Monday, May 20, 2013

Android Protips 3: Making Apps Work Like Magic (and more!) at Google I/O 2013

This year at Google I/O, I had the opportunity to present two sessions: Android Protips 3: Making Apps Work Like Magic and What's New in Google Play Services, as well as moderating the Android Fireside Chat, and interviewing Hugo Barra and Hiroshi Lockheimer.

Presenting on stage in a packed room in front of over 1,000 Android developers is one of the highlights of my year. The lead up to Google I/O involves weeks of late nights and seemingly endless practice and reviews, but the positive reaction from the attendees (and online viewers) makes it worth it.

My first session was the third part of my Android Protips trilogy: Making Apps Work Like Magic. During the keynote Larry Page talked about building things that don't exist - that theme was central to my session. It's easy to get caught up in the details, looking to what others are doing and figuring out how to get just that little bit further ahead of our competition. But in an industry where progress moves so quickly that what we grew up with as scifi becomes reality by the time we're adults, real success means breaking out of that cycle - thinking bigger - and instead of developing apps for the future, defining the future itself.



You can check out the slides - with speaker notes - in this gallery:



Or you can download the deck as a PDF. The code snippets are posted at Android Protips 3: Making Apps Work Like Magic - The Code Snippets for your copy/paste pleasure.

As in the past couple of years, I presented entirely using an Android tablet (the Transformer Prime with HDMI out). The interstitial animations where created by a very good friend of mine -- Pandamusk, with additional music provided by Joel Alford "Bliss".

I also had the pleasure of presenting What's New in Google Play Services with Rich Hyndman.

We offer a brief introduction to Google Play services, how to install and use them, and what was added for Google I/O 2013. We give an overview of each of the new services without digging too deep - so if you're new to Google Play services, or just want to get an idea of which of the deep-dive sessions you should check out, check it out.



I always enjoy the candor and insight the engineering and design leads share during the Android Fireside Chat, and have to admit that it was a little intimidating interviewing that many people, who are so much smarter than me, all at once. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out though, and thought they gave some great answers that help explain where Android is and where it's going.



As a bonus, I also had the chance to interview Android VP of Engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer and Android VP of Product Management Hugo Barra as part of the Google Developers Live clips.



As always, I/O was an exhilirating and it was exhausting. All the videos for all the sessions will soon be available on YouTube and the I/O session pages. Hopefully you find them interesting, educational, and useful - and go out and start building things that don't exist!