Parachuting down to Moscone. From a blimp. Wearing Glass. In a hangout.
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Google Announces $199 Nexus 7 Tablet, $299 Nexus Q Media Streamer
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Prepare for disappointment.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love for jobs to come back to the U.S. and for us to become a manufacturing powerhouse again. Unfortunately, I also know enough to know that people aren't going to (quietly) pay premiums for products just because they have the "Made in the U.S.A.!" sticker on them.
I'd love to be proven wrong.
I've never whined. I gladly pay, and will continue to pay [less] for products made overseas, or outsourced. Quality products made in the U.S. will alway be more expensive, due to labor costs; nothing more than that really.
I've had a Tegra 3 device with a 12 core GPU at that screen resolution and it's not really anything special. At that price, I have to believe they are going with the 1.2 Ghz version of the SoC, which would be even less impressive. Yes, it was faster than my iPhone 4, but it didn't feel any different than the iPhone 4S or the iPad 3rd gen. So, yeah, I wouldn't be all jumping up and down about the performance of Tegra 3, especially in the battery draining department. Honestly, I think I'd be more excited if it had a Snapdragon S4 with Adreno 225.
A 7" IPS display is really interesting to me. I felt like the Verizon Galaxy Tab 7.7" Super AMOLED+ was a bit of a compromise. We'll have to see how good it is when reviewed.
The device is just ugly. I'd pay another $100 for something that was all metal or at least polycarbonate PAINTED to look and feel like metal. Anodized aluminum would be the best I think. The black slate is boring. Google should mix it up with a pinstripe or something in the bezel to get me interested.
However, and I've been saying this for a while, a 7" LTE device that weighs half as much as the iPad is what I want. So far, only the Galaxy Tab 7.7 goes there, but it's on Android 3.2 and has a SAMOLED HD screen instead of IPS.
At a glance, it's a6/10 with price being its most valuable feature.
A 7" IPS display is really interesting to me. I felt like the Verizon Galaxy Tab 7.7" Super AMOLED+ was a bit of a compromise. We'll have to see how good it is when reviewed.
The device is just ugly. I'd pay another $100 for something that was all metal or at least polycarbonate PAINTED to look and feel like metal. Anodized aluminum would be the best I think. The black slate is boring. Google should mix it up with a pinstripe or something in the bezel to get me interested.
However, and I've been saying this for a while, a 7" LTE device that weighs half as much as the iPad is what I want. So far, only the Galaxy Tab 7.7 goes there, but it's on Android 3.2 and has a SAMOLED HD screen instead of IPS.
At a glance, it's a6/10 with price being its most valuable feature.
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Nexus 7
This will kill the current Kindle Fire for those interested mainly in tech specs.
And at half the price, will easily beat the iPad 2 in the most price conscious tablet market segment.
This will kill the current Kindle Fire for those interested mainly in tech specs.
And at half the price, will easily beat the iPad 2 in the most price conscious tablet market segment.
Apple were still selling the iPod Touch 2G 1 month before they killed off its support. All companies do it. Get over yourself, its how software development works.
It is literally like saying "Mountain Lion wont work on my 2011 MacBook Air because I need a minimum of 4GB RAM".
Apple even went as far as limiting features on older devices, which when jailbroken re-enable said features which work perfectly well, despite Apple claiming it was a hardware limitation.
The price is definitely competitive. We'll have to see how people take to it, but it could single-handedly own the Android tablet market.
Sadly they will find out that we don't. We want to complain that our jobs have been outsourced, but we're not going to pay more for something because of it. Thanks Wal-Mart.
There are definite advantages to the Q and I quite like the industrial design. One has to ask though if there is a market for it at $300. Youre talking about a customer who has bought in to the Google Play ecosystem a distant 4th behind Amazon, iTunes and Xbox but doesnt have an existing stereo system or is willing to spend the extra money on an amplifier they dont need. Google is far smarter than me and I would assume has the demographic information to justify the design spec so well see perhaps that market is large enough to support.
Its made in the United States, for one. From Engadget:
"Google didn't touch on it during its keynote, but The New York Times' John Markoff has the story on one fairly unique feature of its Nexus Q home media device: the base of the unit proudly boasts that it's "Designed and Manufactured in the U.S.A." That includes an unnamed company in the Midwest that manufactures the metal base and another in Southern California that makes the case, while the device itself was reportedly being assembled just last week at a large factory 15 minutes away from Google's HQ. According to Google, it hopes that people will be willing to pay more for the device as a result ($299, if you missed it), but it has no plans to play up the "Made in the U.S.A." angle in its marketing."
That would actually be a good thing. It'd certainly reduce fragmentation and hopefully settle the platform down about with a consistant UI and consistant hardware performance.
You'll still get the dirt cheap, hardly usable tablets being produced, but you'll never stop that.
You pointed out premium goods were made in the US, I didn't. And no mention of the tablet being made in the US, only their softball sized media streamer.
I have nothing personally against Google (heck, we're developing Android apps this summer) but the announcements today at Google I/O were very weak. This tablet will go nowhere mainly because Google has no retail presence like Amazon or Apple has, and Android 4.1 is a very incremental update. The best part about Android 4.1 is the "buttery" smooth feel of the OS, which is something the iPhones have had since day one. It felt very ho-hum.
It is possible.
Currently processing power and local storage are the hurdles for speech to text. It appears that the Galaxy Nexus can handle it. I just wonder what the CPU usage is and how much space those libraries take up.
nVidia also just introduced a new flagship variant of Tegra 3 capable of using whopping DDR3-1600 over the old DDR3-667. I expect the Nexus 7 to be using the entry Tegra 3 (T30L). On the mobile front you are still looking at single channel DDR3 and USB 2.0 for the majority of peripheral interfacing.
There was clamoring for Thunderbolt on the iPad or iPhone but what does it matter when the internal flash storage is still connected over USB 2.0? The next major improvement is going to be RAM speed and internal bus speed increases.
Not sure I agree, the value proposition to the average customer just isnt there. Googles ecosystem doesnt have the penetration of brand awareness of Amazon, Apple or Microsoft and in the case of the the Fire after spectacular initial demand sales has dropped off precipitously. Just not sure what the value proposition is over a Samsung 7" or Blackberry PlayBook or other generic 7"
My, my,my...such a thoughtful, well reasoned, and eloquently expressed opinion.
So impressed with the maturity and rationality of the post!
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Tablet looks interesting, if a bit derivative. I guess Google is sticking to their "this is our take on iOS devices" design paradigm. Love the black, though. Still, I'll reserve judgment until I get some actual hands-on time, and more information.
For me, three things are paramount:
1. How's the touch interface? Must be as smooth or smoother than Apple's.
2. Apps. Must enable me to do everything I can with an iPad, in an equally or exceedingly pleasurable and enjoyable way.
3. Battery life. Again, Apple sets the bar.
I am too invested in Apple's ecosystem at this point to really want this, but I love ALL tech and would like to give credit when it is due (like Microsoft; kudos for trying something actually different, in both hardware and software design).
For me, three things are paramount:
1. How's the touch interface? Must be as smooth or smoother than Apple's.
2. Apps. Must enable me to do everything I can with an iPad, in an equally or exceedingly pleasurable and enjoyable way.
3. Battery life. Again, Apple sets the bar.
I am too invested in Apple's ecosystem at this point to really want this, but I love ALL tech and would like to give credit when it is due (like Microsoft; kudos for trying something actually different, in both hardware and software design).