Google I/O: Day 1

Today it has been the first day for this year Google I/O and I would like to share my thoughts about the event.

This year, Google decided to move the venue from Moscone Center in San Francisco to Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View and the distance to go from he hotels to the conference place are way bigger. As we could expect some traffic issues with so many people we decided to go really early in the morning, around 8 am.

Pretty soon we realized that there was already people in line waiting for the keynote doors to be opened. As GDG Organizers we had access to a reserved sector, but the seats where not assigned so we also joined a queue (first one of the day!)

Some things that we had seen in the keynote:

• • Google Assistant: Our personal conversational assistant that now is able even to consider the context when we request it something.
  • Google Home: A new assistant at home that we could probably call Alfred as can take care of things as different as streaming music to different areas of our home or controlling the lights and temperature.

• Allo and Duo: Two apps that are trying to replace the conversational tools, adding some extra features like incluiding the new Google Assistant or changing the size of the text and icons.
• Virtual Reality: We have seen some improvements that will be included in Android N, but we were expecting something new in hardware too. We have only known that they are working on the specifications of one helmet (similar to what we had already seen) and a controller (like the WII remote but for VR devices)
• And a lot more new things regarding Android improvements, Firebase, Android Studio or standalone mode for Android Wear.

It is a pity that most of the things are not available yet and for some of them we will need to wait at least 4 or 5 months. I have missed some more things that were already ready.

After the keynote, we started with more queues, in this case, to get a box with a sandwich, some chips, a cookie and an apple.

For the sessions, it was more of the same… Long queues to get into most of them, sometimes waiting almost one hour missing one session to be able to go to the next one. And waiting one hour with 30ºC degrees and without a shadow it is not a nice thing.

I have mixed feeling with this day because I liked the sessions that I could see about new things in Android, gaming and Project Tango (more about them other day!), but I felt that everything was too crowded everywhere. Definitely, 7000 people are too many!

What do you think about Google I/O and the things that they brought this year?