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Google Takes Aim at Apple with New Nexus 7, Google Play Games and Chromecast
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Isn't Japanese uses NFC on their phone to pay everything or what are they using?
Here in North America, we are age behind of everything, at least in Canada. We still don't have light rail, we just starting implementing mobile payment on public transits (at least in Ontario) where Chinese and Japanese have doing for ages.
Ics was absolutely not perfectly smooth on older devices. You can find complaint after complaint about ics. Jb was the first version that eliminates ninety percent of the lag, and there's still lag. Android has come a long long way as far as performance, but no android version has ever been "perfectly smooth", especially on old hardware. (Or ios version for that matter)
NFC is everywhere in Canada. Ever seen a PayPass terminal? Visa has their own thing too.
Jellybean is far superior to Gingerbread.
If you want to see if the apps you want are available just go Google Play and do a search.
https://play.google.com/store/apps
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It all depends on what the developer uses. There are two types of apps for Android: Dalvik (the Java-like API), and native, which (I think) uses C++. I don't think anyone wanting to write an app that eats a ton of memory and uses the GPU will write it in Dalvik. That's only used for lower end stuff.
Mmm not really. Last year I got the Nexus 7 at launch. Hated the damn thing. Had nothing useful on it and was not gonna root. What's the point of doing this since, IMO, the maker should make the experience as best they can since your paying them. So I'm not doing their job.
Bet your thinking, "What? It has quads cores and NFC's and is super coolz". That's useless when the system feels and acts like an iOS Beta. Rendering issues galore. Regardless, it is still usable. I'm used to crashes and what not owning an Android as my first phone and all. The services suck though. Contacts don't sync. I only had 30 on my google account, yes one account. Play Store is a joke considering people actually praise it as an alt. to the App Store. Yes it has unique apps, yes it has most apps that are on the App Store, no they are not in the same League. Don't blame Goog, don't blame the devs, I blame OEM's and their stupid notion of launching a phone every week. Finally, on standby with wifi your battery drops ~20 percent in one day..
Got the iPad Mini on launch... Best decision ever. Even on iOS 7 beta, it gets better battery life and less rendering issues. (On beta 3, 2 was horrid I'll admit).
So no Apple shouldn't be worried. Although the uninformed and clueless will prolly flock to this (majority of tech buyers, unfortunately), I advice to test it out in store and really put it to its paces.
Payments are a glorified file transfer. A very specific set of values to a very specific location.
Was thinking the same thing. It compliments the ATV, but does not replace it.
I'm hoping this gets rooted in the Android sense of the term, allowing me to change some features, cause I'm never happy with the stock OS of anything.
And if I can get Plex working on this, and possibly sign into my account on it so I can access Plex anywhere, this will be perfect.
Hmm...I haven't found the mini to be a pain in the ass to hold. In fact I hope the full size iPad gets smaller bezel (when it gets lighter of course).
I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed when they realize the limitations of the Chromecast. Sure, it's appealing at $35, but functionality matters too folks. An ATV is easily obtainable for another $50, and we use it every day as it has FAR greater capabilities than this thing. What do I care about a small amount of additional money if the thing only offers a fraction of the capabilities? Do I remember how much I paid for the device or how well it works for me every day?
Google is also missing out by making this HDMI only. People want a cheap way to stream music to their stereo systems too.
Google is also missing out by making this HDMI only. People want a cheap way to stream music to their stereo systems too.
I can see that, but it'd also be nice to have that blank buffer, that then turns into nothing but screen (via button or software) when placed on a table or docked.
I failed to realize that we do actually have to hold the device, but I am sure there's a way around that issue besides making a device that's got a quarter the screen size reserved as bezel.
I can't begin to understand how this can even compete with an AppleTV..And who cares about 3 months free Netflix? You get one month for free with any Netflix subscription anyway. After that, it's $8/month, not like it's that expensive.
Sorry Google, but that bezel blows hard and Chromecast sounds pretty useless to me. I'll stick with my iOS devices and AppleTV.
Sorry Google, but that bezel blows hard and Chromecast sounds pretty useless to me. I'll stick with my iOS devices and AppleTV.
If this came out the same time as the iPad mini, then I might have had a really tough choice ahead... Would have most likely picked up this one instead. I picked up the iPad because I figured if there's ever gonna be an app I'm interested in, it will come to iOS first, others later or not at all. But so far I've used Safari about 95% of time, not played any games or used any iOS-exclusive app... And also, I prefer 4:3 aspect ratio since I only use it in portrait mode.
The HDMI dongle looks pretty useful.
The HDMI dongle looks pretty useful.
I dunno. My time with older Android versions is pretty limited, but I do think the whole lag thing is greatly overplayed. Gingerbread Man, from what I remember, was kinda hitchy. ICS was smooth, but looked like it was running at a low framerate, Jelly Bean looks about as smooth as iOS, and the only time I notice lag are during those quarter second hiccups you see when it's loading info off the internet.
Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to me that Android needs much more processing power or ram than iOS to do its thing.
iPad Mini and Nexus 7
I tried iPad Mini and Nexus 7 and I can say that despite Nexus better specs, it is not working as well and as fast as iPad mini. And, some basic features like "pinch-to-zoom" is still buggy in the PDF viewer. Also, if you install a lot of Apps, the device become slower and slower. I hope that this new Nexus will be better, but the screen size and format seem to small to me to be really usable.
I tried iPad Mini and Nexus 7 and I can say that despite Nexus better specs, it is not working as well and as fast as iPad mini. And, some basic features like "pinch-to-zoom" is still buggy in the PDF viewer. Also, if you install a lot of Apps, the device become slower and slower. I hope that this new Nexus will be better, but the screen size and format seem to small to me to be really usable.
Android need a lot more memory and power compared to iOS because Apps are running in a virtual machine with a garbage collector. Just compare Java applications and native applications on your desktop computer...
We're a 4 person household with 3 hardcore apple fanboy/girls (myself included) and one Google/Android fan. Said fan got the 1st gen Nexus 7 for his birthday recently. He also has the HTC One X phone.
As much as it pains me, I have to say he's winning me over. When I watched him power up that Nexus 7, enter his Google credentials, and then have all his content, preferences, and wallpaper from his phone appear like magic, I was impressed.
Add to the mix the incredible screen and none of the lag I'd expected and that little jewel blows my iPad 2 away in every category.
Apple - please, please, please step up your game.
As much as it pains me, I have to say he's winning me over. When I watched him power up that Nexus 7, enter his Google credentials, and then have all his content, preferences, and wallpaper from his phone appear like magic, I was impressed.
Add to the mix the incredible screen and none of the lag I'd expected and that little jewel blows my iPad 2 away in every category.
Apple - please, please, please step up your game.
This certainly makes it more likely that a Retina iPad Mini is coming
The 1080p screen on this device suggests that display prices have fallen enough so that Apple could do a Retina iPad Mini, assuming that this screen isn't total crap (though since it's ASUS/Google, it might be).
The 1080p screen on this device suggests that display prices have fallen enough so that Apple could do a Retina iPad Mini, assuming that this screen isn't total crap (though since it's ASUS/Google, it might be).
I got to finally play with a Mini the other day, and you're right to a point. It doesn't need a bezel all the way around it because it's light enough you can hold it from the bottom pretty easily, and small enough you can grip it from behind. It doesn't need a bezel all the way around.
The full sized iPad? Yeah, if the next rev is considerably lighter, you might be able to hold it more comfortably from the bottom. But to me, a larger device like it would feel better being gripped from the side. I think it'd need a bezel about as thick as your thumb (give or take) all the way around no matter how light it gets.
I'd thought of it too until I researched it a bit more. Apparently (someone correct me if I'm wrong), the dongle allows you to stream music and videos, which is fine. But what I mostly use the Apple TV for is to mirror my iPhone or iPad on the big screen. Perhaps Android devices allow for this functionality. But I need something that makes my iPhone more than just a media streamer.