Google I/O highlights: Nexus 7 tablet, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and more!

After any major OS update, the first question on everybody's mind is naturally "When can I get it?" As Android owners know all-too-well, the answer to that question inevitably involves waiting, rumors, innuendo, leaks, and often crushing disappointment. With the announcement of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at Google I/O, there was the same hope there is for every Google I/O: that the situation would change. Sadly, it's not at all clear that it will — if the responses we've gotten from major Android OEMs is any indication.

In case you missed it, Google only listed a few "Nexus-class" devices that will receive Jelly Bean in July: the Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, and Motorola Xoom. To get beyond that, we reached out to several OEMs and most have given some variation on "no comment" when it comes to upgrading current devices to 4.1. Acer, Asus, and HTC all declined to comment on whether (to say nothing of when) 4.1 would arrive on their devices — though HTC did say "Watch this space for more information." LG told us it is evaluating Android 4.1 for current devices, but doesn't have anything official to announce. As of this writing, we've not yet heard back from Motorola, but will update this article if and when we do.

At Google I/O, we sat down with Android's head of user experience, Matias Duarte, to talk about Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Nexus 7, and the premiere Google Now feature. It was a casual conversation where Duarte gave us the skinny on Google's philosophy behind its new products this week. It's Friday, come chill out on the couch with Josh and Matias for 20 minutes of design, insight, and laughs.

Google's first keynote of I/O 2012 proved to be a big one earlier this week, introducing new software updates and hardware. The biggest news was the company's Nexus 7 tablet, a low-cost 7-inch Android Jelly Bean device that goes head-to-head with Amazon's Kindle Fire. Google also announced its Nexus Q device at the event, a cloud-based audio and video streaming appliance designed to pull media from Google's Play Store and YouTube.

Asides from the hardware, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean got its official debut along with a new Google Now service that works by using your search history, calendar, and location to make search more relevant. The service includes notifications to make travel a lot easier. Chrome for Android went final during day one of I/O 2012 too, now available for Android 4.0 devices. The highlight of the keynote was undoubtedly Google's Project Glass demo. Sergey Brin set the stage for some crazy skydiving and bike jumps in a stunt to demonstrate how the company's glasses can capture and stream live video and images.

Google’s Nexus 7 tablet is not exactly a surprise. Nor is the fact that I’m able to work on a review of the product just hours after the device was announced. For years now, Google has had the uncanny habit of not only making big announcements at its I/O events, but then immediately sharing what it has shown off with developers and members of the press.

This year was over the top. Not only did Google hand out its new, 7-inch, $199 Nexus 7 tablet, but it also introduced a new version of Android (4.1) called Jelly Bean, upgraded its flagship phone, and... rolled out the Nexus Q. Perhaps the most odd of all, the Q is a spherical media player / amp which functions as a wired audio and video output for all of your Google content.

Google wants to revolutionize real-world social life with its new Google+ features, including pre-event "Cinemagraphs" and "party mode," which lets users automatically share pictures taken during the get-together. But how does Google plan to build engagement with the network, and what does this mean for the rest of its web tools? We sat down with Google Senior VP of Engineering (and formerly of Social) Vic Gundotra and Product Management VP Bradley Horowitz to discuss where Google+ is going.

"Google+ is at its heart about building one seamless experience," Gundotra told us, noting that Google's overall services don't have any kind of "engagement problem." Many of the new social features introduced at I/O depend on the popularity of Google's calendar and mail tools, for example. Part of that seamlessness, Horowitz added, is curating content, partners, or comments, and it's one of the reasons Google says it's waited to integrate services like Flipboard. But while the company may be circumspect about adding outside tools, Gundotra says the various product teams at Google have come together to integrate Plus as tightly as possible. Plenty of Google services have quietly faded out in the past years, including proto-social networks Buzz and Wave, but the company's latest effort, which has been both praised and maligned for its omnipresence, apparently isn't going anywhere.

Google has just announced what appears to be a competitor to Amazon's EC2 (Elastic Cloud Compute), called Google Compute Engine. While we don't (by any means) have full details of exactly what Google Compute Engine is capable of yet, Urs Hölzle, SVP of technical infrastructure at the company said on stage that the cloud service for business "gives you Linux virtual machines at Google scale," with "high performance networking between VMs, so you can form them into a cluster." Hölzle also says that Compute Engine delivers 50% more compute per dollar than other platforms. The service will be available starting today.

Google has just announced that Google Drive will be coming to iOS and Chrome OS, and it's available now in the App Store. At its day 2 keynote, Google demonstrated Google Drive on the iPad, showing off the real-time collaboration and image recognition capabilities. The company launched its Drive app for PC, Mac, and Android back in April, and said at the time that the iOS version was "98 percent done." You can grab Drive for iOS from the App Store right now, and be sure to check out our giant cloud sync storage face-off to see how it compares to the competition.

On stage at Google I/O, Brian Rakowski, Vice President of the Chrome division at Google has just announced Chrome for iPhone and iPad. It's something iOS users have been asking for for a very long time, and plenty of people will be happy about this news. The app will be for iOS 4.3 and higher devices, and will be available today. The app will also support Chrome sync, and looks like it's just as full-featured as the browser which many of us know and love.

From early feedback, there aren't any major issues with the preview ROM, but you will need to root your Galaxy Nexus to install it. Assuming you understand the risks involved, head on over to the source link to try it out. If you're not comfortable with rooting and flashing devices, you can get a little taste of Android 4.1 by installing the new Play Store or Jelly Bean wallpapers, which have also been leaked, this time in the form of safe-to-install APK files.

Update: RootzWiki has just updated its article and let us know that LTE is now working. Enjoy!

Asus' Chairman Jonney Shih and Google's head of Android Andy Rubin have revealed that the Nexus 7 is being sold at cost, and was built in just four months. "Our engineers told me it is like torture," Shih tells All Things D. Asus was told that the Nexus tablet was to be ready in four months, must be high-end, and should not cost over $200. "They ask a lot."

Rubin says that only Asus could move that fast: "we went from zero to working product in four months." He admits to being frustrated at the lack of Android tablet sales in the past, but says Google now has a full ecosystem in place that will allow users to consume media on one of the company's tablets. "I think that was the missing piece."

Google saw fit to distribute the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7, and the Nexus Q to all of the developers at today's Google I/O event, but the Galaxy Nexus wasn't running Android 4.1 out of the box. Instead, it was made available as an over-the-air update (ours just hit) — and with every OTA update comes a direct download. The ROM, which clocks in at 156MB, will technically only work with a certain variant of the Galaxy Nexus, the "Takju" US GSM version — and more specifically it may only work on the devices given out at I/O.

The fine folks at XDA-Developers are already trying it out on that and other variants, of course, so there may yet be hope for those of you who can't wait for an official relaase. So if you're a Galaxy Nexus owner who is savvy with ROM flashing and the subtle distinctions between Nexus hardware versions, you just might want to give it a shot.

Remaining true to Google I/O tradition, those attending this week's event will receive a collection of loot, including a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.1 Jellybean, a Nexus Q, and a white version of the Asus Nexus 7, otherwise unavailable to the public. Unlike the model currently available for pre-order, which comes with a black textured backplate, developers and other attendees are receiving the Nexus 7 with a white finish on the rear panel. As far as we can tell, the device has no other unique characteristics and the packaging looks identical to the standard version. Of course, Asus may offer a white version in the future, but as it stands, it is available only to a select few.

We've spent some quality time with Google's new voice-enabled search and information system on Jelly Bean, Google Now. It's an interesting system that could be described as Google's take on Siri, but that's not entirely a fair description. Yes, Google Now allows you to perform searches by voice and provides a mix of pre-computed information along with web searches, but it goes further by offering persistent "cards" that automatically populate based on your searches.

The auto-population is both a blessing and a curse. When it works, it works well. For example, if you search for a location, that location will be saved as a card that you can go back to later — including the full details on the transit time. The same applies to weather, sports scores, flight times, locations, and a few more bits. Cards will also appear both inside Google Now and in your notification area when called for — like when you're standing at the bus stop and your bus is late.

I just had a bizarre and fairly interesting experience here at Google I/O 2012. After a small, closed press session on Google's Project Glass, company co-founder Sergey Brin decided to let the press here try on the devices for themselves. Including his personal pair.

The demo was set to nothing more than a looping fireworks video, but I got to have a first-hand experience with what Google's Glass is like for those wearing it right now (side note: Sergey was personally placing the glasses on people, and he snapped these photos). According to the Glass team members present, text updates and other notifications can be seen in their displays, as well as menus and options for different camera settings and communication choices — but members of the press didn't get to see any of those screens.

We've shown you the Google Nexus 7 by Asus and told you about the surprising quality you'll get starting at $199, but the most important part of the tablet is arguably the software that's inside. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is here at Google I/O, and we've just spent some quality time with the new revision of the OS. As you'd expect from the ".1," it's not a giant leap forward from Ice Cream Sandwich on phones, but it brings some fairly exciting new features, major tweaks, and brings the tablet version of the OS (at least at this Nexus 7's screen size) closer to that of the smartphone.

With the Nexus Q, Google is planting its flag in the living room, allowing users to share media from Google Play with their home entertainment center. But unlike its closest competitor, the Apple TV, the Nexus Q isn't a standalone platform and requires an Android smartphone or tablet connected to the same Wi-Fi network to access content. The Nexus Q requires one or more Android 4.1 devices to provide access videos or music offered on Google Play, though the company says support for Android 2.3 and beyond should be available at launch. The Nexus Q can be paired with several Android devices simultaneously and supports content from each user's unique Google Play account.

At launch, the Nexus Q will also only provide media sharing capabilities to the Google Play app, and it's unclear when, if ever, third-party apps like Netflix and Hulu Plus will be allowed to share media with the device. By the looks of things, Google TV is, in fact, the true competitor to the Apple TV, and the Nexus Q is merely intended as a gateway device.

Tablets are insanely versatile, and Google's selling its new entry as a total content device with brand new Jelly Bean bells and whistles. Still, let's face it: at this size and price point, the Nexus 7's natural competitors are first and foremost reading-centric tablets like Amazon's Kindle Fire. And make no mistake: Google is selling this as a reading device, adding magazines to Google Play and touting its bookstore as "the world's largest ebook collection." That's the play here: inexpensive hardware, subsidized by selling media, driving customers towards Google's ad-supported services.

So like Microsoft, Google needs to make its own hardware both for its own sake and to show Android OEMs how it's done. But it also needs to stop the Kindle and Nook from bleeding Android dry. Google has to show that the latest and greatest official version of Android performs as well or better on a reading machine than its older forked counterparts.

Google is very good about launching its emulators of the newest versions of Android just as they announce them, and today is no different — Jelly Bean is available now for developers to begin tooling with and testing their apps on. We've taken the opportunity to install the new SDK to spend some extended time with the new operating system, so join us, won't you?

Google has just announced the release of the first stable version of Chrome for Android, now available on Google Play for Android 4.0 devices. As expected, Google says that the update brings stability and performance fixes, as well as some "minor UI adjustments, especially for tablets." When we first played with the Chrome for Android beta, we were impressed with its functionality and speed compared to the traditional Android browser — be sure to check out our impressions of the software, and grab the new version (18.0.1025123) for yourself at the Google Play Store.

Google has just revealed a new Google Glass Explorer Edition of its prototype camera-equipped glasses at I/O 2012. Pre-orders are open today, only for attendees of the I/O conference, and will cost $1,500 for a delivery early next year. As Sergey Brin himself confesses, this is by no means intended to be a consumer product, but Google's keen to get the Project Glass hardware out into people's hands and onto their faces.

Today, Google introduced its long-rumored media streaming box, and it's called the Nexus Q. The Android-powered base station allows users to seamlessly share media from their smartphone or tablet with their home entertainment center. Today at Google I/O, we had an opportunity to see the new streaming box first-hand.

Google's Sergey Brin admits that Project Glass may not be as polished as the Nexus 7, but he's just showed off a live skydiving video recorded with the glasses. One of Brin's friends dived out of a plane onto the roof of Moscone while streaming the whole thing through Project Glass in a Hangout. After the diver landed on the roof, Brin switched to a feed of some bikers also wearing glasses, who then launched off the side of the building using ramps, followed by yet another athlete who rappelled to the ground.

Obviously, live video streaming is already possible with current technology, and we're guessing supplementary hardware was required for the show (besides the obvious parachutes, bikes, and ropes.) Even so, we wish more product demos involved extreme sports.

Google has just announced Google+ for tablets on stage at I/O. The app is available for Android today, and Google says the iOS version will be available "soon." Google says that more users engage with Google+ on mobile than desktops, and a tablet version of it has been sorely missing. The app itself, from what we can tell, looks very slick, with photos front and center to the content, very large in the streams, organizing content based on popularity.

As expected, Google unveiled its own 7-inch tablet today at the start of the company's I/O conference. Asus is helping Google build its tablet, co-branded once it's available in mid-July. Google's Nexus 7 is clearly going head-to-head with other low-cost Android tablets, including Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet — but how do they compare?

The Nexus 7 has the specs advantage when it comes to its processor, featuring a quad-core Tegra 3 — the first 7-inch tablet to do so. Google is also shipping the Nexus 7 complete with the company's new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system, making it the most up-to-date 7-inch Android tablet out there. There's also a 1.2-megapixel front camera, which places it ahead of the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0's offering, but there's no rear camera on the Nexus 7 — so if you use a tablet to take photos then you'll be disappointed. Unlike the rest of the 7-inch competitors, the Nexus 7 includes NFC support — but a lack of 3G connection means you'll have to use Wi-Fi to get connectivity on this particular tablet. There's an option for 8GB or 16GB, but at $199 for the base model it's clear that the Nexus 7 will be a popular choice for budget tablet shoppers this summer.