At its recently concluded I/O developers conference, Google introduced various updates to its social networking platform. This year’s event is focused on software and services, not hardware. Still, it’s easy to see how the new features dovetail with Google’s overall hardware/device strategy. Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins, Founding Editor of SiliconANGLE, had an in-depth conversation with the participants of the event. Here is a collection of the top interviews from Google I/O 2013 (see the entire Playlist below).

Matt Steiner and Denise Ho Share new features of Google photo

Matt Steiner and Denise Ho, two of the product managers behind the Google+ photo features, were anxious to discuss the new Google Plus features, especially the enhanced photo features. While Auto Awesome, Auto Enhance, Auto Highlight, Auto Backup, and other features, Google built the photo for everyone, everyday consumers who take pictures all the way to photo enthusiasts.

They then shared the future of Google’s vision for its social platform. They said that Google will be applying its Auto Enhance and Auto Awesome filters to photographs already uploaded to its service. Google is applying context-specific edits, able to be modified contextually. It seems Google understands from its extensive computer vision-capable systems that it’s the visual world (photos), not the text, that tells the story.

Smart Glasses by Recon Instruments

Eddie Raffaele, Product Manager at Recon Instruments, explained its new set of Goggles, the Recon Jet. It has a dual core processor, Bluetooth, WIFI, GPS, Ant+, HD camera and all the data-tracking sensors such as an accelerometer, an altimeter, a magnetometer, thermometer, and a gyroscope. Unlike Google, Recon is already selling eyewear with heads-up displays.

Recon Jet comes with its own open platform (based on Android), and will have some existing native apps. Raffaele said that the company will release the SDK for developers to create apps for the glass. He added that the glass will debut in June this year and will be priced in between $400 – $600.

HTML5 supports for WeVideo

Lucian Cioroga, Project Manager, WeVideo had a conversion with Hopkins on how to share edited video via WeVideo, as well as the industry’s growing support for HTML5. Cioroga said that WeVideo is making online collaborative video creation, which enables easy video creation using the WeVideo Storyboard editing mode, complete with video editing functions, transitions and effects.

Cioroga said the latest development in WeVideo is that WeVideo’s Chrome app is written entirely in HTML5 and WebGL, will run on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS. The browser-based version of this app will run on any smartphone and tablet browser that support HTML5 and WebGL. Working closely with the Google Chrome team also enables WeVideo customers to work offline mode. The video capabilities web-based applications would still be available when users are not actually connected to the internet. A key advantage of the Chrome-packaged version of WeVideo is that users can start editing footage offline, without needing to upload media to the cloud first.

More Wearable glass with APX Labs

While Google Glass was the center of attraction in the wearable computing space during I/O, one company at Google’s own developer conference showcased the beginnings of a different but potentially very important addition to the world of headware.

Jay Kim, Director, Research and Development, APX Labs, demonstrated a live demo for Hopkins on a different build complex and robust augmented reality applications. He presented a visualized method of navigating a YouTube playlist with just tilt your head this way or that. With the AR app, you can select a video, play and pause a video and return to the playlist. Apx’s BT-100 prototype has a 9-axis sensor, a microphone, and a 5MP camera.

But the real purpose of this AR app, as Kim said, is for use in healthcare, emergency response, IT and a host of other fields. He said the YouTube screen mode was just a demo showing what developers could do with their platform.

Google+ Integration and Beyond for SkillPages

Lain McDonald, CEO, SkillPages, talked about launching the integration between Google+ and SkillPages. At the Developer Sandbox at Google I/O, McDonald notes how it is helping to grow SkillPages’ business, and deliver more value for users. He added that G+ integration will allow SkillPages members to login and join SkillPages using Google+ account across mobile and desktop web.

If there is a recommendation from your Google+ network, you can share an interactive post in to a particular Google+ circle, which will then include a link directly to recommending your skills.

Google+ single sign-in gets even better

Like the more prevalent Facebook sign-in option, Google+ cross platform single sign-on allows seamless experience between platforms including desktop and mobile. Full video

Seth Sternberg, director of product management for Google+, Google, talked to Mark about the new features of Google+ including SSO, app activity, Google Search and sharing. Sternberg said cross-platform SSO lets you stay connected with Google on any device, so that multi-device users can sign on with Google on one device and then they migrate between Google SSO-supported Web locations or apps on Android devices. You sign in to Google+ and it starts downloading the official Android app. From there, you can open the app and you will find that you’re already automatically logged in with your Google+ account.