Jon: Welcome to Episode 157 of The Digital Life, a show about our adventures in the world of design and technology. I'm your host Jon Follett and with me is founder and co-host Dirk Knemeyer.

Dirk: Happy digital day Jon.

Jon: Happy digital day Dirk. Wow, that alliterates like crazy doesn't it?

Dirk: Indeed.

Jon: For our podcast today, we are going to discuss the various product launches at Google's I/O 2016 conference. Which is their big product launch every year. Before we get into the specifics of the Google announcements, I just want to make a note that in previous episodes we have always covered the Apple events until they became so boring that they weren't worth covering. I thought a little piece of analysis that you did probably about six months ago, just sort of stating that Apple was going to get overtaken by one of it's more innovative competitors, I think is probably worth at least mentioning that that day may have come with Google I/O 2016. Your thoughts on that?

Dirk: Yeah, I mean, I think the day came a long time ago but now we can all agree. Now, it's not just obvious to me and the small number of people but any thinking person obviously sees that as Apple has huge announcements over going back to small-sized phones as an option in contrast to Google's panalopy of new technology announcements and innovations. The only thing left is for Google or I guess I should say Alphabet to surpass Apple in stock price. That's not a question of if, it's a question of when.

Jon: Yeah, just from a market perspective, let's also take note that the Apple stock took a little bit of a beating as its returns were no longer as spectacular as in previous quarters. Let me just say, they're still the largest company on Earth so kudos to Apple for holding on to that. At the same time, it is quantitatively as well as qualitatively obvious that as far as innovation goes in the technical sphere, Apple is getting outflanked.

Dirk: For sure, it's almost like the days before Steve returned to the company in the mid-1990's. The Apple product portfolio is stale and flaccid compared to the new innovations and directions being taken by competitors. It feels like they would need something that seemingly came out of left field as a Hail Mary to, from my perspective, get back into the conversation of the future of digital products and lifestyle. I think they are the present to a gradually diminishing degree as well as the recent past.

Jon: Yeah, I'm on board with that. With that preamble, let's take a moment to savor the Google product announcements. Let's start off with their Android operating system which is more and more becoming their master platform for the Google software ecosystem. Which is basically Google everywhere, Google in your car, Google on your arm, and now Google virtual reality. Right? The VR system built on top of Android N which is the unnamed new OS shipping in the summer.

Daydream is sort of splitting the difference between Cardboard and Oculus Rift. Right? They've got this reference design for a headset which presumably will incorporate a VR-enabled phone. If you've ever tried Cardboard, which seems completely ridiculous and reminds me of the 3D glasses that you'd get at the old school 1980's movie theater where you strap on this piece of cardboard with the funny lenses and all of the sudden there's this headache-inducing experience known as 3D movies. Cardboard I thought was going to be that but actually there's some New York Times applications that are actually kind of enjoyable ... using Cardboard. I was really surprised.

This is the bottom up approach to VR which means that it's accessible to people in a way that Oculus Rift frankly is not with such a high price tag. Where it's probably going to appeal to a certain strata of folks. Let's start with Daydream. Are you daydreaming of Daydream, Dirk?

Dirk: You know Jon, no, but I think that Daydream's on the right track. I mean,