Google certainly has been busy today, announcing Android 4.3, the new Nexus 7 and the strange yet compellingly priced Chromecast. Today’s event was certainly geared towards content rather than it was hardware, even though the new Nexus 7 is arguably the best 7-inch tablet available right now. From games to YouTube and Netflix, today’s event was aimed at people’s interests and of course, their wallets. From the event, Sundar Pichai had an interesting statistic to share with us all – YouTube and Netflix account for half of the Internet’s downstream where content is concerned. Two services taking up half is a surprising metric, when you consider that there’s a myriad of services like Netflix out there.
Let’s face it though, there’s no beating Netflix when it comes to streaming TV and Movies. It’s changed the way we enjoy content and more than that, it’s changed how content is made. Shows like House of Cards are almost designed to be watched in a binge session and I know I’m guilty of watching as many episodes as I can in one sitting. With the new Nexus 7’s display resolution of 1920 x 1200 you’d think that Google would be keen to get as much high-quality content on there as possible, and you’d be right. Starting with Netflix isn’t a bad place to start either.
The last update that Netflix pushed out to Android devices – this past Monday – sneakily included support to stream content in 1080p and the new Nexus 7 is the first 7-inch tablet to do so. For those of you that use their Nexus 7 to watch Netflix in bed or on the way to and from work, you might want to think about investing in the new Nexus 7 – if you’re into this whole “Full HD” thing, that is. Speaking of which, the new Nexus 7 will be launching with support for LTE on T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon in one model and will be available next Tuesday.