Another week, another enormously important tech event. This week, it's Google's I/O 2012, and this Google event comes with some added pressure to live up to the standards set by competitors.
See, two weeks ago, Apple held its WWDC event and subsequently wowed the tech world with the Retina MacBook Pro and some spiffy new features in iOS 6. Last week, Microsoft earned high praise for two events -- the flashy premiere of the sleek Surface tablet and its low-key Windows Phone 8 unveiling.
Given those impressive antecedents, you can see why there's extra pressure on Google to have a successful day.
Can Google match the excitement and sense of optimism generated by Apple and Microsoft in the weeks prior? What will Larry Page and Sergey Brin's behemoth unveil at the Wednesday keynote address (which you can view live by clicking right here, or watching the video embedded at the top of this post, starting at 12:30 p.m. ET!) to wow the tech world and inspire developers to write for Android?
We've heard talk of a $199, 7-inch Nexus tablet that could compete with the Kindle Fire; we might also see Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean," the next iteration of the Android operating system and the logical successor to Ice Cream Sandwich. What features might we see in this Jelly Bean that can rival the dazzle of Maps and Siri in iOS 6, or the redesigned home screen and all-important "shared core" in Windows Phone 8?
We'll be live-blogging, and insta-analyzing, all the news that comes out of the Google I/O keynote, starting at 12:30. Check below for updates.
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