“We want users to have an ongoing two-way conversation with Google”, he told the estimated crowd of 7,000 at the outdoor Shoreline Amphitheatre. Google has set up a Home homepage where you can register for more information. You can put out a query and get an answer followed by more questions as Google picks up a conversation and keeps returning the correct or relevant answers.
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Google Home is a speaker and microphone combo that sits anywhere in your home, patiently waiting for your voice commands.
A versatile, ambient experience that extends across various devices in your life is how Google thinks of the assistant. That contrasts with the human names given to other virtual assistants from Amazon (Alexa), Apple (Siri) and Microsoft (Cortana).
“We want users to have an ongoing two-way dialog with Google”, said Pichai. The aim is to presumably make Google’s voice smarts more appealing and anthropomorphic than its past applications, so it can compete with the likes of Siri and Cortana. On Allo, you can chat with it to book restaurant reservations. Daydream is due this fall and will be part of Android N. Vendors like Samsung, LG and Alcatel will make Daydream-ready phones, and partners including the New York Times will offer virtual reality apps compliant with Daydream. It’s a great chance to catch them still fixing their hair.
Among the improvements, Android Wear 2.0 will detect when you’re starting to exercise and automatically fire up an app such as Strava.
Android N will introduce Vulkan API to improve gaming playback.
Lastly, Android Auto, Google’s automotive platform, has also received a number of significant updates. This includes 72 new emoji and will finally support skin-tone color variations.
Rumors about Google making its own virtual reality headset didn’t materialize at IO. Anyone can submit suggestions for what the N should stand for.
Bavor said the Daydream team worked on common virtual-reality issues like rendering digital imagery at high frame rates and in high resolution, and minimizing the latency between when you move your head and when images you’re looking at update.
The other big hardware component in Daydream, of course, is the smartphone.
The game is due to debut alongside Daydream in November this year and will also reach mobile devices and the PC platform (although it’s not clear if the latter is VR enabled). Google did not say how much the device will cost, but it did reveal plans to release it later this year. There’s also a new tiny keyboard being added, because well, we’re not sure.
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Android powers about 80 percent of the world’s smartphones, largely because Google gives away the software for free to device makers.
