Special guest post on personal user experience by Yu from Japan

Because Nexus 7 is currently sold only to the limited countries such as U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and few others, it is very difficult for someone living in other countries like me to get one.  As for the sales of Nexus 7, Google’s online shopping site Google Play is not only making it impossible to ship the tablet to the countries other than ones listed above, but also denies accesses from the users’ geographical location based on IP addresses.  Purchase itself can only be done with a credit card or debit card issued to the countries listed above.  Checkmate?  No.  I have a VPN connection which gives me a US IP address and mighty USUNLOCKED CARD which gives me a virtual debit card issued to US address.  Thanks to them all, I was able to manage to buy Nexus 7 with very inexpensive way, that is, about $230 or so.  Much cheaper than using some import agencies advertising Nexus 7 with $300 or more price tags.

Nexus 7 runs very fast and smooth as I said before.  Probably the fact itself is enough reason for someone living outside the U.S. to buy one.  However, there is another thing to consider: Google Play.  Google Play provides smartphone and tablet users a good media experiences such as music, video, books, magazines and so on and people in the United States can enjoy them all.  And because Nexus 7 is made for Google Play as Google itself stated, it is a bit sad situation if an owner of a Nexus 7 tablet cannot enjoy some or most of media experiences from Google Play.  For example, I live in Japan and the only services I can enjoy here are just Google Play Apps and Google Play Movies.  No Music, no Books, no Magazines, and no TV shows.  Nevertheless, maybe I’m a lucky one that I can enjoy Movies anyhow because Japan is among one of the very few countries where Google started Play Movie service already. In many countries, gates to Google Play services are tightly closed except for the Google Play Apps.  What a pity if usable services are restricted as such.

Here are the tips for reviving those services currently out of outsiders’ reach one by one.  But before proceeding, you must realize that doing all or some of these tricks may disable warranty for your Nexus 7.  Also doing all or some of these tricks may violate the terms of use for Google Play Services.  Please consider carefully before you start it.

1.     Rooting.
Nexus 7 must be rooted.  Rooting Nexus 7 is a relatively easy task because Google itself prepare the tablet to be root-able like other Nexus devices.  There are many instructions for Nexus 7 rooting around the Internet and URL like http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1809195 is very helpful.

2.     Enabling Google Play Services other than Google Play Apps.
This is also an easy task if you have VPN connection etc., which brings you the United States’ IP address.  Just enable it.  Then you must stop Google Play Store app once by selecting the app from Setting->Apps->ALL->Google Play Store.  Then “Force stop” it.  After that, restarting Play Store will bring you the U.S. version of Play Store showing Apps, Music, Magazines, Movies&TV, and Books.
If you have USUNLOCKED CARD already, perhaps this is the good timing to set the card’s information into your Google Wallet.  Visit wallet.google.com and login to your account and add the card’s info in the Payment Method section.  This operation enables you to buy any items sold in Google Play Store, from Android apps to mp3 albums to Nexus 7 itself.  Anything can be bought with USUNLOCKED CARD there.

3.     Reviving disabled apps
Nexus 7 comes with all applications necessary for enjoying Google Play services.  However, some of them are disabled during the initial registration process based on the IP address you use.  If it’s in U.S. IP address range, all of the Google Play *** apps are listed in the application drawer.  In Japan, only Google Play Movie is available.  And so on.
These disabled apps can be revived using command line tools such as adb, connecting Nexus 7 to your PC and executing adb shell command from PC, or terminal emulator app, just firing up the app.  Then you are in the command line shell for your Nexus 7 so type the following commands.
$ su
# pm enable com.google.android.apps.books
# pm enable com.google.android.apps.magazines
# pm enable com.google.android.music
# pm enable com.google.android.videos
Then, all of the Google play *** apps can be located in the application drawer.

Most exciting news at last week's Google I/O 2011 convention is the long awaited launch of Chromebook. Previously Google had sent thousands of prototypes as part of a beta program of which many shipped through US Unlocked to chosen users outside the world.

The Google Chromebook is due to be released on June 15 and will come in an Acer and a Samsung model, priced at resp. $349 and $429.

The Google Chromebook will have no programs, everything is web based: "Your apps, games, photos, music, movies and documents will be accessible wherever you are and you won't need to worry about losing your computer or forgetting to back up files." (from Google blog). The Chromebooks will be sold at BestBuy and Amazon.

Have a look below at the Google Chromebook commercial to see what it is all about:

The Nexus S android phone by Google is released today at 8AM by BestBuy online and in stores. Many have speculated on the numbers of distributed handsets and expect the Nexus S to run out before noon. Orders are restricted to two phones per customer. BestBuy has announced to offer free overnight shipping for online orders.

What is the Nexus S?

Nexus S is the next generation of Nexus devices, co-developed by Google and Samsung. The latest Android platform (Gingerbread), paired with a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor and 16GB of memory, makes Nexus S one of the fastest phones on the market. It comes pre-installed with the best of Google apps and enabled with new and popular features like true multi-tasking, Wi-Fi hotspot, Internet Calling, NFC support, and full web browsing. With this device, users will also be the first to receive software upgrades and new Google mobile apps as soon as they become available. For more details, visit http://www.google.com/nexus.

Imagine: You could be playing with your Nexus S in the next 4 business days!

UPDATE: Many users opt for Personal Shopping of the Nexus S. At present all personal shopping requests for the Nexus S are put on a waiting list as BestBuy only accepts a few orders a time and the demand from our users is much larger than that . Estimated wait time is around 1 week.

Now browse the internet, your TV and previously recorded shows by typing in what you want to watch and start watching it immediately. But that is not all. Google TV comes with pre-installed apps like Neflix*, NBA, Pandora, Twitter and Napster. Video calling? Absolutely. Add a webcam to the mix and you're all set.

Google TV demo

Interested? There are a few options:

Option 1: Sony Internet TV

This is an HDTV with built-in internet, available for pre-order in 4 sizes: 24", 32", 40" and 46" (resp. $599, $799, $999, $1399). The world's first HDTV powered by Google TV.

Option 2: Sony Internet TV Blue-Ray Player

If you already own an HDTV, this device might be for you. It is a Blu-Ray disc player with built-in Google TV. Available for pre-order for $399.

Option 3: Logitech Revue

Comes with a companion box and keyboard controller. No HDTV is needed, as long as your TV has an HDMI port you are good to go. The box is powered by Google TV as well. Available for pre-order for $299.

How to buy Google TV powered devices?

Whatever option you go with, the devices are only for sale in the USA. Through US Unlocked you can pre-order now by:

- using the Personal Shopping service

Simple submit a request and wait for the quote with payment link. After your payment US Unlocked buys the product(s) on your behalf.

- buying with the US Unlocked Card

The US Unlocked Card is our virtual pre-paid debit card with US billing address that lets you buy from websites that require a US billing address or US issued credit card.

Other advantages to the US Unlocked Card are:

- $10 discount on shipping after card load

- set up iTunes (see tutorial) and Netflix* (see tutorial)

- buy from all websites that only accept US credit cards or US billing address

*to stream from Netflix onto the device you need to be hooked to a VPN provider like hotspot shield. Have a look at this tutorial.