01:12PM EDT - I think that's a wrap, we'll get hands on soon!

01:12PM EDT - They played a video showing Chromecast in a bunch of settings, it looks pretty cool

01:10PM EDT - Yeah, Chromecast is $35, available for purchase later today (it's on the Play Store now)

01:09PM EDT - It's unclear if Google Chromecast also works as a Miracast sink

01:08PM EDT - Developer preview of the Google Cast SDK being published today with libraries for iOS, Android, and Chrome

01:08PM EDT - Apps send video to the Chromecast through the new Google Cast SDK

01:07PM EDT - Works with most Windows laptops, most OS X laptops, and Chromebooks

01:05PM EDT - Google Plus photo albums being shown on the Chromecast, the whole tab is being shown

01:04PM EDT - The YouTube player on the web also works with Chromecast, that's pretty major

01:04PM EDT - Looks like Chromecast costs $35, it's already on Google Play https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=chromecast

01:03PM EDT - Music also works, Google Play Music obviously streams songs from your library to the Chromecast dongle

01:01PM EDT - Interesting, any device can takeover control and scrub through the content in case one leaves the network

01:00PM EDT - Netflix 1080p with support for 5.1 on Chromecast

12:59PM EDT - Netflix also has Chromecast support, looks the same here

12:58PM EDT - Now they're showing Chromecast working on iPhone with the YouTube app

12:57PM EDT - Control latency is there, but it's not huge, looking at them skipping through the YouTube playlist

12:56PM EDT - Looks like HDMI CEC is supported and being used here to control volume and inputs from the phone

12:55PM EDT - Grabbing the video from the cloud as opposed to doing decode and re-encoding on the device and shipping that over to a sink makes a lot of sense

12:54PM EDT - Looks like the button for Wireless Display in YouTube has just been changed to a different logo, the interface looks the same so far

12:53PM EDT - Chromecast looks like what became of the Nexus Q, smaller and an HDMI dongle, completely different underlying OS

12:52PM EDT - Cast button in the UI sends video to the TV, the Chromecast device pulls video directly from YouTube on the cloud, rather than relying on the device

12:51PM EDT - Plug into any HDMI input, power over USB, connect to home WiFI, and you're ready

12:51PM EDT - 2 inches long, runs a simplified version of Chrome OS

12:50PM EDT - New device from Google - Chromecast

12:50PM EDT - Google's goals for connecting the TV - easy and fast setup, nothing new to learn, access across platforms and devices

12:48PM EDT - Google wants to make watching videos on the TV easier and better

12:48PM EDT - Most video watching is being done on smartphone, tablet, or notebook, not TV

12:48PM EDT - Huge growth in online video being consumed, 200 billion online videos watched by users globally, 49.4 percent of internet traffic in North America is YouTube and Netflix, 2.7x increase in videos watched on the tablet or smartphone

12:46PM EDT - LTE bands 2,4,5,13,17 for those keeping count

12:45PM EDT - The 4G LTE SKU works with all of those operators in the USA, it's the first I'm aware of to combine AT&T and Verizon LTE on one device, which we saw on the FCC a while ago

12:45PM EDT - Lots of retailers, 4G LTE version for T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon in coming weeks

12:44PM EDT - Next Tuesday, July 30th available on Google Play

12:43PM EDT - 16 GB WiFi, 32 GB WiFi, 32 GB 4G LTE

12:43PM EDT - There we go, Nexus 7 spec comparison table

12:42PM EDT - Textbooks available on Google Play in early August

12:42PM EDT - Buy or rent textbooks for 6 months

12:42PM EDT - New Google Play category - textbooks, access through the web or Android and iOS devices

12:41PM EDT - Asphalt 8 available on Google Play August 8

12:40PM EDT - Asphalt 8 uses OpenGL ES 3.0 features

12:40PM EDT - Prince of Persia the shadow and the flame available tomorrow

12:39PM EDT - Prince of Persia 2.0 next, good visuals and detail

12:39PM EDT - Riptide GP2 being shown off on the Nexus 7, looks smooth, but I've never been convinced this is a super demanding title to begin with. Available today on Google Play.

12:38PM EDT - You can browse through friends profiles and see what games they're playing, leaderboards, and so on through the Google Play games app

12:37PM EDT - New app, Google Play Games

12:36PM EDT - "100s of games have added Google Play game services support"

12:36PM EDT - 19 out of the 20 top Android game devs are making games for Google Play

12:35PM EDT - Showing off lots of apps which look great on the Nexus 7, interestingly enough all of these are portrait view. Talking about collections that show off tablet apps in Google Play.

12:35PM EDT - Ellie Powers is up to talk about Google Play and the Android tablet ecosystem

12:34PM EDT - Google hangouts looks pretty cool on the Nexus 7

12:33PM EDT - Google Maps on Nexus 7 and all the other apps are being shown off in landscape, no doubt because the 1080p displays are landscape, but I feel like Google really wants to emphasize how landscape is now not a marginalized view

12:32PM EDT - Google Maps up next, updated version being shown off, looks pretty smooth on Nexus 7

12:31PM EDT - Chrome for Android now supports inline translation

12:30PM EDT - We're looking at some examples of Google apps on the 1080p Nexus 7, showing off Google Drive now

12:30PM EDT - Google Play edition devices getting their updates "very soon"

12:29PM EDT - Original Nexus 7, Nexus 4, Nexus 10, and Galaxy Nexus getting update today

12:29PM EDT - DRM APIs that enable hardware based encryption in Android 4.3, and Netflix is supporting this new DRM with a new version of their app that streams in 1080p

12:28PM EDT - Everything is being rendered natively in 1080p

12:27PM EDT - Hugo is talking about the new texture compression that's now mandatory in ES 3.0

12:26PM EDT - Unity demo called "The Chase" up next

12:26PM EDT - Silicon studios OpenGL ES 3.0 demo being shown off now

12:25PM EDT - OpenGL ES 3.0 supported now in Android 4.3

12:25PM EDT - Showing off a heart rate monitor using BT LE

12:24PM EDT - Bluetooth SMART (AKA Bluetooth Low Energy) in Android 4.3, no surprises there

12:23PM EDT - We're looking at restricted profiles now, restricted profiles only get to launch or use a certain whitelist of applications

12:22PM EDT - Restricted access limits access to apps on a per-user level

12:21PM EDT - Multi user with restricted profiles coming in Android 4.3

12:21PM EDT - Android 4.3 formally announced, and Nexus 7 will be the first device shipping with it

12:20PM EDT - 2 GB RAM, 802.11a/b/g/n, BT 4.0, 4G LTE, HDMI out, wireless charging

12:20PM EDT - 1.2 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing camera

12:19PM EDT - 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC (APQ8064 no doubt)

12:19PM EDT - Upstairs hands on with devices in a demo lounge after

12:18PM EDT - Stereo speakers on the new Nexus 7

12:18PM EDT - Nexus 7 can now show 30% wider range of color (30 percent wider gamut)

12:17PM EDT - From 216 PPI to 323 PPI

12:17PM EDT - There we go, from 1280x800 to 1920x1200 in the new Nexus 7 with the same size, highest resolution 7-inch tablet

12:16PM EDT - Better in-hand feel than the original Nexus 7, with pure black on black design and soft touch

12:16PM EDT - Thinner and narrower and lighter than the old Nexus 7

12:15PM EDT - New Nexus 7, looks just like leaks showed it would

12:15PM EDT - Nexus 7 has been a success for three reasons - it's portable and fits in your hand, it's a powerful device for a great price, third all your information is synced and available everywhere

12:14PM EDT - Hugo is on stage to talk about the new Nexus 7 now

12:14PM EDT - Jonney Shih is here, I expect we'll hear from him later talking about the new Nexus 7 shortly

12:13PM EDT - Nexus 7 really accelerated the tablet adoption and Android tablet activation rate

12:12PM EDT - 50 billion downloads on google play, 2.5x in revenue per user, 1 million apps

12:12PM EDT - Err, 1 in 2 tablets will be based on Android, I mean (their prediction)

12:11PM EDT - 1 in 2 tablets worldwide is based on Android by end of 2013

12:11PM EDT - At the end of 2012 approaching 10 million Android tablet activations, now at 70 million tablet activations

12:11PM EDT - Tablet growth is accelerating dramatically, "by the end of 2013 consumers are going to buy more tablets than PCs"

12:10PM EDT - Two things today - a tablet running Android that addresses growth in tablets, and a device for Chrome

12:10PM EDT - Two computing platforms are part of that vision - Chrome and Android

12:09PM EDT - Sundar is talking about how the goal is to deliver a consistent experience across every screen, since we live in a multi screen era

12:08PM EDT - Sundar is out, he's saying he already ate breakfast at 6:30 though

12:07PM EDT - Looks like we're getting started!

12:07PM EDT - Obviously lots of Googlers, I see many from ASUS as well

12:05PM EDT - I'd love to see a glimpse of the next version of Android beyond this management release, there's still a lot about the Android roadmap and new update cadence that hasn't been articulated yet, hopefully we'll get some color on that

12:02PM EDT - Things should be getting underway very shortly here, but we can still make some guesses about what's coming - obviously Android 4.3, a management release for Jelly Bean, and Nexus 7 are coming

12:01PM EDT - It's a pretty small venue and informal setting with tables, interesting

12:00PM EDT - I'm seated and inside the venue, where breakfast was indeed served this morning, so Google did deliver on that initial promise

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  • Tuvok86 - Thursday, July 25, 2013 - link

    Can Linux run Chrome?
  • Sm0kes - Thursday, July 25, 2013 - link

    Yes, albeit they are calling it "beta". Last I tried it wasn't at feature parity with its Windows/OSX counterparts, but it was definitely usable.
  • Calinou__ - Friday, July 26, 2013 - link

    It can also run Chromium (the open source "base" to Chrome, which doesn't spy on you).
  • Bob Todd - Thursday, July 25, 2013 - link

    It boggles my mind that anyone expected S800 (or even S600) in a *budget* tablet. S600 was just top of the line in the Galaxy S4, and there aren't even any S800 shipping devices that I know of. If this was a $500 Nexus 10 refresh then sure, expect the top of the line SOC. The Nexus 7 was created to battle the likes of the Kindle Fire/Nook HD that were using Android at the core and eating Google's lunch in tablet sales all the while funneling users into their own content ecosystems. These devices are (relatively) cheap. It's the same reason the iPad Mini didn't get Swift or a Retina display. They do actually need to make money you know...and in Google's/Asus' case it's not like they have a huge margin on the N7 as it is.
  • watersb - Friday, July 26, 2013 - link

    Excellent coverage. How was the eggs Benedict?
  • Impulses - Friday, July 26, 2013 - link

    The new Nexus 7 has HDMI out?! Sweet, I think that's something a lot of people wanted. Is it a dedicated micro HDMI port, MHL, or the weird new implementation they had on the Nexus 4?

    Is "new Nexus 7" really the name btw? I'm not sure I see much point in wireless charging for a tablet (have we gotten that lazy?), but I'm such a sucker I'll probably get power mat to try it out. :P

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