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Google I/O giveaways: $5.5 million buys a lot of buzz

"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:

The goods Retail price Nexus 7 tablet $199 Nexus Q $299 Galaxy Nexus phone $349 Chromebox $… Read more

Google Play comes to Google TV

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

Envision a Google Glass world by 2014

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

Dirt-cheap alternatives to the Google Nexus Q

A 7-inch quad-core tablet for $199? Got my credit card right here!

A media-streaming orb for $299? Not so fast.

These were the two big announcements during yesterday's Google I/O keynote, and while the Google Nexus 7 tablet has "smash hit" written all over it, the Nexus Q media-streaming orb will probably be the biggest flop since Google TV.

What's wrong with the Q? Simple: it has too many digits in its price tag.

As noted in CNET's Nexus Q First Take, this heavy black orb is designed to stream songs, videos, and photos … Read more

Google Docs goes offline

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

Google Chrome and Drive come to Apple iOS devices

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

Dolphin gets a Garage to stash add-ons

SAN FRANCISCO--Tugging on Chrome's coat tails, the popular Dolphin browser has announced alongside the Google I/O developer conference a new framework for developers called Dolphin Garage.

Garage is an open API program for extending the functionality of Dolphin. Powered in part by Adobe Phonegap and Dolphin's own HTML5 framework called Engine, it will include the release of more than 150 APIs, which will allow developers to create their own add-ons for the browser.

Engine has proven to be a big boon for Dolphin, explained David Dehghan, technical architect at Dolphin. While at a W3C Web standards meeting … Read more

Join us for the Google I/O 2012 Day 2 keynote (live blog)

Tune in to CNET's live blog from the second Google I/O keynote starting at 9:30 a.m. PT.

SAN FRANCISCO--Sure, it was a very busy first day at Google I/O, but our friends from the Googleplex are only getting started. Thursday brings yet another keynote at San Francisco's Moscone Center and if the big news of Wednesday (Nexus tablet! Jelly Bean! Google Glass!) is any indication, we're in for a lively day tomorrow, as well.

While the Wednesday keynote focused on hardware and Android, the second-day event will shift to Google's Web presence … Read more

BlueStacks ports Android apps to Mac

SAN FRANCISCO -- App player BlueStacks announced the "marriage" of Mac and Android under a wedding tent today, across the street from the Moscone West home of Google I/O.

You can download the BlueStacks alpha for Mac from CNET Download.com or BlueStacks.com.

The public alpha of BlueStacks for Mac brings BlueStacks' LayerCake technology to OS X and features several apps from BlueStacks partners such as HandyGames, CreativeMobile, and Pulse, in addition to the Android basics. BlueStacks will work on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and above.

When asked about whether people want Android apps … Read more

Google's 3D city imagery hits Android, headed to iOS 'soon'

Remember Google's snazzy demo of 3D views of various cities at a rather impromptu press conference earlier this month?

You can now play with that feature yourself. Google quietly released a new version of its Google Earth program for Android today that adds 3D maps of 14 regions, just about all of which are in the U.S.:

Boston Boulder Charlotte Lawrence Los Angeles Long Beach Portland Rome San Antonio Santa Cruz San Diego San Francisco Bay Area Tampa Tucson

In a post announcing the feature, Google says it will add more cities "in the coming months" … Read more