Google's Nexus Tablet To Be Unveiled Next Week

zacharye writes "Google chairman Eric Schmidt revealed in December that the company was working on its first own-brand tablet, and the 'Nexus 7' slate will finally be unveiled next week during the Google I/O developer conference, according to multiple reports. The latest reaffirmation comes from DigiTimes, which has reported a number of details surrounding Google's upcoming tablet that will seemingly prove accurate."

Comments

7-inch?

[nurb432]

Smack in the middle of the market that currently B&N and Amazon hold. Seriously, 7" is e-book territory. They should have made an actual tablet. 8" or greater.

Re:7-inch?

[Daetrin]

I think the concern is that 8" or greater would be smack in the middle of the market that Apple currently holds, and there's a lot more brand identification with the iPad than there is with the Nook or Kindle. The Nook and the Kindle have proven that a cheap smaller tablet is salable and competing against them would be easier than competing against the iPad. Not to mention that matching them in price will be a lot easier since they don't have nearly the economy of scale that Apple can pull off with their huge orders of parts.

Also, the company that's supposed to be producing the Nexus 7 already has a very nice line of larger tablets available.

Re:7-inch?

[Daetrin]

I actually quite like my 7" Nook, i can actually stick it in my pocket if i'm wearing cargo pants/shorts. I'm not sure i'd be able to do that if it was much bigger though.

Also, i forgot to mention it above, but i suspect Google is probably quite interested in blunting the momentum of the Kindle Fire if they can. Amazon rolling their own version of Android and cutting Google out of the market and ad loop is perfectly legal under the licensing terms, but that doesn't mean Google is necessarily pleased with the idea.

Re:7-inch?

[steveha]

I think it is quite clear that Google is on a mission here, and that mission is: ship a compelling tablet at the exact same price as a Kindle Fire.

Would an 8" screen make the tablet more compelling? IMHO, not really.

Would an 8" screen make it harder to hit the $199 price point? Yes. Not only are larger screens more expensive as a general rule, but the massive number of 7" devices already on the market mean that there should be multiple possible sources for a 7" screen, and volumes should help keep the cost down.

Will the Nexus 7 have a retina display? No, absolutely not, because there is no way they could hit the $199 price point.

Will the Nexus 7 have a GPS? Only if it can have a GPS and still hit the $199 price point.

Will the Nexus 7 have a camera? According to one of the linked articles, it will have a forward-facing camera for video conferencing, and will not have a rearward-facing camera to save on costs. As I already have a phone with a rearward-facing camera, a rearward-facing camera isn't that compelling IMHO, and I think Google made exactly the correct call here.

How much flash will it have? As much as it can have while still costing $199. I predict 8 GB.

I think you get the idea.

steveha

Re:7-inch?

[White Flame]

Will the Nexus 7 have a retina display? No, absolutely not, because there is no way they could hit the $199 price point.

At a rumored 1280x800 res at 7", that's 215dpi, which certainly sounds close enough to "retina". Sure, it's a bit lower than what's available now but really does get there. While there's varying speculation about the smaller dimension, the 1280 and 7" are pretty fixed.

Re:7-inch?

[roc97007]

Don't be obtuse. That's a paraphrase of "the best gun is the one you have on you", referring to having a less capable device actually on your person being better than having a more capable device at home. I do 24 hour on-call, as do a lot of Slashdot participants, and I suspect *they* knew what I meant.

I sometimes use Logmein Ignition to do casual administration rather than carry the laptop everywhere I go. A 7 inch tablet is just about enough screen area to do serious admin, and it's still small enough to fit in my pocket.

Re:7-inch?

[recoiledsnake]

Here is what I learned by Googling that seem to be key differentiators of the 7" Allwinner.

3. My A10 based tablet did not come with market, how can I install Market?

If you are using Gingerbread (Android version 2.3.X) use Tasselhoff's Script. it can be found here
2.3.x Topnotch Tablets A10 scripts download Page

If you are using Ice Cream Sandwich (Android version 4.0.3) use Lordsbm's script. it can be found here
Lordsbm's script for all allwinner A10 tablets

If you are using Ice Cream Sandwich for Android version 4.0.3 you might need to use a 4.0.3 variant to get market. http://www.sappasit.go.th/android/ner_ics4.0.3.zip
(Before flashing you might want to read Question 10 below for script customizations), Onda owners have provided positive feedback thus far for this script.

If you are using 4.0.3 plus and the newtech25 script does not work. The final options is the
XxLorxX Cleaned ICS Script
For most tablets newtech25 seems fine. The Cleaned ICS script should only be used if the above fails. Novo 7A owners have provided positive feedback for this script.

4. My A10 based tablet did not come with Google Maps/other google apps? Can I install it?

If you are using Gingerbread (Android version 2.3.X) use the Automod Script. it can be found here
2.3.x Topnotch Tablets A10 scripts download Page. Beware to _not_ use the build.prop from that script as it's compatability may not be good for all tablets. In that package you will find all the google apps in the apks subdirectory. copy them either into your tablets memory or on an sd card and install them.

If you are using Ice Cream Sandwich (http://www.sappasit.go.th/android/ne...r_ics4.0.3.zip
(Before flashing you might want to read Question 10 below for script customizations)

How is this competitive?

Re:Improve security please!

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually... (sorry apple fan boys) Android's security is much better than the iPhones. (Their web browser doesn't run as root first of all)

The DoD uses Android, and has for years, but only finally in the past couple months has approved any version (and not even the consumer version) viable for military use. you don't NEED to have an anti-virus, that is a joke... the AV companies just want you to think you do. Though Having one to scan inbound email attachments, downloaded files/etc isn't a BAD thing by any means, but ehh...

The Android security policies aren't an issue... It is people installing applications that allow reading from the SDcard/Contacts/etc and full internet access.

Android gives people more freedom, unfortunately that means more people hang themselves with that rope... that isn't Android's fault. Also means your organization is smart enough not to trust you to use the device securely.

Re:Improve security please!

[LordLucless]

What qualitative differences are there between general purpose computers, and mobile general purpose computers, that should makes mobile computing immune to malicious software?

It's a trade-off. Either you are allowed to install anything on your device, and are willing to wear the consequences, or you're not, and can choose from an accepted white-list of products that a trusted third party has validated clean. I can understand why some consumers choose to be limited (especially business consumers), but saying that one choice is better than another is just stupid.

And actually, when it comes to technical measures, Android's security is better, and more finely grained than iOS. iOS security model revolves around the idea that bad apps won't be running, because Apple will have stopped them being installed in the first place.