Google shows off its newest high-tech gadgetry at conference
Published 12:00 am Thursday, June 26, 2014
SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc. touted new models of smart watches, connected cars and Internet-enabled TVs on Wednesday, all based on the company’s Android software, as the giant tech company showed its determination to extend its services into just about every corner of modern life.
The company also gave an early look at the next version of Android, the world’s most widely used mobile operating system, while stressing its goal of providing consumers with the same quality of experience on gadgets of all shapes and sizes — from PCs to smartphones, tablets, watches and TV sets.
“We want to create a seamless experience across all these devices,” Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai told an audience of 6,000 independent software developers and other tech workers on the opening day of Google’s annual I/O conference at the Moscone convention center.
Pichai, who is emerging as one of Google’s most powerful leaders under CEO Larry Page and co-founder Sergey Brin, oversees the company’s Android and Chrome software divisions. While leading a keynote session that lasted 21⁄2 hours, he also announced a new initiative to build a low-cost Android smartphone for consumers in emerging nations. And he repeatedly stressed a theme that might be summarized as “Android everywhere.”
Google took the wraps off “Android TV,” a long-rumored effort to compete with similar products from Apple and other companies, by streaming Internet movies and games to a television set capable of responding to various remote devices, including Android phones. Google staffers showed how the software can be used to search for movies by title or category, when a user gives a spoken command to a smartphone, with the results appearing on the TV screen.
Executives said Google has agreements with leading manufacturers who will build the Android TV software into new televisions and set-top boxes.