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Google's Revamped Nexus 7 Spotted In Newly Leaked Press Image
In just a few days now, Google’s Chrome and Android chief Sundar Pichai will be joined by a slew of journalists and media types to nosh on some breakfast and show off the newly-revamped Nexus 7. If you haven’t yet had your fill of leaks, none other than @evleaks has come through with one final (seemingly press quality) image of the updated tablet and its gigantic bezels ahead of its July 24 unveiling.
Yeah, the new Asus-made tab doesn’t look too different from the version we’re all so used to, though the dimples that flecked the back of the original are gone, and that front-facing camera has finally found a friend in a 5-megapixel sensor that sits on the device’s rear. One of the bigger gains here is the addition of a much higher resolution 7-inch display — the updated 7′s screen will run at 1920 x 1200, a big leap from the 720p panel we saw the first time around. As usual, we can’t discount what’s ticking under that redesigned hood, and the new Nexus tab is expected to pack a quad-core chipset running at 1.5GHz, 2 or 4GB of RAM, and dual rear-facing speakers.
Perhaps most tantalizing is the possibility that the Nexus 7 redux will offer up our first real glimpse of Android 4.3, unless you count those leaked builds that started trickling out soon after Google began selling its Google Play Edition Ones and S4s. Mobile aficionados poking around those leaked builds have already pointed out improved touch sensitivity and support for low-energy Bluetooth, but I suspect that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
You can expect to see the new Nexus 7 in the Google Play Store, but a few big-box retailers seem to be getting in on the launch action as well — images from Staples’ internal employee news system point to a July 31 release date, but now it looks like ailing electronics retailer Best Buy is gearing up to launch the device on the 30th instead. Whether the tablet will pop up in the Play Store in ahead of then is another question entirely, but the broader retail reach from the get-go is much appreciated considering the issues Google had getting the original Nexus 7 out to its customers. Let’s just hope there are enough to go around.
Touch: Where Microsoft Went Wrong
Microsoft had a pretty bad week. The software giant announced disastrous earnings, which led its stock to tank over 11 percent the next day. One reason for the bad quarter was the $900 million charge it took against “Surface RT” inventory adjustments, but even without this writedown, its quarter still would’ve been pretty bad. If the earnings show one thing, it’s that outside of its business and enterprise offerings (which delivered relatively good results), Microsoft just doesn’t have any products right now that consumers want to buy.
What happened to the company that not too long ago launched Windows 7, a product that many thought was Microsoft’s best operating system yet? At some point in the last few years, Microsoft decided that its consumer products had to be “touch first.”
The first time Microsoft really stressed this was when it showed the first preview of Windows 8 two years ago at the D9 conference. “A Windows 8-based PC is really a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse,” Julie Larson-Green, then Microsoft’s corporate VP for Windows Experience, wrote at the time.
Since the, Microsoft has been hoping for consumers to buy laptops with touchscreen – maybe even hybrid laptop/tablet computers like the Lenovo Yoga instead of a tablet. Problem is, people are really interested in these machines. Machines like the Yoga don’t, as Lenovo would like you to believe, combine “the intuitive touch experience of a tablet” to give you “the ultimate in versatility.” Instead, they are laptops (and often pretty good ones) which are held back by Microsoft’s Windows 8 touch interface that most users simply don’t care for.
At some point in the past, Microsoft must have looked at the success of the iPhone, Android phones and to keep up with the times, somebody in the company made the prediction that going forward, all of our devices would soon be touch and Microsoft went all in with this idea. The company had previously toyed with touch, but now, it was going to bet its future – and that of its OEM partners – on it.
The Surface RT is an ill-conceived device that confuses users, but Microsoft’s problem is that it believed users would soon be clamoring to touch their screens. If you’ve ever used a touchscreen-enabled laptop or maybe a Chromebook Pixel, chances are you barely ever touch your screen. There are some situations where large touchscreens make sense (and last year, Microsoft bought Perceptive Pixel for those occasions where you need a really big touchscreen), but in most cases, it’s just awkward and ultimately useless.
Microsoft, as a company, moves very slowly. Ballmer is trying to change this with the recent reorganization, but we won’t see the fruits of this for quite a while. Once Microsoft goes all in, it’s in for the long haul because it can’t correct its course fast enough. “Touch first” – which begat Windows 8 and the Surface – was the wrong move. That ship has sailed. The question now is how long it’ll take for Microsoft to get back on the right course.
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