Google paints its Wallet services as the future of shopping transactions, and using the power of NFC, or Near Field Communication, it has certainly shown much promise. The lack of a few important features is largely attributable to its infant state, but today, the Big G has given Wallet a pretty big update, offering support for all major credit and debit cards.
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.
In terms of technology, we're heavily reliant on insider information and the typically "unspecified" sources in order to gather intel, but often, indications of new features are right under our noses. When a new software feature arrives in Android or iOS, the foundations are usually laid long before that, and it's down to us to do the digging and uncover them.
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.
The tablet market is one which is arguably already sewn up. It's already done. Dead. Finished. It's already Apple's. Or is it? With Apple undoubtedly heading the charts in and around the $500 price bracket, there is plenty of room for manufacturers to play below that mark. As the netbook market showed years ago, if you can make something cheap, people will buy it, regardless of whether it's any good or not.
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.)
Ever since Google pushed Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), we’ve seen a bevy of quickly put together ROMs for popular devices. Smartphones like the Galaxy S III, One X and tablets like the original ASUS Transformer and Kindle Fire all have one or more Android 4.1 Jelly Bean based custom ROMs available for those who want to get a taste of the confectionery.
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.
Sparrow, the creator of those very popular iOS and OS X applications, has just been acquired by Google, in a move which will certainly raise more than a few eyebrows. Sparrow has dedicated its existence on making some altogether great apps for Apple's platforms, but it is the Big G that has decided to swoop for the start-up, and Sparrow will now join the Gmail team to "accomplish a bigger vision."
We’ve already discussed everything you need to know about Jelly Bean in one of our previous post, but if you’re not in the mood to read the lengthy post itself, you should know that Android 4.1 brings vastly smoother user interface, more powerful notifications, better keyboard with next word prediction and offline typing, and lastly, the amazing Google Now.
