new toy in the house: Nexus 7

[maxd]

Does anyone remember their BladeRunner stuff? Roy Batty was a Nexus 6. I wonder if they had this in mind when they started naming these things.

Anyway, just got mine last week, the 32G/3G version. I had often used my phone to go online so upgrading to 7 inches has been a big step in the right direction and so far I am pretty much loving the N7. Original keyboard needed replacing IMMEDIATELY, but no surprise there. Now using A.I.Type's Float-N-Split Keyboard For Tablets which has many great options and makes it much more comfortable to SMS in Landscape mode.

I received the OTA update to 4.2.2 soon after I powered the N7 up. Since then not a lot else has needed messing with, other than the usual settling in and re-arranging the furniture type nesting stuff. On my Galaxy S2 -- stuck on 2.6.3 thanks to my braindead carrier -- I had dumped the stock launcher pretty quickly in favour of (eventually) ADW which had a lot of features I liked. I'm pleased to see that 4.2.2 has incorporated most of those features so the push to re-launchify the thing isn't nearly what I expected it would be.

Another boon is excellent battery life. I'm gettting close to 10 hours of hard use on it which is pretty amazing! As much as I loved the SGS2 it REALLY sucked up battery when you were online and I found myself staying close to power outlets or suchlike just out of habit. I even bought a big fat brick of a portable battery -- 12,000 mah or whatever it is -- for recharging in emergencies while out and about. Don't think I'll need to worry about such with the N7, not that I'll be whipping it out every 2 minutes like I did with the my smartphone.

Two slight grumbles I do have though:

1. with the stock OS the N7 won't talk to external memory which is sucky because it's (apparently) a totally arbitrary limitation. FWICT if you root the thing you can now talk to external memory. So why the "stock no talk" BS? Seems like some sort of "user management" crap to me. In the end though I don't much care, I had planned to root anyway so there you go.
2. data but no voice on 3G. Again, apparently you can cobble together some hacky sh*t once you've rooted but it's still a sucky limitation. Not that I'm going to be holding the slate up to my head or anything but allowing voice via a Bluetooth headset or somesuch might've been an elegant solution. I guess we'll see what I feel compelled to try and hack into the thing as time goes on.

Only other minor grumble is that the sound on the N7 seems rather tinny to me, not even as good as my SGS2 was. Not a show stopper but something you do notice.

Of course I miss having a camera on board but then snapshots with a slate would be almost as cumbersome as holding the thing up to your head to talk. Anyway, a camera-phone is a camera-phone and a tablet is a tablet, or so I've learned. Again, I'll have to see over time how much I actually miss it and what I feel compelled to do about it. Might even be time to look at the current state of compact digital cameras again, who knows.

Anyway, if anyone has thoughts or questions of a tablety nature I'm all ears.

 

[homerbert]

My gf had a nexus7 16gb without 3g...
Nice tablet, best from what i ever see, i made route access to it and now everything works fine. No any problems

 

[Mousey]

I've been yearning for a 7" tablet of some sort for ages. Holding me back was the battery life on most (what use is a tablet if you gotta run around looking for an outlet every couple of hours??) I've been leaning toward the Nexus 7... only negative I've come across in my research... no microsd slot for additional storage. I mean... come onnnnn... surely there's room in there for an itty bitty micro slot?

And yes, I remember Bladerunner... one of my all time fav movies.

Thanks for the info and review, Max!

 

[maxd]

... no microsd slot for additional storage. I mean... come onnnnn... surely there's room in there for an itty bitty micro slot?

Yeah, my thoughts too. Given that they've seemingly designed the thing to only have access to data via Bluetooth, wifi and (for some models) 3G I have to assume the lack of a microSD slot is entirely intentional. They have to know that people are going to want video, music, etc -- not to mention additional storage -- so what's the plan? Might they be pushing people toward Google Play and their cloud? Seems highly likely to me, hence my mention of "user management", as in them trying to "guide" our user habits in a direction that suits, and profits, them.

Whatever, once you've rooted the thing a lot of those issues disappear. And since rooting is apparently pretty straight-forward it seems the path of choice to user happiness with the Nexus devices.

 

[Stovetopp]

Does anyone remember their BladeRunner stuff? Roy Batty was a Nexus 6. I wonder if they had this in mind when they started naming these things.

Anyway, just got mine last week, the 32G/3G version. I had often used my phone to go online so upgrading to 7 inches has been a big step in the right direction and so far I am pretty much loving the N7. Original keyboard needed replacing IMMEDIATELY, but no surprise there. Now using A.I.Type's Float-N-Split Keyboard For Tablets which has many great options and makes it much more comfortable to SMS in Landscape mode.

I received the OTA update to 4.2.2 soon after I powered the N7 up. Since then not a lot else has needed messing with, other than the usual settling in and re-arranging the furniture type nesting stuff. On my Galaxy S2 -- stuck on 2.6.3 thanks to my braindead carrier -- I had dumped the stock launcher pretty quickly in favour of (eventually) ADW which had a lot of features I liked. I'm pleased to see that 4.2.2 has incorporated most of those features so the push to re-launchify the thing isn't nearly what I expected it would be.

Another boon is excellent battery life. I'm gettting close to 10 hours of hard use on it which is pretty amazing! As much as I loved the SGS2 it REALLY sucked up battery when you were online and I found myself staying close to power outlets or suchlike just out of habit. I even bought a big fat brick of a portable battery -- 12,000 mah or whatever it is -- for recharging in emergencies while out and about. Don't think I'll need to worry about such with the N7, not that I'll be whipping it out every 2 minutes like I did with the my smartphone.

Two slight grumbles I do have though:

1. 
   
   *]with the stock OS the N7 won't talk to external memory which is sucky because it's (apparently) a totally arbitrary limitation. FWICT if you root the thing you can now talk to external memory. So why the "stock no talk" BS? Seems like some sort of "user management" crap to me. In the end though I don't much care, I had planned to root anyway so there you go.
2. data but no voice on 3G. Again, apparently you can cobble together some hacky sh*t once you've rooted but it's still a sucky limitation. Not that I'm going to be holding the slate up to my head or anything but allowing voice via a Bluetooth headset or somesuch might've been an elegant solution. I guess we'll see what I feel compelled to try and hack into the thing as time goes on.

Only other minor grumble is that the sound on the N7 seems rather tinny to me, not even as good as my SGS2 was. Not a show stopper but something you do notice.

Of course I miss having a camera on board but then snapshots with a slate would be almost as cumbersome as holding the thing up to your head to talk. Anyway, a camera-phone is a camera-phone and a tablet is a tablet, or so I've learned. Again, I'll have to see over time how much I actually miss it and what I feel compelled to do about it. Might even be time to look at the current state of
compact digital cameras again, who knows.

Anyway, if anyone has thoughts or questions of a tablety nature I'm all ears.

MAXD, all I can say you are a real GEEK if I ever met(read) one. Anyway brilliant info altho I did not understand 1/2 of the lingo One question. My 7 year old grand daughter have an old IPOD orIPAD I still donr know the diff but she isw Screaming for a new one . Is this N7 too advanced for her Needless to say she is pretty smart if it is a dumb question I am n ot embarassed thanks

 

[maxd]

I'm geeky enough to take being called a geek as a compliment, so thank you.

I'd say that if your grand-daughter has an iPad she'll have no problems at all with the N7 though it's not obvious to me why she'd want it since the iPad is no toy, it's quite a capable like piece of kit as far as I know. I have to admit though I've never actually used an iPad or any other iThingy for that matter. I come from the PC world and long ago swore off anything with the Apple logo on it.

If she's just using a little thing that plays music and such then yeah, the N7 might be an overly large step up. The good news though is that there are a number of tablets aimed specifically at kids her age and they can be had for a very reasonable price. From what I've seen recently any decent computer department store will have a good selection of such devices.

 

[elrudo]

Anyway, if anyone has thoughts or questions of a tablety nature I'm all ears.

Appreciated!

My mother has an iPad but wants a smaller tablet for taking with her on vacation.
Requirements: not much more than emailing, storing and viewing holiday pictures,
browsing internet for news sites and weather. Probably want 3g for not being fully dependant on possibly bad hotel lobby wifi.
No noticeable lower quality or ease-of-use than her iPad2.

Should I get a Nexus 7 (32Gb) 3g for her or should I get an other tablet?
Is there a good reason not to go buy the tablet in Germany (cheaper, available in store) and use it here in the Netherlands?

Bonus question: know any apps that are typically useful or popular for a 75-year-old lady?

Any thoughts about the Asus fonepad?
I've read that it is basically the same as the Nexus 7 but with worse processor specs and better phone functionality.

 

[Simmo!]

I've got an iPad 3 and an N7. I use both equally: the iPad more at home for its bigger screen and nice interface although the incompatibility with windows pisses me off (particularly when transferring files from/to which is a major pita) while the N7 goes with me more as it fits in a pocket (just) and is easier to transfer files from/too. Plus it has USB which is a failing of the iPad.

Bottom line: iPad for games, photos and video; either for web stuff; the N7 for everything else, particularly if you want to share between PC and tablet (although dropbox works well for photos on any device).

 

[maxd]

... the N7 goes with me more as it fits in a pocket (just) and is easier to transfer files from/too. Plus it has USB which is a failing of the iPad.

"USB"? As in you can transfer files between the N7 and storage via your microUSB port? I've tried -- or at least I thought I had -- and the N7 didn't even see the external memory. Or are we talking a rooted N7? Do tell!

 

[homerbert]

"USB"? As in you can transfer files between the N7 and storage via your microUSB port? I've tried -- or at least I thought I had -- and the N7 didn't even see the external memory. Or are we talking a rooted N7? Do tell!

yes you can with rooted N7 100%, not sure about not rooted.

 

[maxd]

Simmo got me thinking so I poked around and found one app in the Play store -- there may be others, don't know -- which has successfully been able to see (read-only) an SD card connected to my N7 over an OTG cable. So it IS possible, non-rooted, with Nexus Media Importer by Homesoft (not a free app).

FWIW there's an app called USB Host Diagnostics by Chainfire on Play which will tell you what your USB port capabilites are plus some info about OS support for USB etc. That one is free. Chainfire is very well known in the Android community, probably the closest thing droid people have to a guardian angel.

And while we're at it Chainfire has another app, StickMount/StickMount Pro, that will apparently give full access to USB devices (via OTG cable) on rooted Nexus platforms (among others).

FTR, Wikipedia's entry for OTG:

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Standard USB uses a master/slave architecture; a host acts as the master device for the entire bus, and a USB device acts as the slave. ...

USB On-The-Go introduces the concept that a device can perform both the master and slave roles, and so subtly changes the terminology. With OTG, a device can be either a host when acting as the link master, or a peripheral when acting as the link slave. The choice of whether to be host or peripheral is handled entirely by which end of the cable the device is plugged into.

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Apparently there are actual pin differences on a OTG cable, in case anyone was wondering if it was worth spending the $2-5 to get one.

 

[Simmo!]

I guess mine must be rooted then - I'm not sure: it came from Poland lol. It just worked when I plugged a USB cable in

 

[maxd]

I guess mine must be rooted then - I'm not sure: it came from Poland lol. It just worked when I plugged a USB cable in

Cool! I'll have to start buying my stuff from Poland, rooted out of the box sounds good to me.