Google Gets Smarter With New Watches, TVs, Cars and Analytics

by Chris Preimesberger

The LG G Watch: Users can cycle through notifications on an Android Wear watch like this one with an upward swipe. A horizontal swipe brings more details about the notification. When a device like this one is on your wrist, users don’t need to enter a passcode to activate a handset.

Google previewed all three of its early smartwatch models (not available until fall, however): the LG G Watch, the Moto 360 and the Samsung Gear Live. Crowds gathered around the devices for hours on June 25 to try them on and check out the functionality.

Google’s upcoming set-top TV box, which can be used in concert with the popular Google Chromecast dongle (the $35 plug-in that is now the biggest-selling IT item on Amazon.com), is expected to become generally available this fall. The company demonstrated how it will look on big screens June 25 at Google I/O.

Google is getting much more specific about the user experience in Android 4.4 (which uses the revamped Android L code). For example, various tasks lined up on a phone now overlap slightly and are 3D in appearance on the screen, adding a richer look overall. The action is faster, Google claims; colors and themes continue from device to device, and a touch of the screen elicits a “water drop in the pond”-type effect.

Google introduced a group of new cloud services, including Dataflow, which is meant to replace standard MapReduce. Google said Dataflow is a much simpler way to build parallel data pipelines to handle both batch processing and streaming data.

On-demand research to solve business problems and/or predict important trends is a huge topic in enterprise IT, and Google is right in the middle of it, with its own apps for this purpose. A good use-case example of how this works is here at this World Cup booth, where queries such as “What are the chances U.S. goalie Tim Howard will let a shot go by him?” were entered. One answer: 20 to 1.

If you haven’t yet seen a Google automated automobile driving down the street or highway, well, they don’t look like this. This mockup was onstage at Google I/O for photo opportunity purposes. There were several real Android-equipped cars in the conference center to check out, but no real driverless cars were in evidence; those are still kept under wraps.

This will become Google’s entry-level smartphone in a few months, designed mostly for third-World cultures in Asia and Africa. It will be a fully functional Android smartphone with an FM radio, a removable SD card and a 4.5-inch screen. The cost? Less than $100, Google said.

Google released some interesting market-share numbers at the show. Android tablet sales have absorbed 62 percent of the world’s overall market—up from 39 percent only two years ago. Apple’s iPad still is No. 1 in the United States, but these numbers appear to be a serious threat to that dominance.

Microsoft, with its Lync connectivity, has a head start on connected automobiles, but Android appears to be a game competitor. Google now has partnerships with about three-dozen car and truck makers globally to install Android PCs in their vehicles.