Nexus7
So I recently decided that I was going to join the technological revolution and buy myself a tablet. Felt that it was time that I get a new toy and this was going to offer me a chance to figure out a few things.
So I went ahead last week and ordered the brand spanking new Nexus7 running Android4.3. If I am going to jump on board its going to be with something new. There was an ulterior motive in buying the N7 rather than an iPad however. Specifically I have an iPhone 4 that is rapidly approaching 3 years of age and is starting to show its age. Badly. It ill occasionally lose 3g. It will occasionally lose edge. It will occasionally cry in the corner as though I beat it. It will be unable to accommodate a number of apps because I haven’t upgraded the OS (for multiple reasons which I will get into). In other words its getting near time for me to update my phone. Although it has been nice being out of contract.
So one of the reasons I bought the N7 was as a chance to dip my toes into the Android pool and see whether or not I like what I see. Primarily because Apple has done some things I don’t care for: namely their OS revisions seems toi intentionally break older hardware. While this is partially a factor of time and nothing else, it seems to happen almost laughably fast with iOS devices. Look at my iPhone4 running iOS4 still. The hardware seems to be wearing out but the software didn’t break it. One of the other things I don’t, generally, approve of is Apple tendency to lock things down quite so far. That will prove to be ironic.
So it arrived yesterday and like any kid on Christmas day I got to playing with my new toy. General impressions to begin with is that the hardware is pretty slick and at a $230 price point its really hard to complain about little things. The screen is bright and certainly HD in all of its glory. Things seem to be relatively intuitive to begin with. 2 OS updates immediately out of the box but ok things happen…. Start to install software and some things simply won’t install. As a matter of fact I still can not install the update for Chrome that has been prompted since I took it out of the box. Seems strange that google doesn’t even support their own device. Also there are apps that show up, for example Amazon mobile for tablets, that are “Not compatible” with my N7. Seems… backwards?
On the other hand right out of the box it allows one to do something that I had to jailbreak my iPhone to accomplish. Things such as display whatever the next item on my calendar, the weather, etc on the lock screen. Things that I am interested in seeing at a glance and don’t, generally, care if other people catch a glimpse of. As a matter of fact I probably look at the lock screen of my phone more than anything else. The widgets, which to my knowledge are not supported on any iOS device, are fantastic. The app selection is similar to iTunes, if they work.
I suppose my final impression is this: Android more or less begs for the existence of iOS devices. The reverse is just as an accurate of a statement however. Android is such an open expiereince and allows people to do, more or less, whatever they want that it has created an incredibly fragmented environment. Between the million different screen size/res combos, the thousands of different OS Flavours and everything else that has encouraged the ability to do “whatever” it more or less demands the existence of an environment that is much more tightly controlled. One that will, simply put, work. In a lot of ways it comes down to personal preference for how you are going to use the device itself and what you want out of the device. I will say that using the google branded device rather than some random tablet is probably preferable at least for me.
I think that, for me, an Android tablet was the right call. There are quibbles and things that will annoy the hell out of me I am certain. But the build quality is there, its something that will be different, and its not something that will destroy me if I break it for a while through futzing with it. Will it be the right call for a phone? It could be but in many ways I somewhat doubt it. Unfortunate that I am not crazy about the newer versions of iOS though. And my privacy concerns about both remain more or less the same. So there you have it.
