Google I/O 2013 Recap

Written by: Jessica Hartman

This is a collection of notes I have accumulated after watching Google I/O 2013. Please note these are only highlights which I found to be "most useful" for my needs.
 
If you find this information valuable... I HIGHLY RECOMMEND watching the full length video here.

Google Play Upgrades
Google play now offers cross platform single sign-in / sign-out functionality. If someone signs out from one platform the system will automatically sign you out across all platforms.

If someone were to play a game on their mobile application that can continue the game from where they left off from their desktop.

This functionality is automatically baked in when they sign in with their Google account   When someone downloads an application through Google play while signed in the application will now automatically download on all other devices.  <read more>  

Snow*Mobile 2013

By Ben Coblentz, Consultant

Snow*Mobile is an annual conference focused on bringing the latest mobile development trends and techniques to the Madison developer community.  This year’s event was hosted at the recently constructed UW Madison Union South on February 15th and 16th.  Local organizers attract top talent from around the world to lead discussions about new ideas and implementation strategies.  The core focus is cutting edge technologies and new approaches to mobile application development.  Featuring plenty of hands on coding, Snow*Mobile is also a weekend chock full of interesting conversation, good times and great networking opportunities.

This year’s lineup included Jessie Shternshus, Kevin Jones, Eric Knapp, David Walsh, Hampton Catlin, Aijaz Ansari, Peter Traeg, Clarissa Peterson, Matt Thompson, Smith Schwartz, Wes Bos, Stephen Caudill, Ray Hightower, Tim Anglade, Tristan Waddington, Tim Kadlec, Adam Steinert, Don Coleman and Ashe Dryden.  Individual sessions covered a range of topics including the new FireFox Mobile OS (featuring a hands on demo), Windows Phone 8, the latest coding trends in Android & IOS development, App design strategies for the visually impaired, BDD (Behavior Driven Development), PhoneGap development and a heavy focus on the incredible new capabilities that are possible with Responsive Mobile Design leveraging the native capabilities of HTML 5 and CSS3. <Read More>