Another very exciting announcements from Google Android and Chrome team unveiling the new Nexus 7 android tablet, latest Android 4.3 Jelly Bean mobile operating system, Google Play Games, Google Play Textbooks and the $35 Google Chromecast that will revolutionize your TV viewing experience. Let’s start digging deeper into the important announcement made today –
Next-gen Nexus 7 Android Tablet
Google unveiled the new Nexus 7 android tablet with specification that we already covered on our previous post. The new Nexus 7 spots a 7 inch LCD Full HD IPS display with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1200 and having a 323 PPI providing super high quality rendering. The device is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 8064 quad-core processor which is clocked at 1.5GHz and carries a Adreno 320 graphics processing unit along with 2GB RAM. It runs in the latest Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS carrying lots of new features.
On the rear it has a 5 megapixel shooter and on the front 1.2 megapixel camera. It has stereo surrounds sound with virtual 5.1 sound system provided by Fraunhofer. The new Nexus 7 comes in two version carrying an internal storage of 16GB and 32GB with no external storage option.
- 7 inch LCD HD IPS display (1920 x 1200 resolution)
- 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 8064 CPU with 2GB RAM
- Adreno 320 GPU
- 5.0MP rear-facing camer and 1.2MP front-facing camera
- 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.0, Micro USB 2.0 port with SlimPort
- G-sensor, ambient light, Ecompass, gyroscope and proximity sensors
On the pricing side the new Google Nexus 7 16GB model can be purchased for $229, while the 32GB model for $269 and Nexus 32GB 4G LTE model for $349. The new Nexus 7 will be available for purchase in US from July 30th, 2013 and soon to other countries including India.
Android 4.3
With the nexus 7 launch Google also launched the new Android 4.3 Jelly Bean mobile operating system. The new Android OS brings in number of improvements that will appeal for both users and developers. Some of the key features include Bluetooth Smart, OpenGL ES 3.0 support, Multi-user restricted profiles, Faster user-switching, DRM APIs, Easier text input, Hebre, Arabic RTL, Bluetooth AVRCP, Background Wi-Fi location, Dial pad auto-complete, Number of language support including Hindi and overall better battery performance.
The new Android 4.3 improves the existing multi-user account functionality with added restricted profile feature. It helps to restrict contents and apps behavior based on the users logged in.
For gamers out their, the new Android 4.3 brings better graphics rendering through OPENGL ES 3.0 support. Using this Game developers can build stunning games in high-resolution with pixel perfect rendering. Another improvement is the Bluetooth Smart feature that’s basically the Bluetooth Low Energy mode allowing users to connect their devices to accessories without taking up too much battery. More details on the latest Android 4.3 can be found on Android dev website. Nexus devices including Nexus 7, Nexus 4, Nexus 10 and Galaxy Nexus has already started getting the new Android 4.3 update.
Google Play Games and Google Play Textbooks
The new Google Play Games App is essentially the easiest way to discover new games, track achievements and scores, and play with friends around the world. It brings in a unified gaming experience with connecting and playing along with friends, challenging them, tracking achievements etc. Some of the newest released games using this app features include Asphalt 8 Airborne, Riptide GP2 and Prince of Persia The Shadow and the Flame. Grab the Google Play Games App which is available for download from Google Play store or its been bundled with Android 4.3.
Google Play Textbooks offers students with educational materials from the top five publishers which includes Pearson, Wiley, Macmillian Higher Education, McGraw-Hill and Cengage Learning. Student’s can either rent out the textbooks for 6 months, which is perfect for academic semester with up to 80% discount in pricing or can buy them directly.
Chromecast
Google unveiled an interesting Chrome OS based device – Chromecast that brings in streaming online videos and musics on to your HDTV. It’s basically a HDMI dongle that once plugged into your TV can control it with your smartphone, tablet or laptop running any operating system including Android, iOS, Windows, Mac or Chrome OS. It will allow you to stream Youtube videos, Netflix videos, musics from Google Music store and even media contents directly from the Chrome browser. Users can control various aspects such as volume, play, pause etc during a video and audio playback directly from their smartphones, tablets or laptops.
The device has been priced at $35 and available for purchase from Google Play store for US.