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  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

I/O, I/O, no work from home for show: Google will not hold 2020 event 'in any capacity'

(2020/03/23)


Google has announced that its I/O 2020 event, normally used for announcements relating to Android and other products, has been cancelled completely.

The event, which was originally scheduled for May 12-14 in Mountain View, California, was [1]cancelled as a physical event on March 3, "due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19)". Now Google [2]says it "will not be holding I/O in any capacity this year".

The reason given is the "health and safety of our developers, employees, and local communities". Even a virtual event is hard to put on without any in-person meetings, which are now restricted by local "shelter in place" orders which require residents to stay at home other than for "essential services" and "essential activities".

It is also possible that schedules for products or services that Google intended to announce have been disrupted. Last week the company [3]said that it was "pausing upcoming Chrome and Chrome OS releases" thanks to "adjusted work schedules".

Android development continues, though, and developer preview 2 of Android 11 (also known as Android R) was [4]announced last week. The company [5]says it remains "committed to sharing ongoing Android updates with you through our developer blogs and community forums". ®



[1] https://twitter.com/googledevs/status/1234944902900805632

[2] https://events.google.com/io/

[3] https://blog.chromium.org/2020/03/upcoming-chrome-releases.html

[4] https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/03/android-11-developer-preview-2.html

[5] https://twitter.com/googledevs/status/1241077133906030592

Anonymous Coward

Maybe this will reverse the trend of paying to see product updates on the product you already pay for!

So we get to my point. Surely people around here read things that
aren't on the *Officially Sanctioned Cyberpunk Reading List*. Surely we
don't (any of us) really believe that there is some big, deep political and
philosophical message in all this, do we? So if this `cyberpunk' thing is
just a term of convenience, how can somebody sell out? If cyberpunk is just a
word we use to describe a particular style and imagery in sf, how can it be
dead? Where are the profound statements that the `Movement' is or was trying
to make?
I think most of us are interested in examining and discussing literary
(and musical) works that possess a certain stylistic excellence and perhaps a
rather extreme perspective; this is what CP is all about, no? Maybe there
should be a newsgroup like, say, alt.postmodern or something. Something less
restrictive in scope than alt.cyberpunk.
-- Jeff G. Bone