Google answered that question today at Day 2 of Google I/O, and the answer is at Google TV. But let's not get ahead of ourselves... They spent the first half of the keynote building up suspense talking about the Android momentum:
- 21 OEMs
- 48 Countries
- 65 Devices
- 100,000 Daily activation run rate
- 1 billion miles traveled in GPS navgation
- 50,000 Applications
- 180,00 Developers
They announced the next release of Android 2.2 called Froyo, which has 5 Focus Areas:
- Speed: Just-in-time (JIT) compilation
- Enterprise: Exchange friendly
- Services: Application Data Backup API, Cloud-to-Device Messaging API, Tethering & Portable Hotspot
- Browser - 2x-3x javascript performance (The V8 engine from Chrome but ported for Android), fastest mobile browser, voice recognition for: searching, translations, support for flash
- Market - Update All feature, Automatic updating, and more
Then, they surprised all us by giving all five thousand attendees Sprint HTC EVO 4G Phones!
The second half of the keynote focused on the announcement of Google TV (Tagline: TV meets Web. Web Meets TV). The Google TV interface is extraordinary. Do you ever search the web for when/what channel a show is on because the guide on your TV is too overwhelming? Google TV merges this into one easy step on your TV using a bluetooth keyboard. Google TV will integrate with DVR, Netflix, Amazon, and others. The TV based browser is slightly transparent so that you can see the TV shows behind the browser as well. Google TV has increased the number of channels on your TV from hundreds to millions by integrating all of the video on the web as a TV option for the common TV viewer.
The hardware includes a Google TV box that connects via HDMI to your current set top box. It comes with a keyboard and mouse to control the Google TV device. If paired, the Android phone with google voice search can also integrate so that you would not have to use the keyboard or mouse. They're going to publish the protocol so that developers can create their own applications and hardware for Google TV as well.
Again, the entire keynote will be posted on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/googledevelopers if you'd like to watch.
-Submitted by Chris Apolzon and Laurie Richards
