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Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

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Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#41

Post by derekp7 »

rayiner wrote: post #7

Not so psyched to see that it's still got a 16:10 screen. One of the things I love about my iPad mini is that it's actually usable in portrait mode for reading PDFs and Word documents on the go. That said, I'm hoping the increased screen resolution will make it practical to just zoom out a bit more and just hold the device closer to my face... Also really happy to see the LTE. I think having LTE on the go is crucial,…

I recently (just a few days ago) picked up the 9 inch tablet from B&N (Nook HD+) just for reading PDFs. After zooming in to trim off the margins, I find them very readable on this device (similar resolution to the new Nexus 7).

Question, however, about the need for LTE on a tablet. Assuming you have your phone with you normally, why not just use your phone's hotspot feature to get the tablet online? Or, turn on bluetooth tethering if you want to have your tablet online all the time, with minimal power drain.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#42

Post by dspillett »

igravious wrote: post #29

Like many of you here I have a Nexus 7. I got it as a present cuz I didn't see why I'd need a tablet what with having a smartphone and nice laptop. I could never justify the price of an iPad cuz I'm not really that well off. The Nexus 7 is a joy to use. It's light, the screen is great - it's quick (I got my daughter a Kindle Fire and sometimes you can see that device straining a bit: eg. load times on Despicable Me (…

I'm very happy with mine too - I only got it after I bought a dirt cheap 7" Android device for testing purposes (a client was reporting issues on one of their applications with users who were using Android devices) and realised that "if this wasn't dog slow and had higher resolution it would be the perfect thing for some of my work/play needs".

I have noticed it seems to be feeling slower over time, though not so much so that I've made an effort to look into it, particularly when starting larger apps or updating apps in the background while doing something else.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#43

Post by ja27 »

jaredmcateer wrote: post #28
Apocryphon wrote: post #14

So they're going to keep the number at 7 to continue the Blade Runner reference? So it's really the 2013 Nexus 7.

Their naming convention is based on flooring the size of the device, not iteration: Nexus 4 - 4.7" phone Nexus 7 - 7" tablet Nexus 10 - 10.1" tablet

I wish they'd called it the Nexus 7.2 or something more distinctive.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#44

Post by ansible »

rorrr2 wrote: post #26

I wonder if they ever resolved the storage deterioration problem. "One year later, the Nexus 7 has gone from the best to worst tablet I’ve ever owned" http://androidandme.com/2013/06/opinions/one-year-later-the-...

For people who are experiencing that kind of problem...

If you've rooted your device, you have several things to try to see what is going on exactly. One key thing to look at would be the 'dmesg' output. If there are a lot of read/write errors to the internal eMMC storage, then that probably indicates a hardware problem. If that isn't happening, and 'logcat' also doesn't show anything suspicious, then maybe do a full backup (like with Titanium Backup). After that, you can try to clear the caches and see if that helps. If you're still having problems, then maybe it is time to try a full factory wipe, which will erase all your data.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#45

Post by deelowe »

rorrr2 wrote: post #26

I wonder if they ever resolved the storage deterioration problem. "One year later, the Nexus 7 has gone from the best to worst tablet I’ve ever owned" http://androidandme.com/2013/06/opinions/one-year-later-the-...

Both my n7 and galaxy nexus have this type of problem. It seemed to start when I got close to using up all the available storage(due to google music caching). I cleared up some space(down to 30% used) and the issue has persisted. No recent updates have fixed the issue. On my GN, it's so bad that using google now, the navigation confirmation times out before it ever shows the dialog. Also, sometimes pages refuse to load in chrome and a hard reset is all that will fix it. It's a real issue, but not everyone seems to have the problem. This leads me to think it's probably hardware related(memory bin/batch perhaps?).

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#47

Post by incision »

I wonder, can we expect another line-up shuffle towards the end of the year? I'm not itching to upgrade my N7 16GB, but I have someone in mind to pass it down to.

I'm on an unlimited plan with Verizon, if I could run multiple devices on the same plan without a premium I'd be highly inclined toward the LTE model.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#48

Post by dspillett »

derekp7 wrote: post #41
rayiner wrote: post #7

Not so psyched to see that it's still got a 16:10 screen. One of the things I love about my iPad mini is that it's actually usable in portrait mode for reading PDFs and Word documents on the go. That said, I'm hoping the increased screen resolution will make it practical to just zoom out a bit more and just hold the device closer to my face... Also really happy to see the LTE. I think having LTE on the go is crucial,…

I recently (just a few days ago) picked up the 9 inch tablet from B&N (Nook HD+) just for reading PDFs. After zooming in to trim off the margins, I find them very readable on this device (similar resolution to the new Nexus 7). Question, however, about the need for LTE on a tablet. Assuming you have your phone with you normally, why not just use your phone's hotspot feature to get the tablet online? Or, turn on bluet…

Bluetooth tethering seems to be something phones don't bother to support (Windows phones don't as far as I can tell, and some but not all Android devices do).

I tether via WiFi rather than paying extra for a tablet with its own cell radio (and paying extra for a separate data account for it) - I carry an "emergency" battery that is enough to cover those occasions when I need to use it long enough for it to kill the phone's battery (though others may find that inconvenient).

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#49

Post by igravious »

deelowe wrote: post #45
rorrr2 wrote: post #26

I wonder if they ever resolved the storage deterioration problem. "One year later, the Nexus 7 has gone from the best to worst tablet I’ve ever owned" http://androidandme.com/2013/06/opinions/one-year-later-the-...

Both my n7 and galaxy nexus have this type of problem. It seemed to start when I got close to using up all the available storage(due to google music caching). I cleared up some space(down to 30% used) and the issue has persisted. No recent updates have fixed the issue. On my GN, it's so bad that using google now, the navigation confirmation times out before it ever shows the dialog. Also, sometimes pages refuse to lo…

Do you know how to run logcat[1] after connecting a USB cable and enabling USB ebugging and downloading and install Android SDK? It's not that hard. You may see some error messages in the output. That might give you a clue.

Otherwise back everything up (this is not that hard at all) and do a reset. If you navigate to Google Play on a PC you'll see a list of your devices and have a history of all the apps you ever installed and you can reinstall them remotely from the PC. It's cool to see them pushed from the PC through the cloud to your mobile device. Just make sure to back up your contacts (should be automatic by Google I've found, don't ask me how ... but anyway you can make a backup to be sure to be sure by going into contacts and playing around), your SMSes (I use SMS backup app for this to do this automatically), any pics (though you should be using dropbox to do this automatically) and so on.

I'm not saying that this should be happening. It's crap that it is. Maybe Android is the new Windows. Quick ... defrag!

[1] http://developer.android.com/tools/help/logcat.html

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#50

Post by _delirium »

happycube wrote: post #33
morsch wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there anything with better bang/buck available? I must admit I haven't really looked since the Nexus 7 always seemed extraordinary in that regard. Same for the Nexus 4. Maybe I'm victim to some new kind of RDF.

Arguably the Nook HD+, which is at this moment $139 new on eBay. Downside is it's a bit of an orphan already, and the hardware is quite a bit older.

I was tempted by the Nook HD or HD+ clearance pricing, but apart from being generally older hardware, the lack of GPS and lack of a camera make it not worth the ~$60 savings to me. Those may not matter if you use the tablet only as a reading/gaming device though.
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