What Google Needs to show us this week at I/O

Apple has had their week, showing us what it means to make an amazing Laptop.  Microsoft has had their week, showing the future of computing and how they plan to make their phones finally competitive.  Now it is Google's turn and here is what I think they need to do.

First off they need to fix their tablet problems.  The fact is that most Android tablets suck.  This doesn't mean that their hardware isn't there it's just that barely any developers write apps for Android Tablet's.  The iPad's ecosystem is just too strong when it comes to the quality of apps involved.  Also, now Microsoft has introduced one beautiful new tablet that is very promising, if they can deliver on what they showed off then Android Tablet's will have an even bigger problem.   If the rumors are true and Google announces a Nexus Table this week then hopefully they will introduce something that will make consumers look away from the iPad.  Something needs to be done to make Android Tablet's interesting to consumers.

The second thing they need to do is fix all this fragmentation.  Whether or not you agree or disagree that fragmentation is a problem, when you are about to announce your next version of Android and less than 10% of your users are on the current 4.0 platform, that is a problem.  Google should put their foot down and force their OEM's to get a better upgrade plan in place.  Also, and this is a personal note, I couldn't even tell you what Android 4.0 looks like because almost every android device has some sort of custom UI interface plugged in to what the Phone Manufacturer wanted.  Some of them are nice, but honestly I think it is annoying and sometimes makes Android look like crap.  Force them to change Google, yes you have a huge ecosystem with your Android operating system but do you really have brand loyalty.  Honestly, as annoying as it is that current Windows Phones will not get Windows 8, I think it would be even more annoying never knowing exactly when your phone will get the next version of Android, if it is going to at all.  Seriously the new Samsung Galaxy S III is just being released.  But in a few weeks, just watch and Samsung will release a new phone even better with Jelly Bean on it.  Even though Apple may be slow to update things at least you know that your phone is top notch at least for a whole year, and you know you will get an update even if it's limited (for no reason.) Google can easily fix some of these issues simply by laying down what phone companies must do if they want to continue using the Android operating system.  Don't believe me about fragmentation.  Just check out this picture below, it is a picture of all the devices that one developer must test their apps on to insure that they work correctly.  There are almost 400 devices here.  It shouldn't have to be that difficult.

To kind of some these things up, Google can fix their issues to maintain their current position simply by telling Phone companies what they can and cannot do, and get a regular updating system going for these phones.  Yes that might mean some of these custom skins of Manufactures would have to go, but seriously plain old Android is not ugly, it looks really nice I promise.  They also need to push their tablet market and make it relevant.  If they can show us this week that they can do some of these things or better then maybe they can deflate some of the steam that Microsoft has built for themselves this week.  Microsoft is gunning for them and they have the cash to throw around to make things happen, and even though they have been a sleeping giant in the past both Google and Apple need to not rest on their marketshares.  I am interested to see what Google shows us this week, hopefully it is enough to wow us. 

Microsoft finally got their tablet PC right!

Holy Cow, Microsoft made something truly innovative!  This tablet is stunning.  Here is the back-story way back in the late 90's early 2000's good old father of Microsoft Bill Gates thought it would be a great idea to have a tablet PC.  Sadly, even though they  made software adjustments for touch, the OEM's just botched it up and it just didn't work well.  This tablet that was announced last night is basically what that original idea should of been, and I have to admit it looks stunning.  Microsoft just lite a fire under the OEM's to say hey this is what a Windows 8 tablet should be.  Now, go try to catch up to it.

Check out the announcement video below.

Now exactly how well will this go in the market against Apple and all the Google tablets out there?  Well here is the thing Microsoft for the most part is going a whole different route than Apple went with this tablet idea.  Apple believes that a computer and a tablet should be two different things for mostly different purposes.  So far this strategy has worked outstandingly well for them.  However, Microsoft is basically saying we think that the future of the PC is the tablet so their tablets will run Full Windows 8 mostly.  The reason I put the mostly at the end is that Microsoft is releasing two different versions one an ultra thin ARM based tablet will run Windows RT and the intel version will run Windows 8 Pro.  The difference is the ARM RT version will run Metro Apps only (similar to other tablet apps,)  but the fact that the intel version will run Windows 8 PRO means that not only will you have the great Metro style tiles for your tablet viewing but you will also have an actual PC under the hood.  Depending on the exact specs of these tablets (which hopefully we will now soon,)  you can do almost anything that you would do normally on Windows.

The design of this tablet is just great, very thin, very original design but what caught my eye the most is that cover keyboard.  Did you see it in the video above?  It is like Apple's smart cover but instead of just a felt lined inside to the cover you have an actual touch based keyboard built into the cover.  That is a great idea!  Apple please copy that for the iPad, stat!  haha.

Anyway back to the Surface Tablet,  We do not have exact specs, release dates, or price ranges yet, but hopefully we will have all that information soon enough.  (Update:)  We do know that the intel version will have in ivybridge processor and be similar in specs to all the Ultrabooks out there.  Both tablets have front and rear cameras, a full usb port, displayport, an SD card slot, and can come in a hard drive size up to 128 gigs.

Now, I have seen a lot of people talking about this online and saying great hardware but where are the apps!  Well, I do agree they should of spent a little bit more time explaining this concept but guys the apps are already out there (for the intel version.)  It's Windows, any windows app that will be compatible with Windows 8 will be compatible with this puppy.  I think they should of stated this a lot better in their presentation yesterday but the fact remains that this is a full fledged Windows Computer.  Now how will that all translate with the RT version?  I am not sure.  Simply translating Windows phone apps to the tablet may work but we have yet to find out exactly.   This may or not be worth it to the developers out there.  We will just have to wait and see. I for one do not understand why they wanted to make two tablets.  I feel like the true Tablet PC with intel will really take off but I am not sure about the RT version, with very little apps out there for the Mobile Windows platform I think it will be hard pressed to catch up with the iPad's and Android Tablet's out there.  But then again this true Tablet PC could really catch on and with this amazing design and innovation we can only assume it will sell like crazy!

This is a great showing from Microsoft.  How well will it compete will have to be seen, but keep in mind this is technically a whole different ball game when it comes to the tablet market or old ball game if you want to consider the original Windows Tablet PC's.  I am just excited to see Microsoft wake up and start really innovating here.  Finally someone other than Apple is making something really cool!

Xbox SmartGlass is probably the biggest announcement at MS's press conference today.

If you can't beat them then copy or join them.  That is what I can take away from Microsoft's major feature that they announced at their E3 press conference.  What is SmartGlass?  Well just imagine all the second screen functionality coming from the Wii U except instead of a controller its your iPhone, your iPad, your Android Phone, Your Kindle fire.  Get the picture?  That's right instead of you having to go buy a new console or some expensive accessory Microsoft has done a very smart thing by taking advantage of this phone App phenomenon that is going on right now.  They will make any smartphone or tablet your secondary screen for your xbox to add functionality to your games or to continue watching a movie from your xbox.

The above picture is a snapshot of what exactly could be viewed from your secondary screen while playing any game on your xbox 360.

Is Microsoft beating Nintendo at it's own game?  If so they found a cheap and effective way to do it.  Hopefully this coming week we get a lot more details of the exact functionality we can except to see out of SmartGlass.

One other thing we can take away from this is that truly Microsoft it gunning for the xbox 360 to become your HUB for all entertainment experiences.