Michal Ždanský June 27, 2012 saw the start of the regular Google I/O conference, practically the Android equivalent of WWDC. On the very first day, the company started with a presentation where it presented the new version of the operating system, but above all the new tablet from the Nexus family and the interesting Google Q accessories.
Now we can say that all three leading companies in information technology have a tablet. Apple has an iPad, Microsoft has Surface and Google Nexus 7 (and Ema for mom). The possible introduction of a tablet has been speculated for a long time, so its unveiling was no surprise, on the contrary, it is a very logical step by Google. Currently, the company offers a new reference phone model from the Nexus series every year, which is supposed to present Android in its pure form and in the best light. It should be noted that Google does not directly manufacture the devices. One of the partners always takes care of the production. The last partner for the production of phones was Samsung, currently Apple's biggest rival in the field of smartphones.
The first tablet from the Nexus family
The Nexus 7 was custom-made by Asus, which itself offers several Android tablets, with the Transfromer series among the most successful models. It is a seven-inch tablet with an IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 (the same as a 13-inch MacBook Pro) with an aspect ratio of 16:10. It is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset with four computing cores and twelve graphics cores. For comparison, the latest iPad is dual-core with four graphics cores, complemented by 1 GB of RAM. The tablet will also offer classic connectivity, although cellular connectivity is completely absent, which is odd to say the least for a company promoting the cloud as the future of computing.
Battery life is slightly lower than the iPad, around 8-9 hours. The device weighs a pleasant 340 grams and is less than 10,5 mm thick. Nexus 7 will be offered in two variants: 8 GB and 16 GB. However, the most interesting thing about the whole device is its price. The 8 GB model will cost $199, and the 16 GB model will cost $50 more. With its pricing policy, Google has made it clear who its main competitor is, namely the Kindle Fire. Amazon offers its tablet for the same price with the same capacity, but the Nexus 7 offers much better specifications and, above all, full-fledged Android compared to the completely modified version of Android 2.3 that can be found in the Kindle.
Amazon will thus have big problems, because it will be difficult to fight with the device from Google. Not even the ecosystem on which Amazon's tablet stands will prevent a sharp drop in sales. In addition to the tablet, Google also introduced the new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which brings completely new content to Google Play. These are mainly movie purchases (until now it was only possible to rent movies), the magazine store or the new offer of TV series, which Americans are familiar with, for example, from iTunes or the Amazon Store.
4.1 Android Jelly Bean
Android 4.1 itself does not bring anything revolutionary, it is basically a pleasant improvement of existing functions, something like iOS 6. The speed of the device should be significantly improved, notifications have gained a lot of new functions, where you can do many tasks directly from the notification bar, widgets now behave reasonably when positioning, i.e. other elements on the desktop move away to make enough space for the widget. Google also introduced a kind of its own version of Siri, a voice assistant that understands natural speech and can present answers using different cards. Here, I'm not afraid to say that Google copied quite a bit from Apple.
However, the new Google Now feature looks quite interesting. It's a full-screen menu of cards that are dynamically created based on your location, time of day, calendar, and other habits your phone gradually picks up. For example, around noon, it will recommend restaurants in your area, provide information about the upcoming game of your favorite sports team, because it knows about it from your search results, and so on. On the one hand, this is a great hub of tailored information (a bit of an idea from Minority Report), on the other hand, it's a little scary what your phone or tablet can know about you and how this information can be misused (for advertising).
Nexus Q or Apple TV according to Google
Along with the tablet, Google also revealed a mysterious device with a simple name Nexus Q. Shaped like a sphere (or Death Star, if you prefer), this accessory features a light-up strip of LEDs and a few connectors on the back for wireless music and video streaming. While the Apple TV relies mainly on the AirPlay protocol, the Nexus Q uses the cloud and links to Google Play, after all, it runs a modified version of Android 4.1.
Android devices connect via Wi-Fi or bluetooth, and pairing is as simple as NFC, and the black ball can then be controlled directly from your phone or Android. The idea is that you select, for example, a song or an entire playlist on your device and the Nexus Q starts playing it. However, the song is not streamed from the device, but from Google Play in the cloud. However, it is not entirely clear whether the music being played has to be purchased through the service or linked to Google's music cloud service, or whether it can be any MP3 that the device searches for in Google Play. However, if the song is not listed in the database, you are probably out of luck.
It's the same with video, movies and series are also streamed from Google Play, and it's not at all clear how it will be with video that wasn't rented or purchased on this service. In theory, playback could work on the basis of metadata, according to which the Nexus Q would find a given movie in the database, but for example, you simply cannot play a home video from vacation.
However, the most interesting feature is the creation of social playlists. If several people with Android gather around the Nexus Q, each of them can add their favorite songs to the playing playlist, and everyone becomes a bit of a DJ at the party. Songs can be placed in a queue, at the end or played straight away, but as a result, this can turn into a fight over whose song will be played. Not all friends will share the same taste as you.
The Nexus Q can also work with the YouTube application, but popular services in the US, such as Netflix, which can be found on the Apple TV, are completely missing. The device contains a built-in amplifier to which a speaker system can be connected, then it is connected to the TV via HDMI. A bit surprising is the price, which is $299, which is three times the price of the Apple TV, but as a result, it offers far fewer features than Apple's solution.
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Finally
Nexus is a fairly logical move by which the company wants to improve the position of Android tablets in the market, which is currently not doing so well. It is in direct competition with the second most successful Kindle Fire tablet, which won users mainly because of its price, and Google intends to fight with the same means. $199 for a relatively decent tablet is a no-brainer for many people. It will certainly take a bite out of the share of iPads, however, it will not significantly threaten Apple's tablet, nor does it have these ambitions.
However, for Android tablets to succeed, they need one essential thing, and that is quality apps adapted for the big screen, of which there are woefully few on Google Play. Google has at least rushed the Google+ app for tablets, which will be available for both Android and iOS, but it's still not enough. Therefore, the iPad will dominate the market for a long time, at least until Android offers the same collection of applications that we can find in the App Store. According to Google, the number of apps has reached the 600 milestone (the App Store is close to 000), but there are only a handful of good tablet apps among them.
I don't give the Nexus Q much of a chance to succeed, mainly due to its limited use and high price. Google is undoubtedly trying to establish itself in the living room, which is currently dominated by Microsoft with its Xbox, but the mysterious black Death Star will not be the product that will make Google famous in this area. Not even Google TV smart televisions have gained much traction yet, although according to the company's representatives, we should have seen a big boom in these devices. We'll see if at least the special Project Glass glasses, whose latest prototype Sergey Bryn also showed at I/O, will be successful.
selecting a song for a shared playlist has been offered by iTunes for a long time :-) just turn on the iTunes DJ playlist and then add or 'like' the song via iPhone/iPad. very cool thing.
otherwise Nexus Q has a nice design, unfortunately the price is absolutely beyond its value. and I'm curious about the tablet, but the absence of 3G/4G seems striking to me these days. Jelly Bean should at least be the first smooth and non-jamming version of Android.
The Nexus Q is completely made in the USA and not in China. Hence the price.
finally someone with balls and a personal design. thrown down the gauntlet for Apple designers who until now looked at their own work at Acer, Samsung, etc... parade just a thicket
1. Why would I want something with more storage when an extra 16gb is not enough? Besides, I won't know what I have and what I don't have. With Apple TV, I know I can play anything from my iPhone or iPad, so I don't have to worry about that…
2. Now it has Android 4.1, nice. In 1/4 of a year, Google will find out that it doesn't sell, and the developer probably won't be interested in an update to a newer version, right? As with most Android phones that don't get another update after the first year...
3. Strumming. Well, that amused me quite a bit. I thought it would be classic streaming from a device (like AirPlay), but it will be from the cloud. So not only does question #1 return, but in addition another storage is added :) So if it will be as it seems from the article, then as a user I would have 3 places where I can have something stored - mobile, cloud, ball…
I'm not saying that ATV is unbeatable, because it also has its flaws (for example, I don't know of an application that would play a series with subtitles via AirPlay and not via mirroring), but for the price, this is completely out of the question in my opinion :)
How about Google glasses??
This is just hype to show that they are trying to be innovative. I don't think this will ever go on mass sale, and if it does, it will get the same ridiculous price tag as the Q…
€1200 is the price
have you tried buzz player ?? or directly atv flash from fire core ??
IT'S nice that Google includes a Macbook Pro in its intro :)
Sorry for the mistake… "put it in" :) 2:13
Sorry for the mistake… "put it in" :) 2:13
Sorry for the mistake… "put it in" :) 2:13
competition for ipad ??? 7″ android with 8GB ?? it's not for people who want an ipad. for those who were considering Kindle Fire or Nook Touch, this is the best choice for them
The iPad really has no competition.
This is like writing that the Hyundai i30 has a new competitor – the Mercedes S klasse….
The iPad can't compete because Apple's OS isn't available to anyone else!
By the way: try using the SIII plastic toy in photo mode to adjust the exposure with your finger. CAN'T!!! SIII may be the best of the Tamjungs, but he can't even watch the EPL from afar!!