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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

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And what's the price difference? :P

Yeah, this is the thing I could never get my head around. I know that the iPad mini is superior in many ways, but I just can't see how people can justify spending the extra money! The iPad mini is £110 - £190 more expensive, depending on which size you get. That's just too much IMHO.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#153

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.

I won't make baseless claims about "the average user," but I personally very rarely maximize a browser window on a desktop or laptop monitor. The aspect ratio of a PC monitor is, to me, much less relevant than for a tablet, because tablet displays are much smaller and most tablet platforms focus on fullscreen apps.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 muc…

I got a dirt cheap clone (I don't remember how much exactly ) from a Chinese reseller from Amazon UK and the screen was crap ^shudder^ and the touchscreen had a glitch ^double shudder^ but it was Android and it was reasonably quick. These things you really need to try before you buy. There's another thread here about the potential slowdown issue. Same'll happen to a Mac or PC I reckon after a while. I've not noticed…

Aye, the cheap one is fine for the specific purpose (testing those issues in the stock android browser an a cheap device) but would be infuriatingly slow for my day-to-day use of the Nexus 7. The slowdown I've noticed is only really when I'm asking it to do more than one thing at once (usually updating apps while browsing heavy pages or stating other apps) which is fairly rare anyway so I'm not particularly concerned ATM.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

It's a bit surprising that sound latency on Android is as bad as it is. It's not just apps for audio production that suffers, most any kind of audio toy is useless.

For people who want to tinker with audio on Android, it's possible to swap AudioFlinger with PulseAudio[1] for lower latency (20ms vs 176ms)[2], but so far you have to build and flash your own AOSP image, so it's not exactly plug and play.

[1]: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Ports/An...

[2]: http://arunraghavan.net/2012/01/pulseaudio-vs-audioflinger-f...

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#156
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,…

Note that the previous Nexus 7 with mobile doesn't allow tethering, and/or obeys carrier requests to not tether, something they didn't advertise at all last time. The Nexus devices are advertised as open but they simply are not a general purpose computer. I can't wait until Ubuntu and Firefox are common on mobile platforms.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#157
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I do the tethering thing with the Galaxy Nexus. There really is no need for a dedicated modem in the tablet, at least not in my case. I think one reason consumers prefer devices with their own modems is (intentional?) UI friction which makes "tethering" less convenient. In stock Android you cannot configure a device such that it will "use wireless if available, tether if not," which is what you really want to happen.…

Do you use such app? Could you point me to it?

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#158

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.

Laptops and desktops are (almost) always in landscape mode, don't have to deal with virtual keyboards occasionally taking up large parts of the screen and have subtly (and not so subtly) different use cases.

I agree with the point that content providers adapt but it's not a case of what's right for one type of content, it's what's good for one type of content on a specific device type, possibly in a specific situation.

(Worth noting that Apple certainly don't believe 4:3 is some universal "right" ratio - the iPhone 5 is 16:9 as are Macs, 4:3 is only the aspect ratio for the iPad)

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#159

The biggest advantage of Nexus over iPad is the plastic back that the Nexus have. I hate, absolute hate, loate the meta back of iPad. It sends shivers down my body everytime I touch it.

Same here!

Specifically, although I am not bothered by the exteriors of an early-2011 iPad and a mid-2011 Mac mini, I returned a mid-2013 Macbook Air because it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up to touch its aluminum-alloy exterior.

About when was the iPad that you hate made?

My email is in my profile. If you give me a way to contact you, I would update you on any new information I get about this issue.

Re: Google Unveils The New Nexus 7 Android Tablet

#160
post #12

Pretty boring spec increase. If they were an OEM they'd have to try to distinguish themselves, but it isn't life or death for them, so I suppose a boring entry is par for the course. They aren't even keeping pace with Samsung's IR camera gesture support or HTC's all metal body and TV remote capability we're seeing on phones.

Selling stuff on the specs is a bit 2005. Part of the reasons I moved away from Windows was I was bored of machines with higher and higher specs getting no faster in any way that mattered to me as the OS kept sucking the extra resource.

Other than the storage capacity (and even then I want to know what's usable cough Surface cough not what's on the hardware) just tell me what I can do with it and make it work well, the rest is frankly marketing bullshit.

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