Google’s Future / 4BC & Radio Hong Kong 3
Forget about using your mouse and keyboard, just use your shirt, your pants, your socks and whatever else you’re wearing that happens to be made of Google’s new jacquard material of the future and by waving your arms, walking or doing whatever else comes naturally (keep it clean) your technology and its minion of apps will follow behind you.
This is only one of the many announcements that Google made last week at its annual I/O developer conference in San Francisco.
This conference is a great way to understand what Google is going to do in the short-term, and more importantly for me, what horizon technologies and gadgets its playing with and wants to bring to market in the medium to long-term and this was the starting point for a couple of on air radio conversations this week, the first with Clare on 4BC and the second with Phil in Hong Kong.
In the short-term Android M will soon hit our android phones amping up our understanding of the permissions we are giving to our apps, fixing bugs, offering faster charging times and improved battery life.
Now on Tap is another android phone extension that will allow us to pull up information anytime on our mobile device regardless of what we’re doing on it or what we may already be using. Offline Maps will also soon be available allowing you to use maps and voice turn by turn directions without having wi-fi or being connected to a network – a great boon for the traveller.
Still on mobile phones Project Ara may one day allow us to buy modular bits and pieces (think lego or meccano) and build your mobile phone to your individual specifications – a pilot program launches in Puerto Rico in the second half of 2015.
Google is also pushing heavily into the mobile payment stratosphere by morphing Google Wallet into Android Pay announcing payment service relationships with 7700,000 retail stores in America including Macy’s and McDonald’s
Google Cardboard is on the rise with 1 million units now in use and a whole lot of new apps, support, pre built headsets and a growing educational use with students building them as classroom projects and then collectively using them with their own mobile phones to go on virtual tours and experiences.
And onto the crowd favourites, cars and Google didn’t disappoint announcing the imminent on road testing of a fully autonomous driverless car to transport those that can not drive and an announcement that they have joined with Chevy autos to bring Android Auto to 14 models in 2016.
Lots talked about and as always great conversations, so have a listen now and then let me know what you still want Google to invent.
4BC – Clare Blake (21 mins 33 secs)
Radio Hong Kong 3 – Phil Whelan (12 mins 51 secs)
Forget about using your mouse and keyboard, just use your shirt, your pants, your socks and whatever else you’re wearing that happens to be made of Google’s new jacquard material of the future and by waving your arms, walking or doing whatever else comes naturally (keep it clean).
The window between a signal arriving and it demanding a response is shortening. Google’s Future / 4BC & Radio Hong Kong 3 is already shaping strategy conversations in forward-looking organisations. Treating it as a future concern rather than a present one builds a preparedness gap that will have to be closed under pressure.
The most important question is not whether Google’s Future / 4BC & Radio Hong Kong 3 will matter, but how quickly it will matter in your specific context. Leaders benefit most from mapping the ripple effects early — not just the direct impact but the second and third-order consequences that arrive later and hit harder. That is the practical work of foresight.
