A while back, I wrote about Google and Android’s sinister robot plot to take over the world. Well, at its 2010 conference, Google I/O, announcements were made to do just that. I warned you, now take shelter. LIAS went to Google I/O on a reconnaissance mission and here’s what we found:
Google TV
If successful, Google’s latest project, Google TV, will effectively reshape the way people interact with television and deal a swift kick to Apple’s scrotum in the process. Using Google’s Chrome browser, the Logitech Google TV box allows the viewer to search the Internet and TV listings simultaneously to watch anything they want. At best, Apple TV will only let you search the iTunes store. The downside is that because Google has partnered with Dish Network, only their subscribers will be able to subscribe.
YouTube Leanback for Google TV
Along with announcements for Google TV came word of YouTube’s Leanback, an interface developed for watching Internet videos on your TV. Something like this won’t work initially. There are a lot of low quality videos on the YouTube.
Google Wave
Combining many aspects of Internet communication, Google Wave is a collaboration tool that we found to be useful in actively wasting our time. If LIAS ever really did any collaborating, or any real work for that matter, Wave might be a useful tool. Because the code used to create Wave is open and free to use, there are a few interesting addons that can help you waste your time as well. That is, unless your company is actually already productive…then it may be an effective collaboration tool.
Chrome Web Store
Initially available for users of the Chrome browser, the Chrome Web Store will host available Google apps as well as apps that you’ve downloaded. The greatest feature that I saw used cloud-to-device messaging, which will give user the ability to install an app on their phone from their desktop in one button click.
Open Video
With its recent purchase of On2 Technologies, Google announced the release of a new way to deploy video to the Web. Dubbed WebM, this is an open source alternative to the patented Flash and H.264 formats, backed by Adobe and Apple, respectively.
