Android TV and Auto: Overview

During Google I/O, an annual developer conference held by Google in San Francisco on June 25, 2014, the tech giant revealed two new technologies to compete with Apple and other tech competitors. Google is invading the living room with Android TV, and expanding into new cars with Android auto. It is clearly Google’s goal to be on every device with a screen.

Android TV features a full screen interface with quick search capabilities with built-in voice search. Google Cast is to be built into set-top-boxes and TVs for audience to cast movies and shows from their devices to the TV unlike the Chromecast, a HDMI streaming media player, the streaming content also syncs with your device in case the audience want to finish it later. The Android TV allows audiences to switch between streaming apps like Netflix, downloaded movies, or video games from Google Play Store. Android TV can be controlled by variety of devices from smartphones to tablets to video game controllers. Android will run on new TVs from different major brands including Sony and Sharp, Google says that they will be available this fall. Android TV is believed to be a follow-up to the Google TV, which failed to gain widespread adoption, while the success of the Chromecast has shown that there is still a market available.

Additionally, Google is spreading into new cars with Android Auto, designed to be simple and not complex to minimize distractions for drivers, in the end, safety does come first. According to Google, Android Auto can be operated through voice commands, allowing drivers to access different applications without taking their hands off the wheel. It will help drivers to navigate, communicate, send and receive texts, or listen to music in their cars with the accessibility to different Android apps. With everything being said, all these applications and on screen displays are casted from your smartphone, therefore cars running on Android Auto will be dependent on your Android devices. 40 automakers including Abarth, Acura, Ford and Audi have joined this project and Android cars are expected to be on the market by the end of this year.

With all these new technologies from Google, other tech giants like Apple will step up their game to compete with Google. Both of these new expansions are based off of the newly revealed Android L update. As consumers, we can expect other fascinating technologies to be developed in the future, but can we still survive without technologies?

Source - Android