Official Avail. Nov 13th - Android 4.2 - LG Nexus 4 - Asus Nexus 7 - Samsung Nexus 10

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Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
34,547
651
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After getting my Nexus 10 32gb yesterday to go along with my other shipment earlier in the week, a little Nexus porn:


P1010879.JPG


P1010883.JPG


P1010884.JPG


fwiw - The 2nd Nexus 10 is for my brother.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Finally picked up a Nexus 7 16GB at Staples today. Booted up and it immediately upgraded to 4.2.1 which wasn't a huge install. Performance different between it and my Nexus S is infinitely huge which is a given. I had a rooted Kindle Fire that I sold and the Nexus screen is better and it's lighter. Performance is much better too.
 

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
13,209
594
126
After getting my Nexus 10 32gb yesterday to go along with my other shipment earlier in the week, a little Nexus porn:
Do you have a Nexus 7 as well? Curious how 10 performs compared to 7.


Finally picked up a Nexus 7 16GB at Staples today. Booted up and it immediately upgraded to 4.2.1 which wasn't a huge install. Performance different between it and my Nexus S is infinitely huge which is a given. I had a rooted Kindle Fire that I sold and the Nexus screen is better and it's lighter. Performance is much better too.

Consider getting a 32 GB version. I know from value point of view it's not as a good deal as the 16 GB one, but you may quickly find the 16 GB limiting. (Staples only give you 15 days for return/replacement) Interesting that you see Nexus' screen better than Kindle Fire because I thought it was the opposite. Nexus' screen is very nice for the price (esp. PPI, contrast, and black level) but its colors are way off.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Do you have a Nexus 7 as well? Curious how 10 performs compared to 7.




Consider getting a 32 GB version. I know from value point of view it's not as a good deal as the 16 GB one, but you may quickly find the 16 GB limiting. (Staples only give you 15 days for return/replacement) Interesting that you see Nexus' screen better than Kindle Fire because I thought it was the opposite. Nexus' screen is very nice for the price (esp. PPI, contrast, and black level) but its colors are way off.

I haven't had much of a chance to really check out the colors yet as I'm busy installing apps. It probably is just the ppi that makes it look better at first glance. I'll be fine with the 16 as this is going to be for light reading and surfing the web. The only videos I'll be consuming on it will be Netflix/YouTube and the like.

Edit: The more I play with it, you are right, the colors are more washed out than the old Fire. Even something as simple as the Tapatalk app icon looks a little more dull but it's ok, this is a superior device in almost every other way.
 
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lothar

Diamond Member
Jan 5, 2000
6,674
7
76
Finally got everything setup on ST. For those on here using a Nexus with ST, what are your APN settings? Do you have one or two? The guide I found suggested using one for data and one for MMS, though since I use Google Voice for everything I'm not sure if that even applies to me.
On my Samsung Galaxy S II, it's like this...(I'm assuming it will be something similar in any phone)

Name: Straight Talk
APN: att.mvno
MMSC: http://mmsc.cingular.com
MMS proxy: proxy.mvno.tracfone.com
MMS port: 80

Skip everything else and don't touch it.
 

Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
34,547
651
126
Do you have a Nexus 7 as well? Curious how 10 performs compared to 7.

No, I do not. But I did spend a lot of time playing with a Nexus 7 at a Microcenter but that was a few months ago before the latest updates and who knows what others did to it. I found the Nexus 7 to be laggy and thus disappointing where the iPad 3rd generation next to it was silky smooth.

I've only played with the Nexus 10 for less than a day so I want to hold-off but overall I've found it to be very smooth except:

The Weather Channel app Map screen is so laggy that it's pretty much useless.

Opera Mobile not optimized for the tablet and sucks b/c of it.

Teamviewer is a little laggy but most importantly trying to move the mouse pointer around, it accidently zooms in instead.
 

lothar

Diamond Member
Jan 5, 2000
6,674
7
76
No, I do not. But I did spend a lot of time playing with a Nexus 7 at a Microcenter but that was a few months ago before the latest updates and who knows what others did to it. I found the Nexus 7 to be laggy and thus disappointing where the iPad 3rd generation next to it was silky smooth.

I've only played with the Nexus 10 for less than a day so I want to hold-off but overall I've found it to be very smooth except:

The Weather Channel app Map screen is so laggy that it's pretty much useless.

Opera Mobile not optimized for the tablet and sucks b/c of it.

Teamviewer is a little laggy but most importantly trying to move the mouse pointer around, it accidently zooms in instead.
Dolphin and Chrome are the only browsers you need on Android. All others are meh.
 

pm

Elite Member Mobile Devices
Jan 25, 2000
7,419
22
81
Well, I've run into a significant issue with my Nexus 4 - one that most of you guys probably won't care about but it's a big deal to me.

The main reason that I originally bought a smartphone way way back when was effectively as an organizer. At work I have a tendency to focus on the things that I'm working on to the absolute exclusion of anything... it's one of the things that I love about my job, the days go by quickly while I'm working. But I have long had a tendency to miss meetings - even ones that I organize. But once I imported all of my meetings for the week into the calendar of my smartphone, I have pretty much never missed a meeting.

So there's an issue with Good for Enterprise (corporate email/calendar/contacts app) and Android 4.2 so that it doesn't work, and native email/calendar/contacts work with exchange but corporate security requires a PIN on phones with exchange access (not normally a problem for me I like the security), but there's an issue with lockscreen widgets being disabled and all notifications/reminders/IMs/SMS's not showing up without putting in the PIN. Notifications work fine with PIN's and 4.1, so it's a new issue with 4.2. It's this issue: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=39998

So I'm a little stuck... I could hack the exchange app... but bypassing corporate security is grounds for immediate termination or, at bare minimum, an extremely unpleasant conversation with someone above my paygrade.. so while I briefly considered it, I've decided not to go down that path. It looks like you can add lockscreen widgets without the PIN, and then enable the PIN and they stick around... and I tried that and it works, but I still don't get any notifications.

I'm trying to decide what to do, but going back to my iPhone 5 and shelving my Nexus 4 while they fix all this is high up on my list right now.
 

sygyzy

Lifer
Oct 21, 2000
14,001
4
76
I am in the same boat as you but don't really understand what the bug is here. The issue is you cannot use or install lockscreen widgets if you have the pin code security mode on? I don't consider that a bug. I feel it's unfortunate and annoying but I thought it was something you gave up if you wanted a pin pad. I have a Nexus 7 with just a slide to unlock and see that I can put in widgets. When I tried the same with my GN (using 4.2, company Exchange), I could no longer add them.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,583
996
126
Anyone else having problems with app updates from Google Play? I'm getting server errors.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,689
2,811
126
Well, I've run into a significant issue with my Nexus 4 - one that most of you guys probably won't care about but it's a big deal to me.

The main reason that I originally bought a smartphone way way back when was effectively as an organizer. At work I have a tendency to focus on the things that I'm working on to the absolute exclusion of anything... it's one of the things that I love about my job, the days go by quickly while I'm working. But I have long had a tendency to miss meetings - even ones that I organize. But once I imported all of my meetings for the week into the calendar of my smartphone, I have pretty much never missed a meeting.

So there's an issue with Good for Enterprise (corporate email/calendar/contacts app) and Android 4.2 so that it doesn't work, and native email/calendar/contacts work with exchange but corporate security requires a PIN on phones with exchange access (not normally a problem for me I like the security), but there's an issue with lockscreen widgets being disabled and all notifications/reminders/IMs/SMS's not showing up without putting in the PIN. Notifications work fine with PIN's and 4.1, so it's a new issue with 4.2. It's this issue: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=39998

So I'm a little stuck... I could hack the exchange app... but bypassing corporate security is grounds for immediate termination or, at bare minimum, an extremely unpleasant conversation with someone above my paygrade.. so while I briefly considered it, I've decided not to go down that path. It looks like you can add lockscreen widgets without the PIN, and then enable the PIN and they stick around... and I tried that and it works, but I still don't get any notifications.

I'm trying to decide what to do, but going back to my iPhone 5 and shelving my Nexus 4 while they fix all this is high up on my list right now.

I would sell the Nexus 4 right now while it's in demand and just use the iPhone 5. Who knows when and if Google fixes the bug. One thing I noticed with Nexus phone after having owned it for a year is that I feel like perpetual beta tester. I love the fast and frequent updates from Google and being the first to receive it but not every update is rosy. Good thing is if it's a "serious" bug, Google will patch it quick like the missing December bug. Or the community will take it upon themselves to fix it best they can if Google ignores it. And if I really hate it, I can rollback the update or switch to a custom ROM. But in your case, you can't switch to earlier version of the OS like 4.1.1 because it doesn't exist for your phone! It's the price we pay for being early adopters and Google's love of beta products.
 

pm

Elite Member Mobile Devices
Jan 25, 2000
7,419
22
81
I am in the same boat as you but don't really understand what the bug is here. The issue is you cannot use or install lockscreen widgets if you have the pin code security mode on? I don't consider that a bug. I feel it's unfortunate and annoying but I thought it was something you gave up if you wanted a pin pad. I have a Nexus 7 with just a slide to unlock and see that I can put in widgets. When I tried the same with my GN (using 4.2, company Exchange), I could no longer add them.

No, I don't get notifications without slide to unlock. Which could be considered a "security feature" except that it works with 4.1. The lockscreen widgets portion isn't the real problem but that's a problem too. And you can have lockscreen widgets with exchange, you just need to add them before do the PIN.

pm, have you tried Touchdown? It's a really shitty interface but I wonder if it would work for you until the bug is fixed. There's a free 30-day trial on the Play Store.

No, but I will now. Thanks, bearxor. I was hoping someone had an idea.


And, yeah, ponyo, I looked at Ebay prices... Thanks for your thoughts. I'd rather get it working though.
 
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bearxor

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
6,609
2
81
Let me know. I use Touchdown when I have an android device so I can side step my companies exchange policies. Basically, it just applies everything to Touchdown instead of the whole phone. When you start Touchdown, it asks for the PIN code instead of the phone asking for it. If encryption is required, it encrypts just the storage touchdown uses. If a remote wipe is sent, it will just wipe Touchdown and not the whole device. Push works fine and the widgets on the homescreen world fine without requiring a PIN code or anything.

But, like I said, it's a terribad interface... It's at least usable though.
 

sjwaste

Diamond Member
Aug 2, 2000
8,760
12
81
If you have security set, it could be a feature that you're not seeing your lockscreen widgets - since the security policy intends to keep all exchange-sourced information private. That would include your calendar, email subjects, whatever. FWIW, I have the same issue, so I just don't use my phone for work.

If all you need are calendar reminders, is it against policy to set up a dummy gmail acct, forward your meetings to it, and sync only that calendar? I don't think my employer would have a problem with that, but we're a smaller shop with fewer blanket policies needed to protect our data. Plus, our business isn't at all reliant on IP as I imagine yours is, so we're more worried about PII protection which never gets included in emails/calendar as a matter of even more important policy.

TL;DR - feature, not bug? try throwing phone out window?
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
I'm sure everyone knows this already but I'm surprised on how much faster the Nexus 7 is from the rooted Kindle Fire I had even with a JB rom on it. It's significantly faster in every way.
 
Feb 19, 2001
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Not as many as IE on WP7 though, I can tell you that.

I have a windows phone and I can tell you IE does not crash as much. On my SGS2 I've seen enough Chrome freezes. I will admit Chrome has improved dramatically in the last month or so.

On another note the camera is absolutely horrendous. I went gingerbread house making today at a friend's place (feel free to judge) and I snapped a few photos. On my Nexus I felt like I had to spend extra effort to autofocus and make sure it was steady, and yet a whole bunch of pictures came out blurry.

Meanwhile on my iPhone 5 i snapped pictures completely randomly and carelessly and every one was razor sharp except for ones where people were clearly moving. The blur on the photos for my Nexus was clearly due to hand shake. I felt like my SGS2 would've done better. Also given the Nexus' size, I feel like it's imperative to use 2 hands and not 1. Compound that with the poor low light photos, I think it's a must.
 
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Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,583
996
126
Anyone else having problems with app updates from Google Play? I'm getting server errors.
This is severely pissing me off. I can't update anything on the damn thing. This on both my home network and at work. It keeps giving a Google Play server error. It's been several days now.

It's not a connectivity issue, since surfing in Chrome works just fine. I can't update Chrome from the Google Play Store though. Apparently I'm not alone:

http://viewoneworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/google-play-server-error-quick-fix/

Not only does the Google Play hardware retail store suck, the Google Play software app store sucks too. Google really needs to get its act together.