The Column
Motto: “I/O” stands for “I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! OH MY GOD!”
In seven days (May 15th) Google’s annual developer’s conference starts. The conference is called “Google I/O” where “I/O” stands for “Input/Output” (despite what the motto might say). It is the event during which Google unveils their big projects and products for the year. Last year, I/O gave us the Nexus 7 and Jelly Bean (among other things) - I wrote about my predictions last year in Column #9.
The column I’m writing right now exists solely to get my Top 5 online before the conference so I can look back and see how good of a guesser I was. Also, I’m writing it just to say HOW EXCITED I AM FOR THE CONFERENCE. I am planning on watching as much of it live as possible - although I wish I were just going there.
In other news - a while back I was given a SQL database backup of one of the iterations of my old column. It was from back before college - around the time I was 16 to 18. The database was a total wreck when I first got it; there was easily more code than content… it was messy and unreadable. After hours of work and some out-of-the-box-type thinking, I was able to extract the content in a mostly readable format. Here’s what some thoughts/conclusions I was able to pull from reading through some of it:
I wrote at least 375 columns before I started this (blogger) format… I did a very poor job of numbering them, though. My old columns were shorter. This post would have made for a long column back in the day. My old columns had several quotes per update. I was mostly an annoying high schooler… although sometimes I said genuinely funny things. I used to write a lot about how I didn’t write enough. I whine a lot (notice that wasn’t past tense). It’s really interesting reading my thoughts about important things in the course of my life as they were happening. I put WAY more than I should have on the internet. I’m glad this stuff is no longer accessible. I am working on a list of highlights from the old column. There are hundreds of updates to read through, though, so it will be a while before that makes it on here.
I’m going to leave this off with a picture I haven’t yet shared from my tour of the Googleplex:
That was the first of several photo ops with Google signs.
Top 5: Predictions for Google I/O
- Google Games - Google is going to do a lot of sessions related to gaming. It is a safe bet that they are going to announce a new Google-hosted game center for developers to tap into. We will see message boards, high score lists, and all sorts of stuff. Frankly, I don’t care much for smartphone gaming. It’s still good news, but I’m rather “meh” about it for now.
- More news will come out about Google Glass and Google TV. These two projects are not related, but I pushed them together to avoid having to write any more about either one of them individually.
- We will see lots of new things coming to Google Chrome. Most of them will probably be under-the-hood type things… but we may see one or two new tricks (hopefully the long-anticipated Google Now Chrome integration).
- Google Babel - Whatever it’s going to be named, Google will unveil their new messaging service. It is set to both replace and combine Google Talk, Hangouts, and Google+ Messenger. It will possibly also include SMS and Google Voice - but we’ll see. I feel like I’m forgetting something important about this… it’s the thing I’m looking forward to the most - other than…
- Android 4.3 - Still named “Jelly Bean”, Android 4.3 will release with possibly some new hardware. For the new hardware, I’m going to go with the Motorola/Google phone currently only known as the “X Phone”. The X Phone is shrouded in mystery, but is said to focus mostly on battery life and durability… so who knows. We will also see a refresh of the Nexus 7 (probably with a full 1080p screen) and the Nexus 4 (probably with LTE). Both will remain extremely affordable for what they are and both will run 4.3 (as will the Nexus 4’s and 7’s already in the hands of consumers).
Quote:
“Life Never Gets Any Better Until You Complain About It Enough” Me from 6 years ago, the first of many gems I’ve found so far