• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Google's Nexus 7

I guess it only matters from the perspective of my curiosity. I think Google has a music/movie/app store ... but I think it has a teeny tiny percentage of the market. I doubt they are making up for tablet loss by trying to get people to use their 'play store' ecosystem. But I could be wrong, that's why I would be interested in seeing some numbers.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's true that they have a relatively small percentage of the music/movie/app store market. Again, that would explain why they would want to get devices in people's hands that could grow that market share. It's worked for both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, so it makes perfect sense for Google to do the same, especially since those other tablets prove that the Android OS is capable for that purpose.
 
At that price, I'll have to get one, but...

Would it have killed them to put an SD card slot on it? 8-16GB is a little limiting. It would cost practically nothing. I'm guessing they are doing this because they want people to use the Google Play Store for content rather than loading up a bunch of stuff.

Also, it uses the phone UI rather than the tablet UI. Android runs the same OS on both phones and tablets but the UI is different based on whether it is a phone or a tablet. The UI on the Nexus 7 is the phone UI. I dunno, I guess they decided that 7 inches is too small to to use the tablet UI. First thing I'll do is hack it so it is running as a tablet.
 
A few people have said the nexus isn't competing with the iPad but really? not competing with it at all? I know it's much cheaper and it's a little smaller but hey, it's a tablet and it can do pretty much everything the iPad can do, but for less money. Isn't that kinda the definition of competition?

Not really. It's the same with PCs, phones, and various other things. While they all do generally the same stuff, in practice there are people who just want a basic model and aren't willing to pay much for it, and there are people who want the best money can buy and are willing to pay out much more. So while they're still both PCs, a £300 one from PC World isn't really competing with a £3000 gaming rig. They can mostly do the same stuff, but the more expensive one will do some things a lot better. Similarly, things like the iPad and Samsung Galaxy have much more processing power, higher resolution screens, and so on, than a £100 tablet. Sure, it's still a tablet and can do most of the same things, but it won't always do them as quickly or look as good when it does.

The big difference between phones and tablets is that a cheap phone is still a phone, and the person buying it probably doesn't care that it's not as good at playing games and such. But a tablet is just a tablet and doesn't have any base function, so if it's not much good at doing tablety things, there's just not much point in buying one at all. That's part of the reason the iPad is popular in the first place. It was nowhere near the first tablet to exist, but it came out at about the time when you could finally fit enough processing power and a decent screen into a tablet-sized device. Until now, it was still expensive to do so so the cheaper tablets tended to be rather on the crap side, but we may just about be reaching the point where you can make a decent tablet that can't match the more expensive ones for power but could still be worth having as a tablet. They're not trying to take market share from the iPad, they're hoping to get a share in a newly open market that's only just come into existence.

Would it have killed them to put an SD card slot on it? 8-16GB is a little limiting. It would cost practically nothing. I'm guessing they are doing this because they want people to use the Google Play Store for content rather than loading up a bunch of stuff.

I dunno, for some reason a lot of manufacturers just seem to hate SD cards these days. It's weird. 16GB was barely enough a decade or so ago in my old mp3 player, so I really don't understand how anyone thinks 8GB is enough for a tablet now.
 
I dunno, for some reason a lot of manufacturers just seem to hate SD cards these days. It's weird. 16GB was barely enough a decade or so ago in my old mp3 player, so I really don't understand how anyone thinks 8GB is enough for a tablet now.

It's a good way to get people to use your cloud-based services.
 
Sure, it's still a tablet and can do most of the same things, but it won't always do them as quickly or look as good when it does.
Well, that's the thing. Nobody really knows what it's like yet but it will have a quad core processor (for multi tasking presumably) and the screen has a good resolution too. Also, a lot of people like jellybean (though I'm unfamiliar with it). So maybe it will do things as quickly and as good..

They're not trying to take market share from the iPad, they're hoping to get a share in a newly open market that's only just come into existence.
So are you saying the tablet market is being split up into a high-end and low-end market?
 
Also, a lot of people like jellybean (though I'm unfamiliar with it).

Well of course you're unfamiliar with Jellybean! It hasn't even been officially released yet; they just announced it a couple days ago. Although there are leaked Jellybean ROMs for the Galaxy Nexus at XDA already. I will install it on mine sometime soon.

I dunno if you've ever used Ice Cream Sandwich, but Jellybean seems like a relatively minor update to it. Some added features and performance enhancements.
 
Last edited:
Oh, another fanboi.

Stop drinking the coo-aid of the cult of Jobs, man.
You've been brainwashed into thinking.....

.....*slaps own face*........sorry, I'll get my coat.

overpriced, hardware lockin, the brainwashing seems to be free. I didnt buy that style over sustance argument in the 90's and I as hell don't now. Apple sucks.
 
Same as Amazon with the Fire. You're aware that Google sells books, music, apps, and movies via their [rebranded] Google Play store, right?

In fact, the proliferation of closed devices like the Fire and the Nook Tablet is that much more reason for Google to get their own device out there.

one thing the Nexus has on the fire is the camera and gps. I like my fire, but a camera would have been very nice also.
 
That's two things.

Also bluetooth, memory , processor speed, resolution....
This device is going after the Kindle Fire, not the iPad. It's trying to exploit the same business model as the Fire as well. The money, they hope, will be a regular stream as users buy books, magazines, music and movies.

I would expect the Fire to leapfrog it feature wise in the next 6 months.

I, for one, like the competition. I also am beginning to regret buying an Ainol Aurora last month. But alas, waiting for the perfect technology product will just mean you'll never get anything. I think I can justify the next generation of Fire when it comes out.
 
At that price, I'll have to get one, but...

Would it have killed them to put an SD card slot on it? 8-16GB is a little limiting. It would cost practically nothing. I'm guessing they are doing this because they want people to use the Google Play Store for content rather than loading up a bunch of stuff.

Bothers me as well. But while it won't look as good, I've been told that a USB flash drive should be usable for media.

I'm talking myself into the fact that I could use it at home with just the internal, and if I need to pull up a movie for the kids in the car I could plug in a drive.
 
Bothers me as well. But while it won't look as good, I've been told that a USB flash drive should be usable for media.

I'm talking myself into the fact that I could use it at home with just the internal, and if I need to pull up a movie for the kids in the car I could plug in a drive.

Yeah but it doesn't have a full USB port so you would have to get a male micro USB to female USB adapter. Cheap, but even more of a hassle.
 
This device is going after the Kindle Fire, not the iPad. It's trying to exploit the same business model as the Fire as well. The money, they hope, will be a regular stream as users buy books, magazines, music and movies.

...snip...

And for Google I would suspect that even more importantly they can serve you their adverts.
 
Ordered two of the 16gb versions as ereaders for myself and my mom. I've been following the genesis of this tab since it was unveiled as the Asus Memo at CES.

I'd been looking for a good 7" tablet available in Canada for quite a while (No Kindle Fire or Nook Color/Tab sold up here). I bought and returned two of the Acer A100's at xmas time. They were just absolutely worthless as ereaders due to a really poor quality screen with unbelieveably bad viewing angles. (As in, like 5 degrees off center and there was noticeable colour change, 25 degrees off and it was almost like looking at photo negatives.)

The Nexus has a lot of upside for me. I can trust that google will support it well and keep it updated without having to wait for individual vendors to slap their own UI on top of the perfectly good android UI. It's going to be great being on the cutting edge of the android releases for at least a littlle while.

If it turns out they have hardware issues, public pressure will force them to rectify it in the same way that apple has been forced to fix issues after they went public.

The screen is reportedly beautiful, the battery is good, and the tablet isn't underpowered like so many I've tried.

I'm not overjoyed that there is no sd slot, but my music is all on my phone, and books and comics don't take up much space really. It's not a deal breaker for me.

I've been using an LCD touchscreen ereader since the late 90's, and I'm used to having the LCD backlight for low light situations. I'm not a fan of eInk, though I have seen now that they're finally getting around to putting backlights into them. At this point though it seems like the Nexus will be the ereader I've been waiting for at a good price point.
 
I'm waiting until I can get my hands on one to have a quick go on but I suspect I'll be buying one after that - it's just in that sweet spot of almost impulse gadget (especially the 8Gb version).
 
That's my feeling too. I'd be much happier if it just had a micro SD slot, but even without it's very enticing.
 
Yeah but it doesn't have a full USB port so you would have to get a male micro USB to female USB adapter. Cheap, but even more of a hassle.

That's my feeling too. I'd be much happier if it just had a micro SD slot, but even without it's very enticing.

I understand why it would be a hassle or annoying for lots of people, but I'm the type of person that wouldn't care.

I'd stick a .50¢ adapter on a 16gb USB Flash Drive and leave it there. It would only about a 2 to 3 inches long, if that.

I wouldn't even mind using the tablet with it attached, or be seen walking around with it like that. :D
 
Well, that's the thing. Nobody really knows what it's like yet but it will have a quad core processor

It's apparently a Tegra 3 T30L. Which is actually rather better than I thought. It's not quite top of the range even now, so the next generation of high-end tablets will likely beat it, but for now it's better than the Samsung Galaxy tablets and at least on a par with the iPad (better in raw power but the A5X wins on some graphics benchmarks).

and the screen has a good resolution too.

This bit actually surprised me as well. It's much worse than the iPad, but actually the same as the Galaxy which I thought had a better screen.

So are you saying the tablet market is being split up into a high-end and low-end market?

The market has been split like that ever since the market existed, just as has been the case with phones, PCs, and most other gadgets. That's still the case here. It's a very decent tablet in terms of raw power, but there have been plenty of corners cut elsewhere to keep the cost down - little storage, no USB storage possible, no output to TV, no 3G, no Gorilla glass (check the Gizmodo review, they broke their review model in the short time they had it), poor speaker, etc.. It looks very good for the price, but it's hardly competing even with the current generation of high-end tablets.

I'm waiting until I can get my hands on one to have a quick go on but I suspect I'll be buying one after that - it's just in that sweet spot of almost impulse gadget (especially the 8Gb version).

I'm tempted, but the lack of storage and connectivity will likely stop me. I have a PC and TV at home so it's not going to see a lot of use there, but it doesn't have enough storage to carry everything around with me and doesn't have 3G if I want to stream things instead. I could see it being handy if you're in a big city with free wi-fi everywhere, but it's almost completely crippled in terms of how I'd want to use it.

I'd stick a .50¢ adapter on a 16gb USB Flash Drive and leave it there.

No you wouldn't.
 

Back
Top Bottom