The Glade 4.0

Just saw it on the Google Play store. Starts shipping tomorrow, looks like.

I'm intrigued. I'll have to keep an eye out for reviews.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

It's about like the old Nexus 7, with a much nicer screen. Mostly fast, most enjoyable. After 36 hours with it, though, I went back to my non-retina iPad mini. It just didn't have the same pep and snap as my iOS devices do, but that's probably personal preference.

I'm treating like a really high-end Kindle, and for that, it works exceedingly well.

The bezel situation is kinda ridiculous, though, and my issues with the productivity loss inherent in a 16x9 screen remain.

Wut?

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Skee is blaming aspect ratio instead of poor application design.

When you're typing on a 16x9 7" screen, the text can be at higher resolution, but your fingers aren't gonna shrink. The keyboard's going to take up the same amount of space, no matter the aspect ratio, so with a 4x3 screen (like the iPad mini), I can still see what I'm typing in, say, Fade In. On a 16x9 screen, it's all but unusable.

It's not a major concern for most, I imagine, and for serious volumes of writing, I'd pair a bluetooth keyboard...but then again, that kinda defeats the purpose, given the tablet's portability.

Just as your fingers aren't going to shrink, they aren't going to grow, either. You shouldn't be thumb-typing in landscape on a 7" tablet, it's too long. I can get away with touch typing in landscape on my 11.6" windows tablet but that's a different story, it's basically the same size as my Apple keyboard.

Either way your issue is more of a problem with keyboard design than it is with resolution or aspect ratio.

I'll be ordering the LTE version as soon as they are available.

Lenas: I'll post screenshots later as illustration.

In the meantime, did anyone find any good cases for the Nexus? I had the "official" case from the Play store and it was a floppy, terrible mess. Looking for something relatively cheap; lovely as they are, I'm not looking to spend DODOcase money here.

There are a lot of good cases for the Nexus 7.

I'm pretty sure I posted this one in a previous thread.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008NM ... UTF8&psc=1

It's for the original (obviously). I have no idea of it will fit the new one.

Oh, neat! Thanks. Holy crap, $5.95 for the 2013 Nexus 7 model, and free shipping. #ordered

You've posted screenshots before; I understand your argument, but I still submit that better keyboard design would alleviate your issue.

I think it could be helped, but I don't know that it could be removed as a concern. I would think that some app would have implemented that proverbial better mousetrap if they had designed one by now. I looked through the Play store to try to find a higher-end writing app that would rectify the issue, but didn't come across one.

I should also note that the N7 plays 'Dungeon Hunter 4' very smoothly on high settings, and that's about the most taxing game in my library.

The backing is a lot nicer this time out, too. A nice lightly-rubberized coating, rather than that weird faux leather bit (that was shockingly slippery) from the first iteration.

Wut?

If I'm going to do any writing beyond FB posts or text messages or whatever, I'm doing it on my laptop/desktop with a real keyboard.

There's no way in hell I'd try and write my book on my tablet. At the very least, I'd pull out the BT KB.

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Weird. The previous Nexus 7 already had a ridiculously high resolution display for its size. The previous Nexus 7 screen was almost (but not quite) as nice as an Apple Retina display, and far better than its direct competition the iPad Mini. Since the Retina displays aren't "much better" side by side with the original Nexus 7 (only slightly better @ 216PPI vs 264PPI with similar intended viewing ranges), and Retina Displays are supposed to be at the higher resolutions than your eyes can make out discrete pixels at the optimal viewing distance, anything better than that is going to be over-engineered silliness.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I'll second the recommendation for the Poetic case. It's served me well since I bought your N7, 'Skeee, and is only now showing enough wear that I was considering replacing it. Now I'll probably just trim the offending bits (the rubberized trim around the edge of the screen cover cracked at the seams the cover bends on to make the stand and is now peeling slightly away) and call it a good sacrifice for keeping the N7 itself protected.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Just FYI, the black 2nd Gen case isn't 'in stock' until Aug 23rd.

The app Thumb Keyboard resolved a lot of the issues I hated about default Android keyboards.

_________________
The Dude abides.

Sadly, the best android keyboard type is only really viable on phones, not on the bigger screen of an N7...

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

That's what it said, but my account was charged, and order status on Amazon reads "Shipping Now". Maybe I can get it sooner? #crossesfingers

I use a bluetooth keyboard a lot, and having one has caused my tablet to become my primary portable computing device. My laptop now stays at home pretty much all the time. However, I do leave my bluetooth keyboard at home rather frequently because I don't want to carry it around with me. It is not an excuse for a shitty virtual keyboard by any means. I don't thumb type on a tablet, I touch type.

Virtual keyboards suck on 16:9 aspect ratios. You could redesign the keyboard, I suppose, but it would take something pretty compelling. Let's face it, Dvorak never caught on. If you're going to do any serious amount of typing, it should be a layout you're used to doing a lot of typing on. That makes something like the Microsoft Surface keyboard-in-the-cover-flap a much better option than coming up with some wild new revolutionary virtual keyboard layout so you can type with your thumbs. Don't get me wrong, there's people who would use whatever thumb-typing virtual keyboard layout you might come up with, but that doesn't make it any different from Dvorak or that split ergonomic keyboard.

_________________
Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

There are plenty of options for combination bluetooth keyboard/case/cover for the N7.

Here is a quick search on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss? ... ord%20case

I've never used any of these, so I can't vouch for them. I have big hands, so I suspect I would just be frustrated by them.

I'm not too keen on keyboard cases. They're unwieldy for whenever I attempt to use my tablet as an e-reader, and swapping my tablet in and out of the case gets to be a hassle.

I have one of these.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126316&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Keyboards-_-N82E16823126316&gclid=CLGilPji17gCFchDMgodXTEA1w

It's funny that they claim it's for Win 8 and Android tablets, since when I bought mine it was billed as an iPad keyboard. I notice that they have more expensive models they are now advertising as being for the iPad. It's fantastic. When I want a keyboard, I pull it out and turn it on.

_________________
Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

FYI, the new Kindle is reportedly packing some serious power that puts the N7 II to shame.

http://gizmodo.com/report-the-next-amaz ... -962036587

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/07/30/ ... indle-fire