So... do you like the Nexus 7...?

[Icyculyr]

It's got a 720p 7 inch IPS display, 8GB of storage, quad-core Tegra 3 processor, up to 8 hours of battery life, it weighs 340g, and it starts at $199. You also get a $25 credit in the Google Play store, AND the movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon. And best of all: it's running Jelly Bean. So you can pop one out whenever you want.

You also get other free content I think, though I don't know what. It could just be a small rodent, or something, you never know.

Nexus 7

It's Apple's best iPad so far.

[honeybee]

Nice way of blasting it. But it's still cool and cheap. Maybe in another two years I may want to upgrade to it.

.

[baja_yu]

I love how fanboys actually think that Apple invented the tablet concept and keep referring to every other tablet as a copy of iPad.

[abhijit]

[SJWhiteley]

Picture 1: didn't work as advertised.
Picture 2: worked better than advertised.
Picture 3: won't work as advertised.

[Shaggy Hiker]

The story goes MUCH further back than that. I remember hearing that the tablet PC would be the next big thing back in the early 90s. It resurfaced every few years from then on, and was always a stupid idea. The reason it seems to be catching on now is that society has sunk to the level where the tablet looks good. Our approach to technology appears to resemble dating in the bar scene: The longer we wait, the lower our standards for what we spend money on.

[dilettante]

Is it better than a Nexus 6?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSQdEkcm6zs

[Icyculyr]

Nice way of blasting it. But it's still cool and cheap. Maybe in another two years I may want to upgrade to it.

.

I wasn't blasting it, I actually like it. I'd probably buy one if I didn't already have an iPad. It's definitely the best Android slate available today, in my opinion at least. It's a bargain at $199.

I love how fanboys actually think that Apple invented the tablet concept and keep referring to every other tablet as a copy of iPad.

That wasn't what I was saying. I literally meant to convey that I thought Apple had made the Google Nexus 7 -- an "Apple distortion field" joke.

1) Low powered hardware, heavy weight OS, poor quality display, low amount of physical storage, runs apps designed for a mouse and keyboard, and has shocking battery life. And don't forget the stylus requirement. No doubt expensive. Is heavy and thick.

2) Hardware capable of running iOS, lightweight OS, great quality display, acceptable amount of flash storage, runs apps designed for touch, has brilliant battery life. Not too expensive. And they're able to do that because the technology was in place, but Apple got to it first and had exclusivity for nearly nine or ten months. Is thin and light.

3) Decent hardware, heavyweight OS though better suited than previous versions, great quality display, acceptable amount of flash storage, runs apps designed for touch and normal x86 apps, is heavy and has okay battery life. Thin. Very expensive. ARM version is similar, though lighter and has better battery life.

The story goes MUCH further back than that. I remember hearing that the tablet PC would be the next big thing back in the early 90s. It resurfaced every few years from then on, and was always a stupid idea. The reason it seems to be catching on now is that society has sunk to the level where the tablet looks good. Our approach to technology appears to resemble dating in the bar scene: The longer we wait, the lower our standards for what we spend money on.

I think there was a mockup of a tablet PC in the 60's. The reason it's working now is that the technology to build these kinds of devices is present, whereas in 2002 it wasn't.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I think there was a mockup of a tablet PC in the 60's.

That was the Etch-a-sketch.

The reason it's working now is that the technology to build these kinds of devices is present, whereas in 2002 it wasn't.

I disagree. The early tablets were all sold with the idea that you could write on it like you would on paper. Every one of them talked about that like it was a great thing. They all foundered because that was actually a fantastically stupid idea. Nobody who can type has any desire to write, because they can type FAR faster than they can write (and they can read what they wrote, too). What that means is that they were being sold on being used for creation, but that's not what they are good at. These days, tablets are all about consumption. While there are a few apps that allow masochists to create on a tablet, the vast majority of uses for tablets are for consumption exclusively. Content creation on a tablet is minimal, at best, which is why the early tablets missed the mark. Content creation was the point of early PCs, but content consumption has become the predominant use, with few people doing any significant creation.

[dilettante]

Ahh, so modern tablets are just so much more pap for the masses... like football, lotteries, etc.

Another way to suck the life out of personal financial resources.

[Nightwalker83]

I disagree. The early tablets were all sold with the idea that you could write on it like you would on paper. Every one of them talked about that like it was a great thing. They all foundered because that was actually a fantastically stupid idea. Nobody who can type has any desire to write, because they can type FAR faster than they can write (and they can read what they wrote, too).

It's a wonder they don't change the curriculum in school so instead of learning your ABCs you learn your ASCIIs.

[Shaggy Hiker]

It's a wonder they don't change the curriculum in school so instead of learning your ABCs you learn your ASCIIs.

You may be joking, but I think there is an element of truth to that. I think that typing should be taught at a VERY young age. It is probably the single most valuable ancillary skill a person can pick up for the modern world. At one point, typing was taught as a primary skill for secretarial work, but these days, EVERYBODY uses keyboards. While typing isn't a primary skill for most people, it is as valuable as penmanship, if not more so.

[baja_yu]

Back to Nexus 7. I like what I see and will probably be getting one.

[honeybee]

... At one point, typing was taught as a primary skill for secretarial work, but these days, EVERYBODY uses keyboards.

I am surprised to see people underestimating this skill just because typewriters have gone out of fashion. They seldom pause to think that they still use QWERTY keyboards.

On a separate note, I can't figure out why the number layout of a calculator is different from a PC keyboard's numpad (or vice versa).

Back to Nexus 7. I like what I see and will probably be getting one.

This ain't fair. You can't come back to the original point before thirty posts. This is Chit Chat!

But yes, at $199, even with the depreciating Rupee, it looks sweet.

.

[techgnome]

"the number layout of a calculator is different from a PC keyboard's numpad " -- it is not... I even pulled up a calculator jsut to check... top row on both: 789 second row: 456 third row: 123 .... now on a PHONE... the layout is flipped, with 123 on the top, 456 on the second and 789 on the third... which is a little confusing sometimes when I'm trying to use the keypad when dialing on my VoIP system...

-tg

[baja_yu]

If you take the dialpad of a phone in question, it's 2 to 1, so the numpad is the odd man out.

EDIT: Hah! Good catch tech, I too forgot the layout of a calculator. So a phone is the black sheep here.

[techgnome]

well, if you think about it.... calculators were built for bean-counters... which have always been an odd bunch... the numeric key pad is an extension of that, so it makes sense those are the same... the phone on the other hand was built for the common person, which thinks in order, 1,2,3,4,5,6....

-tg

[dilettante]

Actually it was probably adapted from rotary dials, where 1 is first.

[Icyculyr]

That was the Etch-a-sketch.

Haha no, this was much bigger and black with a thin bezel. Essentially an iPad the size of a newspaper page, but with a smaller bezel.

I disagree. The early tablets were all sold with the idea that you could write on it like you would on paper. Every one of them talked about that like it was a great thing. They all foundered because that was actually a fantastically stupid idea. Nobody who can type has any desire to write, because they can type FAR faster than they can write (and they can read what they wrote, too). What that means is that they were being sold on being used for creation, but that's not what they are good at. These days, tablets are all about consumption. While there are a few apps that allow masochists to create on a tablet, the vast majority of uses for tablets are for consumption exclusively. Content creation on a tablet is minimal, at best, which is why the early tablets missed the mark. Content creation was the point of early PCs, but content consumption has become the predominant use, with few people doing any significant creation.

Oh I agree with that, but even if they were sold as such they could still be used for other purposes such as content consumption and light use, but the hardware just wasn't there to support any of it. And the software wasn't either -- it's not practical to use apps designed for a keyboard and mouse on a small touch screen.

Back to Nexus 7. I like what I see and will probably be getting one.

Yep. It's the only Android slate I've ever seen that I'd actually buy in a heart beat. Great display, SoC, weight, battery life, price, it's almost perfect.

[InvisibleDuncan]

1) Low powered hardware, heavy weight OS, poor quality display, low amount of physical storage, runs apps designed for a mouse and keyboard, and has shocking battery life. And don't forget the stylus requirement. No doubt expensive. Is heavy and thick.

2) Hardware capable of running iOS, lightweight OS, great quality display, acceptable amount of flash storage, runs apps designed for touch, has brilliant battery life. Not too expensive. And they're able to do that because the technology was in place, but Apple got to it first and had exclusivity for nearly nine or ten months. Is thin and light.

That's the difference that 8 years of hardware and software innovation makes. The fact remains that the tablet wasn't Apple's idea, much as they might like to claim otherwise.

[Shaggy Hiker]

And the software wasn't either -- it's not practical to use apps designed for a keyboard and mouse on a small touch screen.

It's worse than that. When I think back on all that has changed since the early 90s (when I was in grad school, so it doesn't seem all that long ago to me), I'm just amazed. Pretty much all that is in our technological vocabulary has arrived in the last decade. All the social media, the fact that no ad exists without www on it somewhere, the very concept of streaming content, and so on.

A person in the 80s watching a movie from the 40s would think that the techology in the movie was a bit quaint, but still quite recognizable. I was just watching a movie from the 70s. The whole plot couldn't work today. If one person wanted to call another, they had to find a payphone that worked, and they couldn't call from the road. That meant that people went silent for long periods of time, and entire plots could develop while a person was driving from one state to another. These days, we expect a MUCH higher level of communication. It's pretty jarring. Somebody who has grown up in the last decade might not be able to quite grasp the plot of a movie just a couple decades old.

[FunkyDexter]

That's nothing new. The plot to Jacobs Ladder was as unfathomable 30 years ago as it is now.

I know what you mean though. The funniest this is looking at old films set in the future and seeing how wide of the mark they were.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I recently saw a SERIOUSLY old film that was remarkably on target. At the moment, the name eludes me, but it came out just after WW I, and speculated quite a long time into the future. It started with a war that dragged on for 20-40 years and largely knocked humanity back to the stone age from which it built up and entered the space age. They missed the whole miniaturization, since they speculated on MASSIVE machines, which made sense for that time, but some of their scenes (and most of the clothing) would have fit pretty well in the 70s.

[Icyculyr]

That's the difference that 8 years of hardware and software innovation makes. The fact remains that the tablet wasn't Apple's idea, much as they might like to claim otherwise.

They weren't the first to think of it and they weren't the first to make it either, but they were the first to make it the right way. Using ARM processors and mobile software built from the ground up for touch. They re-invented it and made it viable.

It's worse than that. When I think back on all that has changed since the early 90s (when I was in grad school, so it doesn't seem all that long ago to me), I'm just amazed. Pretty much all that is in our technological vocabulary has arrived in the last decade. All the social media, the fact that no ad exists without www on it somewhere, the very concept of streaming content, and so on.

Indeed. My folks tell me about when they were in their 20's and 30's and there were no mobile phones, few computers, etc., it's mind blowing. Even looking back at the GPUs available ten years ago... they were shockingly weak. They've improved so much... CPUs, storage, all of it... all in the last decade really like you say.

A person in the 80s watching a movie from the 40s would think that the techology in the movie was a bit quaint, but still quite recognizable. I was just watching a movie from the 70s. The whole plot couldn't work today. If one person wanted to call another, they had to find a payphone that worked, and they couldn't call from the road. That meant that people went silent for long periods of time, and entire plots could develop while a person was driving from one state to another. These days, we expect a MUCH higher level of communication. It's pretty jarring. Somebody who has grown up in the last decade might not be able to quite grasp the plot of a movie just a couple decades old.

That's true. It's crazy

[Shaggy Hiker]

I forgot my cell phone today on my 27 mile bike commute to work. I realized I had forgotten it about half way to the office (about an hour into the ride), and was temporarily perplexed. Without the cell phone I didn't know more than one or two numbers of ANYBODY. I couldn't even call my office, though I could call the office I used to work out of. Therefore, if I broke down, I realized I would be hard pressed to do anything about it. I could walk to a store and hope that they had a phone book, but since phone books don't print cell numbers, there would be a fair chance that I STILL wouldn't be able to reach any of my friends.

Very strange world we live in.

[honeybee]

I saw 'The Gods Must Be Crazy' today on cable. The empty soft drinks bottle dropped into a Bushman pack creates so much trouble. That's the kind of life which actually may be better than the rat race we are living in. People spend so much time on phone and facebook they will soon forget the art of face to face communication.

.

[dilettante]

I saw 'The Gods Must Be Crazy' today on cable.

The sequel is pretty good too. Lots of lessons for us all there, and some good laughs along the way. Sexy babe doesn't hurt either.

[dilettante]

The whole plot couldn't work today. If one person wanted to call another, they had to find a payphone that worked, and they couldn't call from the road. That meant that people went silent for long periods of time, and entire plots could develop while a person was driving from one state to another. These days, we expect a MUCH higher level of communication. It's pretty jarring. Somebody who has grown up in the last decade might not be able to quite grasp the plot of a movie just a couple decades old.

I do quite a bit of travel where there is no cellphone coverage for good stretches of highway or back road and often none at all at my destination. You could use the same plot devices by dealing with location.

[Shaggy Hiker]

What country? Much of the state I live in has no cell coverage, but most of the US is not like that.

[dilettante]

A lot of upper and even parts of lower Michigan are still dead spots. Wilderness, government forests, or just too small a population.

[Nightwalker83]

You may be joking, but I think there is an element of truth to that. I think that typing should be taught at a VERY young age. It is probably the single most valuable ancillary skill a person can pick up for the modern world. At one point, typing was taught as a primary skill for secretarial work, but these days, EVERYBODY uses keyboards. While typing isn't a primary skill for most people, it is as valuable as penmanship, if not more so.

I was actually thinking they should give it a shot.

[dilettante]

With Windows 8 spelling the end of conventional computing anyway, maybe all they need to learn are flicks and gestures.

[Icyculyr]

With Windows 8 spelling the end of conventional Windows computing anyway, maybe all they need to learn are flicks and gestures.

Fixed

[Shaggy Hiker]

I rather suspect that the world will provide a gesture, based on what I have heard about Windows 8.

Oddly, System 8 spelled the demise of the original Apple OS, as well.

[Blakk_Majik]

At $199, the Nexus 7 is interesting for sure.

However, such low internal storage (without the option to expand it via microSD) will ultimately deter any plans I had on purchasing it.

I realize Google is an internet company (duh!), but they don't seem to understand that there are people out there that don't want to stream everything. Wi-fi is not nearly ubiquitous enough to reasonably assume people will have an internet connection wherever they go.

As such, there should have been a more ample storage option. I can fill up 16gb with my music collection alone. What if I want to take a couple of movies with me? Photos?

Further, there is a Tegra3, which means it should play some pretty sick games. Unfortunately, these games can take up massive amounts of space (1gb+), so now you are restricted there as well.

Looks like I'll be hanging on to my Motorola XOOM (32gb internal + microSD slot) a while longer.

[Icyculyr]

I rather suspect that the world will provide a gesture, based on what I have heard about Windows 8.

Oddly, System 8 spelled the demise of the original Apple OS, as well.

I can definitely think of a few gestures that suit Windows 8 lol...

At $199, the Nexus 7 is interesting for sure.

However, such low internal storage (without the option to expand it via microSD) will ultimately deter any plans I had on purchasing it.

I realize Google is an internet company (duh!), but they don't seem to understand that there are people out there that don't want to stream everything. Wi-fi is not nearly ubiquitous enough to reasonably assume people will have an internet connection wherever they go.

As such, there should have been a more ample storage option. I can fill up 16gb with my music collection alone. What if I want to take a couple of movies with me? Photos?

Further, there is a Tegra3, which means it should play some pretty sick games. Unfortunately, these games can take up massive amounts of space (1gb+), so now you are restricted there as well.

Looks like I'll be hanging on to my Motorola XOOM (32gb internal + microSD slot) a while longer.

I think they've done this to restrict it. It seems to be a book reader / web browser to me, with enough room for a movie or two or a few games.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I can definitely think of a few gestures that suit Windows 8 lol...

Yeah, I kind of expect the world to unite in one gesture for that one.

[Blakk_Majik]

I think they've done this to restrict it. It seems to be a book reader / web browser to me, with enough room for a movie or two or a few games.

Well, the conventional wisdom is that Google is essentially trying to position the Nexus 7 as a Kindle Fire replacement. So, the initial selling point is that it's more powerful and runs pure Android.

The problem with this is the integration with Amazon's content. If Amazon only sold digital music, it'd be easy to switch. However, Books (I realize there is a generic "Kindle" app for Android), Mags, Movies/TV shows, etc. all have DRM, and most of that stuff cannot just be (at least, not easily) transferred to a different device.

The only group this device will appeal to is that group that want an Android tablet and either A.) Don't already have one with more features or B.) Have a Kindle Fire that is only used for web browsing and listening to music.

The market for the Nexus 7 is very small, and it makes me wonder if Google is really doing enough product, market and consumer behavior research before coming out with these devices.

[kregg]

I've got the Nexus 7, and I am in fact typing from one right now.

The device is lovely. Nice and small so that one can easily hold in one hand. Typing is ridiculously easy nine portrait mode, landscape mode however required me to get SwiftKey for tablet app since Google's very own keyboard doesn't split in landscape mode, while SwiftKey does. Reading media on it is pleasant enough as it feels about the same size of a book.

I can understand why people are going nuts over tablets now, as I'm one of those people who turn on the computer to read rss feeds, and as far as I'm concerned, it is a fantastic media consumption device.

Battery life is wonderful. I've managed to get a full day out of the battery with a quarter of the battery life left. The storage space is, admittedly, somewhat limited without a sd card expansion, but it doesn't spoil the Nexus 7 for me. I currently have the 16gb model, so that's perhaps why.

Funnily enough, I haven't seen too many apps that aren't designed for the tablet. The area is feel that needs improvement on the android store is reddit apps, as they either do tablet optimisation horribly (reddit is fun) or not at all (reddit sync). The other apps I've seen that haven't catered for Android tablets is funnily enough the guardian app, which blasted the Nexus 7 and then gave it 4 out of 5 stars (???) and the BBC news/iPlayer apps. Not too fussed as I could probably browse iPlayer on chrome instead.

Speaking of chrome, it looks like the real deal on the tablet. It actually looks like the desktop application, which makes it incredibly familiar to use. It also comes with adobe flash, especially when adobe went on record to ditch flash on android, so that's nice. I will be able to watch nostalgia critic videos and zero punctuation vids!

Videos are nice in hd. The speakers aren't going to shake the house down, but it's loud enough to hear your videos in a noisy room.

Gaming is fantastic on the Nexus 7. It actually made me realise how uncomfortable playing gta3 on my phone was, as half of my hand was covering the phone. With the Nexus 7, the screen is large enough not to be engulfed by my hands, but small enough to be able to hold and enjoy games on.

Reading books is a nice, standard affair. Nothing too amazing, but it does what you expect it to do. Reading comics with the comixology app is a lovely experience, as you can read the page like normal or if you find some text hard to read, and you can pinch and zoom, unlike my phone, which always needs pinch to zoom in order to read anything.

If I had to say one bad thing about the Nexus 7, it would be the lack of 3g can dampen the fun of wanting to carry the Nexus around with you, but I can imagine the Nexus battery life would be dead rather quickly and have a higher price.

For the price, if you are an android fan and haven't got a tablet or want a new one, I cannot recommended this enough. It is just a bundle of joy that I've become obsessed with, constantly stuck to the Nexus 7 like a bad habit. I honestly don't know if some apple fans may like this since there might be something that they are used to on iOS that they might be different or in fact missing from Android, but if you are interested, give it a go whenever you can.

[Icyculyr]

Thanks for the info! It sounds pretty good.

Though I'm afraid flash won't work for long I think, as it's being discontinued for mobile devices.