Google I/O: Android mixes StreetView, compass and GPS for real time 3D navigation
Google have been showing off more of the Google Android mobile platform at the Google I/O conference at San Francisco, which just happens to be where I am now! A working model of an Android handset has just been shown, and it look fantastic. Of course it comes with a touchscreen - what mobile phone doesn't these days. But the ease of use of the touchscreen rivals iPhone in terms of its ease of use and genuine capability.
Google have attempted to replicate the desktop on the mobile phone. An Android phone lets you create shortcuts to your apps just like you can on the desktop. You can move your icons around on the desktop with your finger, and switch between different running applications just by touching your finger on the screen and swiping it left and right. There's a status bar at the top of the screen that provides common functions to your phone. Simply place your finger on this bar and drag it down, and a new screen slides down showing all the main functions of your phone.
Android phones use the WebKit browser, but not just for viewing web pages. You can use what Google calls Views to create new apps using the functionality of WebKit. So you get the browser view, for example, and the Maps view, which obviously lets you work with Google Maps.
And it's the maps that brought the biggest round of applause at today's opening keynote. Not only was an Android handset shown with standard Google maps on it, in both map and satellite view (both of which rendered very quickly); Google also demonstrated StreetView on an Adroid handset. StreetView, for those who don't know, is Google's technology that lets you see photos of a city or town. Not just any photos - they've taken literally millions of photos of inidividual locations, letting you scroll forward and move left and right 1 metre at a timne, effectively seeing what the place looks like through a series of photos.
What Andoid adds to the mix is GPS and a compass. Yes, just like Nokia's forthcoming 6220 Navigator phone, Google's Android handsets will come with compasses. One was demonstrated with a compass built-in. Google StreetView was called up, with a photo of the street being displayed. As the phone was turned left and right, so the photo turned left and right in real time. This brought a huge round of applause, and looked seriously cool. You can literally move around a city thousands of miles away in real time just by moving around with your Android phone in your hand.
Imagine how useful this could be. Like the look of a hotel in a brochure? Great, but as we all know, brochures are never exactly accurate! What's next door, for example, or round the corner? With StreetView and an Android phone, simply locate the hotel and get a picture of it. Turn round with your phone in hand, and see a 360 degree sweep of what's around it. Move forwards and backwards, and see what buildings (or building sites!) are to the left and right of it. How close is it to the beach? Have a walk and find out!
Android looks glorious. It works as well as the iPhone, it's more functional than the iPhone, it's entirely open source, and it's going to be a hugely disruptive technology. I could be being blinded by the Google hype, but I really do think I've just seen the future!
I'm now attending the dedicated Google Android track, and will have more updates for you shortly. Oh, an dloads of Android pictures too!
