The Nexus Brand and Its Nexus 4 and 7 Running on Android Jelly Bean

What Google is doing is producing a content machine that it wants to place right in the centre of everything people do. It will become the one-stop destination for leisure and productivity.

“The Nexus brand is there to represent the epitome of what the Android operating system can do," says Charles Golvin, the principal analyst of Forrester Research. "It's supposed to be a shining example. It's true to say a lot of consumers don't live and die by gesture control or panoramic cameras but it matters in that it continues to demonstrate innovation and leadership.

And it's a good thing too because this latest increment brings so much to the table. Google understands that tablets in particular are not used by just one person and so having the ability for different people to access their own accounts on one device will ensure that entire families will be able to make it a focal point of their life. Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (read more) also has a better notifications system and there is an ability to output video via Wi-Fi from a device to a high-definition TV. Throw in panoramic camera options and a much-improved Google Now and you can see where Android is heading.

The Nexus 4 will appeal to small segments who want the latest and greatest and it helps that it is very aggressively priced which could make more of a difference than previous models. The Nexus 10 will have more impact. It's a much better demonstration of the Android tablet experience than Nexus 7 and it comes at the right time when there is competition from Microsoft's Surface. "There will always be some scepticism, however. Some developers worry about the constant refreshing of software and hardware going on at the moment. "What is important is that the market settles down and stops 90 per cent of all development work being a total waste of time,"says games developer Jon Hare.

"Non-centralised technological change is nearly always bad for development companies as it generates even more work to put your title to market with absolutely no guarantee of success or long-termstability to offset the extra risk."

And yet without this sort of work, there would never be progress. After all, we're seeing the ability for UK users to buy films from Google Play and the introduction in Europe of the brilliant Music service that allows users to upload up to 20,000 songs to the cloud for free. These can then be accessed on any Android device or web browser.

"Content is an important part of what the Nexus phones and tablets are all about," says Christopher Kassulke, CEO of HandyGames. "We are more than happy about the new part of the Nexus family. The price of the devices are outstanding and I personally believe we will see a huge audience of new users thanks to Google. They offer great quality products. Supporting Android is the key for the global mass market."

Hints and tips for Android smartphones

Chrome to Phone

The Chrome to Phone app, available in Android Play Store, lets you send phone numbers, maps, links and much more wirelessly to your Android with a tap. It's free and well worth experimenting with.

Thicker Buttons, Quicker Typing

The ThickButtons Keyboard app cleverly increases the size of buttons as you type a word and decreases the size of those you are less likely to use. It takes some getting used to, but for those who struggle, it could be the perfect solution.

The same bookmarks everywhere

My Bookmarks from Android Google Play, lets you quickly and easily import all of your bookmarks from Safari, Firefox, IE and Chrome to your Android phone with a couple of taps. You will be much more efficient as a result.

Question received on one of my social networking accounts: How do I search my calendar?

I have a Samsung Galaxy Mini GT -S5570. It does most of what I need as a phone and also replaces my ageing Psion 3A, except the calendar does not seem to have a keyword search feature. It has a go-to for actual dates, if you know it! Am I missing the feature on the Mini?

It is a bizarre omission from Google that on older versions of Android, searching the calendar was not possible. There are some ways around this, but most involve some form of tinkering and unless the Mini receives an update, native searching is unlikely to come your way any time soon. We would suggest that you instead look for an alternative by way of an app and Quick Calendar is an example among many that will provide this facility for you. It isn't particularly well presented, but it is free and very efficient. Simply tap the menu button and then ~search' to find the entries you need. There are other options as well which should give you the solution you are looking for.

Question received on one of my social networking accounts: Online or offline, Spotrfy?

I have a premium account with Spotify, which works well on my other devices. However, I recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy S3 Wi-Fi for playing music as my HTC Sensation only lasts a day. Spotify shows as being constantly offline or flips between online and offline mode very quickly, so I cannot even play music when in range of my network, let alone download for offline playing. Could this be because of Gingerbread compatibility?

This is not an unusual problem as you stated in your full email and it seems as though many people are experiencing this issue with an offline state when they have full network coverage. There are some things you could try, however, before you push Spotify for a reasonable explanation or a fix for the problem. Firstly, make sure you have the latest version of Spotify installed - the latest update claims to fix many problems and so we would advise deleting your current app and doing a clean install with the latest version. Also ensure that your operating system is bang up to date by going to Settings and selecting the relevant option. Once you have done this, it could be worth trying a new SIM card from a different provider. It sounds as though you have adequate coverage, but it will not hurt to try every possibility. It sadly also seems as though Spotify needs to resolve this problem because it is affecting too many people to be a simple device problem.

Partial source of information: wikipedia.org

Android Smartphone: Where did my location go?

Problem: I am having an issue with my HTC handset. Every time I use Maps, my GPS signal doesn,t work and always shows as “Your current location is temporarily unavailable. I have tried resetting it, updating firmware, and almost every piece of advice I found I’ve tried, but the problem is still there. It worked once during the first time when I purchased the phone, and then it has failed to work ever since.

So, how to solve this location problem in an Android smartphone:

This is a tricky one, but the solution may be easier than you think. First up, if you have a setup option please run through it again and ensure that you have chosen the right options for location services.

Remember that having Wi-Fi enabled on your smartphone can greatly enhance the power offered to the GPS antenna and this has been proven to work on. a multitude of different smartphones, not just those from HTC. Also, make sure that you have a good data signal present because this is required for most location services and will also help enormously.

If you have all of this running and are still having problems, look for an app in Google Play called GPS Test which will offer you much more detailed information about your current GPS signal. It goes deep into the minor details and will even show the power of each satellite you are connected to.

If none of the above works, you need to look at your location and rule out the fact that it may be a blind spot for GPS, even temporarily. Try another phone to see how that performs and check its settings. If that works, you may need to speak to HTC to get a replacement device because it could simply be a hardware issue.

Quiz Genius: Android Apps in Play Store

In days gone by trivia buffs might have headed straight for the Encyclopedia Britanica to get up on their facts, and there is indeed an app for that on Android. However, as a concise version it's a little lacking in the kind of depth we were after so we went for the next best thing instead: Wikipedia. The app works in the exact same way as its desktop predecessor, meaning you can waste days of your life clicking through link after informative link.

Of course, you have to take Wikipedia with a pinch of salt at times, but its coverage is second to none. There are many variants of the Wikipedia app.Although the content is the same, the style and layout of other apps may be more preferable to you.

In any quiz you will come across the odd question that asks to pull through a bit of completely useless information you've stored. To give ourselves a chance of recounting some of this information we downloaded Unnecessary Knowledge. As well as teaching us that Rhinotillexomania is the medical term for picking your nose, we also learnt plenty of other bits of information, partly thanks to the simple layout of the app.

A lot of the apps within the knowledge section of the Play store are stuffed full of facts and details for you to learn. Don't overdo how much you try and cram in on one session as you don't want to confuse similar facts.

Pay close attention to the difference between some of the more factually accurate knowledge apps on the Play store, and those that are a more slapstick addition to the busy category.

We stumbled across a selection of quiz apps on the Google Play Store that were perfect preparation for a pub quiz. Due to the amount of apps available, we decided to pinpoint our weakest subjects and focus on quizzes solely covering these. To stat with we downloaded the National Flags Quiz, to help us try and learn a little more about geography in general - turns out there are loads of countries we haven't even heard of, let alone know what their flags look like. The app is split into two modes, and all you need to do is try and answer as many questions as possible. The other area we targeted was films, so we decided to download Movie Quiz. This app includes a bunch of screens of movies, and you simply need to figure out the film they're from. It's a lot harder than it sounds! Logo Quiz is a fun way of testing just how well corporate branding is ingrained in your mind, and there are hundreds of other quiz apps on subjects ranging from TV shows to wars.

Be careful that you don't download one of the many American-styled quizzes,as questions regarding spelling and such will be different than other UK-based quizzes.

With so many apps available the biggest problem was with information overload. Apps such as Memory Trainer claim to be able to improve your memory, but that's a long term commitment. If you're competing against teams on a quiz night you have to forget trying to remember everything and take the scoundrel's way out. The song-identifier Shazam is the perfect app for music questions, with its ability o identify almost any song. To help us with our woeful  geography skills, we also downloaded and sneakily peeked at the National Geographic World Map when an associated question came along. Finally we used IMDb to help find any information we needed regarding a certain TV or film question. But if you're against the clock it becomes a bigger challenge than the questions themselves! Unless you really like the Shazam app, then don't bother downloading the full version. The free version includes most of the same features, and is more than useful in a pub quiz situation.

Source: Wikipedia.Org