genre, it recommends albums important to that musical style.<\/span><\/li>\n
- You can edit playlists and turn them into a looped playlist on an internet radio station, available to share with friends and on all your devices.<\/span><\/li>\n
- You can now reorder music in the playlist, remove, add and shuffle tracks.<\/span><\/li>\n
- All music that you buy and access through All Access is available on all your devices (iCloud, starting to feel nervous?) including the Chrome browser.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
An unofficial addition to the Nexus family and more on Pixel:<\/h3>\n
- \n
- The Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE is now going to be sold through the Google Play online store for $649.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The device will be unlocked, and will work on most LTE networks.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Has an unlocked bootloader, which uses stock Android and gets the same Nexus treatment as the other devices in the family.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Google wants the Chromebook Pixel to become the best device and will concentrate and accelerate development for apps for the Pixel.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Google](\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Google-Chromebook-Pixel-600x282.jpg\")
<\/a>Google Chromebook Pixel<\/p><\/div>\n
Google Chrome Browser and WebGL:<\/h3>\n
- \n
- Chrome (probably after they fork off Webkit) will support WebGL services and real-time rendering.<\/span><\/li>\n
- WebGL will serve as the host for a wide range of future games playable on all devices running Chrome browser.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Thanks to hard work by Mozilla, Javascript performance jumps by a claimed 57% for mobiles, 28% for desktops.<\/span><\/li>\n
- New video compression method, VP9, almost halves the size of videos and requires less bandwidth to buffer, will be rolled out to Youtube soon (wait, what about HTML5?).<\/span><\/li>\n
- An additional photo compression, WebP, reduces photos by around 30% in byte-size, does not lose picture clarity, can replace JPEG, PNG, GIF and TIFF formats.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Both VP9 and WebP are royalty-free, so its likely that once Chrome and Opera adopt it, so will Firefox.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Chrome for Mobile now also offers a web compression proxy on top of WebP and VP9, saving users around 50% of their data usage.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Chrome on all devices will now save your credit card\/payment information and sync it so that shopping for stuff becomes easier.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Google and Education:<\/h3>\n
- \n
- Google Play for Education branches off specifically for education apps for children of all ages.<\/span><\/li>\n
- A management console is now available for schools and teachers who roll out tablets to students. One app can be silently pushed to all students’ tablets\/Chromebooks from the console.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Schools and universities will have their own services available on a yearly or monthly subscription.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Google](\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Google-Plus.jpg\")
<\/a>Google Plus<\/p><\/div>\n
Google+ becomes self-aware (not really):<\/h3>\n
- \n
- New layout is less restirictive and more interactive and can be personalised for the device you’re accessing Google+ from.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Hashtags will be suggested based on key words from your posts and shares.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Hangouts can now share videos, photos and supports instant messaging.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Google’s got their Whatsapp\/BBM\/iMessage\/SMS competitor with Conversations, which works with phone contacts and friends on Google+.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Google+ now stores photos in their original size but will re-size and crop them for viewing as thumbnails on smaller-screened devices.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- The Photos service will notify you of pictures that are blurry, are duplicates, have bad exposures.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Photos will also tag the pictures according to landmarks identified, can recognise facial features and other elements inside the picture as people or physical objects.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Photos additionally has the ability to automatically enhance photos according to a learned pattern set by professional photographers, but it is completely optional<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
“The end of search as we know it”<\/h3>\n
- \n
- Google can now search through any and all information on your device that you allow. Through text or voice it understands context and uses a conversational tone and key words (yes, just like Siri).<\/span><\/li>\n
- Asking Search for details on a trip you’ve planned using a combination of Maps, Chrome and Google+ brings up the trip plan on your screen and highlights the information you were looking for.<\/span><\/li>\n
- On the new version of search, instead of pressing the voice button, saying “Ok, Google” brings up the search interface.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Search integrates with Maps and Google+ to give you info on movies, public transport, books (can scan book covers, bar codes using your camera) and will tell you about things you have planned in your schedule.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Search also indexes personal information for your use. Asking about a location will show you photos you may have taken while there and your travel history.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u00a0Sources: Google I\/O Event Live stream<\/a><\/h6>\n
More Gadget news:<\/h3>\n
Five gadgets that could make your life easier<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
Nvidia Shield pre-order pricing unveiled<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
- Asking Search for details on a trip you’ve planned using a combination of Maps, Chrome and Google+ brings up the trip plan on your screen and highlights the information you were looking for.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Hashtags will be suggested based on key words from your posts and shares.<\/span><\/li>\n
- A management console is now available for schools and teachers who roll out tablets to students. One app can be silently pushed to all students’ tablets\/Chromebooks from the console.<\/span><\/li>\n
- WebGL will serve as the host for a wide range of future games playable on all devices running Chrome browser.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The device will be unlocked, and will work on most LTE networks.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Music now gets recommended to you as Google+ learns what you like and what you listen to most. If you listen to a particular genre, it recommends albums important to that musical style.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Multiplayer matchmaking is also supported, although this wasn’t detailed as to how it works, e.g. whether its related to gamer score or your location.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Geofencing allows Maps to interface with other APIs to trigger actons when you enter or leave a specific area.<\/span><\/li>\n
- 400 Million devices activated in 2012, up 300 million from 2011.<\/span><\/li>\n
![\"Google](\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Google-Play-Games.jpg\")
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