Google Nexus 7 Discussion Thread

[Krakkenbus]

Mine might ship early this week. It's moved from the bottom of my list to the top and the date has changed to the 19th. Here's hoping!

[pp05]

Guardian is reporting the 16gb Nexus have sold out.

Less demand for 8gb.

[mcmiller]

I had a play with one in pcworld and I was very impressed, for the price it felt very good quality it didn't look naff like the competitors. One thing i did notice was that you had to login to google to really see what Jellybean could do.

The hype has got to me and I've brought the 16gb, it was £174 (£10 discount plus I used some clubcards and I will get £6-7 back via quidco).

[Krakkenbus]

Mine has finally shipped from google, only issue is that my tracking number doesnt work yet! Hopefully it's here tomorrow.

[Biscuit]

Mine has shipped from currys.. Still not heard from Google

[Biscuit]

Unbelievable...

My flatmate, out of pure chance (he is currently working away from home aswell) was in the flat for one morning and the damn TNT guy dropped off the playstore order AND my dad will be picking up the one from currys/PC world tomorrow.

Unfortunately i havent kept my flatmate up to speed on the whole process and he took it out the Jiffy bag to send me a picture... so i cant refuse the order now

He said he quite fancies one and will take it off my hands though so its no big deal really

[Gordy]

Well after a weekend of playing with the Nexus 7 sadly it had to go back to currys. The machine was great, I really liked it. Coming from an iPad and iPhone world I was really interested in looking at the best google could come up with. I liked pretty much everything, my only criticism is that the google play market apps are a pale imitation of the quality of the iOS apps.

I really liked the portability and the interface was smooth and good to use. There are small differences between it and iOS, but I found it quick to pick up.

The reason the Nexus 7 had to go back is that I found a dead pixel on mine. Currys didn't have any to replace it with so I'm now waiting for another to ship from Tesco's.

I am concerned at how time will affect the nexus 7. Will google keep it updated and moving forward or let it stagnate? I'm used to the iOS updates coming thick and fast and not having things abandoned.

Things I miss were mainly the apps, none of the twitter clients are any good next to tweetbot. The lack of a good AirVideo client is also a pain. iPlayer doesn't work yet and you have to install flash on the device to see the bbc's content.

The best feedback I can give is that I'm seriously considering selling my iPad 3. As the nexus fills it's job/does most of what the ipad can do for less than half the cost. So I can get two one for my wife and my one for less than the cost of my iPad.

Certainly I am looking forward to the replacement arriving for more playing.

[Biscuit]

Well after a weekend of playing with the Nexus 7 sadly it had to go back to currys. The machine was great, I really liked it. Coming from an iPad and iPhone world I was really interested in looking at the best google could come up with. I liked pretty much everything, my only criticism is that the google play market apps are a pale imitation of the quality of the iOS apps.

I really liked the portability and the interface was smooth and good to use. There are small differences between it and iOS, but I found it quick to pick up.

The reason the Nexus 7 had to go back is that I found a dead pixel on mine. Currys didn't have any to replace it with so I'm now waiting for another to ship from Tesco's.

I am concerned at how time will affect the nexus 7. Will google keep it updated and moving forward or let it stagnate? I'm used to the iOS updates coming thick and fast and not having things abandoned.

Things I miss were mainly the apps, none of the twitter clients are any good next to tweetbot. The lack of a good AirVideo client is also a pain. iPlayer doesn't work yet and you have to install flash on the device to see the bbc's content.

The best feedback I can give is that I'm seriously considering selling my iPad 3. As the nexus fills it's job/does most of what the ipad can do for less than half the cost. So I can get two one for my wife and my one for less than the cost of my iPad.

Certainly I am looking forward to the replacement arriving for more playing.

The issue of iOS apps vs android is very much a battle of two sides, there are some apps (like drop box) that work a lot better on android than they do on iOS. The google apps aswell, obviously work a lot better on android and they are some of the apps i use most of all!
The main thing that bugs me about iOS apps is the lack of integration between different ones. Its not at all fluid on iOS, android blows it out of the water in this respect.
The one thing i will say about the Nexus, if anything else it should tempt a lot more developers into using the platform as it has been a massive success, this should also bring vast improvements to some of the apps which are lagging behind iOS slightly.

With regards to updates, google have been pretty good with their nexus platform and given the volume of sales, i reckon it will be even more the case with the 7. Even if google do let it lag, rooting it and putting on 3rd party roms will allow you to keep it up to date, its not hard at all!

[mycarsavw]

Things I miss were mainly the apps, none of the twitter clients are any good next to tweetbot. The lack of a good AirVideo client is also a pain. iPlayer doesn't work yet and you have to install flash on the device to see the bbc's content.

Twitter - Twicca
AirVideo - Emit
iPlayer - xda thread

I've used Twicca for a few years now, it's hands down the best Twitter app out there (imho)

I've not tried the other two links, but they come highly recommended.

[Gordy]

Twitter - Twicca
AirVideo - Emit
iPlayer - xda thread

I've used Twicca for a few years now, it's hands down the best Twitter app out there (imho)

I've not tried the other two links, but they come highly recommended.

Thanks I've tried Emit and the iplayer thing too. I just don't like having to jump through hoops just to get some apps onto the device. It should be easy like other apps on google play. I suspect iPlayer will be fixed in time, it's just frustrating now. I managed to get it working sideloading flash and firefox beta as well.

Twicca I will try, but looking at the screenshots it's not looking that good.

The issue of iOS apps vs android is very much a battle of two sides, there are some apps (like drop box) that work a lot better on android than they do on iOS. The google apps aswell, obviously work a lot better on android and they are some of the apps i use most of all!
The main thing that bugs me about iOS apps is the lack of integration between different ones. Its not at all fluid on iOS, android blows it out of the water in this respect.
The one thing i will say about the Nexus, if anything else it should tempt a lot more developers into using the platform as it has been a massive success, this should also bring vast improvements to some of the apps which are lagging behind iOS slightly.

With regards to updates, google have been pretty good with their nexus platform and given the volume of sales, i reckon it will be even more the case with the 7. Even if google do let it lag, rooting it and putting on 3rd party roms will allow you to keep it up to date, its not hard at all!

Some good points on app interoperability. Though most have things like inbuilt dropbox integration so I don't notice that these days.

I will be annoyed if I have to root it and install 3rd party stuff. It's not like people haven't be asking and telling google for years now to sort it out. They have no excuses now, if they really want to take on apple with their own tablet it is a necessity.

I'm not sure how many google will sell ongoing, yes they've sold a lot in the short term. However the people who made and are making the iPad a success are normal people not geeks and techies. I'm not sure how well marketed and promoted the nexus will be to normal buyers. Looking in pc world and it wasn't promising. There was no display model and it was all lumped in with the other non ipad tablets.

I think it will be interesting to see in a years time where the nexus 7 stands. I hope it will be something that has really taken off, but I suspect if Apple release the fabled 8inch ipad then the nexus's days will be numbered as true game changer for google.

[dangel]

I think the real competition won't be from Apple - it'll be from Amazon because they're in the same market and also have content to shift.

[Biscuit]

Some good points on app interoperability. Though most have things like inbuilt dropbox integration so I don't notice that these days.

I will be annoyed if I have to root it and install 3rd party stuff. It's not like people haven't be asking and telling google for years now to sort it out. They have no excuses now, if they really want to take on apple with their own tablet it is a necessity.

I'm not sure how many google will sell ongoing, yes they've sold a lot in the short term. However the people who made and are making the iPad a success are normal people not geeks and techies. I'm not sure how well marketed and promoted the nexus will be to normal buyers. Looking in pc world and it wasn't promising. There was no display model and it was all lumped in with the other non ipad tablets.

I think it will be interesting to see in a years time where the nexus 7 stands. I hope it will be something that has really taken off, but I suspect if Apple release the fabled 8inch ipad then the nexus's days will be numbered as true game changer for google.

Well the Nexus S was a gingerbread device and that already has 4.1!

From the point of gingerbread, Google have said any devices capable of this will be able to use 4.0 and beyond. This could change of course if there is a serious overhaul but google have only stopped supporting the G1 and the Nexus One so far, and i think the reasons were down to a lack of onboard flash RAM. The fact they have rolled out the update to nexus s users so quickly is a good sign IMO.

The main problem with google updates to android devices is not actually google, its the hardware manufacturers that skin the OS and add their own 'bloatware' such as sense(HTC) and touchwiz(samsung) as these obviously require masses of testing before they can be released to users. The other problem is the saturation of different kinds of handsets all the companies put out, they are trying to fill each tiny little segment of the market with multiple devices which makes it harder for them to support them all. The home brew developers such as cyogenmod and leedroid are often quicker to get the updates out, and when they do they are often optomised to the hardware a lot more!

With regards to advertising, from what i have seen so far it seems google were not prepared for the kind of buzz there has been around the device, i suspect they didnt throw a lot of money into the advertising because they thought in the most part it would be wasted, on top of that they arent making a lot of profit on the device so putting more into advertising only makes the margins slimmer.

I think your right though, it will be interesting to see where the nexus 7 ends up in a years time, especially in the face of the new patents apple has got. Lets just see the judges have the same mentality as they did back in the days of the windows vs apple battles!

[Gordy]

Well the Nexus S was a gingerbread device and that already has 4.1!

From the point of gingerbread, Google have said any devices capable of this will be able to use 4.0 and beyond. This could change of course if there is a serious overhaul but google have only stopped supporting the G1 and the Nexus One so far, and i think the reasons were down to a lack of onboard flash RAM. The fact they have rolled out the update to nexus s users so quickly is a good sign IMO.

The main problem with google updates to android devices is not actually google, its the hardware manufacturers that skin the OS and add their own 'bloatware' such as sense(HTC) and touchwiz(samsung) as these obviously require masses of testing before they can be released to users. The other problem is the saturation of different kinds of handsets all the companies put out, they are trying to fill each tiny little segment of the market with multiple devices which makes it harder for them to support them all. The home brew developers such as cyogenmod and leedroid are often quicker to get the updates out, and when they do they are often optomised to the hardware a lot more!

With regards to advertising, from what i have seen so far it seems google were not prepared for the kind of buzz there has been around the device, i suspect they didnt throw a lot of money into the advertising because they thought in the most part it would be wasted, on top of that they arent making a lot of profit on the device so putting more into advertising only makes the margins slimmer.

I think your right though, it will be interesting to see where the nexus 7 ends up in a years time, especially in the face of the new patents apple has got. Lets just see the judges have the same mentality as they did back in the days of the windows vs apple battles!

Thanks for the info, it gives me hope on the Nexus's long term support.

I think the real competition won't be from Apple - it'll be from Amazon because they're in the same market and also have content to shift.

Only if you assume that apple won't enter the same lower end tablet market. History shows from the iPod and the iPhone that this is exactly what Apple will do. A £200 google table or a £200-250 iPad mini is going to be a hard sell for a lot of people.

Add to this the fact that Amazon have pretty much zero tablet sales outside the US and you have a real problem. Google have more deals in place in more countries, but it's still a fraction of the ones Apple already have. Dealing with the movie and music industry must be one of the worst jobs in the world, but you'd think they'd be keen on helping Google/Amazon so that they can use them a tool to fight back against Apple's current power.

[dangel]

Only if you assume that apple won't enter the same lower end tablet market. History shows from the iPod and the iPhone that this is exactly what Apple will do. A £200 google table or a £200-250 iPad mini is going to be a hard sell for a lot of people.

Well now that Steves moved on perhaps that's possible - otherwise it would of never of happened (apparently). I'm not convinced Apple want a slice of the lower end of the market though - they've always been high margin high end in most markets (aside from milking older hardware long after it's been superseded). I doubt they can 'retina' their way out of it too (at that price point given google are selling at cost) and truth be told the iPad's OS needs a lot of updating compared to 4.1..

Add to this the fact that Amazon have pretty much zero tablet sales outside the US and you have a real problem.

Not really, Amazon have lots of content and a huge brand name. The Kindle is everywhere and very popular in the UK. There's a reason they stuck the Kindle name on their tablet. I suspect the Fire will do very well indeed here. I'm surprised by the Nexus 7 uptake but then it's great value and has the same buzz of the netbook revolution (and not to mention the pricing).

Google have more deals in place in more countries, but it's still a fraction of the ones Apple already have. Dealing with the movie and music industry must be one of the worst jobs in the world, but you'd think they'd be keen on helping Google/Amazon so that they can use them a tool to fight back against Apple's current power.

They probably are, but then again the movie/music/publishing industries are clumsy as hell in the modern World and miss the point time after time. Nothing to stop you using Amazons store on your Nexus 7 too (eventually)..

[Gordy]

Well now that Steves moved on perhaps that's possible - otherwise it would of never of happened (apparently). I'm not convinced Apple want a slice of the lower end of the market though - they've always been high margin high end in most markets (aside from milking older hardware long after it's been superseded). I doubt they can 'retina' their way out of it too (at that price point given google are selling at cost) and truth be told the iPad's OS needs a lot of updating compared to 4.1..

Even if Steve was alive they would do it. Tim Cook said as much by saying they wouldn't leave a price umbrella for competitors to exploit if they could.

Not really, Amazon have lots of content and a huge brand name. The Kindle is everywhere and very popular in the UK. There's a reason they stuck the Kindle name on their tablet. I suspect the Fire will do very well indeed here. I'm surprised by the Nexus 7 uptake but then it's great value and has the same buzz of the netbook revolution (and not to mention the pricing).

Yet they didn't release the fire here? And the UK normal gets stuff a lot of other countries don't get. With the Nexus on the scene Amazon are going to really have to up their game. When they are already making a loss or close to that on the fire it's going to be something hard to justify the investment.

They probably are, but then again the movie/music/publishing industries are clumsy as hell in the modern World and miss the point time after time. Nothing to stop you using Amazons store on your Nexus 7 too (eventually)..

Ain't that a major understatement

[dangel]

Even if Steve was alive they would do it. Tim Cook said as much by saying they wouldn't leave a price umbrella for competitors to exploit if they could.

I disagree, he was dead set against a smaller screen. I think Apple may do a lot of things differently now they don't have him around - he wasn't perhaps the most understated of people

Yet they didn't release the fire here? And the UK normal gets stuff a lot of other countries don't get. With the Nexus on the scene Amazon are going to really have to up their game. When they are already making a loss or close to that on the fire it's going to be something hard to justify the investment.

Yet. That's the key. Amazon are rumoured to have a range of devices coming - even a phone is claimed by some. The fire as it is (was) isn't coming here, but the sequel will and that'll be far more on par with the nexus I think. Also, remember that Amazon aren't looking to make money on hardware - they're pushing you their app store and their content (the console model).