Word is that today is Android day here at Google I/O. The keynote is about to begin, and it is widely expected that an announcement about a Google TV offering (or Smart TV as it's been referred to thus far) will be made.

Watch the keynote live here.

If today's keynote is anything like yesterday's, there will be plenty of announcements coming out of this. I will be liveblogging in the notes below (as usual, please forgive the inevitable typos). We had some major connectivity issues yesterday, so hopefully that will not be repeated today. In fact this was a common problem throughout the event, with many unable to access Google's wi-fi network, though Google claims to have taken precautions to address this for today.

Notes Begin:

Waiting...hot in here again. More electronica music.

Here we go..Vic Gundotra taking the stage.

Had 24 thousand watching yesterday's keynote on YouTube.

Innovation from everyone

Talks about early days of Android...innovation at every level of the stack. Operators should be able to compete on strength of network.

  If you believe in choice, innovation for everone, then welcome to Android.

In 18 months - over 60 compatible devices from leading manufacturers

21 oems, 49 countries, 59 carriers

in Feb, announced daily run rate - 60 thousand units a day. NOw today - passed a hundred thousand a day.


2nd in smartphone sales. first this quarter in total web and app usage (according to Admob)

  1 billion miles navigated - turn by turn navigation goal.

Some say users don't use google search on smartphones - data shows 5x growth - across ALL smartphone categories.

Today announces crossed 50k apps in Android Market  - 180k developers joined the android revolution.

ANdroid Platform

  five major investments

seven releases in eighteen months

announces android2.2 codenamed froyo

five pillars -

1. speed - in froyo added just in time compiler - 2 to 5 times app speed up - shows demo of game running faster for longer.

2.  Enterprise - introduced 20 new features like ms exchange-friendly, device admin APIs

3. Services - for devs in SDK - app data backup API.  Cloud to device messaging API - you can send message to google servers that can do comlex things. when you send a message, it can trigger an android intent - shows demo - Google Maps - using Chrome browser. chrome extension - shows example of sending article to device so you can continue reading.

Announces tethering and portable hotspot - your phone can be a portable hotspot. Shows using nexus one, takes a shot at the apple ipad

4. Browser - third most used app on smartphones - froyo big step in "making the browser rock" 2 - 3 x javascript performance. Announces V8 for Android ...takes another shot at ipad....and another
Froyo


Sneak peek - tilting of Maps nav in browser -

Camera - buzz app - accessing camera from web browser - apis built right into browser. - doesn't actually work in the demo.

Voice recognition

we see a stunning number of queries from human voice input - demos how "fantastic" their capabilities have become.

what's coming next - human intentions  - sneak peak - uses example "call" fifth floor restaurant. (uses call so it will call) - gets camera in browser to work.

Announces flash player 10.1 and AIR support for ANdroid.
 
"It turns out that on the Internet, people use flash."

Shows iPad - Nickelodeon site -  just a "sea of orange." on android - full site. Thanks Adobe for working with them. "It's fun to work with other folks in the ecoystem to meet the needs of users...much nicer than just saying no."

5. Market - on average users are putting more than forty apps on their devices. THey want to move them to the sd card, and want to update them without doing it individually.

Making search box better.

Shows demo of game on SD card. - Need for Speed.

At the bottom of android market place - you can do update all now instead of having to update each app indvidually - starting with froyo - you can do automatic updating. - user doesn't have to worry about it at all.

Key feature adding in froyo - announcing app error reports - find and fix bugs faster.

Sneak peek - what's next for market: android market place - accessible from a browser on a pc. with sign in - you can select your phone - find an app and download it right to your android device. "We discovered something really cool...it's called the Internet."

It's called the Android Marketplace because it's more than apps - new category - music - find an album or song you like, and send it to the device using the Internet. Music comes right to device.

Make all of your non-drm music available to your android device. i want all my music. hit button to hit all and gets whole home music library. makes it all available as a stream.

Advertising

It turns out we know a little bit about advertising. This year is google's tenth anniversary of providing ad solutions. we've learned a few things. if you want a healthy ecoystem, you need advertisers and we have hudnreds of thousands of them. we're not new at this game...

Flexible formats - we have those. advertising needs to be measured. needs to have great tools. you need to know if the money you're spending gvies you an ROI.

We have some tools like double click, analytics, adsense, adwords, - the tools the indusry knows and loves are being extended to the mobile environment.

Open to Innovation

Shows demo of backgrounds app - shows adsense for mobile apps that has been available to limited beta testers. takes advantage of small space. only one format. serves contextually relevant ad...another format for brand advertiisng - banner ad - another cateegory announcing availabled today - an expandale ad format.

Available today.

Another rich media  - expandable ad showed - this format available today as well.

Click to call ad format has tested well.

Another ad format - expandable but includes map and directions and click to call - will become shorty available.

open to innovation - weather.com uses doubleclick - full screen immersive ad - trailers, tv spots, galleries, ability to tap into fandango to purchase tickets it's not a google ad though. doubleclick is open to have any ad show up. developer and publisher have the choice. that's openness. google.com/mobileads to learn more.

Finally...one of the most powerful ways to demonstrate innovation at all levels of stack - highlights HTC Evo.

  In partnership with sprint and htc, google is going to make this device available to every one here. those of you watching on YouTube...sorrry.

Thank you for supporting Android and openness. PLease keep building those great apps.

THe next step in evolution of Android and where we'll go next...invites of product lead for new intiative - RIshi Chandra - group product manager

Introduces Google TV - a new platform that we believe will change the future of television. Talks about present at first.

For developer, there's no bigger market than the tv market.

people just love tv.

TV just works. it's easy, reliable, and gives you access to really cool stuff - sports, movies, shows. natural and predictable part of our lives that you don't even have to think about it anymore. tv has basically stayed the same.

Increasingly, more an dmore of my entertainment expereinces in the living room are happening on my phone/pc - driven by web.

web has transformed pc/mobile spaces. even today, web is at very limited adoption with tv. there's two completely separate worlds.