Peter Ha | Cheryl Waller

Google Nexus 7 Review: When Hardware And Software (Mostly) Become One

July 2, 2012 by Peter Ha Leave a Comment

Little by little, Google is slowly piecing together a more cohesive and complete mobile OS. Having the right hardware to drive Android doesn’t hurt either. While the Nexus 7 isn’t quite what I expected Google to roll out last week at I/O given the Motorola Mobility acquisition, it’s arguably the first real Android tablet to date.

With a $200 starting price, Android users and those looking for a smaller tablet now have a legitimate alternative to the Kindle Fire.

Smooth as butta

At its core the Asus-built tablet would be nothing if not for Jelly Bean (Android v4.1) and vice versa. Project Butter has made a surprising impact smoothing out the overall feel and experience with faster app switching (multitasking), frame rates and animations. Touch responsiveness has also seen an overhaul from past iterations of Android that tracks more accurately. Roboto, the system font for Android, has also been tweaked in Jelly Bean with better readability across the OS. Notifications are now actionable delivering even more content without having to actually launch a particular app. It can, however, cause sensory overload when notifications are expanded with a simple two-finger gesture.

Jelly Bean is also the first iteration of the OS that focuses on properly onboarding new users with semi-transparent overlays chock-full of helpful tips and tricks. Voice dictation can be taken offline, which is a plus considering the Nexus 7 appears to only be shipping in Wi-Fi trim. But it’s not quite the Assistant some had expected. It falls somewhere in between simple voice dictation and Siri for basic search queries. Most, if not all, Google apps come preloaded like the updated Google Maps and the new default Chrome web browser, which is noticeably faster than the ho-hum default browser on pre-Jelly-Bean devices. (Oddly enough, though, the Galaxy Nexus loaded with Jelly Bean given out at I/O still carries the old browser and Chrome has to be downloaded.)

The magazine experience on the Nexus 7 is just as wretched as it is on the Kindle Fire. Design is a huge part of what makes magazines great and that is all but lost on the Nexus 7 because of the 16:10 display, which forces you to flip over into text-only mode. The back-lit IPS display (1280×800 w/ 216 ppi) just isn’t dense enough to read copy in its more natural magazine form.

On the moving picture side of media, most of the popular shows you’d expect are now available for download but not everything is available as a whole. Only the latest season of uber popular shows like “Breaking Bad” are available, whereas the whole series to date is available on the Kindle Fire via Amazon. Otherwise shows and movies will stream automagically but you’ll have to manually force the download if you want to store it locally. Not a deal breaker but just an observation. Pricing is also competitive with similar offerings from Apple and Amazon.

Games play remarkably well on the N7 due in part to Butter and the quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. Another win over the Kindle Fire.

But this isn’t the final version of Jelly Bean, so things could change. For instance, the home screen is locked into portrait mode but flips between orientations in apps. Google Now is still a bit skittish. The prevailing issue, however, is the lack of tablet-specific apps for Android.

Will developers finally jump on board and optimize for tablets given the price point?

Something’s gotta give

Not a bad start for Google and Android but the hardware may be a deal breaker for some. But if sales of the Kindle Fire are any indication, its shortcomings might not matter to the general consumer. For early adopters or those looking for something less iterative, you may need to look elsewhere.

The Nexus 7 lacks expandable memory and only comes in 8GB ($199) and 16GB ($249) trim, which explains why video content is streamed by default. There’s also no way to output any content to a larger screen, so you’re stuck with whatever content you download to the 7-inch display. Luckily the screen is vibrant and offers pretty decent viewing angles but it definitely reflects a lot of light. Compared to the Kindle Fire, the 1280 x 800 screen on the N7 is much, much better. The display is listed as having Corning Glass. Whether that means it’s sporting Gorilla Glass or GG2 is anyone’s guess.

You’ll also want to mostly plug in headphones on the Nexus 7 as the speakers are placed on the lower portion of the backside and not along the edge.

At 0.74 pounds (compared to the Kindle Fire’s 0.9 pounds), the Nexus 7 is easy to hold and use for extended periods of time.

Files can be transferred to other Android devices via NFC, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Depending on usage and other variables like screen brightness, I managed to eek out just over seven hours. Based on other reviews, battery usage appears to range anywhere from six to nine hours.

The best part of the Asus hardware might be the fact that there is no back camera. Alternatively, you can’t do much with the front-facing camera other than hangout in Google Plus since there is no dedicated camera app.

Buy or Pass?

Look, if you’re looking for a 7-inch tablet or any tablet of the Android variety, you’d be hard pressed to find anything better than the Nexus 7. It runs vanilla Android (future proof, perhaps) that’s actually optimized for the hardware and is relatively cheap. It’s faster, nicer and smoother than the Kindle Fire but keep in mind the lack of tablet-specific apps and how Google is touting that it’s made for Google Play.

Nexus 7 [Google]

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: android, asus, Blogging, Facebook, Gadgets, Google, io2012, jelly bean, nexus, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, TC

Project Glass Is The Future Of Google

June 27, 2012 by Peter Ha Leave a Comment

Over the last few years one could easily say that Google had lost their way. They were no longer known for search. Somehow they’d turned into a company that acquired a series of nonsensical entities, launched half baked products that eventually hit the dead pool or just got into some really weird shit.

But last year that all started to change as the company announced that it would focus on its core products. Hindsight always being 20/20 it all makes sense. It’s like anything else, really. Spitball as many ideas as you possibly can just to see what sticks. And so whether it was by design or not, Project Glass is the future of Google. Not as a product that will make them billions of dollars but what it means for Google as a company and its future.

“The charter of Google X is to take bold risks and push the edges of technology beyond what they’ve been to where the future might be,” Sergey Brin told a small group of reporters during an intimate demo of Project Glass. “We want you to be less of a slave to your devices. It’s been really liberating and I’m really excited to share it with all of you.”

Brin noted that Project Glass is what Google believes could be the next form factor of computing. As it stands now, many of us are willingly beholden to our smartphones with all the web browsing, twittering, pathing, instagramming and whatever else consuming most of our time. Human interaction has all but faded away. The fact that people play the “stacking game” is comical and cute but a sign of how infatuated we are with technology. Glass has the potential to buck that trend by “keeping people in the moment,” said Steve Lee, Product Manager for Glass. Brin also mentioned that Glass shouldn’t be used to fill idle time or to browse the web and that your phone or tablet perfectly fits those needs.

Dorky as they might look, Glass signals the first glimpse of how to integrate such invasive and important technology into our lives in a more seamless way. Isabelle Olsson, the industrial design guru on the team, says the design of Glass ensures “you can look into people’s eyes.” During my brief time with Sergey’s Glass, I can say that the display didn’t hinder my ability to see or look around. The display disappeared until I needed to see what was being shown. I might never have to pull my phone out again to reply to a text, get directions or snap a photo. So, yeah, I’ll deal with looking like a dork but don’t be surprised to see Glass integrated with existing glasses. Brin did mention that Google has been in talks with eyeglass makers and the like.

While the hardware is still in prototype phase, I overheard Brin say that he’s experienced up to six hours of juice off a single charge. But that can and will likely change based on usage (uploading photos, capturing video, etc.). Photos, for instance, will be stored locally and can by synced with the cloud later. Both Lee and Brin said that they’re working hard to optimize what data is being transmitted and stored both on the device and in the cloud to alleviate any battery woes. There may be settings that allow users to control the content being shared until you’re within reach of Wi-Fi or when you’ve plugged in your Glasses for the night. Babak Parviz, the head of the Glass group, said a previous build allowed him to query a voice search for the capital of China broadening his own knowledge base to everything that’s available on the Web.

I asked what actually worked on Glass now and Brin politely skirted the question by saying that they’re testing and implementing various features with each build to see what sticks. Facial recognition, while discussed and experimented with, doesn’t sound like it’s been compelling enough that the team wants to immediately integrate it.

Here’s what you won’t see in Glass: advertising. Brin stated pretty vehemently that they have no plans to integrate advertising into Glass and that the only plan is to simply sell the hardware, which will be “significantly” cheaper than the $1,500 Explorer Editions that were announced today. The Glass team says they’re focused on the quality of the experience and not making it as cheap as possible. (Thank gawd.)

Core Google apps like Gmail and Plus (Hangouts) are being tested now along with Android apps. What isn’t clear is whether or not the Android and Google apps teams are working with the team at Glass and vice versa.

So what was the reason for today’s announcement of the $1,500 Explorer Edition of Project Glass? It’s actually a slight pivot from what they’ve done in the past. For once, the typical Google way of pushing out half-done products might work to their advantage. Parviz, Lee and Brin emphasized how important it will be to involve the developer community to further push the platform before Glass becomes available to consumers some time next year. Speaking of ship dates, Brin says the consumer version will ship within a year of when the Explorer Editions ship. Developers will have access to a cloud-based API that is “pretty far along.”

Does this mean Google wants to compete with Microsoft or Apple toe-to-toe? No. Google will always be the weird kid in the corner who sporadically does something mindblowing. They’re not thinking about what’s going on now but what might happen in the distant future. Everything they’ve done up until now seems like a tiny spec of something larger and greater. The late Ray Bradbury said it best: “Life is trying things to see if they work.” And that appears to be what Google is doing.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: android, Blogging, Facebook, Google, io2012, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, TC

Hands-On With The Google Nexus 7

June 27, 2012 by Peter Ha Leave a Comment

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Built specifically for Google Play consumption, the Nexus 7 tablet built by Asus seems to be Google’s answer to both the iPad and Kindle Fire. So how does it stack up and just how buttery smooth is Jelly Bean?

It’s nearly impossible to say after only a few minutes with the device, but on a superficial level, it’s pretty nice. With an IPS display the screen is vibrant with fairly decent viewing angles. HD videos look sharp. Speaker placement is a bit weird but audio quality sounds pretty good. The textured rear looks and feels high-end.

Jelly Bean is noticeably smoother and faster, including app launching. Due to the screen dimensions, I’m not really digging the magazine experience, though. The ability to go from the normal magazine layout to a text-only format is a nice feature akin to most every other read it later app iOS and Android users have grown accustomed to.

Social sharing between the Nexus 7 and Q for audio and video is seamless and works quite well.

But that’s it for now. I’ll have a more in-depth look at the Nexus 7 later today.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Gadgets, Google, io2012, nexus, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, TC

Google Releases Full Report On Street View Investigation, Finds That Staff Knew About Wi-Fi Sniffing

April 29, 2012 by Peter Ha Leave a Comment

Earlier today Google released the full report of the FCC’s investigation into the collection of “payload data” from open Wi-Fi networks — aka passwords, email and search history from open networks — that its fleet of Street View cars obtained between 2008 and April 2010. An earlier and heavily redacted version of the report was released on April 15 but today’s version only redacted the names of individuals.

The report found no violation of any wrong doing by the company because there was no legal precedent on the matter. The FCC found that Google did not violate the Communications Act citing the fact that Wi-Fi did not exist when it was written. However, the FCC did fine Google $25,000 for obstructing the investigation, which was presumably the outcome of Google refusing to show the FCC what the data being collected entailed because it might have shown that the company broke privacy and wiretapping laws. Google says any obstruction was result of the FCC dragging out the investigation. Interestingly enough, the report did reveal that the data harvesting was not the act of a rogue engineer and that said engineer notified the Street View team of what was going on.

(Wait. What? Google knew this was going on! It gets even better.)

Except that those members of the team told the FCC that they had no idea it was going on even though the engineer in question sent documentation of the work being done to the entire Street View team in October of 2006. The report also found that up to seven engineers had “wide access” to the plan to collect payload data dating back to 2006.

From the report:

In interviews and declarations, managers of the Street View project and other Google employees who worked on the project told the Bureau they did not read Engineer Doe’s design document. A senior manager of Street View said he “pre-approved” the design document before it was written. One engineer remembered receiving the design document but did not recall any reference to the collection of payload data.

For a little more background, let’s examine what Alan Eustace, Senior VP, Engineering & Research blogged back in 2010:

Nine days ago the data protection authority (DPA) in Hamburg, Germany asked to audit the WiFi data that our Street View cars collect for use in location-based products like Google Maps for mobile, which enables people to find local restaurants or get directions. His request prompted us to re-examine everything we have been collecting, and during our review we discovered that a statement made in a blog post on April 27 was incorrect.

In that blog post, and in a technical note sent to data protection authorities the same day, we said that while Google did collect publicly broadcast SSID information (the WiFi network name) and MAC addresses (the unique number given to a device like a WiFi router) using Street View cars, we did not collect payload data (information sent over the network). But it’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.

However, we will typically have collected only fragments of payload data because: our cars are on the move; someone would need to be using the network as a car passed by; and our in-car WiFi equipment automatically changes channels roughly five times a second. In addition, we did not collect information traveling over secure, password-protected WiFi networks.

So how did this happen? Quite simply, it was a mistake. In 2006 an engineer working on an experimental WiFi project wrote a piece of code that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast WiFi data. A year later, when our mobile team started a project to collect basic WiFi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using Google’s Street View cars, they included that code in their software—although the project leaders did not want, and had no intention of using, payload data.

As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible. We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it.

Fair enough. But the following excerpt from the report doesn’t quite sit so well with me: “We are logging user traffic along with sufficient data to precisely triangulate their position at a given time, along with information about what they were doing.” To be more specific, the last portion about knowing “what they were doing” seems a bit peculiar. Why would Google need to know what they were doing? Seems irrelevant if you’re just mapping the location of networks, doesn’t it?

So how did Google spin this to the media? It said the data mining was “inadvertent” and that Google now has stricter privacy controls than in the past. Oh and the company hopes the release of the full report would allow them to “put this matter” in the rear view mirror.

Crazy, right? Or maybe not! Discuss.

Correction: April 28, 2012 9:46PM PT

An excerpt from the report has been added regarding the pre-approval of a document sent out by “Engineer Doe” to the Street View team that detailed the work being done and included the fact that Google would be collecting such data.