Those of you who have already purchased the recently announced Nexus 7 would be pleased to hear that it is time to play Barbie with your spanking new tablet – and by that, I mean dressing it up in its coming share of accessories, of course, and not to wrap a ribbon around it! The latest accessory for the new Nexus 7 would come in the form of a sleeve, where you can find it on the Google Play Store so that your tablet will remain protected from any accidental knocks, scratches or drops.
Unfortunately, the price tag is not something that looks to inviting – and when you factor in the rather obscene shipping costs, Nexus 7 owners might want to think twice. After all, the Nexus 7 itself is a looker, so a sleeve might cramp your style, if you know what I mean. The new sleeve itself will cost $29.99 a pop, not to mention a whopping $17.68 in shipping costs where standard shipping times apply. Ouch! Not only that, while this might be the first sleeve to roll out for the Nexus 7 on the Google Play store, you can bet your bottom, hard earned dollar that it will far from the last! Now for us to sit back and wait for a deluge of color options to arrive in due time.
Google Play recently overtook the Apple App Store in terms of app downloads, but that is not so impressive when the Apple App Store still beats Google Play by a large margin when it comes to profit made from each app sold. Well, what else do we know about Google Play? Earlier this morning, we talked about how Google Play would see the inclusion of Samsung Wallet, in addition to whispers of Google Play Music All Access potentially be included in your Verizon monthly bill. Here is something that ought to make students happy – select textbooks are now available on Google Play, helping you ease the physical stress on your back since it would most probably mean carrying a whole lot less weight than you would with normal printed books.
Starting from this week onwards, you are able to rent or buy digital textbooks from the Books section on Google Play. Google has managed to work with a long list of publishing partners, and they intend to launch a comprehensive selection of higher education titles which will range from science and mathematics to history and English, not to mention just about everything else in between. Since your library is stored in the cloud, never have that sinking feeling again that you left a textbook at home, and without it, you are unable to follow what the heck the lecturer is babbling about. [Press Release]
On July 24, we reported that Google would be adding textbooks to the Play Store some time this month, doing so in time for students to get their hands (er, tablets) on digital textbooks before the fall semester kicks off. As it turns out, today was that day, and the Google Play Store is now […]
Google Play Music All Access has launched internationally, hitting the UK, France, Australia, Portugal and more as the streaming Spotify rival arrives in a total of twelve countries. Launched in the US back in May, Music All Access kicks off with a discounted trial which rewards early-adopters with cheaper ongoing subscription fees. Meanwhile, there are […]
Google just pushed out the Android 4.3 OTA update for the Google Play edition of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4. This is exactly why you want the Google Play edition of an Android phone. [AnandTech]
It’s been one day since the Moto X was introduced as the rebirth of Motorola: a Google Company. Now it’s time to take a moment and reflect. What did we just see? At it’s most basic, Moto X is an Android smartphone that epitomizes the new wave, the Context Ecosystem, as it’s been dubbed, and […]
Though we’ve yet to hear from LG, the third of four of the biggest Android device manufacturers in the United States, Motorola, is about to come to the Google Play store amid its first big outing this week. This device is described as the relaunch of Motorola after the Google acquisition, released in the summer […]
The Moto X is actually pretty awesome all on its own. But super nerds can be happy it’s also going to come in a baby-fresh stock-Android-having Google Play version, with zero bloatware, and available directly from Google. It’s a trend we continue to be real happy about.
Surveys have shown that Google is one of the better employees in the US out there, and anyone who has been to the Google Campus would have certainly seen how it promotes an atmosphere that encourages creativity. Hey, any workplace […]
Google’s Chromecast device is a Web media player, introduced by the company just a bit over a year after they first showed of a machine with very similar capabilities: the Nexus Q. Where the Nexus Q came into play as a bocce-ball-sized TV “box”, Chromecast is the size of a USB dongle, small enough to fit in your pocket. It connects through a television’s full-sized HDMI port and you’ll be able to pull it up with the input button on your television remote, the same as you would a DVD player.
Instead of playing physical content, like DVDs or Blu-ray disks, Chromecast uses the internet to pull content from web-based apps. Chromecast does not have a remote control included in the box it’s delivered with when you buy it because it’s able to connect with basically any smart device you’ve got in your home – or in your pocket.
Size: 72(L) x 35(W) x 12(H) mm Weight: 34g Video Output: 1080p Connectivity: HDMI, Wi-Fi RAM: 256k Processor: N/A OS: Chromecast
You’ll plug Chromecast in to your TV, plug a microUSB power cord (included in the box) into Chromecast to keep it powered up, and press the single physical button on Chromecast to send out a wireless signal that effectively says, “I’m ready to go!”
Turning the television on and the input to the HDMI port you’ve plugged Chromecast into, you’ll see a screen that directs you to google.com/chromecast/setup. Note that this URL may change over time, but this is the first place you’ll be sent in this initial launch of Chromecast when this article is first posted.
This one-time setup connects Chromecast to the web – if you’ve got a password on your Wi-Fi network, you’ll need to enter it. You can do this setup process from any device with an internet browser, while actually sending content to Chromecast is limited to the following:
• Android 2.3 and higher • iOS 6 and higher • Windows®7 and higher • Mac OS 10.7 and higher • Chrome OS (Chromebook Pixel, additional Chromebooks coming soon).
At the moment you’ll be able to use Chromecast to connect with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies, and Google Music. Using Chromecast’s “Cast” protocol, you’re able to “fling” content from your control device (laptop, smartphone, tablet) to your TV.
So you’ll open up YouTube, for example, and play a video, but you’ll also be clicking the Cast button that, (once you’re set up), appears in the upper right-hand corner of your Chrome web browser or app. From there you’ll be able to control said media as it plays OR continue on with your regularly scheduled web browsing as the media plays on your TV.
Once the media you’ve chosen on your phone, tablet, or notebook has been flung to Chromecast, you no longer have to worry about it. If you DO want to control it again, you’ll have only to return to the app you were in and change it up. You can also choose to send something new to Chromecast, this immediately stopping the current media from playing, moving on to the next piece of media in kind.
There are also interesting side-loading features you can use if you’re not all about working with one of the few apps supported by Chromecast so far. At the moment Chromecast has a BETA mirroring feature that works with Chrome web browser windows.
You can open a file in a Chrome web browser window and fling it to Chromecast, your television then mirroring this window as you do so. This feature requires that you actually keep the window open if you want to keep watching it on your TV since the content is not on the web, it’s on your computer.
This BETA mirroring feature can be used for photos and video as well – we’ll be seeing how close we can get to real web-based gaming mirroring soon!
What else do you want to know about Chromecast? Is this a device (at $35 USD) that you’ll be picking up, supposing it’s not already sold out every which way from physical stores to Google Play? Let us know!
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Those of you who have already purchased the recently announced Nexus 7 would be pleased to hear that it is time to play Barbie with your spanking new tablet – and by that, I mean dressing it up in its coming share of accessories, of course, and not to wrap a ribbon around it! The latest accessory for the new Nexus 7 would come in the form of a sleeve, where you can find it on the Google Play Store so that your tablet will remain protected from any accidental knocks, scratches or drops.
Google Play 
