Google Nexus 7

[Pseudopath]

What so you have this tiny lightweight portable device you can hold in one hand and you attach whacking great external hard drive to it? Surely your better off with a wireless nas?

Of course...if you're at home. But if you're out and about and a WiFi connection isn't available, a portable hard drive wouldn't be a bad way of storing movies and music for long, boring journeys.

I suppose if you wanted to be ultra-fancy (and you had a router that supported it), you could install a VPN client on the tablet and tunnel back into your home network to access the contents of your NAS (although that would obviously rely on a WiFi connection)

[buntyman]

It's intended for consuming content over wifi or from the cloud though, so the lack of additional storage is deliberate. I think if you want to be able to store a lot of stuff on the device you're best off getting something else anyway.

It can't be very expensive to add an SD slot to a device and it adds a negligible difference to size and weight of device. It's a desirable feature for a lot of people so I don't understand why they wouldn't include it. Surely allowing for more storage space would encourage people to consume more content through the app and video marketplace. I'd probably buy one if it wasn't for the thought of the regular file management hassles that it would bring about.

[biggytitbo]

It can't be very expensive to add an SD slot to a device and it adds a negligible difference to size and weight of device. It's a desirable feature for a lot of people so I don't understand why they wouldn't include it. Surely allowing for more storage space would encourage people to consume more content through the app and video marketplace. I'd probably buy one if it wasn't for the thought of the regular file management hassles that it would bring about.

I dunno, the whole raisin d'être of the device is that it streams content from the cloud over wifi. If people aren't buying into that idea then they should look elsewhere really. As hideous as it is, the thing actually comes with transformers dark of the moon free. But it doesn't physically exist in the device, it's streamed from google play. That's the whole idea behind it.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

If they want people streaming stuff, it seems odd not to include 3g. I know it can be tethered to a phone, but I'm on GiffGaff and they don't allow that.

Bit of a pisser it has no HDMI too.

For these reasons, I'm out.

[biggytitbo]

I dunno, I'm a sky broadband user I can get free wifi pretty much everywhere now. I believe BT users have a similar deal.


Wifi is becoming ubiquitous these days.

[wasp_f15ting]

The reason it doesn't have 3G or 4G LTE is due to the utter cunty nature of American carriers.

Beyond that, they seem to be making a loss this device, £160 is a lot for what this can offer. I agree with biggy that 8-16GB is enough if you have good b/b.

Even on my desktops now I am trimming down the unnecessary stuff I have and saving things on skydrive. With 20MB up its a doddle to get things into the cloud too now.

If you want SD and HDMI out, there is the Coby 10.1 tablet at £99.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-020-OK

[Mildly Diverting]

I dunno, the whole raisin d'être of the device is that it streams content from the cloud over wifi. If people aren't buying into that idea then they should look elsewhere really. As hideous as it is, the thing actually comes with transformers dark of the moon free. But it doesn't physically exist in the device, it's streamed from google play. That's the whole idea behind it.

Yeah, I get your point. Unfortunately, living in the back of beyond (ie Devon), wi-fi outside of my house is very difficult to come by, so the storage is a big deal to me. Alas, I'd imagine that they've made their decision now and that storage won't be a consideration for future versions.

[biggytitbo]

Well ive got mine just now...typing this on it in fact. More later after I've spent some time alone with this sexy little fella...

[Sayan Jerome]

Is it worf it?

[mook]

it's kept titbo quiet for 12 hours straight, so, yes it is worth it.

[biggytitbo]

I'd echo what others have said, the quality of it is amazing for the price' especially considering you get 15 quid free credit in the store. The screen and speed of it wipe the floor with my creeky old iPad and the size of it is just right to hold comfortably hold in one hand. And its also seems to be a lot nicer to type on than the ipad.  Favourite thing on it so far is the search app that can search everything at once, including the web and the tablet and also any apps you have that also have a search in them, like imdb.

Downsides - some apps aren't yet optimised for tablets - like words with friends and tuned in radio, both of which aren't yet as good as the iPad versions. Also, whilst the search app is great, the voice search on it is shite, simply won,t work properly for me. Perhaps its just my impenetrable 'ull accent?

[KLG-7A]

Perhaps its just my impenetrable 'ull accent?

Seagull? You have a seagull's accent?

[KLG-7A]

You know who else has one of those?

Kirsty Wark.

[KLG-7A]

WARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRK!

[biggytitbo]

Seagull? You have a seagull's accent?

In a funny sort of way, don't we all have seagull accents?


Not having a go or owt, but this forum is pretty bad to use on a mobile...all the font sizing is all over the shop and the 'mobile' skin doesnt appear to work properly at all.

[Jamie Oliver is fat]

Ths is definately the gadget that will finally make me happy!

[Subtle Mocking]

Where'd you get yours Biggy?

[KLG-7A]

If you're a Quidco user, make sure to check for cashback deals. There's at lease one that will earn you a tenner.

[biggytitbo]

Where'd you get yours Biggy?

The google play store. They've got em in currys and pc world now too apparently.


I think the Play store is the only place you can buy the 8gb £160 version though.

[Steven]

Titbo, I have had Android Jellybean ported to my Samsung Galaxy S1 with Google Now Search for the last week or so, and it seems to work a lot better if you change the phones Language to English (US) instead of English (UK), also the American voice feedback sounds a lot more natural than the shitty Hawking-esque English (UK) voice.

[biggytitbo]

Titbo, I have had Android Jellybean ported to my Samsung Galaxy S1 with Google Now Search for the last week or so, and it seems to work a lot better if you change the phones Language to English (US) instead of English (UK), also the American voice feedback sounds a lot more natural than the shitty Hawking-esque English (UK) voice.

I'll give that a go, although I think it already is set to US.

[VegaLA]

I know Apple tried to stop the sale of the Nexus Samsung in America but this is taking things a bit too far.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57472222-37/apple-warns-retailers-to-stop-selling-certain-samsung-devices/?tag=contentMain;contentBody;1n

For some reason I could not find that story on Engadget.

[Summer Loven]

I had a play with one of these yesterday in PC World. I was very tempted, frankly. It's a pleasure to use; it's super smooth and functions identically to my phone, it's just a little bit bigger.

Then I realised that it functions identically to my phone, it's just a little bit bigger.

I would like one but if I'm tethering it out and about, I might as well just use my phone which is fast as fuck and has a boss interface. If I'm at home, I seldom sit down and just look at the internet or a film/show any more.

I'll just get one for when I'm taking a shit.

[Replies From View]

Whatever happened to the colour e-ink technologies that were supposed to be emerging?  I was kind of expecting the 7" tablet market to become dominated by Mirasol or somesuch rather than backlit displays.

[biggytitbo]

It is the ideal size for sitting on the bog/sofa though. Big enough to get a decent amount of real estate and small enough and light enough to hold in  one hand for extended periods and much nicer to type on than a full size tablet.


Games are a nice fit for it too, as you can hold it in one hand and swipe or whatever with the other.

[Ignatius_S]

Whatever happened to the colour e-ink technologies that were supposed to be emerging?  I was kind of expecting the 7" tablet market to become dominated by Mirasol or somesuch rather than backlit displays.

Although colour e-ink is fine for e-readers, it's wanting in tablets. At the moment, the refresh rate is too slow for video, say. With e-readers, something like the colour Ectaco jetBook will set you back £400-500 and is complete crap. There are some pretty decent cheaper ones out there, but if it's a standard e-reader size, what's the big advantage of having colour? (Although pundits ask, who wants boring old black and white). Slightly different, LG have come up with e-paper, which looks quite interesting.

Qualcomm has made a big investment in mirasol production, but everything to date has indicated it's a work in progress (e.g. in the general e-reader thread, I think there was mention of a e-reader device that was something of a dog and since then, it's been discontinued). That said, it's rumoured that the next Nook device will utilise mirasol. Something to remember is that with mirasol, companies can only go to one manufacturer and as this stage, it's going to be costly.

On the backlight front (if that's the right work), IGZO by Sharp look good – the last iPad was rumoured it was going to use it and now those rumours have move to the smaller iPad.

[MojoJojo]

Whatever happened to the colour e-ink technologies that were supposed to be emerging?  I was kind of expecting the 7" tablet market to become dominated by Mirasol or somesuch rather than backlit displays.

Despite the impressive demonstrations at trade shows, it's taken ages to get mirasol to mass production. A product was released last year, a Korean ebook reader, but reports were that it was shit- colours too badly washed out to be useable for video/web stuff, and not enough contrast/battery life to be any good as an ebook. Hopefully one day they'll get it working well.

I've pretty much decided to get a nexus now, just waiting for a shop around here to have them in stock. Getting it instead of a new phone this year.

(ninja'd by Ignatius)

[Consignia]

Oh fuck it, I ordered one. I just want a new toy to play with, and this is cheap enough.

[Summer Loven]

I've gone the other way. I've no idea what I'd do with it, really. It's a little too small for sustained browsing and reading docs/pdfs, etc. whereas phone is plenty big enough for Flipboard/Pulse/Currents.

I think when I get Jellybean on my phone, the difference will be too slim to justify.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I wish they'd hurry up and do my idea of phones with expandable screens. I reckon that would kill tablets stone dead.