Considering it has been bubbling away and growing in size for the last eighteen months, it is going to be extremely interesting to see how the Apple vs. Samsung patent case progresses and ultimately pans out. It appears that both sides have fairly credible evidence to present to Judge Lucy Koh and the selected jury, but one of the most interesting parts of the case from an outsider’s point of view is the level of information that the companies have been forced to leak into the public domain as part of their own defense.
If there is one thing which we love the most apart from an official launch of a new smartphone from manufacturers like Apple or Samsung is when concept developers throw their hat into the ring and produce some seriously gorgeous looking renders of entirely fictional devices. It isn't uncommon to see designers producing images of what they believe new Apple devices will look like, but this time, it’s the turn of Google to get the treatment as Dorian Lust has knocked up what he believes a possible Google Nexus device could look like.
If you happened to walk into a store and saw the Nexus Q sitting on the shelf for sale, you might want to consult a salesperson to actually find out what the elegant black orb does. Unlike smartphones or tablets that lend their visuals to their functionality, or the Apple TV unit that gives away its function in the name, the Nexus Q is a visual enigma that hasn't really gotten the consumer technology world convinced.
The smartphone industry is one of the most fiercely contested in tech space, and although Windows Phone 8 will bring Microsoft well and truly into the fold, the battle is currently fought between Google's Android and Apple's iOS platforms.
Google means business with Android these days. That's not to say it didn't before, but since the company's Google I/O conference recently it has become clear that the people at Google are beginning to understand what it takes to make a premium smartphone. It's not apps, and it's not handsets. It's the feel of the operating system.
Android Jelly Bean (4.1) seems to have gone down a treat among those using it, and it certainly seems as though Project Butter - a movement to make Android a lot sleeker and lag-free - has done the trick. With any new operating system, the temptation for many is to simply mod and tweak in order to decipher just what it's capable of, and for those having done a little - maybe too much - modding on their Nexus device, you'll be pleased to know you can grab a fresh, stock copy of your mobile OS.
Seeing that we've been able to gather a few years of experience with touchscreen keyboards, they've become relatively easy to use for most, especially for simple and short search queries. However, if you want to add a more creative and personal touch to your input, you will be able to take advantage of Handwrite, which Google just announced. It's a new feature of Google's mobile search website that's actually built into the search webpage itself, so you'll be able to try this out on any touch-enabled smartphone (or tablet, for that matter.)
Apple's iPad has dominated a market it is credited with creating back in 2010, when the very first iPad slate was unveiled to a very mixed response. Some lauded it as the next best thing, while the skeptics brushed it off as merely a large iPhone, but nobody can argue it has been a huge success, one most Android vendors have tried - and failed - to emulate.
Google's new Nexus 7 tablet has already proved to be extremely popular gadget amongst technology fans. As expected, it hasn't flown off the shelves as fast as we generally see the iPad go, but recent reports have shown that consumers have already depleted official supplies of the 16GB model, with prospective purchasers now needing to wait until more come off the manufacturing line before they can get their hands on that Jelly Bean goodness. With Google only recently launching their first Nexus 7 commercial via YouTube, it represents a pretty decent success story without any actual defined advertising and we are pretty sure the popularity will continue as we move forward.
The Nexus 7 tablet has been an almost permanent fixture in tech news of late, and with sales currently through the roof, Google has finally given its cheap-yet-powerful tablet its very first advertisement.
