buying first Tablet – confused….

Gribs – Member
I really liked my Nexus 7 but it’s now sitting unused as the screens cracked and you can’t get spare parts for it. Something to keep in mind but even after this I’m still tempted by the Nexus 10

I took out a years insurance for coffe/breakage/loss etc 🙂

I know how things last in my house.

Well that was the shortest ever love affair with the Nexus 7.

got the impression from Mrs Weeksy she really wanted the iPad due to screen size and functionality/compatiblity with other Apple devices. So on the way home from work i bought her an iPad 32Gb. Which she now has as an early Xmas present, (which of course means i have to buy her a present for Xmas still lol).

So i unboxed the Nexus and charged it… powered it up and it was already running, in Italian !!!! WTF thinks i….. So i managed to guess and get it back into English and had a look around, ‘data usage’ 786Mb since 28th Sept. Hmmmm i bought it new yesterday, not on the 28th Sept. So i took back to PC World, it was the last in stock apart from Demo models, ANYWHERE… So i asked for the 32Gb in replacement due to their **** up of giving me a used one.. “yes sir, that’s £30 extra”… WTF… i’m not having that. Maybe meeting them half way on the £30 i’d have gone for… but no… not having that at all. So he offers me 10% off for the used one…. Nah, out of general principal i’m not having that either now.

So, i’ve ended up with nothing and the wife has a brand new iPad. Yeah marvellous that.. 🙁

doesn’t sound like anything wrong with the Nexus 7 in principle though 😀

i now have this irresistable desire to buy another Nexus. Even though i don’t really have a lot of use for one hahahahaaha.

Weeksy – where did you get your iPad from? Just wondering, it might be worth taking that back too. They released a new iPad (not just the mini) this morning. May as well have the most up to date one! The differences aren’t massive compared to the iPad 3, but it’s got a faster processor for a start.

Like a loser I queued up with the other geeks at the Apple Store. They were all getting the mini, I was one of only a handful getting the 4th Gen iPad. First tablet device, so it’ll be interesting how much use it gets.

On the mini, while I was waiting I got to play with one. Not sure I get it, spent a long time just working out what was the best way of holding the thing!

I’ve just bought another Nexus from

http://www.hughesdirect.co.uk/computing/tablet-pcs/asu-nexus7-16gb/product

I’ll do a back to back comparison with the iPad next week.

MY Nexus has just arrived 🙂

Cool – enjoy it!
By the way, I have a spare unused case if you are interested – a zip up caselogic one, marked ‘kindle fire’ but fits great:
http://www.caselogic.com/en-GB/GB/Products/Tablet-and-eReader-Cases/Kindle-Cases/LAPST_-_107_-_BLACK_-__-_7TabletSleeve

Dupblicate birthday present! £8 posted?

I’ve bought 2 thanks buddy.

One in PINK !!!!! which was when i bought it for the wife… and another in green.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320974004293?var=510077503138&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

but yeah, i’ll have that for £8.

Drop me a mail. weeksy59 at hotmail com

I had to nip into an Apple store last night. This is now the second time Ive played with an iPad mini.
I do not need one
I do NOT need one
I DO NOT need one
I DO NOT NEED ONE
I DO NOT NEED ONE AND I WILL NOT BUY ONE

Ahh crap. Who am I kidding?
😉

Had my nexus 7 a week now, loving it. It’s great for sofa surfing while watching tv etc. The lighter weight over the missus Xoom is very noticable and makes it easier to hold for long periods. Used to think the Xoom screen was crisp, not compared to the Nexus it isn’t, similar resolution but squeezed on to 7″ screen rather than 10″. Viewing angle is great too. Indoors in reasonably lit room I’m running screen at about 10% brightness.

Interface is slick and responsive. My first experiance on JB and project ‘butter’ seems to have worked, smooth. Youtube/Iplayer/ITVPlayer/etc streaming is all very good, crisp and smooth.

All my usual apps work fine, most scale very well from the phone (s2 in my case) to the tablet. I have a lot of mapping apps installed including MMtracker which works great. GPS seems to get a good accurate fix quickly, even indoors as long as not too far from a window.

Skype works well and my chat partners say it’s crisper and clearer their end than when I’m on the Xoom. Only drawback is the speaker on the Nexus seems a bit quiet, ok as long as not too much background noise my end. Speaker is fine for watching videos though.

With a OTG USB cable and Nexus Media Importer app I can connect up flash drives etc and copy data to the tablet. Unfortunately it won’t mount the S2 as a USB storage device, shame. Also works fine with mouse and keyboard through a USB hub and OTG cable.

Been through a few charge/discharge cycles now, lots of playing and setting (not strictly neccessary, works right out of the box, just me ‘playing’ really). Last discharge was 48 hrs standby and 8 hours screen time, mostly web surfing, wifi is on constantly. Charge time does seem a bit slow, using the supplied 2A charger, not sure of exact time as usually done over night.

I was only going to post a few words, and this has turned into a mini review.

Kindle Fire Hd arrived today. It’ll be going back eventually, but I need a bit of a test drive of a wee pad to see whether the screen size is enough for my eyesight- if so, it’ll be a Nexus or ipad, can’t see any reason to buy the Fire HD at all. Hefty thing, though the screen looks nice.

After 3 months of iPad 3 ownership I’ve had enough of bloody Apple and will be donating it to the mrs. Undecided at the minute whether to go for a Nexus, a Galaxy Note or an Asus Transformer or just wait till I’m due a phone upgrade and get a Note 2 and just have the one device.

Well the nexus is great.

I am confused though as I can only browse the WWW upright. Not in landscape?

Well the nexus is great.

I am confused though as I can only browse the WWW upright. Not in landscape?

After 3 months of iPad 3 ownership I’ve had enough of bloody Apple

Why’s that then?

Nothing specific but i find that ios is, for me, counter-intuitive. There’s been several occasions when I’ve had to google something which should be straightforward only to find Apple have put their own hoop in the process for me to jump through.

Prime example – On the first day of ownership I wanted to delete all the home screen apps, shouldn’t be a problem, hold down on the icon and… nothing, they shake but there appears to be no way of getting rid of them. Onto google, “hold down on app and delete by pressing x”, ok, seems fair enough, not sure how I missed that but anyway. So back to the apps, hold down and again they start shaking but there’s no x to press to delete them. Maybe it’s different on the iPad 3, bit more of a google – nope, should be the same process. So by this point I’m getting annoyed, why is something so simple such a faff? It was only after a bit more googling that I discovered you can’t remove the pre-installed apps from the homescreen, the best you can do is move them all to a designated waste folder. Why?

Now obviously this isn’t the end of the world and now I know about it it’s no problem but it’s the kind of Apple-think I find irritating.

And I want a designated back button.

#firstworldproblems

Weeksy, slide your finger downwards from the top of the screen. This brings up the notification bar and you’ll see a padlock with rotation arrows. Press it to remove the rotation lock.

Rotation lock lol

Sorted!

Ivan, why would you want to remove the stock apps? There are several I don’t use, weather and stocks, in particular, but I just shove them several pages back where I won’t access them, or else just stick them into a folder and put that on another page. Jeezus, what a big fuss over nothing, I don’t know Android, but I’m absolutely certain that variations of it come loaded with stuff you don’t want but can’t get rid of. Stop being a whiney kid, put what you want on it and hide the stuff you don’t want where you can’t see it, like about ten pages back. 🙄
And what do you need a dedicated back button for? The iPad already has one for things like getting back to the first home page, you just tap the home button, otherwise just flick pages back. If you mean when you have an app open and want to return to the home page, do the same, or do a five-finger pinch.
Sorry, but I absolutely fail to see what your problem is; ALL OS have idiosyncrasies.

Why wouldn’t I want to remove stock apps I’ve no intention of using? I’ve had no problems removing anything from various android platforms and don’t see why I should start bodging things just to do things the Apple way. As I clearly stated, I don’t get on with ios for a variety of niggly reasons so why shouldn’t I move to a platform I prefer?

Now stop being a whiny kid just cos someone has been a bit mean about your favourite toy. 🙄

Currently going through the decision making process myself.

Had a quick play with Nexus7, looks like a lovely device and a real bargain at £170.
Galaxy Tab2 for £225 again looks like pretty good value. Screen is smaller than iPad though.

Would be happy to have either of these, aside from the fact that a decent % of usage will be with an app that doesn’t bloody exist on Android 🙁

I thought that would make it a simple choice, but now I need to consider ipad2, 3 or mini ;(

Christ, now I know how Molgrips feels…

7 Inch Galaxy Tab 2 is currently 149 at carphone warehouse, plus you get £30 back and a free gb micro SD card – just in case anyone’s interested

Or £50 back and no card 🙂

Is the 7in Galaxy Tab a different form factor to the Nexus though, it seemed tiny when I saw one?

No, £50 cashback is on the 10″ version – but that’s a lot more expensive to start with

I was given a Samsung Galaxy 7 2 tablet and was pretty impressed really considering what it costs. It’s pretty light too. My only niggle was that the screen isn’t very sensitive around the edges and I’m not that keen on the Android platform on it, but love my HTC, which is a bit odd.

I have just bought an iPad 4 though as it suits my needs better with the larger screen and am so far pretty impressed with it. It is a lot of money though, but it does feel like a quality product. I’ve resisted Apple for a long time and thought tablets were pointless…but now think they’re ace (tablets that is).

Well i spent a few hours playing with it last night.

The only issue i had was not being able to view WWW in landscape mode…. only vertically…. 2 mins on Google taught me about “rotation lock” which now means i can do that too 🙂

I like the overall look, the feel, weight and size.

The Interface is simple enough. Although it does default to certain front screen pages that’s i don’t really have a use for ‘Library’ is one of them which shows you movies/music… i wouldn’t mind it being just music… but you can create other ‘home’ pages, so my boy has one for all his apps/games. I’ll have one soon for my games.

Importing music is a simple drag and drop from Itunes folder. It also either imports the covers, or certainly most of them anyhow…. I had a few left without artwork, but apparently that’s quite an easy fix anyhow.

The choice of games/apps of course is excellent. I’ve found pretty much everything i need up to now, well apart from a nice Santander App but that’s not a major worry.

The only other thing i’ve not been able to do is import my pre-paid apps from my Xperia. E.g Endomondo and Asphalt 6. I’ve bought both of them on my phone, using my googlemail account. But even though my Nexus is configured using the same account, i thought they would be classed as OK to download for free. It’s not that i NEED either… but would be nice as my lad likes car games.

Other than that, it’s just a question of getting used to something ‘different’ i guess. But first impressions are all good.

The only issue i had was not being able to view WWW in landscape mode…. only vertically…. 2 mins on Google taught me about “rotation lock” which now means i can do that too

Download this free app Ultimate Rotate – this will rotate the home screens, not just the apps you’re running, works a treat.

Only thing I’m struggling with is finding a video player/codec that will play HD video stored locally (GoPro vids etc) – have you found anything?

Only thing I’m struggling with is finding a video player/codec that will play HD video stored locally (GoPro vids etc) – have you found anything?

Not looked mate as i don’t have that requirement as i don’t do any vids etc.

The only thing i need to find but i think is somewhere earlier in this thread is something to rip DVD’s into a format so i can copy them on, play them on the Nexus for entertaining my lad on drives/trips. He has an in-car DVD but that’s only really useful in the back seat on the headrest… i could have him in the front where he prefers, watching movies on the drive to his nans each week.

MX Player?

BS Player seems to play everything I can throw at it, streamed from a NAS too, if required.

MX Player?

I’d tried MX Player Pro – but that doesn’t work, or at least with the settings I’ve tried it doesn’t. It plays back smoothly but in slowmo and drops the sound till the video catches up.

I’ll give BS Player a go

Ok read most of the thread, as like most I was looking to by (my daughter) a tablet for Christmas. This seems to be a two horse race between the iPad and Nexus. For cheap and cheerful what is wrong with buying on of these 7 inch android tablets off Amazon for around the £60 mark? “7inch Ultra thin SANEI n77 fashion 3D allwinner a13 cpu 8GB HDD Android 4.0.4 (Latest Ice Cream Sandwich) PC capacitive multi – touch 5 point screen 1.2 GHZ OTG WIFI 3G Tablet PC Supports Flash 11 by LélikTec”, etc. Don’t want to pay out a lot of dosh, but equally don’t want to waste money of something that will not work, etc. Please enlighten me.

Nice spot nbt, that’s our eldest’s Christmas pressie sorted 🙂

Badger, those cheap chinese ones have lower specs all round, slower processors, ram, etc, run older versions of Android and the screens aren’t very good. 8GB isn’t much storage either TBH, as Android will use 2-3 of that.

Personally i’d probably only consider either the Kindle Fire HD or cheaper Nexus 7.

Thanks Dave, thought they were too good to be true. Will have to think again as these others are way out of my budget…

but you can create other ‘home’ pages, so my boy has one for all his apps/games. I’ll have one soon for my games.

If you want to group all your games into a folder, you can just move the app icon and drop it ontop of another one, they ‘stack’ up into a folder.

One extra click to access, but very neat. You can also create folders in the home icons at the bottom of the screen. Long press on ‘untitled’ to name the folder.

The only other thing i’ve not been able to do is import my pre-paid apps from my Xperia. E.g Endomondo

All the apps I bought on my phone are available to install for free on my Nexus 7. If you go to ‘all apps’ in Play, you’ll see a list. The paid ones should show as ‘Purchased’ and you can just install them.

I had a few left without artwork, but apparently that’s quite an easy fix anyhow.

Download ‘Album Art Grabber’ then go to Apps, All and clear cache on Google Music player.

The only thing i need to find but i think is somewhere earlier in this thread is something to rip DVD’s into a format so i can copy them on, play them on the Nexus for entertaining my lad on drives/trips.

Download Handbrake and have a Google for Nexus settings.

Download this free app Ultimate Rotate – this will rotate the home screens, not just the apps you’re running, works a treat.

4.1.1 stopped that app working. However, the 4.1.2 update supports rotate home screen natively, no need for an app any more.

Only thing I’m struggling with is finding a video player/codec that will play HD video stored locally (GoPro vids etc) – have you found anything?

I’m pretty sure my GoPro footage played straight off. I was certainly able to connect the card reader via a USB OTG cable, insert the card from the GoPro and stream it using Nexus Media Importer.

nbt
7 Inch Galaxy Tab 2 is currently 149 at carphone warehouse, plus you get £30 back and a free gb micro SD card – just in case anyone’s interested

Apparently, PCWorld with pricematch that, plus an additional 10%. £135? Then claim the £30 from Samsung, gets the tablet for £105?