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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

#121

Post by corresation »

Recoil42 wrote: post #111
corresation wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand that you're giving a personal opinion, however worth noting that the average usage of tablets dramatically favors watching movies and videos over reading Word documents and PDFs. Having both Nexus 7s and an iPad, I would say that I hugely favour the former for watching movies, and they are essentially equal when browsing the web (speaking purely of the aspect ratios. Safari on the iPad is a dramatically…

>however worth noting that the average usage of tablets dramatically favors watching movies and videos over reading Word documents and PDFs. The average use also favors using the web over watching movies and videos, which works better in the 4:3 format.

which works better in the 4:3 format

The entire computer and laptop market has overwhelmingly endorsed 16:10 and 16:9, and most content correspondingly adapted. This notion that the web was built for 4:3, or is somehow superior on it, seemed to rise out of nowhere the moment Apple happened to announce the iPad as 4:3.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#122

Post by anigbrowl »

igravious wrote: post #56
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 should add that Jelly Bean was the first version of Android that I noticed to lose all traces of lagginess and be comparable response-wise to any iPhone or iPad I've used. Apple nailed this UX from the get-go, it took a while for Google to nail this I feel; also perhaps unoptimized Android devices were not helping matters. My HTC and Nexus, both with Jelly Bean are as smooth as, um, butter.

I started with a Nexus One and have purchased 5 android devices altogether. I'd consider myself a Google fanboy, and rely heavily on their service platform.

But the next tablet I get will have to be an iPad or Surface Pro, because I make music and all the tablet-based music software worth talking about is on iOS. Google largely ignored the creative market in developing Android and made no effort to address concerns about latency or similar issues. The only software of note to appear on Android in the last 2 years is Image Line's well-respected Fruity Loops audio/MIDI sequencer, but I'm so jaded that I can't be bothered to install it.

Result? A huge, thriving ecosystem of interoperable audio & MIDI apps on the iPad, with zero incentive to switch back to Android any time in the foreseeable future. Android becomes identified as a consumer-only platform, iOS as a producer platform. The number of musical artists that use an iPad is tiny compared to the overall consumer market, but artists tend to be vocal about the tools they use and are delighted to be seen using them, which I think has about 100x the PR value of any given commercial depicting actors having a good time with their consumer device.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#123

Post by purephase »

Well, that does it. I was waiting to see if BlackBerry would do something with their tablet line before the next Nexus 7 announcement and nada.

Looks like I'll have to pick one of these up.

(And, I know what the comments are going to be but the Playbook is an underrated device IMO. For the price, it has some decent specs (for it's age) and as a browser/ereader it's great, but the fact that they dropped OS10 after promising it has me peeved.)

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#125

Post by sp332 »

corresation wrote: post #121
Recoil42 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>however worth noting that the average usage of tablets dramatically favors watching movies and videos over reading Word documents and PDFs. The average use also favors using the web over watching movies and videos, which works better in the 4:3 format.

which works better in the 4:3 format The entire computer and laptop market has overwhelmingly endorsed 16:10 and 16:9, and most content correspondingly adapted. This notion that the web was built for 4:3, or is somehow superior on it, seemed to rise out of nowhere the moment Apple happened to announce the iPad as 4:3.

The web is still mainly vertical with limited horizontal space used. This is for readability, since it's hard to keep track of very long lines. Shorter screens were chosen because they are a lot cheaper to make than squarer ones. But when Google made their aspirational $1,300 web browsing computer, the Chrome Pixel, it had a 3:2 aspect ratio because that's a much better experience.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#126

Post by dfrey »

ja27 wrote: post #43
jaredmcateer wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Calling it the "Nexus 7v2" would have made sense, but "Nexus 7.2" does not because people will think that the screeen is 0.2 inches bigger than the old version.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#127

Post by mcintyre1994 »

psbp wrote: post #88
mcintyre1994 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It definitely seems to be designed for landscape - just look at the orientation of the word Nexus on the back. I'm not sure I agree about the Chromecast thing though, I think it's more that the media they want you to buy is better in landscape (possible exceptions being books, a matter of preference, and some games). Chromecast seems to be about the device specifics not really mattering, it's not a mirror so it doesn…

The youtube and netflix streaming aren't orientation specific, but the tab sharing and maybe even other media options like chrome games ( http://www.chromeexperiments.com/ ) are.

Ah, gotcha. I think I missed them demoing tablet chrome tab sharing, seems obvious it'd be included but I didn't think of it. Really neat though.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#129

Post by oscilloscope »

scott_karana wrote: post #120
cheald wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, the iPad Mini's screen is 1024-by-768/163 PPI. The first-gen N7's is 1280x800/216 ppi. The N7's screen is noticeably nicer. I can't speak to battery or speed as I haven't had a lot of hands-on time with the Mini, but I will note that the N7's slimmer aspect ratio means it fits nicely in a pocket, while the iPad Mini just plain doesn't.

Screen "niceness" constitutes far more factors than just DPI. It could be contrast ratio, colour gamut, brightness, subpixel quality, viewing angles, reflectivity of coating, susceptibility to oils/fingerprints... (I haven't used either, I'm just saying)

I've used both. I prefer the Mini's screen to the old N7: larger viewing angles, better color saturation/accuracy, less backlight bleed, smaller bezel.

The iPad Mini Retina will likely be the perfect small tablet for most users.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#130

Post by corresation »

sp332 wrote: post #125
corresation wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

which works better in the 4:3 format The entire computer and laptop market has overwhelmingly endorsed 16:10 and 16:9, and most content correspondingly adapted. This notion that the web was built for 4:3, or is somehow superior on it, seemed to rise out of nowhere the moment Apple happened to announce the iPad as 4:3.

The web is still mainly vertical with limited horizontal space used. This is for readability, since it's hard to keep track of very long lines. Shorter screens were chosen because they are a lot cheaper to make than squarer ones. But when Google made their aspirational $1,300 web browsing computer, the Chrome Pixel, it had a 3:2 aspect ratio because that's a much better experience.

That "cheaper to make" thing is based upon absolutely nothing whatsoever, likely as a repurposing of the somewhat factually based reason why 16:9 panels overtook 16:10 (though that's completely irrelevant in this context, given that the Nexus is 16:10).

Regarding the Pixel -- a device with shockingly little deployment (and whose form was driven by a lot more than the idea screen size) -- 3:2 is 1.5:1. The iPad is 1.33:1. 16:10 is 1.6:1. Meaning the Pixel is significantly closer to the ratio of the Nexus 7 than the iPad. So what now? What does that prove?

Now as to the web being "mainly vertical", the single and only place where that is true are a few spartan text blogs. Content sites are a rich cacaphony of horizontally distributed content -- Wikipedia is informational sidebars of all sorts, as an example. I find those experiences dramatically better on wider screens.

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