Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Applications for Google I/O 2017 Tickets Now Live

For all developers interested in attending Google's famous I/O 'developer festival' in 2017, applications to secure tickets have begun today, with the application period closing at 5pm PST on February 27th. The conference will begin in a bit less than three months from now and will run for three days as usual, from May 17th to May 19th.

Similar to past I/Os, applicants will be chosen through a random lottery, the results of which are to be announced on February 28th. Tickets are $375 for active full-time students, professors, faculty, or staff of any high school or higher education institution, and $1,150 for all other interested parties. Continuing Google's tradition of inclusivity for all interested in technology, I/O extended events outside of the actual conference may also be submitted here. In 2016, more than 600 Google-recognized Extended events occurred alongside the I/O conference in Mountain View. Anyone unable to attend in California can check back at the I/O 2017 website later this year for a list of all Extended events.

I/O 2017 will once again take place outdoors at the beautiful Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. Google recommends bringing sunglasses and sunscreen, sage advice for summertime California. Free Google shuttles will be available for all developers staying at Google's list of recommended hotels, and there will of course be public transportation for those staying elsewhere.

Shoreline Ampitheatre seen at I/O 2016. (Google)

What To Look Forward To

There are an array of exceptionally exciting things all attendees (and anyone else, for that matter) potentially have to look forward to at this year's I/O sessions. 2016 saw Google announce and discuss a number of exciting developments, ranging from the announcement of Android Nougat and an exploration of Google Assistant, to Android Wear 2.0, Google's Daydream VR platform, and Allo/Duo. 2016 and early 2017 have sadly seen an underwhelming Android Wear 2.0 release, as well as the withering performance of the Allo messaging platform, not to mention the broad selection of awesome endeavors Google has since shut down (Project Ara, Google's self-driving branch, and the Titan UAV aspect of Project Loon) or drastically scaled back (Google Fiber and possibly Project Loon) as an apparent result of rather overt profit and growth-seeking. On a more positive note, Google released their much-anticipated (semi) in-house smartphone, the Pixel, to considerable acclaim and unexpectedly high demand. Thankfully, this has translated into a small financial success for Alphabet, likely ensuring that the Pixel will have a future – and a bright one at that – at Google.

Looking ahead, Google can be primarily expected to announce Android O or what's coming in Android's future, and will also likely discuss the future of Android Wear, Daydream and virtual reality ventures in general, Google Assistant, and more. There is also arguably a good chance of some form of teaser of the future of Google's Pixel brand and pursuit of in-house hardware. Far less likely but possibly even more thrilling is a minuscule chance of Google offering developers a first look at its in-house custom silicon development, which Google's head of Android engineering himself said would likely appear in a future Pixel device.  Given that CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that Google had developed its own application-specific silicon for neural networks at last year's I/O, there is definitely a better chance than ever before that more details on in-house silicon efforts may be provided. This even still ignores the fact that Google is already heavily involved in optimizing ARM SoCs for Chromebooks, as well as carefully examining nearly all hardware aspects of devices that are to run Chrome OS. Hedging towards being even still less likely are announcements regarding the oft-discussed Android-cum-desktop Andromeda OS that Google has been repeatedly rumored to be developing. All of this is speculation, but we will most definitely get some good treats (and perhaps a taste of a new Android dessert)in May.

All disappointing Google developments from 2016 and 2017 aside, there will no doubt still be a great deal of intrigue and excitement to be found at 2017's I/O.

Google I/O 2017



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