Google to sell tablet and glasses

>Google has unveiled the Nexus 7 - its first own-brand tablet. The device is made by the Taiwanese company Asus rather than the firm's own Motorola hardware unit. It runs the new Jelly Bean version of Android. The machine will be sold for $199 (£127) from mid-July pitching it directly against Amazon's Kindle Fire. The 7-inch device has a smaller screen than Apple's bestselling iPad and is 340g meaning it is also lighter to hold. It also features Google's Chrome browser at itdefault option - the first Android device to do so. The machine features a quad-core CPU (central processing unit) and a 12-core GPU (graphics processing unit). Having so many cores means the machine can ramp up its processing power when dealing with complicated graphics or running several programs at once, but can use less at other times to extend battery life. The first countries to get the device are the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Relationships The news follows Microsoft's announcement last week that it plans to sell its own family of tablets called Surface which will run Windows 8. The Nexus Q costs $100 more than the tablet and will launch in the US Tudor Aw, technology sector head at KPMG Europe said it marked a shift towards Apple's model in which firms recognised advantages derived from being involved in both hardware and software. "Following hard on the heels of a similar announcement by Microsoft last week [this] demonstrates that gaining a strong market share of the tablet market will be critical to tech players if they want to maintain a strong relationship with their end customers - both consumers and business users," he said. "Tech players recognise that given the increasing importance of tablet devices, they can no longer risk selling their software and services solely through other people's devices." But one analyst, from Forrester Research, said the Nexus 7's success was not guaranteed. "Google's real tablet problem is the lack of compelling tablet-optimised apps and Google has yet to address how to motivate developers to fill the gap," said Frank Gillett. "I also expect Amazon will update the Kindle Fire before October at the latest, and that will have more compelling content thanks to the firm's Prime subscription package which includes movies, books and other content. "I was surprised Google didn't offer a similar deal to monetise its hardware." Nexus Q While the tablet had been widely rumoured before the firms I/O developers conference in San Francisco, the unveiling of another product - the Nexus Q - proved a surprise. The device is a small Android-powered computer without its own screen. Rather than be used as a standalone unit it is meant to be plugged into a stereo and television system. It can stream music and videos from other devices allowing both its owner and others to play media files. Live images showing the skydivers point of view were shown as they fell The firm described it as the "world's first ever social streaming device". Google Glasses Google's co-founder Sergey Brin also took to the stage to showcase the firm's Glass project - augmented reality glasses that are still in development. Rather than introduce a demo he brought up live feeds from devices being worn by Google employees sat in a floating airship above San Francisco. Attendees then watched live footage screened through the headsets as they skydived to the roof of a building below. Cyclists on the same roof then streamed pictures as they jumped over ramps before riding into the main floor of the I/O event. Engineers then explained the "philosophy" of the equipment, saying that they had placed a screen above the right eye to make it easy to continue interacting with the real world. They said they envisaged two main uses for the device. Google is making its headsets available to third-party developers from "early" 2013 The first is to capture videos and photos taken from the users point of view as they took part in activities they wished to record. The second is to overlay information onto what they were seeing in front of them such as how fast they are moving or the best way to get to another location. Mr Brin added that an "explorer edition" of the glasses was being made available for pre-order to US-based developers attending the conference. He said it would cost $1,500 and was set to ship early next year.

Google to sell tablet and glasses 2012-06-27T11:59:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Undercover 999