Google and Apple . Apple and Google . No matter which side of the fence you ’re on , chance are the other one is the dark side . The two do seem to be locked in some sort of heroic battle , which only became readable on Wednesday as Google held itsI / O keynotein San Francisco ’s Moscone West — the same locus where , just weeks before , Apple restrain its Worldwide Developer Conference .
Many of the technologies Google show off in the keynote have their counterparts in recent Apple announcements . And while , likeCharles XavierandErik Lehnsherr , the two companies might once have been friends work towards plebeian goals , it ’s more and more apparent that their philosophic difference have set them on different , if not colliding , paths .
Android L vs. iOS 8
Yes , I know : no duh . Smartphones are perhaps the most obvious place where Apple and Google have clashed , as the iPhone face off against an army of third - party devices melt down Google ’s Android . But Google ’s annunciation aboutits modish version of the Android bone — dubbedAndroid landed estate due out after this year — will doubtless ring a few Alexander Graham Bell for Apple watchers .
Introducing Android L.
For example , Google ’s minx of less turbulent notice mirror Apple ’s own design to tweak that system in iOS 8 . Both discharge will focus on ameliorate bombardment living — perhaps the most of import metric function for smartphones — and on providing good tools for supervise energy consumption by individual apps . And both have technologies that seek to simplify your phone while keep it inviolable : Apple ’s Touch ID will be opened to third - party apps in iOS 8 , while Android willallow your telephone to be unlocked without a PINwhen you ’re at home or when you have a known Bluetooth peripheral with you . Different approaches , but both aim to solve the same job : We all drop too much time fiddle with passcodes .
And , no surprisal , artwork are also an field of intense interest , with both companies touting engineering to crab up gaming on their respective equipment : Apple announced itsnew Metal fabric , while Google talked up its partnerships with Nvidia and others .
Android TV/Chromecast vs. Apple TV (and Fire TV, too!)
The battlefield of the keep way is litter with the stubble of engineering and political program that fell by the roadside . Google itself is on its third major maraud into the TV sports stadium , this time in the guise ofAndroid TV .
Google ’s Android TV assume on Apple tv set for keep - room mastery .
Easy as it is to pit the Android TV against the Apple TV , this is actually less of a duel than a battle royal . Android TV ’s support for games and vocalism search , as well as the contextual data the political platform lets user access , seems to more directly targeted at similar offering from Amazon ’s Fire TV . But in contrast to Amazon and Apple , Google is adopting the same strategy it ’s used for smartphones and pad of paper : It ’s crop with as many hardware partner as it can find , including Sony , Philips , and Sharp .
Perhaps the smartest thing about Android telly is that Google is treating it as essentially a different cover - size of it experience of the Android platform , think that developer should be able-bodied to apply the same tool to write apps for phones , tablet , and television set — and they can distribute those idiot box apps , including secret plan , on the Google sport stock , which has its own Android TV interface . Third - party growing is something that many have wanted to see on the Apple TV for some fourth dimension , but has yet to arrive .
But wait , what ’s all that have in mind for Google ’s current streaming dongle , theChromecast ? Fear not , the Chromecast is still around ! It ’s even got a nifty newfangled feature allowing you to stream your Android phone ’s exhibit , in tangible time , to your Chromecast . ( Sound intimate ? ) They just demand a tricky name — too unfit “ Google Play ” is already take .
Android Auto vs. CarPlay
From the living room to your commute : Apple may havedropped a couple of cars into Mosconefor WWDC , but Google resolve to one - up that by bring one — or , well , part of one — up on degree to demo its newAndroid Auto platform .
oculus sinister - compatibility will likely become a fresh bridle - off item for car vendee .
Like Apple’sCarPlay , Android Auto offshores the backbreaking lifting of vernacular car chore like music , messaging , and seafaring to your smartphone . you’re able to interact via touchscreen , steering bike controls , knob and dial , or spokesperson — just like CarPlay . And , of course , Google ’s partnered with several automakers , who will begin shipping Android Auto - compatible units later this year—(say it with me now ) just like CarPlay .
Presumably , this means that compatibility with our wandering - phone chopine of option will someday be one of the features we ’ll look for when we rat for a automobile . ( Realistically , automakers will likely embrace all comer to off that special barrier to buy . )
Google Fit vs. Health Kit
So once tech party have taken over your telly and your car , what ’s left ? How about yourimmortal someone ? Well , they may not have figured out how to harness that ( yet ) , but in the lag they ’re coming for your body .
Google Fit does n’t appear to be quite as challenging as Apple ’s Health Kit .
Just as Apple announce its Health Kit system at WWDC , Google ’s rolled outGoogle Fit , an SDK that put up a standard for seaworthiness apps , letting them exchange info with each other ( with your permit , of course of study ) . From what we saw , it does n’t look as ambitious asHealth Kit , which not only features Apple ’s own Health app , but also aspire to let others , including medical professional person , in on the fun . ( Google made no mention of whether or not it would provide its own app . )
Really , though , the more touchstone , the merry . Right ?
Android Wear vs. the iWatch
Yes , yes , we live : Even after all this time , the iWatch is still a unicorn - powered figment of our imaginations . But the grounds that Apple ’s form onsomethinghas been mount , and Google is clearly aiming to slip any big H Apple might potentially have .
Android see : Real . Apple iWatch ? Not so much .
The resolution are mixed . At Wednesday ’s event , Google have a really tenacious metre to get to the demo of its smartwatch political program , Android Wear . And when it finally did , it did n’t really provide a single compelling narrative for the devices . Rather , it took more of a scattershot approach , exhibit how you may prescribe pizza pie and check into your flights and get notifications — without really answering the interrogation of whether it ’s appreciably easier to perform any of those task on a watch than it is on a phone .
Still , this is clearly an expanse where Google ’s invest a lot of meter and DOE : Among other thing , it promised to give attending developers not one , buttwosmartwatches . ( Google aged vice president Sundar Pichai seemed almost maniacally focused on getting developer to write apps for round displays . )
We have yet to see Apple ’s salvo in the wearable blank space . But if there ’s one matter the folk from Cupertino surpass at , it ’s creating not only a narration but a absolved argument as towhyyou’d want a fussy machine .
Then again , you ’ve get two wrists , correct ? possibly the dual - smartwatch geological era is justly around the corner .
War: What is it good for?
Make no mistake : These are just a few of the engineering science arenas where Google and Apple are poised to butt head . There are plenty of others , from productivity suites to gaming to development tools . For every Apple activeness , there ’s an adequate and diametrical Google reaction , and vice versa .
Tensions have n’t been this gamy since theSharks and Jets last faced off — and let ’s be dependable , there ’s going to be a mint less vocalizing here . The battle lines have understandably been drawn , and if you were disquieted that the technology manufacture did n’t resemble the game of jeopardy closely enough — well , just kick back and put your feet up , because we ’re not far off . The bang - down , retarding force - out knife combat ’s just getting started ; I opine all that ’s left is for someone to call“one , two , three , go . ”
