For us nerds this week and the next month or so is going to be super exciting :)
Google
Today kicks off the big Google I/O developer conference. Two big developments leaked ahead of the opening day:
1. Google has started renting current hollywood films at http://www.youtube.com/movies . The movies seem to be standard definition going by price and the fact that "HD" is not specified. Google's movie rental service is up against Amazon Video on Demand and Apple's iTunes Store (both of which offer HD content). Of course the logical tie in here is when Google gets Honeycomb (their 3.0 version of Android) onto Google TVs they will be able to rent movies directly to people's living rooms (provided they haven't already picked up a Roku or AppleTV (or both in my case). It will be interesting to see how the market reacts. I think there may be some push back seeing as how all of YouTube's content has generally been focused on FREE so I'm wondering if it would have made more sense for Google to stream the movies for free with ads thrown in (that would be something different...).
2. Google has yet to formally announce (but will be doing so today) that you will be able to store 20,000 of your songs in the cloud. Google's service will just be an online repository so don't expect to be able to purchase music from Google. I have seen the ability to have Google automatically create playlists listed as a possible feature. This is going to be of limited availability (probably developers first, then limited beta, and then general availability).
3. Android 3.1 (?) or 4.0 (?) should be getting shown off. Whatever the numerical designation "Ice Cream Sandwich" should see the smartphone, tablet, and Google TV versions of Android finally unify under one codebase.
Microsoft
Microsoft doesn't appear to be happy standing still and is moving forward both in the development and the acquisitions departments.
1. Microsoft is set to unveil a rather large update to the Windows Phone OS that should include voice to text for SMS messages, turn-by-turn voice navigation, and two features that emulate Google's Goggles item/landmark recognition software and the ability to detect music that is playing (ala Shazam) and then download that music through Zune.
2. Microsoft is said to have signed an agreement to purchase Skype for somewhere between $7 billion and $8.5 bilion. Chances are that the technology would be incorporated into cross-platform (desktop to Windows Phones) video chat much like Google's ability to video chat between desktops and the latest Gingerbread updated phones. The Mac client for Skype has suffered as a second-class citizen under Skype's development and that is unlikely to change (and in fact might get worse) under Microsoft.
Apple
Apple has been a bit quiet lately besides the release of the white iPhone 4 (FINALLY!) and the speed bumped iMacs. The big question is whether or not Apple will feel compelled to release their own MobileMe revamp complete with a digital locker (creatively named iCloud) to steal some of the thunder from Google/Microsoft or if they will wait it out another month and blow everyone's socks off at WWDC.
Expected releases from Apple in the next two to three months:
-MobileMe update with the iCloud music locker
-iOS 5 preview/developer betas (most likely released in late summer or the fall)
-OS X Lion should probably be close to shipping at WWDC. I would expect a final launch date from them.
-Updated MacBook Airs with iCore chips and Intel integrated graphics.
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