*** The Official Google Nexus 7 Thread ***

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Well my upgrade to 4.2.2 managed to break Sky Go (as I guessed it would after hearing the rumours) but still hasn't sorted the Bluetooth mic in headsets not working. ******* idiots...
 
My Nexus 7 arrived yesterday. Nice bit of kit. Keep trying not to compare it to my old iPad 2.

Also, everyone on planet is saying I should have got a £15 voucher with it. This true?
 
cjgardens said:
Tried a few charger's, don't know where the original one is now you have mentioned it ha.

Think the battery has lost life because my son uses it every day nearly and it's killed, it did hold it's charge fine and lasted about 5 hours constant hammer
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Is the screen off when not in use or still staying on? Check the battery usage to see what's eating it up. I find if I charge from a standard USB socket (from my PC) or using some chargers it's very slow but others it's rapid. Probably to do with the output of the charger, oddly the third party generic USB charger cheap one I got for my wifes iPad 3 charges the Nexus 7 rapidly (just have to swap the cable).
 
Halfmad said:
Probably to do with the output of the charger, oddly the third party generic USB charger cheap one I got for my wifes iPad 3 charges the Nexus 7 rapidly (just have to swap the cable).
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Check the mA rating on the chargers. Most mobile phone chargers are 500mA, as are most USB ports on PCs. Some are 800mA, some 1A, it varies a lot. The nexus and iPad chargers are 2A so that's why it charges quicker.
 
enigmo said:
Check the mA rating on the chargers. Most mobile phone chargers are 500mA, as are most USB ports on PCs. Some are 800mA, some 1A, it varies a lot. The nexus and iPad chargers are 2A so that's why it charges quicker.
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^^ this.

With my HTC charger it just about holds steady while using the tablet, with nexus charger can use it fine and charge up. Been looking around for a cheap 2A charger as backup, not found one yet though.
 
Hey all I'm interested in the Nexus 7. I have an iPad but kinda do miss the tweeking that Android allows. However, how well does the Nexus 7 multi task? Are the any ROMs that allow windowed apps? I want to be able to play YouTube audio whilst browsing. This is something which has really got my goat about Android in the past, as the iPad is able to do this by sending the audio of any app to the background.

Any thoughts on this?
 
Some apps do it but not very well and not to the extent that you want to as far as I can see. Some allow multiple browser windows but get very mixed reviews. As much as I love the Nexus 7 (wife has an iPad3) I'm not convinced the screen is big enough for that sort of multitasking anyway
 
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Halfmad said:
Some apps do it but not very well and not to the extent that you want to as far as I can see. Some allow multiple browser windows but get very mixed reviews. As much as I love the Nexus 7 (wife has an iPad3) I'm not convinced the screen is big enough for that sort of multitasking anyway
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That's for the reply. This is disappointing. I agree the display and resolution aren't really big enough on the Nexus but this sending audio to the background is something that the iPad does so well that I'm frustrated as to why Android hasn't implemented something similar. Android is very customisable yet is lagging behind in this area. Samsung offers this multi windowed experience on their Note range and SIII but that's about it. Very odd.

I'm really hoping that this multitasking is on the agenda for the next Android release. I can't see myself buying another Android tablet until this has been addressed. Surprised more people aren't bothered by it to be honest!
 
2StepSteve said:
That's for the reply. This is disappointing. I agree the display and resolution aren't really big enough on the Nexus but this sending audio to the background is something that the iPad does so well that I'm frustrated as to why Android hasn't implemented something similar. Android is very customisable yet is lagging behind in this area. Samsung offers this multi windowed experience on their Note range and SIII but that's about it. Very odd.

I'm really hoping that this multitasking is on the agenda for the next Android release. I can't see myself buying another Android tablet until this has been addressed. Surprised more people aren't bothered by it to be honest!
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Well it's purely on a per app basis as to how well this is done. This is the difference between iOS and Android, one demands compliance from its developers (Apple) and as a result ends up with more expensive apps, but a better collection. The other (Google) gives the developers more freedom and as a result ends up with more free apps but with less that are actually useful, but it also ends up as the platform of choice for nearly all mobile manufacturers. There was no other stance Google could have taken, their platform HAD to be as open to development and customisation as possible in order to entice in the mobile devs.

I can think of quite a few apps (mainly music players and radio apps) which handle background audio flawlessly, they simply minimise to the task tray and sit there happily doing their thing. It's just a shame from your perspective that the Youtube app doesn't do this, it could certainly be done, I guess they have just decided that as they are a video providing service, nobody would want the audio playing in the background while they cant see the video.

Get involved with the Youtube app developers (send them an email, respond to the app via a comment in the Play store) and tell them this is a feature you would like to see?

Android is a platform you can change, either by developing it yourself or getting involved in the communities that do, unlike iOS which is a fixed platform that works as Apple would like.

If you don't want to get involved in changing Android so it works for you as you would like, then Apple's ethos is probably your better bet anyway.

EDIT: I should also say that Android multi-tasks far better than any other mobile platform. It is a properly time-sliced multi-threaded operating environment that can handle the pseudo-simultaneous running of many applications (i.e. threads) at once. Things can run in the background whilst something else is running in the foreground utterly flawlessly (when computing power is available), it's just that, in the case of the Youtube app, the developers have decided that when their app is not "focus" (i.e. being actively displayed) then as they provide video content, they will pause the playback so as to not waste battery power etc. Clearly for some users this is not how they wish to use the app and they need to be told that is the case. It is worth repeating though, this is not an Android issue, what you want can already theoretically be done and no amount of Android updates will change the current youtube apps functionality (aside from Google violating the very meaning of multi-threaded and forcing all apps to be considered active at all times, even when "minimised").

(Just for the the record I am not trying to start Apple Vs Google here, horses for courses)
 
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Someone just posted elsewhere that they use the youtube app to play music and browse the web at the same time, at work though so I can't check it (no wifi here and no music on the nexus 7!)
 
manic_man said:
Well it's purely on a per app basis as to how well this is done. This is the difference between iOS and Android, one demands compliance from its developers (Apple) and as a result ends up with more expensive apps, but a better collection. The other (Google) gives the developers more freedom and as a result ends up with more free apps but with less that are actually useful, but it also ends up as the platform of choice for nearly all mobile manufacturers. There was no other stance Google could have taken, their platform HAD to be as open to development and customisation as possible in order to entice in the mobile devs.

I can think of quite a few apps (mainly music players and radio apps) which handle background audio flawlessly, they simply minimise to the task tray and sit there happily doing their thing. It's just a shame from your perspective that the Youtube app doesn't do this, it could certainly be done, I guess they have just decided that as they are a video providing service, nobody would want the audio playing in the background while they cant see the video.

Get involved with the Youtube app developers (send them an email, respond to the app via a comment in the Play store) and tell them this is a feature you would like to see?

Android is a platform you can change, either by developing it yourself or getting involved in the communities that do, unlike iOS which is a fixed platform that works as Apple would like.

If you don't want to get involved in changing Android so it works for you as you would like, then Apple's ethos is probably your better bet anyway.

EDIT: I should also say that Android multi-tasks far better than any other mobile platform. It is a properly time-sliced multi-threaded operating environment that can handle the pseudo-simultaneous running of many applications (i.e. threads) at once. Things can run in the background whilst something else is running in the foreground utterly flawlessly (when computing power is available), it's just that, in the case of the Youtube app, the developers have decided that when their app is not "focus" (i.e. being actively displayed) then as they provide video content, they will pause the playback so as to not waste battery power etc. Clearly for some users this is not how they wish to use the app and they need to be told that is the case. It is worth repeating though, this is not an Android issue, what you want can already theoretically be done and no amount of Android updates will change the current youtube apps functionality (aside from Google violating the very meaning of multi-threaded and forcing all apps to be considered active at all times, even when "minimised").

(Just for the the record I am not trying to start Apple Vs Google here, horses for courses)
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Thanks for your insight, the OS seems a lot more powerful than I was thinking. It begs the question of why isn't multi tasking being implemented, shouldn't there be options within Android to set how an app should behave once it has been switched. Maybe Android will have to lead the way with this and implement these options in the OS to make developers realise that it's there for them to use?

Definitely not starting an Apple vs Android debate here as I own an Android phone and an iPad and both of them have their own benefits.

Halfmad said:
Someone just posted elsewhere that they use the youtube app to play music and browse the web at the same time, at work though so I can't check it (no wifi here and no music on the nexus 7!)
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Interesting, let me know what you find!
 
ok got my 3G on and listening to the radio on the Tune-in Radio app and browsing the internet at the same time, but the youtube app stops the audio when I move to another app i.e. internet. Settings in the youtube app don't seem to have anything to force it to keep audio going, wonder if it's something you can do with a rooted device or it's hidden in the system settings somewhere but clearly you can have audio going whilst you're browsing as the radio app works fine.
 
Halfmad said:
ok got my 3G on and listening to the radio on the Tune-in Radio app and browsing the internet at the same time, but the youtube app stops the audio when I move to another app i.e. internet. Settings in the youtube app don't seem to have anything to force it to keep audio going, wonder if it's something you can do with a rooted device or it's hidden in the system settings somewhere but clearly you can have audio going whilst you're browsing as the radio app works fine.
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There are 3rd party apps that can do it and grab content from Youtube, or you can get a much older version of the Youtube app and it worked apparently.

Alternatively a few web browsers continue to play flash/HTML5 content on tabs not currently being viewed (but most like Dolphin/Chrome pause playback when you swap tabs). It's not a limitation of the system, it's just how the developers have decided their app will work.

There's a few threads on the issue on the xda forums.
 
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