We are a week removed from Google I/O 2012, can you believe it? A full week of Jelly Bean tips and tricks, Nexus 7 overviews, and Nexus Q confusion is officially behind us. So let’s talk about in this special edition Q&A session that focused on the magic that went down 9 days ago. We’ll talk about about those three items, but also a Nexus 10, if Train was any good in person, and when the rest of you will see the update to Android 4.1. 

What’s up with the phone layout on the Nexus 7? Does Jelly Bean do away with the tablet layout that we see in Honeycomb and ICS?

K:  Google must have decided that a 7″ tablet functions better with a phone UI than a tablet UI, even though it is a tablet. I tend to like this move as the tablet UI for Android is still pretty lacking in my opinion. Going from your phone to the Nexus 7 is identical, just in a bigger sense. Our full review will be out early next week and we’ll touch on more of this. So far though, I don’t think anyone is going to have any major complaints over it. To answer the second question – no Jelly Bean does not do away with the tablet layout.

T:  The portrait layout is perfect for the 7″ display. Jelly Bean does not do away with the tablet layout you are used to seeing, but Google clearly knew that this layout simply looks and functions better for homescreen navigation on the Nexus 7. 

Does the Q have any chance of being successful?

K:  I hooked mine up the minute I got home last weekend, used it for a few minutes, fired it up again the next day and haven’t touched it since (part of that absence could be blamed on the holiday week). While my music is all in Google Music, I have yet to fully buy into Google Movies and TV, and also do not consider myself to be a YouTube addict. The product is built well, but until they open it up to things like Pandora, Spotify, or other services that grab more users, I don’t know how this thing is going to appeal to many. It was a bold move by Google to fully step into the hardware game by essentially inventing a category.

R:  That depends on what you mean by successful. I don’t think Google planned on selling many Qs. I think the point was to get a device in the market that was made in America to try to keep that conversation going. Will it compete with Apple TV or even Google TV? No, but that’s not the point. The point is that we need to keep investing in American made products.

E:  The price HAS to come down. When I heard it being announced I said, “this is fantastic, as long as it’s under $100.” We all saw how that ended up, and I think at the price point now it directly conflicts with Google TV, so they’re going to have to do some soul searching to figure out how to make this work properly in the ecosystem.

Was Train as terrible Live as they sounded through the stream?

T:  Absolutely!

K:  Google kept the I/O party secret for the most part until the day of. We had no idea that it was going to be Train, but upon finding out, you can imagine that we all let out an “Ugh.” (Side note: Paul Oakenfold opened up the show.) At one point, they performed Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” and brought up an attractive blonde woman and some young 12-year old boy to help sing along. You got the feeling that this was clearly setup as both were on key, on point, and flawless with a live band behind them. It got creepy when the lead singer started hitting on the blonde, but then tried to deflect his off-handed comments back to the boy to try to make it less awkward. He failed. It was super awkward and creepy. Still, they were probably better than Jane’s Addiction was last year.

How long until Galaxy SIII gets updated to Jelly Bean? Other phones too?

K:  If only any of us knew the answer to that. The jump from ICS to Jelly Bean doesn’t seem to be massive, so these updates should happen faster than the jump from Gingerbread to ICS. That still doesn’t mean you are going to see Android 4.1 in the next month. The Galaxy Nexus (probably just the GSM version) will get it in a couple of weeks, but I wouldn’t be surprised if was September before any other phone sees the love.

R:  I imagine Jelly Bean will roll out to most devices that received or are scheduled to receive 4.0. No one can really guess accurately on the timing. Probably similar to the Froyo rollout on top of Éclair devices.

How do you see yourself using Google Now in your daily life and is it a real benefit?

E:  I use it everyday. I’ve actually replaced Weatherbug Pro (my longest running application to-date) with it and that’s how I check my weather. The search feature is fantastic for anything I need to know. You have to give it time to learn though. Right away it doesn’t seem all that exciting, but once the phone learns your home, your travel routes and your favorite sports teams, it’s actually very useful.

R:  Yes and yes. It is actually more of a personal assistant than Siri in that it organizes all of your data and keeps you aware of what’s coming up without you having to prompt it. More importantly, it has access to data that Apple doesn’t (and that’s something Apple will probably never pursue).

K:  I can’t get enough of Google Now. My calendar is full of all sorts of stuff (work appointments, parties, reservations, games, etc.) and Google Now reminds me when they are about to happen and then tells me how long it’ll take me to get to them. The other day, it flat out said, “It’s time to leave for your appt.” Whenever I’m out and about, it always has the time or distance to get back home at my fingertips, reminds me of Timbers games a day in advance , shows me live scores during the game, and of course, has the weather a button press away.

For someone who’s never owned a tablet before, would you highly recommend the Nexus 7 as their first ever tablet?

T:  Yes, I would. The Nexus 7 is powerful, sexy, and better yet, inexpensive. For a first time slate owner, it’s the perfect introductory device to the world of Android “tabletry.” Playing games, watching movies, and surfing the web is a real treat on a device like this. I would recommend to everybody.

R:  Sure. It’s probably the best Android tablet yet and it’s only $200-$250.

E:  Yes. I’d recommend it over any other Android tablet out there right now. Why? Because it’s exactly what Google and Android stand for. It’s clean and smooth and is a great representation of an awesome OS.

K:  Review next week!

What are the biggest differences you saw between Google I/O and Apple’s WWDC?

K:  I didn’t hear Google mention a competitor even once. Apple spends half their presentations trying to trash and poke fun at others. Google has moved so far beyond that at this point. At WWDC we saw a company playing catch-up. At I/O, we saw a company pushing boundaries and exploring new territories.

R:  Google announces much, much more than Apple. In some ways that makes Google’s announcements more difficult to grasp because of information overload, but at the same time, the big announcements were easy to spot. Another thing I noticed is that I found Sergey much more compelling than Cook. Sergey seems genuinely excited about his projects while Cook seems proud of them. Both are good qualities in a CEO, but they create very different presentations.

Platform Developer Kit (PDK), will this actually speed up updates for a phone?

R:  Probably not. The software isn’t the only issue delaying updates (though it is a big one).

T:  In Google’s eyes it will. Fingers crossed that Verizon has their hands on it!

K:  I like the idea of the PDK. After announcing last year that a group of major players was being formed to streamline updates and then watching it fail miserably, this is the only move that Google could have done. Give OEMs early access to Android builds before they go public and it at least gives them an opportunity to start working on it. If they fail at pushing updates more quickly after having early access, that’s their own damn fault. Don’t forget though, that carriers are going to be the ultimate barrier here. Motorola can get Jelly Bean early, but they still have to push it through Verizon. Our headaches are not over, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Reflections on Google Glass? How many people pre-ordered?

T:  There was a constant line to pre-order Google Glasses. No idea on the numbers, but easily a thousand or more, maybe? Hard to tell. After that presentation, I think everyone in the world wants to get their hands on some of these. I am completely excited to see where that technology goes.

R:  Google Glass is going to be huge. It may not be a huge consumer device, but in different professional fields it could be a huge advantage (medical, armed forces, police, firemen, construction, architecture, surveying, etc.). I imagine it won’t make sense for consumers unless it’s connected to another device like a TV (watching a sports game and having no chrome around it, just the game with scores and other details on Glass).

Will there be a Nexus 10?

E:  Depends on how well the 7 sells. Google and ASUS are already cutting the profit margains paper thin and banking on software sales to help cover those costs. Giving a tablet everything that Google Play has to offer is only beneficial if you use Google Play. If you want to see a Nexus 10, start buying movies and music and books through Play and support that ecosystem.

R:  I think so. The question is when and at what price point. The 7 is designed to take down the Fire, so I imagine the 10 will be released once Google feels confident in their ecosystem.

*All previous Q&A sessions can be found here.

**In case you forgot, K is Kellen, T is Tim, E is Eric, and R is Ron.

Droid Life Q&A Session: I/O Edition Answers is a post from: Droid Life

As most of you know, we spent all of last week in San Francisco, attending Google I/O. We haven’t had a chance to fully reflect on it yet, so since this happens to be one of our Q&A session weeks, we thought you could all help us do that. Rather than the normal Android chatter that these sessions tend to focus on, this week it will be all about the I/O experience, our thoughts, and what we did while we were there. So as usual, you can ask us whatever you’d like, but try to make it somewhat relevant to last week’s fun. You can ask for our opinions on the Nexus 7, Jelly Bean, or the Q if you’d like. You can quiz us on what sights we saw or restaurants we frequented. Have at it in the comments below.

Droid Life Q&A Session: Google I/O Edition is a post from: Droid Life

It took all of 2 minutes to announce the Platform Development Kit (PDK) at I/O this week, but going forward, it should change the way device manufacturers deliver updates to you. What exactly is it, you ask? The PDK is early access to the newest Android build for hardware and chipset makers. So companies like Motorola, HTC, Samsung, NVIDIA, and Texas Instruments will now be able to prep their current and future hardware for the newest version of Android before it ever goes public. 

For example with Jelly Bean, Google gave a “few” of their hardware partners access to the PDK over the last couple of weeks to help them make it ready for more partners. After receiving feedback, it is now live for all partners to take advantage of. Going forward, PDK’s for new Android releases will be made available 2-3 months before the code ever drops to the public.

You can probably imagine how important this is going to be for future software updates. If OEMs have access to Android months before it is ever announced, they can attempt to have it ready for handset or tablet deployment at launch. This would give them the opportunity to launch new devices with the newest OS and hopefully turn around and update previously released phones faster, as well. They will essentially be able to watch Google develop new versions of Android and start working on porting it to their hardware along the way.

We aren’t exactly sure who the “few” partners were that helped them develop the PDK, but you have to assume that Asus is one. We wouldn’t be surprised if most of the Transformer line all received Jelly Bean within days of it going live, which just so happens to be mid-July.

Thoughts?

Android PDK Could Help Manufacturers Update Devices Faster Than Ever is a post from: Droid Life

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you missed our live blogs from each of the Google I/O keynotes and aren’t interested in watching the full replays, Google put together a 4 minute video of some of the highlights. You will see a handful of new Jelly Bean features, Google Play stuff, Nexus Q, and of course, the Google Glass skydiving demo.

Video: Google I/O Keynote Highlights – All of the Hottest Action in 4 Minutes is a post from: Droid Life

Click here to view the embedded video.

Google has posted the day 1 keynote of Google I/O 2012 in its entirety to YouTube for everyone to watch who may have missed out on the live feed. There are tons of Jelly Bean goodies, Project Glass, and other fantastic Google fun that made this one of the greatest keynote presentations we have ever seen.

Cheers Nadeem!

Video: Watch the Google I/O 2012 Day 1 Keynote is a post from: Droid Life

The Android floor at Google I/O is always the coolest place at the conference to hangout at. It’s an entire floor of giant Android statues, interactive stations, gadgets, and nerds. This year, it managed to jump up another level in the Coolness Meter because they added Nexus sections which featured not only the Galaxy Nexus, but the newly announced Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus Q media sharing thing-a-ma-jiggy. It’s one of those experiences that we wish all Android enthusiasts could be a part of.

For those not able to attend, we thought that maybe snapping a ton of photos of the place and all of its intricacies would help you understand what we are talking about. Check out the gallery below. 

Nexus Section

Android Statues

Giant Nexus Q

Random

Panorama

Photo Tour of the Android Floor at Google I/O 2012 is a post from: Droid Life

After the incredible day 1 that went down yesterday here at Google I/O, I’m not sure that there is any chance for a topper this morning, but we are here again to find out. With yesterday’s keynote being Android focused, the likelihood of today’s turning to Chrome OS and Google TV is pretty high. To follow along in this journey, you can watch it live through the video below (we hope). A live chat will be going on directly below that. Let’s have some fun, again! 

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Direct video link)

Live – Google I/O Keynote Day 2 is a post from: Droid Life

If you were a seasoned Android user watching the Google Keynote yesterday where they announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, you had to be thinking “when will I get this on my phone?” Google said “mid-July” but some of us just can’t wait that long. Late last night, developers jdkoreclipse and Team Liquid were busy porting a nandroid of 4.1 on a GSM Galaxy Nexus over to Verizon’s, and it’s working.

The file is flashable through ClockworkMod Recovery, but fully updates you to Google’s next OS with all the features intact. The new Google Voice Search, the “buttery smooth” transitions and everything that was announced yesterday is running smoothly on the phone. A full wipe is recommended before flashing however so you might want to make a backup before hand. Get yourself some Jelly Bean at the link below!

Via: RootzWiki [2]

Fully Working Verizon Galaxy Nexus Android 4.1 Jelly Bean ROMs Already Available is a post from: Droid Life

Google Drive has not been official for all that long, but Google is hoping to extend its reach with the new version of the SDK for the application that is tooled just for developers of mobile apps. The new set of APIs will allow applications a lot of new features that developers can integrate to use Google’s cloud storage service.

Using a secure Drive API, users will be able to open, edit and save documents to Drive through applications. There’s even an “open with” feature where you get to choose what application you open a Drive document on. There are more changes than that hidden under the hood of this SDK update, and developers should be using them on your favorite apps pretty soon.

Via: Google Developers Blog

Version 2 of Google Drive SDK Announced at I/O, Full Mobile Support for Android and iOS is a post from: Droid Life

Now that day 1 of Google I/O has just about wrapped, we would love to hear your thoughts on everything that you saw. What blew you away today? Was it Jelly Bean? The Nexus 7 tablet? Maybe even the drone-line Nexus Q? Will anything ever top the Project Glass demo that Sergey Brin, skydivers, biker riders, and wall scaling maniacs put on? There was a lot to take in, hopefully you were able to follow along during our coverage.

Let us know what has you most excited!

Wednesday Poll: Favorite Announcement From Google I/O Day 1? is a post from: Droid Life

Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, is now official and will become available in July. The first devices to receive it will be the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, and XOOM, if you aren’t counting the Nexus 7 (our hands-on) which is already running it. After announcing it today at Google I/O, the Android team has posted the platform highlights, so that we can get a refresher of all of the new features. 

Faster, Smoother, and More Responsive

Jelly Bean will be the most impressive version of Android yet if we are talking about it on a performance level. They added triple buffering in the graphics pipeline, extended vsync timing, and tossed in some crazy intuitive touch responsiveness tech. They are calling this set of improvements Project Butter.

Expandable Notifications

One of the more visually impressive additions to Jelly Bean are the new expandable notifications. In Android 4.1, apps can be built to take advantage of a new notifications builder that lets them display more info than ever. Using a two fingered swipe, you can expand or collapse them or even perform actions directly without ever entering another app. Think of the new notifications as something no other platform has even come close to matching.

Voice Search and Google Now

The Google team introduced the world to their revamped voice search today, along with a new product called Google Now. You could call it their answer to Siri if you’d like, but really, this isn’t necessarily trying to go in that direction. Google just wants you to be able to search for things and receive answers back. That’s what the new voice search does, but to beef it up, they added voice playback and are trying to make it smarter than ever by having it recommend options depending on the time of day, location, or from previous searches.

With Google Now, they are taking Search and making it more visual. The results you receive back from doing searches arrive as cards that have been built based on your search history. There are cards for weather, calendars, navigation routes you take often, sports scores from your favorite teams, and more. It has a beautiful UI and is definitely something to keep your eye on.

Resizable Widgets

Resizable widgets have been in Android for a while now, but not like this. In Jelly Bean, you can drag a widget onto another home screen, and depending on where you want to place it, Android will adjust your screen to make room for it. Also, if you try to drop a widget onto a home screen, but the widget is bigger than the amount of space you have available, JB will resize the widget to fit without any extra work from you.

High-resolution Contact Photos

Yep, you are reading that correctly. In Jelly Bean, you can now use 720×720 resolution photos in your contacts. From the way it sounds, Gmail or other apps won’t overwrite them either. Hooray for pretty pictures again.

Android Beam

Google announced two new functionalities for their NFC-based Android Beam this morning. The first allows you to share photos and videos with another device, similarly to what you can do with the Galaxy S3. The other new feature makes connecting to NFC-ready Bluetooth devices easier than ever. Simply tap your NFC phone to them and you are connected.

Android Browser

The browser in Android 4.1 will provide a better HTML5 video experience, improved rendering speed, improved text input, better Javascript performance, and more.

Network Bandwidth Management

Ice Cream Sandwich brought us data management, however, Jelly Bean has improved upon that to be much more accurate. Apps can now query the the data meter to see if a user should attempt to download something of substance that may push them over a limit.

Audio Tweaks

There is an entire section dedicated to all of the audio tweaks that have been added to Jelly Bean. We are talking multichannel audio, better USB audio for docks, and audio chaining.

_____________________________________

This is only the tip of the iceberg with Jelly Bean. We recommend that you check out the full Jelly Bean highlights list to see everything that has been included. We know that some were thinking the jump from 4.0 to 4.1 would be minimal, but as we said before, that is a foolish way to look at it. This update is major.

Google Posts Jelly Bean Platform Highlights, Here is a List of Our Favorites is a post from: Droid Life

If you watched the Google I/O keynote from today, then you were probably as blown away as we were with their new Voice Search and Google Now offerings. The Voice Search now responds back to you, provides you with cards that have direct results for what you were looking for, and eventually learns your search patterns so that current and relevant information is always ready.

After spending a few minutes with it, we can easily say that we are impressed. It returned exactly what we were looking for, with the majority of searches coming via cards that are visually appealing. As this new Google Now and Voice Search continues to grow, this may be very useful. Unfortunately for most, this is a Jelly Bean feature that you may not see for a while.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video: First Look at the New Google Voice Search and Google Now in Jelly Bean is a post from: Droid Life

And there is the Nexus Q which looks like some sort of swanky media ball. This should be interesting to see.

Cheers Ryan!

Here is the Nexus Q is a post from: Droid Life

There she is, the Google Nexus 7 tablet. It will be official within the next hour.

Cheers Ryan!

Here is the Nexus 7 Tablet is a post from: Droid Life

After confirming that the Nexus 7 is officially real and that another device called the Nexus Q is on the way, we noticed one other note from the Google Play addendum that we received. It mentions the following:

You understand that the Nexus Q currently supports only Google Play Music; Google Play Movies and TV; and YouTube, and that your use of those services is subject to the Google Play Terms of Service.

See anything new in that statement? “Google Play Movies and TV.” Currently, the Play store doesn’t sell or rent TV shows, but according to this addendum, they will shortly. The I/O day 1 keynote starts in just under an hour – we wouldn’t be surprised if TV shows are announced.

TV Shows Headed to Google Play Store Today? is a post from: Droid Life