(Starting a fresh thread mostly for questions and impressions on the Nexus 7. Please don't derail this with non relevant posts)

I'm going to save any impression/judgement posts till I've had more time with the device. Mine arrived yesterday, and I've been playing with it here and there to see what it can do, and how it compares to my past Android, WebOS, Windows Phone and current iOS experiences.

First up, how do I get books on this? I have DRM free ePub files, but I don't see a Books or similar folder when using the Android File Transfer application (http://www.android.com/filetransfer/). I tried just putting them in the Downloads folder, then opened the Download application on the device, but nothing shows up there even though the Storage (in settings) shows space used there.

I just got mine. So far seems snappy but I'm still getting everything installed. I'm going to a conference next week and I'm going to try leaving my laptop in my room and carrying it around instead to see how useful it is as "check in on how the world's doing, keep up with my email, etc." device.

Tom, from everything I'm seeing, you can't import epub (or any other) format books to "Google Play Books" (yes, that's a dumb name). My guess is that you'll need an alternative app for this. I'm seeing some positive stuff about Cool Reader.

I hope to join the Nexus 7 owners sometime

*edit*

ps- you should be able to store the books wherever you like and point the app to where they are. Some apps will automatically scan for supported file types, others will ask you to point them to your preferred folder, others will insist on a single set location of their own.

The more I research, it does appear this is the case. Ok, so first impression with books (and yes a slight jab here), the "closed" iPad lets me bring my own books into the book application made by the same company who made the OS. The "open" Google side doesn't. I'll still do some reading in Google's app as they did include a free book to do a direct comparison with iBooks. I know Kindle is the answer for a lot of folks, just my preference to stay away from their closed system.

One positive too (going to be honest both ways ;), and a feature I'd like to see on iOS: The ability to install an app the way I just did with your Cool Reader link. I'm here on a desktop computer, clicked a web link, clicked install, confirmed the device it should go to, and it's installed without touching the tablet or using a program.

My initial impressions of Android this time around are much better then the attempt back in 2010. On the positive side, the speed of the UI does seem much improved (but also agreeing with Andy, not to iOS levels yet).

That's definitely one of the strong points. It's SO easy to just go through a list of recommended apps (like we've had on the forum here) and install to your device in seconds.

The Google Play eBook Reader unsurprisingly works only with eBooks downloaded from Google Play.

But there are lots of other eBook readers available that will do the job, including at least one that claims to be similar to what you may have used on your iWhatever.

I just now downloaded Aldiko to try. It works fine, and has a filesystem browser built-in to find/import ePub books that I've manually copied to the device.

There may be better readers, but this one works on my Galaxy Nexus -- the tablet doesn't arrive here until tomorrow's UPS delivery.

Edit: FB Reader also works fine, with somewhat better page-turning performance.

It's a surprise for me, because this is the first ereader capable device I've seen with such a limitation out of the box. The various Kindles (including the Fire), Nooks, Sony lineup, iOS devices, and even my WebOS tablet lets users sideload books. None of the reviews mentioned the issue, so it initially seemed like I was missing something when the Nexus 7 with the bundled Google Play eBook Reader didn't let me load my own content.

Also a bit surprising since the Google Play book store sells books that works on most of the devices in the above list. A friend of mine frequently gets new books for his Nook from Google Play.

I've been using EBookDroid when I'm not using the Kindle app. Seems pretty good.

Mmm.. looks nice, but it doesn't seem to "see" eBooks with a .ePub extension. (?)

I've been letting "Google Now" do it's thing. Not really using it much as far as voice commands like Siri yet, but I am keeping an eye on what cards it likes to show.

Initially it showed local weather. Ok, thats handy, swipe from the bottom up to see it, similar to iOS having weather in the swipe from the top notification center. Today at work, it decided to also add a traffic widget to my home. What is slightly odd is that it just decided my home was at a spot, possibly based on the hours I'm there. It didn't get the address exactly right, so it didn't pull it from the one place Google knows this (my credit card billing address). So slightly creeped out, but also intrigued. (I think this sums up my feeling for many Google things

Mmm.. I haven't tried Google Now at all yet.
Did you do anything in particular to "activate" it ?

Edit: Oh, found it. Now we'll see what it does over time.

I had an appointment in my phone (synced to Google Calendar) for 1:30pm today. Inside the appointment, I had the address listed because it's somewhere I've never been.

I ended up deciding not to go, but didn't remove the appointment from my calendar. About two hours before the appointment time, Google Now told me I had to leave now to get to my appointment on time with traffic. The card also showed an image of the route with surrounding traffic info.

It would have come in pretty handy.

I seem to recall telling Google Maps my home and work address at some point through the website. I just have to type "Home" when getting directions, and it will input my address into the field. I assume Google Now uses this information.

If I type in Home with Google maps while signed it, it shows me the slightly incorrect address Google Now has. It's connected somehow, just not sure what seeded the data on my side initially.

Rob, as someone who has many appointments to drive to all over the place, this has been the coolest feature of Google Now (other than the more advanced voice capabilities). I put all my appointments into Google Calendar, and it tells me when I need to leave in order to get there on time, based on where I am at the moment.

The one problem I have is that it seems to underestimate the time. I'd rather have it assume a slightly longer travel time, because it doesn't take into account things like finding a parking spot or walking from that spot to your destination. But overall it's pretty damned impressive and slightly magical


Tom, I'm not sure where it gets that data either. I will say that the one place it looks like you can specify your home address is in Google Maps. Just go to the regular maps page and click on "My Places" on the left. It lets you choose a home and work address.

On a related note: one thing that's annoyed me in the past is that I can't get decent data from Google Latitude. Latitude has an option to pretty much track your every movement (with mixed results). First of all, I know it sounds creepy, but it's off by default, and if you enable it, by default it's completely private. What's neat about it is the data you can get, like hours spent at home and what-not. The problem for me is that it has to estimate hours spent at work, but my work is all over the place AND at home. I know it's not really possible to track my kind of travel, but I kind of wish I could just turn that off. Anyway, it's a minor issue but one I've wanted to vent about.

Well, it's still charging, but I'm using the Nexus 7 on the charger.

Heavier than I thought it would feel, but the dimensions are really, really good for my uses.

I liked (in a creepy sort of way) how it automatically filled in my gmail address at first power-on, and prompted for just my password. I guess they registered the serial number in Google Play when I purchased it there.

The free Jason Bourne eBook was an unexpected bonus -- I was considering that very book in paper bookshops just the other day, but decided to hold off for now. Good reading for the cottage later this month.

Dunno about the freebie Transformers movie, but I'll watch it later.. might be decent. Gotta install the IMDB app and read more about it first.

Typing is a LOT easier on the larger screen than on my phone.

It's self-updating from Android 4.1 to 4.1.1 now.

Yeah, Amazon does that with the Kindle. However, this can be a mixed blessing.

One Kindle user review said that his Kindle was delivered, second-day-air, no signature required, and arrived right on time. Unfortunately it was delivered to the wrong person, and that person immediately fired it up and downloaded $400 worth of eBooks.

My experience with Amazon's customer service leaves me in no doubt that Amazon will make it right, reverse the charges and send him a new, hopefully unregistered Kindle. But the whole thing is a bit bizarre.

tanstaafl.

Okay, this is just fscking ridiculous.

I've faithfully followed five different "how to unlock+root your Nexus 7" guides. All of the fail on the first step (installing drivers, seeing the device in the Hardware Manager on XP).

Anyone actually done this successfully?
Can you provide the actual (missing) steps needed?

Thanks.

Do you have USB debugging turned on in Developer Options?

Yes. The various "how-to" guides are leaving out something.

Anyway, I finally found this kit by the same guy who did the kit I used for my Galaxy Nexus, and I'm running it now (doing an app backup first). This is the only method that's gotten past the drivers stage successfully. Much simpler than the others I attempted, too.

Update:
Yup, that one worked perfectly first try. Except I was unable to get it to restore from the backup it made -- kept complaining that it couldn't find the filename I typed in, despite it being listed in the "available backups" list just above. Duh.

No loss though, I just re-downloaded the apps from Google Play, and the Google GMail Sync took care of everything else.

Now I'm installing offline maps and stuff.

I really miss the "haptic feedback" feature. But I suppose the tablet doesn't have a vibration device built-in.

Oh, and the Swiftkey 3 app (both the original and tablet versions) is totally b0rked on the N7. The developers are working on a fix, but avoid it for now until they repair the breakage.

Both Ultimate Rotation Control (for landscape home screens, etc.) and StickMount (for USB storage) are working find on the Tablet as well as my phone.

The $7.90 OTG USB card reader from DX works perfectly -- DX also has other models listed for less $$ which appear identical (?).

Mark, how fast is the file transfer on that card reader?

Hard to say exactly -- I don't have my hdparm utility installed on either device.

But it appears QUITE FAST when watching the progress bars. Much, much faster than WiFi of course. Probably about the same speed as the internal flash, more or less.

The connection speed is a raw 480mbit/sec like any other USB2 connection. I'll see if I can time something with it.

Both the Class10 micro-SD card and a Kingston 133X CF card seem to be writing at 10 MBytes/sec. I doubt the SD card goes any quicker than that, but dunno about the CF card.

I'll try some reads next, and update this post afterward.

Update #1:
The same CF card in my regular USB card-reader writes more slowly from the PC.. about 8.5 MBytes/sec.

Copying a 200MByte file from the CF card to internal flash on the N7 is much slower than the other way around -- supporting my initial observation that the card reader is faster than internal flash. About 8 MBytes/sec.

Next I'll try reading from the CF card without writing to internal flash -- done, about 8 MBytes/sec.

Thanks. I'm most curious about read speeds, because that could make moot the issue of a lack of expandable storage. It would be nice to just carry around a couple cards filled with movies/TV shows when on vacation.

The issue for me in the past has been the horrible transfer rates on these things. I have the Galaxy Tab and the official card reader (as well as the USB adapter), and the transfer rates on those adapters are really slow.

Oh, darn.. I finally put my reading glasses on, and the micro-SD card I was using is only a Class-4 card.

So I've gotten out a full size Class-10 SDHC card to try now.
The read speed I get is 12.8 MBytes/sec. That's fast enough
to play media from, by quite a margin.

The internal N7 flash read speed is 45.6 MBytes/sec.

Here's a much simplified method for unlocking the N7 and rooting it.
Reputedly works on Linux, as well as on Windows (separate downloads).

Nexus7 Simple Root Script.

I would have used it here had it been available and more obvious at the time.

Stock Android Web Browser for Nexus 7.

Humn, being the Android newbie what exactly does "rooting" do to the device? (Barring the obvious root access)

Is it purely a custom build of the firmware?

Adrian

It enables use of superuser (root) privileges by select apps. The usual "su" program installed when rooting will prompt for confirmation whenever an app requests superuser privilege, and you can confirm/deny/remember the setting for the app at that time.

Apps need root access to do things that are normally out of reach of an app -- such as a full system backup/restore, using "su" from a terminal, mounting an external USB storage device, etc..

Cheers

Oh, I suppose you were really asking about the rooting step itself. I'm not entirely sure what it does, but it includes installing the "su" app itself (which prompts/grants per-app etc..) and giving that app the required superuser privilege.

In my understanding, custom firmware isn't part of the "rooting", but to get to the point where rooting is possible, one has to first "unlock" the bootloader. That latter step involves custom firmware.

Cheers

For folks with Android devices, one of the first "fun" techie things to learn about is the "adb" command, which is available for Linux and Windows, and probably also OSX.

This works best on Linux, because no special USB drivers are needed. But despite that, most of the unlock/root toolkits are still Windows based, and involve great frustration trying to get a working set of USB drivers installed prior to being able to use the tools.

So on a Linux machine, I just connect my phone or N7 using the stock USB cable, and then do this from a Linux shell on the PC:

adb shell

Presto.. I'm now logged into the device with a shell prompt.
Next step for me is usually to type "su", gaining root access.

From there, the world's your oyster!
(but it won't get you tube access)

Cool. So once the bootloader is unlocked, it remains unlocked and you can flash whatever firmware on you like?

Can you run a stock Nexus 7 "image" with just the "su app" installed?

(Sorry, these are dumb questions..)

What happens when google update the OS, would I lose the ability to run stuff at su, i.e will the update "remove" the su app?

Providing I don't get held up too late on the way home tonight (work near Cambridge live in south London) with the Olympics I might have a go at rooting. I'll download ubuntu and run it in the VM and use the linux tools if they're less of a headache!

I'm also 100% decided that my next phone will be the next google phone.

Cheers.

Adrian

That may or may not be more of a headache, getting USB devices working in a VM isn't always the most pleasant of activities...

I'm only a day or two ahead of you in knowledge here, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

But this is interesting: here is the "unlock+root" shell script from the n7tools I linked to earlier. The first thing it does is "push" the SuperSU app (which gives the per-app pop-up prompts later on) to the device, without unlocking the bootloader.

It then unlocks the bootloader, and finally installs a custom ROM. I am not year clear on whether that last step is necessary -- maybe the SuperSU app never gets installed unless the custom ROM is loaded to "see it" and install it?

Code:

#!/bin/sh
echo "---------------------------------------------"
echo "  Nexus 7 Simple Root Bash Script            "
echo "  Made by @Complex360 (cyr0s on xda)         "
echo "---------------------------------------------"
echo "Checking adb presence..."
./files/adb version
echo "Go Settings > Developer Options and enable USB Debugging."
echo "Once you've done this, press [ENTER]"
read go
echo "Pushing SuperSU onto device..."
./files/adb push ./files/SuperSU.zip /sdcard/
echo "Pushed SuperSU onto device!"
echo "Rebooting Nexus 7..."
./files/adb reboot bootloader
echo "Once you see a  android and \"Start\" on your device"
echo "You will see a prompt offering to unlock the bootloader, select Yes."
./files/fastboot oem unlock
echo "Once you get confirmation that the bootloader is unlocked, press [ENTER]..."
read go2
echo "Flashing ClockWorkMod..."
./files/fastboot flash recovery ./files/recovery.img
echo "ClockWorkMod flashed with fastboot!"
echo "Everything is done! to install SuperSU, load into CWM and choose it from the \"install zip from sdcard\" menu"
xdg-open https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3ZA7P55X62ZDQ

The final line of the script attempts to open a PayPal "beg screen" for the developer.

I shamefully admit I still use VMWare Developer here for such things, and USB could hardly be simpler. Just plug and play.

Cheers

That partially answers one question I was curious about. What doesn't get restored if I simply use the built in backup option in the settings?

Having played with the N7 tablet for a while now, I suspect your impressions are correct. It is not as smooth as my Galaxy Nexus phone, despite the two devices having the same number of display pixels, and running the "same" operating system (well, from the same base source code anyway).

Given the N7 was a "rush job", it appears they haven't had much time to tweak it for "buttery smooth" operation, compared with their flagship device (the GN).

I think the answer is, the 3rd-party Apps themselves (.apk files) and any data files they create/maintain.

Not that I've had to restore anything from backup yet. I'm still trying to break it and haven't succeeded.

From what I've seen, Google will keep track of which apps you had installed and reinstall them after a factory reset or purchase of a new phone/tablet. However, this has mixed results. In the past, its seemed to get almost everything. Beyond that, the main problem is that none of your settings will be saved in any of those apps, and game progress will be lost as well. Frankly, I don't know why more games don't have built in methods to save your progress to either a file or online storage. It's very frustrating.

Other than that, the only thing I can think of off the top of my head that gets saved through a reset are WiFi connections. It'll remember the SSIDs and passwords of any networks you've connected to before.

*edit*
Or, I might be confused about your question, Tom...

Even with VMWare USB has always been hit and miss for me. Devices that worked on one install of VMWare would not work on another one (even with the same host OS and same guest image).

But it has been a while, I guess I just gave up ever trying to make USB work in VMs

Getting CD-ROM drives to work for ripping audio CDs can be equally taxing in a VM, but I persist and make them work in the end

(and yes, doing you CD ripping in a VM might sound odd, but it is a setup using the the best ripping tools that just work, with all the metadata creation setup the way I want it and baking it into a VM seemed like the best way to keep it working just the right way and not have to spend ages tweaking it back into the right state every time I change machines)

The backup option in the settings seems to back up just the system settings: some of those get synced to other devices on the same gmail account.

So when I powered up my N7 and entered my gmail password for the first and only time, it then instantly had all of my calendar data, contacts list, WiFi SSIDs and passphrases, and a few other things.

I don't know how much of that was just "Google Sync" versus the "Settings Backup". And were I to wipe my phone and then "restore", I don't know how much additional stuff would come back.

??

Note that "unlocking and rooting" a device causes it to be wiped back to factory defaults, which is why I do that as soon as I remember to with a new device.

A friend of mine has a Nexus S handset that has never been rooted, and he's gradually becoming keen enough to want it rooted (so he can use external USB storage etc..). If/when he finally says "yes", we'll then have a perfect guinea pig to experiment on.

And this is one of the key selling points of iOS for me. When you do a backup on iOS it always backs up everything*.

It makes moving between devices so straight forward (with the obvious restriction that you are only moving between Apple devices). And iCloud makes it even better. Turn on any new (or reset) iOS device, login to iCloud, select a backup and it all restores somewhat magically. Every* setting, every document, every game save, every app, every photo you've ever taken, everything.

I have managed to use this to bring all my data/settings with me, since my first iPhone in 2008, through half a dozen or so devices.

For me, it is worth living with the downsides of iOS/Apple to benefit for the Apple ecosystem that makes things like this work.

* ok, so there is one thing that doesn't get restored, your passwords for your non-Apple accounts (third party IMAP etc) don't get backed up and restored. And if an app has deliberately chosen to exclude passwords or a file from the backup, that also doesn't get restored

This doesn't install a custom ROM, i.e. Android. It installs a custom recovery ROM. And the script doesn't install SuperSU. It just copies it to the SD-card so that you can install it through the recovery console.

Unlocking and rooting shouldn't bring it back to to factory reset either, so you shouldn't loose any data by doing it. Installing a custom ROM, e.g. CyanogenMod will make you loose your data (since one of the steps is to wipe Data and Cache).

Ok, so I went with Windows as I was being impatient and it didn't quite go to plan, but somehow I managed to muddle my way through by hand.

The "sd filesystem" didn't exist, but I was able to disable signature checking and install the su app from the filesystem.

I verified that it was rooted by running an app that required root access.

So, I appear to be rooted now, do I need to somehow re-enable signature checking?

Adrian

This is the Nexus 7 thread, not the iOS thread.
I'm not really into letting Google own everything of mine, but my understanding is that if I was, then I could enable Google Drive and some other settings, and then everything (?) would end up on a Google server somewhere, for automatic restore.

Dunno for sure, though. Anyone out there tried it?

...that's the first I've heard of that. Yes, Google backs up the calendar and mail and contacts, but that was mostly because it's not really part of Android, but Google's other products. The nice sell of Android right from the get-go was that when you bought the phone, all you had to do was put in your Google credentials and you'd be off to the races, really able to use your phone without doing anything else.

As far as I know, Google does not back up the details, so to speak. Your settings are gone, especially all the settings in individual apps. If you had an alternate launcher with your homescreen set up just right, you can say goodbye to it because it's gone now.** To play fanboy/devil's advocate, I'd say that it's a lot harder to back up things like an alternate Launcher on Google's end than it is to backup where you put your icons on your home screen in iOS. But that's a trade-off.

Personally, I've wiped my phone tons of times. The ONLY thing I've disliked about the process is losing progress in games. That's what makes me wish I could save my games somewhere other than inside the app its self, which seems like a stupid place to store them. At least if I could chose the save location, I could upload saves to Dropbox or something.

**this is one reason I switched from Zeam to Apex Pro for my launcher. It lets be back up my settings.

No, it is a Nexus 7 owners discussion thread. I'm a Nexus 7 owner



I'm 99.9% sure that isn't the case Mark.

I would be interested in hearing how Android users here move their data/settings for all their many from one device to another (and whether it involves messing about with root access). But only if they are Nexus 7 owners, obviously.

I guess I want to know from you two what it is you want to back up. I don't know what you think is getting backed up, and I don't think it's as much as you think it is!


My apologies, for I am not a Nexus 7 owner, just someone who wants to be. That said, I do have two Android devices and have had many in the past. There is no "moving" anything, because from day one the OS has been a cloud-connected one. The whole idea is that when you log into a new device it all just comes down from the internet.

So when you log into a new device, you get all of:

- all your apps
- all their settings
- all the data stored locally by the apps
- all the photos you took on the old device
- all the SMSes on the old device

?

It was my understanding that Android apps had the option to store settings in a way that meant they ended up being transferred between devices, but that they mainly opted not to. Is this not the case ?

I'm not trying to bash Android by the way, both dominant mobile OSes have their pluses and minuses. I'm just trying to check that my understanding of how it works with Android in this area is correct.

Or to put it another way...

If I opted to try out a new version of iOS on my iPad and then reverted back to the previous version I would:

- make sure a backup had happened
- install the test version of iOS
- revert back to the old version of iOS
- restore the backup

At which point my iPad, its apps and all their data would be back to exactly as it was before installing the test version of iOS.

Does the cloud side of Android mean that the same would happen if I did the same on Android ?

As I said earlier, the settings for apps does not get restored. Photos can only be restored if you have the Google+ auto upload feature enabled. I don't believe SMS is backed up.

The apps themselves, though, do get downloaded and installed again automatically.

What did you mean then when you said:

"That said, I do have two Android devices and have had many in the past. There is no "moving" anything, because from day one the OS has been a cloud-connected one. The whole idea is that when you log into a new device it all just comes down from the internet."

From what you've just said there is plenty of "moving" to be done. It sounds like you just said that very little actually "just comes down from the Internet" ?

Sorry if that was unclear. I shouldn't have said "everything," but there is indeed no moving, because you can't "move" anything that can't be backed up anyway.

Lets take Angry Birds as an example. If I factory reset my phone, when I log back in with my Google credentials, I don't have to do anything to get my calendar, contacts, and email back on my phone, and Angry Birds will reinstall automatically, but any progress I made in the game will be erased. That is unfortunate, but I don't have any way of backing up that saved game information (unless I root and install something like Titanium Backup).

Like I said, I wish app settings backed up, but they don't. I also don't know of any magical setting that will back everything up to Google Drive.

You can backup SMS by using an app (SMS backup & restore) and you can select where to back it up to. It is also possible to have the app automatically upload to Dropbox. But SMS is not backed up automatically by Android or Google.

Third-party app settings aren't automatically backed up and restored, although many individual applications do this sort of thing themselves, particularly the ones that are really thin clients for some web service. For everything else, like games, the answer is one of the many backup/restore tools, which I believe all require root. I've used Titanium Backup to do this. It lets you make checkpoints of any apps you want, as many times as you want, on your phone. You can then copy those checkpoint files to some other phone and restore from them.

Dunno, but I do wish you'd stop harping on about iFruits in the Nexus 7 thread -- Tom even asked for us to stay on topic in his thread.

Edit: Oh, screw it. Tom even mentions iOS in post #1, so I guess this becomes yet another fanboy thread. I'll be quiet about it now.

I don't think the stock Google Android has that capability.
But that's why there are apps, lots and lots of apps.

Titanium Backup is the Android standard for backup/restore to/from the Cloud, and it does exactly what you're asking for. It will backup directly to Google Drive, or other cloud services, as well as to local flash.

Cheers

I do object to being referred to as a fanboy, do we really have to resort to such tired labels here ?

Heh.. I suppose it's a variation of sorts on Letts' Law: All empegBBS threads eventually evolve to iFruit discussions. Or something like that.

Back on (the main) topic though: I have installed the stock Android web browser along with Adobe Flashplayer onto the Nexus 7. This might interest UK users, since doing so enables iPlayer access.

Cheers

I also mentioned WebOS, Android, and Windows Phone . All platforms I've had direct experiences with, and try to keep up on to be fully informed about the entire ecosystem.

I wanted it to stay relevant to the tech and usage side of the Nexus 7, not the Q/hand size/phones/other Google bits from the other thread. It's not meant as a fanboy thread either. It's simply to share experience, tips and to learn more about the Nexus 7. Comparisons to other products I think are fine as long as it doesn't derail things too much. These comparisons help people learn more by starting with a concept people may have past experience with.

The backup discussion is useful, for people like myself and Andy who do live mostly on the iOS side and want to honestly know what effort is needed to match or come close to a capability we make use of. I'm trying to judge this device fairly and know where it stands for when people ask me advice about tablets. And yes, there are many thing I do like about it, and will post more. Mark, your contributions are useful on this thread, though your tendency to be anti iFruit can be just as disruptive as people pro positions at times. Glad to see we are back on track now


Is Flash support the main advantage of adding back in the stock Android browser? Having Flash on the Nexus 7 would be handy, as I'm noticing many web videos aren't working even in the US.

Thus far, the (heretofore) stock Android Browser gives me four things:

• flashplayer, for sites that demand it.
• doesn't have the nasty bug that impedes entry of an IP address.
• works better with Swiftkey 3 (which is b0rked with Chrome).
• it's an alternative to Chrome.

Edit: it is possible that Firefox might work just as well for those.. dunno, tried it, didn't like it on the tablet.

Here's something that might be useful once in a while, CSipSimple: generic Open-Source SIP client,
for making phone calls from the tablet. This kind of functionality is built-into the GN phone, but missing from the stock tablet.

Skype is also available, for the millions who prefer it.

Geez, must everything devolve into a Microsoft fanboy thread?

Looks like Anandtech tested the internal speeds.

Can anyone find any information on whether Best Buy will carry the Nexus 7? If it did, I'd pick one up tomorrow. I've had a Best Buy gift card sitting around unused because there's so little worth buying at their store! I feel dumb spending most of a gift card on the difference of the online price...

Well, obviously they got something wrong, then. Their measurements only achieved half of what I saw.

The whole (only) point of measuring "MBytes/sec" is for large files. Smaller files are so quick it really doesn't matter so much. So I used very large files when measuring it, whereas they used relatively small ones.

I guess ideally one might want to see a scatter chart of various file sizes or something.

Cheers

So here's an unrelated question:

I want a case for my Nexus 7. I've poked around on Amazon and MoKo makes several popular cases (leather-wrapped, clip-on, and rotating). These seem to include a magnet to trigger the auto-wake-up feature of the tablet. One friend of mine loves his hardback book cover-style case. I'm sure there are many more variations.

I'm not entirely sure what features make for a good or bad case, although the idea of having a hand-strap on the back to make it easier to hold sounds attractive. Thoughts?

Mark, I know you linked to something relating to this tool, but I wanted to reiterate the point for those who are interested. After stumbling around for tools to un-root and re-lock my phone, I also came across the Galaxy Nexus Toolkit.

All I can say is: this is all you need. Given the confusing nature of the rooting world out there, that's the highest compliment I can pay to this tool. It does everything and does it pretty much without any additional interaction.

Lastly, if you're interested, it looks like my Galaxy Nexus has a serious power issue. It always thinks it's charging (which can't be healthy). Other times it can't charge. So I'll be sending it back, and I need to make it look like I didn't do anything bad to it

That's the one I linked to all right. He posted a similar kit for the N7 as well, but I found an even simpler one for that.

Is there a way to do a remote wipe of a Nexus 7 with just a personal Google (without GMail) account? Only thing official I saw was for Google Apps for Domains users.

Where is this? I've got a Nexus 7 and I am a GAFD user.

There are a ton of remote wipe apps in the Play Store. Intended for phones, but if they permit installation on the tablet then they should work the same. Most seem to require a subscription though (ugh!).

Manage Domain
Settings > Mobile > Advanced Settings > check "Allow user to remote wipe device" and "Enable device activation"

I'm using Google Apps for Business, so it might be different that what you see.

I can go to http://www.google.com/apps/mydevices and locate my devices, wipe them, or sound an alarm. The admin of the domain (also myself) can do this as well.

Looks like there is no out of the box way, especially when the device is not at ones side. Oh well, I worked around the issue by having my wireless router block the Nexus 7.

The reason I wanted to remote wipe it was to stop it from updating Latitude. Seems when I turned Latitude on from the web, the Nexus automatically started updating it. My trip log from yesterday is rather interesting, showing points on the route, and each one connected back to Austin. My phone is the only device I want pushing out to Latitude for the trip.

Yep. Google Apps for Domains doesn't have it:

Yeah: ugh!

SeekDroid is a one-time fee if you just want the basic functions of locating and remote wiping your phone. I used to use it before I got hooked up with the Device Policy thing. I would say it's worth the few dollars they charge.

I found this comment in the SeekDroid forums: "Seekdroid does work with the Asus/Google Nexus 7.."

It was also rather difficult to find out what the monthly fees would be, should one choose to subscribe. Found those too (I think):

Not stated there, is that paying monthly fees also enables the "extra" features of the app.

My Nexus 7 doesn't see a ton of use, and at times I find it's completely drained power wise. Standby time doesn't seem to be as good as other platforms I've used.

In the past, I've just plugged in it's standard microUSB cable to a powered USB port on a computer, and came back to a charged device. But this wasn't 100%, and sometimes it seemed it wouldn't start charging.

Tonight, it's now just stuck in a loop, where it boots, immediacy powers down when it hits the PIN lock screen, then ends with a few seconds of video distortion and an audible hiss. Anyone seen similar? Is this a defect I need to be seeking warranty service for, or just bad low power handling?

Nexus 7 Charging Issue

The first two paragraphs match my experience with my N7. Haven't seen the other problem though.

Seems better on the OS update from the other week though.

It may be getting better. Moved it to a wall plug where it still did the same cycle 3 more times, before it finally shutdown with a low power icon on the screen instead of the video distortion and hiss. Tapping the power button now also shows the battery icon instead of it trying to boot.

Never had an issue with standby/run time on battery with my N7. It had gobs and gobs of battery run time.

That was all before Android 4.2/.4.2.1 though -- some users report that things went way downhill on the N7 after that.

I sold my N7 a few weeks before the update, though (never figured out what tablets are good for, other than as a photo album), so I have no experience with it after the update.

Cheers

I've been running the open-source Prey Project. It's all about trying to track your lost gear. I don't think it supports remote wiping, but it does have all sorts of other things, like GPS tracking.

Another tracker that seems to be highly regarded is Cerberus, which does seem to have a remote wipe feature, among other things. I haven't played with it myself, but the pricing (one time EUR 2.99) seems pretty reasonable.

Out of the box the standby time on my n7 was crap, but by default it has WiFi enabled all the time, even when asleep.

Once I toggled that off it fixed the problem. I can leave it a week and there's still loads of juice left when I wake it back up.

I'm not willing to cripple my Internet connect tablet to restore the battery performance it should have

You should be able to leave wifi on and still get good battery performance, like you can on an iPad. The root cause isn't wifi, it appears to be badly behaved apps. If I force all the apps running background stuff out of memory it will last far better.

Unfortunately I've never taken the time to work out which apps are at fault specifically and just killing everything is just as bad as turning off wifi. Which is one of the reasons my N7 goes unused.

Horses for courses, I tend not to surf the internet on it when it's asleep.

That is to say that I don't really care for "notifications" from ebay, email or whatever, I get those on my phone and that's always on my person - which the N7 isn't.

I'd rather know that when I went to it there was a good chance of there being enough battery life to do stuff - rather that having to actively remember to recharge the thing OCD stylee.

I agree though, it'd be better if it was negligible and it could be kept on, but it isn't and it turning wifi off while it's asleep has zero impact on its usage for me, YMMV.

It is very difficult to receiving incoming Skype calls and Google+ Hangouts when wifi is off

(for a while the N7 was the only Google+ client I could rely on to work for Hangouts, not an issue anymore*, another reason it doesn't get used)

* at the time Google+ Hangouts tended to hang Chrome on OSX when I tried and the iOS client didn't work very well for me either, both of those issues aren't a problem anymore

Ahh...I don't use either of those.

Well, I occasionally use skype (to the wife) but I dislike video calls, so I use it as a phone anyway.

It gets used only when I'm abroad when I have access to WiFi and that usually means that I've texted the wife to say "turn on Skype" before I ring her on it because she invariably never has it running anyway.

I dislike video calls too. Unfortunately one of the companies I do work for use Google Hangout for their daily meetings.

Yeah - I got given one but couldn't find a use for it either...I gave mine to SWMBO and the kids. They do a bit of facebook and game playing while sat on the couch.

I occasionally log into Stack Exchange on it, but basically I see it the same way I see the iPad: doesn't really do any of the things I want, so no point having one.

Ha !

I can now concur with the third paragraph too. Just plugged my N7 in after it has sat without any charge for a few days and it too has gone into that reboot loop when I tried to turn it on in its *early stages of charging.

* I have taken to turning it on it as soon as plugging it into charge, as it appeared to work round the non-charging issue. The non-charging issue being where you'd find it had run itself down again, plug it in, come back several hours later to use it, only to find it hadn't even started charging !

(I used to grade my N7 as "good, but not great", the longer I own it the less good it feels I'm afraid, it is "little" things like this that do the most damage to my estimations of its goodness)

Complete with the odd hiss and video distortion? After mine recovered, it did update to 4.2.1, now waiting to drain it again and see if the issue is resolved before pursuing a warranty claim.

Not sure, I only saw it start the reboot loop before rushing out of the office.

For what it's worth, my N7 has never had any of these problems. The only problem I ever did have was the massive slowdown once you filled up the flash storage. If you're having battery drain issues, it's possible you have faulty hardware. If you're having bootlooping, it's possible that you just got unlucky and you might consider wiping it out and reinstalling.

This might address some of the stuff you guys are talking about, but for me it was a big case of tl;dr.

Doesn't appear to. It's all about the charging capacity mixing various adaptors and cables, along with shorting some pins. Nothing to address the faulty failing to charge from a dead state.

I'm using th supplied charger/cable, so no I don't think that has anything to do with the problem.