This morning in our Mountain View, CA backyard, we kicked off Google I/O, our annual developer conference. Much has changed since our first developer event 10 years ago, and even more since Google started 17 years ago. Back then, there were 300 million people online, connecting through desktop machines; today that number is over 3 billion, with the majority using mobile devices as their primary way to get information, organize their day, get from point A to point B, and stay in touch. In a world in which the mobile phone has become the remote control for our daily lives, Google’s mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” is truer and more important than ever before.

Google runs through all of its announcements from today.

Today we are launching fast.com, a simple-to-use website to help you see how fast your Internet connection is, whether on mobile or broadband, anywhere in the world. And like the Netflix service, it’s ad free with a streamlined design that is quick and easy to understand.

Google is announcing a new messaging app today. It’s called Allo and its main feature is a Google assistant that’s built right in. Google says it’ll be available later this summer — for free — on both iOS and Android.

The intelligence of knowing what the content of the photo was in one of the examples was very smart, but I wasn’t blown away by the rest.

Rene Ritchie received the following statement from Apple:

“We’re looking into a small number of reports that some iPad units are receiving an error when updating the software,” an Apple spokesperson told iMore. “Those unable to restore their device through iTunes should contact Apple support.”

I didn’t update my iPad Pro when I saw these reports starting to circulate.

The effect of Saturation, or the introduction of harmonic distortion, on an audio track or mix can add that certain special “flavor” and “warmth” that only magnetic tape, tubes, transformers or transistors can deliver. The T-RackS Saturator X delivers that classic analog saturation and takes you on a trip back in time to the birth of “modern” recording before computers and opens your recordings to the mysterious, elusive and warm world of analog saturation.

There really is something special about saturation.

Dorico redefines the gold standard in scoring software. Its musical intelligence is like having an expert assistant by your side, while its intuitive workflows help you focus on each aspect of score preparation. Dorico’s output equals the finest music engraving, and brings music to life through Steinberg’s award-winning audio engine.

Steinberg has year’s of experience in the music industry—I expect good things from them with this software.

Impressive list of talented people.

With the Amazon Associates program you can link to products sold on Amazon to earn commissions on purchases made with those links. The trouble is, creating those links is a hassle on iOS. Associate fixes that with easy to use search and link conversion.

The developer, John Voorhees, is a great guy that develops great software.

Apple Inc is set to announce plans to expand its Indian software development center and build an accelerator program for local start-ups, two sources aware of the investment said on Tuesday, hours before Chief Executive Tim Cook’s maiden visit.

Cook, who arrives in India late on Tuesday, is making his Indian debut just as the country emerges as one of the last large growth markets in the smartphone world, while sales in the United States and China begin to taper off.

This is a big investment trip for Apple. First China, now investments in India. It’s smart to become part of the economies where they want to sell products.

I’m not going to ruin it, but the description of this is so, so good.

Great job.

Apple and other companies in recent months have been subjected to reviews that target encryption and the data storage of tech products, said people briefed on the reviews who spoke on the condition of anonymity. In the reviews, Chinese officials require executives or employees of the foreign tech companies to answer questions about the products in person, according to these people.

This must be worrisome for foreign companies. This isn’t an Apple specific issue, so I hope people don’t overreact to this news.

As merchants like Walmart move ahead on their own mobile payment strategies, a consortium that once counted Walmart — along with a number of other big retailers and brands — behind it, has taken a step back. Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) today announced it would postpone a nationwide rollout of CurrentC, a smartphone payment initiative originally conceived as a mobile wallet rival to smartphone-led services like Apple Pay and Android Pay. As a result, MCX said it would lay off 30 people as it shifted its focus to working with financial institutions.

It’s dead, just cancel it.

Billy is one of my favorite guitar players—such great style.

I would totally wear one of these.

The change could happen in the next two weeks, said the person who asked not to be named because the decision isn’t yet public. Links currently take up 23 characters, even after Twitter automatically shortens them. The company declined to comment.

Of all the changes that Twitter has talked about, I love this one. It’s a small, but significant change.

Cook’s visit, following a trip to China, comes at a crucial time as Apple looks for new growth markets after posting its first ever decline in iPhone sales, and as India has denied it permission to sell refurbished phones – a move seen as key to appealing to price-sensitive local consumers.

This makes perfect sense considering how much Tim has talked about India lately.

The gamble hints at Berkshire’s confidence in Apple’s ability to create new products that reignite revenue growth. That may either come with the iPhone 7, set to be introduced later this year, or in new product categories such as autonomous driving or virtual reality hardware.

I think that’s a good bet.

You can get the new Mac version by opening the Mac App Store and checking for updates. Version 12.4 adds some navigation and menu changes that Apple characterizes as a “simpler design.”

The European Union has accused Google of promoting its shopping service in Internet searches at the expense of rival services in a case that has dragged on since late 2010.

Several people familiar with the matter told Reuters last month they believed that after three failed attempts at a compromise in the past six years Google now had no plans to try to settle the allegations unless the EU watchdog changed its stance.

I joined Dan Lizette on The Podcast Digest last week. We had a great discussion about podcasts, history, and some other interesting topics.

I use Siri all the time to confirm the NHL schedule and simple things like that. It works well, even though looking up a schedule isn’t the most difficult task in the world. Or maybe it is. […]

Some good points here from Viticci, but I can still see why Apple turns off access to the microphone.

Apple on Friday contacted The Loop with a statement regarding reports that iTunes is deleting music from people’s library without permission. […]

Great video showing the tonal differences between some iconic guitars.

It looks like drivers in the UK could soon be able to store their driver’s license within Apple’s Wallet app on iPhones as CEO of the country’s Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) today shared the image of the work in progress feature above.

This is pretty cool.

VocaLive lets you create amazing vocal effects by chaining up to 4 effects procesors into a single effects chain, just like you would in the studio. Use VocaLive on stage as your own personal controllable vocal effects processor adding lush reverbs, delays, multi-part harmonies, creative effects and more, all at your fingertips. VocaLive also lets you record up to 8 tracks of audio simultaneously and is perfect for tracking vocals with multi-track class compliant USB audio interfaces.

IK makes some great software and hardware for iOS and Mac.

Apple Inc. has cut the approval time for new submissions to its App Store from more than a week to less than two days.

Phil Schiller.

Some interesting notes that Gruber found in Gboard’s privacy policy—it seems it is private, which is great. The emoji tip is awesome.

Instructions in the documents appear to contradict Facebook’s earlier denials of a Gizmodo article that said Facebook editors directly inserted headlines into the trending news widget. It also contradicts what Facebook told Recode last summer.