Month: February 2014

Asi Mugrabi

I started working at Nubo two years ago when our BYOD workspace was still an idea on the drawing board. Last week, Nubo CEO Israel Lifshitz and I attended CyberTech 2014 in Tel Aviv. The first thing I noticed when I entered the convention hall was all the suits and ties, which isn’t something you see in Israel every day. And I’m wearing jeans and my best t-shirt. I got my presenter’s tag and met up with Israel. It took two of us to bring our large screen monitor in. We got to our booth and quickly set everything up.

CyberTech 2014 was a great venue to show Nubo’s unique security features. I enjoyed being tested by visitors to our booth and hope to do it again soon!

Soon after, Israel had to go – for a meeting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held with the CEOs. All of a sudden, I realized I was alone at the Nubo booth, with masses of people showing up and asking questions. While I’ve been to startup conferences before, this was my first time on the presenter’s side. I demonstrated Nubo on my new Nexus 5 smartphone to 1-3 people at a time. Our booth visitors asked questions about display protocols and the possibility of hacking Nubo via the client and server. This was a cyber security event, so I expected this angle to come up a lot.

cybertech2014_Mid Their facial expressions as well as their verbal feedback told me they were convinced. Dozens of them took our handout. After two years working hard in my cubicle at Nubo, I was finally out in the real world showing a captivated audience the work my peers and I have worked on since 2012. It was good to see that my time was well spent! Two years ago, when I tried to explain Nubo and BYOD to friends, I got blank stares. That has changed. BYOD has gone from an insider’s term to a trend that everyone is talking about.
I spent a few minutes walking around and checking out the other booths in Startup Alley. After seeing the others, I see our marketing, product and graphics team in a new light! This was the first thing I told my friends at Nubo the next day. CyberTech 2014 was a total success – for Nubo and the other startups who attended. I know that we Android developers have a well earned reputation for preferring to deal with computer screens all day. But I had a great time. It was exciting to show Nubo to a captivated audience in Tel Aviv. I will definitely volunteer to do this again.
See you at the next startup conference!

Israel Lifshitz

In January, I reviewed the Google Nexus 7 on my Extreme BYOD blog. I thought it had a lot of promise, but was a “work in progress”. This past summer, Google and Asus released a new and improved version of the Nexus 7. I had 2 major issues with it, and both of them were dealt with.

The new 2013 edition of the Nexus 7 is a classic example of winning on points; Google has designed a terrific BYOD tablet.

My biggest gripe about the Nexus 7 was the lack of a VGA out. When I enter a meeting with a 7 inch tablet and in less than a minute I’ve got a PowerPoint presentation projected on the screen, I leave them drooling. It’s MacGyver meets James Bond. The 2013 Nexus 7 supports VGA out. You just buy a SlimPort to VGA adapter for $24.95 on Amazon. I applaud this upgrade, it puts the Nexus 7 in a class of its own.

The new Nexus 7 packs a 5 megapixel rear camera in addition to the 1.2 megapixel front camera. Impressive. The ability to take pictures from both sides is a huge plus. If I had to choose which camera would have better resolution, I’d go with the rear camera. The front camera is for personal profile shots and 1.2 megapixels is quite fine for those. When I’m in a meeting or presentation, I just “lift and click”.

nexus7_330X308With so many new tablets released on a monthly basis, the goal is to win on points, not by knockout. The 2013 Nexus 7 is a great example of gradual – but important – technical improvements.
As they say in boxing, “the new Nexus 7 weighs in at 299 grams.” That’s 41 grams less than the earlier model, which weighed 340 grams. That’s a 12% decrease in weight. The new Nexus 7 has improved resolution – 1920 x 1200 pixels as opposed to 1280 x 800 pixels. Battery capacity is the one thing that didn’t improve. It went from 4325 mAh to 3950 mAh. That’s the price we pay for going from a width of 10.45 mm to 8.65 mm.
And what about the almighty processing power? The new Nexus 7 takes us from a quad core 1.2GHz to a quad core 1.5GHz. RAM is doubled to 2GB. You can choose between 16GB and 32GB of storage space. (The 2012 Nexus 7 offered 8, 16 and 32GB versions.)
I certainly don’t expect to discover the “holy grail” in every yearly upgrade. If you own a 2012 Nexus 7 and don’t need the VGA out support or the rear camera, you should stick with your wonderful tablet. No one should spend $300 – $400 for an extra 300 MHz of processing power. In fact, a good device should last you 2-3 years. But not for me – I’m already looking forward to buying and reviewing the 2014 Nexus 7!