Google on Wednesday introduced a 7-inch tablet called Nexus 7 with the support of the latest version of its Android mobile operating system.

Running the new Android 4.1 code-named Jelly Bean, the tablet, which comes with 8 GB and 16 GB models, has a 1280X800 HD display, a quad-core CPU and a 12-core graphics processor.

"That's basically 16 cores," said Hugo Barra, director of product management for Android, at Google's annual developer conference Google I/O.

It also features a front-facing camera and can shoot HD video of nine hours. With a weight of 340 grams, the tablet is Wi-Fi only and has built-in NFC (Near Field Communication) chips for mobile payment.

Barra noted that the new tablet is built for the rich content on the company's online store Google Play, including music, magazines, movies as well as apps.

Nexus 7 is manufactured by Asus. The 8 GB model is priced at 199 U.S. dollars and the 16 GB model at 249 dollars. Consumers now can pre-order the device which will be shipped within two to three weeks.

Before announcing Nexus 7, Google showed off the new features and improvements of the Jelly Bean system. In a demo video, the touch responsiveness was measured by a high-speed camera. The fluidity and response speed of Jelly Bean system seemed to be greatly improved, compared to performance of the previous Ice Cream Sandwich platform.

Jelly Bean can also anticipate where a user's finger will touch the screen and plans accordingly, which is part of a program called "Project Butter" and meant to make the user experience more natural and smooth.

The Internet search giant also improved the mobile search experience. The user interface of Google search will bring up white cards that display information from Knowledge Graph, a Google knowledge base providing structured and detailed information about the search query along with a list of links to other sites.

Google also improved its voice search. Compared to its rival system like Apple's Siri, the new Google voice search sounds more natural, smooth and quick.

At the conference, a demonstrator asked "show me pictures of pygmy marmosets," the Android system came back with a collection of images of the animal from Google search.

The Jelly Bean system will be available in mid-July for Nexus S, a smartphone co-developed by Google and Samsung, as well as other devices over the air. The preview SDK (software development kit) is available to developers on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Google announced some big numbers for the Android system. The platform now has seen 400 million device activations, up from 100 million the company reported around the same time last year.

According to Google, more than 1 million Android devices are now activated daily.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet