There's nothing like making huge announcements for products that were leaked many moons ago (is there Apple?). And today joining the good ship 'You don't say?' is Google...
It used day two of its Google I/O developer's conference to formally unveil Google TV and Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo). So what do we learn that we didn't already know? Bits and pieces.
Dealing with Google TV first simply firms up everything we'd heard about from the People of Lava Google TV announced at the start of April: the Android powered service can be integrated directly into a television or added separately through a set top box and brings direct access to the likes of Google Mail, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
What is new is hearing a Google search bar will be built into the UI which searches all TV channels and stored video and online content from numerous websites (naturally including YouTube - though potentially not Hulu). Web radio will also be accessible and sites can be bookmarked and recordings and reminders scheduled. Android's webkit based browser (will Google ever just call it 'Chrome Mobile'?) is built in too for surfing.
In essence then we have a hybrid between a media centre and PVR. The theory is good, but now we need real world availability to get us truly excited.
Next is Android 2.2 and this is a major step for the mobile platform with Google finally placing the same emphasis on speed as it has long preached with its Chrome OS and Chrome web browser. Using a new 'Dalvik VM Just-In-Time' (JIT) compiler Google claims Froyo will run 2 - 5x faster than v2.1. Javascript has also been improved 2-3x with Google saying that makes the Android browser the fastest mobile browser on the market (again, just call it Chrome Mobile!).
Elsewhere the other biggies we already knew about are support for Adobe Flash, Tethering (using your handset as a 3G dongle to get laptops online) and the ability to function as a mobile WiFi Hotspot (similar to tethering except allowing multiple devices to connect simultaneously).
There were surprises, however, with the most welcome being the ability to move installed apps off main memory and onto microSD (a long time coming), app auto-updating and better Exchange support (auto-discovery, improved security, GAL lookup, etc) in an attempt to woo businesses. On top of this is 'Authenticated messages' which allow information to be pushed from a PC to an Android handset. An example Google gives is clicking a button in Google Maps and its location opening automatically on your phone. Lastly a really cheeky cherry on top is 'Music Sync' which will stream audio directly from iTunes and also wirelessly transfer music.
Availability? With its vanilla install, Android 2.2 is coming to the Nexus One first and should arrive this month. Everyone else is playing more of a waiting game as manufacturers will need to update their custom UIs to be compatible. Of these HTC has said Android 2.2 will definitely come to its handsets, but while it expects to release updates "in the second half of this year {it} can't be more specific than that". Sigh.
That said it looks worth waiting for and could Android 2.2 even push Google's OS ahead of iPhone OS 4.0? It's a close run thing, but the signs say yes...
Update: Android 2.2 is now live for Nexus One users via manual update here. You mustn't have rooted your handset previously.
Links:
Google TV
Google Android
