Hasta La Gadget!

Some of the mystery has been taken out of it, but Google has officially taken the wraps off of the Nexus 7, its first reference-grade tablet. The 7-inch slate is the first and currently only device shipping with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and takes advantage of its optimization for smaller tablet screens, magazines and movies — it’s also the first to ship with a finished Chrome for Android. Like what was widely suspected, the tablet is built by ASUS (shades of Eee Pad MeMO ME370T, anyone?) and mostly draws our attention in terms of what we get for the money: that quad-core Tegra 3, 1.2-megapixel front camera, NFC and 1280 x 800, IPS-based LCD are traits we’d normally look for in a pricier tablet. How much pricier, you ask? Google is asking just $199 for a dainty 8GB model and $249 for a 16GB version — that’s a lot of speed for the money, especially with a $25 Google Play credit and a slew of bundled content. There’s no SD card slot, however. We’ll test the Nexus 7 as soon as we can, but you can swing by Google Play (and possibly local stores) to order one in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US with a mid-July shipping window.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s opening keynote at our event hub!

Continue reading Google makes the Nexus 7 tablet official: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a $199 price (video)

Google makes the Nexus 7 tablet official: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a $199 price (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google just officially unveiled its next iteration for Android — Jelly Bean 4.1 — and now we’re getting to see the various “buttery” improvements the company’s worked into the OS. Hugo Barra, Director of Product Management, took to the I/O 2012 stage to detail the refinements introduced to its search integration. The entire experience has been redesigned from the ground-up with a fresher UI and a “faster, more natural” voice search ability. That refreshed interface borrows from the recently outed Knowledge Graph, displaying queries for weather, Wikipedia and restaurants in graphical card format. That same layout extends to voice search, now spoken by a much more human-sounding voice. You can also dismiss the cards with a simple swipe, exposing the full list of search results beneath.

But that’s not the whole story, the company’s also introducing Google now — a new form of search that ties your browsing and navigation histories together to anticipate your needs. In the demo, Barra showcased how the new system could help to calculate a user’s commute, replete with alternate route suggestions and even scheduling info, recommend nearby restaurants as they’re passed and keep users abreast of impending appointments with departure time recommendations. Excited for this next search-based step in Android? Then look for it to hit Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S and Xoom devices as part of the 4.1 update coming mid-July.

Keep up with the latest Google news by checking out our I/O keynote liveblog and event hub!

Continue reading Google Now revamps search integration in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Google Now revamps search integration in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s seems like only yesterday we were all crowded around our laptops, watching a live stream and getting amped for Ice Cream Sandwich. Truth is, that was six months ago now and, while most of the Android running public still hasn’t been blessed with 4.0, it’s already time to make the leap to 4.1. Today Google officially took the wraps off Jelly Bean, the next evolution of its mobile platform and while it’s not quite the revolutionary shift that was Gingerbread to ICS, it still marks an important improvement for the ecosystem. One of the biggest features is Project Butter, a deep-diving effort to improve performance and response time. The whole system hums along at 60fps now, and while the difference of a few milliseconds might sound like small potatoes, it becomes glaringly apparent the moment you run Jelly Bean next to an ICS device. Animations are smoother and quicker. The CPU immediately ramps up the moment a touch is detected to ensure speedy response.

The home screen has also been tweaked, adding some nice features like dynamically resizing widgets, so you no longer have to place it, resize it then move it to where you want if there isn’t enough room. If there is room, but your app icons are merely in the way, the widget will automatically push them to the side. And, in a nice, slick touch, apps and widgets can be removed by flicking them off the screen. Another extremely welcome touch is the addition of offline voice input. Now you can tap the microphone and dictate a message even with the phone in airplane mode.

The camera app, which was already a highlight of ICS, has gotten even better in 4.1. Now, the gallery is slickly integrated, allowing you to quickly pull up the photo you just took with a swipe to the left. You can keep swiping through your images or even pinch to zoom out and view all your images in a filmstrip view. Deleting images is as simple as swiping a pic off the screen and, if you’ve manage to accidentally remove one, a quick tap of the undo button restores it. And, speaking of images, you can now share them and video using Google Beam, and Android now supports pairing with Bluetooth devices with the assistance of NFC.

Check out our full coverage of Google I/O 2012’s opening keynote at our event hub!

Continue reading Jelly Bean, Android 4.1 revealed by Google, rolling out in mid-July

Jelly Bean, Android 4.1 revealed by Google, rolling out in mid-July originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember Miselu’s Neiro — that prototype app-based Android-powered synth we last played with at SXSW? Not only is it being showcased at Google I/O 2012 here in San Francisco, but we got an exclusive first look at some of the apps being developed for the new platform ahead of the event. The company’s been on a roll since our meeting in Austin, gaining (ex-OQO CEO) Jory Bell as CTO and building relationships with partners like Korg and Yamaha.

Now on its second iteration, the laptop-like synth has evolved from the hand-built prototype we saw at SXSW to a more polished reference design — complete with breakout board for SD card and Ethernet support. As before, the device runs Gingerbread on a dual-core TI OMAP processor and features a two octave velocity and pressure-sensitive keyboard, a capacitive multitouch widescreen, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, audio and MIDI I/O, plus USB and HDMI ports. This version even adds XLR and quarter-inch audio jacks — just keep in mind that those specs have not been finalized.

What’s really exciting about the synth is the apps. The company’s ongoing partnership with Retronyms to create a suite of touch-controlled, cloud-enabled musical apps has evolved beyond the drum-machine demo we covered at SXSW. Called nStudio, the suite now also includes a pad-based sampler / sequencer and a mixer. Plasma Sound is a touch-based musical instrument that’s part theremin, part keyboard / sequencer. It’s already available for other devices on Google Play, but was easily tweaked to run on the Neiro — sight unseen — thanks to Miselu’s musicSDK and OS X-based emulator.

Miselu will be showcasing two more apps on its synth here at Google I/O: Korg’s Polysix and Yamaha’s Vocaloid. The Polysix app fainthfully recreates Korg’s legendary 1981 synth — known for its rich, thick analog sound. A real, mint-condition Polysix was even available for comparison during our brief time with the app (see our gallery). Vocaloid takes full advantage of the NSX-1 DSP chip that’s built-into the Neiro. It’s a singing synth app produced by Yamaha that “uses concatenative synthesis to splice and process vocal fragments extracted from human voice samples.”

We’ll be spending some time with the Vocaloid app and its creator — video game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi (of Sega and Lumines fame) — later today. In the meantime, check out the gallery below and watch our hands-on video with the other apps after the break.

Continue reading Miselu Neiro synth at Google I/O: exclusive first look at apps from Korg and Yamaha (video)

Miselu Neiro synth at Google I/O: exclusive first look at apps from Korg and Yamaha (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, it looks like the rumors are true. This morning, just ahead of 2012’s Google I/O initial keynote, Android Police dug up what looks to be an official press shot of Mountain View’s unannounced 7-inch tablet, aptly named the Nexus 7. As opposed to our previous sneak peek, this shot shows what is most assuredly the home screen for Jelly Bean, and comes directly from Google’s servers. Glad we got that settled. Now we just need to know about the actual hardware inside — good thing we’ve only gotta wait another hour or so to find out.

Update: Hoo, boy! The hits keep comin.’ The good golks at Modaco managed to grab screenshots for the sale page of the Nexus 7, replete with screenshots and specs. Turns out, the tablet has a 1280×800 IPS display coated in “scratch-resistant Corning glass,” which we presume is of the Gorilla variety, plus a front-facing, 1.2-megapixel camera. Within its 198.5 x 120 x 10.45mm case lies either 8 ($199) or 16GB ($249) of storage, plus 1GB of RAM, and NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3 SoC. Connectivity comes courtesy of GPS, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Micro USB, plus it’s got NFC for all your Android Beaming needs. Rounding things out is a 4325mAh battery and the usual spate of sensors: accelerometer, magnetometer, and a gyroscope. Want more? A video all about Jelly Bean and the new hardware running it awaits after the break, or you can hop on over to the source to order one for yourself.

Continue reading Google’s Nexus 7 tablet outed before I/O 2012 (update: now with specs, price)

Google’s Nexus 7 tablet outed before I/O 2012 (update: now with specs, price) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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