Google is taking on Amazon with the release of the Nexus 7 tablet, a new $199 Android tablet that is designed to consume content from Google Play.

The Android device has a 7-inch screen and claims to hold 8 hours of battery charge during “active use.” The $199 version comes with 8GB of memory. A $249 version comes with 16GB of memory.

The device includes access to more than 600,000 apps (like YouTube, Gmail and Google+), as well as games, eBooks, music, movies, TV shows and magazines through Google Play. If you buy the Nexus from Google, you’ll get an extra $25 credit for Google Play, as well as free content including a copy of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

The device ships in 2-3 weeks. Follow this link to see Google’s video about it.

Rovio is well-known for the incredibly successful game franchise featuring ferocious fowl, but they’re not ones to rest on their laurels. Today Rovio released a new teaser video. It doesn’t show any gameplay, but it does tell us that this game should be out next month for Android and iOS. Read more

If you haven’t gotten enough of the news coverage of the launch of Google’s new Android tablet yesterday then I have an ebook you might be interested in. Google posted the user’s guide to the Nexus 7 yesterday. It’s afree download and you can find it in Google Play.

The ebook is 84 pages long and it’s packed with info on the Nexus 7 as well as a number of hints about new features you will encounter in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. There are a number of screenshots and little tips scattered throughout the ebook, so it should help you get a feel for the new version of Android before your Nexus 7 arrives at your front door.

I’ve only been browsing it for a few minutes but I’ve already found one feature that makes me drool; the Nexus 7 has a face recognition function.  You can unlock the tablet by simply looking at the camera. That is so cool.

Google Play

Mediabistro’s AppSlap show just took a look at Citia, a new iPad app that works to “reorganize and condense existing works of serious nonfiction.”

You can explore the app in the video embedded above, guided by SocialTimes staff writer Devon Glenn. but here’s more about the tool:

Using professional writers, editors, designers, and programmers—in partnership with major publishers such as Penguin, Perseus, and O’Reilly—we reorganize and condense existing works of serious nonfiction. We are making books easier to sample, navigate, and share. And when you discover one you love, we hope you’ll buy the original (just flip a card to purchase our titles, in any format).

B&N might not have the biggest app store but they do put a lot of work into promoting it. They sent out an email today to any developer signed up with the Nook Developer program. B&n is planning a major back-to-school marketing push for Nook apps, so of course they need more developers.

Here’s more detail from the email: Read more

Digital publishing company Smashwords and Califa, a consortium of 220 California libraries, have formed a partnership to distribute Smashwords eBooks in libraries and to give member libraries the ability to let patrons publish eBooks through Smashwords.

Under the terms of the deal, Califa will be able to buy 10,000 of Smashwords’ bestselling titles for about $3 each. Library Journal has more: “Califa will house the files on an Adobe Content Server that it purchased for $10,000 (with an annual maintenance fee of $1,500) and which the Quipu Group is configuring.”

The agreement will also allow library patrons to publish their own work through Smashwords. These works will be available for checkout from the writer’s local library, as well as for sale through the Smashwords distribution network, which includes Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Baker & Taylor’s Blio and Diesel.

The AllFacebook Marketing Conference kicks off tomorrow in San Francisco for two full days of Facebook marketing immersion.

Learn how to put Facebook to work from leading social media and marketing experts. You will leave the conference with a stronger understanding of how to brand your business and generate results using Facebook’s evolving tools and apps. Register before midnight tonight for $599, a savings of $200.

The program will feature more than 50 leading experts, including…

Read more

While Amazon is still toying with the idea of expanding to Europe, Apple is forging ahead. Today Apple announced expansion into 12 more countries around the globe.

Music lovers and app users in the Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.will now be able to buy music as well as rent and purchase videos, or buy and download apps. They’re joining consumers in the more than 150 countries who have access to one of the biggest content stores on the planet. iTunes offers over 20 million songs and 650,000 apps, and the new local iTunes stores will feature both local music as well as content from all over the globe.

The Sonnets by William Shakespeare is coming to the iPad next month in a new app that includes videos of celebrities performing each of the 154 poems.

The app, a collaboration between Faber and Touch Press, will include performances by the likes of Sir Patrick Stewart, Kim Cattrall, David Tennant, Simon Russell Beale, Dominic West, Siân Phillips, Fiona Shaw, Dame Harriet Walter, Simon Callow, Stephen Fry, Don Paterson and Sir Andrew Motion. We’ve embedded a video promotion of the new app above so you can check it out.

Last year, Faber and Touch Press teamed up to release an interactive app edition of T.S. Eliot‘s The Wasteland. It included a filmed performance of the entire poem read by Fiona Shaw, as well as audio recordings of Eliot reading the poem at two different times in his life.

If you’ve ever wondered about the old chestnut that the iOS market is more valuable to app developers than Android, app analytics firm Localytics has an answer for you. They recently completed a market survey for iOS and Android apps and found that iOS apps were much more likely to be used over the long term and that iOS apps generated more income on average.

The report shows that iOS apps were 52% more likely than Android apps.to be used ten times or more There’s also evidence for Android app users to be more likely to try and abandon an app after one or two uses.

Getting away from the iOS vs Android debate, Localytics also noted that app retention in 2011 was up 19% over 2010, which is good news for developers as it indicates a greater chance of selling users new content and upgrades inside the app. The chance of a user launching an app only once dropped by 15% between March of 2010 and March of 2011, the period covered by the study.

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