More Great Tips & Tricks for the Nexus 10

November 28, 2012 76 Comments

Last update: October 17, 2013

This article has had over 110,000 views! Although it was written for the Nexus 10, many of these tips apply to other Android tablets as well. Enjoy!

Because my original Nexus 10 tips and tricks article was so incredibly popular, I’ve decided to write a follow-up. This time I’m including a few outside sources, however I assure you these tips will be every bit as good as the original ones and there will be no duplicates.

Improve lag and choppiness – Some other Nexus users have found a simple fix to lag, choppiness, and stuttering performance that occurs when swiping across the home screens, opening the app drawer, typing on the keyboard, scrolling in the browser or even simply unlocking the device. I haven’t experienced too many problems like this, but still recommend you make the following change to see if it improves things. First, locate Google Currents in All Apps and open it. Tap “Settings” (the three dots) and uncheck “Enable Background Sync.” Reboot your Nexus 10. Source: TalkAndroid

Ad-blockers can be useful utilities

Unblock ads – There are several good Android ad blockers, but most require a rooted device. Adblock Plus is free and removes ads on a stock Nexus 10. Important note: One of my readers reported some serious problems after installing this app (see the comments section of my original tips article if you want details). For this reason, I’m recommending everyone hold off on installing this app until the company releases an update which addresses this issue. Source: Phandroid

Maximize your battery life – To increase the battery life of your Nexus 10, try these suggestions:
– Turn off your tablet when you go to sleep and charge it all night.
– Set your screen brightness at 50% or lower. To do this go to Settings > Display > Brightness
– Uninstall power hungry apps – Go to Settings > Battery and look at the top battery users . On my Nexus 10, Yahoo Weather consumes as much power then the screen and the OS combined! To uninstall go to the All Apps folder and drag the problem app on top of the Uninstall label at the top of the screen
– Turn off your GPS when you don’t need it. To do this go to Settings > Location Access and set ‘Access to my location’ OFF. If you do this, any app which requires the GOS including Google Now will not function correctly.
– If you rarely use Bluetooth or NFC, make sure both are off. To turn off NFC, go to Settings > More…
– Check the Sleep setting (under Display) and make sure it is set to 1 minute or less.

Tether your tablet to your phone for free – As long as you have an Android smartphone, there’s no need to purchase a tablet with cellular support, or pay extra to use your phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot. Just download and install FoxFi on your phone and check ‘Activate WiFi Hotspot.’ Then go to Settings > Wi-Fi on your tablet, and connect to ‘FoxFi14.’ Now you’ll sharing data with your mobile phone. Make sure to keep tabs on the data usage shown in the upper right hand corner of the FoxFi app, and do not use this app if you sometimes come close to using all of your available mobile data. I cannot be held responsible for any extra data charges you incur because of the use of this app. Other caveats: The free version of FoxFi now has a usage limit that requires you to restart FoxFi at some point. You can purchase the full version key to unlock this. Currently WiFi mode does not work on most phones with Jelly Bean and most HTC phones (except for HTC One). However, Bluetooth mode works for all phones.

Import contacts from other sources – If you have contacts stored in Outlook, Yahoo or another source, export them as a comma-separated value or CSV file. For contacts from Apple’s Address Book, expert as vCard. It’s not essential, but is a good idea if you open this file using a spreadsheet and make some edits on your computer to clean up things. Now you’re ready to import your contacts. Open Google Contacts on your computer and click on ‘More.’ Select ‘Import’ and select the file you exported. After your contacts have been imported, you should go to ‘More’ again and select ‘Find and merge duplicates.’

Scrubly cleans your contacts for free

Clean up your contacts and add photos to them – If you have problems with duplicate contacts or contacts with missing info, you should go to Scrubly.com. Scrubly is a free service for people with less than 250 contacts. In addition to cleaning your contacts, Scrubly will import photos, birthdays, company, job title and more. Make sure to link Scrubly with your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, so it can pull from those sources as well. I’ve used this service and was very impressed, but if you don’t like it, you can revert back to the way things were.

Send SMS texts directly from your tablet – There are several different ways to send SMS texts from your Nexus 10, but one of the better ones is an app called Tablet Talk. This app uses Bluetooth to talk to your Android smartphone. This app is nice because the person you’re texting does not need to install any special software and all texts are sent using your mobile number. With Tablet Talk you can have a text conversation on your tablet just like you would on your phone. This is a paid app ($3) but I think it’s worth it. Install it on your tablet first and then connect to your Android phone via Bluetooth. Once you do that, you can download Tablet Talk on your Android phone for free. Tip: If you’re having problems connecting your Nexus 10 with your phone using Tablet Talk, make sure the Tablet Talk app is open on your phone first and then press the orange button in the lower-left hand corner of the Tablet Talk app on your Nexus 10. If you live in the U.S. and don’t want to mess around with Bluetooth, Google Voice allows you to easily send SMS texts as well and it’s free. The only negative is the fact that your texts will come from your Google number, and not your normal mobile number. Update: Mysms is now my favorite app for this purpose because it’s available in a tablet-optimized version for Android and can send texts to iOS devices, Windows phones, Macs, Chrome devices and Windows PCs. The tablet-optimized Android version is $2, while most other versions are free.

Kingsoft Office is one of the best free office apps

Install an office app – At some point you’re going to need to open a file which was created with Microsoft Office. There are many apps that do this. Consider Kingsoft Office (free), Quickoffice Pro HD, OfficeSuite Pro, Documents To Go or Google Drive (which replaced Google Docs). Most of these apps also create Word or Excel-style docs as well.

Try another web browser – Chrome is good, but there are other good third-party browsers as well. Check out Firefox Browser for Android, Dolphin Browser, Opera (Mobile or Mini web browser), Puffin Web browser Free and xScore. Each have advantages over the others. You can read more about them in Google Play.

Speed up animations to make your tablet feel snappier – There’s another quick way to make your Nexus 10 feel snappier. By speeding up (or disabling) the animated fade-in effects you see when switching between tasks, you’ll see a boost in performance and faster screen transitions. Start by unhiding “Developer options” as described in Tip #11 here. Once in “Developer options,” scroll down to the “Window animation scale” and “Transition animation scale” options and set both to .5x. You can even turn each of these off and transitioning between apps and pages will be almost instant. If you ever want to go back, remember the defaults for both of these settings are 1x. Source: Cult of Android

Learn how to use your camera – Because there is no information about using the camera in the Nexus Guidebook, I’m adding some info here. You’ll find the ‘Camera’ app in the All Apps folder. Long press its icon and drag it to one of your home screens. To take a picture using the rear camera, press the big blue button. You’ll hear a sound which indicates you’ve taken a photo. To view the photo you’ve just taken, swipe to the left. Swipe back to the right to return to the camera. To switch to the front camera, press the circle to the right of the blue button. Then click on the camera icon with the arrows under it. In a few seconds you should see yourself on the view finder. The +/- controls are for exposure. To make a photo less bright press -1, -2 or -3. Next to that is the Settings button. From here you can access presets for things like action shots, night photos and sunset photos under ‘Scene mode.’ ‘Store location’ tags your photo with GPS info. Next to that are the white balance settings for different types of light. Next are the flash settings, To turn off the flash, touch the lightning bolt with an ‘x’ next to it. Press the Back button when you’re finished. To switch to the video camera, press the camera button to the left. From top to bottom, the buttons are ‘Photo Sphere,’ Panorama, Video, and Still Camera. Here is the most comprehensive guide to using the Android 4.2 camera that I’ve seen so far.

Get a stylus for more control – Although the Nexus 10 doesn’t have the same level of sensitivity of a Galaxy Note II, a stylus will give you more control and make it easier to take shorthand notes. Make sure to check out the reviews before you buy any stylus and never buy the cheapest one available, because you probably won’t be happy if you do.

You can quickly send photos or videos to another device using Wi-Fi Direct

Transfer files quickly using Wi-Fi Direct – Wi-Fi Direct lets you send any type of file from your Nexus 10 to another Wi-Fi Direct device like a Samsung Galaxy S III. To send a photo or movie over Wi-Fi direct from your tablet to your phone, go to the ‘Photo Gallery’ app and select the file you wish to send. Then touch the item so the Share button appears. Next, select an app from the list which you know has Wi-Fi Direct support. I use the ‘OfficeSuite Wi-Fi Direct’ app. If you don’t have that, try Wi-Fi Shoot. Now, select the device you want to send your file to from the list of available devices. Photos only take a few seconds to transfer. Sending a 200MB movie took less than 5 minutes. Note: The receiving device may be sluggish while a file is being sent to it. On the sending end, you can swipe down on the Notification bar to see the transfer progress of the file. After the file transfer is complete, select the app on the receiving end that you want to view the file with. The file sent/received notifications cannot be cleared manually. They will go away after you restart your devices.

Long press a notification for app info – If you long press a notification, an “App info” button will appear and you will be able to find out more about the application that sent it. You can clear its cache, data, stop it, uninstall it or disable sending notifications. Source: Android Geeks

You can speak into your Nexus 10 and it will translate just like the Droid commercial shown here

Speak and translate – You may have seen the new Droid RAZR M commercial where the girl speaks into her phone and it speaks the words back in a different language. You can do that with your Nexus 10 as well. Just launch Google Translate. Touch the microphone icon, and speak the words you want translated. Touch the speaker next to the translated words to hear them back.

Fix problems with some apps – If you find an app that is giving you trouble, try wiping its cached data. To do this, go to Settings > Apps, then pick the problem app from the list which appears and tap the ‘Clear cache’ button. If that doesn’t fix the problem, you want to try the ‘Clear data’ button as a last resort. But keep in mind if you do this you could lose stored data like photos. Source: Android Geeks

Scribble and your tablet translates for you

Scribble and translate – You can scribble on your tablet’s screen and Google Translate will translate the words into to any language.

Try these tablet charging tips – For best results, power off your Nexus 10 and let it charge all night. If you do this, you should be able to get through an entire day of normal use without running out of power. On peak usage days, charge your tablet for an hour during lunch or early afternoon.

Turn your tablet into a media server – Although the Nexus 10 is not pre-loaded with a DLNA media server like Samsung’s AllShare Play, there are free alternatives this work even better. Download and install Twonky Beam. It will let you access media on your tablet from your Xbox 360, Sony PS3, Roku box, connected TV — or any of the 13,000 other DLNA-certified devices. [Disclosure: I used to work for the company who makes this software]

Enable auto-fill on third-party browsers – Although Chrome has an ‘Autofill forms’ setting, there are other apps which give you more control over this. Install Dolphin Browser and the Autofill Form add-on for it.

Lower your screen brightness even more – If you sometimes like to use the Nexus 10 in a room with all lights off, you may find that the screen is still too bright even when brightness is turned all of the way down. Apps like Screen Filter allow you to adjust the brightness of the screen as dark as you like.

Yopu can beam media from your phone to tablet

You can beam media from your phone to tablet (or vice versa)

Beam something from your phone to tablet – If you have another Android device with NFC support like a Samsung Galaxy S III you can beam browser pages, YouTube videos, contacts and more from your phone to your tablet (or vice versa). Start by finding the media you want to beam and make sure both devices are unlocked. Next place your phone on the Nexus 10 as shown in the photo. In a few seconds you should feel each vibrate and hear a sound. Touch the screen after you see the image get smaller and the words ‘Touch to beam’ appear on the screen. If you’ve done it successfully, the image will continue to get smaller on the screen until it disappears. More info. In case you’re wondering where the two NFC sensors are on your Nexus 10. One is on the back to the right side of the camera near the top. The other one is by the front camera.

Transfer files from your Mac to your tablet – If you’ve got a Mac, you’ll want to download and install the Android File Transfer app. Then plug your tablet into your Mac and the transfer app should automatically launch. Now can copy or move files by simply dragging and dropping them into the folders on the Nexus 10.

Control your computer’s mouse with your tablet

Control your Mac or PC using your tablet – When I first read about this tip, I didn’t think I would like it, but I was wrong. This may sound like a gimmick, but it’s really useful. First install WiFi Mouse on your tablet. Next, download mouse server software and install it on your computer. Launch the WiFi Mouse app on your tablet and touch ‘Auto Connect.’ You should now be able to control your mouse using your tablet. You can even right-click, but in order to type using your tablet and have that text appear on your computer you’ll need to upgrade to the full version. Source: Redmond Pie

Disable notifications on a single individual application – If you want to turn off notifications for a single app, follow these steps: First swipe down the notification bar. Then long press the notification until a box appears that says, “App Info.” Touch that and then uncheck the “Show Notifications” checkbox. Then touch OK to approve the change. Source: Droid Life

Boot into Safe-mode to troubleshoot problems – If you are experiencing a problem with your Nexus 10 and you want to determine whether they are being caused by a third-party app, press the power button for seven seconds until your tablet reboots. Then press and hold both the volume up and down keys until you see the words ‘Safe mode’ appear in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. If the problem goes away when you’re in safe mode, you should reboot your tablet and start removing recently installed apps until the problem goes away. Source: How-To Geek

Upload your music to the cloud – Since the Nexus 10 has a limited amount of internal storage and is not expandable, you should upload all of the music on your computer to the cloud. Google Music allows you to store up to 20,000 songs for free. Using the Google Music app, you’ll be able to access all of them as long as you have a Wi-Fi connection. To upload your music, download Google’s free Music Manager software to your computer.

Canon users can preview photos and change camera settings using their Nexus 10

Canon DSLR users can preview photos and change camera settings using their Nexus 10

Control a DSLR with your tablet – DSLR Controller is a popular app that allows you to fully control your Canon EOS DSLR from your Nexus 10 with only a USB cable. Use your tablet to control, Live View, Image review, Auto Focus, Manual focus, Zoom control, HDR, Timelapse, Wi-Fi Passthrough, Shutter speed, Aperture, ISO speed, White balance and much more. It’s $8, so make sure your camera is on its supported device list before you buy. If you have a Canon camera like the 6D with Wi-Fi support, check out Canon CameraWindow and EOS Remote. Both of these apps are free.

Download USA-restricted apps & media anywhere – If you have rooted your Nexus 10 and want to free access territory-restricted apps and media, download and install Droid VPN and follow these instructions. I do not recommend that you root your tablet for this reason alone, because it may prevent you for getting OS updates directly from Google. Also, as one of my readers points out in the comments section below, this tip may only be helpful on content that does not require a credit card, because Google Play restricts purchases by country. Source: One Click Root

Sync your tablet with iTunes – It’s easy to copy music or videos from your iTunes library to your tablet. However, I recommend that you don’t move everything – unless you have a 32GB Nexus 10 with lots of free space. You can find detailed instructions how to do this here. Source: CNET

Here are just a few of the free wallpapers available on Google Images

Upgrade your screen background and save battery life – Upgrade your screen background and save battery life – Most of the stock Wallpapers that come with your Nexus 10 tablet are not great. They use bright colors and do not take advantage of the full resolution of your display. Although you can download wallpaper apps, your best bet is to find some images you’ve taken with your DSLR camera or do an advanced search on Google Images. Enter a description in the first box, if you’re not sure what your looking for try “HD wallpapers”, “high resolution images” or ‘2560×1600 wallpaper’ in the first box. Select ‘Larger than 4 MP’ as the image size. If you want the best quality available, search for images above 12 MP. You’ll see a wide range of images to choose from. Click on a few that you like, and make sure to click ‘Full-size image’ on the right-hand side of the screen.
You’ll find there are a lot of decoy images, which are smaller than they are supposed to be. If it doesn’t say 2560×1600 or larger under ‘Full-size image’ you should go back and select another image. If can’t find anything good on Google Images, try Google+ Communities or Picasa Web Albums. There are some good dark Nexus 10 backgrounds on this Google+ page. Now right-click on the large image and select ‘Save image as…’ Move all of your saved images into a folder called ‘New wallpapers’ and copy that into the ‘Pictures’ folder on your Nexus 10 using a USB cable. You could select your images from the Gallery, but you’d be asked to crop them and that would lower their resolution. Although the Nexus screen is 2560×1600, I’ve been told that the size of the wallpapers that Google includes with the Nexus 10 are 3966×2560. That’s because they pan when you change home screens. I use an app called ‘Simple Image Wallpaper Free’ which displays your wallpaper at its full resolution, doesn’t require cropping and doesn’t pan when you move to another home screen.

If all this seems too hard, try a wallpaper app from Google Play like Wallbase, Interfacelift or Wallpaper Wizardii. Just make sure to select images which are 2560×1600 or higher, (3966×2560 is even better if possible).

Transfer files wirelessly from an iPad to your Nexus 10 – You can send or receive, photos, videos, music, contacts or notes over Bluetooth from any iOS device to any Android device. In order to do this, you need a jailbroken iOS device, and the AirBlue Sharing app which you can purchase for $5 from Cydia. See it in action here. Source: Redmond Pie

Here are some nice Live Wallpapers (Lonely Tree, Mystic Halo, Ocean HD)

Install a better Live Wallpaper – All of the Live Wallpapers that come with the Nexus 10 are poor quality. You should install a good Live Wallpaper like Light Grid, Mystic Halo LW, Blue Skies Free, PanoPlanet, or Ocean HD ($1.99). My current favorite Live Wallpaper is Lonely Tree. It really shows off the Nexus 10’s screen with its 60fps motion and extreme detail. If you watch carefully, you’ll notice the clouds, tree branches, snow all move independently. Avoid most wallpapers in Google Play which claim to be HD. Most do not look good on the Nexus 10’s display. Once you’ve installed your new Wallpaper, go to Settings > Display > Wallpaper > Live Wallpapers and select the one you wish to use. Then touch Set Wallpaper and press the Back button to return to the Home screen.

Stop Google from reading your email – Google Now is able to do some cool things by scanning your Gmail. If this bothers you and you want to turn it off, open the Google Search app, go to Settings > Google Now and uncheck “Show cards based on Gmail.”

A tablet-optimized website

Bookmark some tablet-optimized websites – More websites are starting to update their layouts so they look great on the Nexus 10. Checkout sites like Engadget, Google News, TNW (The Next Web) and BGR to see great examples of this.

Maximize your screen’s contrast – Because the Nexus 10 uses a different screen technology than the Samsung Galaxy S III or iPad, you can’t set the brightness as high if you want the best contrast between black and white. I recommend that you set your screen brightness at 50% to 60% — unless you’re outside.

Quickly review your photos and delete the bad ones – Within the Gallery app, touch where it says ‘Grid view’ to change to ‘Filmstrip view’. In this view, you can swipe right to move from photo to photo, or swipe down to delete any photo you don’t like. If you accidentally delete a photo, touch ‘Undo’ in the lower-right hand corner, but do this quickly because this option goes away after you go to the next photo.

Expand your storage with an external Wi-Fi drive – Companies like Kingston have solid-state drives that add 32GB, 64GB or 128GB of additional storage to your tablet. These drives are small and communicate over Wi-Fi.

Transfer files, photos or contact info using Bump – Bump is a free app which lets you transfer files wirelessly between any two devices (Android or iOS) — even if they don’t support NFC. To use, open the ‘Bump’ app on both devices and select the file (or files you wish to transfer). Then tap the two devices together and press the blue Connect button on both of the devices. You can bump photos to your computer by going to http://bu.mp and bumping your spacebar with your device. Bump works with videos, docs, spreadsheets, presentations are more.

Stream full high-definition movies directly to your tablet using VUDU

Stream a high-definition movie directly to your tablet from VUDU – You can now stream or download an HD movie or TV show from VUDU . The Nexus 10 is one of only four devices that support VUDU currently. All you need is the free VUDU app and a VUDU account. Vudu has a number of advantages over Google Play including on-the-go access to your UltraViolet Digital Collection of Blu-ray movies. [May not be available to Nexus users outside the U.S.]
Fix auto-brightness problems – Android 4.2 has an auto-brightness setting, but it doesn’t work very well. You should download Lux Auto Brightness to fix this problem. Lux automatically adjusts the brightness of your display based on your environment. When you go into a dark room, Lux will automatically lower the brightness of your display after you unlock your screen to make reading more enjoyable.

To setup Lux you need to go through their setup wizard. I suggest you leave the factory default settings as is. After you do that, you’ll need to go back and launch the app again and touch ‘Press to enable Lux.’ Lux will adjust every time you unlock your screen. Although there is a dynamic setting, it doesn’t work as well, because it’s possible for your finger to occasionally block the light sensor when you hold the tablet in Portrait mode. If you sometimes use your tablet in a totally dark room, I suggest you go to the settings page and set ‘Night Mode’ alpha to 10.

A Bluetooth keyboard allows you to type much faster

Get a Bluetooth keyboard – You can hook up a wired keyboard to the USB port on the Nexus 10, but a Bluetooth keyboard is much more convenient because its wireless. One of the best keyboards for the Nexus 10 is the Logitech keyboard for Android devices. It’s only $51 and is easy to setup. Just turn it on and press the Connect button on the button of the keyboard. Then go to Settings > Bluetooth on your tablet, touch Search for Devices, and select the Logitech keyboard. Next, type the number which appears on your tablet and press the Enter key to pair it. Now anytime the Bluetooth keyboard is on, you can type on it instead of your tablet. This keyboard comes with a carrying case which doubles as a tablet stand.

It’s easy to increase your Wi-Fi signal strength

Improve your Wi-Fi signal strength – If you have a few spots in your residence where you’re not getting a strong Wi-Fi signal, you should consider purchasing a $40 Wi-Fi booster like this one. It’s easy to setup and designed for use with tablets. Just plug it in and wait for its LED to turn green. Then press the WPS button on the extender and your router and you should be ready to go. The new Wi-Fi network will be called the same as the old one, but end with “_EXT”. Make sure to select that network when you’re having signal strength issues. After connecting to a Wi-Fi Extender, I’m getting speeds that are almost 4 times faster than I was before.

Create your own photo albums – You can use a file explorer app like ES File Explorer to make new photo albums inside of the Pictures folder. This is done by going to the Menu and selecting New and Folder. If you do this, your newly created albums will appear when you open the photo Gallery app. You can also delete any albums you don’t want by pressing Select and then touching the items you wish to delete. When you are finished touch the trash can.

Get cut and paste to work every time – Several people have written to tell me they are having problems with cut and paste, so I thought I would try to help with this. To select a word, touch and hold on a word until the highlight and arrows pop up. When you do this on a text document, you’ll be presented with the following choices at the top of the screen: Select All, Copy, Cut and Paste. Drag the two blue region selection handles around the desired text and select Copy (or another one of the available commands). Then touch where you want to insert the copied text and hold until the word Paste appears. Press Done when you’re finished.
If you do this on a Web page or most other screens, you’ll be presented with the following choices: Select All, Copy, Share, Search Web or Find. If the handles are orange and you don’t see Select All, Copy, Cut and Paste at the top of the screen, you should long-press the selection and Copy, Select All and Share will appear in a pop-up menu. Once you cut or copy the desired text, you’ll be able to paste it — after you long press where you want to insert it. If the paste option goes away, just touch one of the region selection handles again and it will reappear.

Left your wallet at home? No problem. Use your tablet to buy lunch.

Use your tablet to buy things without a wallet – Since most U.S. carriers block Google Wallet on their smartphones, Nexus devices are the only way for most of us to use NFC to purchase things. Before you go to the store you need to run the Google Wallet app once to link it to your credit card and enter a PIN for security. You do not need to be connected to a Wi-Fi network in order to Tap and Pay. Just tap the back of your tablet near the camera on the cash register. You do need to be connected to setup a card or switch between default payment cards however. You can use Google Wallet in-store anywhere contactless payments are accepted, at over 300,000 merchants across the United States. Learn more about Google Wallet here.

Use NFC to change settings – Another nice application for NFC is automatically changing settings when you move your tablet from one location to another. You can purchase low-cost sensor tags like these that can be placed anywhere and programmed to do many different things using an app like NFC Task Launcher. For example, when I set my tablet on my desk, it turns Bluetooth on so my keyboard works, changes Wi-Fi to a nearby 5GHz access point and turns up the system volume. When I go into to my bedroom, and touch my phone on the night stand it changes to my Wi-Fi extender network, and turns Bluetooth and system volume off.

Simply tap your Nexus 10 to enjoy your music playlist through your home stereo speakers

Stream music directly to your stereo speakers – Even though the speakers in the Nexus 10 are much better than other tablets, they are not as good as the ones that come with your stereo. By purchasing Belkin’s low-cost HD Bluetooth Music Receiver you can stream music wirelessly from your Nexus 10 (or the cloud) directly to your stereo up to 30 feet away. This works with Google’s Play Music app as well as other great free music services like Spotify, Songza and Pandora’s Internet radio app. Setup is made easier because it uses the Nexus 10’s NFC chip for “tap-and-play” pairing. I want this.

Get 50GB of free cloud storage – You can never have too much storage. That’s why I use SkyDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive and MediaFire. MediaFire isn’t as flexible as the other storage lockers I mentioned above, but it’s the only one that gives you 50GB of FREE storage. You’ll need to first go to their website and create an account, then you can download the MediaFire app from Google Play.

Changing your download directory – Several people have asked how they can change the default Download directory. You can do this with Dolphin Browser by going to Menu> More> Settings> Privacy & Personal Data> Download Directory.

– Rick

Follow me on Twitter @mostlytech1

Filed under Blog Posts, How-to, Mobile Technology Tagged with Android, Android 4.2, Nexus 10, Tablet, technology, Tips, Tricks

Is the Nexus 10 Good Enough to Replace an iPad 3?

November 24, 2012 48 Comments

Last update: February 26, 2013

This article has had almost 20,000 views! Thanks for reading it.

It’s been several months since my Nexus 10 arrived, so it’s time for an update on my attempt to replace an iPad 3 with it. Was the lack of good tablet apps as big of a problem as everyone said it would be? And what about the superior build-quality of the iPad? Was the Nexus 10 lacking in this area? Read on to learn the answer to these and many more questions.

My Top Gripes After a Month

Since most of my previous columns about the Nexus 10 have stressed its benefits, I’ll get right to my gripes about it. Here are the things that bothered me the most about the Nexus 10 after the first four weeks of use.

You can see an example of a good tablet interface on the left and a bad one on the right.

Limited number of great tablet apps – The number one complaint from reviewers about the Nexus 10 is the lack of great tablet apps. Although it’s true there are more good tablet apps for the iPad, I was surprised this wasn’t more of a problem for me. Many of my favorite Android smartphone apps ran fine on the Nexus 10. In some cases I did need to replace apps, but I didn’t have much of a problem finding suitable replacements. There were two reasons why I needed to replace apps. The first was the fact that some apps have controls which are too small to accurately touch on the Nexus 10. A bigger problem for me was the fact that some of my favorite Android apps couldn’t be downloaded on the Nexus 10. Examples include Zite, USA Today and Flickr. I suspect this is because the companies are working on tablet-optimized apps and are not allowing downloads to tablets because they don’t want to get bad reviews. Now that there are finally a few good selling Android tablets, I suspect we’ll see app makers put more emphasis on creating good tablet apps. I’ve included a list of some Google-recommended tablet-optimized apps here in Tip #4. It’s worth pointing out that not all popular apps are available in tablet versions for the iPad either. For example, Instagram looks much better on the Nexus 10 than it does on the iPad. That’s because it only occupies a small portion of the iPad’s screen. Sure you can blow it up 2x but the text looks distorted and ugly.

Update: After a month this is no longer a serious problem. Every day I find new tablet-optimized apps that look great on the Nexus 10. Just today a tablet-optimized version of Flipboard finally became available.

Android 4.2’s calendar issue is well-documented

Android 4.2 bugs – Although the stories about Android 4.2’s bugs have been overblown, there is no doubt that iOS 6.0.1 is a more stable, less buggy operating system. Most of the current Android 4.2 bugs are things you won’t experience unless you stream music over Bluetooth, use the lock-screen music widgets, or enable auto-brightness. There is also the well-documented issue which occurs when you try to add an event that occurs in the month of December in the People app. As far as the random crash issues go, I still experience a few a week, so Google does have some work to do in this area.

UPDATE 11/27: Google pushed out an Android 4.2.1 update today which addressed the missing December issue.

UPDATE 1/15: A Google employee confirms the next Android update will contain a fix for the Bluetooth issue.

Issues rearranging apps and creating folders – Early versions of Android were far superior to iOS when it came to moving apps from screen to screen without rearranging other apps. I’m having problems with this on the Nexus 10 now. A more serious issue is the fact it’s sometimes hard to get an app to go into a folder you drag to. Sometimes the folder moves, other times it won’t work the first time, but if you keep trying you can always get it to go into the folder. This is strange and annoying.

Sometimes magazines can be viewed and other times they cannot

Disappearing magazines – One of my biggest Nexus 10 gripes so far is the problem I’m having not being able to view some of the free magazines that Google provided. I get a ‘Fetching latest…’ message when I try to open a magazine that never goes away. This occurs on magazines I’ve viewed without problems before. This may have to do with the fact I downloaded these to my tablet. The only way I’ve been able to fix this so far is to go to Settings/Apps and swipe to the left until I see the ‘All’ heading and then scroll down to Google Play Magazines and touch the ‘Clear data’ button and redownload the magazine again.

Playback issues with ultra HD video on some apps – I’m having problems trying to watch ultra high-definition (2560*1440) movies using MX Player. The video appears to pause every few seconds now, when it used to work fine on the same software. The same video plays perfectly on the MoboPlayer app so this could be a software-only issue.

Text editing problems in the browser – It’s much more difficult to edit text in a Nexus 10’s browser, than it is to do the same with an iPad 3. There are several reasons for this: The first is the fact it’s harder to insert the cursor precisely in browsers like Chrome. The second is the fact it’s harder to accurately cut and paste text on the Nexus 10 than the iPad. The third, is the fact the Nexus screen sometimes automatically zooms in or repositions itself when you touch the screen or hit the backspace key. It blows my mind that no one at Google has tried to use the Nexus 10 for this purpose because it’s so bad. Editing text in Firefox is even worse than in Chrome. I couldn’t get copy and paste to work reliably in Firefox at all. Two caveats: these are Android-related issues and not Nexus 10 flaws, and furthermore, HTML editing is something I do a lot, but not something a typical consumer does often.

Update: I’ve figured out what is happening here. Google and browser software makers have implemented logic to try guess when you’re having a hard time touching a button or control. When they detect this, they zoom in around the area to make sure you touch the right thing. This is nice for typical users, but can cause problems when editing HTML. I must have adapted, because I’m now doing almost all of my HTML editing on the Nexus 10 instead of the iPad.

Both the Nexus 10 and iPad 3 have similar back light bleed issues

Screen-related issues – The screen on the Nexus 10 does not have blacks that are as dark as Samsung’s Super Amoled displays. There is also some light leakage in both of the bottom corners. This may only be visible when you are in a dark room and the screen is black, but I wanted to point it out. Some additional leakage is present on each side, but it’s less obvious. As you can see from the photo above, the iPad 3 has backlight leakage that is worse to the Nexus 10. Even with its backlight issues, the iPad 3 and 4 still have a few advantages over the Nexus 10’s display. They have higher contrast, more brightness and better overall color accuracy then the panel in the Nexus 10. That’s not saying the display on the Nexus 10 isn’t great. It will blow your mind when you play a game like “Asphalt 7” or watch an ultra HD movie on it. It’s also noticeably sharper when it viewing small fonts on websites.

The camera on the Nexus 10 isn’t great

Mediocre rear camera – Although the front camera on the Nexus 10 is only 2MB, it looks much better than the camera on the iPad 3. This is probably because the iPad 3 only has a 0.3 MP camera. The rear-facing camera on the Nexus 10 is not great, but neither is the one on the iPad 3.

Plastic back cover – Although I love the lightness of the Nexus 10 and the way it feels when you hold it, occasionally when you hold its case a certain way, you’ll feel the back move a little. I mainly notice this is when I’m polishing the screen using my shirt. Is this a really big deal? Not for me, but it could have been avoided with a better design.

Wi-Fi range issues – Google claims the Nexus 10 has MIMO Wi-Fi — but its antenna is less sensitive than the one in the iPad. You’ll see this on the Wi-Fi signal strength meter, and you’ll notice a difference in performance when you have a low signal. This isn’t a major problem, but it is a little annoying in light of Google’s bold claims in this area.

Google Play screen update problems – This is a minor issue but I once experienced problems with the screen flashing when I was downloading updates in the Google Play store. This also appears to be an Android 4.2 issue and probably has nothing to do with the Nexus 10.

Auto-brightness problems – Android 4.2 has an auto-brightness setting, but it doesn’t work well because it’s possible for your finger to occasionally block the light sensor when you hold the tablet in Portrait mode. To address this issue you can download Lux Auto Brightness. Lux adjusts the brightness of your display based on your environment. When you go into a dark room, Lux will automatically lower the brightness of your display after you unlock your screen. This approach seems to work better than the dynamic approach that Google uses by default.

The Nexus 10 has the 8th best battery life of 474 Android devices

The Nexus 10 is one of the more batter-friendly Android devices

Slow charging – Slow charging with the stock charger is a problem, but this was only a issue for me on my first day of use. After that, I charged the tablet at night and did not have a problem getting through most days. When I use the Nexus 10 more than normal, I charge it for an hour around lunch and that gets me through the day. Although there has been a lot of talk about battery life on the Nexus 10, you can see from the chart above it is actually one the top battery-friendly Android devices.

If you’re thinking some of these problems are pretty lame, you’re correct. It’s not easy to find too many things wrong with the Nexus 10’s hardware. Things like backlight leakage are also a problem on the iPad 3 and iPad 4. Most of the serious Nexus 10 issues are software-related, and should be fixed at some point.

Observations After 8 Weeks of Use

I order this product on day one and have spent as many hours with it as anyone outside of Google. After eight weeks I am now using my iPad 3 only a few minutes a week. Here is a summary of my observations after eight weeks:

The claims about Apple’s superior app ecosystem are overblown. I don’t miss any of the iPad apps I was running before. Not a single one. That doesn’t mean all of the Android apps are at parity, because they are not. But the differences are small enough now that they don’t bother me. Since the Nexus 10 launched the number of good tablet apps has increased dramatically.

My problems with the Nexus 10 crashing have sadly increased, but they are not a serious problem yet. Sometimes it will crash twice in a day and then go days without another crash. There is a lot of speculation over the cause of this. Some people think it’s caused by the Chrome browser. Others think the problem goes away when the GPS is disabled. I’ve noticed that many of my crashes occur when I’m using the Chrome browser and Wi-Fi signal strength is low or the tablet is downloading updates. I also suspect that moving wallpapers might be a contributing factor. This hasn’t become a major annoyance for me yet, because I’m confident Google will fix this soon.

Update: Since I installed Android 4.2.2, my crash problems seem to have gone away.

Most of the display gripes about the Nexus 10 are overblown. The back light bleed is not a problem for me, but I would like darker blacks. That is my number one screen gripe. Color accuracy on the Nexus 10 isn’t great, but that hasn’t been a problem for me. Nor have non-HD desktop icons. I do feel the lack of great HD wallpapers is a problem, but likely one that won’t last long. Screen brightness has also not been a problem for me. Although its not perfect, I love the display on the Nexus 10. To my eyes it’s much crisper than the iPad 3 and that’s what I care about the most.

The build quality of the Nexus 10 is fine. I’ll take the lightness over the iPad any day. My only gripe is the fact that the section on the back does not stay in as snugly as I would like.

One new problem I’m a little concerned about is the heat from the main chip. This was initially only a problem when gaming, but now I notice it when I’m scrolling on site like Facebook for long periods.

What About Build Quality?

Along with lack of tablet apps, build quality is the most common gripe about the Nexus 10 from Apple fans who have never seen one. I’ll admit the Nexus 10 doesn’t look great in most review photos, but in person, it looks and feels very nice. I’m not the only one who feels this way. Here are a few excerpts about build quality from Nexus 10 reviews:

Gizmodo said: “It feels extremely solid and well-built. The back panel is a hard plastic that has been rubberized in a really interesting way. It’s very smooth, but very grippy at the same time.”

Ars Technica said: “I do find that I actually prefer the textured plastic back of the Nexus 10 to the aluminum back used by the iPads—the latter gets pretty cold to the touch in November in New Jersey, and the tablet is only too happy to transfer that coldness straight to your hands. The Nexus 10 is a bit more hospitable when pulling it out of a bag that’s been outside.”

CNET said: “It is the most comfortable 10-inch tablet to hold in your hand its light weight and smoothly rounded corners the tablet never digs into your palms when held with two hands. The back is a soft, grippy, almost rubbery plastic that not only feels great to hold, but doubles as protection for the tablet. The aforementioned rounded corners have that same rubbery plastic around them. The whole outer shell feels almost like an exoskeleton accessory, specifically designed to protect the delicate tablet organs.”

Ubergizmo said: “To put it simply, the design of the Google Nexus 10 is beautiful. The front of the tablet is made of a pristine black glass surface from edge to edge. I really like the soft touch treatment which gives a solid grip when holding the tablet. This is an issue that I have regularly with the iPad. Overall, I find the industrial design to be excellent and high-quality. Unless you are adamant to feel metal when you touch the tablet, I expect most people to be pleased with the quality of this device.”

The Guardian said: “The Nexus 10 is a sleek, smooth tablet that feels solid, and sits nicely in the hands with its rounded corners – more rounded than the iPad.”

Venture Beat said: “The tablet’s curved design makes it surprisingly comfortable to hold, and the soft back case material feels simply luxurious. The Nexus 10 is so well designed that you’ll be tempted to fondle it even when it’s turned off.”

Android Community said: “It’s extremely well made, very durable, feels great and is indeed a polished and beautiful product inside and out.”

Android Police said: “Amazing build quality. I tried really hard to find a flaw in the build of this tablet. But I couldn’t. It’s top-notch – everything is super-solid… The back is the real standout feature of the device’s physical design, as it’s coated in a very soft rubbery-plastic that feels almost like leather. It definitely adds a feeling of quality, and is absolutely fantastic in the hands. It’s not cold and slippery like aluminum, nor does it feel cheap and flimsy like typical plastic. It’s slightly grippy, which allows you to hold the unit with less “force,” leading to less wrist fatigue. It also makes it easier to hold the device in your hand palette-style without fear of dropping it.”

Tech Radar said: “The rear plastic chassis has a soft-touch feel, with the rubberized effect providing additional grip in the hand, and wrapping round to the front of the tablet for a smooth, seamless finish.”

And last, but not least, Wired said: “The back panel is a grippy plastic that makes the Nexus 10 much better than previous Samsung tablets and even the iPad for one-handed use.”

Why The Nexus 10 is My New ‘Go to’ Tablet

You might be wondering why I still favor the Nexus 10, even though I admit the iPad still has some important advantages. Here’s why:

The Nexus 10 absolutely kills the iPad 3 and 4 when it comes to features.

The Nexus 10 is a much better value than the iPad 4. Its hardware beats the iPad 4 in almost every area and costs $100 less.

Apple prevents older hardware from running some features

I want access to all of the newest technologies. The Nexus 10 has features like NFC and multi-user support, which iPad users could be waiting years to get. Not only is Apple behind, they have a history of preventing their users from accessing their new features. Even though the iPad 2 is capable of running Siri and Panorama, Apple forces iPad 2 owners to buy newer hardware in order to run those features. That just isn’t right.

Speed is important to me and the Nexus 10 is faster than the iPad 3. After using my Nexus almost 100% of the time for several months the iPad is noticeably slower on things like scrolling Facebook in the browser.

Lastly, I want the same experience on my phone and tablet. Now that I’ve switched from iPhone to an Android smartphones, it only makes sense that I use an Android tablet.

Could I replace my iPad 3 with the Nexus 10?

My transition from an iPad 3 to a Nexus 10 wasn’t as easy as my transition from an iPhone to a Nexus phone. My first few days with the Nexus 10 were not great. I was getting it set up properly and finding good tablet-optimized apps. Most of my issues with the Nexus 10 were software-related, and not directly related to the Nexus 10 hardware. The Nexus 10 is not a perfect product, but it’s good enough that I’ve put my iPad 3 on the shelf and only use it for occasional HTML editing now. The surprising thing is I actually prefer using the Nexus 10 now over the iPad 3. The main reason for this is the fact the Nexus 10 is noticeably lighter than the iPad and feels much better in my hand. Its corners are nicely rounded and don’t dig into my palm the way the iPad 3 does. This is a big deal when you hold your tablet for long periods with one hand like I do. Another reason I prefer the Nexus over the iPad is the display. The crispness of text on the Nexus 10’s display is second to none.

The bottom line is the Nexus 10 is a great tablet, which holds its own against the best tablets. This says a lot, because the iPad 4 running iOS 6 is a very good product. But for me, the Nexus 10 is even better.

Final update 2/26: My crash problems seem to have been fixed by Android 4.2.2. I no longer use my iPad for a single thing. It sits on my floor lonely and unused, so I’ve decided to give it to my Dad on Fathers Day. In the past few months there have been a large number of good Android tablet apps which have been released. It’s now at the point where I can’t think of a single iPad app that I still miss — except maybe Zite which runs on my GS3.

– Rick

Copyright 2013 Rick Schwartz. All rights reserved. Linking to this article is encouraged.

Follow me on Twitter @mostlytech1

It’s true the iPad has more tablet-optimized apps, but some popular apps still appear like this.

Here is how Instagram looks on the Nexus 10. Which would you rather use?

Filed under Blog Posts, Mobile Technology Tagged with Android, Android 4.2, iOS, iPad, iPad 3, iPad 4, Nexus 10, Tablet, technology

50 Great Tips & Tricks for the Nexus 10

November 17, 2012 280 Comments

Last updated: November 24, 2013

This article has received over 500,000 views! Although it was written for the Nexus 10, many of these tips apply to other Android tablets as well.

Welcome to the most comprehensive list of tips and tricks for the Nexus 10 you’ll find anywhere on the Internet. This started off as part of a Nexus first impressions article, but quickly grew into a list of 50 tips, so I’ve broken it out on its own. Because this article is intended for everyone from beginners to experts, there will be some things here you already know here, but you’ll also find tips you won’t find anywhere else.

Upgrade to the latest version of Android – There have been several updates to Android since the first Nexus 10 tablets left the factory. Make sure to install the newest Android system update. If your tablet isn’t already running Android 4.2.2, and it doesn’t appear under Settings > About tablet > System Updates, scroll to the bottom of this article to learn how to force an update to Android 4.2.2. What’s new in Android 4.2.2? You can see a list of all changes here.

Choose your screen orientation – The startup screen, volume control and speaker placement seem to indicate Google intended the Nexus 10 to be used horizontally in landscape mode. However I prefer the vertical portrait mode for the following reasons: First, it’s better suited for most web pages. Second, apps like Instagram and Spotify can’t be used in landscape mode. Third, it’s easier to hold the Nexus 10 vertically with one hand. Of course you’ll want to use landscape when watching most movies. In the end the choice is yours, just keep in mind if you use it in portrait mode the volume control will be reversed (e.g. pushing the lower button turns the volume up.)

Google Now delivers information without you needing to ask

The Nexus 10 Guidebook is massive

Activate Google Now – Swipe up from the bottom of your tablet screen near the center to access Google Now. Before using Google Now you must go through a tutorial and then activate it. Then make sure location services are on. To do this you need to check the box next to ‘Wi-Fi & mobile network location’ and agree with the prompt. Then go through the settings for Google Now and enter your favorites sports teams and adjust a few other settings. When you’re finished Google Now will start presenting you with information tailored to your needs like the local weather. You can see what my first Google Now page looked like in the screenshot above. It’s worth mentioning I’ve never taken my tablet to the gym, or asked Google for my drive time to work. It provided that info based on my previous behavior. I know some people have privacy concerns, but I think this feature is great.

Download the official Nexus 10 Guidebook – Google just made available a new 159 page Nexus 10 Guidebook. You can download this excellent guide here. Once downloaded, I recommend you copy it to your tablet, so you can refer to it anywhere you go. Make sure you have a PDF reader on your Nexus 10 however. You can download Adobe Reader here.

Download some tablet-optimized apps – You’ll quickly discover not all of your Android smartphone apps adapt well to the extremely high pixel density of the Nexus 10. For this reason, Google recommends you download some of the following apps: Autodesk Sketchbook Pro for Tablets, Cat in the Hat, Cut the Rope Experiments HD, Evernote, Expedia, Fandango Movies for Tablets, Friendcaster, Google Currents, Fancy, Heros Call HD Widgets, Hipmunk, Hulu Plus, Magic Piano, Mint.com, Netflix, News Republic for Tablets, Ocean HD, Office Suite Pro, OpenTable, Picsay Pro, Plume, Pinterest, Pulse News, SplashTop Remote Desktop HD, Strikefleet Omega, Sprinkle, SwiftyKey3 Tablet, Pocket, SeriesGuide, Taptu, TED, Trulio, Zappos and Zoomingo. In addition to the above apps, I would add the following apps which have all been optimized to run on tablets like the Nexus 10: 500px, AccuWeather for Android, AirCalc, Amazon Mobile (Tablet), BaconReader for Reddit, Business Calendar, Calendar, Ebay, Engadget, FIFA 2014, Flipboard, Google+, Google Pinin Input, Hotel Tonight, Kingsoft Office, NYTimes for Android, Pandora, PicsArt, Pinterest, Sing! Karaoke, Smart Tools, SkyDrive, Solid Explorer, Songza, SoundHound, Tasks, Temple Run 2, The Weather Channel, Twitter (tablet-optimized version), USA Today, Wunderlist 2 and Yahoo! Weather.
Here’s a list of the top 150 Android apps. Many, but not all are tablet-optimized. Also, check out the Tablified Market app. It highlights apps that are designed and optimized for tablets.
Install the Adobe Flash plug-in – Flash may be a dying format, but there are still millions of Flash videos around and the Nexus 10 should be able play some of them. To install Flash from the official Adobe website, follow the instructions at the bottom of this page.

The Nexus 10 has several different keyboard layouts like this one with number keys

Expand your keyboard – Since the Nexus 10 has such a large screen you may want to expand to a full-sized PC-style keyboard that includes number keys and extras like the screenshot above has. It’s tricky to set up, but worth it if you like to type in landscape mode. Go to Settings/Language & input and then touch the settings Sliders next to ‘Android keyboard.’ Next, touch ‘Advanced settings’ and touch ‘Custom input styles.’ It will say Deutsch and Francais, but you can ignore that. Touch ‘Add Style’ near the upper right. Then select your language and change the layout from QWERTY to ‘PC’ or one of the other styles. Now touch ‘Add’ and you’ll see your new style appear in the list. Touch ‘Enable’ and use the back key to go back to the Language & input screen. Now touch ‘Input languages’ near the top and uncheck ‘Use system language.’ Lastly, touch ‘English (US) (PC)’ and you’re done. Source: AndroidPIT
Note: Mostly-tech reader Craig has reported the above tip changed his default input language and broke voice and image responses via GoogleNow. If you experience either of those problems, switch back to the (US English) keyboard input setting.

Control your tablet using your voice – Most people don’t know you can have your tablet open an app, create a calendar event, display a map, navigate to a place, send an email, set an alarm, define a word, show movie times, take a note, display a weather forecast, identify a zip code or area code, provide flight info, find a restaurant, run a calculator or provide a translation by simply speaking. Start by touching the microphone next to the search box. For more info, go to pages 58-64 in the Nexus 10 Guidebook (See Tip 3 to find out where to get this). There’s also a list of all 53 types of voice requests here.

Watch “Timescapes” if you want to see what the amazing display on the Nexus 10 is capable of

Download a high-quality video – If you really want to see what the Nexus 10 display is capable of when it comes to video, download Timescapes. It it the first 4K movie that you can purchase for $29.95. It has almost twice as many pixels as a normal high-definition video. If you’re not ready to shell out $30 bucks, but want to watch a free 1080p preview of the movie click here. If you decide to buy the movie, make sure to download the 2560×1440 version and not the others. The movie is over 6GB, so you should back it up to your computer, so you can free up space on your tablet if you need to later. In order to play this video, you may have to download free MoboPlayer software (or equivalent).

Turn off haptic feedback if you don’t like it – When touch the screen on the Nexus 10 to navigate, you get a little vibration. If you don’t like this, go to Settings > Sound and uncheck ‘Vibrate on touch.’ Making this change will not turn off the vibration you get when you type on the onscreen keyboard. To turn that off, go to Settings > ‘Language and input.’ Then touch the Setting icon for the ‘Android keyboard’ and uncheck ‘Sound on keypress.’ Make sure ‘Vibrate on keypress’ is unchecked as well. If you’re using SwiftKey 3 Tablet, go to its settings page, touch Advanced. Touch ‘Audio and haptic feedback’ and uncheck Haptic feedback.

Shoot and edit your own home movies on your Nexus 10

Shoot and edit video on your tablet – If this is your first Android tablet, you probably haven’t used ‘Movie Studio’ yet. Movie Studio lets you edit video clips together in a timeline with transitions, music, effects and titles. Movie studio has been around since Android 3.0, but the tablets back then didn’t have enough power to run it well. Here are some good instructions how to use Movie Studio.

Unhide Developer Options – Earlier versions of Android had a ‘Developer options’ area in Settings but that’s no longer present in Android 4.2. However, you can still put your tablet into Developer Mode by going to Settings and touching ‘About tablet.’ Then click the build number seven times. After you do that you will see ‘Developers options’ appear in the Settings menu! This great tip came from Wai Ho Cheung.

SwiftKey 3 is Tablet a great tablet-optimized keyboard app

Try a tablet-optimized keyboard – If I had to pick one single app that softened my transition from the iPad 3 to the Nexus 10 the most it would be the SwiftKey 3 Tablet Keyboard. The reason for this is because I type a lot and I like to work in portrait mode. That squeezes the keys closer together and makes typing harder on the stock keyboard. I can’t say enough good things about this app. It takes a while for you to learn it, and for it to learn you, but when that happens, you’ll never go back.

Toggle between MTP and PTP – Here’s another tip you won’t see anywhere else: You can put the Nexus 10 into Camera (PTP) mode by going to Settings > Storage and then selecting the menu in the upper right-hand corner. From there, you can select ‘USB computer connection,’ which allows you to toggle between MTP (which is the default) and PTP which lets you transfer photos using camera software. PTP also works on computers that don’t support MTP.

Learn how to use Quick Settings – You can use the Quick Settings menu to turn on/off Wi-Fi, change screen brightness, turn off auto-rotate and more. To open Quick Settings, swipe down from the top right corner of any screen. You can even access the full settings menu from Quick Settings.

An Actionable Notification

Try the new Notification Shade – To open the Notification Shade, swipe down from the top left corner of any screen. You can do this even when your Nexus 10 is locked. Certain notifications like emails or calendar events can be expanded to show more information. Some notifications let you take action by touching icons. For example, Calendar notifications allow you to Snooze or send email to other guests. To collapse a notification, pinch it. To expand a notification, glide using two fingers. When you’re finished with a notification, just swipe it to the right to make it go away. To dismiss all notifications, touch the icon at the top right of the notification shade. If you long-press on an open task, you’ll be taken straight to the settings page for that app.
Uninstall unneeded apps – After you’ve been using your tablet for a while you’ll probably have apps that you never use. You may want to remove any unused apps to free up space. The easiest way to uninstall an app is to press and hold the app icon in the app drawer and drag it to the top of the screen where it says ‘Uninstall.’ If it only shows App Info, it is a system app and cannot be uninstalled. However, if you drag the app to where it says App Info you’ll have the option to disable the app, which frees up memory.

Games like “Asphalt 7” look great on the Nexus 10

Download a new game – Playing games on your Nexus 10 tablet is very different than playing games on your smartphone. The large screen, killer graphics, faster processor and great sounding stereo speakers take gaming to a whole new level. Make sure to download a game with great graphics like Asphalt 7, Dead Trigger, or Shadow Gun. All of these will cost you, but there are many great free games as well, including Temple Run 2.

Improve your gaming graphics – If you’re a hard-core gamer, you probably already know what 4x anti-aliasing is. You can enable this on the Nexus 10 if you know a secret trick. First, enable Developer Options as described above in Tip #11. Then go to Settings and click on Developer Options. You will now see an option on the right to enable Force 4x MSAA. Multisample anti-aliasing (MSAA) is a technique used to improve image quality. Since the Nexus 10 has a GPU capable of supporting MSAA, this setting should make your graphics look more detailed when you’re playing advanced games. Keep in mind this will also cause your GPU to work harder and your tablet may get hotter and consume more power than normal. It’s also possible that all games may not support this, but this seems to work great with games like Asphalt 7. Source: Wai Ho Cheung.

This wireless gaming controller was designed for the Nexus 10

Use a gaming controller with your Nexus 10 – If you game a lot, you might try using a gaming controller with your Nexus 10. You have three options: If you own a Sony PS3, you can use up to four PS3 controllers with your Nexus 10 at the same time. Instructions here. You can also plug an Xbox gaming controller into the Nexus 10, as long as you have a micro USB to USB adapter. Lastly, you can purchase a wireless gaming controller like the Nyko Playpad.

Copy your media to your tablet – One of Android’s best features is the ability to plug your charging cable into the USB jack on your computer and have your tablet appear as a hard drive. Once you do this, you can easily copy over the music, photos, videos or documents you want to take with you everywhere.

Select a lock screen – If you plan to bring your Nexus 10 outside of your house, you should go to Settings/Security and pick a pattern (recommended), PIN or password-based screen unlock.

It’s easy to connect a Nexus 10 to your TV and watch HD videos on it.

Connect your tablet to a television – The Nexus 10 has a standard micro HDMI jack, so you can purchase a high-quality cable which connects to your TV for as little as $3. This allows you to watch high-definition videos from YouTube, Netflix or any other site on your TV. Unlike other tablets, the Nexus will display a video on your tablet and television at the same time. It will also automatically scale 2550x1440p videos to 1080p, so your television can display them. As you can see from the screenshot above, the picture quality is great. Important: Make sure to power down your tablet and television before connecting or disconnecting an HDMI cable. If you don’t, it’s possible that you could damage your tablet.

Hook up an external keyboard and mouse – You can easily connect your tablet to an external keyboard, mouse, or other input device and use these just as you would with a PC. This can be done using Bluetooth or direct USB connection. To connect via USB you will need an adapter like this. To connect more than one USB device at a time, use a powered USB hub to reduce drain on your battery. I’ve tried a wired keyboard and a standard wired mouse with the Nexus 10 tablet and both work pretty well. The mouse had no issues whatsoever. The keyboard seemed to miss keys or spaces occasionally when I typed too fast. However, I really like using the arrow keys on the keyboard to precisely move the cursor around text on the screen. I also like the fact the tablet can tell there is a keyboard attached and does not display the onscreen keyboard. This saves a lot of space on the screen.

You can work faster when you connect your Nexus 10 to a traditional keyboard and mouse

External keyboard tips – In addition to entering text, you can use your keyboard to navigate your tablet’s features: Use the arrow keys to select items on screen. Press Return after selecting an item is equivalent to touching that item. Press Escape to go Back. Press Tab or Shift-Tab to move forward on a screen with multiple text fields. For maximum typing speed, turn off auto-replace, auto-capitalization and auto-punctuate. To do this, swipe down on the top of the screen and ‘Select keyboard layout.’ To do this, swipe down on the top of the screen and ‘Select keyboard layout.’ Don’t forget you can use keyboard commands like Ctrl-V to paste text just like you would with a PC.

Expand your memory – One of the biggest complaints about the Nexus 10 is the fact it doesn’t have a memory expansion slot, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add your own memory by buying a short micro USB to USB cable and connecting a low-cost memory stick. However, stock Android devices do not automatically “mount” mass storage devices like USB sticks, so one additional step is required. If you’re Nexus tablet is rooted, the best solution is an app called Stickmount (Note: I was recently told there may be problems with it and Android 4.2, which the developer are working on now). Once StickMount is installed you connect a USB stick to your Nexus using a USB OTG cable and the device will show you a popup and ask if you want to open StickMount. You’ll need a file viewer app like ES File Explorer to display your files. More details. If your Nexus 10 is not rooted, you have two options: The first is a $3 app called Nexus Media Importer, which allows you to import or stream music, video, photos and documents from a USB flash drive or SD card. More info. The second option is free. You can enable PTP on your Nexus 10 by following the instructions in Tip #13 above. Once PTP is enabled, when you plug in a supported device it should immediately bring up the Gallery app with a new folder containing all of your photos. When you open that folder, you can either import, or browse the photos. All of the above options require a USB OTG to mini USB adapter.

Where to Find More Great Tips Like These

If you’re looking for more great tips and tricks for the Nexus 10, checkout this article.

The new Photo Gallery App is a powerful photo editing tool

Edit your photos like a pro – The Android 4.2 Gallery app is more than just a photo viewer. It now has some serious editing capabilities. In addition to all of the standard Instagram-style filters, this app has some advanced photo editing features that are similar to the ones you’ll find in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. The incredible screen on the Nexus 10 and fast processor, make it a serious photo editing station. For even better editing options, try Snapseed or Pixlr Express.

More powerful photo editing options

Learn how to take a screenshot – To take a screenshot on the Nexus 10, press the power button and the volume down button and continue to hold them until you hear a beep and see the screen zoom in. The volume down is on the top part of the volume slider when you are holding the tablet in portrait-mode.

Use the new Google Voice search – It doesn’t make sense to type your searches any more. Just touch the microphone near the top of the screen and talk, or say “Google” when you are on the Google Now page.

Set up a guest profile – You may want to setup a guest profile on your Nexus 10, so a friend can check their email, and install their own games, but can’t update your Facebook status. Their app settings, screen background, game-progress and high-scores remain separate. To add a new user, go to Settings/Device/Users. Touch ‘Add user’ and then touch OK. Touch ‘Not now,’ if your guest is not available. A generic new user should now appear in the list.

Customize your home screen – Every one uses their tablet differently, so you should customize your home screen(s) to meet your needs. Here are some suggestions:

a. Make shortcuts on your home screens for all of your favorite apps. To do this go to the App locker and then touch and hold an app and drag it to the desired screen.

b. Create folders for different categories of apps (e.g. Games, Utilities, etc.) and move all of the related apps into those folders.To create a new folders drag on app on top of another similar app. After the new folder is created, make sure to name it.

c. Uninstall any unnecessary apps or widgets from your existing homescreens. To do this, simply touch and drag them into the text ‘Remove’ near the top of the screen.

Buy a case for your Nexus 10
Buy a carrying case – It’s a good idea to purchase a leather case for your Nexus 10. This will protect your screen from scratches and give you additional protection if you drop it. Most cases also act as a stand for your tablet. Nexus 10 cases are just starting to appear on sites like Amazon.com. I just received this case and I’m happy with it.

Don’t forget about the free music – Although you won’t see the free music that is included with your Nexus 10 in the “My Library” widget, if you go into ‘All Apps’ and open ‘Play Music,’ U.S. Nexus owners will find ten free songs from The Rolling Stones, Cat Power, M. Ward, The Lumineers, Bob Mould, Eskmo and more. Preloaded music in other countries varies.

Install tracking software – You paid good money for your Nexus 10, so you don’t want to lose it. Make sure to install software like ‘Where’s My Droid‘ which allows you to track your tablet if lost or stolen. If you spend $4 to upgrade to the Pro version, you can also remotely lock your tablet, enable the camera to see the thief and as a last resort erase your tablet remotely. If you install this app, make sure to run the setup and connect the Commander screen to your Google account.

Try gesture typing – The standard Android keyboard now allows you to slide your finger over the letters you want to type, and lift it after each word. You don’t need to worry about spaces, because they’re added automatically for you. This feature used to be only found in premium apps like Swype. Now you can use it whenever you like.

Zoom two different ways – There are different ways to zoom in on the Nexus 10. The first is called double-tap. You can quickly tap two times on most webpages in Chrome to zoom in. Double-tap again to zoom out. This feature works on most webpages, maps, and other screens. Android 4.2 also has an interesting new feature called magnification gestures. When enabled, you can triple-tap the screen everywhere (except on the keyboard or notification bar) and zoom in. The nice thing is that you stay zoomed in, until you triple-tap a second time. To enable this feature, go to Settings > System > Accessibility and touch Magnification gestures. Then slide it from off to on and hit the back button. It’s worth mentioning that the way you zoom in works differently when you double or triple tap. Both have advantages, try each and see which is better for certain things. One user has reported that enabling triple-tap doesn’t work well when playing games like GTA3.

Pin your content so you can access it without a Wi-Fi connection

Access your Google Play media offline – Normally Google Play streams your content from the cloud when you access it. This is done so the content doesn’t take up any of your precious storage space. However, there are times where you may not have access to the Internet, but still want to read a book or watch a movie. To do that you’ll want to download or ‘pin’ the media on your device so you can access it offline. To ‘pin’ a book, open the Play Books app, go to the menu and select ‘Make available offline.’ A blue dot with a pin in it means the book is available for offline, but has not been downloaded yet. To download it, tap it once and the pin should turn white. Once the book is finished downloading, the pin icon should be upright, white and surrounded by a blue dot (like “The Time Machine” book above). Keep in mind that downloading a movie will consume a substantial amount of storage space (~1.7GB).

Press and hold to quickly change camera settings

Quickly change camera settings – You can now press and hold on the camera app screen and swipe to quickly change white balance, HDR and other camera settings. You can also go directly from the camera app to the Photo Gallery app by swiping to the right. Swipe left to return to the camera.

Improve your Internet download speeds – If you have Wi-Fi range issues like I do, you may want to purchase an Ethernet adapter. The Nexus 10 supports USB-OTG, which makes this possible. Although micro USB to Ethernet adapters are available, they don’t get good reviews, so you’re probably better of with a USB to Ethernet adapter like this and a micro USB to USB adapter. More about the types of things you can connect with USB-OTG.

Pinch-to-zoom Gmail – Gmail has a new setting called ‘Auto-fit messages’ which is not enabled by default. When you enable this setting, you can manually pinch to zoom in or out on an e-mail. This is really useful.

Learn how to decipher the notification LED – You’ve probably noticed there’s an LED on the front of your Nexus 10 that flashes occasionally. It’s there to let you when you have one ore more notifications waiting. Its LED is capable of displaying multiple colors so you can tell what type of notification you have without unlocking your tablet. Since there is no mention of this feature in the Nexus 10 manual, there is some confusion over the colors used. It appears Google uses white for Gmail or SMS texts, blue is for Facebook notifications, green indicates your tablet is 100% charged, and also may show Google Voice notifications, yellow is for Google Talk and red is for Google+. It appears third-party apps can trigger the notification LED as well. One thing I’ve noticed about the notification LED is it sometimes continues to flash after you’ve cleared your notifications. If this blinking bothers you, you can turn off the notification LED by going to Settings > Display and unchecking ‘Pulse notification light.’

Light Flow Lite allows you to take control of the colors of your notification LED

Customize your LED notifications – A free app called Light Flow Lite allows you to take control of the colors of your notification LED. It also makes your Nexus 10 flash one color after another. This app allows you to set the notification color for the over 250 applications and system events including missed calls, low battery, no signal, voice mail, calendar reminders, Gmail messages, email messages, SMS messages, MMS messages, Twitter notifications and more.

Quickly silence or restart your tablet – To quickly silence your Nexus 10, press and hold the power button for 1-2 seconds. To restart your tablet, press and hold the power button for 8 seconds.

Backup everything on your tablet

Make it easy for someone to return your tablet if lost – It’s a good idea to add a message to your lock-screen like the following: If found, please call [Enter your area code and phone number here]. To do this, go to Settings > Security > and touch ‘Owner info’ (or User Info, for other users). Then enter the text you want displayed on the lock screen.

Backup everything on your tablet – Although it’s true Google backs up some of your data, it doesn’t back up everything. My Backup Pro backs-up your photos, SMS texts, contacts, call log, browser bookmarks, system settings, Home screens, music playlists and apps. Your entire backup is stored online.

Use your tablet as a phone – You can turn your Android tablet into a phone with apps like Talkatone, GrooVe IP, Viber, Tablet Calling or others. A free Google Voice account is required by most of these programs. For best results, you’ll want to use a Bluetooth earpiece, since the mic used for this is located on the back of your tablet. For video calls try Skype or Tango. Video calls use the front camera on the Nexus, which works pretty well, however you still should use a Bluetooth earpiece for best results.

Let Google know where you live and work – In order to get the most out of Google Now you must enter your home and work addresses. To do this go to maps.google.com using your browser, touch the Menu icon in the upper right hand corner, and open My Places. From there, you can enter your home and work addresses.

Nexus 10 features to avoid – Because Android 4.2 and the Nexus 10 are still so new, there are several features you may want to avoid until the next update is available. Avoid using Lock-screen music widgets and Auto-brightness. If auto-brightness is important to you, please refer to Tip 40 here for a work-around.

Enjoy your media without cables

Get yourself some wireless headphones – The Nexus 10 is great for multimedia. After Google fixes the Bluetooth issues with Android 4.2.2 you may want to get yourself a wireless headset like this one. It’s stereo, sounds good and also has a mic, so you can make calls with it. If you have problems pairing your Bluetooth headset, try it several times. It took me at least three tries before it worked.

Get help from Google – You can call (855) 836-3987 and ask Google questions about your Nexus 10 24/7. I know some people are bashing Google for their phone support, but my phone support experience was positive. Once I waited on hold for 15 minutes, but the person who answered my call was able to quickly solve a difficult problem.

Visit the Nexus 10 support site online for more information.

Where to Find More Great Tips Like These

Hopefully you’ve learned something new after reading this. If you’re looking for more great tips and tricks for the Nexus 10, check out my next article.

How to Install Flash on the Nexus 10

Go to Settings > Security > and check “Unknown sources” under Device Administration.

Go to Google Play and download Firefox (or another browser that you are sure has Flash support).

Next, download Flash from the Adobe website by clicking here.

Drag the downloaded file labeled ‘install_flash_player_ics.apk’ into the ‘Download’ folder on your Nexus 10.

Now use an app like ES File Explorer to locate the APK in your Download folder and touch it.

Next, touch ‘Install’ and ‘Agree’ to install the Flash plug-in.

Note: Although I have not experienced any problems with Flash on the Nexus 10, I can not be responsible for the results of the actions you are about to take. You are installing software which is not officially supported, and could result in security or stability issues. I wouldn’t be too concerned however. I’ve been running this for more than four weeks now and have visited many sites. Content on most sites plays fine for me. Nothing bad has happened on the other sites.

To test that Flash is working, go to this page (or any other page you know has Flash on it). If you don’t see a video, touch where it says ‘Tap here to activate plugin’. After you do this, you should see a red box jumping around on the screen. I’ve noticed that most, but not all Flash files play on the Nexus 10. This appears to be due to an incompatibility between Flash and Android 4.2. If Flash videos don’t play the first time, don’t try to activate Flash on that page again. Enjoy!

Although it’s not essential, if you don’t plan to sideload more APK files, you should go back to Settings > Security > and uncheck “Unknown sources” under Device Administration.

Can’t get Flash to work? Try some of these suggestions.

If you have problems getting Firefox to work, try installing Boat Browser. After installing it, make sure to go to Settings > Page content settings and set ‘Enable flash/plug-ins to On. If you view a lot of Flash, you might want to make Boat your default browser. [Thanks to Karen for this tip]

How to Force An Update to Android 4.2.2 on Your Nexus 10

Go to Settings > Apps > and swipe the area which says “DOWNLOADED” to the right until you see “ALL” tab under Apps. The screens below were borrowed from a Cult of Android article for another device. Your screens may look slightly different.
1. Now, scroll down to where it says “About tablet” and touch “System updates’ and touch the “Check now” button. If it does not find the 4.2.2. update, restart your tablet and try again. If the above steps do not work, repeat them rebooting your device after step 3. You may also need to repeat the steps twice for the update to show up on your device. This approach worked for me, but may not work in all regions.
  
  What to Do If You Have Problems After You Force An Update to Android 4.2.2
  
  After I forced an update to Android 4.2.2 I could not download or update apps without an error. You have have that problem, you may want to do what I did to fix it.
  1. Go to Settings > Apps > and swipe the area which says “DOWNLOADED” to the right until you see “ALL” tab under Apps. Select “Google Play Store”, and then tap “Clear cache” and “Clear data.” Please note: After clearing the Google Play Store app data, if you have set a PIN code and/or a content filter, you’ll need to re-apply these settings.
  2. Locate “Download Manager,” under “ALL” and then tap “Clear cache” and “Clear data”
  3. Locate “Google Services Framework,” under “ALL” and then tap “Clear cache” and “Clear data”
  4. Reboot your tablet
  5. Try it again. If you still cannot download apps, try removing and then re-adding your Google account on the Settings screen. This worked for me.

Filed under Blog Posts, How-to, Mobile Technology Tagged with Android, Android 4.2, gadgets, Mobile, Nexus 10, Tablet, technology, Tips, Tricks

30+ Reasons You Should Buy a Nexus 10 Tablet

November 2, 2012 73 Comments

Last update: March 4, 2013

This article has over 40,000 views! Thanks for reading it.
It only took two days for every single model of the Nexus 10 to sell out worldwide. The 32GB model sold out just two hours after sales began.

The last two articles I wrote about tablets were my most popular ever, so I’ve decided to write another one about the new iPad 4 and its top competitor. Since some people complained my last article was unfair because I compared the iPad mini to several different tablets, this time I’ll compare the iPad 4 to a single tablet.

Don’t get me wrong, the iPad 4 certainly has some great qualities, but it’s no longer leading the way. Its Retina-display was the gold-standard for resolution, but those days are over. There’s a new tablet king and it’s called the Nexus 10. Here are over thirty good reasons why you’d be crazy to buy an iPad 4 over a Nexus 10.

It costs less and gives you more – A 16GB Nexus 10 costs $100 less than a 16GB iPad 4. That 20% less, for a product with much better specs as you’ll see below.
It has a better, higher-resolution display – Apple’s Retina displays used to be second to none, but those days are over. The Nexus 10 has a higher-resolution display than the iPad 4. It’s the world’s first tablet with a WQXGA 2560×1600-pixel display. But that’s not all, the Nexus 10 beats the iPad 4 in two other important areas as well: number of pixels and pixels-per-inch.
– The Nexus 10 has almost a million more pixels than the iPad 4’s Retina display (4,096,000 vs. 3,145,728)

– The Nexus 10 has more pixels-per-inch than the iPad 4 (300ppi vs. 264ppi). That may not sound like a lot, but you can see the difference on very small text. Like the iPad 4, text on the Nexus 10 looks very sharp.

The Nexus 10 has a processor with a faster clock speed than the iPad 4
It has a faster next-generation processor – The Nexus 10 has a processor clock speed that is over 30% faster than the iPad 4 (1.7GHz vs. 1.3GHz). The Nexus 10 is the first tablet with an ARM Cortex-A15 processor that beats the iPad 4 badly on benchmarks like Geekbench (2480 vs. 1768). This processor is 40% faster than previous generation ARM chips. The A15 is expected to be used in the iPad 5, which won’t be released until mid-2013.

It’s considerably lighter than the iPad 4 – The Nexus 10 is noticeably lighter than the iPad 4 (603g vs. 652g). This is a big deal when you use your tablet for hours at a time. I used to be able to hold the original iPad in the air with my left hand, but my new iPad with its leather case is so heavy that I have to put my elbow on the table or bed.
The Nexus 10 is noticeably thinner than the iPad 4
It’s thinner than the iPad 4 – The Nexus 10 is thinner than the iPad 4 (8.9mm vs. 9.4mm). This is surprising, because thinness is one area Apple normally dominates in. The Nexus 10 also does not have sharp corners which dig into your palm when you hold it with one hand.
It has twice the memory and twice the storage as the iPad 4 – The Nexus 10 has 2GB of RAM, while he iPad 4 has only 1GB of RAM. More memory allows you to run more apps at once without slowing down. A $499 Nexus 10 also has twice as much internal storage than an iPad 4 (32GB vs. 16GB). This is important because it’s not hard to fill up a 16GB iPad when you have a large media collection or lots of apps.
You can share media by simply touching two NFC-enabled Android devices together
It has touch-to-share capabilities – Android tablets like the Nexus 10 can share media by simply touching another device with NFC support. This allows you to share photos, videos, contacts, Web pages — as well as information between apps. You can see Android Beam in action here.

It has faster Wi-Fi than the iPad 4 – The Nexus 10 has dual-band Wi-Fi and MIMO support. Amazon claims that MIMO results in better range and 40% faster Wi-Fi data speeds. Google says accelerated page loading and MIMO gives you web browsing speeds up to 4x faster than normal WiFi. Of course these are theoretical gains, we’ll have to see what the real-world numbers are.

It has a brighter display with wider viewing angles – The Nexus 10 has a Super PLS display, which has several advantages over IPS displays like the one Apple uses. Super PLS displays have wider viewing angles, and are supposed to be 10 percent brighter.

Size matters when it comes to speakers. The Nexus 10 has two front-facing speakers

It includes front-facing stereo speakers – The Nexus 10 has two large speakers on the left and right sides of its screen. These speakers shoot forward so the sound doesn’t get muffled by your hands (like it does on the iPad whose speaker faces down). The Nexus’ dual speakers also sound better than Apple’s single mono speaker. I was hoping the potential space savings that resulted from the switch to a Lightning connector the iPad 4 would allow Apple to add bigger, better-sounding speakers, but that did not happen.

You can see the Nexus 10 is fast. I’ll replace this once I find a comparison to iPad 4

It has an extremely fast GPU – Engadget says the Nexus 10 has the “most detailed and smoothest graphics we’ve seen.” Early benchmarks are mixed. Some favor the Nexus 10, while others favor the iPad 4.

It’s much easier to repair – According to iFixit, the iPad 4 is much more difficult to repair than all other tablets. iFixit gives the iPad 4 a repairability score of 2 out of 10, which is horrible. The battery is glued to the rear case which is unfortunate because it makes it very difficult to replace. iFixit goes on to say, “Just like in the iPad 2 & 3, the front panel is glued to the rest of the device, greatly increasing the chances of cracking the glass when trying to remove it. Gobs of adhesive hold everything in place, including the battery. The LCD has foam sticky tape adhering it to the front panel, increasing chances of it being shattered during disassembly.” I’m still waiting for a repairability score on the Nexus 10 from iFixit, but another source rates it “extremely repairable.”

The Nexus 10 comes with 5 books, 3 magazines, 10 songs, an HD movie and a TV show

The Nexus 10 comes with lots of free content – Content varies by region. U.S. users get the following three free magazines: Conde Nast Traveler, Entrepreneur and House Beautiful. There are also five great books you are provided with including: “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens, “The Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll. Like music? The Nexus also comes with ten songs from The Rolling Stones, Cat Power, M. Ward, The Lumineers, Bob Mould, Eskmo and more. And last, but not least, the Nexus 10 also comes with an HD copy of the full-length movie “Ice Age” and the BBC TV show “Planet Earth.”

It has multi-user support – The iPad 4 is a single-user device tied to a single iTunes account. The Nexus 10 is the first tablet to allow multiple users to log-in. Each user has their own home screen, background, apps and widgets. Things like game-progress and high-scores remain separate. This feature will be very important for families.

It has GPS support – The Wi-Fi only model of iPad 4 does not have a built-in GPS. That means you can’t use it to check-in or load maps of your area like you can using the Nexus 10.

You can use Google Wallet anywhere you see these images

It includes digital wallet support – The Nexus 10 has Google Wallet preinstalled. It allows you to purchase things without a walled in places like Best Buy, CVS Pharmacy, Einstein Bros Bagels, Home Depot, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s, Peet’s Coffee, Pinkberry, Rite Aid, Sports Authority, Whole Foods and many more places. In fact, there are over 300,00 PayPass-enabled cash registers today. You can learn more about NFC here. The iPad 4 has something called Passbook, but it only works at Starbucks (and the Apple Store).

It plays Flash videos – Flash may be a dying format, but there are still millions of Flash videos around, and the iPad 4 can’t play any of them. The Nexus 10 can play all Flash videos as long as you side-load Flash by following these easy instructions and use a browser like Firefox which supports Flash.

Android beats iOS 6 in many areas – This will surprise some, but Android 4.2 has many advantages over iOS 6. You can read about those advantages here.

File transfers are much easier – It’s a major hassle to get anything (but photos) on or off of an iPad 4. Android devices don’t need iTunes or iCloud to copy media. Just connect a USB cable and your device will appear on your desktop like a hard disk. You can then drag and drop any file (or folder) onto it.

The Nexus 10 has several different keyboard layouts like this one with number keys

It has a better on-screen keyboard – The Nexus 10 has a much better on-screen keyboard than the iPad 4. In addition to all of the standard Apple keyboard features like a spell checker, auto-capitalization and auto-correction, the Nexus 10 also has the ability to add words to a personal dictionary, show correction suggestions, perform gesture typing (where you swipe from key to key), Provide next-word suggestions and the ability to change your keyboard to one that is more PC-like and includes all numbers and extra keys.

You can easily load custom ROMs – Nexus devices do not come with locked or encrypted bootloaders. That means you are free to install customs ROMs and fully tailor your device however you wish.

It has a better rear-facing camera – According to reviews, photos taken with the Nexus 10’s rear camera have better color accuracy, definition and less noise than the iPad 4′s camera. The iPad 4’s iSight camera lacks Panorama, Photo Sphere and other camera features present in Android tablets.

It has a better front-facing camera for video calls – Apple upgraded the front-facing camera on the iPad from 0.3MP to 1.2MP, but it still doesn’t match the 1.9MP front-facing camera found on the Nexus 10. The iPad 4’s front camera records noisy 720p videos at a only 24fps in low light.

Nexus 10 Flash

It has an LED flash – Every camera needs a flash in order to take good photos in low light conditions. The Nexus 10 has one. The iPad 4 does not.

It has a standard micro-USB jack – The Nexus 10 has a standard micro-USB jack, so you can easily connect your tablet to a keyboard or charger without purchasing an expensive cable. The iPad 4 has a new proprietary Lightning connector that is not backwardly compatible. This was done so Apple can sell you overpriced cables that cost $20 to $50. If you want an extra charging cable for an iPad 4, it will cost $19 and is hard to find. You can buy an Android power cord almost anywhere for as little as $2.

HDMI connector

It has a dedicated HDMI port – The Nexus 10 has a built-in HDMI port which ensures it can output video to all HDMI-equipped TVs, projectors and monitors. That’s not always the case when MHL over USB is used for video output. Another benefit is that any mini-HDMI cable will work and a special adapter cable is not needed.

Its AV adapter supports 1080p – Although it’s hard to believe, Apple’s Digital AV adapter (which connects to the HDMI jack on your TV) doesn’t support 1080p today. It’s capable of supporting 1080p, but Apple has chosen to hold back 1080p support for now.

It has a Gorilla Glass 2 screen – I know Apple uses Gorilla Glass 2 on the iPhone 5, but as far as I can tell they do not use it on the iPad 4. If they are using it, they are keeping it a secret — which doesn’t make sense because it’s a benefit.

The Nexus 10 has a slightly larger display than the iPad 4

It has a larger display – The Nexus 10 has a 10.055” Super PLS display, while the iPad 4 has a 9.7” IPS display.

It has a 16:10 screen – Tablets are great for watching movies, but all movies are formatted to fit on a 16:9 display. Because the iPad 4 has a 4:3 aspect ratio, all 16:9 movies need to be letter-boxed so they fit on the screen. This makes movies appear smaller. The Nexus is much closer to 16:9 than the iPad 4.

It has dual NFC sensors – The Nexus 10 is the only mobile device with dual NFC sensors: one in the front, and one in the back. These have been added so you don’t have to turn the tablet around to beam things.

Android 4.2 allows you to access settings from the Notification Bar

It gives you quick access to settings from the notification bar – On the Nexus 10, settings can be quickly by accessed by pulling down on the top right portion of the screen. On the iPad 4, all app settings are grouped together in a Settings app making them harder to access.

It has haptic feedback – Like most Android devices, the Nexus 10 supports haptic feedback. This gives you a little vibration when you type, long press, or touch the navigation buttons. This makes it clear your touch was acknowledged, so you don’t have to tap twice. Haptic feedback makes games much more enjoyable because of the tactile feedback.

It has a built-in barometer – The Nexus 10 has a built-in barometer, which improves GPS accuracy. I didn’t believe this would make a difference until I compared the GPS in a Galaxy Nexus (which also has a barometer) to the GPS in an iPad and Galaxy S III which do not.

Micro-USB jack

Works with a USB mouse – One advantage of having a micro-USB jack is that it makes it easy to plug-in peripherals like a USB mouse. Even if you could figure a way to attach a USB cable to the iPad 4, it still will not work, because iOS 6 doesn’t support mice. You can also attach USB keyboards or memory sticks to the Nexus 10 after purchasing an adapter for a few dollars.

It has multicolor LED alert – The Nexus 10 has a small LED indicator at the bottom of the screen (when held in landscape mode,) which alerts you to new messages or other system events. As with other Android devices, you can customize exactly how this LED works by installing a third-party LED control app like Light Flow. The iPad 4 does not support any type of LED alerts.

The preinstalled Android Gallery App has more powerful photo editing than you’ll find on any free iPad app

It’s stock photo viewer has more advanced photo editing – There are some good photo editing apps available for the iPad, but the best are not free. The stock Android Gallery app has much more advanced photo editing than you’ll find in than Apple’s Photos app.

It has dedicated back button – All Android devices include a dedicated back button. In addition, most apps have a menu button proves fast access to settings and other app-related commands like Share. The back button makes it easy to go back to where you were before. This is one of the features I miss the most when I jump between Android and iOS.

Why You’ll Still Buy an iPad 4

If you’re an Apple fan, you don’t comparison shop, you don’t care that Apple products cost more and do less. You’ll find a way to convince yourself that all of the above reasons somehow don’t apply to you, and you’ll buy an iPad 4 anyway. And in six months, when Apple comes out with an iPad 5, which is twice as fast and has a better Retina display, you’ll buy that one too – and thank Apple. This may sound harsh, but it applies to millions of people. So go ahead and buy one — you know you want it.

The Tide is Turning

Apple has dominated tablet sales since the original iPad launched back in 2010. But those days are coming to an end. For the first time, Apple is losing tablet market share. According to Strategy Analytics, shipments of Android tablets surged to new highs in the third quarter of 2012, accounting for 41% of all tablets shipped. In the same period, shipments of Apple’s iPads shrank to only 57% of the market. IDC paints an even gloomier picture for Apple and says they now have only 50% of the tablet market. That may sound like a lot, but it wasn’t long ago that Apple had 90% of the tablet market. Apple’s drop in market share started before the Nexus 10 and Kindle Fire HD tablets were available, and will likely accelerate now. Apple’s still an important player in the tablet space, but they need to lower their prices significantly or improve their products to justify their price premium. Apple image has taken a big hit as well. As TechCrunch said, “the fourth-generation iPad doesn’t seem to be nearly as big as the leap from the first to second generation, or from the second to third generation.” Sure, most Americans will continue to buy Apple exclusively no matter what, but it’s a big world, and buyers from other countries are much more discriminating and price-sensitive.

Update 1 – The Nexus 10 went on sale on 11/13 and the 32GB model sold out within two hours in the U.S. The 16GB Nexus 10 sold out in the U.S. in the first two days. However, since then, additional supply has become available, and the 16GB model is now available for purchase again (11/18)

Update 2 – My Nexus 10 arrived on 11/16 and I’ve posted my first impressions here. You can find a list of 21 tips and tricks for the Nexus 10 here.

– Rick

For the Apple Fanboys

1. This is an opinion piece – I think the title makes that very clear. Don’t read this if you can’t handle an opposing view point.

2. This article is focused on the Nexus’ advantages – I’m aware there are good reasons to buy Apple products. Since every other reviewer focuses on those, I saw value in showing another point of view.

3. I don’t just pick on Apple – I write highly-opinionated articles about other companies as well. Here are examples where I single out Samsung, AT&T, United, Google and Rhapsody.

4. I don’t hate all Apple products – I think most of the new products Apple announced are good or great — just not the new iPad 4 or iPad mini. I own two iPhones, an iPad, an iPad 3 and an Apple TV. I buy Apple products when I believe they outperform other products and are not outlandishly priced.

5. I want this to be factually correct – Believe it or not, I really do try to keep my articles factually accurate. If think one of these points is incorrect, let me know and I will edit or delete it, but you’re not going to change my beliefs, just like I’m not going to changes yours, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

What About Build Quality?

Since most comments about this article mention the so-called “crappy build quality of all Android tablets” I thought I would address this issue. When I first wrote this article, I mentioned the build-quality of the Nexus 10 was good, but not great, but after reading close to twenty reviews I removed that comment. Read on to see why:

Gizmodo said: It feels extremely solid and well-built. The back panel is a hard plastic that has been rubberized in a really interesting way. It’s very smooth, but very grippy at the same time.
Ars Technica said: “I do find that I actually prefer the textured plastic back of the Nexus 10 to the aluminum back used by the iPads—the latter gets pretty cold to the touch in November in New Jersey, and the tablet is only too happy to transfer that coldness straight to your hands. The Nexus 10 is a bit more hospitable when pulling it out of a bag that’s been outside.”
CNET said; “It is the most comfortable 10-inch tablet to hold in your hand its light weight and smoothly rounded corners the tablet never digs into your palms when held with two hands. The back is a soft, grippy, almost rubbery plastic that not only feels great to hold, but doubles as protection for the tablet. The aforementioned rounded corners have that same rubbery plastic around them. The whole outer shell feels almost like an exoskeleton accessory, specifically designed to protect the delicate tablet organs.”
Ubergizmo said: “To put it simply, the design of the Google Nexus 10 is beautiful. The front of the tablet is made of a pristine black glass surface from edge to edge. I really like the soft touch treatment which gives a solid grip when holding the tablet. This is an issue that I have regularly with the iPad. Overall, I find the industrial design to be excellent and high-quality. Unless you are adamant to feel metal when you touch the tablet, I expect most people to be pleased with the quality of this device.”
The Guardian said: “The Nexus 10 is a sleek, smooth tablet that feels solid, and sits nicely in the hands with its rounded corners – more rounded than the iPad.”
Venture Beat said: “The tablet’s curved design makes it surprisingly comfortable to hold, and the soft back case material feels simply luxurious. The Nexus 10 is so well designed that you’ll be tempted to fondle it even when it’s turned off.”
Android Community said: “It’s extremely well made, very durable, feels great and is indeed a polished and beautiful product inside and out.”
Android Police said: “Amazing build quality. I tried really hard to find a flaw in the build of this tablet. But I couldn’t. It’s top-notch – everything is super-solid… The back is the real standout feature of the device’s physical design, as it’s coated in a very soft rubbery-plastic that feels almost like leather. It definitely adds a feeling of quality, and is absolutely fantastic in the hands. It’s not cold and slippery like aluminum, nor does it feel cheap and flimsy like typical plastic. It’s slightly grippy, which allows you to hold the unit with less “force,” leading to less wrist fatigue. It also makes it easier to hold the device in your hand palette-style without fear of dropping it.”
Tech Radar said: “The rear plastic chassis has a soft-touch feel, with the rubberised effect providing additional grip in the hand, and wrapping round to the front of the tablet for a smooth, seamless finish.”
Wired said: “The back panel is a grippy plastic that makes the Nexus 10 much better than previous Samsung tablets and even the iPad for one-handed use.”

These are just a few of the positive comments about the Nexus 10’s build quality. There are many more online. I’m not saying the build quality of the Nexus is better than the iPad 4. I’m just saying most reviewers like it.

Follow me on Twitter @mostlytech1

Filed under Blog Posts, Mobile Technology Tagged with Android, iOS, iPad, iPad 4, Nexus 10, NFC, Tablet

Who Makes the Best 10” Tablet on Earth?

October 27, 2012 39 Comments

Last update: February 3, 2013

This article has had over 16,000 views. Thanks for reading it.

Tablet Shopping Guide – No Opinions, Just the Facts

There have been lots of new tablets released since my last article, so I’ve decided to do an update. I started by evaluating all of the popular tablets, and then narrowed the list down to only eight finalists. Although there are some truly amazing 7” to 8.9” tablets out there, this article is only evaluating tablets that are 9.7” and larger. You can learn more about the new iPad mini and other smaller tablets here.

This time I’m trying a new approach. Instead of giving my opinion, I’m going to provide the facts, and let you decide for yourself. If you think I’ve missed anything, please let me know in the comments section. This is a “living” article that will be updated as I come across new information. Make sure to check back to see what has changed.

Apple just recently released the iPad 4 with a Lightning connector

Let’s start with the king of the tablets: The iPad. Apple has sold more tablets than any other manufacturer – by a long shoot. Just last week, Apple refreshed the “new iPad” by adding a Lightning connector, bumping up the speed on the processor and upgraded the front-facing camera. Let’s look at the strengths and weaknesses of the newest iPad:

Apple iPad 4

Strengths

Very good build-quality – All metal and glass construction

Fast performance – Beats the Nexus 10 on most benchmarks

Twice as fast as the iPad 3 in some benchmarks

More tablet-optimized apps than any other platform (275,000)

Very powerful battery (11,560 mAh) – Up to 10 hours battery life

Gets iOS updates on the first day they are available

Retina display (2nd highest resolution here 2048×1536)

One of the brightest displays

Boots in only 16 seconds

Excellent color accuracy

iOS apps are less likely to contain malware than Android apps

Dual-band 2.4GHz/5.0GHz Wi-Fi support

Optional 3G/4G support

Great selection of third-party accessories

12W AC adapter for slightly faster charging

Lightning connector is reversible so it can’t be inserted wrong

Has AirPlay support for wireless media beaming

Touchscreen can register 11 points at a time

Powerful headphone amp

1080p video with digital image-stabilization

Very good HTML5 performance

Best for portrait use

Smart cover automatically powers on the tablet when opened

Physical home button

Weaknesses

Heavier than all of the other tablets here except one (652g)

Thicker than all of the other tablets here except one (9.4mm)

Identical to the iPad 3 in most ways except processor, front cam and connector (case, display, etc.)

No memory expansion slot

Wi-Fi-only model doesn’t have an internal GPS

Use a proprietary connector so you can’t connect USB or HDMI cables directly

Lightning connector has no backward compatibility, so older accessories won’t work unless you buy an adapter

Much more difficult to repair than other tablets. Gets 2 out of 10 rating, which is horrible

Retina display has a big impact on battery life. One reviewer reports only 5.5 hrs video playback at full brightness

Gets badly beaten by the Nexus 10 on benchmarks like Geekbench (2480 vs. 1768)

Loads web pages slower than an iPad mini

3G/4G support costs $130 more (plus data charges and other monthly fees)

Single mono speaker (no front-facing stereo speakers)

Has half the memory of other tablets (1GB vs. 2GB)

Some visible light leakage the LCD display

No quad-core CPU like other tablets have

Doesn’t have NFC support

Gets very warm on the left-hand side after you’ve been using it for a while

Very reflective display

The iSight camera is only 5MP. Other tablets have 8MP and 13MP cameras

The iPad 4’s iSight camera lacks panorama, Photo Sphere and camera features found in other Android tablets

No infrared transmitter

Parental controls only work with iOS and even then have serious limitations

No camera flash – Low light photos are very noisy

The front camera records noisy 720p videos at a only 24fps in low light

No mouse support

Only has a 1.2MP front camera

Screen has a 4:3 aspect ratio, so 16:9 movies cannot be displayed full screen a must be letter-boxed

Has a 4-core GPU while other tablets have 8 or 12-cores

Worse battery life than all previous iPads

Screen is smaller than other tablets

No back button or menu button

Acer makes several affordable 10.1″ quad-core tablets

Acer has three different 10.1” quad-core powered Android tablets with very similar specs: The Acer Iconia Tab A700 (which came out back in June) and the newer A700-10s32u and A700-10k32u tablets. The A700-10k32u tablets seems like a good value at only $399.99

Acer Iconia A Series

Strengths

Full HD 1920×1200 display (224 ppi)

Quad-core processor

A good value – starting at $399 with 32GB

Good build-quality

32GB storage (twice other tablets)

Includes a GPS

Stereo speakers

Has a microSD slot for memory expansion

Runs Android 4.1

HDMI connector for TV-out

Weaknesses

1GB of memory (Some others have 2GB)

Camera lacks an LED flash

No 3G/4G cellular option

Acer doesn’t specify a resolution for the front cam (normally that means it’s 0.3MP)

No NFC support

No 5GHz dual-band Wi-Fi support

Not as thin or light as some other tablets

No internal microphone

The ASUS PadFone 2 and dock are extremely innovative

The ASUS PadFone2 is one of the most innovative mobile devices available today. Its Android-powered smartphone has amazing specs and a 13MP camera. The phones slides into a dock to become a tablet.

Asus PadFone 2 with Dock

Strengths

Fast quad-core processor (1.5GHz)

Detachable phone works on its own, or docks in tablet

13-megapixel Sony BSI sensor plus f/2.4 five-element optics

Almost zero shutter lag, can also shoot up to 100 continuous shots at 6 fps

1080p at up to 30 fps

720p at up to 60 fps

Twice as much memory as most other tablets (2GB)

3G/4G support

NFC support

9.5 hour battery life

Capable of beaming to media AirPlay or DLNA devices when free 3rd-party apps are installed

Dual-band 2.4GHz/5.0GHz Wi-Fi support

Phone and dock weight less than the iPad 3 or iPad 4 (649g)

50GB of free ASUS web storage

Bluetooth 4.0

Weaknesses

No Android 4.1 support yet

No MicroSD slot

Not the highest resolution display (1280×800)

Single mono speaker

No physical home button

No infrared transmitter

No U.S. carriers are offering this phone yet

Limited stylus support (no pressure sensitivity, palm rejection, special features)

The Asus Transformer has one of the best keyboard docks available

The original ASUS Transformer Prime was the world’s first quad-core tablet. This Android-powered tablet been upgraded to a 1920p HD display and has an excellent optional keyboard dock. Some reviewers believe this is the best tablet available today.

Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700

Strengths

Fastest quad-core processor available today (1.6GHz)

Thinner than any of the other tablets here (8.5mm)

Twice the storage of most other tablets for $499 (32GB vs. 16GB)

True 1920p HD display (224ppi)

Fast graphics (12-core GPU)

Beats the Nexus 10 on most benchmarks

Android 4.1.1 update available (ships with 4.0.4)

Excellent keyboard dock with full-sized USB connector which offers 13-14 hours of battery life

8MP camera with f2.2 aperture

Can operate as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot

Very good build-quality

Full size SD card slot

Light skin that doesn’t get in the way as much as TouchWiz

Bright display

Better black levels than the iPad 4 or Nexus 10

Higher contrast ratio than the iPad 4 or Nexus 10

Capable of beaming to media AirPlay or DLNA devices when free 3rd-party apps are installed

LED flash for camera

You can connect a standard mouse or external HD drive directly to the keyboard

microHDMI connector

Two microphones for stereo sound recording

Good selection of pre-loaded apps

1080p video capture

Gorilla glass 2 screen

Nexus devices do not come with locked or encrypted bootloaders. That means you are free to install customs ROMs and tailor your device however you like

Has an ASUS customized settings app

When docked, the battery life on the Transformer Prime is second to none

Weaknesses

Price starts at $599 but includes 32GB

Half the memory of other tablets (1GB vs. 2GB)

Images taken with camera are not the best

No NFC support

Slower Wi-Fi download speeds than the Nexus 10 and some other tablets

Not great low-light performance on camera

Single rear-facing speaker

Keyboard dock is $150 when purchased separately, but includes powerful battery

No dual-band 2.4GHz/5.0GHz Wi-Fi support

No optional 3G/4G support

Other tablets have better I/O performance

No infrared transmitter

No physical home button

Limited stylus support (no pressure sensitivity, palm rejection, special features)

Barnes’s and Noble’s Nook HD+ is the first 9.0″ tablet

Barnes’s and Noble’s Nook HD+ is the the world’s first 9.0″ tablet. It’s very light and costs less than any other tablet here (pricing starts at $269). This is a pure e-reader without extras like cameras, GPS and cellular capabilities.

Barnes and Noble’s Nook HD+

Strengths

The most affordable tablet here ($269 and up)

High-resolution HD display (1920×1280)

The lightest tablet here (only 515g)

Includes stereo speakers

High pixel densitiy screen (256ppi)

Expandable memory via Micro SD slot

Parental controls for a kid-safe experience

HDMI out via cable

A micro USB port rather than a proprietary connector

Weaknesses

Not yet shipping (pre-order available 11/8)

The thickest tablet here (11.4mm)

No front or rear cameras

Least powerful battery here (4000 mAh)

No 3G/4G data option

No NFC support

No Dual-band 5.0GHz Wi-Fi support

No GPS support

Lacks an ambient light sensor for automatic screen brightness adjustment

The Fujitsu Stylistic M532 is a durable business-ready tablet

The Fujitsu Stylistic M532 is a business-ready Android tablet. It has a fast quad-core processor and is thin, light and durable.

Fujitsu Stylistic M532

Strengths

Fast quad-core processor

The 2nd thinnest tablet tablet here (8.6mm)

Above-average durability

Designed for Business – Includes Absolute Computrace security

Has 32GB storage

Highest megapixel front camera available today in a tablet (2MP)

Has stereo speakers

8MP rear camera

Has 2.4GHz/5.0GHz dual-band Wi-Fi

micro USB port

GPS support

Stock Android – No bloatware

microSD card slot

Weaknesses

Display is good, but it’s 1280×800. The best tablets are 1920×1080 or higher

Only 149 pixels per inch on display (the best have 200-300ppi)

Inaccurate touch screen

No 3G/4G cellular data option

Expensive $549

30-pin proprietary connector

Runs Android 4.0.3

Only 1GB RAM (some others have 2GB)

No NFC support

No HDMI port (docking cradle ($69 direct) which allows HDMI out and USB inputs)

5 hour battery life – Lowest power battery here (3170 mAh)

Bluetooth 3.0

The Huawei MediaPad 10 is a 10 inch Android tablet with a quad-core CPU

The Huawei MediaPad 10 is a 10 inch Android tablet with a quad-core CPU and optional LTE support. Currently it’s only available in Europe.

Huawei MediaPad 10

Strengths

Quad-core CPU

1,920 x 1,200 IPS display

Optional LTE support

Very thin (8.8mm)

Attractive design

2GB memory

Good benchmark scores

Relatively light (580g)

Stereo speakers

Dolby 5.1 audio support

Strong audio output

microSD slot

Powerful amp for speakers

8-megapixel rear camera

Gorilla Glass screen

HDMI connector for TV-out

1080p video

Weaknesses

Pricing starts at 424 euros ($540 for 8GB Wi-Fi only)

Currently not available in the U.S.

Not great battery life (7+ hours)

Lacks microSD slot for storage expansion

Proprietary USB connector (no standard microUSB)

Heavy OS skin

No app drawer

No NFC support

Occasional delay when switching between open apps or launching apps

Sharp edges

Some issues with cameras

Rear-facing speakers

Highly-reflective screen

The Lenovo IdeaTab S2110 has a built-in FM radio

The IdeaTab S2110 is a 10/1″ Android-powered tablet from Lenovo with 3G connectivity and a built-in FM radio.

Lenovo IdeaTab S2110

Strengths

Very nice keyboard dock

Only tablet with a built-in FM radio

A good value. Pricing starts at $429

Bright display with 178° wide viewing angle

Very thin (8.69mm)

Fast dual-core processor (1.5GHz)

Dual speakers and SRS TruMedia audio enhancement

Optional 3G connectivity

10 hours battery life

Optional dock increases battery life to 16+ hours

Sturdy construction

Capable of beaming to media AirPlay or DLNA devices when free 3rd-party apps are installed

Micro-HDMI output

A micro USB port rather than a proprietary connector

5.0MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash

1080p video recording

Bluetooth 4.0

Weaknesses

Lacks microSD slot for storage expansion

No optional 4G cellular

No NFC support

GPS is only available on 3G-enabled model

No 5GHz dual-band Wi-fi support

Matte finish attracts fingerprints

No infrared transmitter

No physical home button

Limited stylus support (no pressure sensitivity, palm rejection, special features)

The Microsoft Surface RT is the only tablet which runs Office today

The Microsoft Surface RT is the most affordable Windows 8 tablet available today ($499). It runs Microsoft’s new Windows 8 Operating system and comes preloaded with a full-version of Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Surface RT

Strengths

Preloaded with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013

Most affordable Windows 8 tablet ($499)

Best laptop replacement

Quad-core processor (1.3GHz)

Twice as much memory as iPad 4 and most other tablets (2GB)

Twice the storage as most other tablets (32GB vs. 16GB)

Split-screen multi-tasking feature

Multi-user support

Full-sized USB jack (instead of a proprietary connector)

More than twice as good as the iPad 3 in a JavaScript benchmark

Large screen 10.6”

Dual speakers

microSD memory slot

Has a sturdy built-in stand

2.4GHz/5.0GHz Wi-Fi support

Better keyboard support than some other tablets

The membrane keyboard doubles as a cover

Good HTML5 performance

16:9 screen

microHDMI jack

Gets OS updates on the first day they are available

Bluetooth 4.0

Weaknesses

Limited number of great third-party Windows 8 apps

Preloaded OS and apps consume 12 GB of space

Heaviest tablet here (676g)

Windows 8 requires some learning curve

Some reviewers say battery life is only 7-8 hours

No GPS support

Can’t run legacy Windows apps

Slower web page loading than other tablets

Outlook is not included with Office, so you have to use Mail and Calendar to sync up with Exchange

No NFC support

Only 1MP front and rear cameras with no auto-focus

No Dropbox (or other third-party Cloud-based storage apps) are available today

No optional 3G/4G support

Screen resolution is good, but not great (1,366×768)

Lower pixel density than other tablets here (148ppi)

Touchscreen can only register five points at a time

Magnetic cord is sometimes hard to attach

No camera flash

No infrared transmitter

Only 720p video support

Limited stylus support (no pressure sensitivity, palm rejection, special features)

Looking for a good collection of Microsoft Surface RT hardware reviews?.

The Nexus 10 tablet is the first 10″ tablet which runs Android 4.2

The Google Nexus 10 is an Android tablet which has a Samsung Exynos 5250 processor clocked at 1.7 GHz. It’s a dual-core Cortex-A15 chip that performs well in benchmark tests. Central to the speed of the Exynos 5 Dual is the ARM Mali-T604 graphics processor, which more than doubles the 3D performance of the already fast Samsung Galaxy S III’s chip. But the biggest standout in the Nexus 10 is its beautiful 2560×1600-pixel display.

Nexus 10

Strengths

World’s first tablet with a WQXGA 2560×1600-pixel display

Starts at only $399

First tablet with an Exynos 5 ARM Cortex-A15 processor that beats the Tegra 3 in benchmarks.

First and only tablet which runs Android 4.2. Will be the first to get Android 4.3

First tablet with multi-user support which allows you to set up a guest profile so someone can check their email but can’t update your Facebook status. Also allows different family members to have there own spaces and apps.

World’s highest resolution tablet display (300ppi) – Over 4 million pixels. Games like “Nova” look much sharper on the Nexus 10 than on the iPad 4

Pure Android OS (no skinning or bloatware)

Fastest processor speed available in a tablet today (1.7GHz). The Verge says: “apps launch a lot faster and multitasking is an absolute breeze — even with 20 apps open, nothing seemed to slow down.”

Fast quad-core Mali-T604 graphics processor – Engadget says it has the “smoothest graphics we’ve seen.”

Twice as much memory as most other tablets (2GB)

Comes with 5 books, 3 magazines, 10 songs, an HD movie and a TV show

Beats the iPad 4 on benchmarks like Geekbench (2480 vs. 1768)

Android 4.2’s voice input and speech-to-text entry are second to none

NFC support (Only mobile device with dual NFC sensors)

Gets all Android updates the first day they are available

The new Android 4.2 Gallery app has been improved so you can now tweak your photos like pro software.

Has Google Wallet preloaded. Allows you to purchase things with your tablet.

Boots in 19-24 seconds

Dual-band 2.4GHz/5.0GHz Wi-Fi support

Well-built and durable

Has MIMO WiFi and accelerated page-loading

Very good sounding stereo front-facing speakers

Rated “extremely repairable”

Capable of beaming media to AirPlay or DLNA devices when free 3rd-party apps are installed

Pleasant to hold. Doesn’t dig into your hand like the iPad 4

Has an RGB notification LED

Fast and smooth scrolling. The entire user interface runs at 60fps.

Android 4.2 has a new Swype-style keyboard that allows you to slide your finger around the keyboard to spell out words more quickly and accurately

Built-in barometer sensor improves GPS accuracy

Smart cover automatically powers on the tablet when opened

LED flash

No bloatware (pre-loaded apps which cannot be removed)

Quick settings can be accessed by pulling down on the top right portion of the screen

16:9 display

Good parental controls (when multiple profiles used)

Photos taken with its rear camera have better color accuracy, definition and less noise than the iPad 4’s camera

1080 video recording

A micro USB port rather than a proprietary connector

Gorilla Glass 2 screen

Built-in micro-HDMI port

Bluetooth 4.0

Weaknesses

16GB model is only available from the online Google Play store. 32GB model is available from Walmart, Staples, and Google Play

Many reviewers feel the Android ecosystem is lacking when it comes to good tablet apps

No microSD memory slot

Android 4.2 contains more bugs than earlier versions. Some were addressed in a 3.2.1 update, but others remain

No docks and limited other accessories are available yet

The included charger charges slowly, Consider buying Google’s magnetic pogo charger instead

No quad-core processor – Gets beat by the iPad 4, Transformer Prime and Galaxy Note 10.1 on most benchmarks

Battery life is acceptable, not great. One reviewer reports only 5 hours of video playback at full brightness

No 3G/4G support option today (some say it’s planned for the future)

Not as thin as the Asus Transformer Infinity (8.9mm)

Camera is only 5MP. Other tablets have 8MP and 13MP cameras.

Has a slightly larger bezel than other tablets (0.9″ Nexus 10 vs. 0.8″ iPad 4)

Like the iPad, it has some light leakage around the lower corners and sides of the LCD display

Wi-Fi signal strength issues

Lacks support of 802.11a

No infrared transmitter

Miracast not currently enabled

Its “smart cover” doesn’t stay closed very well

Limited stylus support (no pressure sensitivity, palm rejection, special features)

No physical home button

More Nexus issues listed under my first impressions article and a second article.

Update: The Nexus 10 went on sale on November 13th and the 32GB model sold out within two hours. Since then, Google has gotten more in.

What about the build-quality of the Nexus 10? Click here, and scroll down to the bottom of the article.

You can see the Split Screen feature here on the Galaxy Note 10.1

The Galaxy Note 10.1 is the only tablet here with full stylus support including pressure sensitivity. This Android-powered tablet also has the ability to split the screen in two and run two apps at once.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

Strengths

Full stylus support (1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, palm rejection, special features)

Fast quad-core processor (1.4GHz)

Excellent performance – Fast GPU – Beats the Nexus 10 on several benchmarks

Multi-view split-screen multi-tasking feature

Twice as much memory as most other tablets (2GB)

Very thin (8.9 mm)

microSD memory slot

Built-in infrared transmitter

9+ hours battery life (7000mAh)

Dual-band 2.4GHz/5.0GHz Wi-Fi support

Optional 3G/4G support

Good sounding stereo speakers

Capable of beaming media to AirPlay or DLNA devices when free 3rd-party apps are installed

Bluetooth 4.0

Includes quality stylus and storage space for it in the case

microHDMI jack

Weaknesses

Average-quality case

Average-quality 5MP camera

Not the highest resolution display (1280×800)

Uses TouchWiz skin

No NFC support

Preloaded with some Samsung apps which cannot be removed

No Android 4.1 support yet

Camera is only 5MP. Other tablets have 8MP and 13MP cameras.

No physical home button

Not scratch-resistant glass

Some have reported the default Clock, Media Hub, Game Hub and Music Hub widgets affect performance

The Sony Xperia Tablet S is one of the thinnest tablets available

The Sony Experia is the lightest tablet here. This Android-powered tablet has a fast quad-core processor and built-in infrared transmitter.

Sony Xperia Tablet S

Strengths

Starts at only $399

Lightest tablet here (570g)

Quad-core processor (1.3GHz)

Built-in infrared transmitter with programmable macros

Very thin (8.6 mm)

NFC support

8MP camera

Scratch-resistant screen

Splash-proof (water resistant)

Dual-band 2.4GHz/5.0GHz Wi-Fi support

Stereo speakers

Capable of beaming media to AirPlay or DLNA devices when free 3rd-party apps are installed

Full-sized SD card

Full-sized USB port (instead of a proprietary connector)

Full-sized HDMI jack (instead of a proprietary connector)

Aluminum body

Weaknesses

Only 1GB RAM

Not the highest resolution screen (1280×800)

No optional 3G/4G support

No Android 4.1 support yet

Back is not flat. Has a bump near the top

Limited stylus support (no pressure sensitivity, palm rejection, special features)

No physical home button

No camera flash

Areas of strength are shown in blue; Weakness is shown in red

That’s it! Now it’s up to you to select the best tablet based on your needs. Let me know which one you decide to buy and why.

Thanks for stopping by.

– Rick

P.S. Because I’m starting to get some stupid comments from Apple fan-boys, I’m going to give you a little background: Before anyone accuses me of being an Android fan-boy, you should know that almost all of this article was written on an iPad 3, which I like very much. I write very opinionated articles about all platforms. My previous post was about Windows 8 tablets. One of my most popular posts slams Samsung and Google about beaming. I was also an iPhone user for three years and think Apple TV is a great product. Some of the new Apple products look very appealing to me, but sadly the iPad 4 is not one of them. I’ve listed everything good and bad I can find about every tablet here and I’m continually updating this post as I find more stuff. Make sure to check back later to see how this article evolves. There are a few new tablets that have come out since I wrote this. Although I haven’t had time to add them yet, you can read about them in the Comments section of this article.

Thanks for making this my most popular post ever!

This post received more views on 10/30 than any other post I’ve even made. I never thought it was possible to get this many views in a single day. Thanks everyone!

Filed under Blog Posts, Mobile Technology Tagged with Asus Transformer, Galaxy Note, iPad, iPad 4, Nexus 10, Padfone 2, Quad-Core, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Sony Xperia, Surface RT, Tablet, Tegra 3

Is Windows 8 Really As Bad As Everyone Says?

October 24, 2012 12 Comments

Last update: December 16, 2012

Most of the Windows 8 reviews I’ve seen so far has been negative. Is Windows 8 really as bad as they say? To find out, I stopped by Best Buy and was surprised to find there were about 14 different Windows 8 portables on display. That’s surprising considering the fact Windows 8 doesn’t go on sale for a few more days. Here are my first impressions after using Windows 8 for about an hour.

The Good

Microsoft Office is coming to other tablet platforms next year, but Window 8 has it now.

Preloaded with Office – Apple loves to talk about the Post-PC era, but Android and iOS tablets aren’t there yet. Tablets are great for email, note taking and web surfing, but they don’t have anything that comes close to Microsoft Office. I played with the preview version of Office on a Windows 8 tablet and it’s pretty good. Microsoft preloads Windows RT with the new Microsoft Office for FREE. The Office version for Windows RT includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. It’s supposed to provide “a complete Office experience,” but expect some differences, because it’s been optimized for touch screens and low battery consumption.

Dell’s Convertible Hybrid

Wide range of hardware choices – When it comes to portables, Apple gives you only a few choices. Do you want an 7.9″ tablet or a 9.7″ tablet? When it comes to laptops, they offer thin and light or a powerful and heavy. Sure there are slightly different configurations, but it’s the same basic product with different options. There are hundreds of different hardware options you can get Windows 8 on. Every thing from traditional tablets, to All-in-One touchscreens, thin and light laptops, to gaming laptops and a wide range of hybrids. The choices seem almost endless.

You can see a few of the Live Tiles on the Windows 8 Start Screen

Live tiles – Windows 8 borrows from the Windows Phone OS in some areas. One example of this is Live Tiles. Instead of having a finger-sized app icon, Windows 8 has different-sized tiles which are dynamic and large enough to display information, like the number of unread e-mails you have waiting. But that not all, the Mail Tile cycles through up to five recent emails and the Calendar Tile automatically displays upcoming appointments. Live Tiles sometimes eliminate the need to launch an app to see what you’re looking for.

Mostly compatible with Windows 7 hardware and software – One of the biggest advantages of Windows 8 is the fact that it is supposed be compatible with all of your existing Windows 7 software and hardware. This is not always the case with Windows 8 RT tablets however.

Apps crash less – There is evidence that apps like Google Drive crash much less when on Window 8, than they do on Windows 7.

New split-screen feature – You can split the screen into two sections so you can watch movies while you work, or do two other things at once. It’s a little bit like Samsung’s “Pop up Play,” but goes even further. You can see this feature and the rest of Windows 8 in action here.

Mostly intuitive – I was able to figure out most of what I needed to run Windows 8 apps without referring to the help cards on the tables in the store. I’d heard that Windows 8 was difficult for current Windows customers to learn. I didn’t have many problems in this area. Mastering all of the different Windows 8 gestures and context-sensitive actions is a whole different matter however (see below).

A more consistent user interface – All of the apps on the Start screen have a very similar look and feel. They are all very clean, colorful and modern. It’s nice that the Windows 8 experience on an ARM-powered tablet is almost identical to the Windows 8 experience you have on an Intel-powered laptop or desktop. Apple and others are moving in this direction, but are not there yet.

Faster boot times – The first time I used Windows 8 I thought it took longer to boot than an iPad 3 or Windows 7 desktop, but when I actually timed it, I found that Microsoft’s claim of faster boot times is true. An Asus Windows 8 tablet takes about 20 seconds to boot, while my Windows 7 desktop (with a SSD boot drive) took 24 seconds. The iPad 3 was the slowest of the three — taking 27 seconds to boot to the password screen.

OEM customization – There is a section of the Windows 8 Start screen where OEMs are allowed to preload their own apps. I was surprised how this section differed between Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba hardware. You can see the differences at the bottom of this article.

Location-aware laptops – Most laptops and desktops do not have a GPS like tablets do. All Windows 8 laptops appear to include a GPS and are location-aware. When you click on the Map tile, it loads a map of your area. This opens up lots of interesting possibilities. For some strange reason, the Surface RT tablet does not have GPS-support.

Easy customization – You can easily customize the tiles on your Start screen. Move a tile to a new positions by dragging it. It’s also easy to remove tiles, make them larger or smaller, create groups of tiles and enable or disable live updates.

The Bad

Few great third-party apps – There are not many great third-party Windows 8 apps at the moment. That will change, but it hard to say when.

Fairly steep learning curve – There are a lot of different types of swiping gestures, which are going to confuse some users. This video shows them to you. This video show you the Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts.

Incest is bad – Windows 8 appears to use Microsoft web sites and services for most default tiles. When you search you get Bing. Bing also powers the Sports, Travel, Weather and Finance tiles. Want to buy an album, movie or TV show? All of those tiles are powered by the Xbox store. Although there could be a way to change this, most consumers won’t, and will end up with a worse off than if they were using the best-in-class apps and websites. Although it’s obvious why Microsoft is doing this, it weakens the entire Windows 8 platform.

Some Windows 8 hardware is too expensive – Although Best Buy did have some Windows 8 laptops around $600 and a single Asus Windows 8 tablet for $600, most of the hardware was in the $1000 to $1300 range. This makes me feel that Microsoft and some OEMs are still in denial. When you can purchase the newest iPad for $500, why would anyone pay up to $700 more for Windows 8 hardware? Sure Apple can get by with charging really high prices for their laptops, but Apple is Apple. The one exception to this is the new Microsoft Surface RT tablet which is only $499 with 32GB of storage. That product seems like a very good value to me. Reviews about it are mixed however. Here is a summary of seven different reviews.
Update: Since the official launch of Windows 8, I’m seeing better pricing. For example, today’s Frys e-mail blast has a Gateway Windows 8 laptop on sale for only $288. That’s a great deal.
Not all devices support touch – Since Windows 8 was designed for touch screens, I was surprised that all of the Window 8 laptops in the Best Buy store I visited except one, did not have touch screens. Why use a tile-based interface designed for touch with a mouse? I know that touch adds cost, and Windows 8 hardware is already too expensive, but I think this is an important omission.

One size doesn’t fit all – A unified interface for both tablets and PCs sounds good on paper, but causes some problems. Running the Office Apps or going to the Desktop on a smaller laptop or 10″ tablet will be a problem for some people because the text is so small. Again, there is probably a setting for this, but the Microsoft text default is too small. Menus in Office are not that easy to access — especially for those with big fingers.

Throwing out the baby with the bath water – I thought it was great that Microsoft included a Desktop tile, but doesn’t make any sense that they removed the Start button. I also thought it wasn’t intuitive how to exit an app and return to the Start screen. I tried the backspace, ESC, End key and Ctrl W — but none of those methods worked. I ended up pressing the Start button. It turns out there are three different ways to do this.

How to Bring the Classic Start Menu Back to Windows 8
There are still a lot of things that Windows RT can’t do – There are two versions of Windows 8. The RT version cannot do all of the things that the full-version can. For example, it cannot run legacy Windows apps like Photoshop. You also don’t get Outlook with your RT Office 2013, so you have to use Mail and Calendar to sync up with Exchange. More info.

It’s slower than expected – Windows 8 performance is good, but at first I thought it seemed slower than my iOS and Android-powered devices. However, when I actually started timing all three, I found my other mobile devices were faster on some things and slower on others. Launching most Windows 8 apps takes 4-5 seconds. Some take longer however, loading the entire Sports page took almost 8 seconds. Launching the Windows 8 store took almost 30 seconds, but this could have been due to Internet traffic in the store. In general, web browsing seemed slower on the Windows 8 laptops and tablets that I tried compared to other platforms (e.g. Windows 7, Android, iOS). However it’s worth pointing out that once an tile has launched, opening it again is instant (this is also the case with Android and iOS devices). It’s also worth mentioning that not all Flash-enabled sites appear in the browser.

Crapware is still alive and well – You’d think Microsoft would have learned that consumers hate it when you preload a bunch of apps that try to get you to buy or subscribe to something. I understand why companies do it, but it’s another advantage that Apple has over everyone else.

A lower resolution screen than the best tablets have – The screens on most of the Windows 8 laptops in Best Buy appeared to me to be lower quality than the screen on the new iPad, or the new Nexus 10 Android tablet. The Nexus 10 boasts a 2560×1600 pixel screen with a PPI of 300. I didn’t see a screen on a Windows 8 device that came close to that. Part of the reason the Windows 8 screens looked less crisp has to do with font smoothing which softens the edges on text, the rest has to do with quality of the panels used.

There are a few other issues which I’m not covering here like the issues with the cover splitting and issues with random muting and audio stuttering while the Surface is in use or on standby. Things like the audio issues should be addressed in a software update. If the case is truly flawed, I would expect Microsoft to find a new supplier.

The Verdict

My first impression with Windows 8 was not bad. Certainly not as bad as I expected. Although I’m not yet ready to spend $1000+ on a Windows 8 laptop, I would consider getting a Windows 8 tablet, so I could run Office. I’ll also probably upgrade my exisitng office computer to Windows 8 (after I image its hard disk, so I can easily go back if I don’t like it). It’s too early to say whether Windows 8 will be a big success or not. I predict initial sales will be lower than expected.

I don’t believe Windows 8 is as bad as some the reviewers say it is. There is no doubt that mobile and desktop operating systems are converging and Microsoft deserves credit for leading the way in this area. I also like the disruptive pricing on the Surface RT, but don’t understand why Microsoft picked the year old Tegra 3, over the much more advanced Qualcomm S4 Pro. Microsoft has a strong history of addressing issues in their first Service Pack and I think we’ll see a lot of Windows 8 issues addressed when the first big update is released. I’m watching this platform closely and will probably purchased their second generation device, which could be released faster than you think.

Please share any thoughts you have about Windows 8 in the Comments section below.

Looking for a good collection of Microsoft Surface RT hardware reviews? Here are some.

– Rick

Appendix – OEM-loaded Apps

Acer’s apps

Asus’ Apps

HP’s apps

Lenovo’s apps

Samsung’s apps

Toshiba’s apps

Filed under Blog Posts Tagged with Tablet, Windows 8

What Samsung & Google Don’t Tell You About Beaming

October 8, 2012 63 Comments

Last update: October 17, 2013

This article has had almost 190,000 views! Thanks for reading it. Although this article refers to the Galaxy S III, S Beam also works with current Samsung mobile products.

Beaming Is Not New

By now you’ve probably seen the Samsung TV commercial where the wife sends a video to her husband by simply touching phones.

Samsung promotes video sharing in their newest ads

Both Google and Samsung refer to this process as beaming. Beaming multimedia is very cool, but it’s not new. I helped create patent-pending software back in 2009 that sent music, photos or video from a web browser to a connected TV, stereo, game console or mobile phone. That was the first software that used the term “beam” to describe the wireless transmission of multimedia from a computer to a connected device, but readers have pointed out that Palm Pilots were beaming contacts, notes, to-do items and calendar entries more than a decade ago. Beaming of multimedia from one phone to another has been possible for over a year using this and other apps, but few knew this was possible before Samsung started running their commercials for the Galaxy S III. The technology which makes beaming possible is called NFC, which stands for Near Field Communication. NFC has been available on Android devices for almost two years. You can learn more about NFC and its many uses here. The technology used to beam the music playlist in Samsung’s TV commercial is called S Beam. It uses NFC and Wi-Fi Direct and has been available since May.

Beaming Isn’t as Easy as It Looks

The Samsung commercial makes beaming look easy. Google claims Android Beam lets users share with a single tap. Is it really this easy? No. Beaming only works after both mobile devices have been setup properly. Before I wrote this article, I couldn’t even get beaming to work between my Samsung Galaxy S III and a Nexus 7 tablet. But once I setup both devices properly and learned a few tricks, beaming now works almost 100% of the time. This article will teach you how to beam like a pro.

You need to configure several settings before you can beam

How to Beam Like a Pro

The section will teach you how to setup your devices and use Android Beam.

In order to beam items from one phone to another, you need two Android devices that have NFC support. Here’s a list of all of the phones with NFC support.

Before trying to beam you must go to Settings/More Settings and make sure NFC is checked and Android Beam is enabled on both devices.

Now you’re ready to beam, but before you can do so, you need to open the app you wish to beam from. A list of supported apps is displayed later in this article.

Next, you need to locate the item you want to beam. You can beam web pages, contacts, maps, YouTube videos and much more.

Finally, you need to hold the backs of your two mobile devices together until you hear a chiming sound. If this doesn’t happen in a few seconds, move your devices apart and then back together.

Troubleshooting Tips: Beaming won’t work unless the screen on the destination device is unlocked. You do not need to tap the two devices together, but they do need to be very close. When beaming from a phone to a tablet, you may need to move your phone around on the back of the tablet to find the spot where the NFC module is located.

After you hear the chime, you need to quickly touch the item you want to beam. If you do this correctly, you’ll see the screen shrink and hear a two-tone confirmation sound.

If you press too long, you’ll hear a fast four-part tone that goes from high to low and you’ll need to beam again.

If you wait to touch the screen until after the image grows back, you need to move the two devices apart and beam again.

If you touch outside of the shrunken item, it won’t beam.

You may need to click OK to accept beamed media

After performing all of the steps above, the beamed item should appear on the other devices’ screen. Although this may seem like a lot of steps to follow, once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy and you’ll want to beam all of the time.

In order to accept a beamed You Tube video on devices like a Samsung Galaxy S III, you need to touch “OK” when you see this message:

Good Luck Trying to Beam a Music Playlist

Want to beam a music playlist like you see in the Samsung commercial? What about a photo or video that you took with the camera on your phone? You can’t do that with Android Beam (running on Android 4.0-powered devices). Fortunately, there are several solutions to these problems.

Use S Beam on Two Galaxy S IIIs — NFC is great for transferring things like contacts or URLs that point to maps or YouTube videos, but it’s not ideal for large files like videos. That’s why S Beam uses NFC for device pairing and Wi-Fi Direct for high-speed data transfer. Wi-Fi Direct is capable of data speeds around 250 Mbps, but because the Galaxy S III supports Wi-Fi channel bonding, files can be transferred at speeds up to 300Mbps. Of course your mileage may vary, depending on the distance from your wireless access point and the amount of interference in your area.

You can see S Beam in action here. Real world speeds are good, but not amazing. The actual transfer time for a photo is 1 to 2 seconds, but it takes an additional 4 to 6 seconds to establish a connection using S Beam.

Another thing to be aware of: When you touch the back of a Galaxy S III to another S Beam-enabled device for the first time, it takes about 10 seconds to make the connection. For security, the connection times out after 10 minutes.

Use Android Beam on Two Mobile Devices Running Jelly Bean — Android Beam now allows you to send photos and videos from one device running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) to another. Just select a photo or video in the Gallery app, and then hold any two NFC-enabled devices back to back. When prompted, tap the screen to send the file as described above. File are now send using Bluetooth, so transfer speeds are faster than earlier. However files transfers are not as fast as S Beam — because Bluetooth is only capable of data transfer speeds up to 24 Mbit/s. Performance isn’t too bad. It takes about 7 to 9 seconds to send a photo, and 15 seconds to send a short video.

Beamed photos don’t automatically appear

After you beam a photo from the Gallery app, you’ll see the photo downloading in the Notification bar. After the download is complete, you have to swipe down, and select the photo you wish to view. Beamed videos automatically appear after the download is complete however and are ready to play.

Cool observation: Bluetooth does not need to be enabled before you beam a photo. Android Beam will automatically turn Bluetooth on and off as needed. This should reduce battery usage.

Most people don’t know Android Beam can now send multiple files from one Android 4.1 device to another. To do this, long press on a photo or video in the Gallery, select the items you want to transfer, and then hold the devices back-to-back to start the beaming process. Because Bluetooth is being used, you should avoid trying to send too many files at once.

Which Apps Work and Which Ones Don’t?

Apps that work with Android Beam
Here is a list of apps that work with Android Beam followed by any issues they may have.

aCalendar

Any.Do – This task management app lets you beam assignments to co-workers

Chrome

Clover Pay

Contacts (Android 4.0) – This app seems to be a little temperamental. Wait until the screen gets small before you tap it. This takes about four seconds. Then tap near the photo area.

Financial Times

Gmail

Gallery – only works when Android 4.1 is installed

Google Play – Android Beam pushes a link to the app’s details page in Google Play. On the other device, Google Play launches and loads the details page, for easy downloading of the app.

Google Earth

Google I/O 2012

Google Maps

Internet (stock Android 4.0 browser)

Just Player

Kingsoft Office

Local – Maps, but nothing else

MonTransit

Navigation

NFC Reader

Paper Camera

Pattrn

People (Android 4.1)

Shazam

Shazam Encore

Songkick Concerts

StumbleUpon

WiFiBeam – This app can pass WiFi setup info from one device to another

YouTube – Can’t beam ads, skip any ads before beaming.

This is a partial list of the apps which work with Android Beam. As I find more apps that work, I’ll add them here.

Apps that don’t work with Android Beam

Calculator

Currents – Loads app, but not selected article

Gallery

Google Now – Cards can’t be sent

Google+

Play Music (appears to work on Android 4.0, but music is not transferred immediately)

Samsung’s Calendar

Street View on Google Maps

Most other Android apps

The Pros and Cons of Android Beam and Samsung’s S Beam

Android Beam – Pros

Works with all NFC-enabled Android devices running Android 4.0 (or later)
Works on devices that do not have Wi-Fi Direct support
Requires less configuration than S Beam (because Wi-Fi Direct does not have to be enabled)
Very safe because NFC only works at distances of 4cm or less.
More power efficient than S Beam because it uses NFC and Bluetooth

Android Beam – Cons

Only works with Android devices that have NFC support
Has data transfer rates up to 10x slower than S Beam
Can only send photos, videos and playlists if you’re running Android 4.1 (or later)
Beamed photos don’t automatically open
Doesn’t use Bluetooth for transfers unless you’re running Android 4.1 (or later)

S Beam – Pros

Capable transfer speeds up to 10x faster than Android Beam
Supports music playlists, photos and videos on Android 4.0 devices
Once a transfer in started it’s capable of working at greater distances than NFC-only transfers
Safe when good Wi-Fi security practices are followed.
Can be used to transfer documents from one Galaxy Note 2 to another

S Beam – Cons

Only works with a limited number of Samsung devices (like the Galaxy S III)
Only works on devices running Android 4.0 (and later)
Wi-Fi Direct draws so much power that it’s turned off after only a few minutes of inactivity
Only works on devices that have with NFC and Wi-Fi Direct support
S Beam works with fewer apps than Android Beam

You can now beam files from Android to iOS devices

How to Beam Files to an iPhone or iPad

S Beam isn’t the only game in town. I’ve been using an app called Bump for years. It started as a way to exchange contacts on iOS devices, but now can transfer any file you have on your device (videos, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc). First install the Bump app on both of your devices. Next, launch the app on both devices and select the type of file you want to exchange. Then touch your devices together lightly until you feel them vibrate. You need to press the blue Connect button on both devices, before your file can be transferred. Like Android Beam, Bump can be a little temperamental and often requires several tries before it works. Also be aware that all music metadata and album art is lost when you transfer music files.

Cross-platform Beaming Issues

In theory, you should be able to tap an NFC-enabled Windows Phone 8 to a Galaxy S III or Galaxy Nexus and share anything. However, I’m told that sharing of web pages and contacts work fine, but sharing of files and photos does not. Let’s hope Microsoft and Google get together to address this issue soon.

The Final Word

While it’s true that Samsung and Google may have oversold beaming, once you know how to use it, it’s a powerful feature. As more devices support these two features, I’d like to see both companies enable these by default so no setup is required. Also, Samsung should find a way to automatically toggle on and off Wi- Fi Direct (like Google does with Bluetooth beaming), so you don’t have to turn it on every time. I’m glad that Samsung has made this concept something that everyone now is aware of. We live in a wireless world, and you should never have to connect a cable to transfer files.

Have fun beaming!

– Rick

Follow me on Twitter @mostlytech1

Filed under Blog Posts, How-to, Mobile Technology Tagged with Android Beam, Beam, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S III, Mobile, NFC, S Beam, Smartphone, Tablet, technology, TwonkyBeam, Wi-Fi Direct

Today’s Best Tablets (December 2011)

December 28, 2011 2 Comments

This article was just updated! You can view the new version here.

Tablets continue to be some of the best selling CE devices. With new tablets coming out every few weeks, it’s hard to pick the best one. To make this process easier, I made the following chart.

Top Performing Tablets

	*Apple iPad 2*	*Trans-former Prime*	*Droid Xyboard 8.2*	*Droid Xyboard 10.1*	*HTC Jetstream*	*Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1*
Processor	1.0 GHz dual-core	1.3 GHz quad-core	1.2 GHz dual-core	1.2 GHz dual-core	1.5 GHz dual-core	1.0 GHz dual-core
RAM	512MB	1GB	1GB	1GB	1GB	1GB
Internal storage	16/32/64	16/32/64	16/32	16/32/64	32	16/32/64
Screen size	9.7”	10.1”	8.2”	10.1”	10.1”	10.1”
Display	1024×768	1280×800	1280×800	1280×800	1280×800	1280×800
Pixel density	132 ppi	145 ppi	~184 ppi	~149 ppi	150 ppi	149 ppi
Rear cam	0.92	8MP	5MP	5MP	8MP	3MP
Front cam	0.92	1.2MP	1.3MP	1.3MP	1.3MP	2MP
Video	720p	1080p	720p	720p	1080p	1080p
4G data	No LTE	No LTE	LTE	LTE	LTE	LTE
Dual-band Wi-Fi	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Bluetooth	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	3.0	3.0
Mic	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NFC	No	No	No	No	No	No?
Thickness	8.8mm	8.3 mm	8.89 mm	8.80 mm	13 mm	8.6 mm
Weight	601g	586g	386g	603g	709g	565g
Battery	6930 mAh	6579 mAh	3960 mAh	7000 mAh	7300 mAh	7000 mAh
OS	iOS 5.0	Android 3.2	Android 3.2	Android 3.2	Android 3.1	Android 3.1
USB	Via adapter	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Via adapter
HDMI	Via adapter	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Via adapter
SD Slot	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Via adapter
IR Emitter	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Price	$499 (16GB)	$499 (16GB)	$429 (16GB)	$529 (16GB)	$699 (32GB)	$499 (16GB)

Most of the tablets in this chart are second generation devices which outperform their predecessors.

What About the Kindle Fire?

You probably noticed the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet were omitted from the chart above. This was done for two reasons: First, it’s not fair to compare a $200 tablet with a $500 tablet. Second, the Kindle Fire, along with the rest of the tablets here, are not the highest performing tablets available today. Still, the Kindle is an exceptional value and I would recommend it to many people.
Here are its specs, along with some others, in case want to compare them:

	*Amazon Kindle Fire*	*B&N Nook Tablet*	*Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus 7*	*Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9*
Processor	1.0 GHz dual-core	1.0 GHz dual-core	1.2 GHz dual-core	1.0 GHz dual-core
RAM	512MB	1GB	1GB	1GB
Internal storage	8	16	16/32	16/32
Screen size	7.0”	7.0”	7.0”	8.9”
Display res.	1024×600	1024×600	1024×600	1280×800
Pixel density	169 ppi	169 ppi	169 ppi	170 ppi
Rear cam	None	None	3MP	3MP
Front cam	None	None	2MP	2MP
Video	N/A	N/A	1080p	1080p
4G data	No LTE	No LTE	No LTE	LTE avail
Dual-band Wi-Fi	No	No	No	No
Bluetooth	None	None	3.0	3.0
Mic	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
NFC	No	No	No?	No?
Thickness	12.4mm	13.2mm	9.9 mm	8.6 mm
Weight	414g	400g	345g	470g
Battery	4400 mAh	4000 mAh	4000 mAh	6100 mAh
OS	Android 2.3	Android 2.3 Custom	Android 3.2	Android 3.1
USB	Yes	Yes – Micro	No	Yes – Micro
HDMI	No	No	No	No
SD Slot	No	Yes	Yes – Micro	Yes
IR Emitter	No	No	Yes	No
Price	$199	$249	$399	$469 (16GB)

I should also mention I stuck two of the Galaxy Tabs in this chart because there wasn’t enough room in the first chart. Both are top performers.

So, What is the Best Tablet?

When it comes to specs alone, the quad-core Asus Transformer Prime is hard to beat. It’s faster, thinner and lighter than the iPad 2. It also has a higher resolution display and much better cameras than the iPad 2. Furthermore, it has a slot for an SD card and a really nice keyboard dock that transforms it into an ultrabook.

The Transformer Prime beats the iPad 2 in web browsing tests. Chart courtesy of SlashGear

Processor Speed Isn’t Everything

However, there’s more to the iPad than just specs. The iPad 2 beats the Transformer Prime in some graphic-related benchmarks as you can see in the chart below.

Battery Life Matters Too

The Motorola Xyboard 8.2 is a strong performer (as you can see in the chart above), but has issues with battery life as you can see below. The iPad 2 currently leads in battery life, with the Transformer Prime a close second.

Chart courtesy of Engadget

How to Decide Which Tablet to Get

In the end, the only person who can answer this question is you. I suggest you first decide what you are buying the tablet for.

Do you spend hours playing games?
Will you use your tablet mostly for web browsing?
Do you need blazing-fast data speeds? Are you willing to pay a monthly fee for this privilege?
How important is battery life to you?
Are you an Apple fan who wants to sync your tablet with iCloud?

Once you answer these questions, you’ll find it easier to narrow down your list. Before making a final decision, I suggest you visit a few of the top tech blogs like Engadget or Gizmodo, and read their tablet reviews. I find them to be very helpful.

Since great new tablets are coming out every month, I’ll be updating this chart on a regular basis. Expect to see the first update after I return from CES in January.

Happy tablet shopping!

– Rick

Filed under Mobile Technology Tagged with Asus Transformer Prime, Droid Xyboard, iPad 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Tablet

How to Evaluate Mobile Processors

November 29, 2011 1 Comment

Since this article was first written, an updated version has been posted here. Check it out. A lot has changed.

The Need for Speed

The HTC Rezound has a 1.5GHz processor making it one of the fastest smartphones

The processor is the engine behind your mobile device and determines its speed. Mobile processor speeds have been increasing quickly over the past few years. Today, most of the best smartphones have processors which are either 1.2GHz or 1.5GHz. The HTC Rezound and Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE both have dual-core 1.5GHz processors. Processor speed isn’t the only thing that matters. The number of cores is important as well. Back in February, we saw the first smartphones ship with dual-core processors. Dual-core processors allow your mobile device to do more things at once without slowing down. They are also faster than single-core processors and this can result in a more responsive user interface. Over the next year, dual-core processor speeds are likely to top out around 1.7GHz. Although processor speeds will continue to increase, there are limits to how fast they can get. Mobile processors are beginning to face the same performance and power challenges desktop CPUs faced a few years ago. Demanding applications such as HD video playback and advanced gaming are stretching their capabilities. In order to further increase performance and stay within the available power limits, mobile devices will migrate to processors with more cores.

*Apple iPhone 4S*	*HTC Rezound*	*HTC Titan*	*Motorola Droid RAZR*	*Samsung Galaxy S II*	*Samsung Galaxy Nexus*	*Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket*
800MHz dual-core	1.5 GHz dual-core	1.5 GHz single-core	1.2 GHz dual-core	1.2 GHz dual-core	1.2 GHz dual-core	1.5 GHz dual-core

Chart 1: A comparison of the processor speeds of popular smartphones

Four Can Do More

Like PCs, mobile devices will migrate from dual-core to quad-core. Quad-core makes even more sense on platforms like Android which allows multiple apps to run in the background. Having four different cores allows your phone (or tablet) to do more at once without slowing down. Tablets will be the first mobile devices to get quad-core processors. The NVIDIA Tegra 3 will be the first quad-core processor available on mobile devices. NVIDIA says it has 2 to 5 times the processing power and 3 times the graphic performance of the Tegra 2. This will result in smoother graphics and better gaming performance. The Tegra 3 is also capable of 1440p video playback. That’s higher quality than you can watch on your HDTV. The Asus Transformer Prime will be the first tablet to ship with a Tegra 3 processor, but rumors are also circulating about quad-core tablets from Motorola and others. Smartphones won’t be left out of the party; phones with quad-core chips will be announced at CES in January.

The Asus Transformer Prime will have the first quad-core CPU

Most quad-core processors are more efficient and generate less heat than today’s dual-core chips. That will result in better performance and longer battery life. How much longer? NVIDIA says a Tegra 3 tablet should be able to provide 12 hours of HD video playback. The first quad-core processor will be 1.3GHz, but speeds will increase to 2.5GHz next year. Those chips will be faster than some of the CPUs that ship with mid-priced home computers today. Of course, NVIDIA isn’t the only company making quad-core processors, Qualcomm, Apple and others will also launch products containing quad-core processors next year.

Amazon Kindle Fire	Apple iPad 2	Asus Transformer Prime	B&N Nook Tablet	HTC Jetstream	Motorola Xoom 2	Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
1.0 GHz dual-core	1.0 GHz dual-core	1.3 GHz quad-core	1.0 GHz dual-core	1.5 GHz dual-core	1.2 GHz dual-core	1.0 GHz dual-core

Chart 2: A comparison of the processor speeds of popular tablets

The Importance of the Graphics Co-processor

Some of the fastest phones have separate graphics co-processors, which can have a big impact on performance. Even though the iPhone 4S has a slower processor, it outperforms the Samsung Galaxy S II in some benchmarks. This occurs mainly because the iPhone 4S has a faster graphics coprocessor. See the chart below for details.

“

Even though the iPhone 4S has a much slower processor than the Samsung Galaxy II S, it outperforms it in some benchmarks. Chart courtesy of AnandTech

Final Thoughts

In summary, the speed of the CPU and GPU in your mobile device has a major impact on its performance. Dual-core processors almost always outperform single-core processors, and quad-core processors outperform dual-core processors. Although dual-core processor speeds are starting to slow down, quad-core speeds will improve substantially next year. By the end of the year, quad-core processors will be found in most high-end tablets and smartphones due to their improved performance and extended battery life.

In case you’re wondering, my next post will discuss the importance of 4G on data performance speeds. Stay-tuned…

– Rick

Filed under How-to, Mobile Technology Tagged with Android, Asus Transformer Prime, Droid Razr, HTC Rezound, iPad, iPhone, NVIDIA, Quad-Core, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Smartphone, Tablet, Tegra 3

How to Evaluate Mobile Displays

November 28, 2011 Leave a comment

Since this article was first written, an updated version has been posted here. Check it out. A lot has changed.

In my last blog post I talked about the best mobile devices on the market today. This will be the first in a new series of posts that will help you evaluate each part of a smartphone or tablet. Since the display is the main interface to your mobile device, let’s start with it.

Bigger is Better

Three main parameters are used to specify the size and quality of a mobile display:

Screen size measured diagonally in inches
Screen width and height in pixels
Screen density measured in pixels per inch (PPI)

The Samsung Galaxy Note has a much larger screen than the iPhone 4S

Today’s best smartphones have displays which are 4.3″ or larger. The largest screen available on a smartphone in the U.S. today is 4.7″ and can be found on the HTC Titan. Think that’s big? It is, but mobile displays are going to continue to get larger. The Samsung Galaxy Note, which was recently released in Europe, has a 5.3″ screen. As screens get 6″ or larger, the line between smartphones and tablets will begin to blur and these devices may no longer fit into your pocket. Is it worth it? If you spent lots of time browsing the Web, playing games or working with business documents the answer could be yes.

	*Screen Size*	*Pixels (H x W)*	*Screen Density*
Apple iPhone 4S	3.5”	960×640	326 PPI
HTC EVO 3D	4.3”	960×540	256 PPI
HTC Rezound	4.3”	1280×720	342 PPI
HTC Titan	4.7”	800×480	199 PPI
Motorola Atrix	4.0”	960×540	275 PPI
Motorola Droid 2	3.7”	854×480	264 PPI
Motorola Razr	4.3”	960×540	256 PPI
Samsung Galaxy S II	4.3” or 4.52”	800×480	217 PPI
Samsung Galaxy Nexus	4.65”	1280×720	316 PPI
Samsung Galaxy Note	5.3”	1280×800	285 PPI

Chart 1: A comparison of popular smartphone displays

Quality Matters Too!

The HTC Rezound has the highest resolution display available today.

Screen width and height is another popular measurement. Today the best smartphones have 1280×720 pixel displays. The Samsung Galaxy Note has an even larger 1280×800 display. Although the total number of pixels is important, it’s not the best indicator of screen quality. The density of pixels is what really matters. The higher the pixel density, the more detail a screen can display. Although most people think the iPhone 4S has the highest pixel density, they are wrong. The HTC Rezound has a display with a higher pixel density than the iPhone 4S (342 vs. 326 ppi). Even better screens are on the way. Earlier in the year, Toshiba announced a 4-inch screen with a 367 PPI resolution. Pixel densities are likely to hit at least 386 in 2012.

It’s worth mentioning there is some debate over the ideal pixel density. Steve Jobs once said a device with a pixel density of 300 exceeds the limits of the human retina. However, some photographic experts say that number is too low. They believe the ultimate pixel density is 477 PPI. At that point, it’s said the pixels become invisible to an unaided human eye.

What About Tablets?

Screen resolution is one area where tablets can improve. The best tablets have screen densities below 200 while some smartphones have pixel densities higher than 300. Apple is known for their great displays. How does the iPad 2 compare to Android tablets? Let’s see: The iPad 2 has a 9.7″ screen with 1024×768 pixels. The Motorola Xoom has a 10.1″ screen with 1280×800 pixels. Which is better? The Motorola wins on all three categories: screen size, total number of pixels and screen density (with a pixel density of 160 PPI vs. 132 PPI). If you refer to the chart below, you’ll see there are five other Android tablets with even higher screen densities than the Motorola Xoom. Will we see higher resolution tablet screens next year? Definitely! The Lenovo LePad S2007 will have a 216 PPI display and tablets with 2560×1600 screens will be available some time in 2012. These tablets will have a screen density of at least 300 dpi.

	*Screen Size*	*Pixels (W x H)*	*Screen Density*
Amazon Kindle Fire	7.0″	1024×600	169 PPI
Apple iPad 2	9.7″	1024×768	132 PPI
Asus Transformer	10.1″	1280×800	160 PPI
Asus Transformer Prime	10.1″	1280×800	149 PPI
B&N Nook Tablet	7.0″	1024×600	169 PPI
Motorola Droid XYBOARD 8.2	8.2″	1280×800	184 PPI
Motorola Xoom	10.1″	1280×800	160 PPI
OGT Eros Tablet	7.0″	N/A	188 PPI
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0	7.0″	1024×600	171 PPI
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1	10.1″	1280×800	149 PPI

Chart 2: A comparison of popular tablet displays

That’s Not All

Of course pixel density isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to screen quality. The color accuracy, color vibrancy, brightness, contrast ratio, black level and viewing angle are important as well. The durability also matters. Gorilla Glass screens are more damage resistant than regular displays. Gorilla Glass 2 screens are on the way, so watch for those.

Well, that wraps up my review of mobile screen technology. In my next post, I’ll write about the heart of every mobile device: Its processor.

Thanks for stopping by.

– Rick

Filed under How-to, Mobile Technology Tagged with Android, Droid Razr, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab, iOS, iPad, iPhone, PPI, Quad-Core, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Smartphone, Tablet, Tegra 3

← Older posts

My Top Gripes After a Month

Observations After 8 Weeks of Use

What About Build Quality?

Why The Nexus 10 is My New ‘Go to’ Tablet

Could I replace my iPad 3 with the Nexus 10?

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Where to Find More Great Tips Like These

How to Install Flash on the Nexus 10

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Why You’ll Still Buy an iPad 4

The Tide is Turning

What About Build Quality?

Tablet Shopping Guide – No Opinions, Just the Facts

Apple iPad 4

Acer Iconia A Series

Asus PadFone 2 with Dock

Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700

Barnes and Noble’s Nook HD+

Fujitsu Stylistic M532

Huawei MediaPad 10

Lenovo IdeaTab S2110

Microsoft Surface RT

Nexus 10

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

Sony Xperia Tablet S

The Good

The Bad

The Verdict

Appendix – OEM-loaded Apps

Beaming Is Not New

Beaming Isn’t as Easy as It Looks

How to Beam Like a Pro

Good Luck Trying to Beam a Music Playlist

Which Apps Work and Which Ones Don’t?

The Pros and Cons of Android Beam and Samsung’s S Beam

How to Beam Files to an iPhone or iPad

Cross-platform Beaming Issues

The Final Word

Top Performing Tablets

What About the Kindle Fire?

So, What is the Best Tablet?

Processor Speed Isn’t Everything

Battery Life Matters Too

How to Decide Which Tablet to Get

The Need for Speed

Four Can Do More

The Importance of the Graphics Co-processor

Final Thoughts

Bigger is Better

Quality Matters Too!

What About Tablets?

That’s Not All

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