Google I/O has Android, Honeycomb, SDKs and free tablets

ANDROID DEVELOPERS and customers have been spoiled at the Google I/O event today, with software updates, new services and free hardware being dished out by the internet search, advertising and software giant.

In its keynote session Google barely drew breath as it made announcement after announcement, trumpeted its successes and thanked its developer ecosystem.

So successful has the Android operating system been, the firm said, that it is being activated on about 400,000 devices every single day and is on 310 different handsets in 112 countries. This growth is likely to continue, particularly since Google keeps updating Android.

Having been through eight versions already, Google announced the latest Android release. It will release Ice Cream Sandwich, the name we expected it to have, in the fourth quarter of this year. More immediately, Google will start rolling out an updated Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablet OS today in the US.

Both include some feature tweaks, including in the case of the latter automatic task switching. This, the firm said, will automatically turn off applications when not in use. This should save on processing and power and will mean for example that users are never told that they must quit one app before starting another.

Another nice addition is that the OS turns mobile devices into USB hosts, which means that peripherals devices can be attached to smartphones or tablets. In a demo the firm showed a slate with an Xbox controller attached, however the video focused on the presenters not the tablet's screen, meaning that we could not see what was happening.

Other demos showed the software 'following' a users face and switching between presenters faces as they spoke. Again though, Google limited the video coverage here to its presenters and not the screen.

Google also announced its expected cloud music service that will let users access their content regardless of what device they are using and where they are. Features here are as you would expect from a modern music application, and although the content is cloud-based it can also be cached locally, meaning that it can be accessed when offline, such as while flying on a plane, for example.

This applies to both music and movie services but while the former is cloud or web browser based the latter must be accessed through the Android app store. Prices for movies, which once paid for can be viewed on a range of user devices, start at $1.99.

The music service, called Music beta for Google is invite only and US based for now. The firm added that while it is in beta, at least, it will be free to use. Google Music works on PC and Mac hardware systems, and phone users running Android version 2.2 and above can access some of its features now.

With the exception of the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system these announcements are very much in the now. For the future Google will release hardware developer kits, which will let OEMs develop kit for examples and tools for controlling home devices.

Android at Home, the name given to the latter plans, could see tablets being used to control things like washing machines. A company is already making applicable light bulbs and switches for the Android OS, and Google said, "Every device in the home is a potential I/O for Android applications."

Also interesting was a hardware device called Project Tungsten that increases Google's nascent standing in music services. Here the potential of the Android OS was used to show how near field communications chips in a CD case could be used to automatically upload content to the Google Music database.

If that wasn't enough for those in attendance, each guest - all 5,000 of them - has been given a 10.1in Samsung Galaxy Tab for free. Nice work if you can get it. µ