Google Expanding Into Television, Cars, Watches
By Edward Cardenas
SOUTHFIELD (CBSDetroit.com) - Consumers may soon be able to Google in their car, on their arm and on their television through new devices and applications announced Wednesday at the Google I/O developers conference.
The conference in San Francisco, which was streamed on a Google website, showcased how the company - known initially for its search engine - is moving into other consumer areas with Google's Android-based apps and services.
"There are now one billion of you around the world who use an Android device. One billion. We estimate that's more than 20 billion text messages sent every day. 1.5 trillion steps taken with an Android. And more importantly, a roughly estimated 93M selfies," Google posted on its official blog.
According to presentations during the webcast, and reports on CBS.com, Google is planning to introduce:
- Android TV, which will be built into televisions or on a set-top box, will play movies, music videos from YouTube, television shows and Android games.
- Android Auto, which allows owners of Android phones to connect their phones with their cars to utilize apps on the vehicle's dashboard, and voice activated prompts to access music, reply to texts and map services. Google has partnered with 40 different app businesses and car brands for the service.
- Android Wear which provides Android apps for the The LG G and Samsung Gear Live smartwatches.
- Phones running the new Android L mobile OS will have the ability to unlock a Chromebook and log into Web applications. Chromebooks also can receive information from phones including caller ID information from incoming calls and low phone battery warnings.