Google's I/O developer conference saw the announcement of an own-branded tablet yesterday. Priced at $199 and manufactured by Asus, the 7" Nexus 7 will run on Android 4.1, dubbed Jelly Bean, and will ship in the US in mid-July.
Google described the tablet as principally a conduit for Google Play, its cloud-based repository for Google apps and movies, books and other content.
Also introduced was the Android-based device called Nexus Q that will work in homes to distribute music and other content over stereos and displays with controls from Android smartphones and tablets.
Given the price and focus on content streaming from Google Play, analysts said the Nexus 7 tablet will principally serve the same audience as the Amazon Kindle Fire, a $199, 7" device Amazon is expected to update in July.
Google didn't offer many details about how it developed the tablet or whether it relies on Nvidia's Kai reference design, a means for keeping down costs while keeping up performance.
Google has taken the wraps off the next version of its Android operating system, known as Jelly Bean, which adds improvements to search, voice typing and notifications.
Jelly Bean, also known as Android 4.1, will will start to be pushed out to some Android phones next month. A significant new feature is the Siri competitor Google Now, which uses a person's location, search history and calendar entries to offer more pertinent search results, Google said. Google Now appears to basically turn Android into a personal assistant for a user's life. For example, Google Now learns roughly when a person commutes to work and what route they take. It will then check traffic reports each morning and recommend a faster route when there's one available.
When a user is near a bus stop or train station, Google Now will tell users what time the next bus or train is arriving. And if a user searches for a flight, Google will remember that and push out notifications if the flight is delayed.
Google didn't go into a lot of detail about how it works; presumably it uses information from existing online services such as restaurant reviews. Allowing Google Now to access a person's location, search and calendar entries is optional, Google executives stressed, but it's bound to make some users concerned about privacy.
Jelly Bean also improves the voice typing function in Android, which lets users type messages and perform searches by speaking into the phone. In Ice Cream Sandwich, voice typing works only when users are online, but for Jelly Bean, Google "shrank" the speech recognition software that runs on the servers in its data center, so that it will fit into the device itself. So users will be able to type using their voice when they're offline.
Offline voice typing will be available initially for US English and will be offered in other languages "soon".
The Android Beam function in Ice Cream Sandwich has also been beefed up. The existing version lets users share data such as contact information by knocking two phones together, assuming they have NFC (near-field communications) capability. In Jelly Bean, that's extended to let them exchange photos and videos, and users will also be able to connect their smartphone to an external device such as a speaker by tapping the phone against it.
Jelly Bean also has better notifications, so that users won't have to open separate applications to act on those notifications. If an e-mail notification pops up, for instance, the user can view it from within the notification instead of opening the Gmail app. They can also return calls from within a missed call notification.
Other improvements include increasing the display rate to 60 frames per second, so opening applications and refreshing the screen appear smoother.
IDG News Service