All posts tagged ‘Nexus’

Hands-On: Nexus 7 Tablet Is a Media Hub that Amazon Must Fear

Google and Asus have teamed up to build the Nexus 7 tablet, a rival to Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

I’ve only been using it for about a day now, but the Nexus 7 is already the best 7-inch tablet I’ve ever tested. Without question, it out-classes the hugely popular Amazon Kindle Fire. It’s also a better-performing device than Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet and Nook Color, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Toshiba’s Excite 7, and anything else out there in this size.

The Nexus 7 is manufactured by Asus but serves as a full-fledged Android flagship device. This means it runs a completely pure, unadulterated version of Google’s latest mobile operating system — Android 4.1, aka Jelly Bean. The hardware was designed by Asus and Google together, and it just can’t be matched in terms of 7-inch tablet value.

For one thing, it’s the world’s only quad-core 7-inch tablet, and it will sell for $200 with 8GB of storage and $250 with 16GB of storage. The Google Play storefront has the tablet on pre-order now for shipment in mid-July.

Inside is Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor, a 12-core Nvidia GPU and 1GB of RAM. These internals give the Nexus 7 plenty of speed and processing power. When I first turned on the tablet, and logged into my Google account and began downloading content, swiping between different home screens was a bit stuttery. It wasn’t any worse than what I’ve experienced on other tablets, but I didn’t get the feeling the Nexus 7 was brimming with category-leading components.
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Nexus Smartphones: Who Wins, Who Loses if Google Launches Android 5.0 in Multiple Handsets?

The HTC Nexus One was Google's first flagship-status phone, released in January 2010. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired

This fall, with the expected release of Android 5.0, Google might completely reinvent its Nexus smartphone program: Instead of partnering with a single handset manufacturer to launch a single flagship Nexus phone, Google could release as many as five Nexus-branded smartphones, each running a pure, unadulterated version of the company’s next operating system.

This move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week, would be a bold reboot of Google’s Nexus program. For the past three years, if consumers wanted to purchase a phone running the latest Android OS unsullied by carrier- or manufacturer-installed interface skins or bloatware, they looked directly to Nexus handsets.

The HTC Nexus One introduced Android 2.1 in January 2010. The Samsung Nexus S introduced Android 2.3 in December 2010. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus introduced Android 4.0 in November 2011. Each Nexus phone has held “flagship” status — the first piece of hardware to run whatever new OS version Google’s cooked up.

So why would Google want to expand its Nexus program, and drop its current one-phone, one-partner model? First, the move could help reduce “fragmentation” in the Android ecosystem — the phenomenon of too many different Android phones running legacy OS versions, and never getting OS updates.

Second, the move could be a peace offering to all of Google’s hardware partners. Google is about to buy Motorola’s hardware business, Motorola Mobility, so it’s interested in avoiding any displays of favoritism to its new acquisition.

Third, Google knows that consumers aren’t always smitten with the skins and software additions imposed by its hardware and carrier partners. Unleashing a greater number of “pure” Android phones into the wilderness appeals to the hardcore Android faithful.

For its part, Google declined to comment on the Journal report or the future of the Nexus program. But that doesn’t stop Gadget Lab from calling out the winners and losers that would emerge if this rumored program comes to pass. There are four major groups that would be affected by a “Let’s Give a Nexus to Everyone” plan. Let’s explore how each of them might experience the policy shift.
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Report: Google-Branded Tablet to Land in April

Google's Nexus tablet could be the company's next hardware device. Jon Snyder/Wired.com

The long-awaited Android-running, Google-branded tablet reportedly arrives in April.

The device is aimed squarely at the dominant, and cheap, Amazon Kindle Fire, which is the world’s leading 7-inch Android device. The tablet, which former CEO Eric Schmidt first mentioned in December, also would advance Google’s plan to create a unified software and hardware ecosystem — just like that company in Cupertino.

Richard Shim, an analyst with DisplaySearch, told CNET the Google tablet is on track for production in April and is expected to cost $199. It will sport a 7-inch, 1280×800 display and run Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). Those specs, if they pan out, one-up the Kindle Fire, which also costs $199 but has a 1024×600 display and runs on a modified version of Gingerbread (Android 2.3).

Should the tablet actually materialize, it would be yet another entry in Google’s sweeping hardware initiative. Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility will give the search company a ready-to-go hardware division. The tablet also would follow the rumored music-streaming entertainment device that would take advantage of the proposed Android@Home initiative announced at Google I/O.

This week The New York Times reported that Google is working on HUD glasses that could be formally announced by the end of the year.

Beyond its internal hardware initiatives, Google has partnered with HTC and Samsung for its Nexus-branded smartphones. The current crop of Nexus flagship phones were the first Android phones powered by Ice Cream Sandwich.

Indeed, all the rumored hardware and the Motorola Mobility acquisition suggest Google is positioning itself as a company that owns the entire “product stack,” from operating system to app ecosystem to hardware. This, of course, is the strategy employed by Google’s main rival in the mobile market, Apple.

Should Google continue down this path, it may be the next company, to “own the whole widget,” as Steve Jobs would say.

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Samsung Galaxy Nexus Finally Gets a Solid Release Date

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired.com

It’s been nearly a month since we first heard about Google’s next-gen Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Yet since its unveiling, we haven’t heard a word about its release.

Until now. Beginning Thursday, the Galaxy Nexus will go on sale at Verizon Wireless retailers in the U.S., according to a tweet sent on Wednesday afternoon from the official Verizon Wireless Twitter account.

The phone will cost $300 with a two-year Verizon Wireless contract, and will run on the carrier’s 4G LTE network.

It’s been roller coaster ride for the Galaxy Nexus. According to recent rumors, Google and Verizon were embroiled in a battle over Google Wallet, Google’s mobile payments app that was supposed to have ended up in the upcoming phone. Verizon, however, has its own interests to protect — the carrier is part of the ISIS joint venture with T-Mobile and AT&T, a possible alternative to Google Wallet. Naturally, the ISIS partners don’t want to ship a competing payments solution on their own devices.

Google agreed to keep Wallet off the devices, but no parties have explained why it’s taken so long to release the phone. Still, once early adopters start playing with Ice Cream Sandwich for the first time on the Galaxy Nexus, we’re sure the weeks of anxious speculation will be forgotten.

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Rumor: Google’s New Nexus Phone Includes Button-Free Screen, Faster Chip

The Nexus 4G purportedly features a dual-core 1.2 GHZ or 1.5GHz processor. The Nexus S, pictured, has a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor. Photo: Gizmodo

The details on Google’s next Nexus smartphone may have been revealed, and tipsters are saying the phone is an “absolute beast.”

Well-sourced mobile blog Boy Genius Report claims that the Nexus 4G, as it is currently being referred to, will house a faster dual-core CPU and run the next-generation Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Tipsters also told BGR that the handset would include a 1.2-GHz or 1.5-GHz Snapdragon processor and sport a ”monster-sized” 720p high-definition touchscreen display with no buttons. A button-free display would be a major change, because most current Android handsets, including the Nexus S, have four menu buttons (menu, home, back and search) located below the screen.

If BGR’s sources are correct, the Nexus 4G would be a significant step up from Google’s current flagship phone, the Samsung-built 3G Nexus S, which sports a 1-Ghz Hummingbird processor and runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread. A 4G Sprint version of the Nexus S with very similar hardware specs (1-GHz Hummingbird processor, 16 GB of internal storage and NFC capabilities) began shipping in April.

The Nexus 4G sounds right on trend: At CES this year, we saw a smorgasbord of dual-core smartphones hit the stage, and many of the devices, like Samsung’s Galaxy S II have started dropping with 1.2-GHz processor speeds. Like most Android-powered phones, the Nexus 4G appears to make a big push on the newest, muscular hardware features to compete with Apple’s iPhone, which gets upgraded only once a year.

Other purportedly leaked specs on the Nexus 4G include a 1-megapixel front camera and 5-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of 1080p HD video capture. The rear camera will utilize an advanced sensor for “class-leading image quality” and good performance in low-light scenarios, according to BGR.

The Nexus 4G looks like it could be the first smartphone to run Google’s newest OS, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich meshes a number of features from Android 2.3 Gingerbread with ones that were previously exclusive to the tablet-only Honeycomb, such as a holographic user interface, multitasking, and the ability to connect with USB devices like an Xbox controller. It’ll debut in the fourth quarter of 2011, so that’s probably the earliest we would see the Nexus 4G potentially being released.

Perhaps, as with Android 2.3 Gingerbread‘s debut, both the OS and the smartphone will be officially unveiled at the same event. Reports peg the release around Thanksgiving.

No carrier information was leaked, leading to speculation that the Nexus 4G could be one of the first AT&T 4G LTE smartphones. Or maybe Google just hasn’t hammered out an exact carrier deal yet.

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