Tablets experiences w/tablets, wait for iPad mini or get Nexus 7/A.F HD...? GPS. prob/questio

[mtnbikerva1]

Opinions and wisdom about Nexus 7 vs other 7 inch tablets.
Problems with either? I have watched and read some reviews.
What say you that own these products?
What do you do if you have questions or problems with the non Apple products?
If I buy the Nexus or some other and then the iPad 7 inch comes out do you think I could get a good sell value for the N7 or Fire HD, etc.
I need a light weight and small enough to fit in the cargo pocket of my North Face and REI convertible pants.
I do not have any non apple stuff yet. Mac Pro and 4s is what I have now.
The 4s is too SMALL a screen!!
I need something to search the web and watch videos on when I have down time at work.
Also what is your experience with using it as a GPS in the car?
I would think a big screen would be great for GPS use in the car while traveling to unknown and known places.
Thank you and good day to you.

 

[knucklehead]

I just bought a Nexus 7 a couple of days ago, and I pretty happy with it.
One of the main justifications I used for adding it to my iPad 3, was to have a more portable large screen GPS device primarily for off-road use (hiking, mountain biking, etc...). BackCountry Navigator Pro looks like a great app for that purpose, and the $200 overall cost seems like a bargain even if that was the only thing the device was capable of.
I doubt I'll be using it much as an in car navigator, as it would mean repurchasing an app like Navigon (which I already have on my iPad) to make it really functional for that purpose.
Most stores you buy it at have a 15 day return policy, so if Apple announces something soon that looks worthwhile, you can return it. Could also probably sell it pretty easy with a small loss.
It's certainly small and light compared to the iPad! Will fit in most back pockets, and just about any cargo pocket ... except for the length. That's mostly a problem with the cargo pockets -- I have several, including some REI hikers -- they all come just a hair short of being able to close the flap. Very unfortunate.
I'm real happy with how well it easily integrates with my Apple ecosystem. Kindle and various other readers, Dropbox, 1Password, BoxCryptor, etc..., all just plug in for no cost.
Yes, small screens are small.
Surfing the web is certainly cramped, but doable. Chrome does pretty well at it.
Movies seem good on it - I've only looked a couple of previews.
Should work good as a car GPS with a good app that includes offline maps - or just preload maps as needed ... which seems a bit of a pain to me.
I got the 8Gig version, but am wondering if I should switch to the 16. Don't know yet.

Good luck!

 

[DS3]

The mini is almost surely being announced october 17th from what I've read the past couple days, I'd at least wait for the announcement to see if Apple has done anything particularly interesting with it.

 

[knucklehead]

The mini is almost surely being announced october 17th from what I've read the past couple days, I'd at least wait for the announcement to see if Apple has done anything particularly interesting with it.

One of the reasons I was motivated to pick up the Nexus 7 was the possibility of an imminent iPad mini announcement -- The best way to see how an announced "mini" might fit into your life is from having lived with something about that size for a bit of time. The 17th would be right inside the 15 day return right now.

Two fairly safe bets on a iPad mini would be:
a. GPS would only come with cell data, which would solidly put it in a different price range than the Nexus 7.
b. And it would be wider, which would push it more out of the normal range of pocketability. That's one that you really need to personally experience to see if the size offers a real advantage in portability for you.

 

[mtnbikerva1]

Watch the drop test videos for the tablets and phones

I googled and watched a few drop test on tablets and most of them broke.
The Samsung Galaxy tab 2.7 seemed to not break.
I can not put a protector on the 7 inch tablet because then it is too big to fit my pants pocket.

 

[mfr1340]

Nexus7

I googled and watched a few drop test on tablets and most of them broke.
The Samsung Galaxy tab 2.7 seemed to not break.
I can not put a protector on the 7 inch tablet because then it is too big to fit my pants pocket.

I have the Nexus7 and I have a smart case that doesn't add to the overall size much. It is from Poetic.

 

[Ckwilson73]

I googled and watched a few drop test on tablets and most of them broke.
The Samsung Galaxy tab 2.7 seemed to not break.
I can not put a protector on the 7 inch tablet because then it is too big to fit my pants pocket.

I actually have a tab 2. I dropped it flat on its screen onto a concrete floor from about 4 feet. I was sick, but I picked it up and it was fine.

 

[Breaking Good]

I just bought a Nexus 7 a couple of days ago, and I pretty happy with it.
One of the main justifications I used for adding it to my iPad 3, was to have a more portable large screen GPS device primarily for off-road use (hiking, mountain biking, etc...). BackCountry Navigator Pro looks like a great app for that purpose, and the $200 overall cost seems like a bargain even if that was the only thing the device was capable of.

Does the Nexus 7 have built-in GPS? I didn't see aything listed in the specs on Google's site.

EDIT: I'm sorry. I just read the Tech Specs again. The Nexus 7 does have built-in GPS.

I agree with knucklehead. I would be worth buying the Nexus 7 just to get the GPS ability.

 

[Macnificant]

Can you add movies for computer to the Nexus 7? Avi, mp4 files

 

[mtnbikerva1]

I bought a Fire HD last evening.

The Netgear N300 router was a pain in the as* to set up and I still have not been able to change the password. Maybe they do not play well with Mac Pros and 10.6.8
To be honest I am not impressed with the Kindle Fire HD/KF HD.
It does not work as smooth as I would like. The apps I need to add examples: Maps/navigation, alarm clock, YouTube, Calculator, converter for weights a volume etc. cost a dollar to about $40 dollars each. This all adds up to higher cost. I am looking for the type of apps and function my iPhone 4s has but with a much bigger screen.
The 16gb KF HD is $240 though... Not the outrageous Apple $$$$
I am thinking of giving the N7 a try again. I went into the Best Buy by me to buy the N7 but they do not sell it, and did have the KF HD.
The fitting into my pants pocket is the big feature I like of the KF HD!!!
I also tried to view the thousands of free movies and tv that Amazon clames to offer under the Prime club but on the KF HD it only seemed to offer about 6 choices vs the thousands it claimed right there on the screen. They must offer those thousands some how, but it is not intuitive/user friendly enough that I got it to work properly. Can I not get the same from the N7 or a iPad by just putting Amazon in the address bar?
What say you about the N7 and other 7 inch tablet choices?

 

[bearda]

I picked up a Nexus 7 last night, and it's a cool little device but I don't consider it a replacement for my iPad. There are a couple apps that interface to a device connect to a serial port over bluetooth I'm interested in using, and iOS really doesn't have anything comparable (I'm told part of it has to do with bluetooth licensing on iOS, but take that with a grain of salt.

I love the portability of the thing; I can throw it in a jacket pocket with no problem and I feel like I could actually take it with me without thinking about ti too much. My iPad lives in a messenger bag I bring back and forth to work, but it isn't something I'd consider grabbing on my way to dinner or to get a haircut or anything (even if I know I'm going to be waiting).

On the other hand, the screen does seem painfully small at times. If the keyboard is up you loose about half your display, and that bugs me a lot when trying to post anything in the web browser. I really like Safari's screen usage better when browsing, even on my iPhone. I'm not sure if it's more the physical size of the display or the way it's used, but it's possible a 7-inch iPad would have similar issues.

The build quality isn't bad for a $200 device. It fits well in your hand, and feel pretty solid. That said, it really doesn't compare to my iPad or iPhone. It's built well enough that it doesn't feel cheap, but it's not something that you would pick up and be impressed with if you had no clue what it cost. It's a good value, but not really good (if that makes any sense).

The color reproduction on the screen is pretty bad. This is a personal nitpick of mine since I really concentrate on color matching (all my monitors all calibrated, etc). My wife noticed it in passing with the blue on the Facebook page, though, and she can't tell a difference between my calibrated setups and her Dell laptop (which I have sworn not to touch). Everything kind of has a washed-out look, which is a shame because the display panel itself should be excellent based on the specs. There seems to be a lot of hope that it's a display calibration issue and can be fixed with a software update, but for now it's kind of a downer.

For basic tasks it's nice and snappy. I've only been playing with it for around a day, but I can't say I've encountered anything yet that made me think I needed a faster device. I don't use a lot of third-party apps though, so it may just be that Jelly Bean has seen a dramatic improvement (which it sounds like they were trying for).

I'm still kind of put off by a lot of the Android interface elements, though. Although the soft-keys at the bottom create a kind of sleek look with no buttons on the surface I'm not sure I'm sold on it. The home button double-press has always seemed silly to me, but I'm not sure the Android alternative is much better. I do really like the webOS-inspired app switching (well, closing more than switching), though. I knew there would be a learning curve associated with getting used to an Android device and I'm sure it will take a while. I'm getting to the point where I can do and find a lot of things that were different from iOS, but there are a lot of them I still don't quite understand the thought process behind.

My three main annoyances so far:
- Screen color reproduction
- I can't set up a VPN without changing to a password or PIN unlock method. I tried just setting a password and that wasn't enough. On my iPad I regularly VPN back to my house and SSH into one of my systems. I'm not really worried about the security of the VPN connection since I authenticate with the service I'm trying to use on the target machine.
- The Nexus 7 seems to hate most of my chargers. I have a bunch of U-Socket outlets in my home that I use for charging my iPhone, iPad, guests' phones, my GPS, etc. I just plug the charging cable into the USB plug on the outlet, and the device charges. They supply up to 2.4A per outlet, so they can deal with high draw devices. I've never had a problem with them charging anything until I got the Nexus 7. My iPad charger and my wife's Kindle charger don't work either. Somehow this thing flatly refuses to charge with anything other than the supplied ASUS adapter, even though it has a normal microUSB socket.

Three cool things:
- It fits in my cargo pants
- I can read in bed with it while laying down, which was a bit of a pain for me to do with the iPad. I love my iPad while sitting up, but the smaller paperback-like size is easier to hold in front of me.
- Apparently there was a $25 Google Play credit I didn't know about until I activated it last night. I don't know what to use it for (maybe an offline navigation app for starters) but it's kind of a cool bonus I wasn't expecting.