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In today's world, the success of a company is measured by many indicators - the popularity of its name, its impact on people’s lives, its financial results, the innovations that drive the development of the area in which the company operates. Google is a name that is familiar to everyone who is aware of modern technologies. Google is synonymous with a search engine; it is the king of Internet advertising, the owner of the most popular mail service Gmail and of the largest service for watching videos on the Internet - YouTube. Google has not failed to provide an alternative to Facebook with its social network Google+, created the mobile operating system Android and the devices that use it compete with Apple’s iPhone. Google has created the Chrome browser which, in just a few years, has attracted so many users that it has become one of the three most popular browsers along with Firefox and Internet Explorer and it is confidently striving for the first place. Surely, there is a lot more to say - Google is constantly launching  new projects, creating new products which seem to have come from the future (last week, we told you about Google GLΛSS and the change in our daily lives that the glasses of the Mountain View company could bring).

After this presentation, we cannot but continue with an event that demonstrates, identifies and outlines the development of each of the areas in which Google offers a product or service of great importance and popularity. The company presented all of its innovative products and services during the annual developer conference Google I / O 2013, which took place from 15 to 17 May.

Google Play Music and the new music service Google - All Access

Google Play Music is a service allowing users to purchase music from the Google Play content e-shop. It also allows users to listen to their music on any device connected to the service. As expected, during the Google I / O conference, the company presented an addition to its music service, which will be an alternative to the popular Spotify and Pandora and is called All Access. Its users will be able to upload in the cloud their own music, and by adding All Access, they will be able to create different radio stations based on their own criteria. So far, All Access can be used in any browser or application for Android, whereas the other platforms will have to wait. The subscription price will be $ 9.99 per month with one free trial month. Those who register by 30 June will pay a subscription fee of $ 7.99. It was noted during the presentation that it would be possible for All Access to use integration with YouTube, but it was not clear when to expect this connectivity. The bad news for us is that again the service is available only in the United States.
 
Google Play Games

Google I/ O presented an update of Google Play services, which will add exciting new features for the fans of gaming entertainment and developers of such applications. The new services are available as a free SDK (software development kit) and the authors of the software can add them to their projects, as they will work with all versions of Android following 2.2.

The other options allow you to save the progress of the game and continue playing it from the same point on another device. They also include leaderboards that allow you to compare your achievements with those of your friends; the ability to unlock and collect trophies and even multiplayer games with real time selection of rivals but you can compete with friends as well. All these features work with Android, iOS and web but the multiplayer games are supported by Android at present.

Google Play for Education

As a company whose development is directly dependent on highly skilled employees, Google is paying more attention to services related to education. Education is an area in which investment will grow at a fast pace in the coming years. Last but not least, Google wants to intervene in an area that is dominated by Apple. It is known that the late Steve Jobs had a special interest in education and many projects had been launched under his leadership. Google believes that through its cloud infrastructure, the availability of devices that use Android, such as tablets and Chrome Book, it can offer services and software to support the exchange of ideas and collaboration between teachers and students. Innovative hardware products in combination with a special app store which offers software for the purpose of education is a prerequisite for building a better education system that meets the needs of the rapidly growing modern world, according to Google. To support this vision, Google has announced earlier this year that over 2,000 schools in the United States use the Chrome Book notebook in conjunction with its operating system Chrome OS. The time is coming when a single tablet or notebook will replace paper textbooks and all materials, tests and evaluations will be carried out entirely online.
 
Samsung Galaxy S4 with "pure" Android

It has become a tradition for Google to present the new version of Android at Google I / O. The interest in the mobile operating system is huge, as it drives the larger part of the smartphones and tablets worldwide. At the conference, Google did not fail to boast that the number of active Android devices had already reached 900 million. The surprise of the conference was that instead of announcing the new version codenamed "Key Lime Pie" as expected, Google presented the fastest-selling version of the Galaxy S4 smartphone made by the Koreans from Samsung. From June onwards, the smartphone will be offered with Android 4.2, it will not contain the modifications and applications of Samsung and will receive updates directly from the U.S. company. For the time being, the device will be sold only in the U.S., where it will be available on 26 June with unlocked bootloader and will cost $ 650. It will support the rapid LTE network and will come with 16GB of internal memory.

Google+ with a new design and options for uploading and sharing photos

The new design of Google+ is inspired by the great version of iPad and tablets with Android OS. Until yesterday, it had used the one-column style in which we had to scroll from top to bottom to view all news and videos. From today onwards, the new version offers us a network of three columns in which each post is in the form of a tile. You can discuss, like, share the content of each tile or you may turn it to view its latest activity. This option is particularly well developed as it creates a specific sense of interactivity.

There is a radical change in the way you update your status. The window that is always in the upper left corner will expand and move to the middle of the screen as soon as you click with the mouse on it to start writing. The five buttons built into it - Text, Photos, Attach Files, Video and Hangout - will be available whenever you need them.

There are changes in the options bar that remains hidden until you "call" it by the "Home" button, which provides you with a larger and better-arranged useful working space.

The social network can now automatically add hashtags, scanning your photos or status updates (of course, this option can be disabled at your request).

One of the most discussed changes in Google+ was the functions of automatic image correction - Auto Enhance, Auto Awesome and Auto Highlight.

Auto Enhance analyzes and fixes some parameters of your photos. According to the presentation, it is actually a process that changes brightness and contrast, tone distribution and saturation, corrects colour, and reduces noise. One of the demonstrations showed how Google+ had automatically detected scars and blurred them to make them less visible. Auto Enhance does not destroy the original image; it just makes a better copy of it. If you do not like the results, the function can be deactivated at any time.

Auto Awesome, in turn, detects photos that are similar in terms of time and type and animates them, i.e. if you make a series of photos at short intervals or if they are similar, Google+ will automatically animate them, it will turn them into a (GIF) image.

Auto Highlight uses special algorithms, which select the best photos that you have uploaded. If you upload two identical photos or if some of the photos are out of focus, Google+ will cope with this task and it will not be necessary for you to select and delete the inappropriate photos one by one. So, the next time you upload 500 photos from your summer vacation, this will be very convenient because Google+ will automatically do everything for you.

If that's not enough, Google increases the storage space for photos from 5 to 15 GB.

Google Hangouts for messages between Android, iOS and Chrome

Google has unified the various proposals of the company for the exchange of messages and announced the new service at Google I / O. The new proposal is called Hangouts. It replaces Google Talk, Google+ Messenger and Google+ Hangout and can be used with Android, iOS and Chrome for Windows, Mac and Linux via an additional plug-in. So, one application is used for chat, calls and video calls.

The main screen contains a list of recent calls instead of the traditional contact list. The calls are in chronological order, the recent ones being at the top. You can easily send messages to one friend or a whole group, to make video calls with up to 10 participants and share photos. The transition between a computer and a mobile device is completely painless - you can start a conversation on your phone and finish it on the computer. In addition, you will have access to the entire history of exchanged replies.

Google maps with a new design for desktop, Android and iOS

At the I / O 2013 conference, Google presented a significant update of one of its most popular services, namely Maps.

Google Maps can boast a new interactive interface and a new functionality. The new design changes depending on the wishes of the users. If you are looking for a specific establishment, the map is automatically changed by focusing on the specific establishment and shows the main roads. Depending on the type of the establishment, Maps shows similar ones in which the user might be interested. By using Google Maps, writing reviews for the establishments and keeping them in favourites, the application adapts to your preferences and can make more accurate suggestions.

Google Maps offers detailed information about the establishments - working hours, photos and reviews by users. It can either navigate you to the address of the establishment or offer you different routes - by car, public transport, and bicycle or on foot.

This is not everything that was presented at this year's conference. It also presented new tools for developers, many sessions related to Android and Google services. We can conclude on the basis of the presentation that Google deserves its image of a company that creates innovations and determines the direction of development in many IT areas. It is hardly a coincidence that last week, the company was ranked together with Apple as one of the two most expensive brands in the world. The growth of their shares continues and analysts say that they may reach the top and rank first.

Here is a video of the most important moments of Google I / O 2013