Google I/O 2012: Nexus 7 Tablet Announced, Google Glasses Demo’d In Amazing Style

Google’s 2012 I/O developer’s conference is underway, with the keynote beginning while thousands of attendees were still trying to get into the hall. Welcome to our live coverage of today’s announcements. Feel free to refresh for updates.

Hugo Barra, Android

Says there are now 400 million activated Android devices, up from 100 million at IO 2011. One million devices are activated every day. Significant growth in developing countries.

Announces new OS update: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Dave Burke, Engineeering Director

Announces “Project Butter” – improvements to all applications on the operating system.

Hugo Barra speaking again

Text input improved. Keyboard learns intelligently over time — a predictive keyboard that guesses what you’re going to type. Also accepts offline voice input.

Now showing off improvements to the Camera app in Jelly Bean.

Announces new features to Android Beam – tap phones together to share photo with another user.

Notifications: can return calls directly from Notifications list. Improved sharing and more.

Jelly Bean also includes updates to how search works. Search results now use Knowledge Graph to provide quick answers and information for appropriate queries. Also works with voice search, too; i.e., “How tall is the Space Needle?” — a la Apple’s Siri. It speaks search results/answers back to the user.

Third search update is Google Now. “Gets you just the right information at just the right time.” Uses search history, calendar and other tools. Can do things like learn your typical driving route to work, and provide better driving routes when traffic is bad. Also includes automatic information about local places/businesses, flight information, and sports scores. It knows your favorite teams “because you’ve already searched for them on Google.” (Not really accurate; I never search for “Seattle Seahawks.”) Google Now will get smarter the more you use it.

Jelly Bean will rollout in mid-July to (I think) certain devices. SDK preview is available now for developers.

Chris Yerga now speaking about Google Play

More than 600,000 apps and games in Google Play, and more than 20 billion app installs.

Announcing app encryption in Jelly Bean. Paid apps are encrypted with a device-specific key.

Smart app updates: users will only download parts of the app (APK) that have changed. This is supported on Gingerbread and above.

Announcing Google Cloud Messaging: free for all developers, now quota limitations.

Now to consumer-related announcements.

Movies and TV shows (single episodes or full seasons ) available today. Partnering with Disney, ABC, NBC, Sony Pictures and Paramount.

Magazines also coming to Google Play. Hundreds of titles available – single issues or subscription, with 14-day free trials on most popular magazines.

Hugo Barra now speaking again.

Nexus experience – want the best experience possible. Google has partnered with Asus to build the perfect device.

Introducing Nexus 7

• 1280 by 800 HD display
• Tegra 3 chipset with quadcore CPU and 16-core GPU (or maybe it was 12?)
• front-facing camera
• wifi, bluetooth and NFC connectivity
• gyroscope
• up to 9 hours of video playback
• 340 grams (weight)

Chris Yerga speaking again

Nexus 7 is designed for Google Play. Doing a demo of some features. “Ideal device for reading books.” Clearly aiming this at Amazon Kindle. Demos how to read magazine articles.

Ideal for watching movies and TV. Demos the features. Can download TV shows for offline watching.

Nexus 7 introduces new recommendations engine. Uses “beautiful and dynamic widgets on your home screen.” Intelligent widgets — reminds me of Netflix-style recommendations.

“What’s this song?” widget with Shazam-like capabilities and links to Google Play store to buy the song.

Nexus 7 ships with Chrome as the standard browser.

Showing demo of local search with offline Google Maps. Has “Compass Mode” as part of seeing inside-the-business photos.

Showing various game demos.

Hugo Barra now speaking again, still on Nexus 7.

Nexus 7 wil cost $199. Includes a $25 credit to spend in Google Play. Includes free Transformers movie, free Bourne Dominion book and a few free magazines.

Can be ordered today, will begin shipping in mid-July. Available in US, Canada, UK and Australia (I think) with more countries on the way.

Odd that they didn’t mention if it’ll be sold via retail outlets.

Joe Britt and Matt Hershenson now speaking.

Talking about a new gizmo called “Nexus Q” – a small Android-powered computer that connects to your existing devices. Also connects with Google Play. It’s controlled by Android devices and will stream content to TV, stereo, etc.

Nexus Q also has social elements. Friends can add songs to playlist queue. Friends can send their content through Nexus Q.

Nexus Q will cost $299 and be available in mid-July.

Google+

Now Vic Gundotra coming out to speak on Google+.

Google+ turns one year old tomorrow. “We really think we’re on to something special.”

He plays a very slick video about Hangouts. (Google has really gotten good at the slick videos lately, hasn’t it?)

• More than 250 million people have upgraded to Google+ accounts
• 150 million Monthly active users
• 50% sign in daily
• They spend more than an hour “across Google.”
• Active users now spending more than 12 minutes per day in the stream.

Now have more users engaging with Google+ on mobile devices than on desktop.

Announcing Google+ for tablets. The stream scrolls horizontally. Looks like a much nicer interface than the recently announced iPhone app update. Supports Hangouts.

Launching soon on the iPad, not just on Android where it’s available today. Same tablet features also available on Android smartphones.

Announcing Google+ Events. Supports sending invitations before an event, plus management tools like integration with Google Calendar. During the event, Events includes “Party Mode” that collects photos from all attendees (that use Party Mode) in one place. After the event, photos stored on event page in chronological order. Can see photos from individual users.

Sergey Brin runs on stage. He’s wearing the Google Glasses and introduces some professional skydivers who are going to wear the Glasses while they jump from a blimp above Moscone West. They’re doing a Google Hangout through Google Glasses in mid-air. They landed on the roof of Moscone West. BMX bikers wearing glasses, people rappelling down the side of the building … more bikers and they bring a set of Google Glasses into the keynote room and deliver it to Brin.

Very freaking cool. Best tech product demo ever.

Team members now showing the technology behind Google Glass(es). Weighs less than “many sunglasses,” but no specifics. They show a touching video of a mom using Glasses with her baby.

Sergey speaking again.

There’s a lot more than just videos and photos with a wearable computer.

Google Glass Explorer Edition – developer pre-order for US-based IO attendees. Cost $1,500 — shipping early next year. Only accepting orders here at I/O.

Vic Gundotra speaking again. Hugo Barra speaking, too.

Android Developer Pack – all attendees getting new Galaxy Nexus phone, new Nexus 7 tablet and the new Nexus Q.

And with that, they keynote is over. Thanks for reading along.