Just barely giving us a chance to look upon the Nexus 10, a new five-second video has been posted to tease the masses. The tablet was supposed to be announced on Monday, but this will suffice for now.

We’re not sure why this video wouldn’t be extended into something mildly satisfying, but as it is, we have a five second video of the Nexus 10 in action. The latest Nexus tablet was set to be announced at Google’s event on October 29, since cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy.

BriefMobile, an organization responsible for previous Nexus 10 leaks, posted the video. It doesn’t show much, but exists more as additional proof to the 10-inch tablet’s existence. Unfortunately, it’s still kind of goofy looking with an overly rotund appearance. The video’s length is definitely odd (we can’t get over it) and if anyone knows why it had to be this short then please tell us.

Said to be manufactured by Samsung, the Nexus 7′s sequel will logically feature some bumped up internals. The oddly round design isn’t our favorite, but there’s no denying a 10-inch Nexus tablet is a good idea if competing with Apple is the goal here (it is). Specifically, the Google Nexus 10 is rumored to run on a dual-core 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos processor with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The screen is an impressive 2560×1600 pixels, being called “retina-grade.”

NFC is on-board as is typical of a Google device. The camera is allegedly 5-megapixels and Android 4.2 will be preinstalled, still carrying the Jelly Bean title. We covered some rumors surrounding Android 4.2 earlier, said to bring multiple user accounts and quick settings in the notification tray.

What do you think of Google’s latest Nexus tablet? Do you prefer it to the iPad?

The thought of diving headlong into Microsoft's radically new Windows 8 operating system is a little scary to many computer owners. For those who are cautious, never fear: you can have the best of both worlds.

Windows 8 has gotten lots of buzz, and plenty of criticism, for its attempt to shake up your PC’s operating system. With so many big changes, you may want to keep your old Windows 7 OS on your machine, just so you have something familiar to ease the transition. Fortunately, you can work a little hard drive wizardry to make space for both the old and the new. Here’s how you can dual boot Windows 8 on a computer that already runs Windows 7.

Step 1: Back up your current system

This is always a good practice when you are tweaking an operating system. The risk of losing data is usually pretty low, but you don’t want files to disappear the one and only time you didn’t back up. Make sure you save a copy of your entire hard drive in addition to your regular backups. (You are backing up your files, right?)

Step 2: Create a new partition on your hard drive

You’ll need to set aside a separate chunk of your hard drive to house the new OS and everything you’ll run on it. Windows 8 on its own will take about 20GB of space, but you’ll also need room for all your programs and files, so you may want to allot as much space as you can take from your existing hard drive.

From the Start menu, right-click on the “Computer” option. Select “Manage” from the drop-down menu, then double-click on “Disk Management.”

The top of the Disk Management window displays a list of any existing partitions in your hard drive. Right-click on the entry for your main hard drive, which is C: for most machines, and select “Shrink volume.” Minimize the hard drive until you have the desired amount of free space. Once you have made the room for Windows 8, click the empty block and select “New Simple Volume.” This will launch a wizard to walk you through the final steps.

You won’t have to change anything until you reach the “Format Partition” window. The settings you will need for formatting are NTFS for File System and the default for Allocation Unit Size. Be sure to give the new partition a name under “Volume label.” Titling it “Windows 8″ will ensure that you can find it in the next step. After you’ve named the new space in the hard drive, click “Next” and your computer will complete the formatting.

Step 3: Obtain your copy of Windows 8

Depending on how you want to purchase the new OS, you can install it either by DVD or by USB drive. If you purchase a copy in your friendly local computer store, you’ll be using the DVD and DVD drive approach in the next step. If you prefer to download it directly from Microsoft, put the files on a large thumb drive and use the USB approach in the next step.

Step 4: Install Windows 8 in the new partition

This is the most complicated step. Depending on your computer’s settings, you may need to change your computer’s BIOS settings so that it will boot from the drive with Windows 8 installation files on it. To do that, restart your computer and mash a hot key as the machine wakes up; the “Delete” key will accomplish this on most PCs. Go to the boot menu and switch the settings so that the first choice for booting up is the DVD or USB drive, depending on where you’ve stored your Windows 8 files, instead of the hard drive. Then go ahead and start up your computer.

You’ll first have to accept the installer’s software license, and the next screen will ask which type of installation you want. Choose the Custom option, then select your newly created hard drive partition, the one you probably named “Windows 8,” for its location. The installer will probably take about 20 minutes to complete the task.

Step 5: Enjoy playing with your new OS

You’ll now see a screen asking which operating system you want to use when you boot up your computer. It will default to launching Windows 8 if you don’t make a selection within 30 seconds, but you can change that setting under the “Change defaults” link on the launch page.

Dual booting on a Mac

If you have a Mac computer that also runs Windows 7, the process for adding Windows 8 is the same as for its predecessor. Apple’s Boot Camp can help you perform similar hard drive partitioning to make space for the new Microsoft OS. Parallels Desktop 8 and VMware Fusion 5  are other popular virtualization programs that allow you to switch between Mac and Windows without needing to reboot your computer. Both products should support the new Microsoft offering as well as Apple’s latest OS, Mountain Lion.

For those of you who still aren’t sure if you want to make the leap to the new OS, check out our guide to Microsoft’s Windows 8 for more insights about whether the OS is a good fit for you.

Tablets are the hottest thing in mobile and everyone has one to announce. Apple and Microsoft laid out offerings this week and Google will follow next week. Just don't try to jailbreak one because it's against the law now. All this and the best apps and games in the Weekly Mobile Wrap.

Voters in swing states are going to have it bad for the next few weeks. Between the phone calls, mailers, and emails from campaigns looking to secure a vote that may help decide the outcome of the election. People that don’t yet own a tablet may have just as bad. Between Apple and Microsoft’s announcements this week, Google next week, and Microsoft again just because they can, every major player is looking to secure those last few tablet-less folks to vote with their wallets. It’s all about grabbing headlines at this point in a campaign, so here’s all the news from the week that was October 21-26, 2012.

New iPads in all sizes

In a completely unexpected and out of nowhere announcement that hasn’t been rumored for months, Apple finally made the iPad Mini a reality this week. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Apple with this product is its ability to make a 7-inch tablet that they don’t have to call a 7- inch tablet. The idea of such a pointless device was loathed by Steve Jobs, so Apple CEO Tim Cook made sure this wasn’t just any 7-inch tablet–it’s a 7.9 inch tablet. Speaking of innovation no one asked for, Apple also gave the bigger brother iPad a little refresh as well. Owners of the third generation iPad will notice a slightly improved processor, camera, and another $500 missing from their wallet. We have a feeling no matter how much we crack wise at Apple, it will get the last laugh in its profits.

Microsoft announces Windows 8 to whoever will listen

Microsoft had perhaps the biggest announcement that got to live in the Apple-shaped shadow that was cast this week. It’s Windows 8 operating system was officially introduced to the world. This should be a moment of great excitement for the company. Bill Gates sure seems happy about it and there are definitely people rooting for Windows 8 to be the next big thing. What could possibly go wrong? What’s that? Microsoft over thought the naming process of the tablet OS choices and it requires far more explaining than it should? There’s a shocker. Growth of the Windows Phone Store is slowing with the new OS cycle starting? That’s promising. Despite being the maker of the flagship offerings for Windows Phone 8, Nokia just announced a new handset running Windows Phone 7? Seems like there would have been some sort of memo for that. Well it’s getting good reviews at least, right? Oh. Maybe Windows 9 will be the real winner.

Everything good is illegal

The man’s always trying to keep you down. Things haven’t changed a bit with the new rules in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Everything cool that you like to do to your phones and tablets will be made illegal. If you plan on unlocking your phone without permission from your carrier, do it soon. As of January 2013, it’s going to be against the law. Here’s the irony: Most people unlock a phone to take it to another carrier. Odds are good that your current carrier won’t sign off on that. Adding to the irony is the fact that it’s still legal to jailbreak a smartphone, but doing so to a tablet will get you slapped with a fine. They also qualify everything from laptops to mobile gaming devices as “tablets,” so good luck trying to explain that your phone with a 5-inch screen isn’t a tablet. Maybe we shouldn’t allow people who barely know how to define technology make laws about it.

Fresh New App of the Week

Dragon Mobile Assistant (Free, Android) – Siri who? Dragon Mobile Assistant essentially a direct answer to the popular iOS assistant. For Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean, this app will allow you to dictate commands to your phone and have it perform tasks without having to do the work yourself. From making calls or sending texts to receiving directions while driving, this app aims to give you all the help you need. Dragon has been behind tons of voice communication apps, so we expect good things from this one as well.

Xbox SmartGlass (Free, Android) – A must for any Xbox gamer, the SmartGlass app turns your Android device into an extension of your Xbox experience.

RedditNote (Free, iOS) – You already waste all your time on Reddit so you might as well make it a pleasant visual experience. Browse the site in style with this app.

Fresh New Game of the Week

Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 ($3, iOS/Android) – The third installment in a game based on a web comic that talks about games has made its way onto the mobile platforms. Packed with to the brim with humor and inside jokes for readers of the comic and adventure and old-school gaming action for fans of throwback RPGs, this is a must-have game for fans and newcomers alike. It’s like taking your favorite RPG from the Super Nintendo and being able to carry it around with you everywhere you go. Prepare for a nostalgia overload.

Zombiewood (Free, iOS/Android) – It’s a game with zombies in it. You know what to do, right? Kill them. The game takes you across movie sets that have been infested by the undead. Lights, camera, shoot ‘em.

He-Man: The Most Powerful Game in the Universe ($1, iOS) – Brawl your way across Eternia and through Castle Grayskull as He-Man. It’s a dream come true for every child of the 80′s. 

This Tuesday, October 30, Ubisoft will release the next chapter in the massively popular Assassin’s Creed series. To prepare you for the release, we have everything you’ll need to know here in one, easy to find place.

We are only a few days away from a trip back in time to a more innocent day, when there was no such thing as credit card debt and words like “recession” were reserved for economic scholars alone. Of course, dysentery was a major issue and the lack of citrus could kill you, plus the average life span was about 33 years, but those annoying little facts just get in the way of our admiration for the founding of this great nation.

For the fifth time on consoles, Ubisoft is back with a new Assassin’s Creed game, this one to be set in Revolutionary America. Seen through the eyes of the half-Mohawk, Half-English assassin Connor Kenway, the ancient battle between the Templars and the Assassins continues as forces from both sides are attempting to influence the New World.

While we will have to wait for the details of things like how Desmond fits in and what specific missions Connor needs to accomplish to prevent the spread of the Templars, we know more than enough to give us a rough understanding of what to expect.

To that end, we have collected all the news, trailers, and interviews of Assassin’s Creed III and put them all in one, handy place. Simply click the image below, and prepare yourself for next week.

Having access to a camera 24/7 doesn’t mean you have to use it. In many cases, the world would actually be a better place if you just left it in your pocket.

On a recent episode of Leo Laporte’s podcast This Week in Tech, panelist Dwight Silverman spoke briefly about a concert featuring David Byrne and St. Vincent. Prior to the performance, Byrne told the audience that smartphone photography was encouraged, but that they should put down their iPads.

As anyone who has ever seen a 10-inch screen held aloft in a concert can attest, iPads can be a severe distraction, making Byrne prescient as ever. However, I don’t think he goes far enough. As great as ubiquitous camera access is, we might all be better off if we used our camera phones less often. Here’s why – whether you’re at a concert or just out for a walk in the woods.

It distracts others

Getting close to one of our favorite performers can make us want to document that experience. But no one wants an iPad screen blocking their view. Concerts are best enjoyed when there is little inhibiting the interaction between performers and audience. An iPad between you and the performer on stage will be a significant impediment to appreciating a performance. Bravo, David Byrne, for dissuading the inconsiderate from ruining things for the rest of the audience.

I would actually encourage him to go further, and ban all mobile devices. Phones may not be as large a disruption as a tablet, but they are a distraction nonetheless. Plus, where do you draw the line? “Phablets” like the 5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 2 make the distinction so difficult, it would be far better to simply ban them all.

It distracts you

Not only is shooting video at a performance going to distract others, it will distract you as well.

You only have so much attention to go around. If you want to record a quality video, you have to shift too much of your attention to making that recording good. That leaves little attention left to appreciate what’s happening on stage — and that’s not even considering the distraction of tired arms at the seven-minute mark of a nine-minute song.

Shooting video also prevents you from physically engaging with the performance. If you go see The Hives, you will want to dance or jump around far more than you will want to have a camera in your hands. Trust me.

Audio is better

Nobody wants to see that grainy cell-phone video that you shot from the 40th row. Bootlegging communities for bands like Phish and The Grateful Dead indicate that someone may want to hear an audio recording, though. In that case, you will need better microphones than those in your smart phone.

The $100 Mikey Digital (which attaches to an iOS device) and the $270 Zoom H4n are great for bootlegging. Both will create far better recordings than you can make with a phone alone. The Zoom H4n is especially feature rich, and sounds great as well. I use one regularly and have really enjoyed the recordings it creates.

Bonus: When recording audio, it’s actually a bad idea to move around, and in most cases you won’t change the settings on your recording device, either. This means no bright screens to distract others and less oversight to distract you. Everybody wins!

Just make sure to get performer consent before creating a bootleg, and make sure that they are aware of and approve any releases of the recordings you create.

It trivializes an experience

An emphasis on documentation can also cheapen other experiences by reducing them to a few still frames.

Hiking is a good example, even though I admit I don’t go much myself. Snapping cell-phone shots of a hike trivializes the experience of hiking. Is hiking about a photograph of a far off mountain, or is it about removing yourself from a higher-frequency world to one more tranquil, and moving through a different environment in an enjoyable, strenuous way?

Photos prioritize destinations. Hiking seems to be more about the journey. Plus, is your camera phone really going to do that view justice? If you want an excellent photo, bring a DSLR and some good lenses. Absent that, concentrate on enjoying the view while there, and don’t distract yourself with poor facsimiles of the view to enjoy later.

It intrudes on the experience

One of the most important things about hiking or camping is that it takes you away from technology. Sorry, Tom Haverford, you don’t need DJ Roomba. You need to unplug for a minute and get away from the radiation of the city.

Your Instagram of the campfire does prove that you slept in the woods, but it also hopelessly detracts from that experience. You should be focused on roasting smores, not creating second-rate pseudo-Polaroids with what amounts to a tiny computer. Using high-tech devices to memorialize an experience that is largely defined by getting away from high-tech devices seems to miss the point.

It creates clutter

Our ability to easily capture photos, video, and audio anywhere we go with nearly unlimited storage adds a nearly impossible amount of clutter to our lives. Take photos, for example. You aren’t going to take one photo of that rad piece of graffiti. You will probably take several and then use the best one. You still have to do something with those other photos, though.

If you take hundreds of pictures, then those are hundreds of pictures that you need to deal with. You have to pare them down to the few best ones. They may need to be processed, resized, or cropped. If you want to be careful, the ones that you like most should be backed up somewhere.

This can add a lot of overhead, and most non-photographers don’t have good workflows to get it done. For example: Why do I have a photo of the last pork tenderloin sandwich I had when last in Indiana? There was no reason to take it in the first place. Now it is a useless piece of digital clutter. Plus, it made my phone greasy when I took it, and now I really want a pork tenderloin sandwich — both big negatives.

It makes us worse people

Yes, your friend’s compound fracture is fascinating in a horrifying sort of way, but I might be better off if I didn’t have opportunities to see things like that online. There would be a lot less fodder for /r/wtf (not to mention even less-savory sub-Reddits) if we didn’t all have decent-quality phones in our pockets. And that’s to say nothing of the feelings of the injured party.

We may be at our very worst as a species when we’re rubber-necking for a longer glance at the suffering of others. Ubiquitous camera access feeds this behavior directly, as we take more time to get photos and personally appreciate them later, and vicariously, as we encourage others to enjoy another’s pain with us. Sites like Reddit make this even worse, as the most gruesome injuries will also be rewarded with viral attention.

If we were more restrained with our camera phones, perhaps there would be a little less celebration of the terrible things around us.

Conclusion

David Byrne would never get away with banning cell phones from his performances. The uproar would be too great. This one has to be on us.

The next time you are at a concert, put down the camera phone. Focus more on the performance and you might just enjoy it more. If you are hiking or camping, leave your phone in your pocket. Don’t miss the point of the whole endeavor. And, for goodness sake, if you happen to be at the scene of an injury, accident, or tragedy, have some decency and don’t snap a shot to share online. We might just all be better off.

With the storm clouds closing in overhead, Google has opted to cancel its Monday event in New York City as Hurricane Sandy approaches. The storm is expected to make landfall on Monday. Google hasn't given word on a replacement event yet.

Google has decided to cancel its Android event in New York City that was planned for Monday October 29. The move came in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy, which is currently looming off the east coast of the U.S. and threatening to make landfall in the New York and New Jersey area by Monday.

One can’t really blame Google for backing out given the hype that Hurricane Sandy is receiving. It’s been described as “unprecedented,” “historic,” and “that storm from The Day After Tomorrow.” Assuming the last prediction is correct, just take cover in a library and you’ll be totally fine. The fear surrounding the storm isn’t from Sandy itself, but the fact that it will likely connect with a cold front and create a nor’easterner/hurricane hybrid. No matter what Sandy turns out to be, it’s enough for Google to close down the playground until a later date.

In its statement, Google didn’t offer much detail, simply stating, “We are canceling our Monday morning event in New York due to Hurricane Sandy. We will let you know our plans as soon as we know more. Stay safe and dry, The Android Team.” There is no word yet on a replacement event, which means we’ll have to wait to get a look at everything rumored to be on display at the October 29 event — unless you find a Nexus 4 in a bar.

Microsoft rejoiced knowing they would finally have the entire spotlight on them, as it plans to show off Windows Phone 8 on Monday in San Francisco. That will have to tide mobile fanatics over until Google reschedules. Until then, and to echo the Android Team’s regards, stay safe if you’re on the east coast.