Google Says Android Things is Finally Ready For Smart Devices (theverge.com)

Ahead of its developer conference I/O, Google said Monday Android Things, a platform for smart devices that the company announced in 2016, is ready for shipping with consumer devices. From a report: Android Things is hitting its 1.0 release today after launching to developers at the end of 2016. Google says the first devices -- which include speakers from LG and iHome, and smart displays from LG, Lenovo, and JBL -- will be released over the next several months. Android Things is a development platform that's meant to make it easier for hardware companies to start building a gadget. It lets Google handle some of the software and intelligence features, while allowing hardware companies to code for it using the Android tools they're likely already familiar with. It's not clear exactly how much easier this makes things, but it probably simplifies development particularly for gadgets that are going to end up with Google Assistant features or Cast capabilities in them.

Comments

Re:Do not want

[AmiMoJo]

I'm actually building and Android Things device for work.

You have a great deal of control over what data Google gets. The system is designed around devices rather than users, so you don't need to provide it with any personal data directly. There is no telemetry by default, although you can enable some of you want to.

It can connect to Google for updates to the OS and your apps. This is also optional. For most people it's a major benefit because Google will supply security updates, unlike the vendor.

Google profits by having android compatibile devices in the marketplace. Otherwise they would have to give that market to Apple and just accept the loss. Last time I checked the advertising API wasn't even available, and wouldn't make much sense on a headless system anyway.