Every June, the tech world lights up with numerous tech conferences that pack dense information into a couple days (and takes weeks to fully decompress). One of the bigger conferences (by a single company, Computex is its own beast) is Google I/O.

The biggest rumor to come out concerning this year’s Google I/O announcements is an ASUS manufactured 7-inch Nexus Tablet. It is allegedly packing some high end hardware with the Tegra 3 Soc, up to 16GB of memory, IPS display, and an extremely attractive price at less than $200. Beyond that, we can expect Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) information, developer talks, software demos, and more talk of Google Wallet, and NFC technology. Heck, Google may even make a second attempt at pushing Android@Home (or maybe not heh).

Being June 27th, it is the first day of Google I/O and that means it is time for keynotes! On the schedule for today, Google has talks on the new aspects of Android, Google Play, cloud computing, Youtube cloud rendering, Google+ (including Hangouts), and new features of Google Maps. They also have talks scheduled with Google Drive information that should demo some of the things developers can do with the Drive SDK.

We are excited to see if the Nexus tablet rumors are true or not, as well as learning more about the latest version of Android. If you are interested in watching the event, check out the Google I/O schedule where you can tune into the most of the events live. The first event starts soon at 9:30am PST!

Check back later today for updates!

Update: (9:00 PST) A leaked screenshot indicates that the Nexus tablet may be called the Nexus 7.

Update: (9:30 PST) Vic Gondotra stepped on stage to kick off the Google I/O conference. He stated that there are more than 30,000 people in attendance.

What are you excited about at Google I/O? Let us know in the comments below!

See more updates after the break.

 

Google reports that 1 million Android devices are activated everyday.

Update: (9:40 PST) Google Engineering Director Dave Burke talks about Project Butter which deals with making the display as responsive and smooth as possible. Jelly Bean anticipates where your fingers will touch, and can prepare to draw new UI elements.

SysTrace comes with Jelly Bean SDK and can be used to optimize application performance. Jelly Bean has much smoother animations (with higher frame rates and triple buffering v-sync). Performance improvements apply across all applications and OS.

Update: (9:47 PST) Google announced improvements to the predictive typing keyboard and (the bigger reveal of) moved the voice typing engine to the phone so that it can be used offline!

The company has also improved accessiblity for visually impaired and blind users by using gestures and/or braille input and output accessories that use Bluetooth to connect to the phone. Very neat!

Update: (9:50 PST) Actionable notifications that are customizable. They demonstrated being able to call back someone from the widget itself.

You can also see photos from Google+ and reshare them from the notifications. Also possible to expand or collapse notifications with a two finger touch gesture.

Update: (9:55 PST) Google showed off voice search improvements. Seemed to work well.

Android is able to parse your questions and give answers. In the photo above, they asked who the prime minister of Japan is.

Update: (10:00 PST) Google maps has more integration with public transit. It is able to show you bus schedules in a slick interface called Google Now (they likely still do not have the bus schedules in my area though).

Update: (10:08) Jelly Bean will be released in mid-July with developer preview SDK available now. OTA updates will be rolled out to Galaxy Nexus, and a couple other devices. They are also launching the PDK or Platform Developer Kit. It will be available 2-3 months before the release of the latest operating systems. It will help hardware vendors integrate new OSes faster and more efficiently. A beta of the PDK was used with Jelly Bean.

Lots of new features. They are expanding carrier billing agreements and offering subscription-based billing. Google will support app encryption (with a device specific key) fom Jelly Bean and beyond. Also, they will be launching incremental app updates (so no more downloading the entire .APK file)!

Update: (10:11) Google has partnered with major studios, magazine publishers, and TV broadcasters to offer movies for sale (and rental), TV episodes, and magazines on the Google Play store.

Update: (10:12) Here we go, tablet announcement! Ken was correct, it's an ASUS made tablet with a Tegra 3 processor!

ASUS CEO Johnny Shih was in the audience.

They are showing off content on the Nexus 7. Videos can be downloaded and saved to the device. No need for an Internet connection to watch movies/TV.

The Nexus 7 will be the first device to ship with the Chrome browser as the default

Update: (10:24) Offline maps are now available.

Google Currents presents news in a magazine environment. Users can use Google Translate to convert the text of the entire magazine to their language of choice.

Nexus 7 is a "serious gaming device."

Has the GPU power for big budget games. Gaming does not have to be casual.

Update: (10:27) Hugo announces that the Nexus 7 is $199 USD starting today. You get Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Free magazine issues, and a $25 credit for the Play Store. It's available in the US, Canada, and Australia (with others to follow).

Update: (10:32) Nexus Q is a small Android computer for your media center with OMAP 4460 and audiophile grade amplifier. Also hase micro HDMI and optical digital audio, dual band WiFI, NFC, and Bluetooth. Also micro USB port to encourage "general hackability." It pairs with the Internet and Google Play.

A cloud connected jukebox. Friends can add their own songs from their Google Play accounts.

The Nexus Q

Multi-room playback and everyone can be a DJ and adjust the playlist. Nexus Q also lets friends watch movies togther. Watch out Sonos!

Update: (10:42) You can pre-order it now. It will be available in mid-July for $299.

Hugo thanked everyone for attending and invited them to the 20 different Android developer sessions.

That was Google I/O 2012's opening keynote. That was a lot of information to absorb and I expect it to take a bit to "sink in." Lots of cool stuff coming though!

Be on the lookout for more updates and articles on Google I/O 2012 as it develops!