Jan

Today Must Be Nexus Day - All "Sold Out" Nexus Play Store Pages Now Say "Temporarily Out Of Stock"

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Google, News, Nexus 10, Nexus 4

The Nexus flood gates seem to have opened today, with both Best Buy and Wirefly not only launching their respective Nexus 4 pages, but also actually having devices in stock. And now it looks to me like Google is preparing a fresh batch of the sought-after sold out devices, as all "Sold Out" product pages were switched to say "Temporarily Out of Stock" a few minutes ago.

Call me crazy, but I don't think this is simply a meaningless change in wording. According to LG, the Nexus 4 supply should be replenished to satisfy demand by sometime in mid-February, and with the fresh stock and behind-the-scenes go-ahead that some e-tailers obviously received, today definitely looks special.

Jan

AT&T Nexus 7 In Play Store Now Comes With A $100 Bill Credit If You Sign A 2-Year Contract

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in ASUS, AT&T, Carriers, News, Nexus 7

If you've been eyeing the HSPA+ version of Google's Nexus 7, AT&T is now offering you a little incentive. If you buy a Nexus 7 with 3G and agree to a 2-year data plan contract, AT&T will give you a $100 bill credit. It's not the best deal in mobile, but if you're planning to stick with AT&T for a while it's free money. What? You're going to turn your nose up at free?

This promotion mirrors a deal AT&T started running on its officially supported tablets late last year. With that offer customers could get a $100 subsidy on the upfront cost of a tablet in exchange for signing a 2-year contract.

Jan

[CES 2013] Vizio Announces New 7" (Tegra 3) And 10" (Tegra 4) Tablets Running Stock Android

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Vizio

If you like Nexus tablets, Vizio is gunning for your wallet. Today, the company announced a duo of tablets running stock Android. The first is most similar to the Nexus 10: a 10" display with the same retina-melting 2560x1600 resolution, only this one is powered by a Tegra 4 processor. Kal-El may not be a slouch, but let's be real. It's hard to not envy the 72 GPU cores that Wayne is packing.

Here are the known specs for the device:

10" 2560x1600 display
Tegra 4 SoC
32GB storage
Front & rear cameras
Mini USB (Yes, mini not micro; see center photo below)
Micro HDMI
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (model shown running 4.1)

As if that wasn't enough, the company also announced a direct Nexus 7 competitor.

Jan

Android: A Look Back To 2012, And A Look Forward To 2013

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Editorials, News, Rumors

Last Updated: January 7th, 2013

Happy New Year! It's that time again; with the new year comes our new annual prediction post. I tackled this last year, and rather than do a bunch of crazy, pulled-from-thin-air predictions, I ended up with a link-filled research-fest for the year. It worked out pretty well, so that's what's on the docket for today. First though, I'll take a look and see just how many of last year's predictions and rumors came true, and provide some updates for the more important topics.

A Look Back To 2012

What a crazy year. 2012 brought us two versions of Jelly Bean: 4.1 and 4.2. We saw a complete transformation of Google Search with the Knowledge Graph, Google Now, voice output, and Google Goggles integration.

Dec

Tired Of Waiting On The Play Store? Staples Has The 32GB Nexus 10 In Stock, Ready To Ship [Update: Out Of Stock]

Posted by Liam Spradlin in News, Nexus 10, Samsung

Update: At the time of writing, Staples has marked the Nexus 10 "Out of Stock." We'll let you know if and when it reappears.

It's no secret that the Nexus 10 has been sold out in the Play Store for some time now. Anxious would-be customers who are tired of waiting for the ten-inch Nexus with the fabled 2560x1600 (300ppi) display now have another solution, though – Staples has the 32GB Nexus 10 listed in stock, and estimates a delivery time of 2 business days.

The tablet was listed on Staples' website a few days prior to the time of writing, but was "out of stock." Today, however, it's ready to ship, though the Nexus' availability appears to be limited to the office chain's website and perhaps a few lucky physical locations.

Dec

Oops – Google Calls Its Own Device An iPhone If You're Swedish

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Android OS, Jelly Bean 4.2, News

The Nexus line is still one of the few places you can find Android 4.2. The software on most Nexuses has zero interference from carriers and OEMs. That's great for Google as it gets to control the entire software experience. The downside is that there is no one else to point the finger at when something goes wrong. And something is pretty hilariously wrong in the startup wizard on the iPhone – I mean, the Nexus.

Anyone with their language set to Swedish gets the confused system dialog when setting up the device. Even if you don't read Swedish, you can probably pick out the word 'iPhone' right there in the pop up.

Nov

Tip Of The Day: How To Defeat The Pesky Play Store Server Errors And Order That Elusive Nexus 4

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Google, News, Nexus 4, Tips & Tutorials

And the tip of the ~~day~~, ~~month~~, year goes to... Syko Pompos! Here I was, sitting on the couch, trying to order the 16GB Nexus 4 for the last 4 hours. That's a lot of hours practically wasted. And I'm not even talking about the first batch which resulted in exactly the same failures and poor experience.

Turns out, there's a little trick you can use to defeat these errors and finally place your Nexus order. Sure, it'll arrive weeks or maybe even months later, but at least you'll reserve your place in line and stop ripping out hair from places where you might still need it.

Nov

Google Pushing Android 4.2.1 OTA, Fixes The 'December Bug'

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Nexus 10, Nexus 4, Nexus 7

Earlier this month, we reported on a pretty big omission in Android 4.2's People app: Google forgot December. So, any birthdays, anniversaries, or other important dates you may have needed to note for that month were simply impossible to document. Now, though, it looks like El Goog is fixing that issue with a small 1.1MB update. This OTA is, of course, labeled as Android 4.2.1, and aside from the December fix, we're not sure of what else it may bring.

Update: Here's the manual download for the Nexus 4, as well as a look at all the changes within.

Nov

[Editorial] Yes, Google Done Goofed, But This Botched Nexus 4 Launch Is A Fantastic Sign (Or: Please Be Patient)

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Editorials, Google

In case you haven't heard (and how could you not?), Google has sold out of pretty much every new Nexus they've launched. If you head to the Play Store as of this writing, you cannot buy a Nexus 4 or Nexus 10. Even the 3G-connected Nexus 7 was unavailable for a while. As if that wasn't enough, customers started receiving emails saying their shiny new Nexus 4s were going to be delayed as much as three weeks.

So, what do we do now? Call up customer service and yell and complain? Vent on the internet and talk about how much Google screwed up this launch?

Nov

Last Nexus Standing In The US Falls – 16GB Nexus 10 Now 'Sold Out' [Update: It's Back]

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Google, News, Nexus 10, Nexus 4

Update: It looks like the 16GB Nexus 10 is back in stock now. If you were one of the unlucky few who missed the first batch of orders, go ahead and claim yours now.

There's no denying Google's launch of its new Nexus lineup has been a little bumpy. On launch day, we saw near-instantaneous shortages of the Nexus 4 in multiple countries including the US. Shortly after the Nexus 4 sold out in the US, the 32GB Nexus 10 fell. Then the Nexus 7 3G. Just today, we heard reports that many US customers were receiving "backorder" emails, indicating their Nexus 4 order may not ship for up to three weeks.