Project Tango, Google Glass: What we missed at Google I/O Keynote

Google’s keynote address which marked the beginning of its annual I/O developers conference showcased plans for a world where the company hopes to integrate Android into TVs, cars, wearable devices and more. But a lot was also missing from Google I/O keynote to disappointment of fans and media.  We take a quick look at some big announcements that were expected but didn’t happen at Google I/O.

Moto 360 launch: Wearables were rumoured to be a big part of the Google I/O story this year and while the company showcased what Android Wear will look like (it has a more Google Now Cards like design, which is congruous to the new ‘Material Design’ style adopted by Google), we didn’t get to see the Moto 360 smartwatch, at least not on stage.

Google announced that Samsung and LG smartwatches were available for pre-order on the Play Store. They are listed on the Indian Play Store as well for a price of Rs 14,999 for LG G watch, Samsung Gear Live is priced at Rs 15,900.

Where the Moto 360 is concerned, Google said that it would launch by the end of summer but gave no dates or price. The announcement drew a collective sigh of disappointment from the crowd at the conference.

Google Glass: Google Glass, the pet-project of co-founder Sergey Brin found no mention at the conference. While a new hardware upgrade was announced on Google Glass’ Plus page (it now has 2GB of RAM) Glass found no mention, even when Android Wear was discussed.

Glass’ Google page noted that that they have “improved battery life by over 20%, made voice search 10% faster and brought you frames, shades and prescription support.” There’s more Google Now cards including two new ones to remind users where they parked their car and let you know when a delivery package is on the way.

Given that none of this was discussed at I/O was a little disappointing, especially since you could spot a number of people in the crowd wearing Glass.

Project Tango: As we had noted in this previous post Project Tango, Google has reportedly produced 4000 prototypes of small form factor tablet with an advanced 3D imaging camera. Project Tango isn’t just about 3D. It looks at 3D depth sensing and motion detection. Project Tango devices can measure depth data, tell how far objects are in a room, if they are moving closer or stationary and how much space they occupy.

Project Tango is all about interacting with real world objects. So its applications range from personal safety, to navigation, to public spaces. It’s built for Android tablets and smartphones. Google has said that it’s building Project Tango for mobile devices, which allows it to tap into pretty much every real-world place. But we didn’t hear any mention of Project Tango during the I/O keynote. Perhaps Google will hold a separate event later on to discuss this.

Project Ara, which is Google’s ambitious project to make the dream of a modular smartphone possible however did get a glimpse at I/O with Google showing a working prototype of the device during one of the break sessions. More on that here. Read more about Project Ara here.

Chrome OS:  If you look at the keynote, all we heard was Android. Chrome OS updates were missing entirely. Other than the fact that Android apps will soon run on Chromebooks from Flipboard to Evernote, not much was heard on this front.

Nest and Android Home: The Android Home was supposed to be the big announcement from the keynote. And while Android was mentioned everywhere else, we heard nothing new on this as well. Nest, which Google acquired, didn’t get a mention at the conference.

Google+: This was pretty much accepted that Google’s social network wasn’t going to get any loving. Since Vic Gundotra left Google, the importance of this social network has been dying, with Google moving teams to other projects. And given that Gmail’s APIs got a massive update which allows developers to integrate Gmail with their app, the death of Google Plus makes even more sense.

Do note that Google is not killing off IMAP was reported but rather giving “fine-grained control to a user’s mailbox. For example, if your app only needs to send mail on behalf of a user and does not need to read mail, you can limit your permission request to send-only.”

All in all we wished Google had showcased more on the Home front and perhaps given a glimpse of Project Tango.