i/o

"It's Christmas in June," someone told me as we waited in the gadget line at the Google I/O conference on Wednesday. Every year at the conference, Google "gives" attendees hardware that runs Google software and services. This giveaway program isn't cheap for Google. But it is worth it.

Let's look at the numbers.

This year, the haul for attendees includes four pieces of Google hardware, with a total retail value of $1,176:

Google just wrapped up the second keynote in as many days at Google I/O 2012. Today's event was focused solely on Chrome and Apps and brought some great news to iOS users (how ironic) who are fans of Google's Drive and Chrome products.

Both Google Drive and Google Chrome are now officially available for iOS devices running iOS 4.3 and above.

Google brought its popular Incognito features to the iOS version of Chrome, along with many more features we won't go into here. Incognito mode, as we showed you on the Android version, allows you … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Adding offline editing abilities to Google Docs may sound like a modest, incremental change, but it's actually a major step ahead for the company's Web-based services.

And those services will take two more steps soon: Offline editing is coming to the Presentations and Spreadsheet apps, too.

"You'll see that coming out before long," Alan Warren, senior director for Google Docs and Drive, said in an interview at the Google I/O show here. Both of the apps will allow users to read and edit files offline, he added, with editing abilities coming &… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google's online app market for Android apps, movies, music, and books is coming to Google TV, the company announced Thursday in a blog post from the Google I/O developer conference here.

Later this summer, Google said, it will make video content that can be purchased or rented through Google Play available to Google TV. On Wednesday the company announced it would be adding TV content to the lineup of content it now offers via Google Play.

People will be able to purchase episodes of TV shows or buy the entire season and play it on … Read more

Thursday's big headlines still have us basking in the Google gadget glow:

Google co-founder Sergey Brin says he envisions consumers buying Google Glass by 2014, just a year after developers get to experiment with the version called Explorer Edition. Right now only bleeding-edge techies at the Google I/O conference get to preorder the augmented reality glasses for $1,500. But once those models ship next year, it wouldn't surprise me to see some being sold for high prices on eBay.

Already, someone from the conference is selling the attendee freebie Nexus 7 tablet on eBay, if you … Read more

Google's latest sweet tooth obsession has been unveiled on the Google campus in the form of a giant jelly bean jar shaped like the Android mascot. It's a multicolored homage to the next rev of the Android OS -- version 4.1, Jelly Bean.

The sculpture didn't just download itself into place. It had a remarkable journey from conception as chunks of Styrofoam in New Jersey to its current spot among the pantheon of dessert-inspired Android operating system yard art.

The Jelly Bean sculpture was built by prop-building company Themendous over the course of one action-packed week during a heat wave that left workers covered in sweat as they churned out 160 individual beans to go into the Android-shaped jar. … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO - Google announced today at it's Google I/O conference here that Google documents is going offline.

The Google word-processing service is a Web-based alternative to programs such as Microsoft Word. Because Google Docs is a Web-based service, people who use the application have not been able to use it unless they have an Internet connection. But now that will be changing. And people will now be able to work in Google Docs on airplanes and other places where a Web connection may not be available.

Google said that other services, like Google Presentations and Spreadsheets will … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google announced at its annual developer conference Thursday that its Chrome browser and its Google Drive, a Dropbox-like storage service, are coming to Apple iOS devices.

Adding the Google browser to iOS devices means Google users will be able to get a more consistent experience across multiple devices, including their iPhones and iPads. Brian Rakowski, vice president of Chrome, showed off how the browser will work on iOS devices.

Specifically, he showed how the sync feature that Google recently added to Chrome will work on iOS devices. Sync allows people to share their browser settings across multiple … Read more

Shortly after the Google I/O keynote yesterday, Google rolled out a list of app updates, one of which was an update to Google Maps. In the update, Google enabled the ability to save a section of a map for offline access. This is a great feature when you are traveling in an area with spotty coverage.

To save an area, launch Google Maps and tap on the menu key. Select Make Available Offline from the menu and then narrow down the area you want to save. You'll want to make sure you do this in advance and when … Read more