The following are my (most unedited, very-rambling) stream of consciousness thoughts on the Google I/O 2014 Keynote.  

  • Numbers, numbers, numbers.  Numbers, numbers. Numbers.  Android continues to own the phone world and starting to conquer the tablet world.
  • Android One seems like a great initiative, though not particularly relevant to my market.
  • Android L-release preview!  Duarte-time.
  • Looks like Google is going to kick design up a notch again.  It’s been said before and it’s worth saying again; Google is getting better at design faster than Apple is getting better at services, though hopefully iOS8 and OS X 10.10 will bring some parity there.
  • Mattias, er, Material Design!  Love the way it looks in motion.  Also glad to see Google is finally unifying design between all their platforms.
  • Curious to see how all these “virtual light sources and real-time shadows” impact performance.  Hopefully Google won’t stumble here.
  • Interesting to see software design take on a resemblance to a “paper” surface as device screen PPI slowly climbs closer and closer to the PPI of print.
  • The updated Gmail all looks a lot like the latest Google+ app on Android.
  • Material Design coming to the web. Solid.
  • A lot of these new developer tools to improve design are great, but I’m curious to see how many companies will leverage these tools and how many will just continue to update their legacy, shitty Android app.
  • The more I see of Material Design, the more I feel like it’s basically Google Now Everywhere.  This isn’t a bad thing.
  • Oh hey, it’s lockscreen notifications from iOS.
  • Notification updates seem iterative, but solid.  Android was already great at notifications, so it didn’t need a full revamp.
  • Oh man, Trusted Devices (with some bonuses) is finally coming to stock Android.  Makes sense with Android Wear, but still good to see.
  • Multitasking UI is interesting; reminds me of how WebOS listed browser cards along with active app cards.  Hopefully you can still swipe them away.
  • Google, unsurprisingly, marries web content and apps with native apps better than anyone.
  • Dammit!  Lots of interesting sounding stuff – “New keyboard, UI, do not disturb, and new quick settings.” was just…skipped.
  • Goodbye, Dalvik.  No one will really miss you.  Excited to see how ART’s performance boosts impact day-to-day usage.
  • Hopefully this GPU improvements will help compensate for the “automatic” effects Google is adding to UI animations
  • PC gaming graphics.  In your pocket.  Said some guy on the stage for the 5,000th time.  “PC gaming” is such a ridiculously vague term that I guess you can get away with it every time.
  • Oh man, built-in battery improvements, finally.  Hopefully developers will bother to leverage these new APIs to actually take advantage of the battery savings.  Still nothing to stop a shitty app from doing shitty things to your battery, like Greenify.  Interested to see how it plays out.
  • Burst mode camera APIs oh God finally thank you.
  • Must…resist…urge…to…download…Nexus…5…image.
  • Not sure that iOS burn was really necessary, Google.
  • Security patches coming from Google Play instead of OS updates.  This is a great way to fix a major issue with Android version fragmentation.
  • “It shouldn’t matter which device you’re using, you want to pick up where you left off.” – shades of Apple’s continuity.
  • Always-on display for the G-watch. Nice.
  • My poor Pebble is crying quietly to itself.  I love basically everything about Android Wear.
  • Oof. Live demo fails are always painful.
  • As someone who occasionally gets frustrated when I get swamped with Pebble notifications, I adore the “single swipe to Do Not Disturb” option.
  • Android Wear might finally make my dream “Pebble + FitBit” device possible.
  • It’s going to be very, very hard for Pebble to compete with first-party wearable solutions that are able to leverage OS-level features like notification interaction and automatic watch app updates, not to mention developer support.
  • Moto 360…later this summer.  I think the audience is even more depressed than I am.  The next few months are going to be a battle to resist buying a G Watch or a Galaxy Live.
  • Nice that Android Auto is “cast” from the phone to the device.  This means you don’t have to do some sort of awkward “car dashboard software updates” just to get the latest Android Auto features.
  • Way more excited by this Android Auto stuff than I thought I’d be.  Seems like a great solution to “using” your phone safely in your car.
  • Today really is about “Android Everywhere”, so I can see why they started the presentation off by talking about their new unified design language across platform.
  • Awesome to see a relatively small app like Pocket Casts get a shout-out on the I/O stage, and even more awesome that they’re already ready for Android Auto.
  • Question: Can I buy an after-market in-car system with Android Auto support?
  • Yet another expected form factor: Android TV.
  • Google is taking on Xbox One’s HDMI-in functionality.  Should’ve seen that coming, but didn’t.
  • I already have approximately seven billion media consumption boxes, so Android TV is going to have to really impress me to earn an HDMI port on my TV.
  • Google just leap-frogged when Apple when it comes to getting apps and games on their set-top box.  Now it’s just a matter of getting people to actually buy them.
  • Nice to see multiple types of devices used as gaming controllers.  If Android supports any Bluetooth controllers, can I use my DualShock 4s?  Because that would the best.
  • As expected, Google TV has Chromecast support…but it basically had to.
  • Lots of TVs running Android TV by default, but I don’t want a Smart TV.  I want a streaming box.
  • “Nearby Device” Google Cast support is good stuff.  A bit of a bump over AirPlay.  Wonder how far the range is, though.  Can you mess with people in nearby apartments or houses?
  • The “Personalized Ambient Feed” feature is going to be great for my TV-as-a-cloud-based-digital-frame project.
  • Android Device Mirroring.  Not really a surprise given the ghost “Cast Screen” tile that keeps randomly popping up in my Quick Settings panel.
  • That proximity unlock thing with Chromebooks would be great, if I ever had any intention of buying a Chromebook.
  • Phone notifications on the Chromebook is solid.  I love this feature of Pushbullet, but native support would be even better.  Hoping this will show up as a Chrome browser extension.
  • Android apps in Chrome OS.  Finally.  This has the potential to make them so much more useful.  Hopefully, as more and more Android and Chrome apps adopt “Material Design”, this will appear more and more seamless.
  • I use my personal phone at work, but I’m not sure I’ll use any of this personal/work separation stuff.  Still, I’m sure it matters to someone.
  • Oh hey look, a bunch of tech journalists complaining that Google is talking about programming at a developer’s conference.
  • Google Fit is nice to see.  I’m a fan of anything that helps users build their own fitness ecosystems from a variety of apps and devices.