GOOGLE NEXUS 7 REWIEW

GOOGLE NEXUS 7

PHYSICAL FEATURES AND NETWORKING

The new Nexus 7 is slimmer, lighter, and more comfortable to hold than the original, which was already more comfortable to hold than Apple's oddly wide iPad mini. This model is 4.5 by 7.9 by 0.34 inches (HWD) and 10.2 ounces, with tampered sides and a soft-touch back that somehow feels classier than the original Nexus 7's faux leather.
There are very few ports here just micro USB, headphone, and microphone and marginally narrower side bezels framing the sharp 1,920-by-1,200-pixel IPS LCD panel, which is a big advance from the original's 1,280-by-800 screen. At 323ppi, it's almost exactly the same density as the Apple iPhone 5's Retina display and higher than any iPad's. It's bright enough for most circumstances, colors are very true, and viewing angles are good. But the screen is small enough to not totally kill battery life. We got 7 hours 37 minutes of video playback on maximum brightness. That's shorter than the 10 hours commanded by last year's Nexus 7, which sported a less-dense screen, but it's still quite a respectable.
The Nexus 7 comes in three models. The first two are Wi-Fi only, with support for 802.11a/b/g/n on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands(the latter another upgrade from last year). The third unit works on Verizon's LTE network and AT& T's and T-Mobile's LTE and 3G networks.
All of the models have GPS, which makes this tablet a killer in-car navigation system. The GPS on my test model locked in very quickly. The tablet also has Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC, although surprisingly there's no support for Google Wallet.

PERFORMANCE, OS, AND APPS

The Nexus 7 is the first Android tablet, running a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm S4 Pro APQ8064 processor. Think of this tablet as about two-thirds of the way up the current performance ladder, with the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone at the top. It almost doubled the performance of last year's Nvidia Tegra3 - based Nexus 7 on pure processor and graphic banchmarks and positively crushed the iPad mini on the Geekbench system benchmark: The mini scored only 748; this guy 2,643. Using the chrome browser, the Nexus 7 beat the iPad mini on the SunSpider browser benchmark by about 30 percent.
Real-world performance isn't solely dependent on processor speed: How many pixels you'are pushing, the OS, and third-party apps are also important. That's where the Nexus 7 ran into a bit of trouble. Some of test apps either didn't show up in the market or got buggy.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted, for instance, displayed weird graphics artifacts. Netflix's UI was sluggish, although videos played just fine. 
Asphalt 7: Heat, one of my standard test games, didn't even show up on a search. Sometimes when searching Google's own Play store, animations would get jittery or the text box would loose focus.



The popular video player MX player quit on launch. I suspect a lot of these problems are Android 4.3 issues that will get solved quickly as the app creators update their work.

MULTIMEDIA: VIEWING AND CAPTURING 

With no memory card slot, I suggest buying the 32GB Nexus 7 (with 26GB available) over the $229 16GB unit. The new Nexus 7 adds a 5 megapixel rear camera to the tablet, keeping the 1 megapixel front camera as well.
The new Android 4.3 camera app's UI is extremely simple, although you still get some options like capture size,a countdown timer, a few scene modes, panarama, and Photo Sphere. Photos taken with the main camera were clear enough in good light, although bright areas were washed out and there was some visible color noise. In low light, the noise really ramped up. Front camera images tended to be very soft, even smeary(but not blurry)in low light. The main camera captured 1080p video at 30 frames per second (fps) indoors and out; the front camera captured 720p at 30 fps. There's no image stabilization, but there is a time-lapse mode.
The front camera is fine for video chatting, and the main camera will suffice for augmented-reality apps, bar code scanners, language translators, and all the things you really should be using a tablet camera for (not snapshots). 

Asus amped up the stereo speakers here, and they're now quite loud, although they're still tinny. Fraunhofer surround sound gives some real stereo separation material coded for it, such as Google Play movies. Still, the only way you're going to get bass in with headphones.
The Nexus 7 had no problem playing MPEG-4 and H.264 videos in resolution up to 10809, as well as streaming Netflix and Google Play movies.There's no DivX or Xvid support by default.
The Nexus 7 doesn't have any wired way to output video to a TV, but it works with Google's Chromecast to play some streaming(not local)  media on TVs. 

Small tablets are most often used for some media, some gaming, some Web browsing, and some ebook reading. Provided third-party developers update their apps for Android 4.3 and I think they will, soon - the new Nexus is best because of its sharp screen, comfortable ergonomics, and solid performance at an ideal price.

MOUSE CUM SCANNER

THIS double-duty device can both navigate your computer and scan by mousing over your documents, recipes, and receipts. The software automatically pieces together the image on your screen in high resolution (320dpi) and lets you adjust contrast, re-size, zoom, and crop. Its optical character recognition(OCR) technology converts scanned text for editing in Microsoft Word and other word processing programs.

PRICE 
$59.99

NEW COMPACT CHARGER FOR APPLE PRODUCTS

Forget the clumsy cable unraveling  out of your bag. Kii is a compact charger that slips onto your keychain so you can charge or sync your device from any computer. One end of the Kii is a USB port; the other end connects to your iOS device. The Kii is available in both Lightning and 30-pin versions to work with whatever Apple devices you may own.

PRICE
$39.95 for Lightning connector , $19.95 for 30-pin connector

NVIDIA 64-BIT TEGRA 6 MIGHT POWER FIRST 64-BIT ANDROID DEVICES IN 2014

Apple was accused of employing a marketing gimmick recently when it announced a new 64-bit processing core for the A7 ARM chip, which powers the new iphone 5S. The benefits of moving to 64-bit processing o mobile devices aren't yet clear, but that hasn't stopped other ARM chip makers from lining up to mention their own 64-bit plans. Nvidia announced several years ago that it had licenced ARMv8 technology to build its own 64-bit core, and the time draws near when that endeavor will come to fruition. Tegra could finally be ahead of the pack.

All of Nvidia's current and past ARM chips have used CPU designs licenced directly from ARM Holdings, which are then paired with Nvidia's custom ultra low-power GeForce GPU. Together these components make up the Tegra system-on-a-chip (SoC). Tegra 4 uses the fastest ARM-designed cores currently available - the Cortex-A15 - but even with these top-of-the-line cores Nvidia is at a disadvantage thanks to custom mobile CPUs.

                                         Snapdragon SoC
  
Apple and Qualcomm both design their own CPU cores based on ARM instruction set, which they pay a pretty penny to licence. Apple stepped it up to the ARMv8 set with the Cyclone CPU core in the A7, while Qualcomm is still focussing on ARMv7 with the Krait 400 core (but it is expected to announce an ARMv8 based core soon). It's a lot of work to design a CPU core rather than just licence one directly from ARM, but 64-bit is only the most recent example of how a custom core can help a company iterate and add new features. For example, Qualcomm's custom chips can dynamically change clock speed on each core based on system load. Nvidia had to jury rig an extra companion core in Tegra to handle low-power tasks.

It's believed that Nvidia started work on ARMv8 back in late 2010 or early 2011. If true, the company could possibly have a samples so called "Project Denver" 64-bit processing core ready in early 2014 as part of the Parker SoC. This is actually two generations past current ARM chips. Tegra 5 (code name Logan) is expected to hit devices in early 2014, position to move quickly toward this SoC and cut Tegra 5's run a bit short. Although, Parker was slated for a 2015 release the last time Nvidia spoke about it.

     No one can deny that Tegra 4 is a much more competitive chip than the Tegra 3 was last year, but Qualcomm's custom Krait cores design iteration have allowed it to nearly take over the Android device ecosystem. There are only a handful of devices announced with Tegra 4 chips, one of them is Nvidia's own Shield console. Meanwhile Snapdragon 600 and 800 power almost every high-end smartphone and tablet from 2013.
  
Over the last few years, Nvidia has no doubt poured many millions into Project Denver and Parker SoC. Qualcomm is surely working toward a64-bit chip down the road, but the company has been tight-lipped about future plans. The last thing Nvidia wants is for the market leader to beat it to ARMv8 with 64-bit. Whether or not 64-bit has real utility on mobile devices running 32-bit software, getting this right could set up Tegra for undeniable success, a distinction that has so far eluded it. 

NEW ALFA ROMEO 4C

Alfa Romeo has just taken the wraps off its latest entry into the world of supercars, the Alfa Romeo 4C Launch Edition. With a brand new all aluminium direct injection 240 HP petrol engine the 4C will be arriving in Europe to go head-to-head with the Porsche Cayman.

 Featuring bleeding edge technology the 4C uses an ultra-lightweight carbon fibre monocoque chassis weighting just 65kg whilst the low-density high-strength body panels are then painstakingly fitted on afterwards.

Thanks to incredibly lightweight design 4C features a 1750 240HP all-aluminium petrol engine which can rocket the car from 0-60 in just 4.5 seconds slower than the new Aston Martin Vanquish.

One of the most talked about features through is the DNA selector which currently features on Alfa's other road cars. Whilst cars like the MiTo Quadrifoglio Verde feature three options 'Dynamic', 'Natural' and 'All Weather' the 4C Launch Edition now has a fourth 'Race'.

 When set in 'Race' mode the instrument panel will change color showing only race-relevant information whilst both the stability control and anti-slip are deactivated.

Finally the 4C will feature Alfa's next-generation TCT twin dry clutch transmission using 'shift paddle's. Alfa already uses a similar system on the Giulietta and MiTo but where the 4C is different is it's 'Launch Control' function which optimises all the cars systems to provide the quickest acceleration possible.

Of course it wouldn't be next-generation if that's all it did, by sharing the same software with the DNA system the shift sequences are directly affected by which DNA mode you've selected.

The 4C Launch Edition is truly for the elite with only 400 being made in Europe and costing $71047.