Google is now pushing out its Android 4.2 update to Nexus 7 tablets, but it’s slow-going.  However, you can likely speed up your receipt of the update on your Nexus 7 by following these simple steps:

1. Navigate to Settings > Apps and select All from the horizontal menu at the top of the screen.  Scroll down to Google Services Framework and tap it.

2. Tap Force Stop, and then Clear Data. 

3.  Go back to Settings, select About Tablet and tap System Updates.

This should trigger the update to install.

Android 4.2 is still called Jelly Bean, just as version 4.1 was.  Android 4.2 adds several new features.  You can find out more here.

As expected, Amazon announced its updated 2012-2013 Kindle family this afternoon. In addition to two new eInk readers, three Android-based Kindle Fire tablets were also introduced, two with HD displays.

The Kindle Fire HD models are available with either a 7-inch or 8.9-inch touchscreen, the smaller costing $199 with 16GB of internal storage, the larger priced $100 more.  Both screens are HD, with the larger 8.9-inch model featuring an impressive 1920×1200 display with 254PPI (a slightly less-dense pixel count than the iPad 3).  New display construction methods are said to reduce glare and increase effective viewing angles. 

The larger Fire HD includes the new TI OMAP4 4470 ARM SoC processor, which Amazon says outperforms even the NVIDIA Tegra 3, currently considered to be the fastest tablet SoC.

Amazon also has a 4G version of the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, which gives you 250MB of use per month for an annual fee of $50.  Impressive.  This model comes with double the storage, 32GB, and is $499 – $230 cheaper than a comparable iPad 3 and far more affordable once you factor in the monthly cost of 4G access on Apple’s tablet.

The standard Kindle Fire also received a reported 40% performance bump, improved battery life, and a price cut – now $159 rather than $199.

Pre-orders start today with the new Kindle Fire and 7-inch Kindle Fire HD shipping in mid-September.  The 8.9-inch models will ship in November. 

We’ve updated Pocket PC Central with a new section for Google Nexus 7 Tablet Accessories.

There are various pages in the Nexus 7 Accessories Center for different types of tablet accessories.  Pages include, but are not limited to:

Nexus 7 Cases & Skins

Nexus 7 Chargers

Nexus 7 Screen Protectors

Visit the Google Nexus 7 Accessories Center for a full list of available accessories.

It’s a day worth nothing in your journal when Microsoft surprises us with a new, innovative product, so grab a pen and get comfortable.  The company behind Windows, Office, XBox and Windows Phone unveiled a product that some had speculated about, but none had come close to nailing down: new Surface tablet.

And they even managed to pull it off with a bit of punk, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo cool.

While there’s a lot going on here, and surely much more to come over the next few months, here’s what you need to know about Microsoft’s upcoming Surface tablets:

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Just a day after a Samsung executive opined that his company’s performance in the tablet market has been less than stellar, availability of a new Samsung tablet has been announced by Verizon Wireless. On Thursday, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 will go on sale for a whopping $499 with a two-year service agreement.

The Galaxy Tab 7.7, as the name suggests, will feature a 7.7-inch Super AMOLED Plus display with a resolution of 1280×800 and 196 PPI.  The tablet is powered by a zippy Exynos dual-core Cortex A9 SoC CPU clocked at 1.4GHz. Other features include LTE support, 16GB of onboard flash storage, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11n Wi-Fi, a 3MP primary camera, a 2MP front-facing camera, aGPS, and a microSDHC flash memory card slot.

The tablet is both thin and light, weighing just under 12-ounces and measuring about 0.3-inches thick.

Unfortunately, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 will ship with Android 3.2, not Android 4.0, though an upgrade to the latest version of Google’s mobile OS will come.  But this presents two questions – when and will:

When will the Android 4 upgrade be made available for the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and will Verizon make the update available for its particular model?  We’ll find out later this year.