Google I/O 2012 round up

New Nexus 7 tablet, new Android 4.1, new Google Glass, new Google Maps, new Google+.

Google is currently running its annual developers conference called Google I/O 2012 and to kick things off on day one it decided to announce everything.

What that entails is a new Android tablet, a new version of Android, a demo of its new Google Glass, a new device called Nexus Q and updates to Google Maps and the Google+ social network. That’s an awful lot for one day, many of the products overlapped but lets look at the new Google Nexus 7 tablet.

Google Nexus 7

It seems Google has been very busy

It’s out this July and the 8GB model will be just £159 and the 16GB will be £199. The new Google Nexus 7 tablet is a 7-inch tablet with a high 1280×800 resolution IPS display.

Inside is a very fast 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3 ARM processor with a powerful Nvidia GPU with 1GB of memory.

It only comes with a front-facing 1.2MP camera for video calls, but crams in a micro-USB, NFC technology, GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi.

Google claim you can expect eight-hours of video use from it and at this price we expect it to sell well.

Importantly it comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. This new update to the popular Android mobile OS brings some subtle changes.

The homepage has been updated so it’s far easier to move items around, widgets can be rearranged and icons move automatically out of the way. The entire graphics system has been optimised so everything should also run far smoother.

Google Now is a personalised search and assistant system. It tracks where and what you do and will attempt to update you with relevant important information, such as delays on your daily commute, results of your favourite teams and local services.

This ties into the enhanced voice search and offline dictation system, up to now you had to be online for the dictation system to work, but now you don’t. The final areas of change are a much improved notification system per-device encryption, so information can be locked to a single device and further improved camera and gallery.

Google Glass

On show: a headset with integrated camera, mic, heads-up display and mobile phone

Glimpsed only briefly up to this point Google gave a simply stunning demonstration of its Google Glass product – a headset with integrated camera, mic, heads-up display and mobile phone – that involved four people, skydiving, abseiling and bike riding their way into the conference hall.

All done live and all screened via a Google+ hangout run through their individual Google Glasses. Conference goers have the chance to buy preproduction models for $1500 but there’s still no word on public availability.

Finally, Google had a number of other product announcements that included updates to their popular Google Maps, which included photo-realistic 3D models of buildings and Google+ social network with a new events system and updated apps for Apple and Android platforms.

The Nexus Q was also announced and this is effectively an Apple TV for your Android, enabling you to easily play music, photos and video off an Android device to your TV or hi-fi. While the demonstration was impressive the price tag was $299.

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