Yet another industry giant enters tablet space-- Google reveals the Nexus 7 at the I/O Developer Conference, a 7-inch Google-branded device carrying an other fresh announcement, Android version 4.1 (aka Jelly Bean).

However, unlike the high-end Microsoft Surface, Google's take on tablets (a co-development with Asus) appears more humble. With a $199 price point, the Nexus 7 aims for the lower end of the market where the Amazon Kindle Fire currently dominates.

The 7-inch display handles 1280x800 resolutions with a 178-degree viewing angle, while the tablet carries a Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 12-core Nvidia GPU and 1GB of RAM. It also supports bluetooth and NFC connections and includes a front-facing camera.

The second biggest I/O announcement is the latest Android version. Code named Jelly Bean, Android 4.1 includes a number of improvements aimed at polishing what already lies within version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Even if Apple retains firm control of the tablet market (65% Q1 2012 share according to ABI)  vendors still insist on fighting over the remains... following Microsoft's surprise Surface announcement, Bloomberg reports Google will unveil a co-branded (with Asus) tablet at the Google I/O 2012 developer conference.

An anonymous Asus executive confirms the Bloomberg report to Reuters.

Why team up with Asus instead of using Motrola Mobility? Apparently Google wants to "continue to treat all partners fairly." Or use them to test out what Android tablets can do...

However the Google tablet will rival neither iPad nor Surface-- Bloomberg's anonymous sources suggest the Google Nexus tablet will aim at the lower end of the market, with pricing as cheap as that of the Amazon Kindle Fire.

At a glitzy Los Angeles event Microsoft unveils its next big step as a hardware maker-- Microsoft Surface, a family of 2 Microsoft-branded Windows tablets complete with clever keyboard covers.

The purpose of the Surface tablets is to "prime the pump" for the imminent Windows 8 release, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says.

The Surface comes in 2 varieties-- one running Windows 8 on Intel 22nm Ivy Bridge chips, and the other running Windows RT using an ARM chipset.

The Windows 8 Surface is 13.5mm Continue reading...

Apple reveals no new iDevices at WWDC 2012, focusing instead hardware and software upgrades-- a MacBook portfolio refresh, the iOS 6 reveal and more details on Mountain Lion OS X.

As it is typical of such Apple events, there was also plenty of gloating. The WWDC keynote starts off with the Siri voice assistant taking shots at Android names (saying they were created by "Ben and Jerry"), Samsung phones (comparing them to refrigerators) and Microsoft, before Tim Cook rolls out the big numbers Apple likes so much (30 billion app downloads from 400 million App Store accounts, for instance).