Google unveils upgraded Nexus 7 tablet - CNN News

Google Inc on Wednesday showcased a new-generation, slimmer Nexus 7 tablet that the Internet search company hopes will expand its presence in consumer hardware, and ensure that its online services remain front-and-center on mobile devices.

The company announced a new version of its popular Nexus 7 tablet during a press event Wednesday in San Francisco. Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Android and Chrome, unveiled a slimmed-down, speedier version of the tablet, which will start at $229 when it goes on sale next week.

Google's new Nexus 7 tablet, which runs on the newest version of Android, sells at $229 for a 16-gigabit model that works with Wi-Fi, and $329 for a 32-gigabyte version that works with all three wireless carriers: Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. That's significantly less than Apple's 8-inch iPad mini, which start at $329 for a 16-gigabyte model without a wireless plan, but more than the cost of Amazon's Kindle Fire, which starts at $159.

Netflix will be one of the first apps to take advantage of the new video-friendly specs. The streaming-video company's new Android app will stream movies at 1080p on the Nexus 7.

The device will run Android Jelly Bean 4.3, a new version of Google's Android operating system.

15 Popular and Free Android Apps

Pandora: Pandora. You know the one. The internet radio app that has uplifted a million work hours and scored a million make-outs. It's simply the best out there, streaming music at home or on the go over Wi-Fi or 3G.

Twitter: The official Twitter app is good enough for almost everyone. Along with giving you a clean, easy way to keep track of your timeline and updating your status, Twitter for Android also has a snazzy swipe down to refresh feature.

Facebook: Facebook is finally decent on Android and now actually brings some unique features, namely the front page side-scroll of friend's recent photos and a pull up notification window.

Kindle: Just because you don't own a Kindle doesn't mean you shouldn't be buying Kindle ebooks—especially when Amazon has an Android app that's dead simple to use. The e-book wars aren't quite over, but no one will judge you for siding with Amazon.

Imo.im: With its new tabbed interface, imo.im is an IM app that's light, pretty and easy to use. It supports AIM, Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, Facebook chat and others and is free.

Pinterest: Pin until you can pin no more, Android fans. This month the online bulletin board launched a version compatible with Google's platform for the first time. Time to scope out some new DIY projects.

Handcent SMS: Handcent puts SMS on steroids. It's fully customizable (in look and theme) and gives options for popups and to even tweak individual contact settings. If you've never thought the stock messaging app on Android sucked, we won't blame you.

SmartGlass: The wait is over. Download SmartGlass to control your Xbox from your phone. Basically you never have to leave your couch ever again.

Facebook Messenger: Think of it as a cross platform messaging service that enables you to easily talk to people on any platform—Android, iPhone, Facebook, SMS and everything in between. It's not dissimilar to Kik or WhatsApp in this aspect. If your friends are on Facebook, they'll get your message in the Messages (or on their Android or iPhone). If they're not on Facebook, it'll be re-directed as a SMS message.

Vignette: With Vignette you get those wonderful artsy effects your friends love and a ton of straight shooting options that'll make you leave your Point and Shoot at home. Not kidding, there's over 68 different effects, 56 unique frames and a ton o' shooting options like fixed focus, fast shot, steady

Tumblr: Tumblr has been graced with a brand new interface that makes it brainless to use. Everything about 2.0 is smoother, simpler, and all around better. Writing an entry is easy—be it a photo post or just a reblog—and switching between multiple blogs is handled gracefully.

Videos: You can use Google's official Video app to watch videos you store on your phone or flicks you got from the Market. It streams over Wi-Fi and supports offline viewing too.

Rockplayer: Rockplayer can play nearly any video file you throw at it, meaning those DVD rips, Windows files, decidedly non-standard clips and those videos you "obtained" from the Internet will all be good to roll.

Pano: A panoramic picture taking app for your Android phone. Basically, you snap a series of side-by-side individual shots together and Pano automagically stitches them together to create one super long seamless photo. You can even merge together 16 pictures into one humungo 360 degree.

FX Camera: It's a fairly basic lomo FX/hipstamatic style camera but it's REALLY easy to use and processes the pictures REALLY fast. There's not too many effects available (ToyCam, Polaroid, Fisheye, SymmetriCam, and Andy Warholizer), but all of them are stellar.

New Google Maps APP for Andriod brings New Features

Google Maps has been recently updated with numerous new options that are attention-grabbing and price exploring. This latest development came to the forefront this might at the annual conference and also the changes were unrolled once the announcement. Google Maps ar currently capable of attractive North American country the foremost well-liked search photos along side choices to explore a lot of. There ar many alternative attention-grabbing options further that enhance your expertise whereas mistreatment the maps.

The new mobile app is intended to bring time period data to directions, notably within the map options that facilitate users navigate around traffic. Users can currently be ready to access incident reports on their routes, which is able to state details and standing reports to assist gauge traffic conditions. Alerts also will appear if a brand new route means that a quicker period, and can mechanically reroute to the quicker path.

There are new options engaged towards discovering new places to go to — a locality that Google is raring to read. The app’s Explore feature permits users to browse for brand new eateries, outlets and places to go to, or to easily search a locality for a selected quite scene. The app’s new 5-star scoring system provides a outline of however friends and like  people feel regarding native haunts, and each place that encompasses a Zagat rating can have it conspicuously displayed aboard the address.

Android users can now not be ready to use the offline maps feature in Google Maps. to look at maps offline, humanoid users can need to enter “OK Maps,” (an obvious affiliation to Google Glass) into the search box to look at that space offline.

How To Transfer Contacts Between IPhone And Android Via Gmail

If you get a new phone and don't save your contacts to SIM card normally, it must be frustrating to have to manually punch in all your contacts.But the easiest way to transfer your contact list within minutes is to use Google Contacts to help sync your accounts between both Android and iPhone operation systems.

Get a Google Gmail account
If you don't already have one, make a Gmail account. It's free, fast, and takes seconds, really.

Open iTunes and plug in your iPhone to your computer via USB cable. Select your iPhone in iTunes. Under the ‘Info’ tab, choose to Sync Contacts with Google Contacts.

 Once it is done,you can find that your contacts in Google Contacts.

 If you're starting with the Android, open up Contacts and click the menu button to select Merge with Google to import.

With either method, you will find that under your Gmail, your contact list has been updated with all the numbers you had on your phone.

 

With the popularity of Google’s services, namely Gmail, moving your contacts from phone to phone super easy. You can use your Gmail account to not only sync your contacts in Android, but also on Windows Phone 7 Devices, too.

Android and Apple products Review Totally

People who buy Apple products do so because they don't want or need every feature of every mobile device.  Many things you can do with various Android phones can be done on iPhone with the right accessories.  You can get an adapter for the iPhone that allows you to use SD cards for photo storage and other types of media.  You can get an adapter to turn it into a remote. 

Nothing on this list interests me in the least.  I have wishes for iOS and iPhone, but I have YET to see one list on any site mention ANY of them.  Perhaps they should start asking Apple fans what they want to see in their device instead of just listing the things Android has that iOS doesn't.  God knows the Android fans are crawling around every Apple forum and blog on the planet just to point out how superior their phone is to ours and how superior they are as a person due to their choice.  We get it.  Your phone does more and you're superior to us in every possible way.

How about features we have yet to see on ANY mobile phone or device?  I'm more interested in Apple or Google impressing me with something new and different.  Until Google, Samsung, Motorola, or HTC add something that truly interests me beyond fascination,  Apple has me covered.  The fact is, that is probably true for nearly every iPhone or iPad customer out there.  No one is going to ditch their phone because the current does not do what it never did and a competing phone does it now and always did.  The sentence is as dumb and confusing as the idea.

People switch when something new and different is offered.  Not because they suddenly are enlightened about how wrong they were.

Android operating system

Unlike Apple’s ecosystem, where Apple releases a single iPhone each generation, Android is a much more open (and messy) environment.

Google's acquisition of Android Inc in 2005 had the Android Operating System being called robot names in internal releases (Astro & Bender). Allegedly changed to desserts to avoid trademark issues.

This means that this software is permitted to be used freely, and modified if desired, and distributed by any device manufactures, wireless carriers and developers that wish to do so. This open source code and permissive licensing allows many developers to keep creating applications for the working system to make the devices that use it capable of doing more for the people that own them. As of late October 2012 there were actually more than 700,000 applications for this working system being used around the world.

Mobile phone manufacturers using Android OS are opening up avenues for improvement in design features, capabilities and components of the devices. This enables end-users enjoy advanced features and applications.

Moreover, the Android open source operating system supports 4G networks such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-mobile. What this means is that users are able to enjoy fast internet connections at affordable costs. Users have also the ability to choose the wireless network they would like to use giving them an option to adopt the connectivity that suits their needs and budget. Besides the ability of other mobile device manufacturers to freely use the open source OS, they can also change it.

Google needed a way to play in this huge market, so they did what they have done all along, provide a free platform, and make their profits from Advertising. This is Google-way.

Android may not be more UE than Apple, but the amount are a lot cooler!