Is Windows 8 an existential threat to Android tablets?

Nagging questions shadow the impending launch of Windows 8, threatening to scuttle Microsoft's plans to reinvent itself for the age of mobility. Will desktop users graciously accept the redesigned Modern interface? Will the Windows Store have enough apps to entice would-be Surface RT buyers? Can Windows 8 breathe life into sagging PC sales?

Microsoft's future success depends on its ability to make serious, quantifiable, no-nonsense headway in the mobile market, but it’s not the only company with a massive stake in the ultimate fate of Windows 8. The new operating system will also have a major impact on Google. Just look at the list of Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablet and hybrid partners—Samsung, Asus, Toshiba, and the rest. They all make Android tablets, too.

Apple’s position in the tablet market is so dominant that it need not fear encroachment by Windows 8 devices. But most of Google’s hardware partners—especially the ones that make the larger, so-called productivity devices—need to ask themselves a tough question: Will Windows 8 obliterate consumer interest in Android tablets?

Early opportunity squandered

At least one expert thinks that this question isn't hard to answer. Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps sees a bleak future for Android tablets.

The Kindle Fire HD, which emphasizes media consumption, is one of the few Android-based tablets that consumers want.

"No one's buying Android tablets other than Amazon or Barnes & Noble [models] anyway," she says. "If there’s a market for non-Apple tablets, it has been and will be Windows. It’s pretty clear that there just hasn't been any demand for Android tablets other than the niche earlier-adopter market, while Windows has mainstream consumer interest."

Despite being the only major tablet alternative for people who don't want to bite into Apple, Android has clearly had little impact on the tablet market. IDC's second-quarter tablet report shows that more than two-thirds of all tablet shipments originated in Cupertino, and even those numbers don't tell the full story. IDC (which is owned by PCWorld’s parent company IDG) and other top research firms track tablet shipments to retailers, not tablet sales to customers. So when you take into account that some variable proportion of shipped Android tablets languish unsold on retailers' shelves, Android's situation may be even bleaker than IDC's numbers suggest.

In the recent Apple vs. Samsung case, for example, court filings showed that Samsung had managed to sell only 712,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets in the United States since the slate's launch. Those are sad numbers, given that many observers considered the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to be the perfect iPad alternative for much of 2011.

Also troubling for Google's operating system is the fact that the Kindle Fire—Android's brightest tablet star and best tablet seller—is not the droid you're looking for. It runs a proprietary, heavily skinned interface that renders it more of a content delivery system for Amazon than a proper Android tablet.

Ominously, the Kindle Fire accounts for the majority of Google tablet sales. IDC claims that Amazon is the world's third-most-prolific tablet manufacturer, even though Amazon sells its slate only in the United States. And reports from ComScore, Pew Research, and Amazon itself indicate that the Kindle Fire outsells all other Android tablets combined.

In other words, Android owes most of its slim slice of market share on an Android tablet that doesn't look or feel at all like a pure Android tablet. Google's baby is sucking wind, folks.

Cue the Windows 8 tablets.

Windows 8 and its direct Android prey

Finding agreement among tech industry analysts is always a challenge. Nonetheless, all the analysts I consulted agree that Windows 8 tablets will devastate the handful of productivity-focused Android tablets on the market, such as the Asus Eee Pad Slider and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer series. Whereas security concerns have prompted risk-averse corporations to shy away from Android tablets, Microsoft's operating systems sport deep, business-friendly features—including the all-important Microsoft Office.

IMAGE: LOYD CASE

A Windows 8 productivity machine like the Asus Vivo Tab could threaten existing Asus products like the Eee Pad Slider and Transformer series.

"I think [productivity-focused Android tablets] are going to fade away," says Rob Enderle, the principal analyst of the Enderle Group, summing up the group consensus. "I think we'll see Windows convertibles and hybrids pick up that category. The keyboard really goes with Office."

The analysts I contacted also agree that Windows tablets will quickly gobble up Android's market share in the premium-priced tablet segment. Dropping $500 or more on a 10.1-inch Android tablet requires a lot more deliberation than spending $200 on a 7-inch Google Nexus 7. For this reason, analysts believe, consumers will flock toward the more seamless (and less glitchy) Windows experience when going for a big-screen (and non-iPad) tablet.

But will Android tablets vanish entirely? Most of the experts I spoke with don't think so. Excluding Forrester's Rotman Epps, most analysts expect Android tablets to be around for the long haul, albeit in a niche role that focuses on low prices and media playback.

A possible path for Android success

"I think there will be a market for 7- to 10-inch, very inexpensive Android tablets," says Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "Not from the major makers, but off-brand. Android tablets will be the budget option."

Google's Nexus 7 is squarely focused on consumption, not productivity.

"There’s a reason why Google came out with the Nexus 7," says Gartner's Carolina Milanesi. "It basically was a very loud message to the OEMs saying, 'Stop trying to be Apple, because you're not. And you're not going to be successful competing at that price point or that form factor. Go cheap. Go $199, so it becomes more of an impulse buy, and consumers will get them and watch videos, listen to music and play games.' All of which is very much media-centric and content-centric."

Enderle agrees, calling the Nexus 7 "the quintessential Android tablet, almost entirely focused on consumption, and that's probably where Android is going to continue to shine."

Rotman Epps doesn't buy this analysis, though: "Other than Amazon, [OEMs] just aren't selling any Android tablets. The iPad mini, if that comes out as we expect it to, will be the final nail in the coffin for Android tablets."

The other analysts think that if Android tablets do die off, it will be due to other causes entirely: lawsuits and Google's lackluster OEM support.

Manufacturers fear the reaper

Even if customers suddenly decide to support Android tablets, OEMs may not stay in Google's camp now that Microsoft has joined the fray. The analysts we contacted say Google's reputation for dealing with manufacturers is spotty at best; in contrast, OEMs generally enjoy working with Microsoft, occasional Surface tablet tensions aside.

IMAGE: LOYD CASE

After suffering considerable grief over its Android devices, will Samsung give preferential treatment to its Windows 8 tablets, like this ATIV SmartPC?

Hardware manufacturers jumped on the Android bandwagon primarily because it was the only way for them to join the tablet revolution. In that sense, Apple helped spawn Android tablets, but now Apple might be the hammer that drives manufacturers away from Android for good.

"What really triggered the trend [of manufacturers hedging their bets with Android devices by also developing Windows devices] isn't so much customer satisfaction issues as much as that $1 billion judgment against Samsung," Enderle says, pointing to the sudden ramp-up of Windows Phone development by HTC and Samsung as examples.

"A lot of the OEMs really sweat bullets about being next on that particular list. Apple's actually doing Microsoft one hell of a favor here. That $1 billion judgment made 'free' not so free,” Enderle notes, referring to the ostensible price that Google charges OEMs for Android.

Gartner's Milanesi agrees that the risk of litigation from Apple encourages OEMs to see the value in adopting a Microsoft OS that costs money up-front. When you're in the Microsoft fold, she says, you're protected against Apple lawsuits, and Redmond also chips in with marketing costs and support for the developer community.

Where do manufacturers stand?

What do the companies that have skin in the game think about Android tablets' prospects for long-term survival? On the record, they're decidedly less pessimistic than the analysts are, which should come as no surprise, as they have to be cautious when making comments that might reflect on their roadmaps. Nonetheless, the OEMs do acknowledge the altered role that is likely to define Android's future.

Jay Parker, Lenovo's head of consumer/SMB operations for North America, recently told AllThingsD that the company plans to offer Android tablets "for the foreseeable future," but that it will offer only Android slates built in the Kindle Fire mold: small, cheap, and designed for playing around.

"We see them as pure media-based devices, where people are going to be surfing the Internet, reading books, or watching a movie, and really not a heck of a lot else," Parker said.

Acer makes the W510 Windows 8 tablet, but says that it's definitely not abandoning Android.

When asked whether Acer plans to support both Android and Windows 8 tablets, Paul Tayar, Acer America's director of product marketing for connected devices, unequivocally says "yes."

"The more ecosystems that we can play with and have available, the better we, as OEMs, can come up with developing the right hardware for the right consumer,” Tayar says. “Having options available to us lets us bring fresh solutions, and fresh designs, and fresh technology to the table."

Tayar feels there's enough consumer interest to support “even more than three” distinct operating systems, largely because of the very different user experiences offered by Windows 8 and Android. Windows tablets are more focused on productivity and might be more suitable for stationary office settings, whereas Android tablets tie deeply into Google's cloud-connected vision, and might appeal to people interested in everyday, on-the-run use, thanks to their smaller sizes.

Acer plans to tailor its hardware to take advantage of the specific ecosystem advantages of Windows 8 and Android. "You will not see a Windows 8 tablet, and then see the same tablet two days later with Android," Tayar says. He doesn't think Android will disappear any time soon.

"The Android market space, in both tablets and smartphones, is pretty much vindicated by the number of applications that are out there," he says. "That market has been validated. It's the real thing. It's not something that you're wondering 'Is this space going to exist or not?'"

You thought the Windows Store lacked tablet apps?

Tayar's last comment raises an interesting point: None of the analysts I spoke with think Android as a whole is in danger of dying, as the phone platform remains quite strong. Google Play features an abundance of Android apps—more than 675,000 by Google's last count—and the overwhelming majority of them are designed for smartphones, not tablets.

But that situation, too, is a double-edged sword for Google, as Android phone apps tend to translate poorly to the tablet experience.

IMAGE: ROBERT CARDIN

Ironically, for all its inventory problems, the Windows Store may quickly eclipse Google Play in terms of pure tablet apps.

"Microsoft hasn't even launched the Windows Store yet, and it probably has five times more tablet applications than Android does," Moorhead says. For context, consider that the original 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab kicked off the Android tablet effort nearly two years back.

Despite some blustery talk by Google chairman Eric Schmidt, signs indicate that Google is finally beginning to understand how serious the Windows tablet threat is. Google recently improved its Google Play developer console and finally—finally!—introduced a set of tablet design guidelines for developers. "I think that they'll even give incentives for developers to develop applications," Moorhead says.

Incentives are crucial because Microsoft is gunning for those same developers, with an extensive support system that draws raves from developers. If Google wants an Android future on anything other than smartphones and embedded systems like Google Glass, it must convince some of those developers to create tablet-specific apps for its OS.

Yea or nay: Will Windows 8 tablets kill off Android?

Android tablets won't burst into flames on October 26 in some kind of self-destructive conflagration. Manufacturers won't pack up and leave Google holding the bag just because Microsoft is selling tablets—at least not initially. But serious questions loom over the launch of Microsoft's next-gen operating system, and until the company can allay some of those concerns, partners like Acer, Asus, and Lenovo will probably ride the fence until a clear market winner emerges.

But Microsoft isn't afraid to play the long game or to toss billions of dollars at marketers and manufacturers to ensure that its tablet initiative ultimately pays off. When—not if—Microsoft clears the initial hurdles, Google will have to step up its own game to ensure that Android tablets have a fighting chance, even as budget options.

Sure, Android might be the best choice for inexpensive media slates. But Google needs to get busy to bolster even that path to success, especially if Apple releases a miniature iPad. Google must do more to stimulate app development. It must work more amicably with OEMs. And it must step up to the plate, and protect its partners from Apple's litigious wrath.

If Google doesn’t do all of these things, manufacturers could very well throw up their hands and join the Windows team for good. Then we'd see the classic Apple/Microsoft duopoly all over again, this time in the mobile arena instead of on the desktop.

Will Windows 8 tablets kill Android tablets? Only Google can answer that question

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The HTC J Butterfly has surfaced on HTC’s Japanese website and it is that elusive 1080p 5-inch monsterphone we’ve been hearing about all along.

The 5-inch Super LCD 3 display on the HTC J Butterfly works out at 440ppi, a truly amazingly detailed resolution. But it’s not just the resolution - color reproduction is reportedly outstanding, and the convex glass shape makes it stand out. It’s also very thin at just 9.1mm which makes it easier to deal with such a big display.

The Butterfly has all you’d expect from such a device: a quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 processor, 2GB of RAM, and an 8-megapixel rear camera. It also runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

One thing we’re curious about is how its 2,020mAh battery will do, and will it last us through the day.

Right now, the HTC J Butterfly is coming to AU / KDDI in Japan only by end-December, but we’d expect its display to arrive in differently packaged bodies soon after

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Google has released its latest Android distribution figures, detailing the approximate number of active devices running a given version of the Android OS.

The pie chart and table is based on the number of Android devices that have accessed Google Play store within a 14-day period ending on 1st August 2012.

From the chart, it is easy to infer that Android 2.3 Gingerbread is the most popular of the Android operating systems available in the market today.

Android 4.0 ICS, launched back in October 2011, is now active on almost 16% of devices available in the market, a growth of about 50% when compared to the past data that was released.

Google’s latest OS, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, launched in the end of June 2012, is active on mere 0.8% devices. Probably because third party manufacturers haven’t started rolling out the update to current ICS enabled devices. Currently, the only devices to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean are the Google Nexus 7 tablet and Google’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus, which has started receiving the Android 4.1 update globally. Officially, the Galaxy Nexus is not available in India. The recently announced Karbonn Smart Tab 1 tablet will also feature Jelly Bean, but no release date has been announced.

In the past, Asus, HTC and Samsung have confirmed that some of their devices will receive the Jelly Bean update in the near future.

A fun fact about the Google OS is that it is named alphabetically after popular deserts. The names and versions of Google’s Android OS are as follows.

1.5-Cupcake
1.6-Donut
2.1-Eclair
2.2-Froyo
2.3-Gingerbread
3.1-Honeycomb
4.0-Ice Cream Sandwich
4.1-Jelly Bean

 

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We all know that Google’s Android mobile operating system has garnered a notorious reputation of being pretty easy to hack and Google not doing enough towards data security. However, according to a security expert’s recent revelation, Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) is the most difficult Android OS to exploit till date. It’s thanks to a proper implementation of a security technique known as ASLR in Jelly Bean, even though it was first introduced in Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0).

Jelly Bean’s improved security claim was made by security researcher Jon Oberheide on his security blog, Duo Security. According to his latest blog post, ASLR (or Address Space Layout Randomization) featured introduced in Android 4.0 ICS has been finally “implemented” in the latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean release.

What’s the big deal about ASLR, we hear you ask? Here’s Oberheide’s explanation:

“ For the uninitiated, ASLR randomizes where various areas of memory (eg. stack, heap, libs, etc) are mapped in the address space of a process. Combined with complementary mitigation techniques such as non-executable memory protection (NX, XN, DEP, W^X, whatever you want to call it), ASLR makes the exploitation of traditional memory corruption vulnerabilities probabilistically difficult. ”

Although ASLR was introduced in ICS Android 4.0, “things weren’t in great shape,” claims Oberheide. But Jelly Bean’s proper implementation of ASLR is an important step towards securing future Android OS releases, and making it difficult for hackers to exploit vulnerabilities, opined Oberheide. ASLR when paired with another important security step known as data execution prevention or DEP and information leak prevention effectively fortifies Android 4.1 Jelly Bean’s security armour by several degree.

So yes, while we celebrate the increased security efficiency of Android’s Jelly Bean build, let’s not get carried away and think intrusions and hack attacks won’t happen. In Oberheide’s own words, Jelly Bean’s proper implementation of ASLR and DEP will make hackers’ job of exploiting memory corruption bugs more difficult, but not impossible.

Compared to Apple’s iOS, Google’s rival in the mobile OS war, Android still doesn’t supportcode signing -- a security step which authenticates the software author and the integrity of the executable code through a digital signature -- something that has been present in iOS since a long time.

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The Nexus 7 sports a 7-inch, IPS (in-plane switching) screen, with a resolution of 1,280x800 pixels. The tablet is also the first 7-incher to house a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core CPU, which includes a 12-core GPU.

Rounding out the specs are a Micro-USB port, 1GB of RAM, a 1.2-megapixel front camera (no back camera included), a gyroscope, GPS, accelerometer, microphone, and 802.11a/b/g/n-compatible Wi-Fi.

The Google Nexus 7 sports a great-looking screen that packs tons of pixels into a small space.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Look and feel
The device measures 10.45mm thick, weighs 0.7 pound, and has a textured, grippy backside with both "Nexus" and "Asus" embossed on it. Built by Asus, the Nexus 7 feels lighter than the Kindle Fire and the soft, textured back makes the tablet comfortable to hold.

The IPS screen has a wider viewing angle than the Kindle Fire and even wider than some 10-inch Android tablets. The 1,280x800 resolution packed into a 7-inch display gives visuals like text and graphics a sharper look than what I’m typically used to seeing on most 7-inchers.

The Nexus 7 looks thin, but is actually about as thick as most 7-inch tablets.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

Just how sweet is that Bean?
The Nexus 7 will be the first device to run the latest version of the Android 4.1 OS, also known as Jelly Bean. One of the purported new Android 4.1 features is improved precision when typing on the soft keyboard. After taking it out of the box, I wanted to quickly put this to the test. I usually make lots of mistakes when texting on my iPhone 4 or even when testing on other tablets. However, when signing in to my Google account on the Nexus 7, I was able to type fast without making a single mistake. This rarely happens to me on any touch-screen device.

While I did eventually begin making mistakes, I felt much more like they were my own errors and not the tablet misinterpreting my taps. I'm not saying it's perfect, it’s just better than what I've experienced on Android tablets before. At least that's my impression after spending only a couple of hours with the device.

Though Android 4.1 on the Nexus 7 is just as customizable as previous incarnations of the OS, the way it's presented on this tablet feels much more controlled, focused, and possibly a bit less intimidating to the uninitiated, Android tablet virgins. Makes sense given that Google is, ostensibly, going after the same market Amazon targeted with the Kindle Fire, which has an even more controlled user experience.

The home screen is presented in portrait mode only and doesn’t rotate. There’s a "toolbar" of apps along the bottom, all of which are Google services apps like Play, Music, Books, and Magazines.

Android 4.1's toolbar and non-rotating home screen makes the OS feel very claustrophobic on the Nexus 7.

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)

It all feels very claustrophobic and if I didn’t know this was running a full version of Android, I would have guessed it was a custom, controlled version like the Kindle Fire.

In keeping with the “Google’s gunning for the Kindle Fire” theme, Google Play has been updated to include TV shows, purchasable movies, and magazines; finally bringing the store into modern times.

There's also now a Siri-like voice assistant in Android 4.1. I've not spent a lot a time with it, but my initial impressions were mixed. It definitely felt faster than Siri, returning results in half the time that my test iPhone 4S did, but other times it had trouble understanding what I was saying. Could be my Chicago accent that likes come out at the most inopportune of times, but even us sausage-guzzling Chicagoans deserve to have our voices recognized. I’ll definitely have to spend some more time with it to see exactly what the point of having such a feature on an Wi-fi-only tablet is.

The power of four...or twelve, or is it sixteen?
The quad-core Tegra 3 includes a 12-core GPU as well. It's the same Tegra 3 we’ve seen in most recent Android tablets and it’s just as impressive. Riptide GP ran smoothly, and, of course, it includes the Tegra 3 water splashy effects. I also got a 1080p movie to play on the tablet, and it looks great, especially with that 1,280x800-pixel resolution scrunched to such a small, 7-inch space. As for battery life, Google says to expect 9 hours while playing HD video.

Apps loaded quickly, and swiping through pages produces that satisfying 60 frames per second framerate I've now gotten used to on Tegra 3 tablets, but still very much appreciate.

Impressions: So far, so good
So far, I'm impressed with what I've seen. The screen looks great, feels responsive, and the tablet already does a good job of demonstrating its power in games and movie performance. The lack of expandable memory or a back camera is a bummer, but it's understandable given the dirt-low price for something that feels very well-built.

On paper, sure, it’s a Kindle Fire killer, but with sales of that tablet drying up recently, is that saying all that much? That said, I think Google is off to a good start here. The specs are impressive, Android 4.1 feels simplified while retaining its flexibility, and TV shows and purchasable movies are welcome additions to the Google Play store.

So far, so good. To be an iPad-killer, you'd need to gather a universe-sized amount of app support as just your first step. The Nexus 7 isn't an iPad-killer, but it but it could be the first step on the road to a much more competitive tablet market.

The Nexus 7 is available now from the Google Play store starting at $199 for the 8GB storage configuration and $249 for 16GB. Units will ship in mid-July. Purchasing from Google Play also gifts you a $25 credit to spend on Google Play media.

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Google introduced the latest version of the Android operating system at its I/O developer event last night, called Jelly Bean, which will be available for platform lead devices by mid-July, along with the source code. Of course, we’ll have to wait a while for manufacturer-customized devices to get their own updates.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is an incremental update to ICS (not Android 5.0 as had been expected), which is aimed to make Ice Cream Sandwich “smoother, faster and more fluid”. It mostly brings UI changes ranging from improved notifications and onscreen keyboard, to widget control, voice typing and the native camera app. Most importantly however, are the host of developer changes (full list available on the Android Developers site) it brings, which promise to give app creators greater flexibility and control.

Project Butter
First up, in the list of changes to Jelly Bean, is Project Butter – which uses vsync timing and triple buffering to make the touch responsiveness of Jelly Bean devices as smooth as butter. All animation, display refreshes will be locked to a 16 millisecond vsync heartbeat. Google says touch responsiveness has been further improved by predicting where the next touch will be, and in case of a time-out, will use a CPU input boost to ensure minimal latency.

Widget Control
Google has improved the widget-adding experience with Jelly Bean. App widgets can now be automatically resized, depending on where the user drops them on the homescreen, the size to which the user expands them, and the space currently available on the homescreen. Developers will now also have control to reorient the interface of the widget, depending on the size.

Widgets

Notifications

Notifications
One of the biggest changes to Ice Cream Sandwich is the new Notifications menu in Jelly Bean. Essentially, notifications will be more than just pieces of information, but now, will be interactive, and can be expanded or collapsed to show more information, access features, etc, without opening the relevant app. Notifications will now support image content, feature up to three preset actions (such as sharing, or +1-ing), and, display priority is now user-configurable.

Voice Typing and Search
Google has introduced Offline Voice Typing to Jelly Bean, placing the previously-cloud-accessed Google Speech Recognizer on the device itself. For now, it only supports U.S. English, but more languages are due to be added later. Google has also improved voice search, with faster response times, increased accuracy, and a more natural sounding voice. Relevantly, Google also announced it would be supporting more languages soon, with 18 new languages, including Persian, due soon.

Camera and Gallery
Google has made improvements to the native Ice Cream Sandwich camera and gallery apps as well, with the new Jelly Bean version supporting such features as an undo button, simple deletion UI, and a film strip mode.

Google Now
Lastly, Google has finally introduced a Siri-competitor, called Google Now, which will use the Card UI and voice to provide search information, before you search it – something Google has been advocating for years now. It will automatically check things like traffic and public transport information, and update the user. It can also remind users about the events, etc. We’ll have to wait and see just how it works to get a better idea, though you could check out the video below for a glimpse.

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Android 4.1 will get interactive notifications, overhauled search results, faster touch-screen response, and a tool to tell people information they may want to know about what's going on nearby and what they might need to know. Android 4.1, aka Jelly Bean, gets a more responsive user interface, a much more interactactive notification system, better voice transcription, overhauled search, and a major new feature called Google Now that tries to anticipate what a person needs to know at any given moment.

Android has exploded in use but led to criticism that it's an Apple iOS copycat. Google clearly is trying to vault over that issue. with new features detailed at its at its Google I/O show today here.

Google Now, triggered by swiping from the bottom of the screen, draws on calendar, location, and search history to automatically present what a device thinks is information a person needs to know, said said Hugo Barra, director of product management, at the show's opening keynote.

"Google Now gets you just the right information at just the right time, and all of it happens at the right time," Barra said. For example, "Google Now figures out when you commute from home to work and back, tells you how long your commute takes usually, and give you a faster route if there's lot of traffic. On public transit, if you're on the platform at a subway, Google tells you wen the next bus or train will arrive."

It'll also show nearby restaurants when you're walking down the street, and what a restaurant is famous for, he said. It'll tell you sports results based on teams you've shown interest in before. And it's tied into the calendar.

"If you have a calendar appointment, Google will help you get there on time. Google will tell you how long it'll take you to walk to the bus top, when the next bus will arrive, and how long that bus ride will take," he said.

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Apple's MacBook Air is one of the more popular of its laptop offerings, and in its recent hardware announcements Apple updated the Air with speed and storage bumps, in addition to including the faster Intel HD 4000 graphics capabilities. While these updates have been enticing to new buyers, a number of people who have been using the new systems are experiencing crashes.

After using the systems for a while, many users are noticing that they seem to randomly crash with a kernel panic, which fades the display and presents a message that states the user needs to press the power button to restart the system. This message indicates a core component of the system such as a driver or hardware component is not working properly.

While the crashes at first appeared to be random in nature, a number of users found that they were happening when using Google's Chrome browser, and have found evidence of this in the crash logs that are generated when the system goes into a kernel panic. The logs appear to describe an issue with how Chrome is handling the Intel HD 4000 graphics processors on the new MacBook Air, since the following common entries in users' crash logs suggest the Google Chrome process was the cause and last interacted with the driver for the Intel HD 4000 Graphics chip:

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
  com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHD4000Graphics(7.2.8)[6B02D782-A79F-399C-81FD-353EBF F2AB81]@0xffffff7f81657000->0xffffff7f816bdfff
    dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.7)[C0404427-3360-36B4-B483-3C9F0C54A3CA]@0xffffff 7f80829000
    dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.3.4)[A004D087-8FB7-3630-AD65-18DC2A9B2EEA]@0xff ffff7f80cb8000
    dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3.4)[2E0BAC50-C4B6-3353-BADA-0168305F3D06]@0 xffffff7f80c7f000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: Google Chrome He

If you are experiencing these kernel panics on your new MacBook Air and are using Google's Chrome Web browser, then for now you might consider avoiding the browser, or at least its official release version. Google maintains a development build of Chrome called Canary that does not appear to show these crashes on the Air, so you can try this build if the official Chrome release is showing problems. Alternatively, you can use other browsers like Safari, Firefox, or Opera as a replacement for Chrome.

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 Google Gives Sneak Peek of Jelly Bean

Google inadvertently gave a sneak peek of Jelly Bean, its next iteration of Android, by putting a mention of the Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ phone on Google Play. Google quickly took the item down, but not before Droid Life took a screen shot of it, revealing its price, $409.

The mention on Google Play gives weight to reports that Google plans to sell the device directly, a la Apple. Google tried that route with the Nexus One in 2010, but consumers didn’t bite. More details about Jelly Bean will likely be divulged at I/O next week.

Microsoft Surface to Be Wi-Fi-Only at First

When Microsoft announced Surface earlier this week did you picture yourself using the device on the go, like maybe on your train ride to work? Well, keep dreaming. According to Bloomberg, Surface will lack mobile connectivity when it rolls out in…well, whenever it eventually rolls out. Instead, you’ll have one option: Wi-Fi.

Tweetbot Coming to Mac

Tweetbot, the popular iOS Twitter client, is coming to the Mac as well, according to The Verge, which got a screen shot of it on the new MacBook Retina display. The publication confirmed that the Mac version is indeed on its way, though timing has not been confirmed.

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