Amateur photographers won't feel a lot of love for the Google Nexus 7's sole front-facing 1.2-megapixel webcam, and its standard-resolution videos won't please budding videographers, either. The legendary XDA Developers forum can't do anything about the camera's hardware limitations, but a new software mod could breathe new life into the tablet's movie making prowess.
While the Nexus 7's video capturing is capped at 480p out of the box, the hardware itself is actually capable of recording in 720p. A developer going by the handle hillbeast has whipped up a workaround that unlocks the camera's true potential.
As far as software modifications go, this mod is fairly simple and only involves adding a few lines of hillbeast-provided code to the tablet's /system/etc/media_profiles.xml file. If that looks like Klingon to you, fear not: hillbeast's XDA Developers forum post explains how to add 720p video functionality to the Nexus 7 in step-by-step detail. Don't expect miracles, however. That 720p HD video is still being taken by a low-cost 1.2MP front camera.
Even with the added code, the tablet's lack of a native camera app poses a problem for would-be movie takers. Fortunately, there are a bevy of camera launchers available in the Google Play Store, and a lot of them are free.
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