YouTube Music Key and Google Play Music Key to unite audio and video

It is only just a leak so far, but we have it on good authority that Google's YouTube will be launching a service called YouTube Music Key, which will be a paid subscription service to provide ad-free, curated music videos, recorded concerts and more. In addition, Google Play Music All Access is to be renamed Google Play Music Key and add 20 million new tracks to their collection.

The combined YouTube Music Key and Google Play Music Key is expected to sell for $9.99 per month. That's the same price as All Access runs for now. 

The resulting service provided here is one that is ultimately unparalleled in the media streaming world right now. Google is effectively providing a one stop shop for all of our musical desires. No longer will we have to go to Play Music to listen to tunes, then kill it off and open up YouTube to be able to catch the video for that same artist we were just listening too.

Developers: Google updated the I/O 2014 app with Material Design and you can have the source code

Instead of allowing the Google I/O 2014 app to go to waste now that the conference is over, Google has updated the app with full Material Design and Android L, and you can now download the full source code and use it as sample code for your own development.

This is great for developers that perhaps are new to Android, or just do not have a natural knack for design. Material Design, like it or not, is a very fluid and consistent experience that is meant to span your entire application, and, indeed, the entire Android operating system. I took a quick look at last month, and I must say, I think I like it.

What will Google's new apps look like with the changes we're seeing for Android L?

Expanding on yesterday's post showing the design principles that Google in employing for Android L, here is a big post showing off just what Google's apps and services may look like with the new designs.

How long until Chinese smartphone manufacturers like OPPO, Xiaomi and OnePlus take over the globe?

There are a good number of great smartphones coming out of China these days, they may not be world leaders just yet, but there are many that believe it is only a matter of time until they are. There is a lot of hype over phones like the OnePlus One, OPPO Find 7 and a handful of Xiaomi devices, but most of these can be hard to find on a global scale, especially missing out on one of the globes largest markets, North America.

Former Googler, now big dog over at Xiaomi, Hugo Barra, has been touring around launching Xiaomi products in a bunch of new countries. This is no big deal on its own, but Hugo boldly announced that Xiaomi plans to crack the U.S. market in 2015. In my opinion, having never personally touched a Xiaomi device, they are building Android smartphones that will have no problems delivering on the hardware expectations of most users.

Google Chrome OS

I have just finished reading an article about the new Chrome OS  --here--


More important than the article are the posted comments. Reading comments like these are how I keep in touch with what the general population thinks about a topic. That said, I really hope that the Google Chrome OS is as innovative and game changing as some speculate.