Google unveils schedule for Google I/O, cloud, camera, wearables, and Android, and some possible no shows?

Google’s developer conference in San Francisco is just over a month away, and with all the new Android and Chromebook gear available, Google Glass is now an open beta, we are excited to see what might be in store for Google I/O 2014.

Google released the schedule of activity and it looks like it is going to be filled to the brim just like last year’s conference. There will be a Keynote of course, multiple sessions, sandbox activities, and then after hours fun stuff for developers visiting from around the world (maybe some will get to finally see what is going on with those barges).

No details are available about what will be in store for the Keynote other than it is scheduled to last for two hours. Last year’s keynote ran much longer than that, but it was also scheduled that way. Sandbox activities and code labs begin immediately following the Keynote.

This year’s Google I/O will have sessions dedicated to Google Glass, from app design to outright “hacking Glass.” Android, Chrome OS, and cloud services dominate the schedule. There is a dedicated session for HTML5 and why YouTube uses the web platform.

There is a smattering of UI and UX activity, games, monetization, and the like. There is a dedicated session for getting top camera performance. One thing missing from the whole schedule is any mention of Google+ or Gmail. Instead, things all appear to be pushed toward Google Play, or a "Google Identity" through a session titled, “Grow your app with Google identity – engaging users wherever they are.” Last year, there was a session titled, “Grow Your Audience with Google+” among more than a dozen other Google+ sessions.

Since everything is a single-sign-in for Google services, we are certain this is not a harbinger of the end of anything on the social front, but our interest is piqued since there is so much identified with Google+, like Hangouts and all the cool things Google+ does with pictures. Perhaps there is going to be a new naming scheme for the consumer side of Google.

We also did not see any mention of anything related to TV, though there is a sandbox session called, “Cast-Enable Your Application,” so it looks like Google Play and Chromecast are where it is at on the home-entertainment front. If this is the strategy going forward, it is a big departure from rumors over some type of living room appliance that connects to the TV. We are okay with that since Chromecast, as simple as it is, is a brilliant execution that gets Google in the home for less than dinner and a movie for two.

“The ART Runtime” has a dedicated session, indicating that Google is going to give up the goods for developers to make full use of the project which was introduced with Android KitKat 4.4, though we are only guessing at this point since the description on the Google I/O website is lacking a lot of detail.

Obviously wearables are part of the picture, and Glass, along with Android Wear, have a dedicated set of meetings this year, but not so many more than last year. Some of the developers have asked on the Google I/O Google+ page if they should be concerned about San Franciscans staging a protest or assaulting people wearing glass. We suspect that at least around the Moscone Convention Center, developers with Glasswear will be okay, however, they should probably seek local advice before showing off their goods, lest they be tagged a Glasshole and assaulted by some anti-tech folks.

That is our cursory overview of the schedule for Google I/O 2014. To keep things in perspective, this year’s conference is only two days, whereas last year’s Google I/O was three days. You can check out the schedule via reference link below, and come June 25 and 26, you can count on PhoneArena.com to bring you coverage of Google I/O 2014.

reference: Google I/O