When you think of tablets you generally think of some super expensive, maybe even super fragile piece of equipment. Dropping it may lead to tears, tantrums and things generally relegated to describing what a two-year-old child might do when he doesn’t get his way, but what if there were a tablet that could take the beating a two-year-old could give it? Children are notoriously careless and don’t generally take great care of technology, so getting something as expensive and fragile as a tablet is usually out of the question, but the Nabi 2 has something to say about that. While the Nabi 2 is a Tegra 3 tablet that was released all the way back in July 2012, it has received a rather large following of modders committed to making such rugged technology available for their children. While the children’s tablet has never had official Google Play support, there have been plenty of hacks out there making Google’s superior app store and services available for the tablet, but now you won’t even have to go that far. Fuhu, Inc. has issued a press release saying that an over-the-air update is scheduled for today, 12/19/2013, that will enable full Google Services and the Google Play Store on the tablet officially.
This means the full suite of functionality that’s on your favorite Android phone or tablet will now be available on the Nabi 2, so no more needing to screw around with Fuhu’s App Zone or the Amazon Appstore to get your apps on the device. This also means that you’ll have full access to Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome, Hangouts and all 17 of Google’s big apps for Android. This move makes a lot of sense now that Google has launched Google Play for Education, a move to get textbooks and other educational apps and games into a new section of the Play Store. This makes it easier than ever to find that all-important educational material for your child’s tablet, and further opens the door for such tablets to make their way into classrooms and homes. According to the press release the Nabi 2 is the #1 selling tablet for kids, and this will likely only solidify that position in the market as the Nabi 2 now has a whole heck of a lot more functionality than ever before. If you’ve already got the Nabi 2 for your kids the OTA update should be making its way out sometime today. If you’re unsure how to check for the update, Fuhu has step-by-step instructions on their website.