5 ms·

Google I/O 2026 had nothing to say and said it badly ahead of Apple's WWDC

40 points by frizlab 5mo ago

frizlab 5mo ago
I honestly did not watch the thing, but this headline got a laugh out of me (:
dividendflow 5mo ago
[flagged]
pingou 5mo ago
They announced Gemini 3.5, an AI centered search approach, Gemini Spark, Gemini Omni, smart glasses, and more, and somehow that accounts to "having nothing to say"? How high is the bar? Sure, most of this stuff is just improvement on existing things, and it's true that if you are not interested in AI then there wasn't something for you there, but are we expecting them to announce a revolutionary product each I/O conference?
- drcongo 5mo ago
  The HN thread about I/O racked up a grand total of 183 points. It never fares as well as WWDC on here, but that struck me as especially low. I think your list of things they announced is pretty telling - like, oh great, more bloody AI shit.
  - orionsbelt 5mo ago
    Google has terrible communication skills and aesthetic taste. Even if their new products are technically good, and you are interested in this space, it's almost impossible to follow, e.g.: https://x.com/nathanclark_/status/2056947354654355849?s=20 https://x.com/nathanclark_/status/2056947354654355849?s=20
- lacewing 5mo ago
  No one is surprised that Google is putting AI in more places. Yes, the bar is high: announcing a new video generation tool or another personal agent doesn't sound amazing because both Google and its competitors already have that tech in some shape or form. And smart glasses are something that every other company has been toying with for a long time. Google Glass, Meta Smart Glasses, Snapchat Spectacles, etc. Maybe they nail it this time around, but you've heard that announcement a dozen times before, so it's hard to go "OMG THIS IS BIG".
- greatgib 5mo ago
  Gemini 3.5 is an increment that doesn't Worth an event and mostly on par with what competitors are doing with a huge price increase. The rest kind of already exists, died and is reborn multiple times already. Like the smart glasses. And a lot of it is not even wanted by consumers. It is more Google trying to shove his ai to try to have user adopt it. Like Microsoft with Copilot.
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
jvolkman 5mo ago
> There's a supercut of the event on YouTube which solely shows every mention of the term "AI." It's about a minute long and by the end you want to cover your ears to shut out this sound and fury. Amateurs. Apple would never allow something like this to happen. Oh, wait: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-CPfqZgWTk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-CPfqZgWTk
- nozzlegear 5mo ago
  I don't think 5G is deeply unpopular like AI is though. Maybe that was the article's point.
  - izacus 5mo ago
    I've actually seen more real life protests against 5G than against AI.
    - nozzlegear 5mo ago
      Ha, that's interesting. I don't know who'd be protesting 5G I guess, but in my area people are frothing-at-the-mouth enraged at the very idea of data centers going up. All three surrounding counties have had public meetings on data center projects that resulted in them being denied by county supervisors, and one has already enacted a 5-year "moratorium" on them.
      - pabs3 5mo ago
        There were 5G towers being attacked during COVID, because of delusional conspiracy theories: https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53285610 https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53285610 https://www.telstra.com.au/exchange/5g-health-concerns-and-covid-19-the-facts https://www.telstra.com.au/exchange/5g-health-concerns-and-c... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-03/5g-conspiracy-theory-investigation-coronavirus-health/12507368 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-03/5g-conspiracy-theory-...
      - izacus 5mo ago
        Having people put up anti-5G signs and groups of people showing up to events was sadly not uncommon in pre-pandemic era, at least here in Europe. Most of those folks seemed to have moved into antivaxx waters after covid though, haven't seen so many of "No 5G!" signs after that.
orthodonticjake 5mo ago
I'm trapped in Apple's ecosystem and I've been incredibly envious of the things Google is doing. So many neat features I'd love to use, but I'm still not quite ready to switch. The crazy thing to me is that so many of the things Google is doing would seem to be a slam-dunk obvious thing for Apple to lead on. For example, the context aware cursor. What an amazing idea -- a computer that understands your intents intuitively, at such a basic level. That's the core idea that fueled Apple decades ago, but apparently not so much anymore.
ChrisArchitect 5mo ago
Related: Google I/O https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196020 Gemini Omni https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196609 Google changes its search box https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48197370 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48197370 Gemini 3.5 Flash https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196570 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196570
jauntywundrkind 5mo ago
They're finally shipping the sl2619 embedded AI board, which is cool. https://www.cnx-software.com/2026/05/20/coralboard-features-synaptics-astra-sl2619-edge-ai-soc-supports-google-gemma-3-inference/ https://www.cnx-software.com/2026/05/20/coralboard-features-... I did find that this was a pretty big struggle of a presentation. It's hard for me to get excited about a lot of AI tech stuff. It's unclear what it does and I'd rather do it in an open source harness where there is control and observability, not some far off product I don't own running in some else's data center.
pjmlp 5mo ago
Actually it had plenty to say about Android development and I no longer follow it as I used to. Views got deprecated, GC improvements, R8 improvements, AI Studio can generate apps and integrate with Android Studio (back to my agents and IDEs remark from a few days ago), OpenXR improvements including Godot and Unreal, new CLI tooling for AI integrations, Android apps can expose AI tools, some OpenJDK related improvements.... And I am not even following the actual talks.
notnullorvoid 5mo ago
Wow that was way more Apple simping than I expected. It'll be funny when WWDC happens and Apple has even less of substance to say.
- kid_cubi 5mo ago
  > Wow that was way more Apple simping than I expected. The article is literally coming from a blog called "apple insider"
spwa4 5mo ago
Agreed.

40 points by frizlab 5mo ago

frizlab 5mo ago

I honestly did not watch the thing, but this headline got a laugh out of me (:

dividendflow 5mo ago

[flagged]

pingou 5mo ago

They announced Gemini 3.5, an AI centered search approach, Gemini Spark, Gemini Omni, smart glasses, and more, and somehow that accounts to "having nothing to say"? How high is the bar? Sure, most of this stuff is just improvement on existing things, and it's true that if you are not interested in AI then there wasn't something for you there, but are we expecting them to announce a revolutionary product each I/O conference?

drcongo 5mo ago
The HN thread about I/O racked up a grand total of 183 points. It never fares as well as WWDC on here, but that struck me as especially low. I think your list of things they announced is pretty telling - like, oh great, more bloody AI shit.
- orionsbelt 5mo ago
  Google has terrible communication skills and aesthetic taste. Even if their new products are technically good, and you are interested in this space, it's almost impossible to follow, e.g.: https://x.com/nathanclark_/status/2056947354654355849?s=20 https://x.com/nathanclark_/status/2056947354654355849?s=20
lacewing 5mo ago
No one is surprised that Google is putting AI in more places. Yes, the bar is high: announcing a new video generation tool or another personal agent doesn't sound amazing because both Google and its competitors already have that tech in some shape or form. And smart glasses are something that every other company has been toying with for a long time. Google Glass, Meta Smart Glasses, Snapchat Spectacles, etc. Maybe they nail it this time around, but you've heard that announcement a dozen times before, so it's hard to go "OMG THIS IS BIG".
greatgib 5mo ago
Gemini 3.5 is an increment that doesn't Worth an event and mostly on par with what competitors are doing with a huge price increase. The rest kind of already exists, died and is reborn multiple times already. Like the smart glasses. And a lot of it is not even wanted by consumers. It is more Google trying to shove his ai to try to have user adopt it. Like Microsoft with Copilot.

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

jvolkman 5mo ago

> There's a supercut of the event on YouTube which solely shows every mention of the term "AI." It's about a minute long and by the end you want to cover your ears to shut out this sound and fury. Amateurs. Apple would never allow something like this to happen. Oh, wait: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-CPfqZgWTk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-CPfqZgWTk

nozzlegear 5mo ago
I don't think 5G is deeply unpopular like AI is though. Maybe that was the article's point.
- izacus 5mo ago
  I've actually seen more real life protests against 5G than against AI.
  - nozzlegear 5mo ago
    Ha, that's interesting. I don't know who'd be protesting 5G I guess, but in my area people are frothing-at-the-mouth enraged at the very idea of data centers going up. All three surrounding counties have had public meetings on data center projects that resulted in them being denied by county supervisors, and one has already enacted a 5-year "moratorium" on them.
    - pabs3 5mo ago
      There were 5G towers being attacked during COVID, because of delusional conspiracy theories: https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53285610 https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53285610 https://www.telstra.com.au/exchange/5g-health-concerns-and-covid-19-the-facts https://www.telstra.com.au/exchange/5g-health-concerns-and-c... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-03/5g-conspiracy-theory-investigation-coronavirus-health/12507368 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-03/5g-conspiracy-theory-...
    - izacus 5mo ago
      Having people put up anti-5G signs and groups of people showing up to events was sadly not uncommon in pre-pandemic era, at least here in Europe. Most of those folks seemed to have moved into antivaxx waters after covid though, haven't seen so many of "No 5G!" signs after that.

orthodonticjake 5mo ago

I'm trapped in Apple's ecosystem and I've been incredibly envious of the things Google is doing. So many neat features I'd love to use, but I'm still not quite ready to switch. The crazy thing to me is that so many of the things Google is doing would seem to be a slam-dunk obvious thing for Apple to lead on. For example, the context aware cursor. What an amazing idea -- a computer that understands your intents intuitively, at such a basic level. That's the core idea that fueled Apple decades ago, but apparently not so much anymore.

ChrisArchitect 5mo ago

Related: Google I/O https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196020 Gemini Omni https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196609 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196609 Google changes its search box https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48197370 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48197370 Gemini 3.5 Flash https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196570 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196570

jauntywundrkind 5mo ago

They're finally shipping the sl2619 embedded AI board, which is cool. https://www.cnx-software.com/2026/05/20/coralboard-features-synaptics-astra-sl2619-edge-ai-soc-supports-google-gemma-3-inference/ https://www.cnx-software.com/2026/05/20/coralboard-features-... I did find that this was a pretty big struggle of a presentation. It's hard for me to get excited about a lot of AI tech stuff. It's unclear what it does and I'd rather do it in an open source harness where there is control and observability, not some far off product I don't own running in some else's data center.

pjmlp 5mo ago

Actually it had plenty to say about Android development and I no longer follow it as I used to. Views got deprecated, GC improvements, R8 improvements, AI Studio can generate apps and integrate with Android Studio (back to my agents and IDEs remark from a few days ago), OpenXR improvements including Godot and Unreal, new CLI tooling for AI integrations, Android apps can expose AI tools, some OpenJDK related improvements.... And I am not even following the actual talks.

notnullorvoid 5mo ago

Wow that was way more Apple simping than I expected. It'll be funny when WWDC happens and Apple has even less of substance to say.

kid_cubi 5mo ago
> Wow that was way more Apple simping than I expected. The article is literally coming from a blog called "apple insider"

spwa4 5mo ago

Agreed.