Google Nexus 7 Tablet and Support For USB Flash Drives

Yesterday was a big day for Google. At the Google I/O Conference in San Francisco not only did they announce a new version of Android (Jelly Bean) but, they also introduced Nexus Q which they call “the first streaming media player”, updates to Google+, Google Glasses and they launched the much anticipated Google Nexus 7 Tablet.

The Nexus 7 is (as the name implies) a 7 inch Google tablet that features a 1280 x 800 pixel display, a front facing camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Built by Asus for Google around Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip it has a quad-core processor and a 12-core graphics chip. It will ship with the new Andriod Jelly Bean software and it will, as you might expect, be heavily Google centric – turn it on and it will automatically jump to content from Google Play.

Two options will be available from July; an 8GB model and a 16GB model and pre-orders are being taken from today. Prices in the UK are likely to start at around £150 for the 8GB unit but this will include a number of free movies, books and magazine subscriptions.

Unlike some of the other cheaper tablets in the market the Google Nexus 7 has a USB connector albeit it’s a micro USB connector rather than the larger standard USB connector. The primary purpose of the micro USB connector seems to be to charge the Nexus 7 rather than allow it to connect to external USB storage devices like USB flash drives. But, if it has on-board support for USB-OTG (On The Go) then you should be able to plug in any USB flash drive via a USB micro adapter.

The current consensus of those that have got their hands on one of these units at the Google I/O Conference seems to suggest that connecting a USB flash drive (with an adapter) will be possible and will give users a relatively cheap way to upgrade the storage capability of the unit (albeit it will be a little be messy with adapters etc.). Messy or not we’re hopeful that USB flash drives will be supported.