nexus 7

Google's excitingly cheap new Nexus 7 tablet has been plopping into mailboxes around the world (my 16GB model just arrived this morning, thanks for asking), and Android fans have been eagerly coming to grips with the Jelly Bean-powered slate.

Inevitably with such a popular gadget -- and such a vocal fanbase -- some Nexus owners have discovered manufacturing faults. Twitter user Faux123 posted a nasty-looking picture, spotted by Pocketnow, of light bleeding out of the side of his tablet, like a punctured angel.

Read more of "Nexus 7 users reporting screen problems, easy fix for some" at … Read more

Google's newest tablet, the Nexus 7, comes equipped with a front-facing camera, but no way of accessing the camera outside of apps such as Skype, Instagram, and the like. But thanks to a small app, which adds a camera launcher to your Nexus 7, you're able to access the camera and the Android 4.1 camera app like you would on any other Android 4.1 device.

The process couldn't be simpler.

Head over the to Google Play Store and download Camera Luancher for Nexus 7.

After installation, you'll see the familiar Android camera icon added … Read more

Taking screenshots on your new device is a great way to show off your home screen, or even show a friend what settings they need to have in a particular app. It wasn't long ago that root access, a third-party app, or even the Android SDK was required to take a simple screenshot.

Thankfully, taking a screenshot on the Nexus 7 is as easy as it was on the Galaxy Nexus.

To take a screenshot on your new Nexus 7, hold in the volume down and the power buttons at the same time. After a brief pause, you'll … Read more

Amazon's Kindle Fire may be cooling down.

That's according to Cowen analyst Kevin Kopelman, who today cut his forecast on the company's revenue, as well as sales of its Kindle e-reader and Kindle Fire tablet.

The forecast comes ahead of an expected refresh of Amazon's tablet, which made a splash late last year with its $200 price point. Since then, however, several other lower priced entrants have come out, most notably Google's own Nexus 7, which is selling at the same price, and a widely anticipated iPad Mini from Apple. As such, analysts are … Read more

Monday's top tech headlines feature a new challenger to the LTE battle:

Microsoft is releasing a new flavor of Office to go along with the new look of Windows 8. This new Office is all about making your documents available wherever you are, on any device. The design is also streamlined. Since you might be using it on a touch-screen, Microsoft simplified some options. You can see highlights of the features in our review of the new Office suite.

Sprint's already been selling devices that use 4G LTE, but today customers can finally tap into that faster network. … Read more

Those of you looking to buy Google's new Nexus 7 tablet may have a wait on your hands.

Unveiled late last month, the tablet has slowly trickled into the retail market. Google was naturally first in line, offering the Nexus 7 as a preorder in advance of its official mid-July launch. Other retailers, such as GameStop, Staples, and Sam's Club, soon followed suit.

But a lot of eager customers apparently scooped up those pre-sales, since the tablet is playing hard to get at most outlets.

GameStop, which is selling the 16GB edition, is showing the tablet as back-ordered. … Read more

Good news, tablet-lovers. Google will ship units of its 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet to customers who preordered the device, the company announced in an online post.

The Nexus 7 tablet is equipped with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box, and is powered by a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor.

Its clear screen and dirt-cheap $200 price tag make it primed to wrestle the Amazon Kindle Fire, but there are some downsides, like the lack of expandable memory, and no HDMI port or rear-facing camera.

The Nexus 7 is the first tablet to ship with Android 4.1 (see above for details) and with its release imminent, I couldn't in good conscience update the top Android 4.0 tablets without including it.

So although the title states "4.0," think of it as "4.0 and above." Everyone cool with that? Cool. Cool, cool, cool.

I imagine this list will need frequent updating over the next few months as some big-name Android 4.0+ releases like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 are coming down the pike. For now, however, here are the current top Android 4.x tablets.… Read more

Has Google's Nexus 7 borrowed its magnetic personality from the iPad?

As detailed in the YouTube clip online and below, a curious Nexus 7 user ran a magnet along the edges of the tablet as the device was asleep. After the user pulled the magnet away from the lower left edge, the tablet's screen came to life. And when the magnet was placed in the same spot, the tablet went back to sleep.

That behavior mimics the process used by Apple's Smart Cover, which turns the display of the iPad on as the cover is pulled away … Read more