According to some industry sources that spoke with DigiTimes, we could be seeing the mythical Google Nexus tablet as early as May. It’s reported that ASUS will be the one to manufacturer the 7″ low cost tablet after other potential partners didn’t quite make the cut. Apparently HTC and Acer were in the running, but after HTC’s unwillingness to to develop a low-price model and Acer’s lack of in-house R&D, ASUS was declared the winner. Considering ASUS’s recent dedication to Android and the tablet market, I would not be surprised at all if they end up manufacturing the Nexus tablet, in fact I expect it.
When Google killed off the Android Market and replaced it with the Google Play Store, not every device was happy about it. In fact, some Motorola devices refused to link to the new Google Play Store in protest of Google’s heinous crime. Google acted fast and deployed the update police to force Motorola devices into submission. Thanks to the latest Google Play Store update 3.4.7, your Motorola app drawer store link will now work, forcing you to bust out that heartfelt eulogy you had prepared for the Android Market and say goodbye.
R.I.P Android Market
This one’s for all the privileged users out there rocking Chrome For Android Beta on their Ice Cream Sandwich devices. Your soon to be default browser just received an update to squash some bugs. Apparently there were some issues preventing Chrome from starting up on some versions of Android 4.0, which as you may already know, is the only OS version that supports Chrome For Android Beta.
Google has recently filed for a patent that may just have early navigators rising from the dead to sue for royalties. This new patent would allow a user to have their location determined by landmarks around them. It would work by having a user take a picture of a landmark, upload it to Google, and then receive information about their location. The whole idea sounds impractical considering you can just fire up your Google Maps/Navigation but Google claims it can come in handy when in a foreign country and finding signs or assistance in your native language could be difficult. I’m not buying that and I have my own theory.
Yesterday Google threw us a curve ball when they suddenly killed off our beloved Android Market (I still think they should be tried for murder) in favor of their new Google Play marketing scheme. Whether or not you’re a fan of the new name and logo (which I’m not), one thing I’m sure you’re a fan of — deals! Google kicked off the rebranding with some sweet deals in their 7 Days To Play promotion. For seven days various media will be discounted to the insane price of $.25. Today is day two, which means you have 6 days left to play and we have today’s list of great deals for you after the break.
