Google’s recently announced Nexus 7 is receiving critical acclaim throughout the blogosphere. It offers the hardware of a $500 tablet – a 7” HD IPS display, quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean – for the unbeatable price of $199. Some sacrifices had to be made to bring price down to this level, sacrifices like the lack of a rear camera, higher storage capacity, extendable storage and GSM connectivity.
Because the Nexus 7 lacks a rear camera, Google/ASUS thought there was no need to include a Camera app. The front facing camera activates automatically when an app (such as a video chatting app like Google+ Hangouts) requires it. There are plenty of reasons why you would want a dedicated camera app. Using it as a mirror, taking self portraits, taking self group portraits etc. etc.
Developer Paul O’ Brien (AKA MoDaCo) has developed an app of sorts that lets you access the front-facing Camera whenever you want. Check it out after the jump.
The ability to open up the front-facing camera at will is a feature that comes built-in to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but there was never any icon for it. What Modaco has done is add a launcher icon for the Camera application.
Installing the app simply adds an icon tapping which launches the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Camera app. This means you get all the built-in goodies like “hipster filters” and lovely Holo UI so you can take photos and record videos using the run-of-the-mill 1.3 megapixel front facing camera.
The app is available for free and can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. Don’t forget to let us know what you think of the app by leaving a comment over on our Facebook and Google+ page.
The Nexus 7 is the hottest Android tablet in the market today, and because it is a Nexus device it will get unmatched support from both Google and the general Android developer community. Expect lots of hacks and tweaks for it; hacks and tweaks that we will be covering here at Redmond Pie!
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