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Topics - Babyfacemagee
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601
« on: July 05, 2012, 06:54:51 AM »
One of the things that we thought was smart of Google when they introduced the Nexus 7 last week was to launch their new 7 inch baby not only in the United States but also nearly simultaneously in the UK, Canada and Australia. In other words just about the entire English speaking world. Well those release dates still hold but one bit of info that is making its way around the web today has to do with a difference in content that those non-U.S. nationals will have access to when they fire up their Nexus 7s and head on over to the Google Play store. It seems that at least for now, tv shows, music and magazines will not be available outside of the United States. In the UK the Nexus 7 order page says that users will have access to 'thousands of movies' and the 'world's largest collection of ebooks'. The same goes for the Canadian and Australian sites. A rep from Google when questioned on this by CNET responded: "Currently, the U.K. [Google Play] store offers apps, movie rentals, e-books and devices. We're clearly eager to expand this in time, but currently, that's the offering in the U.K," Now while you might need to get your music, tv shows and mags elsewhere for now, all the countries mentioned above still will have access to the over 600,000 apps, movies, ebooks and games available in Google Play. We're not entirely certain why tv, music and magazines aren't being made available outside of the U.S. at this time but it probably has to do with the complications of getting the licensing sorted out as well as the differences in content offerings in each nation. So any UK, Canadian or Australian forum members care to share your thoughts on this? Does it change the value proposition to you and your opinion of the Nexus 7 or are these minor issues that won't affect your purchase? Let us hear your input in the comments! CNET
602
« on: July 05, 2012, 05:44:28 AM »
One of the things that struck some as a bit odd at first when they introduced the Nexus 7 last week at Google I/O was that Google chose to use the portrait orientation 'phone' UI vs. the landscape 'Tablet' UI as the default setup for their 7 inch tablet. In fact Google went so far as to prevent the home screen from rotating when the tablet is turned on its side which basically forces you to use it in portrait mode for functions on this home screen. Many have since surmised that Google did this mainly because it was targeting a consumer audience that would use the Nexus 7 more in the easy to 'hold with one hand' 'portrait' orientation. But what if you're more 'tablet savvy' and you prefer the landscape 'tablet' UI more like the one you see on Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich 10 inch tablets? Well XDA-Developers Member SladeNoctis discovered that this was entirely possible if you changed the LCD density property in the build.prop file. This moves the notification bar from the top of the screen to the lower right corner and tweaks the layout of the home screen and navigation toolbar as well. Now in the future as Google implements 'Jelly Bean' in more tablet devices they might put an option in the settings that would give users the ability to do this without rooting their devices and changing any code. However for now you'll have to have a rooted Nexus 7 to make this change. Luckily, rooting your Nexus 7 is fairly easy to root. You can then follow SladeNoctis' Instructions and presto! You'll have a landscape home screen for your device. Now there are some caveats to doing this. First off while almost everything works fine in this mode it appears that Google is still tweaking some of the graphic elements and thus you'll see some slight anomalies like some text and pictures looking smaller and some apps 'might' look a little off and not be optimized for this orientation yet. In time we expect these issues to be corrected though and they shouldn't interfere with the tablet's normal use. So what do you think? Will you want to root your Nexus 7 and make the changes to use your Nexus 7 in landscape 'tablet' mode? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. I've pasted some examples of the 'tablet' and 'portrait' versions of the same screen so you can see the difference more easily below.
603
« on: July 04, 2012, 01:06:31 PM »
We want to wish all of our U.S. forum members and guests a
Happy and Healthy 4th Of July Holiday!
Thanks for making us the #1 Nexus 7 Forum!
604
« on: July 04, 2012, 12:41:23 PM »
So I'm curious what forum members most often use to watch tv/movies online? Netflix? Hulu or Hulu+? Amazon Prime? iTunes? Will Google Play's new tv and film offerings convince you to use them instead? What would Google Play need to offer to really win over everyone's hard earned tv/film spending? Let's hear some suggestions on what it would take to 'win' against the competition.
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« on: July 04, 2012, 06:47:43 AM »
Just yesterday we were discussing how game developers are releasing special 'enhanced' versions of their games for the Nexus 7 and other Tegra 3 powered tablets. One of those games that had been only seen in preview clips but not yet released was 'Dead Trigger' the next game from the developer 'Madfinger', who is best known for making the hit 'Shadowgun'. Well we're happy to say that 'Dead Trigger' has been released and the fine folks over at Slashgear loaded it up on their Nexus 7 tablet to show a bit of the gory, zombie killing game in action. Here take a look: Features - ¤ Get the best out of your device
- Stunning graphics with advanced lighting and post-process effects
- Full 3D characters and environments with an unprecedented level of detail
- High quality 3D audio and a lively music soundtrack
- Character animations recorded using high-end motion capture
- Intuitive controls
- Spectacular ragdoll effects (Tegra 3 only)
- Water simulation (Tegra 3 only) Now regardless of whether you're a fan of the ultra-gory head shooting type of action that this game represents you have to admit the graphics are stunning and more reminiscent of a console or advanced PC game than mobile games of only a year ago. In Dead Trigger you're one of the few survivors in a post-apocalyptic world where billions of people have been infected by a zombie virus. You have to secure vital supplies, find other survivors, protect the safe haven, explore the city and get to the bottom of the mystery of corruption that let this happen so you can save the world. Yes, it's all a pretext for you to run around killing zombies and it's not for the squeamish, but hey, it works for us. Now what you'll notice in Dead Trigger on your Nexus 7 and other Tegra 3 devices are extra effects that make the environment more realistic that you won't see on any other tablet. In this case water simulation effects and ragdoll physics for your enemies. For only 99 cents it's definitely a quality title and you can grab it from the Google Play link below. I've also included the original 'gameplay trailer' along with some pics.
606
« on: July 03, 2012, 12:45:32 PM »
If you're a fan of mobile technology and especially an early adopter then you're probably familiar with iFixit. iFixit 'tears down'...in other words disassembles electronic devices in order to see how 'repairable' they are as well as to see what specific components by which manufacturers are used inside our favorite products. iFixit just did their magic on the Nexus 7 earlier today so here's a few shots of what they found and what the innards of your Nexus 7 will look like. It goes without saying that we don't recommend any Nexus 7 owner to actually disassemble their own device for a multitude of reasons not least of which it will completely void your warranty. So what exactly did they find once they got the shell of the Nexus 7 open? Well since Google and Asus have been very vocal on many of the tech specs of their new baby there were few surprises. Of course we see a fairly large 4,326 mAh battery which takes up a good third of the device. The display itself was manufactured by Hydis and is attached/glued directly to the front glass of the Nexus 7 which leads iFixit to believe it is not really replaceable and would add to the cost of fixing if it should go bad. One small surprise was the inclusion of not one, but two speaker drivers. It was unclear from the single speaker slit in the back bottom but it appears that the Nexus 7 actually does support stereo sound from this finding. We'll have to confirm that with Google of course but it does seem to suggest that.  Here you can see the actual motherboard of the Nexus 7. The Tegra 3 chip is that large one surrounded by the red outline. You can also see the GPS chip in dark blue outline, the wireless module in green and the DDR3 ram that works as your tablet's system memory in orange. If you're interested in finding out much, MUCH more detail about the component parts inside your Nexus 7 then head on over to iFixit and you'll see lots more pics and specs pointed out.
607
« on: July 03, 2012, 11:39:13 AM »
Two of the great things about the Nexus 7 are its Tegra 3 SOC (system on a chip) and 12 core GeForce GPU. The combination of these with the 1280x800 IPS screen provides game developers with a level of power that until recently was unimaginable in a portable device like a 7 inch tablet. In only a matter of a very short few years mobile gaming has gone from simple 'Angry Birds' type cartoon games to sophisticated envelope pushing 3dimensional immersive experiences that frankly are coming very close to rivaling dedicated gaming consoles and desktop computers. The video below just blows me away when I think that every one of these visual tour-de-forces will run on our new Nexus 7 tablets. In addition, several game developers are using the Nexus 7 introduction as an opportunity to really show what this latest generation of hardware can do and so are going back to their code and adding enhanced effects, increased polygon counts and more detail and features to some of their established as well as new games to take advantage of the Nexus 7 and really fulfill the potential of google's new tablet as a gaming device. During the Google I/O presentation we all got a chance to see two of these titles, Horn and Dead Trigger. A number of other titles were actually shown during the conference as well running on the Nexus 7 hardware so I've posted some screenshots as well as gameplay footage here for you to check out. Beach Buggy Blitz is one title that shows off some of what the Nexus 7 can do. As the developer describes in the video below, added effects are added to the game and those with the hardware (like the Nexus 7) can take advantage of added textures, water effects etc while keeping the frame rate smooth. Another game that will be released fairly shortly for the Nexus 7 that is designed to take advantage of the Tegra 3's power is BladeSlinger and you can watch a bit of the game in this clip. Now a great resource that everyone should become familiar with if you're into gaming and are a Nexus 7 owner is the Tegrazone website at http://tegrazone.com. Tegrazone is Nvidia's special gaming site where you can find out about the latest Tegra 3 optimized games as well as download titles and share your experience with others. Two Tegrazone titles that are being promoted on the site, that are Tegra 3 optimized and are ready to play on your Nexus 7 include 'ShadowGun' and 'Puddle THD'. Below you'll see some footage of 'ShadowGun' running on a Tegra 3. Notice the water rippling effects as well as specular lighting that you won't see on non-Tegra 3 versions of the game. All of these titles and more will be available to run on the Nexus 7 with full graphic details turned on and at fast frame rates. The combination of the Nexus 7's low price and the cutting edge technology that enables such gaming experiences will in short make the Nexus 7 a gaming powerhouse. I won't be surprised at all if we see a lot of companies jumping on the Nexus 7 wagon and unveiling all kinds of great titles optimized for the Tegra 3. In short...this is an amazing time to be a gamer and the Nexus 7 is going to be one awesome gaming tablet. Source: www.tegrazone.com
608
« on: July 03, 2012, 07:56:47 AM »
You know it had to happen. In this day and age of tech copyright battles where it seems every week has another tech giant suing another over some kind of intellectual property of course Google's new baby, the Nexus 7 had to be pulled into the morass. Nokia went public yesterday with a complaint that the new 7 inch tablet by the Gmail and worldwide search leader infringes on unspecified patents of the Swedish electronics manufacturer best known for its long history of phones. While not specified, analysts have surmised that the hubbub probably revolves around some 808.11 Wi-Fi patents that are typically licensed from Nokia by other manufacturers. As one Asus rep explained - “Nokia has more than 40 licensees, mainly for its standards essential patent portfolio, including most of the mobile device manufacturers” the spokesperson explained. “Neither Google nor ASUS is licensed under our patent portfolio. Companies who are not yet licensed under our standard essential patents should simply approach us and sign up for a license.” Fortunately analysts do not see this as a major issue. As many have explained it is fairly typical in many electronics devices for a series of 'fees' to be paid for various patent licenses as part of the normal development of a product. In fact almost all cellular and Wi-Fi products pay out some license to someone and those fees can range from a few cents to several dollars per device. The patents in question here are probably on the lower end and shouldn't prevent Google from selling the Nexus 7 on schedule. We'll keep you up to date on any further developments but for now this seems like a minor hiccup that should be solved by a couple of lawyers sitting down for coffee on either side. Welcome to 2012...the year of the patent wars.
609
« on: July 02, 2012, 10:11:41 PM »
What do you plan to use your Nexus 7 for MOST? Web browsing? Games? E-reading? Video/Movies? Productivity/Work? Social Media/Chatting/Facebook? Something else? Let us know how you plan to use your Nexus 7!
610
« on: July 02, 2012, 09:03:00 AM »
One of the new features that Jelly Bean adds to Android devices is the ability to support USB Audio. What this means is that with specially designed accessories you can simply plug in to the USB port and have audio streaming. One example of such a device is this speaker dock by 'Gear4' which was recently shown at Google I/O in San Franciso. As you can see the Nexus 7 tablet simply rests on the dock and only uses the microUSB connection to stream audio. In related news, Asus has also announced they will be coming out with their own audio dock for the Nexus 7. In their case the dock will hold the Nexus 7 in landscape mode and be a very unobtrusive dock that will appear to be almost part of the case. It will be perfect to provide loud stereo audio for movie watching and game playing. Taking this a step further we can imagine a whole series of 'dock' like USB Audio products that will probably come out for the Nexus 7. These may include everything from portable 'barely there' units to full-fledged stereo boom box docks and home clock/radio units. We'll bring you the latest as we hear of them of course right here on the Nexus 7 Forum. source: digital trendssource: phonesreview
611
« on: July 02, 2012, 08:18:07 AM »
Gameloft, one of the most prolific and highest quality game publishers for the Android platform is announcing today that they will be making 10 of their newest and most popular titles available for the Nexus7 in special 'enhanced' versions to take advantage of the Amazing abilities of the Tegra 3 processor. Titles will include "The Amazing Spider-Man," "Asphalt 7: Heat," "N.O.V.A. 3: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance","Dungeon Hunter III", "Fashion Icon", "Men In Black 3", "Shark Dash", "Oregon Trail: American Settler", "Modern Combat: Fallen Nation", and "Fantasy Town". For those not aware: The Tegra 3 processor inside the Nexus 7 enables game developers to offer increased effects and graphical detail and Gameloft is only one of a number of companies that offer 'enhanced' versions of some of their games to take advantage of these abilities. We've previously seen Madfinger Games similarly release special Tegra 3 versions of 'Shadowgun' and the upcoming 'Dead Trigger'. We'll have gameplay video footage of the Nexus 7 optimized titles as soon as they're available. In the meantime, here's a graphic with the 10 Tegra 3 optimized titles that Gameloft is releasing specially for the Nexus 7: Here's the Full Press Release:"The Amazing Spider-Man," "Asphalt 7: Heat," "N.O.V.A. 3: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance" and many more to be made available for Google's newest device
SAN FRANCISCO, June 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
Coming out of Google I/O 2012, Gameloft, a leading global publisher of digital and social games, has unveiled a lineup of 10 of their most popular titles that have been enhanced for the new Google Nexus 7 tablet, with 8 available today. Google I/O attendees will also find our popular first-person shooter N.O.V.A. 3 : Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance being showcased at the Developer Sandbox tomorrow, with additional titles such as Asphalt 7: Heat and The Amazing Spider-Man releasing soon.
Google I/O is focused on the tech world's latest web, mobile and social breakthroughs and bringing together thousands of developers who are turning them into tomorrow's startups. Google I/O returns to San Francisco's Moscone Center from June 27-29, 2012. The Developer Sandbox, first introduced at I/O 2009, is also a designated demo area where a wide range of developers who have built applications based on technologies and products that have been announced at I/O are featured.
"As Gameloft seeks to be one of the first publishers s to optimize its titles for each new platform, it is with great enthusiasm that we now bring a roster of our biggest hits for the new Nexus 7," said Baudouin Corman, Vice President of Publishing for the Americas. "With the new device features, we will not only be present on one of the best digital platforms out there, but we will be able to truly showcase our unique development approach and ingenuity through the high-quality of our games as well."
With more than 40 games currently available for download from Google Play™, a complete list of Gameloft's titles that will support the new Google device includes:
Asphalt 7: Heat
Dungeon Hunter III
Fantasy Town
Fashion Icon
Men in Black 3
Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation
N.O.V.A. 3 : Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance
Oregon Trail: American Settler
Shark Dash
The Amazing Spider-Man
For more information, please visit the Gameloft corporate website at http://www.gameloft.com
Source: PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1g6hG)
612
« on: July 01, 2012, 09:49:47 AM »
The Nexus 7 is a fantastic piece of hardware and most everyone on the forum is super excited about getting their hands on one. (heck, that's why I started this site!) but as we all know there's a few small limitations that Google put in place that some of us might want to rectify such as the ability to enable some form of video out or add additional memory. Well the first step to coming up with solutions for these issues as well as to open up the Nexus 7 to putting custom ROMs and adding other kinds of mods or hacks to the device has just been accomplished. It seems the fine ladies and gents over at the XDA-Developers forums (a forum for developers and hackers for those not familiar) have succeeded in unlocking the bootloader and hence granting 'root' access to the device. They've also been successful in installing 'ClockworkMod Recovery' which again for the unfamiliar is a program commonly used by developers and hackers to enable the ability to roll back a device's operating system to the original version as well as install hacks to a rooted device. Now 'rooting' your Nexus 7 by unlocking your bootloader has the unfortunate effect of erasing all your personal data so it's not something you'd want to do if you had tons of information you don't want lost or if you've purchased lots of apps. Also, 'rooting' your Nexus 7 always has the small...but real risk that if you don't know what you're doing that it could possibly 'brick' your device making your Nexus 7 into an expensive paperweight. In otherwords it's best left to those that are experienced tech hobbyists and know what they're doing...or at least get walked through the process by someone that is experienced. So again just to be clear. 'Root At Your Own Risk!'Now just because the Nexus 7 has been rooted doesn't mean that custom solutions have actually been created yet. (actually, at least one has- adding support for USB flash drives by installing 'StickMount'!) But it's the first step and that's how all great things start now isn't it. I've provided links below to the XDA-Developers Forums for those that are tech inclined and would like to learn more. Again...I wouldn't actually go ahead and root your Nexus 7 after you get it in a couple of weeks unless you know what you're doing. We don't take any responsibility here at the forum for anything bad that happens to your tablet so make sure you understand that...and understand the root process thoroughly if and when you decide to do so. With that said...it's pretty exciting to think of the possibilities that lie ahead for us new or soon to be Nexus 7 owners. With the amount of developer support and support this device is going to get from the hacking and modding community we really should be able to make this into the 'tablet of our dreams' in very short order!
613
« on: June 30, 2012, 11:54:11 AM »
If you weren't lucky enough to catch Google's Day One Keynote this past week at the Google I/O Conference held at San Francisco's Moscone Center then you missed on what is being called one of the most entertaining and informative tech Keynote's ever. Chock full of hardware and software introductions from the Nexus 7 Tablet and Nexus Q Media Streamer to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and all its great new features and more. Perhaps the highlight of the show was when Google co-founder Sergei Brin ran in unannounced and 'hijacked' the Keynote in a staged introduction of 'Project Glass' and then proceeded to wow the audience as several of his friends and fellow developers parachuted from a blimp that was hovering 7000 feet above onto the roof of Moscone Center while letting the audience...and the world...experience the entire spectacle from the jumper's point of view through their wearable Project glass glasses.  Truly amazing stuff and while the entire Keynote is about 2 hours long I can honestly say if you're a technology junkie like me it'll simply fly by as you marvel at all the great stuff Google is working on that is shown throughout. Highly recommended if you haven't seen it yet and on a more pragmatic note if you're interested in all the great new features of Jelly Bean that'll be appearing on your Android handsets as well as the Nexus 7 tablet a good portion of the first half is dedicated to all the great features in Android 4.1 so again...well worth watching.
614
« on: June 30, 2012, 10:17:11 AM »
As promised and living up to its namesake of being a true 'Nexus' device, Google has just released the full Factory OS Image for the Nexus 7, Android 4.1 (JRN84D) Jelly Bean. Now many of you might not know but the 'code' name for the Nexus 7 was actually 'Nakasi'. Google releases this factory OS image for a couple of reasons. First, developers can tweak, hack and otherwise play with their Nexus 7 devices in order to develop their wares without having to worry about bricking their devices. They can always simply re-install the factory image and go back to the standard factory OS. The second is for us consumers in the unlikely case we somehow corrupt or screw up our devices (perhaps due to some unsavvy hacking) we also can have our Nexus 7's with a fresh reinstall of the OS (albeit probably with some professional or tech savvy help since most consumers won't want to do this themselves). Interestingly "nakasi" is an "essential traditional popular music form in Taiwan"(from Wikipedia) It's also a suburb on the island of Fiji. We're not quite sure what the connection is to the Nexus 7 as for why they chose this name but it's an interesting factoid nonetheless. If you are one of those aforementioned developers and are eager to get your hands on the raw material that is Jelly Bean for the Nexus 7 you can scroll down to "Factory Images "nakasi" for Nexus 7" at the link below.
615
« on: June 30, 2012, 06:27:54 AM »
Most of us are well aware of the impressive high end specs of the Nexus 7 tablet. With its Tegra 3 processor, 12 core GPU, 1280x800 IPS display and more this is gonna be one sweet piece of hardware when we all get our hands on it. But just as impressive as the hardware is the software that makes the Nexus 7 such a useful device. During the Keynote at Google I/O this week they spent a good deal of time going over some of the many improvements and additions that were made to Android for the 4.1 Jelly Bean update. I'm gonna spotlight some of the most important ones over the coming week or two and I can't think of a better place to start than with the inclusion of the Chrome Browser as the new standard on Android. The upgrade to Chrome for Android as part of Jelly Bean really excites me. Probably my biggest annoyance with both Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich has been the lackluster browser experience but with Chrome it's a whole new ballgame. In many ways it really is like having a desktop experience on your tablet. PCMag just did a piece on some of the highlights of the Chrome Browser and I've taken some of their points and expanded on them to show why I believe this is such an important upgrade to the Android operating system and why it makes your Nexus 7 so much more useful. One of the first things you notice when you fire up Chrome for Android is the fantastic Cross Platform Syncronization. In the blink of an eye, as soon as you sign in with your username and password, all your favorites, shortcuts...even your browsing history and tabs you have open on your desktop Chrome browser are all transferred over to Chrome on your Nexus 7. It makes setup literally a brainless activity and it just works instantly. Fantastic job there Google. Next up is the Tabbed Browsing. Just like on your desktop version of Chrome you can have multiple windows open in a 'tabbed' interface that makes switching between web pages so intuitive and easy. A new feature that I think is going to be really useful is the Voice Search feature that allows you to search google by just speaking to the Nexus 7. It's really simple to use. All you do is hit the mic icon next to the omnibox and presto...you speak your question. In demonstrations it seems very polished and has great voice recognition and accurate results. Frankly, most reviewers have said it tops Apple's Siri in accuracy of results which is probably a testament to Google's search prowess. Moving along there's Autofill which is now 'intelligent'. The more you use it the more accurate it gets based on your past history and you can help 'teach' Chrome by pressing the up and down arrows to show what are the most relevant results, which it will remember for future use. Nice touch. Maybe one of the least mentioned...but one of my personal favorite features of Chrome that has been carried over from the desktop version are the Most Visited Previews that appear when you hit the + to open a new tab. I enjoy seeing these miniature renditions of my favorite web pages as it often reminds me of favorite 'go to' pages and makes them convenient to get to with just a touch. Finally, Google has added a nice Search Within Page feature which can be handy if you're trying to locate a certain topic or piece of text or quote on a web page. Overall I have to say I'm super excited and looking forward to using Chrome on my Nexus 7. It's going to make the whole web browsing experience a whole lot more fun and useful and I can definitely see this becoming my new favorite way to browse the web. What are your thoughts on Chrome for Android? Any features I've left out that you're looking forward to? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments! Source: PC Mag
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