As promised, the first day of Google’s I/O conference featured little in the way of splashy hardware announcements, but plenty of updates and new tools for developers. Here’s a quick review of some highlights from a programmer’s perspective:
- Google debuted Android Studio, a new IDE for mobile development.
- It added syncing and other improvements for cloud messaging.
- It unveiled a rewrite of location-based services, with new features like geo-fencing and activity recognition.
- It announced numerous updates to Google Play, including beta testing, interface improvements, analytics, localization options and the Play Games framework.
- And Google made several Google+ updates including single sign-on and more robust syncing.