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“That prayer will be mostly unanswered.”
Welcome to episode 99 of Yet Another Tech Show. This is your weekly podcast aimed at bringing you informative, but entertaining discussions around the world of tech news. I’m Ant Pruitt writing up these lil’ show notes. Our super producer is Mat Lee and our other technologist are Mike Rothman, Larry Press and Nick Carroll. With introductions out of the way, click play at the top of this screen and follow along with our show notes.
This week was the week of the Google IO developer conference held in San Francisco. Google announced a lot of items to note. I was able to take a trip from the east coast to the west coast and hangout in San Francisco and attend Google IO Extended. It was a great time meeting some of the people I know on Google+ as well as hardcore developers wanting to know more about making their apps better.
Image Credit: Ant Pruitt
Wearable tech was the big topic at IO this year. You have your Google Glass from previous years and now we have smart watches. Wearable tech is going to tie in with your Android and Google life by way of the Android Wear initiative. We discuss the feasibility of the smart watch. As you know from previous shows, we are all waiting on a later version of Google Glass as well as a less expensive price tag. But we feel slightly different about the smartwatch tech ahead.
Nick discusses use case preferences as well as pricing. We can look for these watches to be in the low to mid $200 range generally. The Moto 360 watch will be on the higher end of the pricing spectrum. Check them out in the Google Play Store here.
Android TV was discussed and demoed during IO. A set top box may have been there as a gaming controller seemed to be connected to the television on display. The presentation showed the nice looking UI and fluid control. It’s not Google TV, it’s Android TV. The television device also looked as if it could be controlled from your Android phone or tablet. Similar to legacy Google TV. As a Google TV consumer, I’m excited about Android TV. Let’s see what is coming next.
Chromecast is getting more apps and features. The $35 device has been a hit for Google. Larry asked what differentiates the Chromecast from Google TV. We explain there are some hardware limitations. I loved my Google TV’s and didn’t know if a Chromecast was feasible for me to own. Even at $35. But the mention of new things you can cast over to your TV set form your Android devices or Chrome browser.
Android L is the latest version that focuses on design. We presume the design will be more efficient in functionality as well. Android L is set to give even better CPU and GPU utilization giving a much better performance on your hardware. It does look nice with its modern look and feel.
What happened to Google Voice? Mike asked if there was a new strategy for the product. We both enjoy using it and was curious about so-called integration with Hangouts. Fortunately, Google Voice isn’t dead. Also, Google+ was not mentioned one time in IO this year. We discuss how the social space is referenced as a graveyard by some pundits. Is Google going to do anything else with Google+? Will it be sustained or killed off like Google Reader?
Microsoft Office files will be available for editing now in Chrome and Google Docs. Our Office Suite power user, Mr. Rothman, will be our mouthpiece for this feature. We look forward to his thoughts on this feature.
For more highlight coverage of Google IO 2014, check out my article and commentary here.
It’s the end of the road for Aereo. Larry discusses in more detail the slap down the Supreme Court laid on Aero. Unfortunately, the company was ruled in illegally airing copyrighted material. We also discuss how the broadcast companies could really dive into this market Aero tried to corner and give consumers what they want. Streaming, minimal ad television!
Image Credit: Larry Press
Lastly we look at the proposal of less expensive higher education. It looks really interesting as Larry shares in his blog. It’s called nanodegrees from Udacity. Essentially you’ll spend $2400 per year towards this degree and work your way into an entry level position. We discuss the math and the ROI. See the graph he shared looking at jobs and wages over the last two decades.
That’s it for this week’s show. Thanks for watching and sharing our technology podcast. Be sure to give us a shout on our social media pages. We enjoy chatting with you all. Each of our social profiles are on the crew page. Be sure to subscribe and join our Google+ community. See ya next episode, everyone!
Check out the hangout video below. If you want to watch us live, check out YATS tv Wednesday nights.
