Just this morning it was suggested by Sundar Pichai that Google’s Android and Chrome operating systems would not be converging – at least not any time soon. That said, it’s very possible that they will be overlapping on a larger level sooner than you might expect. Google TV, as well, has been rumored to be converging with Android on a greater level ever since Android 4.2 Jelly Bean was given Miracast wireless transmission abilities.

Wireless Projection with Miracast

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and higher has the ability to allow your phone to project its display’s contents to machines that work with Miracast. This Miracast term refers to a standardized system for displays – and boxes you hook up to displays – to accept wirelessly projected image information. Have a peek at our original guide for this system entitled How does Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Wireless Display Mirroring Work? and you’ll find the following passage:

“With Miracast being an “industry standard”, you can expect many brands to pick it up soon if they don’t already have it integrated now. Miracast is a technology that’s built in to devices – it’s not a device in and of itself. Miracast certification has begun for devices of many kinds, so you can expect not just displays to have it integrated, but receivers that will plug in through your HDMI port instead – this working for legacy displays.”

The video you’re seeing shows some Texas Instruments device action with Miracast back well before Android 4.2 came along. This very basic demo shows the same functionality built in to Jelly Bean here and now. Point to take home: Miracast has been around long enough, it’s high time for it to be adopted on a grand level.

There aren’t very many Jelly Bean-compatible wireless display devices out on the market right this second. Google will very likely lead the way with a Google TV device – maybe even a Nexus Google TV product. If Google shows faith in Google TV with a product they give to developers at the conference, it’s possible that confidence will grow in the market’s mind.

On the other hand, the Nexus Q never took off. One of its fatal flaws was the relative lack of opportunity developers had to work with it right out of the gate. A very different situation would unfold if Google gave away a Google TV product with Miracast technology built-in.

Nexus Device Refresh: Nexus 7, Nexus 10

The Nexus 10 is a 10-inch display-toting Android tablet that hasn’t seen one whole heck of a lot of press since it was first delivered several months ago. The Nexus 7 has, on the other hand, seen significant success in the market due to its low cost and relatively well-balanced specifications – one year after it was given away at Google I/O 2012, it remains a top search term in Google for those looking for news updates.

The Google Nexus 7 has been tipped on several occasions – several quite recently – to be getting a refresh in the form of an advanced display. It has also been suggested that the Nexus 7 would be getting a new processor in the form of a Qualcomm Snapdragon, though the exact power within has not been clarified.

The Nexus 10, on the other hand, has not seen one whole heck of a lot of action anywhere – not compared to the Nexus 7, anyway. If Google does refresh the Nexus 10, it will be as a bit more of an afterthought next to the Nexus 7, not as a major news item on its own. Expect both of these tables to be mentioned – at least in passing – during Google’s major initial keynote.

Google’s one major keynote will take place on Wednesday, May 15th at 9AM PST. SlashGear will be in attendance and will be delivering you up-to-the-minute details throughout the 2.5-hour session.

Featured Sessions

This convention is home to numerous break-out sessions and talks from those in-the-know across the developer universe. These sessions revolve around Android and Chrome, of course, but there are many mini-events that have to do with specific apps and services too. Some of the highlights that indicate Google and the greater industry’s aims here include:

• Android: Enchant, Simplify, Amaze: Android’s Design Principles
• Chrome: JAM with Chrome
• Google+: Google+ Platform Overview
• Search: From Structured Data to Knowledge Graph
• Maps: Google Maps: Into the Future: Wednesday, May 15, 12:00pm
• Cloud Platform: Ushering in the next generation of computing at Google I/O
• Women Techmakers Session with Susan Wojcicki (SVP, Ads), Anna Patterson (VP, Knowledge), Johanna Wright (VP, Search and Mobile), Jean Wang (Staff Hardware Engineer, Glass), and Diane Greene (Board of Directors, Google).

Oddities SlashGear will also certainly be checking out include a Google+ AirShow and a Data Sensing Lab. The Google+ AirShow will allow users to check live streaming cams attached to blimps flying above the Moscone Center. The Data Sensing Lab will be visualizing environmental data from the area, lying it over indoor maps in real-time: this includes motion, noise level, humidity, pressure, and temperature.

Glass

Though we’ve not heard anything specific about what advances will be spoken of surrounding Google Glass, this year will mark the one-year anniversary of the moment developers were offered the opportunity to purchase a pair of the futuristic face-based computers. We’re expecting that our journey to and through the San Francisco-based event collection will be clad with more than a few Glass-faced users, that’s for sure.

Join us starting tomorrow – SlashGear will be scoping out the event center early and making sure we’re on top of the situation from start to finish! Make sure you hit up the SlashGear Google I/O portal throughout the week!

We knew a Ubuntu tablet version would be coming, but it’s nice to finally see it in its official form, ready to be consumed by various tablets. In fact, the new OS will be available in a developer preview form for the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 this Thursday. This is the same day that Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 users will be able to grab the smartphone preview as well.

Just like the smartphone version, Ubuntu for tablets is optimized completely for touch, and it relies on screen-edge gestures for navigation rather than physical buttons. For the most part, everything looks to be the same, except for the obvious change in screen size when using the tablet version — the interface itself is pretty similar to the phone version.

Canonical moving towards smartphones and tablets is a big and bold move for the company, but it’s nothing too surprising, and frankly it was expected at some point, with more and more users switching over to tablets and smartphones for computing needs. While Ubuntu for mobile devices may not gain a ton of market share, we sure that open-source enthusiasts and computer geeks of all kinds will take advantage of the new OS on their smartphones and tablets soon.

According to users on Reddit who say they’ve received the update, the problem with Bluetooth audio streaming has been corrected somewhat, although it is being reported as still having occasional issues. One user reported that after updating, the Bluetooth still disconnects when the network changes from wifi to the mobile data network.

Per the screenshots Android Police has up, the update is build number JDQ39, and is 47.6MB. Users are receiving the update over the air, although many still haven’t had it arrive yet. Still, screenshots have cropped up showing the update on the GSM Galaxy Nexus, the Nexus 7 tablet, and the Nexus 10 tablet, so users with one or more of those devices will likely see the update within the next day or so.

Not much else is known at the moment, since nothing official has been posted. According to the system update screen that users have seen, the 4.2.2 update is said to improve “performance and stability.” Users can set up their own accounts on the devices for customizability, and there’s Gesture Typing for typing words by sliding one’s finger across the keys.

[via Android Police]

Until today, users in Japan who wanted a Nexus tablet were forced to buy from overseas, dealing with region and language issues. The tablet was originally slated for release in the country back in the last quarter of 2012, but that ended up not happening. The wait has finally ended, and both the 16GB and the 32GB versions of the slate are in stock.

The 16GB Nexus 7 model is priced at ¥36,800, which is a tad under $400 USD, while the 32Gb version is priced at ¥44,800, which is $480 USD. As with the US Google Play store, the Japan Play Store lists “shipping soon.” The slate runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and has a wide array of high-end specs, making an excellent tablet choice for those in the market for a slate.

For those who don’t know, the Nexus 10 features a 10-inch Corning Gorilla Glass 2 display with a high resolution of 2560 x 1600. Inside you’ll find a Exynos 5 Dual and Mali-T604 GPU, as well as 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. There’s a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.9-megapixel front camera.

[via Android Community]

While it is odd that the Samsung-made Nexus 10 has not been tipped for any sort of upgrade (beyond this one) for this Winter/Spring 2013 season, the Nexus 7 (made by ASUS) has seen its fair share of competition since its initial $199 reveal. This price point and the fact that it’s got a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor under the hood have all but blasted the machine into space with popularity, prompting waves of competitive 7-inch tablets (and the like) to attempt to syphon the cash. The upgrade tipped by Digitimes suggests that this machine will have an upgrade from its 1280 x 800 pixel display to an immensely dense 1728 x 1080 or even 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution.

Meanwhile the Google Nexus 4 (made by LG) has been selling like hotcakes since it was first put on the market at the end of 2012. Here near the end of January 2013, the device is just now seeing availability flicker on (and more often off) online and in retail locations across the USA. Have a peek at a column by the name of “Why the Nexus 4 is selling like mad by Robert Nelson on Android Community to see why this beast continues to kick the market’s butt.

The newest word on the Nexus 4 is that it’ll have a white case in its next release. That’s it, that’s all, that’s all there is. That tip was sent to PhoneArena with the photo you see above – look pretty real to you? Looks pretty real to us – expect that device to be appearing in that color before the second quarter of this year rolls around – bank on it!

While the Nexus 10 is certainly a respectable tablet, many users have complained about its weak performance and slower internals compared to other modern tablets. It looks like Google is taking these complaints seriously and is rumored to be shoving a quad-core CPU inside of the Nexus 10, along with a new 8-core Mali-T678 GPU.

Of course, this is only speculation and hearsay, but the tablet may make an appearance at Mobile World Congress next month in Barcelona, so we really may not have that long to wait until we find out if these rumors are true. However, this year’s Google I/O will most likely be the one event that Google will out the refreshed tablet. It’s said that this new Nexus 10 was at CES a couple weeks ago, but was only displayed in a private meeting.

Then again, the quad-core-equipped Nexus 10 was being shown off in the original Nexus 10 casing anyway, so we doubt no one would’ve noticed anyway. It’s also said that Google may give the new tablet a redesign, but those familiar with the rumor aren’t expecting a refreshed exterior until the third-generation Nexus 10.

[via Android Community]

Now that the smartphone version is well established in the Android handset environment, the development team behind Flipboard is ready and willing to push forward to the full-sized tablet universe. This version supports both portrait and landscape modes, and is able to flip back and forth between tablet and smartphone modes for those of you with mid-size tablets like the Nook or the Amazon Kindle Fire. The Google Nexus 7 has been one of these in-between choices for Flipboard for some time now as well – now you’ve got two choices instead of one!

Flipboard is an app, for those of you that’ve never utilized it, that takes on the news you read every day – SlashGear, for example – and makes it into a fabulously easy to read and take-in experience that’s also rather simple to interact with. This is not your standard RSS feed reader – though it does interact with feeds if you want – it’s made to be a source for discovering new news sources as well. This optimization for tablets with Samsung goes something like this, per Flipboard’s press release: “And having worked with Samsung over the last year, Flipboard is optimized for Samsung’s tablet devices.”

This update is available on the Google Play app store right this minute for free – absolutely for free, imagine that! You can log in and look up SlashGear and Android Community right out of the gate and get your daily technology news in a whole new modern-cut styling everyone will love!

Today we’re seeing a set of photos on Picasa found by Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader, the same fellow who tipped us off to this pattern. What happened with several devices – both the Nexus 7 and the Nexus 10 included this year – is that several steps are taken by whoever is in charge of what we’ll call “Pre Announcement Press Leaks.” Imagine yourself falling into that role – then dismiss the idea that we’ll ever get confirmation that such a position exists because it would more than likely be a role that’s less than lawful.

What happens first is the device is made – of course. Next the specifications and a possible release date is leaked to the publication Digitimes. After that, a set of benchmarks is posted online (very basic benchmarks, mind you). Finally several photos are taken with the device and are posted to Picasa from an account that’s been used repeatedly for test photos – in this case it belongs to “ASUS ASUS”.

The photos in this album were taken yesterday and posted with a camera capable of a photo thats 1280 x 720 pixels from a device called ME172V. This name “ME172V” can be traced back to the benchmarks we saw near the end of November complete with specifications immediately before it.

At the moment we’re looking to deal with a $99 USD price point on a 7-inch tablet that’s got a 1024 x 600 pixel resolution display and a processor clocked at 1GHz – at the moment it’s not been clear whether this processor has more than one 1GHz CPU. The Nexus 7 has an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor and costs at least twice the amount that this rumored tab does – perhaps a lower-powered associate is in the mix?

It’s quite likely that we’ll be seeing this machine showing up at CES 2013 either at an NVIDIA event or at a surprise showing from Google. Stay tuned to SlashGear to get the full run-down on whatever it ends up being through our fabulous CES 2013 tag portal, and see you there!

[via Android Community]

While the Nexus 10 already has Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on board, the CyanogenMod 10.1 nightlies (based on 4.2 as well), will provide Nexus 10 owners a chance to see what third-party developers have planned for the new tablet. Obviously, these nightly builds are in their alpha stages, so you should expect them to be a little buggy and unstable.

Of course, before installing these CyanogenMod builds, you’ll need some know-how on rooting, flashing, etc., so if you feel the least bit uncomfortable performing such tasks, it’s probably best you leave your Nexus 10 untouched, especially since the smallest mistake could end up bricking your device.

We’re not sure when stable builds will be available for the Nexus 10 (or the Nexus 4 for that matter), but it should only be a matter of time after seeing these nightly builds being posted up. We honestly can’t wait to see what the hacking community will do with the high-resolution display of the Nexus 10. Hopefully we’ll see something good soon.

Smaller tablets – the roughly 7- to 8-inch category have had a mixed history, starting out life as simply oversized phones, but developing into legitimate devices in their own right in 2012. Best value for money is Google’s Nexus 7, delivering the pure Android experience from $199 (and with an unlocked 3G model for those wanting proper connectivity on the move), though we also rate Barnes & Noble’s NOOK HD. Again priced from $199 (though with less storage than the Nexus 7: 8GB versus 16GB) the NOOK HD has an excellent display and a customized interface that’s arguably better suited to ebook and multimedia consumption.

The iPad mini was a late entrant into the small tablet space, but by sticking with the legacy resolution – albeit in a 7.9-inch display – Apple has made sure its new model has access to all the old apps. That’s a compelling argument when the holiday gift wrap comes off and eager owners want to explore the capabilities of their new toy. At $329 for the cheapest model (from $459 for the 4G version, which we also rate) it’s not inexpensive, but it’s an all-round package you can rely on.

Bigger tablets have been dominated by the iPad with Retina display, and Apple’s 9.7-inch model (from $499) is still a strong contender. Like the iPad mini, it has a wealth of app options, but it also throws in an excellent display while still managing 10+ hours of runtime. Its screen, meanwhile, gets some impressive competition from Google’ new Nexus 10, undercutting the full-sized iPad by $100 and out-pixeling it with a fantastic 2560 x 1600 display. We’re yet to see apps that take full advantage of that resolution, however, though the Nexus 10 does a great job with multimedia and web browsing.

Microsoft’s Surface RT is an odd beast. The Windows RT tablet starts from $499, but arguably only really makes sense when you pair it with a Touch Cover keyboard-case, taking the starting price to $599. If you’re a Windows fan then the Surface makes sense, as does using it as a laptop alternative, though a paucity of apps means it struggles to compete like-for-like with the iPad still. Consider an expensive IOU for the Surface Pro, which runs full Windows 8 (and thus all legacy apps too) from $899 in the new year.

Honorable Mention: Is it a tiny tablet? Is it a massive smartphone? Is it somewhere in-between, and one of the best arguments for mobility convergence around so far? Samsung’s Galaxy Note II pushes the envelope with its 5.5-inch display, and while probably fitting more into the phone category, deserves highlighting for those that want some of the benefits of a tablet’s bigger screen but still would prefer to carry a single device. From $300 with a new, two-year agreement (or $650 on a T-Mobile pre-paid) it’s not cheap, but it’s definitely capable.

Still need more tablet inspiration? Check out our full tablet reviews hub!

The update brings with it several small fixes that are relatively minor in nature. Perhaps the most notorious change is that of adding the month of December back to the people app, something they forgot to include the first time around. Also fixed are some issues with Bluetooth and wireless Internet connectivity.

While it is a minor update, users are reporting massive speed improvements on their Nexus 7 devices over at Android Community. Presumably, those using one of the other Nexus devices will also see speed improvements. One user also reports that screen rotation seems faster, and that audio “choppiness” experienced when streaming music via Bluetooth has been reduced substantially.

The easiest way to get the update, obviously, is to wait for the over-the-air notification to arrive. If you’re feeling impatient, however, you can download the updates via the links below, or, perhaps a bit easier, you can manually check for updates via Settings. Have you updated your Nexus device? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Download: Android 4.2.1 for Nexus 7
Download: Android 4.2.1 for Galaxy Nexus

[via Android Community]

The most notable aspect that the disassemblers noticed was how easy the Nexus 10 tablet was to disassemble compared to the iPad. While Apple likes to tighten up their products and make them hard to repair, Google and Samsung took an entirely different approach with the Nexus 10, making the whole device way easier to take apart than any of Apple’s iOS devices.

The back cover takes nothing but a screwdriver, a suction cup, and little bit of force to separate it from the display, and thus revealing the internal components that make the tablet sing. Removing the battery is also really easy, and the connector is made of rubber instead of plastic, which makes it more durable and less likely to break during a repair.

It seems a lot of the components are held in with just #00 philips screws and not a lot of glue like you would see inside the iPad. It certainly makes disassembly a lot easier and the repairability is top notch. As expected, the Nexus 10 runs on Samsung’s hardware, including the Exynos 5 Dual chipset, as well as the battery and flash memory.

[via PowerbookMedic]

3G Nexus 7s started shipping earlier today, and we found out that Apple stores take in $6,000 in sales per square foot. IHS is predicting that the Wii U will sell 3.5 million units by the end of 2012, and Nokia has announced its new HERE mapping service to take on Google Maps. The release preview of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 is now available to check out, and there seems to be a pretty major issue with some of the Black Ops II PC discs floating around out there.

Verizon and Motorola begin sending out OTA Jelly Bean updates to the DROID RAZR M today, while Google started installing its fiber network in Kansas City. BitQwik has released a search app for Evernote users, while Verizon said it will be launching 4G LTE in a bunch of new markets on November 15. mLogic unveiled a new PCIe expansion chassis that’s compatible with Thunderbolt, Android 4.2 has made its way to the Android Open Source Project, and Murfie and Sonos have teamed up to help you move your physical CDs into the cloud.

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm was finally given a release date earlier today, Vimeo has launched a new preview of its upcoming pay-to-view program, and we learned today that the ASUS VivoTab RT will be landing at AT&T later on this week. Finally tonight, we have a few originals for you to have a look at. Chris Davies tells us why the HTC DROID DNA should have been a Nexus device, while Chris Burns gives us his reviews of the Olympus Stylus XZ-2 and the Otaku Camera for iOS. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy the rest of your night folks!

The 8GB variant of the Nexus 4 is priced at $299 unlocked and off-contract, while the 16GB version will cost you $349. While the Nexus 4 doesn’t have 4G LTE capabilities, the device packs in a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with 2GB of RAM. There’s also an 8MP camera on the back with a 1.3MP shooter on the front. It comes with wireless charging, SlimPort HDMI, and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The Nexus 10 tablet is selling for $399 for the 16GB version and $499 for the 32GB variant. It’s the company’s first 10-inch tablet and it comes with a Exynos 5 Dual SoC that has a dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 processor and Mali-T604 graphics. It also features the highest resolution of any tablet, with a 2560×1600 resolution at 300ppi.

The Google Play store is selling these devices now, and you can also grab a Nexus 4 bumper while you’re at it for $20. If you’re wanting to hop on the Nexus train, there’s no better time to do it than right now. A $299 unlocked smartphone that’s off-contract is the best deal you’ll find nowadays, and a 10-inch tablet with the highest resolution in the world is certainly a no-brainer.

Nexus 4: 8GB | 16GB

Nexus 10: 16GB | 32GB

Would-be shoppers have complained that the store was not only sluggish or unresponsive, but that frequent shopping basket errors meant that, by the time they got to the checkout stage, the device they were attempting to buy had been removed. By the time many managed to get the store to respond properly, Google’s initial supplies of the Nexus 4 were apparently exhausted.

In the UK for instance, both the 8GB and 16GB versions of the smartphone now say “Notify me!” rather than offering a purchase option. For the Nexus 7, all three versions – 16GB WiFi, 32GB WiFi, and 32GB WiFi + HSPA+ – are listed as in stock, with 3-5 day ship estimates.

As for the Nexus 10, the Samsung-made tablet – which out-Retina’s Apple’s own iPad with its high-resolution display – is still showing stock available for the 16GB WiFi model, but the 32GB WiFi model is sold out.

Without knowing exactly how many devices Google had in-stock on day one, it’s hard to say exactly how much of a success – or otherwise – the Nexus 4 launch has been. Selling out of the 16GB version in 15 minutes (and the 8GB in under half an hour) certainly indicates there’s some demand there, though Google’s inability to prepare sufficient devices (and a store capable of handling the interest) means those left peeved may well outnumber those who actually managed to order a phone.

You can find our full review of the Nexus 4 here, while our review of the Nexus 10 is here. Did you manage to get your order in in time? Let us know in the comments.

The first thing you’ll want to check out is Lock screen widgets. This update has you able to grab widgets similar to what you may have seen on many manufacturer’s custom builds of Android for some time – showing your calendar or email, for example, or recognizing music with Google’s Sound Search. This update does include a push for developers to create their own widgets, which is potentially awesome for the greater bulk of the Android universe.

Multi-user support is open for the Nexus 10 as well. This means you’ll be able to have user profiles for all of your friends and family – if that’s something you want – with customizable spaces for each person. This multi-user support exists right after you turn your tablet on, with a tap on your chosen image to bring up your own home screen, apps, email, photos, and storage.

Have a peek at our full reviews of the Samsung Nexus 10 and the LG Nexus 4 and get pumped up about the rest of the updates coming up. These devices are available on the Google Play device store online and you’ll be seeing them at retailers rather soon as well. The software, as always, is open and free.

“There are players in the industry who were unhappy about more competitive pricing for the consumers. They want to keep the prices high, they want to force the price to be so high that operators have to subsidize the devices very highly. That’s not only the Cupertino guys but also for the guys up in Seattle. They want higher margins, they want to charge more for software” John Lagerling, Google

As Lagerling sees it, Google’s expensive acquisition of Motorola Mobility isn’t to give the company an edge in producing Android devices in-house. Instead, Motorola’s design team is treated just as all the other Android-using manufacturers: if they want to make a Nexus, they have to bid for it like everyone else.

“They stand where Sharp would stand, or Sony would stand or Huawei would stand” he explained. “From my perspective as a partnership director, they are another partner. We are really walled between the Motorola team and the Android team. They would bid on doing a Nexus device just like any other company.”

Whether Google can, with the $299 Nexus 4, do what it attempted with the original Nexus One and bypass the carriers by instead selling unlocked, SIM-free handsets direct, remains to be seen. According to Lagerling, “Nexus One was very early” and the recent success of the Nexus 7 in opening consumer eyes to devices bearing the Google brand will see the Nexus 4 do markedly differently.

There’s more on the Nexus 4 in our full review.

Hardware

While ASUS and Google made some brutal decisions to bring the Nexus 7 down to its sub-$200 price point, the Nexus 10 demands far fewer compromises. In fact, Samsung has delivered a few “firsts” in its new tablet, most notably the 10.1-inch 2560 x 1600 WQXGA display (more on which in a moment). The Nexus 10 also gets a dual-core 1.7GHz Exynos 5250 A15 processor with Mail T604 graphics and 2GB of RAM, and a choice of 16GB or 32GB versions. Like the Nexus 4 smartphone, though, there’s no memory card slot for adding your own storage; Google would rather you opted for its Drive cloud.

Recent Samsung tablets have generally been lightweight plastic, but while the Nexus 10 sticks with plastics rather than metal, it feels far higher quality despite keeping things low on the scales. In fact, the tablet weighs 603g and measures a curved 263.9 x 177.6 x 8.9 mm, finished in a pleasant and grippy soft-touch material that’s easy to hold even single-handed. It’s reminiscent of the original Motorola XOOM Android tablet, though also reminds us of HP’s TouchPad, albeit considerably thinner.

On the front, there’s a 1.9-megapixel camera for video calls, with a 5-megapixel main camera on the back with autofocus and an LED flash. Ports include microUSB and micro HDMI, and in a welcome change the Nexus 10 charges from microUSB rather than using a proprietary connector; there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack and Pogo pins for use with a dock. Inside there’s WiFi b/g/n (with MIMO support for faster connections and better range) and Bluetooth 4.0, together with not one but two NFC chips – one on the front, one on the back – for use with Android Beam.

All of the usual sensors are present, including an accelerometer, digital compass, ambient light, gyroscope, barometer, microphone, and GPS, while the battery is a sizable 9,000 mAh Li-Poly pack which Google says is likely good for up to nine hours of HD video playback.

Accessories haven’t been fully detailed yet, but we’d expect to see a docking station eventually, and Google will offer a flip-cover the hinge of which swaps out with a panel on the back of the Nexus 10. It will automatically power on the tablet when opened, much as Apple’s Smart Cover does on the iPad.

Overall, despite being plastic not metal, the combination of the soft-touch materials and light weight makes for a very easy tablet to hold, and one that doesn’t add much to your bag. The matte finish does gather fingerprints and greasy smudges with great ease, however.

Display

Samsung calls its display a “True RGB Real Stripe PLS” panel; we just call it incredible. At 10.1-inches it’s slightly larger than Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad with Retina, but its 2560 x 1600 resolution – for a pixel density of 300ppi – means it packs in more dots than the iOS tablet’s 2048 x 1536 (264ppi).

Of course, the idea of “Retina” resolutions, as Apple would have it, is that at a typical usage distance the individual pixels are indistinguishable from each other; you could argue that once you pass that point a greater number of dots is unnecessary. Samsung’s panel does have obvious advantages for some of the uses Google expects most users to have for the Nexus 10, though, with its 16:9 aspect ratio screen and more-than-Full-HD resolution making it ideal for widescreen video playback without black framing bars.

In general use, it’s tough to find anywhere to complain about Samsung’s screen. Viewing angles are broad and colors vivid, and brightness is consistent across the display. Text is crisp, photos look fantastic, and video is smear and lag free. Happily there’s a slab of Gorilla Glass 2 across the top to protect the excellent panel.

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

Google’s incremental update to Android doesn’t even warrant a new confectionary-themed name, but there are a couple of improvements that make particular sense for tablets. Unfortunately, they’re also the features that won’t go live until the final build hits the Nexus 10 when it ships on November 13, which means we were unable to test out the new multiple user support and lock-screen widgets.

Still, from what Google has shown us, the ability to set up multiple user accounts answers a complaint that has been aimed at most tablets – not just those running Android – for some time now. While it’s usual for individuals to have their own smartphone, a tablet is more often a communal device, and there are times when you don’t necessarily want others in the household to access your data. That could be email or calendar entries, or bookmarks in the browser, or indeed apps or multimedia you’ve downloaded, that may not be suitable for younger children.

Google calls it Multi Screen, and it allows each user to have their own homescreen settings, wallpaper, widgets, apps, and games (including high score achievements and save points). When you download new apps, they’re limited to your account by default; however, if another user wants the same software, Jelly Bean 4.2 is sufficiently clever to know not to download it again, but instead just copy over a fresh version from the other user account. It should alleviate a huge pain-point for families with a shared tablet.

As for the new lock screen functionality, that will show various widgets for email, calendar entries, and information from other apps without having to unlock the Nexus 10. Just as they can with homescreen widgets, third-party developers will be able to create lock screen widgets for their apps.

Android 4.2′s other changes include a new version of Google Now with a greater number of “cards” – now including nearby events and concerts, imminent hotel and flight reservations, places known for being photography hot-spots, and what movies are opening in nearby theaters – which v4.1 users can already try by updating the Google Search app on their device.

It also updates voice search, which can now be used to create appointments as well as search for upcoming meetings, together with launching apps, all by spoken command. As we’ve found before, voice control can be hit or miss, and you need to make sure you’re speaking clearly with minimal background noise if you want to be understood first time.

Those not wanting to talk to their tablet can use the new Gesture Type keyboard, which borrows swipe-style text entry from apps like Swype and pairs it with new auto-prediction of words. Google has moved the prediction box from above the keyboard, where you need to glance up from the keys to see it, to hovering just above your fingertip, too. Even with fast swiping between letters, that box – and the prediction – kept pace without lagging behind or stumbling.

If the Nexus 10′s excellent display isn’t quite large enough for you, and you haven’t an HDMI cable to hand, Android 4.2 now supports wireless displays. At the touch of a button you can push the content over to a nearby, compatible monitor or TV, and be watching a video or browsing the web on the big screen. It also works well for gaming, with the Nexus 10′s accelerometer used for navigating around race tracks, for instance.

Google’s Play store offers movies and TV shows, streamed from the cloud rather than occupying your limited onboard storage, though it does mean you need an internet connection in order to watch them. It also works well with Google+ Hangouts, which makes for a useful impromptu video conferencing setup.

Otherwise it’s a general polish to what, by Jelly Bean’s first iteration, was already a solid platform. The Gmail app – hands-down the best mobile experience of Google’s email service – finally adds zoom support and introduces new gestures for triaging messages, while the notifications system has been made more useful in how alerts can be handled. An alarm, for instance, can be snoozed directly from the notifications drop-down, for instance, or a new email to attendees at a meeting opened straight from the reminder.

Performance

With a dual core 1.7GHz processor under the hood, we had high expectations for performance from the Nexus 10. In practice, day to day use and raw benchmarks told a slightly different story, with the tablet doing better at the former than it did the latter.

In terms of benchmarks, the Nexus 10 scored 9,123 in AnTuTu, falling short of the Galaxy Note II and HTC One X+; it also fell behind those smartphones in Quadrant, scoring 4,704. Smartbench 2012 gives two sets of results, for productivity and gaming, with the Nexus 10 scoring 3,423 and 2,741 respectively. That was better in gaming than other recent Android tablets, but was still bested by Android phones.

In CF-Bench, the Nexus 10 managed a total score of 10,814 (17,377 native; 6,439 Java), while finally we looked at browser JavaScript performance, with SunSpider coming back with 1,419.9ms (faster is better). It’s worth noting that the 4th-gen iPad with Retina display scored 879.2ms in SunSpider.

While the raw numbers weren’t necessarily the most impressive we’ve seen, in general use the Nexus 10 held up to all we threw at it. Full HD video played back without lag, and webpages rendered swiftly; the gaming we tried suffered no stuttering, either.

Camera

Android 4.2 also introduces new camera features, most notably Photo Sphere. This, like Photosynth on Windows Phone, allows you to create 360-degree images by panning the Nexus 10 around the scene. Clever software stitches them together, and they can then be shared as flat stills or even added to Google Maps. With the latter, the same Street View panning can be used to look around the picture, as if you’re stood in the middle of it.

Photo Sphere works, though not every time. Some images come out particularly well – landscapes and other expansive scenes seem particularly well suited, just as is the case with traditional panorama modes – but interior shots seem to introduce more problems with stitching the sections together. It’s a gimmick, really, but when it works it’s an impressive one.

Unfortunately, neither of the Nexus 10′s cameras are particularly worth shouting about. The ergonomics of taking photos with full-sized tablets has always been questionable, but the shots that the new Samsung tablet produces aren’t in the same league as what, say, its recent smartphones can achieve. The front-facer is sufficient for video calls, but the 5-megapixel main camera produces stills that are only average. Still, the new camera app UI – which puts quick settings for things like the flash just a quick swipe away – is clean and a usable improvement over what Android offered before.

Battery

9,000 mAh is a big battery, but it has a powerful processor and lots of pixels to satisfy. Google’s prediction of up to 7hrs web browsing or up to 9hrs HD video playback actually turned out to be over-cautious, however, when faced with more typical mixed use. Browsing, streaming Full HD movies from Google Play, reading digital magazines, and doing some emailing and photography, and the Nexus 10 managed 11hrs, which is particularly impressive.

Pricing and Value

Google demonstrated how ambitious it could be with hardware pricing with the Nexus 7, bringing the 7-inch tablet in at under the $199 price point and making other Android slates look over-priced at the same time. The obvious rival to the Nexus 10, however, is Apple’s full-sized iPad, and Google undercuts it by $100. $399 gets you the 16GB version, while $499 hooks the 32GB model.

The hardware, then, is more competitively priced, but there’s more to value than upfront cost. Google has renewed its call for Android tablet apps, but the range of titles available still pales in comparison to what Apple’s App Store offers for the iPad. That’s been our criticism of Android slates since they first arrived in early 2011, and it’s a sticky situation Google has yet to conclusively address. Many apps are simply oversized versions of their phone equivalent, and while that might be just about acceptable on the Nexus 7′s smaller display, it squanders the capabilities of the Samsung tablet’s pixel-rich panel.

Wrap-up

There’s no denying that Samsung and Google have put together an impressively specified tablet in the Nexus 10. The incredibly high-resolution display is wrapped up with a very capable processor, and while the Nexus 7 feels like it makes some compromises in order to hit its price point, there’s less of a sense that the 10-inch version was built to a budget.

That, and Jelly Bean 4.2′s software improvements, only serve to highlight the lingering drawback to Android tablets: the shortage of good applications. Android phone users have a significant number of titles to choose from, but too many expect tablet users to make do with magnified versions of the same on their bigger screens. When you’re talking about a panel as pixel-dense as the Nexus 10, that’s a travesty.

Of course, developers will only begin coding for slates when there’s a sufficient market for their apps. Google can’t make every app that Android tablet owners might ever want to use: it needs to motivate third-party developers to wade in. Compelling hardware such as the Nexus 10, undercutting well-known alternatives in price, is the best way of doing that. For browsing and multimedia playback, the Samsung tablet is ideal, but early-adopters will have to wait for it to work its magic on developers before the Play store begins to catch up with apps worthy of the Nexus 10′s abilities.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer told us that 4 million Windows users have upgraded to Windows 8 since it launched last week, and today the company release the Windows Phone 8 SDK for eager developers. Twitter outed its Windows 8 app a few months ahead of launch, while Microsoft confirmed that apps like PayPal and Dropbox will be hitting the new operating system shortly. Microsoft also responded to complaints about Office 2013 on Surface, so if you’ve got one of the company’s new slates, you might want to hold off on using Office until these problems are fixed.

The fourth generation iPad has been benchmarked, showing a 1.4GHz A6X processor and 1GB of RAM, and one analyst was spotted predicting massive sales for the iPad line up. Apple delayed the roll out of its new iTunes overhaul today, while Google said it will be pushing developers to make extraordinary app experiences for Android tablets. Hurricane Sandy knocked out a number of big sites like Gawker and The Huffington Post over the weekend, and Modern Warfare 4 was outed by one excited voice actor.

Shortly after announcing that Disney had purchased LucasFilm, George Lucas talked about the deal and the future of Star Wars in a new interview, and today the Pentagon clarified that it will still be using BlackBerry phones in addition to iPhone and Android handsets. Grand Theft Auto V has been confirmed for a Spring 2013 release, and we received quarterly reports from both MetroPCS and ASUS today, the latter of which did particularly well in its third quarter.

Before we go, we want to remind you that our reviews for the iPad Mini and the fourth generation iPad went live not too long ago, so check those out if you’re interesting in buying one! That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, enjoy the rest of your night folks!

It’s the display that obviously catches your attention. Samsung calls its panel True RGB Real Stripe PLS but the only takeaway you need is that it’s incredibly bright, has vast viewing angles – you can basically look at it askance and still see everything, without any color inversion or distortion – and graphics appear painted onto the Gorilla Glass 2.

We’re not sure if it’s wariness around Apple’s design patents, or a specific design direction for Google and Samsung, but the curvy Nexus 10 has echoes of the first, albeit not-officially-Nexus Android tablet, Motorola’s XOOM. The soft-touch plastics are creak-free but lack the premium feel of metal, though they do make for a grippy slate and a lightweight one, with the Nexus 10 tipping the scales at 603g. It’s also slim, at 8.9mm thick.

The dualcore ARM Cortex A15 chipset isn’t the only magic going on inside: there’s also WiFi a/b/g/n (with MIMO), Bluetooth 4.0, twin NFC, a 9,000 mAh battery to keep up with all those pixels, and twin cameras: 5-megapixels on the back, working with the new Photo Sphere feature of Android 4.2, and 1.9-megapixels up front for video calls. We’ll be particularly interested to see how Google’s battery life predictions hold up in regular use, with the company promising 9-10hrs of runtime on a single charge, despite the power-hungry specifications.

Android 4.2 also debuts one much-requested tablet feature, the ability to set up multiple profiles for different users. With so many tablets – particularly those that live on the coffee table and seldom leave the house – being shared by all family members, it’s a welcome addition. We’ll see how it shapes up in practice for our full review.

Kicking off at $399 there’s certainly plenty to the Nexus 10 on paper, and our first impressions are similarly positive. We’ll be putting it through its paces to see if it can truly deliver; until then, enjoy our hands-on gallery and demo video!

Google’s first full-sized Nexus tablet

Some might argue that it was the Motorola XOOM tablet that Google first gave their highest attention to as it was indeed presenting a very vanilla look at Android 3.0 Honeycomb (made for tablets specifically). This means that Motorola provided the hardware, sure, but it was Google that took care of the entirety of the software, with no additions from Motorola as would otherwise be standard. But because the name of the device was no Nexus, it never was truly a Nexus family device – not by today’s Nexus standards and expectations, anyway.

Here with the Nexus 10, Google and Samsung are coming in full force. Unlike the Motorola XOOM, this device is branded with Google first and foremost. Samsung certainly put their work on in the hardware, but this is Google’s show. This is the closest Google has gotten to having the same control over a full-sized tablet the way Apple does with the iPad.

Legal considerations

Samsung clearly had practice with the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 and the Galaxy Note 10.1 given the form-factor here. It’d be silly to assume that Google didn’t take into account both that Samsung built the Galaxy Tab 10.1N to avoid Apple wrath (the 10.1N being the precursor to the 2) and that this move effectively worked. With a tried and true – and legal – design on the books, Google must have seen this as an opportunity to work Samsung’s ever-evolving design sensibilities into their own Nexus family.

AirPlay vs Wireless Display Mirroring with Miracast

One of the most interesting additions the Nexus 10 adds with Android 4.2 is wireless display mirroring with Miracast technology. This update will eventually be on all new Android devices as it comes standard with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean+. Have a peek at our SlashGear 101: How does Android 4.2 Jelly Bean wireless display mirroring work? guide to see what it all means. Basically it uses a wireless standard technology that’ll be working on many, many devices in the near future.

With the iPad you’ve got AirPlay support which is quite similar to what Miracast offers, and like Miracast, it’s limited to devices that are compatible with it specifically. At the moment there appears to be more adoption of AirPlay out there in the 3rd party device world than there does Miracast, but given the adoption and promises we’ve heard around Miracast over the past few months, we’re expecting it to take hold very, very fast.

Display

With this Nexus 10 device from Samsung, Google brings a warrior to the battle and hits Apple right where it hurts – directly in the display. Of course it’s going to be all up to the end user deciding which unit has a “better” display, but the facts are these:

10.055 inches at 2560 × 1600 pixel resolution for 300 ppi PLS
9.7 inches at 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution for 264 ppi IPS LED

Apple brands their display as “Retina-quality” while Google says they’ve got the “highest resolution on the planet.” Apple’s “Retina” qualification was created by Apple, of course, while Google’s claim goes this far: if you’re considering every display on the planet, there certainly are a handful of units (smartphones, each of them) that have a higher number of pixels per inch : but when you consider the fact that this tablet has more pixels overall at 300 PPI, it does indeed have the most. If you had several HTC J Butterfly smartphones merged into 10.055 inches of screen space, Google would be beaten – HTC’s smartphone monster has 440 PPI and indeed the sharpest panel.

PLS stands for Plane-to-Line Switching, and was created by Samsung to be the next generation after IPS. It’s also known as “Super PLS” and is supposed to cost less to produce while providing better image quality, viewing angles, and brightness than previous generations – of course we’ll just have to see about that when the device hits our review bench.

Size, System, Cameras

The iPad 4th gen is 7.3 x 9.5 x 0.37 inches and comes in at 1.44 or 1.46 pounds depending on if you’re working with 4G LTE or not. You’ve got the new Apple 9-pin dock Lightning connector on the iPad while you’re using iOS 6 and a battery that Apple says will last you 10 hours for video playback. The cameras you get on the iPad 4th gen are a 5 megapixel rear-facing shooter capable of 1080p video and a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat.

The Google Nexus 10 by Samsung comes in at 1.33 pounds (wi-fi only) and is 10.39 x 6.99 x 0.35 inches across the top, side, and thick. The Nexus 10 connect with standard microUSB and has a microHDMI port as well, works with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and Google says it’ll have 9 hours of video playback. The back-facing camera on the Nexus 10 is 5 megapixels strong with 1080p video capabilities while the front-facing camera is a 1.9 megapixel machine made for video chat as well. Both devices have Bluetooth 4.0 and wi-fi capabilities, while the iPad currently has versions on the market with 4G LTE capabilities as well.

Apple has boosted the processing capabilities of the iPad 4th gen over its predecessor with a new chipset by the name of A6X. This chip only exists in Apple products and has been detailed as Apple’s top of the line model surpassing even the iPhone 5′s chip. The Google Nexus 10 comes with the Samsung Exynos 5250 with dual-core A15 Eagle CPU and Quad-core ARM Mali-T604 GPU – that’s the same as the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook we reviewed – rather powerful indeed; though again, we’ll see once we bring on the full review

Both Apple and Google currently have smaller devices like these on the market as well, Google’s being the Nexus 7 (made by ASUS) and Apple’s being the iPad mini. Have a peek at them as well if these 10-inch tablets are too rich for you blood.

Cost

The iPad comes in many different variations, and now that the iPad 4th generation is out, there are also iPad 3rd gen units floating around out there in the wild without Apple to sell them directly. Thusly the following list must suffice:

$499 for 16GB
$599 for 32GB
$699 for 64GB

The iPad 2 is also in your local Apple store and its prices essentially match that of the Google Nexus 10. The specifications, on the other hand, are far less grand than either the Nexus 10 or the iPad 4th or even 3rd generation devices. The Google Nexus 10 is about to be for sale (or already is, depending on when you’re reading this), for the following prices.

$399 for 16GB
$499 for 32GB

Each of these units are wi-fi only, while it’s expected that mobile data connected iterations will be out in the future. Google just released the Nexus 7 with wireless data, so it’s likely that the Nexus 10 won’t be far behind. The iPad 4th gen has 4G LTE connectivity units out right now that are the same prices as listed above +$130 USD regardless of internal storage size.

Wrap-up

We’re not going to choose for you, of course – it’s up to you: but given the prices, the displays, the wireless technology, and of course the operating systems, it’ll have more to do with your preference than anything else. With these manufacturers creating the devices, it’s certainly not a question of hardware build quality – and with the software on both devices being evolved to the point they’re both at, it’s also not about which system is more mature. Stick around for our full review of the Google Nexus 10 in the near future and check out our full review of the iPad 3rd Gen right this minute – and of course we’ll have the 4th gen on the way as well.

With Miracast being an “industry standard”, you can expect many brands to pick it up soon if they don’t already have it integrated now. Miracast is a technology that’s built in to devices – it’s not a device in and of itself. Miracast certification has begun for devices of many kinds, so you can expect not just displays to have it integrated, but receivers that will plug in through your HDMI port instead – this working for legacy displays.

Manufacturer Adoption

One of the companies that has adopted Miracast as their wireless standard is NVIDIA – another is Texas Instruments. Have a peek at this hands-on video from Texas Instruments showing off Miracast working earlier this year.

Devices out Now

With devices like the Netgear Push2TV PTV3000 you’ll be able to plug directly into whatever giant monitor you’ve got right now just so long as it’s got an HDMI port – it connects to wi-fi on its own. A lovely Broadcom 5G Wi-fi chip was introduced all the way back in July of 2012 that set up for the wireless display future – that future being now, of course. The Nexus 10 (by Samsung) and the Nexus 4 (by LG) will both be released with Android 4.2 which will have Miracast capabilities built-in.

The Future

The future can actually be yours right this second if you have a way of getting ahold of a device with Android 4.2 on it – if it’s an official working build, of course – as well as a Miracast-capable display. They do exist on the market today and they’re in stores right this second. In the very near future – and throughout 2013 and forward, we must expect, Miracast will be adopted by many, many television sets as well as displays of all kinds. More wireless dongles will be created, and Android devices from all manner of manufacturers will be able to make use of this technology.

LG has dedicated themselves to Miracast for the future – that’s one brand guaranteed to have the technology in essentially all their sets throughout 2013. With the folks at the Wi-Fi Alliance backing this certification for the whole industry, we’ll see many more groups jump onboard soon. Doubly so now that Android is bringing support from the other end of the living room. Exciting times are ahead – no more getting up from the couch to plug your smartphone in to the HDMI cord for you!

Photo Sphere / Keyboard Gestures

Photo Sphere will allow you to snap photos in every direction, making no less than an amazing Street View sort of situation that you can share with your friends around the world – traveling in space! This update also brings on Gesture Typing – a feature that’s been around with 3rd party apps for some time now, perfected to a new degree by Google itself.

This update also brings on additional dictionary items in your speech-to-text archive and is improved in its anticipatory abilities with keyboard suggestions as well. Photo Sphere may well be used in the future to help Google create one gigantic Street View map of the world – we’ll have to wait and see. Would you participate in something as wild as that?

User Logins

Next and perhaps most important is user logins – this feature is only available on tablets at the moment, but may be expanded to smartphones in the future. With this feature you’re able to have the basics, first: those being your own backgrounds, homescreens, and widgets. You’ll also have your own apps, games, and individual high scores, too! This feature does not require you to shut the device off – only that you go back to your lockscreen: simple!

Wireless Display

Android 4.2 adds wireless display to your device – no longer will you have to rely on your smartphone’s manufacturer to add this as a value-added feature: you’ll have it on every Android device running Android 4.2 or higher. You’ll need a wireless display adapter to your HDMI-enabled TV, but once you do – instant mirroring! This feature also works with another tiny item calls Daydream – this effectively being a screen saver that shows photo albums, news from Google Currents, or weather.

Notifications

Your notifications have been expanded to a degree, now allowing you to take action on each of them with a simple tap. If you’re late for a meeting, this alert will be able to connect you to your contact with a simple call button. You can email everyone in the meeting too – this being just one example of the many different situations you’ll be able to take action on.

Google Now

Google Now has been boosted with several different items and updates, starting with weather. The weather readout wont just tell you what the weather is right in the moment, but as a forecast for your day as well. If you’re at a train platform, it’ll see which train you’re likely taking and will tell you when it’ll be arriving. This update also adds popular photo spots nearby, is able to track your packages, and brings you information on movies, too!

Stick around in our giant Android portal for more in-depth details as they arise with this software update and the devices that carry it. Android 4.2 Jelly Bean will be unleashed on the Nexus 4 as well as the Nexus 10 and will likely be making its way to the rest of the Nexus family soon. As for carrier devices – we just do not know – wait and see!

This device is what Google calls the “first truly sharable tablet” as its using Android 4.2 which works with multiple users that can be switched from the lockscreen. Each user has his or her own email, apps, bookmarks, and settings. Your own home screens, music, and gaming scores, too! This unit will be appearing on the 13th of November for a set of different prices depending on the internal storage in the USA, UK, Australia, France Germany, Spain, Canada and Japan.

Also note that the Nexus 10 has a PLS display – that meaning plane-to-line switching. It’s both absolutely bright and sharp as a tac. We’ll certainly be getting more hands-on time with this device as well as the Nexus 4 and its wireless charger soon. Google will have this device ready for the wi-fi seeking market first, then 4G LTE sooner than later – no word on exactly when quite yet!

Prices will be $399 for the 16GB version and $499 for the 32GB version, and inside with the newest version of Jelly Bean (that being essentially Jelly Bean+,) it would appear that Google has created another rather interesting value proposal, right alongside the Nexus 7 – also updated in price and specifications today – and the Nexus 4. Stay tuned for more via our Android portal! (Update: UK pricing is £319 for the 16GB model and £389 for the 32GB)

For those of you ready for a whole new tablet environment, have a peek at the Google Nexus 10 in a short hands-on video. This device will have a 10.1-inch display, the same processor we saw in the Series 3 Chromebook we love so well, and will be running Android 4.2. We’ve seen this device snapping photos on a beach as well as in several hands-on photos from all angles.

The LG Nexus 4 has been leaked several times and has appeared quite likely to be taking on many of the features of the LG Optimus G (see our review here). This device has been left at a bar as well as in a full user handbook and specifications layout. This device will have a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor under the hood and more than enough juice to last you a day or two – with Android 4.2 under the hood once again.

We’ve not actually heard one whole heck of a lot about Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean+), believe it or not, other than a few feature points. We’re expecting multiple users to be able to log in on an Android device, different user accounts depending on who is using the phone – separate file systems for each, and some enhanced usability features for the tablet environment. This release of both the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 10 is more than likely about to bring about wireless charging as a standard for the whole Android-toting world, too.

It will likely be less than a week before we see these items all come to fruition, but it’s hard to say how Google will run this show now that the initial event has had to be cancelled. Stick around SlashGear as we catch Microsoft’s second show in the meantime – Windows Phone 8 starts today!

When we say “brief,” we mean it too – the video is a mere 5 seconds long. It would appear that the person who leaked the video to BriefMobile is a master at the art of trolling, as five seconds isn’t enough time to do much of anything. Indeed, we only see a split-second shot of the lock screen in the video, followed by the user booting Chrome. Other than that, there’s nothing, so here’s hoping that you weren’t holding out for anything big.

Still, with this video we get some solid evidence of the Nexus 10′s existence, along with a glimpse at that snazzy 2560 x 1600 display. From a display standpoint, the Nexus 10 certainly looks like an excellent tablet, and rumors have been suggesting that it has some solid innards to go along with that beautiful screen. We’ve been hearing that the Nexus 10 will be sporting a dual-core Samsung Exynos 5250 processor clocked at 1.7GHz, 2GB of RAM, a five-megapixel rear camera, and 16GB of internal storage. The source of this leak also confirmed that the Nexus 10 will have GPS, so we’ve got that to look forward to as well.

BriefMobile’s leakster also said that the back of the Nexus 10 is made of polycarbonate material, and that the whole device is very slim and lightweight. It sounds like Google could have a hit on its hands with the Nexus 10, so now all we need is a reveal and we’ll be set. Even though that reveal won’t be coming on Monday as originally planned, you can bet that Google will want to host its event as soon as possible once Hurricane Sandy subsides. Keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more information!

[via Android Community]

The hurricane is predicted to reach New York City on Sunday or Monday, with the threat of flooding and wind damage. Travel is being curtailed by airlines and other routes, and NYC could evacuate almost 400,000 people as a precaution.

“We are canceling our Monday morning event in New York due to Hurricane Sandy” Google told us in a statement. “We will let you know our plans as soon as we know more. Stay safe and dry.”

For Google, it’s an inconvenient blip on the announcement calendar, which comes in the midst of a packed month of mobile news. Apple’s iPad mini event last week saw the Cupertino firm directly challenge the Nexus 7, while Microsoft will hold a Windows Phone 8 launch event on Monday on the West Coast, safely out of the reach of Sandy.

Rubbing salt into the wounds, many of Google’s surprises for Monday have already apparently been revealed ahead of time. The LG Nexus 4 has been spotted in the wild, seemingly left at a bar, and already listed at one retailer.

As for the Nexus 10, that’s also been caught in the wild, and Google exec Vic Gundotra even used the tablet to share photos from a recent holiday. Both are expected to run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, with the inclusion of a new Swype-style keyboard.

A new date for the event is yet to be announced; we’ll bring you more when we know it.

On the Apple side of things, iPad mini pre-orders went pretty quick today, but not as fast as Apple devices normally go, leaving us to wonder if Apple finally managed to get stock issues right or if the iPad mini just isn’t all that popular. We heard that iPad mini LTE models could arrive as early as November 21, and Apple was seen knocking PC manufacturers for being afraid to drop old technology.

Of course, it would have been a very strange news day if there weren’t any new Nexus leaks, but thankfully we had a couple big ones to report. One Google employee apparently used the camera on the back of the Nexus 10 to snap pictures on his vacation, while we got to see the tablet up close and personal in a series of new leaked photos. Speaking of Google, the company released a new video showing new Windows 8 users how to quickly install Google search and Chrome onto their machines, and we received a new Google Maps update that adds colored terrain, which is a pretty cool feature if you ask us.

There’s a particularly scary Borderlands 2 exploit making the rounds, while Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition players got a skins pack featuring a whopping 55 Halloween-themed skins for just two smackers. Nintendo introduced a new Charizard 3DS XL that’s sure to be super rare, and GameStop announced that it will be opening a number of retail stores aimed at young children. Paul Ceglia was arrested for fraud after it was determined that he forged documents saying he was entitled to a huge stake in Facebook, and Volvo was touting its traffic jam self-driving technology today. Netflix detailed its Windows 8 app today too, so have a look at the company’s new video if you want to get familiar of all of the new features.

We’re almost done with the Wrap-Up, but before we go, be sure to have a look at the original articles that went up today. Chris Davies tells us why he’s cancelled his Microsoft Surface pre-order, while Chris Burns asks if Apple will adopt wireless charging technology if Google introduces it in its Nexus line. Burns also got the chance to interview famed artist Futura at a recent Samsung event, so don’t miss that one! That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you have an excellent weekend!

It’s not as if wireless charging of smartphone batteries is a new concept – they’ve even had cases for some time now that fit around the iPhone and allow you to charge the unit with a special pad. But with the introduction of high-level wireless charging – that is, doing it with a hero phone – Nokia may have broken the floodgates. Just a few weeks ago it was that Nokia’s Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices were shown to be working with wireless charging pads right out of the box – or with a special back panel replacement.

Now this one image (at the head of this post) is making us believe that Google will be going the same route with the Nexus 4 – and perhaps the tablet Nexus they’re setting up to show as well. With this tablet, the Nexus 10, and the Nexus 4 ready for wireless charging action, will Apple be forced to act? It certainly wouldn’t be something they’d deliver soon, if anytime in the near future.

With not only the iPhone 5 but the iPad mini and 4th generation iPad just introduced in the span of the last few weeks, Apple is in a place where they’re not going to be bringing on any more mobile hardware for months and months. Apple is not in a place where they can be playing catch-up, nor are they going to be able to iPhone as a ubiquitous machine set aside from all other smartphones forever. It may eventually be that the iPhone becomes a works-with-all device, ready as much or more than Android’s massive collection of feature-packed device universe is to take on the whole accessory market.

An iPhone with the ability to work with a wireless charging pad? Not any time soon.

A fundamental shift in the way Apple positions itself with the iPhone? It’ll have to happen inside the next few years, or you may see a tipping point as major competitors – backed by Google – ramp up their own efforts to become that one “must have” brand.

This update to the operating system does not appear to be making a whole lot of aesthetic changes from what we’ve seen thus far, instead focusing on new functionality in the environment we’ve already seen in 4.1 Jelly Bean. As far as the innards of the device we’re seeing here, great things appear to be in the pipe. Starting with a 10.1-inch AMOLED display with 2,560 x 1,600 pixel resolution, we’re right in on the high definition universe finally here with the standard Google Nexus. That’s 298.9 PPI, by the way, more than the current hero iPad at 263.92 – we’ll see how they really compare soon.

The Nexus 7 will play second fiddle to this beast if indeed these specifications turn out to be true, what with none other than the 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos 5250 sitting inside to power it. This processor is a dual-core bit of architecture – but before you have a heart attack over it having less cores than the Galaxy Note II, note this: it’s Exynos 5, and likely going to be the same chip that appears in the Series 3 Chromebook we just reviewed from Samsung. If this is indeed true, this tablet will have real hardcore computing power without a doubt.

Also inside is 16GB of internal storage, NFC, Wi-fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 5 megapixel camera on the back. The front-facing camera is more than likely 1.5 megapixels strong or better and ready for some Google+ hangout action. The GPU inside this beast will likely be the Mali-T604, and you’ll have 2GB of RAM ready to rock.

It’s likely that we’ll be seeing this machine on the 29th at the Android event that’s also been teased to be opening “the playground” with more Android fun than you can shake a stick at. This means we’ll probably be seeing the Nexus 4 as well, and probably a bit more software than we’ve seen in leaks thus far.

Check the timeline below for some more expansion on the Nexus rumors that have appeared over the past few weeks and also hit up our Android portal for sweet Google mobile OS excellence. Also note that we will definitely be at the Android event on Monday with bells on – lots of action coming up!

In fact, according to previous leaks, we’re expecting something along the line of an 8-megapixel camera on the rear of the Nexus 10. It’s also certain to have a front-facing camera for video calls and vanity shots.

It’s not the first time early Google hardware has been previewed, unofficially, on the company’s social network. Images taken with the Google Glass wearable computer have also been spotted, ahead of Google employees officially releasing stills and video samples shot with the headset. Meanwhile, EXIF data has proved useful in flagging up unannounced devices on other online galleries, though since it’s relatively straightforward to fake, it’s generally taken with a pinch of salt.

Gundotra could well be pranking the tech world with faked image data, but given we’re expecting the Nexus 10 to be officially unveiled early next week, that seems less than likely. Meanwhile, what appears to be the Nexus 10′s quick start guide popped up online yesterday.

We’ll be with Google at the event to bring back all the details, believed to also include the new LG Nexus 4 smartphone.

[via Android Central]