(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