Google I/O 2012: Google+ gets updates, Events feature added

Google’s I/O 2012 seems to have impressed everyone and there’s a ton of stuff coming from Google - with the Jelly Bean update, Google’s own Nexus 7 tablet and the Nexus Q being the major announcements. One of the other important announcements made was a major Google+ app update. The Android app has just received an update that includes a whole bunch of new features. One of the key features is Google+ Events, which allows users to add events, invite people and share photos and media in real-time at the location itself. There’s even a ‘shared location’ feature, where all the photos shot by the various attendees will be present at one place. The feature will also add the event directly to your Google Calendar. It’s available for Android phones and tablets and even the Apple iPad is going to get its own app. The update is available on the Google Play store, and if you’re already using the app you can simply update it.

Available for Android and iOS devices, soon to the iPad as well

The Google+ app has been available on the Android and iOS app stores for a while now, but there hasn’t been a tablet-ready version, so far. Google I/O saw the company launching a tablet-optimized version of the Google+ app, which is available now. Apple users had an iOS app for the iPhone available, but there’s also an iPad version of the app coming. Google hasn’t given an official launch date, but Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Social Business at Google said it would be coming soon.

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Google+ Events - a new way to share information

Last night, Google unveiled a whole bunch of information about Google+. It was built as competition to the ever-popular Facebook, and Gundotra was on stage talking about the success of the service. It’s been a year since it was launched and some 250 million users have joined it since then.

Prior to this year’s Google I/O conference, various reports pointed out that Google was all set to unveil its next major Android update, Jelly Bean. Right on schedule at the conference, Google officially took the wraps off Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the successor to last year’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The company also showed off the Google Nexus 7, which is the brand’s flagship tablet that is manufactured by ASUS.

Google also launched a new streaming player, called the Nexus Q. Dubbed the world’s first social streaming media player, the Nexus Q streams your favorite entertainment directly from the cloud to your living room. You can simply use the Google Play and YouTube apps on your Android phone or tablet to surf an ocean of music, TV, movies and videos, and Nexus Q will play it all on the biggest speakers and screen in the house. There are no downloads, no syncing, no running out of space. 

One of the biggest products shown off at Google I/O was their branded tablet, the Nexus 7. Talk of the price being paramount to the tablet’s success has been around for quite some time, and Google has added a ton of high-end hardware to the mix and has kept the price down to a minimum by pricing it at $199 for the base model, which comes in a storage capacity of 8GB.