This week is one of those big ones for the tech world: the week of Google I/O, Google’s developer conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. In addition to the dozens of technical sessions, lab sessions, and demonstrations of Google technologies such as Android, Chrome, and APIs, Google had a lot of announcements about the future of their products.

Similar to Apple, Google announces product updates and news during the keynote at the beginning of the conference. The massive 3.5-hour keynote was full of important statistics about Google’s impact across different products and sneak previews of new updates and features to those same products.

It’s a lot of information to take in, to say the least, so we put together an outline of the important updates from the keynotes and a few other tidbits of information from I/O:

Important Numbers & Statistics:

•  At the start of the keynote, over 1 million people were already tuned into the live stream on YouTube
• Chrome (Google’s browser) is now the most widely used browser in the world with 750 million active users
• There are now 900 million Android activations in the world
• Google Play is at 48 billion app installs
• 2.5 billion apps are installed every month

Android & Google Play Announcements:

• A bunch of new tools for app developers were launched, such as an app translation service, beta testing, and staged rollouts.
• Game services will allow game developers to incorporate achievements, social and public leaderboards, streamlined storage API to save games, and real-time multiplayer gaming.
• As rumored, Google launched a music streaming service called Google Play Music All Access.
• There are 3 new APIs for Android, all of which allow developers to take advantage of location services.
• The year-old Google Cloud Messaging is getting a big revamp, including persistent connections, upstream messaging, and notification sync.
• An unlocked “Google version” of the Samsung Galaxy S4 will be made available on June 26 for $649.
• A new program called Google Play for Education will aim to make devices and software more affordable for education.

Google Chrome and Search Updates:

• Google is focused on bringing the best parts of Chrome on desktop to mobile, including faster video-streaming, faster payments, and Chrome Experiments.
• They’re also enhancing Voice Search and adding commands to searches using Chrome on desktops and laptops for a conversational search experience.
• Knowledge Graph has been improved to provide “smarter” information and has added several new languages.

Google+ Announcements:

• Google+ has another new design, incorporating elements reminiscent of Facebook and Pinterest, and is responsive and consistent across devices.
• The stream has a new multi-column design with cards, although you can switch back and forth between this view and a single-column view.
• Photo cards can be “flipped over” to see more pictures with the same hashtags (you’ll be able to exempt your photos from being included in this feature).
• A new “Related Hashtags” feature will look at your posts, determine what they’re about, and automatically add hashtags (that you can go back and remove).
• New photo features include aut0-backup, aut0-highlight to feature your best pictures, automatic enhancements (that you can go back an undo), and a new feature humbly called Auto-Awesome that will automatically put pictures together to create animated GIFs, panoramics, and filmstrips.
• Hangouts has been upgraded to a standalone app for iOS, Android, and the web, within which you can use text, photo, and video. It will replace all the several different messaging apps Google used to offer for a more unified experience.

Google Maps Updates:

• Google Maps for the web has been rebuilt from the ground up. It will be full-screen and have Google Earth and Street View built-in.
• Maps will be customized to show the information you need the most. You can add ‘Work’ and ‘Home’ locations, star locations, add reviews, and more to improve customizations.
• Zagat badges, restaurant reviews, and offers from retailers will be incorporated into tailored maps. There will also be cards with info like a location’s hours and ratings.
• There will be new versions of Google Maps for mobile and an iPad app launched soon. They will have live traffic reporting and re-routing, and customization based on user behavior and search history. Integration with Google Now is rumored.

Image via Google Developers

Twitter opens office in Detroit

Detroit, Michigan is going through a “tech renaissance” and Twitter is the latest to join the scene, opening their office there last Wednesday. The office will be based in the M@dison Building, a historic building shared by several tech startups and will be led by Greg Myrick.

The “Motor City” office will serve marketers and ad agencies in the region, including the automotive companies that are the reason behind the city’s nickname. Automotive companies such as General Motors have already worked with Twitter on Promoted Products campaigns.

Twitter sues five spammers

We all hate spam, especially on social media. As social networks get more popular they become targets for spammers. Twitter is now taking action by suing five of the most aggressive tool providers and spammers. In a blog post, Twitter explains:

“By shutting down tool providers, we will prevent other spammers from having these services at their disposal. Further, we hope the suit acts as a deterrent to other spammers, demonstrating the strength of our commitment to keep them off Twitter.”

In addition to the lawsuit, the engineering team also launched new anti-spam measures, such as using Twitter’s link shortening service (t.co) to analyze whether tweeted links could contain malicious content. But we need to do our part too. There are people that avoid tweeting about certain topics that tend to attract lots of spam, such as hot new tech products. Instead of (or in addition to) this, when you see a spammy tweet make sure to report it.

Big week for Instagram leaves app dominating Trending Topics

Last Tuesday, Instagram for Android was released. As a result, Instagram was a trending topic for days. Also trending was #TeamAndroid as Android users celebrated iPhone users having one less “exclusive” app. This resulted in one of the frequent Android vs. iPhone debates on Twitter.

Then yesterday, Instagram was acquired by Facebook, prompting hilarious tweets about the acquisition (more here). Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram both became Trending Topics, with Instagram still being the 7th most popular Trending Topic in the U.S.

Beyonce finally tweets

Although the verified @beyonce Twitter account has existed since 2009, no tweets had ever been sent from the account…until last Thursday. As part of a complete redesign of her digital presence, Beyonce sent her first tweet to announce her redesigned website. She also launched a blog on Tumblr, titled ‘I Am.’

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Motorola ‘bet big’ and backed Android as the sole operating system on all of their smartphone devices since 2008, showing extreme Google-loyalty. The plan is for Motorola to continue on as a separate entity from Google, governing under Motorola CEO, Sanjay Jha.

So what’s the deal, why now? It seems Google’s primary motivator to Motorola can be broken down by the simple equation: 17,000 patents + another 7,500 patents in progress= Android software protection against anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and others.

The Federal Trade Commission still needs to approve the transaction (although it seems likely), but is projected to close at the end of 2011 or start of 2012. What are your thoughts?

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This advancement in technology will make a major difference in the early diagnoses and treatment in stroke victims, allowing actions to be taken sooner and more accurately, which improves the outcome tremendously. For every 15 minutes that a patient is kept waiting for a diagnosis, the effectiveness of the medication is reduced by half. So, when they say that every second counts, they mean it.

ResolutionMD Mobile is designed to scan images of the brain with what specialists at the University of Calgary are calling “nearly the same accuracy as when they use a full diagnostic workstation”. However, some medical experts have been resistant to the idea of reading a scan off of a 3.5 inch screen. The app is meant to be used in emergency scenarios, after all, and doctors worried that it was not trust worthy.

Fortunately, image compression, microprocessors and wireless-data bandwidth have all been improved so much so that ResolutionMD Mobile has won over most of the critics, making it an extremely useful tool for doctors when they do not have other equipment available.

For patients who live in more rural areas, ResolutionMD Mobile will save lives. Ross Mitchell, a medical professor who worked closely on the app at the Canada University commented on the effect it has already had in rural Arizona saying “The patients are being treated remotely, and they stay remote”.

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Transferring music is incredibly easy and those who viewed the demonstration described it as magic. Simply touching a CD to the device instantly copies and synchronizes all the music onto the disk. Tap the disk a second time and the music will begin to play.

This innovative technology hopes to soon control  all of the appliances in your house from your Android phone. This universal remote will make your house a smart house.

“We’d like to think of your entire home as an accessory, or better yet as a network of accessories, and think of Android as the operating system for your home,” said Joe Britt, head of the Android@Home team.

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Lighting Science Group is currently creating wireless LED light bulbs that will be compatible with the Android. The company expects the product to be ready by the end of this year.

Installed in your appliances and light bulbs, Android@Home technology will wirelessly communicate with your Android similar to how a Bluetooth device connects to your phone. Users will easily be able to start a load of laundry, run the dishwasher and water the lawn among other things.

Appliances not connected to Wi-Fi like a refrigerator can still benefit from this innovative technology. Google already has plans to connect any device that uses electricity. The next time you run out of milk, your Android-powered refrigerator can send you a message when your phones GPS picks up that you’re at the grocery store.

“Everything should be Android-ified,” said Andy Rubin, head of Android, during a conversation with reporters. “We should just take it to new levels. It’s no longer something that people will go to the store to buy and then bring to their home or bring to their office. It’s something that will actually bridge those things.”

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Not so surprisingly, the NOOK Color was already being exploited to function as an Android tablet by the hacking community. But for everyone else, (those who aren’t comfortable rooting their electronics), Barnes & Noble just sent out the update which grants legitimate Android power to your reader.

Now NOOK Color owners can get apps on their device, although the selection is a little thin at this time. Barnes & Noble is only offering a measly 125 apps in the new NOOK Apps store, but it’s a start. And Angry Birds is available, so that should keep you busy until the store fills out.

The update also beefs up the web browser, enabling Adobe Flash 10.1, and adds a number of other cool features, according to Mobile Magazine.

Though a step closer to tablet functionality, the NOOK Color is definitely more limited than other products out there, but not significantly, and, at its price tag of $250, it is considerably more affordable. Froyo never tasted so good.

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Today marked the launch of Amazon’s Android App Store, which is set to compete directly with Google’s Android Marketplace. It offers a number of key benefits, not the least of which is the brand equity already established by Amazon. Its app store is meant to be a natural extension of the Amazon.com experience, something a lot of people are used to.

Part of that experience is the recommendation algorithm, which will indeed be implemented in the app store and likely prove to be a fierce sales generator. Another Amazon staple which will likely drive app sales is price discounts. Apps sold in the Amazon App Store are not chained to developer pricing, meaning Amazon could undercut the pricing of Google’s marketplace, according to NY Times. Also contrary to Google, apps submitted to the Amazon store are subject to review, albeit a fairly loose one.

Furthermore, all apps in the Amazon storefront will be able to be demoed. That doesn’t sound very impressive at first, but in reality it is rather fascinating. The apps are meant to run on Android devices, however, the “Test Drive” feature allows to try out those apps on any browser using Flash, says TechCrunch. That’s pretty nifty.

Finally, the launch wouldn’t be complete without promotion, now would it? Hence we are treated daily to a free premium app selected by Amazon. The free app of the day for the store’s opening: Angry Birds Rio. Man, those guys over at Rovio really know how to get their name out.

And oh yeah, Apple is suing because the “App Store” apparently belongs to them.

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