Google has introduced a series of new products ranging from a new Android version Jelly Bean to the Nexus tablet and Nexus Q media system. The company is also adding more entertainment to Google Play.
Let’s start with Jelly Bean—a faster version based ‘on top’ of Ice Cream Sandwich. It features a new user interface and more intuitive Voice Search allowing users to simply ask Google a question and receive a precise answer. An upgraded keyboard is also smarter—it can predict words when you’re typing. There is also a new feature Google Now that gives you “right information at just the right time”. The information includes today’s weather forecast in the morning or traffic details at time before you leave for work etc.
Jelly Bean, which will also be available open source, rolls out starting in mid-July to Galaxy Nexus, Motorola Xoom and Nexus S.
A special highlight of this month is Google Nexus 7, a powerful tablet with a quad-core CPU and 12-core GPU making it the best choice for games and entertainment. It sports a a vibrant, 7” 1280×800 HD display and weighs only 340 grams. Of course, it is designed to provide users to seamless access to Google Play and Google+, which, by the way, turns one year old these days and celebrates it with 250 million of users by rolling out Google+ for tablets, and Google+ Events.
Consumers get their Nexus 7 with preloaded entertainment, including the movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the book The Bourne Dominion, as well as some magazines and songs. Owners also have a $25 credit to purchase more entertainment from Google Play. Nexus 7 is available for preorder today from Google Play in the U.S., UK, Canada and Australia, starting at $199.
Google Play, a cloud-based service, which now offers more than 600,000 apps, games, music, movies and books, has also expanded to include magazines from such publishers as Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, says Google Blogspot. TV shows is another new arrival on the service and if previously it was possible to only rent movies on Google Play, now you can buy it.
And finally, there’s Nexus Q, a home media system based on Android and adjusted to easily stream music and video from Google Play. It is a small spherical device that plugs into speakers and TV and functions as a “cloud-connected jukebox”. Now it’s available in the U.S. only for $299. Branded accessories are also on offer including a pair of quite expensive bookshelf speakers for $399, and two speaker cables for $49.