Liz Gannes

Recent Posts by Liz Gannes

Google Goes With Unified I/O Keynote (But Will It Unify Its Products?)

For the past few years, Google’s annual I/O developer conference has featured two days of morning keynote speeches, which are basically split into themes of announcements around the company’s two main developer ecosystems: Android and Chrome.

However, the schedule for next month’s edition of Google I/O just came out, and it features just a single day of keynote speechifying — a three-hour session on May 15.

Google hasn’t said it will combine Android and Chrome going forward — though many people continue to think it would make sense as the two operating systems start to overlap more.

So the fact that the two topics will be condensed into one day is notable, especially after Chrome leader Sundar Pichai took leadership of Android after Andy Rubin stepped down in March.

Of course, Google isn’t as simple as just those two units. I/O also hits right in the midst of the rollout of Google Glass, the wearable computer that debuted around the time of the conference last year and is just now becoming available to developers.

And in fact, Glass was the highlight of both days of the keynote in 2012, courtesy of Sergey Brin’s elaborate skydiving stunt, which was replayed in full on day two. So, come to think of it, maybe just one day of content is a better fit.

In addition to the 2013 keynote, there will be multiple breakout sessions about Android, Chrome and Glass, as well as other topics like Google+, Google Maps, YouTube and Google Wallet.

RELATED POSTS:

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik