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?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're expecting far too much from the product people at GOOG.

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?

[nurb432]

Nook and kindle exist due to their ecosystem and true brand recognition outside of the 'geek' community. I don't know if what Google has would unseat either of them.

8" would just be the start, for people ( like me ) that feel 7 is too small, but don't want a 9.x to lug around ( unless its color e-ink, then id love 9.x ), but could do like Samsung and have many choices, but still not starting out in the e-book market.

Re:7-inch?

[roc97007]

I haven't bought a tablet yet because I have been waiting for something like this. 7 inches because it will be easy to carry, (the only useful computer is one you have with you) and from a source where I have a chance in hell of ever seeing an OS update. I thought the Samsung Galaxy 7 was my device, but negative experiences with the first Galaxy phone decided me against it.

Re:7-inch?

[White Flame]

Rumor has it that the screen resolution will be 1280x800. That's pretty decent for that screen size, and should allow real application content on the screen.

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?

[suomynonAyletamitlU]

Smack in the middle of the market that currently B&N and Amazon hold.

I think you forget what the Nexus line of devices is. Reference platforms are made, among other reasons, so that the people behind the OS know what they're programming for. If people are already using this form factor (size, approximate resolution, pixel density, aspect ratio, etc), then a Nexus-line device standardizes that. (There is some problem with that when it comes to Android devices, but whatever, you get the point) That (in principle) helps app devs, OS devs, and yes hardware devs too.

I note that they call it the Nexus *7*, which also implies they could be making a Nexus 10, 5, 8, or other screen sizes in the future.

Re:7-inch?

[ganjadude]

who knows, this may be the xoom replacement, might not be any competition

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?

[McFadden]

If they decide to make it cellular capable, they could leverage the kinds of subsidies that the carriers offer and build a better tablet but still hit $199. It simply wouldn't make sense for me, with all the hoohah about maps recently, that they would ship a tablet without GPS.

Re:7-inch?

[hawguy]

Nook and kindle exist due to their ecosystem and true brand recognition outside of the 'geek' community. I don't know if what Google has would unseat either of them.

I think the biggest thing a Google tablet can offer over a Nook/Kindle tablet is the ability to run both the Kindle app and the Nook app on the same device without having to boot into a different operating system.

Re:7-inch?

[ozmanjusri]

You're expecting far too much from the product people at GOOG.

Nick Wingfield, from NY Times, wrote, "With its new tablet, Microsoft will effectively be competing directly with its biggest customers. When asked whether Surface would damage those ties, Steven Sinofsky, the president of Microsoft’s Windows division, gently pushed a reporter in the direction of a stand of Surface tablets and said, "Go learn something.'"

Google's customers are not B&N and Amazon. It is in Google's interest to have many Android vendors, not just a few large ones, and their reference Nexus designs are intended to kickstart competition in the tablet world in much the same way as they have for mobile phones.

If you want to see the real competitive 7" tablet market, search for '7" Allwinner Android'. Go learn something.

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?

[swillden]

Smack in the middle of the market that currently B&N and Amazon hold.

I think you forget what the Nexus line of devices is. Reference platforms are made, among other reasons, so that the people behind the OS know what they're programming for.

In addition, Google has used the Nexus line as a way to combat the tendency of manufacturers to muck Android up with all sorts of "overlays" and modifications that generally do a lot of damage to the user experience. It's just like the tendency of PC vendors to pre-install loads of crapware, but harder to fix. So Google's Nexus devices showcase the "Google Experience" version of Android, in the hopes that users will see just how bad their devices have been screwed up and put pressure on the manufacturers (and carriers), to stop it.

Given what Barnes and Noble and Amazon have done with the Nook and Fire, locking them down, removing all sorts of features, providing only a very limited app store, and just generally making the devices suck as general-purpose tablets in an attempt to lock the users into their respective ecosystems, it seems to me that it's high time for Google to show people how an Android device with that form factor and cost price should work.

(Disclaimer 1: I haven't actually touched a Fire; everything I know about it is second and third-hand. I did, however, try to help my sister root her Nook and work around many of the limitations B&N had built in. The attempt was somewhat successful, but still a pretty poor UX. She ended up returning the Nook and buying a Galaxy Tab 10.1, and is very happy with it, even though it cost significantly more money.)

(Disclaimer 2: I work for Google, but don't work on Android or anything to do with tablets. I do have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 running Honeycomb which I quite like, however. Though I wish Samsung would release the ICS upgrade.)

Re:7-inch?

[Altus]

or more importantly your fingers. There is a practical minimum physical size for controls on a touch screen.

Re:7-inch?

[strength_of_10_men]

...the biggest penis at GOOG...

It's good to know that you're personally familiar with that kind of information.

Re:7-inch?

[steveha]

At a rumored 1280x800 res at 7", that's 215dpi, which certainly sounds close enough to "retina".

That's highly interesting! Apple is now claiming that 220 DPI is a "retina display" for their new MacBook Pro model, so maybe the Nexus 7 will have a "retina display" after all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retina_display

But it turns out that Apple is trying to trademark "retina display" so maybe we will not be allowed to use that term on the Nexus 7.

1280x800, plus a Tegra 3, means we will be able to watch HD content in 720p. Nice!

steveha

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?

[mcrbids]

We have two tablets for my wife and I, an iPad and a 7" Acer Iconia. I much prefer the smaller Iconia, I'm near-sighted, and don't like the extra weight/leverage that the ipad brings. My wife, who's a bit far sighted, prefers the larger screen of the iPad.

Truth? My biggest beef with the iPad is the lack of a universal "back" button. My wife's preference is for the bigger screen. Reality is that either is a truly viable product and I'd recommend either. The iPad offers integration with Apple TV (awesome once you see it!) and the Acer offers a drastically reduced price point.

Re:7-inch?

[symbolset]

I'm writing this reply on my Asus Transformer TF101. This thing is awesome. My only problem with it is I need to work it one-handed. I need the other hand to hold the flyswatter I need to chase the children away from it. I can't afford Transformers for all. $200 tablets? That I could do.

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:7-inch?

[ami.one]

You are probably getting those hits from the few models whose manufacturer's were not preloading Google Play / Market due to initial issues. Currently, almost all good Allwinner A10 tablets have Google Play working and actually perform much better than Samsung Galaxy Tab etc.

I have got 5-6 of these A10 tabs from different manufacturers (for a retail project) and all except one are really good and cost below USD 100. Where they score above the branded ones are that all have a fully functional host USB unlike Samsung Nexus etc which advertise USB OTD but its really iffy. So you can connect a variety of peripherals and also run native ubuntu 12.04 nowdays. (earlier it was only the chrooted linux - see xda for details)

Offcourse, they don't have brand recognition and in fact some have such funny names embossed on them that you would feel embarrassed taking them out in front of anyone ! Allwinner A10 has done an excellent job in getting usable tablets for the low end of the market. The earlier ones like rockchip/via etc were completely unusable.

Re:7-inch?

[mjwx]

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.

I used to believe 7" tablets were too small until I actually used one (an old Samsung P1000) but that changed my mind, the text wasn't too small to read, it's a little bit bigger then an A5 page, which is the standard size for novels. Web pages were fine as was video. Considering that the places where I use my tablet tend to be spaces that are too small for a full sized laptop (such as on the plane) 7" is not a drawback at all with reduced weight and size. If Google and Asus pull this off and deliver a reasonable price point I might eschew my 10" iconia for a Nexus 7 Slate.

Re:7-inch?

[DrXym]

I have an Allwinner tablet, capacitive, 1GB ram, 8GB flash, 1.2Ghz ARM processor, Mali 400 GPU. It's actually pretty good quality, lasts about 3 or 4 hours. The flash is slow, the screen is a bit washed out and there are few touch glitches in ICS. But it works and it cost me 80 euros. They wholesale for $50 up.

To me it demonstrates that Google should be able to comfortably producing something for under $200 with a better screen and support and still make a lot of money from it. Even if they don't make a lot of money it still seeds the market and stimulates other tablet manufacturers to bring their prices down to the level they should have been at for a long time.

Re:7-inch?

[swillden]

(Disclaimer 2: I work for Google, but don't work on Android or anything to do with tablets. I do have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 running Honeycomb which I quite like, however. Though I wish Samsung would release the ICS upgrade.)

If you really work for Google why don't you flash the tablet with an internal ICS build? You know you can do that, don't you? No need to wait for Samsung to release it.

I'm sure people on the Android team could do it easily. I don't have access to any internal Android builds. I could use one of the builds off the web, but then Google's security policy wouldn't allow me to use it for my corporate e-mail. TechStop (Google's IT support staff) specifically will not do it for me; their web page says that they won't support ICS on the Galaxy Tab it until Samsung releases it.

There's probably a way around all of this if I cared to spend enough time looking, or maybe just go through a friend on the Android team (I have a couple), but it hasn't yet become that important for me.

Re:7-inch?

[nightfell]

In other words, "those guys just bought the wrong ones."

So, how are they supposed to know which one to buy? And why are stores selling such crap in the first place?

Now, go out and buy the wrong iPad. You can't.

Re:7-inch?

[nightfell]

Funny how the supposedly "anticompetitive" Apple product is the one where you can run both, *and* iBooks, yet somehow Android is "more open"...

Re:7-inch?

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly.

Repeat after me.

Choice is bad.

March in step.

Follow the man in front.

  Use what he uses.

Wear what he wears.

Buy Apple Products

Conform.

Re:7-inch?

[farble1670]

that anticompetive (notice, no quotes) iOS device doesn't let you purchase books from within the kindle or nook apps. android? no problem.

Re:good luck to google

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is that in the fall apple is releasing an ipad mini which will dominate the 7" space as well.

A MiniPad?

SO the 10" will be the ... MAxiPad?

I sure hope that Apple can keep their products .... fresh, Otherwise folks will lose interest - especially that time of the month when they release new products.

I seriously don't think Google will be cramping Apple's style, but considering the tech press, well, you never know what they say on their rags.

Then again, Apple does stay on bleeding edge technology.

Re:good luck to google

[93 Escort Wagon]

I really don't see how - but, somehow, you completely missed what he was doing.

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!

[farble1670]

you don't need an AV client on android. in fact, all they do is compare applications you install against a blacklist. all they can do is warn you about blacklisted apps. that's it.

the security model of android (and many other operating systems) sandboxes apps. an app can't access any other app's data unless some special arrangement is made between them.

every android app is required to state the permissions it requires to run (internet, location, etc). these are presented to the user before they install an application.

users must actively allow applications to be installed outside of the android market.

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.

Re:Makes me wonder...

[Eponymous Coward]

I think Microsoft has actually done something smart this time.

Apple and Amazon are fighting it out in the consumer space. They are the only two tablet makers that have sold significant numbers. The enterprise market hasn't picked a winner yet and I think Microsoft realizes that if they don't make a grab for it now, they are going to have a much bigger fight for it next year.

Not fine-grained enough

[tepples]

an app can't access any other app's data unless some special arrangement is made between them.

Except it's not possible under Android to make such arrangements fine-grained enough to be both secure and useful. Either a program has full read and write privileges on the mass storage or it has none; there is no middle ground as I understand it.

A place to hold the tablet

[tepples]

The bezel gives the user a place to hold the tablet without activating on-screen controls.

Dream Tablet

[ad454]

Although I love my iPad3 64GB and its retina display that really is indispensable for document reading, web, e-mail, etc., the iPad3 still has a lot of shortcomings.

If I was to design my dream tablet-phone it would have:

* Wi-Fi, 4G, GSM + CDMA (including audio for phone calls), BlueTooth, and NFC (with security element for Wallet and Authentication)
* 7 inch size, which fits nicely in my purse and eliminates the need to carry a separate tablet
* edge-to-edge-to-edge OLED display without any bezel
* "retina" resolution, well beyond 1080p, Apple has shown this is needed
* GPS (with offline turn-by-turn maps)
* true USB host support, none of this restrictive camera connection kit garbage
* mini-SD slot
* HMDI-out slot
* kick-stand + thin smart-cover like keyboard, like those in new Microsoft Surface Tablets
* pointy stylus, like Samsung Note
* high quality and high resolution rear camera with LED flash, and works in low light (indoors), supports RAW photos and 1080p video
* 64GB min flash

I would be okay with iOS, Android, and maybe Windows, provided that there is enough decent apps, and one can get access to the underlying OS (via jailbreak/root).

You Nexus 7, Huh?

[cstacy]

I only do "i"s.