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Seven Days With a Nexus 7

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Re: Seven Days With a Nexus 7

#41

Post by wickedchicken »

darklajid wrote: post #29
wickedchicken wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm unable to 'fix' my data set here. Try latitude -> location history -> menu button -> change home location.

Whoa, thanks. I wasn't able to follow your instructions (I tried finding a setting like that on my mobile or the tablet, but failed), but the location history (that clicked!) website's dashboard allowed me to redefine 'home'.

> I wasn't able to follow your instructions

Sorry if they're off, apparently it's different on phone then tablet and I extrapolated from what I've heard. On phones, usually 'location history' is a drop-down menu in maps (the upper left button that says 'maps' is actually a drop-down).

Re: Seven Days With a Nexus 7

#42

Post by njs12345 »

weenis wrote: post #14
Roritharr wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you are living in one of the rare places on earth where google maps works for public transit. It's sometimes really frustrating to use technology in a place that is not the San Francisco...

Works great in Seattle as well.

For me, it's not as good as OneBusAway (although obviously the UI is much better); the bus times are a bit off for the bus I get to work.

Re: Seven Days With a Nexus 7

#43

Post by sogrady »

ConstantineXVI wrote: post #39
sogrady wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[i'm the author] i'll check out Twicca, but the primary reason i use the official client over nice alternatives like Tweet Lanes [1] is the integration with Android itself, i.e. notifications, and so on. they just keep sucking me back in. but i'm more than willing to give it a shot. [1] link to the .apk: https://t.co/rkE4sw0j

I decided to just live without Twitter notifications. Not really missing them. You can wire up ifttt to notify you via Google Talk on @s also.

that was actually one of the things i didn't like about the tablet, now that you mention it: Google Talk got turned on by default. probably just a personal preference, but i really don't want to receive IMs on a tablet.

but if you do, then you're right: the Ifttt recipe is your solution.

Re: Seven Days With a Nexus 7

#44

Post by incision »

huggyface wrote: post #24
adestefan wrote: post #2

The Nexus 7 is my first table and I'm still sitting on the fence about the whole experience. The version of Chrome is superb and it's a pleasure to surf, but there really are a lack of tablet specific Android apps. Some Android apps are also missing features present in their iOS counterparts. For example, the MLB app is very basic compared to the iOS version. I was hoping the 7 would be useful for reading PDFs, but i…

The version of Chrome is superb and it's a pleasure to surf I have to strongly disagree with all of the lauding about Chrome on Android. Chrome on Android was terrible on my Galaxy S2. Chrome on Android was terrible on my Galaxy S3. In both cases perhaps because Samsung heavily optimized the basic, unbranded browser (full hardware acceleration, etc), but also because Chrome has some bizarre rendering behaviors (for i…

"I don't understand how anyone on earth can like this because it doesn't work well for my personal use cases!!!"

Personally, I'm in line with the parent and find Chrome to be a pleasure to surf with. I've found the theverge.com to be a horrible mobile experience regardless of the browser.

Re: Seven Days With a Nexus 7

#45

Post by cpleppert »

huggyface wrote: post #24
adestefan wrote: post #2

The Nexus 7 is my first table and I'm still sitting on the fence about the whole experience. The version of Chrome is superb and it's a pleasure to surf, but there really are a lack of tablet specific Android apps. Some Android apps are also missing features present in their iOS counterparts. For example, the MLB app is very basic compared to the iOS version. I was hoping the 7 would be useful for reading PDFs, but i…

The version of Chrome is superb and it's a pleasure to surf I have to strongly disagree with all of the lauding about Chrome on Android. Chrome on Android was terrible on my Galaxy S2. Chrome on Android was terrible on my Galaxy S3. In both cases perhaps because Samsung heavily optimized the basic, unbranded browser (full hardware acceleration, etc), but also because Chrome has some bizarre rendering behaviors (for i…

The chrome(!) of the Chrome browser is one of the worst aspects. The buttons and tabs are way too small on the top. They are big enough to steal valuable screen space from the page itself but are simply too small to click reliably.

Miscellaneous issues that are shared with chrome on ios also abound. On page open, the focus doesn't manually switch to the address/search bar and requires a separate click. What a disaster. The last closed tabs are buried under the top sites that manage to be insanely hard to customize. The bookmarks cut off text and don't have any way to switch to a list view.The only redeeming feature is the ability to swipe across the screen to switch tabs.

On large pages the browser performs slowly and crawls along while Firefox beta scrolls admirably and doesn't deliver blank white spots. This way fine back in 2007 on the iphone but in 2012 it is a little ridiculous. Firefox Beta is pretty good although I would like a new tab button and some way to swipe across the screen to switch between tabs.

Flash also works fine and hq video isn't painless at all.

Re: Seven Days With a Nexus 7

#46

Post by lemieux »

Roritharr wrote: post #12
sogrady wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Especially Google Now, while certainly interesting, seems to be useless to me so far (or I just don't get it?). this is interesting, because for my usage, Google Now was one of the most useful additions in Jelly Bean. i use it all the time, and love the notifications about nearby public transit, time and distance notifications for appointments from my calendar and so on. it's pretty basic at present, but it's alrea…

I guess you are living in one of the rare places on earth where google maps works for public transit. It's sometimes really frustrating to use technology in a place that is not the San Francisco...

It works in Montreal, Canada.

Re: Seven Days With a Nexus 7

#47

Post by thought_alarm »

I haven't been terribly impressed with the Nexus 7, and it certainly hasn't changed my opinion of the 7" form factor. To get an idea of the size of this thing, hold your iPad in portrait orientation and then cover the top 55% of the screen. There's your Nexus. It's tiny.

One problem with this 7" form factor is that the portrait orientation isn't wide enough to display most regular web pages without having to zoom in and scroll around; it's just like browsing on your smartphone. I'm also struggling to find any software that wouldn't look and work in exactly the same way on a regular sized smartphone. It makes for a better e-book reader than a regular smartphone, but that's just about it.

There are some good things. This device exists almost solely to tie you into Google's on-line services, so if you're a Google user then the integration with their services is slick in a lot of places.

But I'm mostly interested in the quality of the software, and unfortunately it isn't that great, at least when compared to iOS. The browser is particularly poor, which surprised me. It's difficult if not impossible to reliably tap on small links. There's no visual indication of what you've tapped, or the indication is delayed, or that indication is completely hidden under your finger. Often you will tap on a link and a magnifier winder will pop up instead; I still haven't figured out how to trigger that. Taps may not register at all, and there's virtually no visual indication that the browser has begun loading a new page. It makes the browser seem fussy and unreliable, and consequently is not a joy to use. As a result, if I need to look something up then I'll grab my iPhone before I grab the Nexus. The browser is also missing some important iframe performance and usability improvements that appeared in iOS 5.

It's hard to argue with the price, but if you already own an Android phone then I'm not sure why you'd buy this device. And if you want to see the best of what modern tablet software can offer, you won't find it on a 7" 16:9 screen.

Re: Seven Days With a Nexus 7

#48

Post by omaranto »

thought_alarm wrote: post #47

I haven't been terribly impressed with the Nexus 7, and it certainly hasn't changed my opinion of the 7" form factor. To get an idea of the size of this thing, hold your iPad in portrait orientation and then cover the top 55% of the screen. There's your Nexus. It's tiny. One problem with this 7" form factor is that the portrait orientation isn't wide enough to display most regular web pages without having to zoom in…

The magnifier pops up only when you click on a spot that's very close to two links, you then disambiguate on the magnified links. It's perfect, I love it.

Re: Seven Days With a Nexus 7

#49

Post by incision »

huggyface wrote: post #37
adestefan wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mainly because those websites run like trash even on my desktop.

They run beautifully in Safari on the iPad. Indeed, they run quite well in Firefox (beta) on the Nexus 7. They ran quite well in the stock browser pre-JB. Those are only a couple of sample sites, but there is an endemic inefficiency of Chrome on Android that makes it unusable as a primary browser. Metacritic -- forget about it. I could go on and on. I have to think that people who like Chrome on Android must actually…

Get over yourself.

You're a web browsing snob of discerning and demanding tastes, we get it.

It's plainly evident by your own admission that the browser is widely lauded in the first post that Chrome on Android is not unusable. Your self-aggrandizing generalization about "people who like Chrome" and the "ghetto of mobile" sites is ridiculous.

Honestly, you should be happy. If your favorite places on the web keep rendering poorly in Chrome it will surely keep your requests from mingling with those of undesirables in the cache.

Re: Seven Days With a Nexus 7

#50

Post by omaranto »

huggyface wrote: post #24
adestefan wrote: post #2

The Nexus 7 is my first table and I'm still sitting on the fence about the whole experience. The version of Chrome is superb and it's a pleasure to surf, but there really are a lack of tablet specific Android apps. Some Android apps are also missing features present in their iOS counterparts. For example, the MLB app is very basic compared to the iOS version. I was hoping the 7 would be useful for reading PDFs, but i…

The version of Chrome is superb and it's a pleasure to surf I have to strongly disagree with all of the lauding about Chrome on Android. Chrome on Android was terrible on my Galaxy S2. Chrome on Android was terrible on my Galaxy S3. In both cases perhaps because Samsung heavily optimized the basic, unbranded browser (full hardware acceleration, etc), but also because Chrome has some bizarre rendering behaviors (for i…

I second your observation about Chrome randomly choosing text sizes for each paragraph on HN and Reddit, it is horrible enough I decided to get apps for those two on the Nexus 7 while on my android phone I preferred visiting the websites in the stock browser (for reddit, I used the mobile version of the website, which is great).
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