Coming to your living room … again!
Stop us if you've heard this one before, but Google will make a play for your living room during IO 2015.
What we hope is different this time around is Google coming at your favorite four walls with some kind of cohesive plan in place.
The company recently announced Nexus Player, perhaps its most robust and practical entertainment offering to date, but don't expect it to stop there. Even if it should.
Google struck gold with Chromecast, the dirt cheap dongle some people own more than one of, so no one would be surprised if the firm returned to the formula with Chromecast 2 or another bargain bin-priced device. In fact, Google is reportedly already working on Chromecast 2, making an IO reveal seem all the more likely.
Whatever Google does, we want it to, you know, make cohesive sense. So far, this "scatter gun approach" (hat tip James Rivington) is only creating a series of half-baked products that no one is buying into. That is, except Chromecast.
It might be time for Google to put its money on the winning horse, if you catch our drift.
'Android Wear, where you at?'
"In watches like the Moto 360, LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live, that's where, TechRadar!"
Yes, Google's wearable OS has taken hold in a surprisingly quick turnaround from announcement to market. The only thing missing? Google's own smartwatch running its home-grown Android Wear OS. No biggie, right?
Like the Apple Watch before it, the Google watch has been the stuff of legend for what feels like ions. Unlike the Apple Watch, the Google watch is still unannounced. Even more unlike the Apple Watch, the Google watch probably won't be on sale by the time IO 2015 rolls around (the Apple Watch release is slated for early 2015).
This leaves Google out of a growing hardware product category while others grab hold. One could argue Google has more than enough of a stranglehold on the smartwatch market with Android Wear, and it's certainly a valid point.
However, in order for Google to truly be in the wearable conversation, we need to see its own branded hardware serve as the hallmark for what Android Wear can really do.
So, Google, give us the Nexus Watch, or whatever you want to call it. Give us something we can point to and say, "Hey, Apple, you see what Google came up with?" Give us something to strap on our wrists so we can complete the look with our Nexus phone, Nexus tablet and Google Glass.
Give us the wearable we've been waiting for.
Update December 10, 2014: With the release of Android Lollipop for Android Wear, Google introduced a bevy of custom watch faces for the wearable. The firm also released its Watch Face API, letting developers take a crack at creating their own watch faces. We have an inkling the many faces of Android Wear (plus a whole lot more) are due for some major airtime at IO 2015.
And the other stuff
Just like ice cream flavors, everyone seems to like the idea of vanilla Android, so don't drop your jaw if Google announces another Google Play Edition flagship phone.
Google seems to be spacing its hardware reveals further and further apart, making a new Nexus phone or tablet reveal at IO 2015 feel unlikely.
Like last year, the company will probably focus most on its software platforms, stressing the ease of developing for Chrome and Android over OSes-that-shall-not-be-named. Another Android iteration after 5.0 could definitely come (Android 5.5, for example), as could improvements to Google Now and the other services Google offers.
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