Hasta La Gadget!

Prior to the release of the Microsoft Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2, the Redmond company’s first generation of Surface tablets did not sell as well as they should have, leaving Microsoft with plenty of leftover stock which was a potential $1 billion write-off, which also resulted in Microsoft slashing the prices of the tablet drastically in a bid to boost sales. Perhaps the price slashes could have paid off because in a recent report from Chitika, it would seem as though Microsoft’s tablet traffic for the holiday season was actually a little bit higher than Google’s Nexus offerings, despite tablets such as the Nexus 7 being priced pretty cheap, making them more affordable alternatives.

Chitiki based their findings on a sample of over 10 million smartphone and tablet ad impressions from their network, and took the holiday season to be from the 20th of December up to the 29th of December 2013. Based on this, it would seem that Apple’s iPads are still dominating the tablet scene, followed by Amazon with their Kindle Fire offerings, followed by Samsung, and then by Microsoft, and finally Google. Of course this is based on a short period of time and perhaps if we were to look at the larger picture, the numbers might be different. What do you guys think? Could price slashes be why Microsoft’s tablets are doing slightly better than Google’s?

Microsoft Surface Traffic Beats Out Google’s Nexus Offerings original content from Ubergizmo.

So, you have just gotten hold of a spanking new Nexus 7 that comes in a pristine shade of white. What are you going to do with it? Why, making sure that it is properly protected would be the first step for any Nexus 7 owner, and why not rely on Google’s very own solution to get the job done? We have received word that the Nexus 7 folio case is finally available on the Google Play Store, coming in the form of the Nexus 7 Folio that so happens to be a bumper-style case that has an open back in addition to a tri-fold front cover which allows the Nexus 7 to be propped up whenever it is in use, giving you a pleasant hands-free viewing experience. Pretty handy when sharing a video with friends, or watching a movie on a plane.

Whenever you open up the front cover of the Nexus 7 Folio, it will wake up the tablet within, and according to Google, the Nexus 7 Folio will also play nice with wireless charger technology. For those who are interested, you will be able to pick it up for $49.99 a pop in either red or black shades, depending on whichever rocks your boat. [Product Page]

Nexus 7 Folio Case Available In Google Play Store original content from Ubergizmo.

It was earlier this morning when we read about how the Android 4.4.1 update will be able to solve the camera woes experienced by Nexus 5 owners, but is that all there is to the update? Apparently, the Android 4.4.1 update too, will be arriving on both the Nexus 4 as well as the Nexus 7 2013 (LTE model only at this point in time) too, where the respective manual update packages can be downloaded for installation at your own pace.

So far, there has not been any reports concerning the updates that are rolling out to the Wi-Fi Nexus 7 or the Nexus 10, so it would be safe to assume that there will be some bug fixes in the update which have something to do with mobile connectivity. It might also be presumptuous to assume, but we are going to go ahead too, that the camera fixes for the Nexus 5 too, might not make its way down to the rest of the Nexus family. Some folks have reported that sideloading the Android 4.4.1 update on the Nexus 4 did not yield any difference in the camera, not to mention the alleged new progress bar not appearing when snapping a HDR image. The manual update packages for the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 can be found here and here, respectively.

Android 4.4.1 Update For Nexus 4 And Nexus 7 Now Available original content from Ubergizmo.

Heads up would-be tablet owners, if you were planning on getting yourself a brand new tablet, why not the new Nexus 7 from Google? Granted there are plenty of other options out there, such as the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX, but according to a recent tweet from Google, it seems that Google will be giving out $25 credit towards the Google Play store with every brand new Nexus 7 purchase. According to Google, this offer is starting from today and will only be available to those living in the US and Canada, so those living overseas would be out of luck.

Like Google said, this offer is for a limited period of time, so you might want to hurry before the offer ends. No word on when Google will be putting an end to this offer, but like they said this is for the holiday season so we wouldn’t expect it to last too long. The Nexus 7 is Google’s latest tablet offering for 2013 and will sport a 7” 1920×1200 IPS display, giving it a pretty impressive pixel density of 323ppi. It will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro clocked at 1.5GHz and will feature Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. It will sport the usual connectivity options, and LTE is one of them albeit optional (different models).

Google Giving $25 Play Store Credit For Nexus 7 Purchases original content from Ubergizmo.

If there’s one thing we can count on with Google Nexus devices is that despite them featuring some pretty impressive hardware specs, their price tends to lean more towards the affordable spectrum, and tablets like the Nexus 7 are no exception. In any case it seems that Amazon has decided to discount the Nexus 7 tablets, both the 16GB and 32GB models, and will see their prices drop by around 10%. What this means that if you were thinking of picking up the 16GB model, you will be able to do so for a rather affordable $199, while the 32GB model will retail for $239, both of which are cheaper than what Google is offering in the Play Store.

We can only assume that this deal is part of Amazon’s Black Friday deal, or perhaps in a bid to price match the folks at Newegg who have similar discounted the Nexus 7 tablet as well. Either way if you’re looking to get your hands on Google’s latest 7” Nexus tablet, perhaps now’s as good a time as any to do so! We’re not sure how long Amazon will be discounting the tablet for, but if it is part of a Black Friday sale, we expect it will not last beyond the weekend at most, so you’ll probably want to hurry before the deal runs out!

Amazon Discounts 16GB Nexus 7 To $199 original content from Ubergizmo.