Google is tightening its grip on the booming tablet market, with a new tablet, updated version of Android and a social take on games.

The company announced a new version of its popular Nexus 7 tablet during a press event Wednesday in San Francisco. Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Android and Chrome, unveiled a slimmed-down, speedier version of the tablet, which will start at $229 when it goes on sale next week.

Hugo Barra, vice president of Android product management at Google, holds up a new Nexus 7 tablet Wednesday

The new Nexus 7, made by Asus, has undergone some subtle physical changes. The size of the device has been trimmed down while keeping the screen the same dimensions. The higher resolution screen is now 1,920 by 1,200 pixels, packing in 323 pixels per inch. The amount of RAM has been doubled, and the CPU is twice as fast as the previous Nexus 7. The company also said that it has improved its speaker performance and that it can last for nine hours of high-definition video playing.

Netflix will be one of the first apps to take advantage of the new video-friendly specs. The streaming-video company's new Android app will stream movies at 1080p on the Nexus 7.

The device will run Android Jelly Bean 4.3, a new version of Google's Android operating system.

(Source: CNN)