Google unveiled its first tablet earlier today at the I/O developer conference, and it’s called the Nexus 7.
It offers a 7″ 1280×800 HD display, with a quad-core CPU and 12-core GPU. The little device appears to be taking on Amazon’s Kindle Fire, so you’ll use it primarily for watching movies, playing games, and reading books. Users will get 9 hours of battery life when watching movies, and like everything else these days, it comes with a front-facing camera. The Nexus 7 will be available in mid-July, and starts at $199 for a 8GB model, and $249 for a 16GB version. You can pre-order it by clicking here.
The Nexus 7 isn’t the only new hardware coming from Google. The company is also working on the spherical Nexus Q, a streaming device similar to the Apple TV. Users can stream content from mobile devices and computers to their TV sets. It has an OMAP 4460 processor with 16GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. It’ll support WiFi, Ethernet, Bluetooth, and NFC when linking with other devices like the Nexus 7. Like the Nexus 7, the Nexus Q will be available in mid-July, and will set you back $299.
Over in the Google Play store, users will finally be able to purchase movies instead of just renting them, and TV shows are now available to rent or own for the first time. Magazines have also been added. The new features will work on all Android-powered devices.
Google also announced the latest Android firmware update, known as Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It promises to be much faster than previous versions. You’ll be able to gulp it down on existing devices next month, and the Nexus 7 will come with it already installed.
