Google I/O: Google Previews Android Sessions

Google is again pushing out details on its upcoming annual Google I/O 2013 Developers Conference, this time releasing session schedules for its Android and Google Cloud Platform tracks at the event from 15 to 17 May in San Francisco.

Android will of course get a lot of attention at the conference with a full range of sessions that the company hopes will continue to advance development of cool and useful new apps for the global market-leading mobile operating system.

Android and coding

Scheduled are 34 Android sessions and three code labs, covering design, development and distribution, according to a 9 May post by Reto Meier, the Android developer relations tech lead, on the Android Developers Blog.

“Not everyone can come to San Francisco to join us in person, so we’ll be streaming a selection of the best content as part of Google Developers Live,” wrote Meier. “In addition to the keynote and four session streams (including one dedicated to Android), you’ll see one-on-one product deep dives, executive interviews, and Sandbox walkthroughs broadcast from the GDL stage at I/O. All the live feeds will be available on the Google I/O homepage from the comfort of your own home – or join our Google Developer Groups to experience Google I/O as part of Google I/O Extended.”

In addition, Google just released its official Google I/O 2013 conference companion app that can be used at the conference or by online viewers, wrote Meier.

The free new app supports devices running Android 2.3+, and is optimised for phones and tablets of all shapes and sizes.

Topics of the sessions include What’s New in Android Developer Tools; Practical Android Games Development; In-App Billing Version 3; Enabling Blind and Low-Vision Accessibility on Android; What’s New in Google Play Services; Android Graphics Performance; Taking Advantage of Android Platform Features; and The New Android SDK Build System.

In the Google Cloud Platform track, a wide range of related sessions will be offered, according to a May 9 post by Zafir Khan, product marketing manager, on the Google App Engine Blog.

Google Cloud Platform

Topics for the sessions will include What’s New and Cool with Google Compute Engine; Importing Large Data Sets into Google Cloud Storage; Mobile, Web and Cloud – The Triple Crown of Modern Applications; Big Data Mashups: Enabling Next Generation Analytics Using BigQuery; All the Ships in the World: Visualising Data with Google Cloud and Maps; and When Bad Things Happen to Good Clusters: Building Robust Systems with Google Compute Engine.

Several of the sessions will be live-streamed so that viewers from afar can see them as they are happening, wrote Khan. Those sessions are Track Kickoff: Ushering in the Next Generation of Cloud Computing; From Nothing to Nirvana in Minutes: Cloud Backend for Your Android Application; What’s New and Cool with Google Compute Engine; and A New Language for App Engine.

Previously announced for Google I/O 2013 are a wide range of Google Maps sessions, including a special session on “Google Maps: Into the Future”, as well as a special Google Maps demo from inside a 2013 Mercedes-Benz SL550 sports car.

Other Maps-related sessions include Design Principles for Maps; Making Location Meaningful with Google Maps APIs; Dive into Underwater Street View; and a Fireside Chat with the Google Maps Team. All of the sessions will be available on YouTube after Google I/O.

The conference will include a wide range of training sessions and code sessions each day where developers can get help with their projects, answers for code questions, and input and additional eyes on the work they are doing using Google code.

Trekker backpack

More than 120 talks, ranging from introductory topics to advanced subjects about Google Maps, Android, Google Chrome, Google+, App Engine, Google Glass and more, will be featured in the technical sessions, according to Google.

Also to be shown and shared with attendees at the conference are Google’s Street View Trekker and SVII cameras, which Street View teams are using to collect images for the project from around the world. The Trekker camera is a backpack-mounted camera that is helping to collect images in remote locations, including the Grand Canyon.

Attendees will be able to try out the Trekker backpack on a virtual hike through the Canyon.

At the 2012 I/O Conference last June, Google rolled out its Glass project, the latest Android Jelly Bean operating system, the Nexus 7 tablet and the Nexus Q Media Hub. The Nexus Q was a surprise announcement that introduced an entirely new small, bowling-ball-shaped media hub for the home controlled by an Android tablet or smartphone.

Enhancements to Jelly Bean included improved performance; added search capabilities; voice typing that could be done offline; and an improved notifications interface that lets users respond to calendar reminders, emails and texts without having to open each of those applications.

Do you know all about the Android platform? Take our quiz!

Originally published on eWeek.