The 2013 Google Nexus 7 as the best tablet for the majority

(Yes, the title is stupid.  It's the second stupid title, and I can't think of anything that explains how I feel about my current Nexus 7.)

Would it be ridiculous to buy another Nexus 7 after having two of the 2012 versions and returning them?  I thought so.

Clearly, time has changed nearly everything.

Gone is the Tegra 3 with its multiple personality disorder, thankfully.  The surge, pause, surge, pause rhythm is a thing of the past, for me.

Can someone with a 32 GB iPhone 5c, packed to the gills, get along with only 16 GB in a tablet?  Yes, with Android it's definitely possible.  According to the Storage statistics, I have 8.42 GB available still.  I have very little of anything but applications (and their data) on it.

Is the graphics performance acceptable?  Absolutely.  I'm running Galaxy on Fire 2 HD (my 5th version (?), including the Tegra version), and it's quite good.

Is the display better than acceptable?  Absolutely.  I can't say that there was ever a problem with the 2012 models but this one is quite clear, although the Japanese and Chinese typography could be better.  If I can read the iPhone's 4 inch (1136x640) display clearly, why shouldn't a 7 inch (1920x1200) display be even better?  Maybe, I've missed a setting.

What hasn't changed?  Asus is still the company in charge of the hardware, and Google is firmly in charge of the software and firmware.  There is no flash memory slot of any sort still.  Google is counting on Google Drive for those things.  I have Google Drive, Evernote, and Dropbox on it, but I could add Ubuntu One and Microsoft's SkyDrive (being renamed in the UK) for more cloud storage.  Amazon.com has another of those, backed by their own storage that has become rather popular.

The build is better.  There is no creaking or flex that I have noticed.  I miss the previous texture on the back, but this one will do.  This device has two cameras, so you can look a bit silly taking photos or video with your tablet.  The buttons feel quite good.  Someone actually researched it, it seems.  The micro USB port seems to have remained in what I consider the upside down position compared to the devices I've had.

Being that I got it for US$199.99, instead of US$229.99, I feel it's even better, as that took care of an extended warranty including accidental damage.  The official travel case was US$19.99 at Micro Center, where I bought everything else.

Getting started with any device is a pain.  Nothing is ready to go.  Thankfully, I have Google Chrome on my laptop computers and I've allowed Google to sync my bookmarks, etc.  After I connected the account on the tablet, things were set in motion, and it was fairly quick to connect the dots for me.

However, the updates took a lot of time, and it's yet to update the operating system to Android version 4.4 (Kit Kat), so that will take some time.  Downloading my formerly-used applications also took some time and setup.  I also have been reconsidering passwords on accounts.  Having been a "victim" of the Adobe, Ubuntu forums, and MacRumors forums hackings, I have changed passwords here and there, though I've left those three since I am not using that combination anywhere else now and I'm not active on those three.  I should change the Adobe bits, as I will have something to do with them eventually.

In any case, it's probably not wise to have passwords easily at hand with an Android-based device.  They're still too vulnerable.  The Bitdefender software is quite good and gives you a fair evaluation of the possibility of privacy problems.  I'm at 61% with Twitter, Evernote, Google+, Yelp, and others.  Very few applications are clean, and when you connect to the internet, you should consider all of your data publicly-available and work backward to secure it.

I'm not trying to scare anyone.  100% internet security is not possible, so all you can do is help your situation.  Even though things are better on iOS, they're not nearly perfect, either, and you have to deal with third party applications anyway.  Be safe!

The Bitdefender application makes good use of the tablet display, even though it has the "Designed for Phone" label.  It seems to be the exception, although more developers are working toward the goal.  Update 2013.12.08: I've spent the US9.95 for the premium status within the app.  The company has done good work, and while I'm not sure they can save me from every situation, they can use the money as a vote toward enhancements.

If you can't tell, I'm pleased with the tablet.  I'd like to take it out and use it some place in public to see how portable it really feels.  Too many times, I've gone to a restaurant and I've left the computer in the car because it's just too much.  Even a 10 inch tablet seems too much, but this is about big enough to fit on the tray, alongside your meal, as would a book.

Update 2013.11.26: Kit Kat (Android version 4.4) was downloaded overnight.  I'm not noticing any real difference.  Of course, this tablet has plenty of storage and RAM, so what might be improved on a lower end device, squeezed for resources, might not be so noticeable here.

One incredibly good thing, and I don't know whether it's part of 4.3 or 4.4, is the ability to have multiple users on the device.  Just like with the laptop computer, I'd like to keep my photographic business separate from my monkey/personal business.  (No, I don't trade in monkeys, but that would be a barrel of fun.)

Update 2013.11.27: It's been about 1 week, and I think that Asus and Google have really hit the mark on this one.  The only better tablet at this point would possibly be the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX but reports I've read would suggest that it would have a lesser life for upgrades, and of course, you have to deal with Amazon's way of doing things.

Update 2013.12.08: The tablet continues to work smoothly, although there seems to be a continual stream of updates, something I remember with my previous encounters with Android.  It could be a good thing when dealing with security issues, but for other issues or enhancements, it might be too much.  Since this tablet is WiFi only, I might be putting my mobile hotspot account at risk, since I'm limited to 12 GB per month.  I got a warning a few days before the end of the last period when I'd crossed 9 GB after just getting the tablet and doing updates and downloads.

Update 2013.03.24: It's been about four months now.  I'm amused that if I leave the tablet off the charger overnight, it has half the charge in the morning, even with WiFi completely off.  If I take it with me when I'm driving 50 miles or more, the battery seems to be depleted quite a lot the next time I try to use it.  Checking the battery usage, it seems to be "normal" Android business.

Otherwise, nothing much has changed.  There seem to be a steady stream of updates, many times from the same developers, every other day.  There is something to be said for waiting 1 week on non-critical updates, especially if your update causes the problems.

Google seems to be more concerned with loading extra crap over the bugs instead of fixing the bugs first and then, adding new features.  They're not much worse than Apple, but I suspect that they only do minimal, very directed testing inside their development environment.  Apple never seems to test on a bad internet connection, so anything that doesn't work perfectly is a result of someone's connection.

Re-booting seems a must, on either platform.  Despite all the elegant multitasking, Android doesn't seem to be any better at handling real life.  It feels as though it will be another 20 years before these devices feel stable enough to be like watches or appliances.  For that matter, I've had computers since 1981 and the new ones don't seem all that stable over the old ones.

Update 2015.04.27: It seems to be dead as far as Google is concerned.  They've apparently stopped selling it on their site.

Update 2015.08.15: Now with Android version 5.1.1, you'd think that the tablet would perform better than ever, and it doesn't.  Maybe, you have to start off with a clean tablet every few months with Android.  This is Google's brand on the tablet--why is it not exemplary?

They're not replacing it apparently.  Tablet sales are way down overall.  Phablet sales are up.  I use my iPhone 6 almost all the day, and I didn't even power on the Nexus 7 for a couple of months.  Sad, isn't it?

Mac App Store and iTunes' support = PITA

It's funny how everything is my fault, so on numerous occasions, I'll say to people "Oh, that was my fault." and they'll reply something like "...but it was on the other side of the world, so you couldn't have anything to do with it."

When dealing with Apple, I've come to see them no different as a cable TV provider or mobile phone carrier.  They never take the blame.

I've been trying to update the Typist/タイピスト and Twitter applications on latest computer, with a lot of trouble.  It changes to download in the Mac App Store application and immediately changes to Installed, without downloading anything.  I can understand that Typist is a problem because the Mac App Store didn't deal with an English name change.  I ended up deleting that application and it was then able to be updated/replaced/installed.

I was told that the problem was my internet connection.

Mind, I went to my older machine with several applications to update, some updated just fine in-between Typist and Twitter, but the latter two won't be updated.  They're stubborn.  However, it's my internet connection that's at fault...or so they say.

It reminds me of Sprint telling me that the phone is at fault when I've had 4 of their phones doing the exact same thing in this location.  That's another story, but they've recently fixed their data problems apparently when they did a voice upgrade.  They claim that there was never a problem.

Besides the two applications, I downloaded a movie via iTunes and a free code with a Blu-Ray combo pack.  I had to go to a phone/computer repair shop where they have a great connection.  Unfortunately, iTunes downloaded everything but couldn't finish integrating the pieces, so I had two 3.5 GB download.m4v files and another file with the movie title.ite

Of course, Apple's response was to delete that and re-download, using the check for unfinished downloads.  It was finished, so it doesn't show up.

Clearly, Apple tests only the best-case scenarios.  They likely have a really great internet connection for all their employees and the employees probably have great connections at home.  They don't go away from the SF Bay Area and test on mobile hotspots or dialup connections.

Now that they have many, many customers (unlike, say 1995), they don't care whether you're a customer or not and it shows in their customer service.

I got a final answer from customer service, who want me to contact AppleCare.  Unless AppleCare has changed to resolve issues not related to warranty service, I don't understand this move:

I had the matter escalated once again, and unfortunately, I was advised have you contact our AppleCare Technical Support team. We cannot find other information that can assist you with the issues you are encountering:

USA: 1-800-275-2273

Contacting Apple for support and service
http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57

Please understand that we can only provide basic troubleshooting steps since we are not completely trained for technical issues.

If our AppleCare Technical Support team is unable to correct the issue, I also recommend asking them to connect you to our Account Security team for verification. They will be able to contact our Tier 2 advisors and possibly run tests on your account.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. I'll be more than happy to assist you with whatever you need. Thank you for the chance to improve your iTunes experience. Have a great day, Curt.

Sincerely,

 I got a survey request today.  I was honest that it was a terrible experience.  I questioned why these groups weren't integrated and would pass me indirectly.  I also mentioned that they need to do some real world testing, since they apparently don't do that.  Does everyone have a high speed internet connection?  When Apple took Mac OS X 10.7/Lion away from physical media, they knew that their user base was upset.  Steve Jobs answered an e-mail by telling the person that they could go to the physical Apple store to download it.  Unfortunately, that could be a 300 mile (probably more) trip for some people.  Real world, what's that?  I'm sure there are plenty of people who would love to have my craptacular connection, as it's much better than what they have.  It's no wonder people abuse their employer's connection.

Update 2014.03.03: I'm using an LTE connection now, at roughly 10-12 Mbps down, and the Mac App Store software does the same thing.  It's as though they don't actually test the connection, they just assume something, anything and try something, anything else and it doesn't work.  Then, they push you to the Purchases page to try again, even when you're on the Purchases page.

I even had an incident a couple of months ago where I couldn't buy something in a physical Apple Store, with an Ethernet cable connected to their internal network.

Instagram and something other than mobile phones

I saw a comment on a @getolympus post today.  The person was making a point about Olympus using Instagram to post photos relating to their users.

There are a huge number of iOS and Android users who have nothing else but mobile phones and some are quite good at capturing the moment.  Some even capture good photos that could be categorised as art.  I can envision the sneers at this time.  Great photographers can work with any equipment and produce good photos.  There are those who are too timid of stepping out on their own who must stay with a dSLR or rangefinder camera to produce their photos.  I count the majority of Canikon users among them.  After all, that's how they came to follow the followers.  However, I can imagine Ansel Adams picking up an iPhone and taking the time to make good photos.

It's not difficult to believe.  Digital technology has come a very long way since I first picked up a digital camera in 1997.  When I first decided to join the movement away from film in 2004, it still wasn't very good and the Canon 20D and Nikon D200 were not very good.  Now, they're really not good.  You say that I wouldn't want to make a poster with a photo from an iPhone 4S or Galaxy SIII?  You're right, but additionally, I wouldn't want to make a poster from 20D or D200 shots either.

The world doesn't care about huge shots and high resolution.  The world is more interested in sharing and that's where Instagram has made its mark.  Since it's been acquired by Facebook, who knows how its nature will change.

I've taken a number of my old shots and uploaded them to my phone and then, to Instagram.  They still look good but in such a smaller size.  At that size, you still notice a clarity from the lenses that my iPhone 4S just can't give.  I thought about adding the Schneider 2 lens and case kit, but at almost $200, that's a bit too dear, and could go toward dSLR equipment or a mirror-less system camera purchase.

The social implications of Instagram are as massive as they are with Twitter.  On the Popular page, you can see like-driven photos within a grid.  Perhaps unfortunately, One Direction and Justin Bieber seem to be getting most of the attention, just like on Twitter.  Providing something silly that people like can vault that image to the top and get you fans, even if it's not your image.

Yes, even if it's not your image--people tend to use images of others to catapult themselves upward.  Of course, you can report violations, but are they heard?  Does any social media service pay attention to violations?  I haven't seem much reaction.

While Instagram is important to a few, it could be gone in a few years, but it certainly signals a maturing of sharing media.