Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, starts at 5.30pm (IST) today, and here’s a rundown of where to follow it online – and a taster of what to expect.
I/O will take place over the next three days in sunny San Francisco with 130 technical sessions, 20 code labs and over 155 Sandbox partners.
The conference is set to be the platform for Google to announce its latest developments, revealing responses to the latest offerings from Apple, Microsoft and more.
Where to follow
I/O Live, the dedicated live stream of the conference, is the place to be to keep up with everything that’s going down at the conference. More than 40 of the sessions focusing on Google’s products – such as Android, Chrome, Google+ and APIs – will be streamed live here and all remaining sessions will be available shortly after the conference on Google Developers Live and the conference website.
I/O Live will also broadcast what happens behind-the-scenes between session, with interviews, tours ad more promised. If you’re a night owl, an After Hours party will be kicking off at 3am our time, featuring top entertainers, inventors, artists, educators and visionaries from all over the world.
There are also over 350 I/O Extended events taking place around the world. These events, arranged by Google Technology User Group (GTUGs) and student ambassadors, will be streaming the conference keynote addresses at free viewing parties worldwide. Some will even include local developer demos and other speaker sessions. Unfortunately, though, the Dublin GTUG is no longer accepting registrations.
If you’re heavily invested in I/O, you can take three minutes to add the live stream to your own blog and create your own commentary for the event with Google’s I/O live-blogging gadget.
On Google+ and Twitter, set your feeds to follow the hashtag #IO12, and be sure to keep an eye on the Google Developers’ Google+ page.
You can also download the Google I/O mobile app to access live streams on your mobile device.
What to expect
Given that it has been practically confirmed at this point, we can safely expect that a 7-inch tablet computer manufactured by Asus will be unveiled by Google.
A presentation of what Jelly Bean is bringing to the Android table – and confirmation of its version name – is also inevitable. (Meanwhile, check out the arrival of the Android Jelly Bean sculpture in this video from the Google Developers.)
We might also see some updates to Google+, and a small release already came out yesterday, where recommendations from people in your circles will appear whenever you hover over an embedded +1 button on a website.
Also, with Mozilla having pre-empted the conference with an updated Firefox for Android earlier this week, we wouldn’t be surprised if Google trumps them with a revamped Chrome for mobile.
But what else? Could we see more hardware partners coming on board with Chrome OS? Is Google Play getting a new look? Could we see new developments for Google TV? Will Google Maps enter the final frontier?
While you wait for all to be revealed, you can always while away the hours building a machine in the latest Chrome experiment – yours might even be featured at the conference.
