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When the original Google Nexus 7 hit the streets a year ago, it offered crazy good specs for a low price. It was probably the most powerful tablet you could buy for $200.
But users started to notice that performance degraded over time, especially after upgrading the OS from Android 4.1 to Android 4.2.
Now that users are starting to get over-the-air updates to Android 4.3, it seems like performance is improving. You can probably thank the addition of fstrim garbage collection, but whatever the reason, the good news is that Google seems to be breathing new life into last year’s tablet with this year’s software — which means if you already have one, you might want to hang onto it for a while longer rather than upgrading to a new tablet.
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.
- Users report Android 4.3 update improves speed, responsiveness of the original Nexus 7 tablet
If you want a really fast 7 inch tablet running Android 4.3, your best bet is probably to pick up the brand new Nexus 7 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. But if you have last year’s model, it looks like updating the OS to Android 4.3 should offer a bit of a speed boost. [reddit] - Unofficial Android 4.3 ROM for the Samsung Nexus S
Google has released Android 4.3 for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and newer devices. But there’s no official build for older models like the Samsung Nexus S. That’s where the independent development community comes in. [xda-developers] - Fedora 19 ARM remix released for Allwinner A10, A10s, A13, and A20 chips
You see an awful lot of folks porting Ubuntu to run on devices with ARM-based chips. But the Fedora team has its eye on ARM too, and the latest version of the open source operating system is now available for devices with Allwinner’s single and dual-core chips. [AndroidPC.es] - Corning Gorilla Glass to make laptop touchscreens more scratch-resistant, coming this fall
Corning’s scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass has been protecting smartphone and tablet displays for a few years. Soon it’ll be available for laptop screens. [Engadget] - Rumor: Asus working on a 6mm thin tablet
Take this one with a grain of salt, but apparently an Asus employee says the company is working on its thinnest tablet to date. [Tech2.hu] - Ubuntu’s Jono Bacon shows off mockup of the Ubuntu Edge smartphone (video)
The Ubuntu Edge smartphone doesn’t exist yet. But if it did, this is what it’d look like when you hold it in your hands. [YouTube] - Multi-window Android on an ARM mini PC hooked up to a TV (video)
Android is looking more and more like a desktop operating system. [Mike Cane]
You can keep up on the latest headlines by following Liliputing on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
Speeds up?
How much of this is related to periodic scheduling of the Trim command to “garbage collect” free space on the flash storage device? I was under the impression this wasn’t part of 4.2 but will be in the 4.3 version.
Um…he is talking about the 4.3 version.