Leisurely Geeks

A media streaming ball to be precise. It’s called the Nexus Q. It is a media streaming device designed to allow any Android devices in the area to que up content such as music and videos from the cloud and Play Store. It’s cost is concerning compared to that of the Nexus 7 tablet. For a content streaming device that needs a TV or monitor, $299 seems a bit steep. One wouldn’t have blamed google for the pricing being the opposite between the two devices. But there are other considerations at play “cough Kindle Fire cough”. It is made in America. And this seems to be brought up when discussing price on the Nexus Q. I say: so are Vizio electronics and they make some great affordable electronics in the US. Strange product, stranger price.

So the Nexus 7 tablet is here.

Android version 4.1 “Jellybean”,1.3Ghz quad core processor, NFC, Front facing camera and a 1200×800 screen.

More importantly though:

*Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, and more importantly any high-end tablets are now completely obsolete.

Why?:

1.With the announcement came news of the play store adding the ability to sell TV Shows (seasons and episodes), Movies, and Magazines Google puts itself in as a major player in content distribution. Their previous lack of content is what opened the door and allowed Amazon to compete in the tablet market in the first place. Remember, the Fire is not pure android it is a skinned version that highlights Amazon’s content. This made complete sense at the time but, no longer has the pull it did previous to today’s announcements. Amazon should have done their best to parter with google and provide content directly in Android rather than make the Kindle Fire. Now they have to fight off Apple and Google in providing video content. Ouch!

2. Apps! I have been telling the people I know that the reason that I made the purchase of an iPad over a powerful android tablet was the lack of apps. Yes, yes, I am aware that the Play Store has over 500,000 apps. But, how many of them are optimized for tablets? Very few. I do not see this changing overnight as it will take time but, a single high selling android tablet may swing some developers to target the Nexus with new versions of their apps.

Gizmodo is reporting the leaked images and specs of a new Google Nexus tablet. An Asus built pure android tablet sporting a 7 inch screen and a quad core Tegra 3 processor. And the newest version of android with google handling future updates. All for $200 next month!! If that’s the case, many people who have been on the fence might just bite. Amazon’s Kindle fire with its closed ecosystem version of android can not compete with this device. More importantly the price puts it in that amazing position where households might actually pick up a couple instead of a pricier tablet. This is all assumption at this point as this has not been officially announced. But, stay tuned for info on Wednesday during Google’s IO conference.

Thanks Gizmodo

Full article here: http://gizmodo.com/5921000/nexus-7-this-is-googles-new-nexus-tablet

Image courtesy Gizmodo Australia

1. Cards Against Humanity: While this has technically been on the market for a while it has become a smash hit leaving it sold out for quite some time. It is basically a card game like Apples to Apples but for horrible people. I can not wait to get my hands on a set.