It may well end up just being a couple of hours of Sundar Pichai eating breakfast, but the Chrome and Android head has promised some exciting announcements from both camps today, and the rumour mill points towards a new Nexus 7, a Chrome-powered dongle for your telly and possibly some new Chromebooks and Android 4.3 news. Whatever happens, you can catch it all in the stream embedded above from 5pm BST/12pm Eastern/9am Pacific.
After it failed to make an appearance at Google I/O in May, rampant speculation ensued surrounding Asus and Google’s inevitable launch of the successor to the Nexus 7. When Google sent out invitations this morning for an event next Wednesday to be hosted by Chrome and now Android chief Sundar Pichai, many concluded that the Moto X, Android 4.3 and this mystery tablet would turn up, and this has been all but confirmed by Android Central obtaining many pictures and a video of the miniature tablet. Rumours point towards a quad-core Qualcomm processor, a higher resolution display, rear camera and up to 4GB of RAM, all while retaining a price point similar to that of the original, clocking in on retailer databases as $229 and $269 for 16 and 32GB variants.
Source Android Central
The Lego Movie, starring (among others) Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Liam Neeson, Will Ferrell and Morgan Freeman, is actually happening, and, based on the trailer, it’s already got my vote for the best film ever. Why, you ask? BECAUSE IT’S LEGO. AND THOSE PEOPLE ARE AWESOME.
Note: I know this isn’t technology related, but The Verge posted it so that makes it fine to post here. Honest.
Sex, drugs and antivirus.
It’s very fair to say that the official launch event for Samsung’s Galaxy S4 didn’t go down that well with, well, anyone remotely sane. We spoke about all the crap surrounding the phone’s unveiling (and the phone itself) in a special episode of the podcast, but it seems that Reliance Digital, a leading Indian tech retailer, has managed to do things even more horribly at a star-studded launch event. Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh was dragged onto stage and, over 7 months after it blew up and at a point where even PSY has moved on, performed a parody of Gangnam Style that was all about, you guessed it, the Galaxy S4. I would pick out a few of the most dreadful lyrics, but I feel it my duty to present you the whole ordeal in its entirety without any spoilers.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJs7N3aM75Y]Horrible, wasn’t it?
Source Films of India (YouTube)
Via The Verge
Kellex over at Droid-Life has obtained what is purported to be build 4.0.16 of the Google Play Store for Android, and this gives us our best hint yet of how Matias Duarte and company are planning to take Android’s design with the expected release of Android 5.0, codenamed Key Lime Pie, at Google I/O. In the 6 minute video below, Kellex shows off the functional parts of the new store (with many pages such as the home page not yet working with the new design) but what is evident is that the new version of the Holo design language is set to be a lot lighter and colourful than the black and blue introduced with Ice Cream Sandwich in October 2011, with italicised Roboto Light being used in headings for the first time. Contrary to Google Keep, a note-taking service that the company officially launched today with an overdose of yellow, responses to the new look seem overwhelmingly positive, and we will wait with baited breath to see what further UI overhauls Google may announce for Android, now under the reigns of Chrome and Apps head Sundar Pichai, at I/O in May.
Source Droid-Life
Remember the band of BlackBerry executives who made a song to woo devs onto the BlackBerry 10 platform? Well, they’re back.
Source BlackBerry
Via AllThingsD
Yes, it’s a talking shoe. No, I don’t know why either.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SU6X1d0YUg]Source/Image The Verge
Following the launch of their LTE network in 11 UK cities on Tuesday, EE has premiered their first TV commercial featuring Hollywood star Kevin Bacon. Entitled ‘How Bacon Rolls‘, the spot features Bacon speaking about his industry connections and how the use of EE’s services can help customers become as well-connected as Bacon himself. Further commercials featuring the actor reprising some of his most famous roles are set to follow, but for now you can see the 2 minute spot below. See if you can spot the HTC One S – a phone that EE is not offering with 4G LTE connectivity – being used by an EE customer in the advert.
Source @EE
As part of the Red Bull Stratos project, record-breaking BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner is currently in a capsule heading up towards 120,000 feet, where he will then freefall from space and become the first human to break the speed of sound without assistance. After numerous weather-based delays, the capsule launched at around 16:30 BST today and so far all seems to be going to plan, and you can watch along live with us below.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrIxH6DToXQ]Source Red Bull Stratos
Digixav 