Gadgetory

this was a big week for Google in San Francisco as it rolled out a flurry of products and even included some extreme keynoting from its co-founder sergey brin i'm dan farber and i'm joined by cnet senior correspondent stephen shankland what was the atmosphere there it seemed like was really crazy with all the sky divers and repellers on the Moscone Center it was a big show I've been to a lot of google shows i've been dude a lot of keynotes this one had over the top drama there were people you know worried are these skydivers going to die you know you don't get that kind of emotional engagement at most shows you don't get it at an apple show that's for sure you don't get it at a Microsoft show so it had a very different flavor it was you know fun in a lot of ways people were really really enthusiastic but were they enthusiastic about more than the skydiving yeah yeah you know fundamentally in order to have a good trade show you have to have news you have to have solid information that people are interested in finding out about and Google had that in spades we had jelly bean which is Android 4.1 a lot of new features I kind of felt like God how does it compare to Apple's iOS at this point it's a more it's it's definitely you know steadily a more reasonable competitor to iOS I think iOS is still the market leader in a lot of ways but Google is pushing ahead I think for example the notifications that are now much more active in Android that was an advantage that Android had over iOS before their now even more active the Google now feature I think it's actually perhaps one of the most interesting one that plugs into your calendar into your location into you know everything that you do and it feeds you information that it thinks you might need and that's a very googley way of looking at what a mobile phone can do for you so you know the real features that are that are coming out to people now now it seems that the big difference this year is that that Google is turning into more of a hardware company they introduce the nexus 7 which is a 7-inch tablet they introduced the Nexus Q which is an entertainment center device is this more of what you will we should expect to see from google in the future I it's not clear exactly which way they're going to go to me you know I think they're still you know trying to navigate some very choppy waters about whether they are the you know Android hardware supplier of choice whether they're just one of many clearly if you're an Android hardware company you have to be really concerned when Google is competing directly with you so that you know that's going to be a big tension in the future but they're not afraid to do at Google I think fundamentally is much more about looking at the world and seeing where can technology disrupt things where can we make a difference and if they have to make hardware to do it so be it that's where for example project glass comes in that was a very interest idolos let's talk about project glass these are the glasses that you can navigate the world with and and I think that that's where Sergey Brin got on stage and talked about the glasses and said that they would be available to consumers in 2014 but is this something consumers would really want no so here's what it is so today they're you know computerized glasses they have a you know processor they're basically a lot of repurposed mobile phone technology it's got a gyroscopic sensor you move your head around you flick your head up to turn it on it's got a little tiny screen its hovers right above your eye tells you notifications plays video things like that so they're trying to gradually you know use these to introduce more information into your life which is what google loves to do and it's got a nice little camera so you can take pictures which is there you know but will do so will they sell no millions and millions and do not when T or even 2020 so next year they're going to sell them to developers for 1,500 bucks I think that you know they're only aiming at a very enthusiast kind of an audience this is nerd central and i do not think this is going to be something that most people are going to really actively want for a while now it could be you know that five years from now 10 years from now it's just like you know a bluetooth headset on steroids and everybody just thinks it's the most normal thing and that's obviously Google's vision you know to sell this but I think a lot of people look look at this and say boy would i look like a dork and you know with this this would just interfere with my life do I want more electronic screens constantly telling me what's going on a little earpiece speaking to me when I meet somebody you know I think some technology people will be very enthusiastic about it I think it's going to take a lot more work to win over mainstream consumers it could be it might be a few decades but it looks like eventually Google is going to have its way what what exactly is google now it seems to me that if you look at all the places they are in for example they just started to compete with Amazon with a new cloud service for developers are they the new Microsoft well I mean Microsoft was willing to compete with a lot of different companies they got rained in slapped down a lot in the 1990s with the antitrust action that kind of you know was I think was chilling to Microsoft and Google has been slapped down by some antitrust monopoly kinds of concerns but it seems to me to be not daunted or deterred at all by those it's got a very broad ambition to do lots of things it used to be just a search engine it looks to me right now that they just really have no limits on what they want to do so I think that they are willing to compete with compete with anybody and everybody amazon you mentioned they now have you know this cloud computing service that competes much more directly with Amazon's which is very popular and on the complete other side of the spectrum they also significantly improved google play if you want to buy movies or if you want to rent you know full season of some TV show and subscribe to magazines that's straight down what amazon is trying to do and of course what Apple does with iTunes so yes Google is very willing to compete with anybody and everybody including its own partners and they just bought Motorola exactly thus competing with their partner you know competing with partners like Samsung and other Android people well thanks Steven yes thank you I've been talking to stephen shankland i'm dan farber thanks for watching