14 DAY TRIAL // Google has been diversifying its portfolio since, well, actually it has always done that. Still, there are plenty of markets ready for the picking and one of them is music. Google has been ‘flirting’ with online music, but it hasn’t committed to anything yet. That may be changing, though. Tucked away among the countless new features Google showed off during the Android 2.2 launch was a very interesting demo and a couple of announcements.
At first, the Google people on stage showcased some of the features coming to Android in the future. One of them was the possibility to buy music online and have it delivered directly to one’s Android device. That sounds great in itself, it saves the user the hassle of syncing the device or copying the files manually. But the really interesting part was that the music was bought from the Android Marketplace and from a PC.
That would mean that, one, the Android Marketplace is coming to desktops and, two, it will have more than just mobile apps. This functionality is not live yet, but these features are coming. There aren’t that many details at this point, but, from the looks of it, this will be a major shift for Google, as it positions itself as a direct competitor to iTunes.
That’s not all, buying new music and having it delivered over-the-air to your mobile phone is nice, but what about the music you already own? Sure, you could sync it to your phone, but most people have very large libraries, certainly bigger than the device’s storage capabilities. And the syncing process can be a hassle too.
Enter a company Google quietly acquired a couple of months back, Simplify Media. The company made several applications that are designed to stream content from your desktop, music and photos, to your mobile device. Effectively, the apps run a small web server on your home computer, enabling you to access all your media files on the go, over the Internet.
Google demoed this functionality too, syncing an entire iTunes library to an Android device. This took just a few seconds, after which all the DRM-free songs in the library were available on the phone, via streaming, of course. There are a few caveats with this, it will depend on the type of connection your phone has at any moment, things may not work that great over 3G, and you have to leave your desktop or laptop running for it to work. Still, it holds promise and Google could very well insert a ‘middle-man’ by syncing your music first to the cloud, making it available all the time. One thing is for sure, Google is getting very serious about music.
Here's a video of the announcements during the Google I/O 2010 conference. The relevant part starts at about minute 3:00.
Google I/O 2010
Chrome Web Store
- WebM, Google’s Open Video Format for HTML5 - WebM - A Technical Overview and Possible Legal Issues -
Google Wave Is Now Open to Everyone
- Google Wave for Apps and New APIs - Google Storage for Developers - Google Buzz API - Google App Engine for Business and VMWare Partnership - Android 2.2 Froyo Is Lightning Fast - Google TV Set to Conquer the Living Room - YouTube Leanback for Google TV - Presenting the New Fonts API