Google IO press briefing 

Out of the fat an into the fryer. We're fresh from the Google IO Day 1 keynote -- maybe you caught our liveblog -- and we're in the press briefing room for, well a press briefing. We're already spotting some names and faces -- Matias Duarte is sitting next to yours truly.

No liveblog for this one, but we'll update with any happenings after the break.

  • Ice Cream Sandwich is the next big open source release. Held back Honeycomb for UI concerns.
  • Will be bringing all the stuff you love in Honeycomb. It's the unification of all these APIs.
  • On Music Beta: What you saw today becomes a very compelling platform to facilitate music distribution. It's in Google's plans to work with the music industry to sell artists' music. The deals just haven't worked out yet. But there are other ways to do distribution. And the majority in the music industry -- and individual artists, like what they saw.
  • What Google launched today is a completely legal service.
  • There will be no Honeycomb phone.
  • On the 18-month upgrade cycle: Is there a minimum of how quickly phones will be upgraded? Not yet. To come. It's a logistics problem, Andy Rubin says.
  • On Honeycomb use in business: It's definitely compelling to consumers and business. Added new encryption in Honeycomb, and more improvements in Android 3.1, especially on the calendar.
  • Music Beta is a personal music use cloud service. Google "completely respects copyright."
  • Everyone understands that users want updates. But there were no common expectations set. That's what we wanted to do. This impacts developers as well. It's in everyone's best interests. Rubin: We think of ourselves as just the coordinators for all this. ... Consumers want it.
  • Why is Google Music Beta only in the U.S. right now? Starting small.
  • Quality of the streaming music adjusts depending on your connection.
  • You can sideload music just fine.
  • Android @Home: It has to be an extremely low-cost add-on.
  • Complexity of devices will depend on what you need them to do.
  • On Music Beta and data usage: The good news is that not all networks are congested today. And it ebbs and flows. And there's always Wifi.
  • On UI skins in Android 3.1 and above: The framework is smart enough to handle it, and still let third-party app developers do their thing. Rubin: I don't believe in having an open platform that somehow de-monetizes industries. It's an important selling point of Android.
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