Google I/O 2013 Conference: What Was Ignored? Android 4.3, Google TV and Nexus

We’ve talked a lot about the things that have been covered in the conference so far. Now what about the things we expected but have been relatively ignored? Well are the three so far:

Android OS 4.3: It’s confirmed that Android 4.3 Jelly Bean is the OS that’s coming out, not Key Lime Pie 5.0 as was hoped. The fact that Google is also rolling out a Samsung Galaxy S4 with the 4.2 OS seems to indicate that Key Lime Pie 5.0 is still a good while away. The silence about JellyBean is a bit strange though.

Google TV: It wasn’t mentioned at all but Google is quietly updating Google TV to Android 4.2 JellyBean and the latest version of Chrome. Google is promising faster and more frequent updates, every six weeks in fact. Flash support is being removed due to mediocre performance and ending of development for mobile devices. Finally the updated Chrome for Google Tv will have more hardware-based content protection which should encourage app developers. It seems Google doesn’t believe that Google TV is really ready to enter living rooms yet so is still doing a brush-up process.

Nexus: We had anticipated that the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 would be getting revamps but no mention of that. Instead Google chose to go with the stock Android Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition. Awaited devices like the 32 Nexus 4 LT, Google X Phone, Google Smartwatch and other devices weren’t mentioned at all.

Google is going in a surprising direction when it comes to the hardware. Sundar Pichai had said this years conference would be heavily developer focus but no one seems to have expected that it would be THIS developer focused. Oh well, there’s always next year.

Interested in the Google I/O 2013 conference? We’re covering it all week!

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