I received my Google Nexus 7 tablet in the mail a few days ago. While I believe it's a good step forward, I couldn't help but to be annoying by the many little problems I've had with it so far. Below is a partial list of problems I've had with it. I'd love it if someone could give an explanation why Google decided to ship the Nexus 7 with these problems and hope Google fixes them or changes their priorities to address problems like these in the future.
My unformatted list of Nexus 7 problems:
Cannot use Google Voice to make phone calls without downloading a fix from third party software makers. What’s the point of the Google Voice app if by default it doesn’t allow you to make/receive phone calls?
Cannot place custom makers such as “girlfriend’s house” or “grandma’s house” or “picnic spot” in the Navigate app. You cannot say “navigate to grandma’s house” to Google Now.
The Navigate app seems to have enough deficiencies that I question whether it is actually a working app meant to help you navigate. First, you must preload an area if you ever plan on using it to navigate. Second, you must ask to navigate before you leave home while you still have a wireless signal. Third, if while navigating you make a wrong turn the navigation stops working because it tries to recalculates the route then stops when it tries to find the new route and determines the data connection (your wireless network) is no longer available. It also seems to be missing many common navigation features like estimating your speed, miles traveled, or helping to calculate gas mileage (allowing you to input gas amount at fill ups).
When opening search results from Google Now in Chrome two tabs are always opened at the same time. Also, loading pages in Chrome after a Google Now takes too much time. While on my home broadband connection it take 8, 9, or 10 seconds to load a page. It seems like more is going on than simply loading a web page (maybe a few redirects for Google to record/register the search result you picked in order to improve Google Now?).
The main screen, your desktop, does not orient itself based on how you are holding the tablet, while apps can and do. As far as I know, you have to root the tablet and edit some files to get this behavior. This leads me to ask, why didn’t Google just include an option/setting to give the user a choice?
In Google Music the track position slider is placed too close to the next/prior/play/pause/stop buttons. Attempting to move the position regularly results in a pause/stop instead. This is a big pain for resuming audio books when the place marker gets lost if you ever switch tracks (listening to music before the 6 hour audio book is complete). The position slider is also too small (again consider seeking in a 6 hour audio book file). When in landscape mode Google Music splits the controls on one side of the screen and cover art on the other. The net effect is there is no configuration to provide a large track position slider.
Google Play does offer a way to search or browse all widgets. You can see a list of “top widgets”, but when you search it searches for everything, that is all apps and not just for widgets.
Some apps which include widgets are not showing as available for for placement on my desktop. They don’t appear in the list of available widgets. Specifically I downloaded an FTP app with a desktop widget to quickly enable/disable the FTP server. This widget is not to be found in my availble list of widgets.
The “My Library” widget is awkward and hard to use. I am not even sure if it works correctly. I have several podcasts and audio books, but when click their tiles in the “My Library” widget, nothing happens.
Options are a mess. My eyesight is really poor and getting worse. I can use options in one place to increase the fonts size, and that same option is missing or moved somewhere else in another application. Even the options buttons move around from app to app. Regarding text size, on a PC at least I can change the font size system wide by changing display properties in one place.
While the voice search in Google Now, there are certain chinks in its voice recognition which become frustrating very quickly. I tried to send my friend an email about the “olympics day one”, and it kept thinking I saying “olympics they want” even though I was speaking cleanly and clearly with a mid west american accent. Similar misunderstanding have happened occasionally, and when I try to correct them by speaking again and again, the voe recognition gets it wrong every time. Eventually I give up and manually type out my words.
Literally none of those are at fault of the N7. These are all software issues.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
OP here.
Yes, I am not specifically having problems the hardware. I am finding annoyances with how the software works on the hardware. When I say Google Voice doesn't allow allow phone calls, yes that's a software problem.
It's a quad core 7 inch tablet for $199...stop nitpicking!!!
Seriously? Do you use tablets on a regular basis? Do you use android extensively? Because anyone who does, realizes that, in comparison, Jellybean on nexus 7 is pretty damn decent for a first release. So giving feedback on issues is great and will help Google improve-but saying you are annoyed that a tablet(any kind) has issues a couple of weeks after being on the market with brand new software...clearly shows how unrealistic your expectations actually are. Furthermore, to address some of your comments more specifically: (1)This tablet is wifi only-mainly to save on cost. That means you cannot really use GPS in the same way as a 3G enabled device. (2) Voice recognition is rarely precise and Siri has a ton of issues(I Have the new iphone and ipad) (3) Please do not compare font rendering to a PC-this is a 7 inch tablet-not something10 times bgger (4) Finally...what on earth are you doing with a 7 inch tablet if your eyesight is failing so much?
sysrpl said:
I received my Google Nexus 7 tablet in the mail a few days ago. While I believe it's a good step forward, I couldn't help but to be annoying by the many little problems I've had with it so far. Below is a partial list of problems I've had with it. I'd love it if someone could give an explanation why Google decided to ship the Nexus 7 with these problems and hope Google fixes them or changes their priorities to address problems like these in the future.
My unformatted list of Nexus 7 problems:
Cannot use Google Voice to make phone calls without downloading a fix from third party software makers. What’s the point of the Google Voice app if by default it doesn’t allow you to make/receive phone calls?
Cannot place custom makers such as “girlfriend’s house” or “grandma’s house” or “picnic spot” in the Navigate app. You cannot say “navigate to grandma’s house” to Google Now.
The Navigate app seems to have enough deficiencies that I question whether it is actually a working app meant to help you navigate. First, you must preload an area if you ever plan on using it to navigate. Second, you must ask to navigate before you leave home while you still have a wireless signal. Third, if while navigating you make a wrong turn the navigation stops working because it tries to recalculates the route then stops when it tries to find the new route and determines the data connection (your wireless network) is no longer available. It also seems to be missing many common navigation features like estimating your speed, miles traveled, or helping to calculate gas mileage (allowing you to input gas amount at fill ups).
When opening search results from Google Now in Chrome two tabs are always opened at the same time. Also, loading pages in Chrome after a Google Now takes too much time. While on my home broadband connection it take 8, 9, or 10 seconds to load a page. It seems like more is going on than simply loading a web page (maybe a few redirects for Google to record/register the search result you picked in order to improve Google Now?).
The main screen, your desktop, does not orient itself based on how you are holding the tablet, while apps can and do. As far as I know, you have to root the tablet and edit some files to get this behavior. This leads me to ask, why didn’t Google just include an option/setting to give the user a choice?
In Google Music the track position slider is placed too close to the next/prior/play/pause/stop buttons. Attempting to move the position regularly results in a pause/stop instead. This is a big pain for resuming audio books when the place marker gets lost if you ever switch tracks (listening to music before the 6 hour audio book is complete). The position slider is also too small (again consider seeking in a 6 hour audio book file). When in landscape mode Google Music splits the controls on one side of the screen and cover art on the other. The net effect is there is no configuration to provide a large track position slider.
Google Play does offer a way to search or browse all widgets. You can see a list of “top widgets”, but when you search it searches for everything, that is all apps and not just for widgets.
Some apps which include widgets are not showing as available for for placement on my desktop. They don’t appear in the list of available widgets. Specifically I downloaded an FTP app with a desktop widget to quickly enable/disable the FTP server. This widget is not to be found in my availble list of widgets.
The “My Library” widget is awkward and hard to use. I am not even sure if it works correctly. I have several podcasts and audio books, but when click their tiles in the “My Library” widget, nothing happens.
Options are a mess. My eyesight is really poor and getting worse. I can use options in one place to increase the fonts size, and that same option is missing or moved somewhere else in another application. Even the options buttons move around from app to app. Regarding text size, on a PC at least I can change the font size system wide by changing display properties in one place.
While the voice search in Google Now, there are certain chinks in its voice recognition which become frustrating very quickly. I tried to send my friend an email about the “olympics day one”, and it kept thinking I saying “olympics they want” even though I was speaking cleanly and clearly with a mid west american accent. Similar misunderstanding have happened occasionally, and when I try to correct them by speaking again and again, the voe recognition gets it wrong every time. Eventually I give up and manually type out my words.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While the Nexus 7 has alot going for it, I still agree with the OP. There are still some basic hardware (unchangable) shortcomings that should have been addressed in this product. I am not a tablet expert and the Nexus 7 is my first android device. Don't hold this against me. As someone who shouldn't yet have the skills to push the boundaries of the device here is my list of deficiencies:
-Back-side hi-res camera. Yes, you look odd taking pictures with a tablet but you look weirder taking pictures over your head facing the wrong way. Tablet cams have their place and are useful for a number of things. They are especially handy in the smaller format 7" tablets.
-4 conductor headphone/microphone jack instead of the 3 conductor headphone jack. The Nexus 7 tablet has poor accoustic performance for making VoIP calls with the builtin speaker and mic. By including this style of jack they would have overcome this issue. One of the main reasons for travelling with a laptop or tablet is to use Wifi hotspts to make free VoIP calls home. With the poor acoustics of the Nexus 7 and no way around them, this tablet is a poor solution for the traveller and I would recommend something else.
-ability to connect with the mic of a bluetooth headset. While the Nexus 7 has Bluetooth, it will not connect to a Bluetooth headset and allow the mic to work. The mic of a bluetooth headset could offer another way around the lousy acoustical design. This would not mean that the 4 conductor jack should be excluded as when you are travelling it is nice to not have another device to power.
- micro SD slot. This one is big. The absence of this slot is the one thing that really made me think twice about buying the product. With no way to add memory, I'm boxed in and I don't have the easy trasfer or files that the SD card brings. While 16 G seems enough now, add some movies, music and offline maps and quickly the memory is full. This is 2012. Memory is cheap and will become cheaper. So why pin me down?
Some might wish for the HDMI port but this is not too important for me.
LttrX said:
-Back-side hi-res camera. Yes, you look odd taking pictures with a tablet but you look weirder taking pictures over your head facing the wrong way. Tablet cams have their place and are useful for a number of things. They are especially handy in the smaller format 7" tablets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously, your Nexus 7 can be configured to have the best camera experience BAR NONE, even the latest Apple iPhone 5 will be totally lame in comparison (disclaimer, it's more expensive, but what the heck, it's really darn cool!!!)
Nexus 7 used as HD monitor and controller with ultra-high-resolution DSLR camera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4X6olWN3-g
Of course this is tongue in cheek, I'd also really like a single device to carry that does a much better job of taking pictures. However, for a little more I could have gotten a tab that had the camera, but half the processor/graphics performance. I purchased it knowing it didn't have the back-side camera.
LttrX said:
-4 conductor headphone/microphone jack instead of the 3 conductor headphone jack. The Nexus 7 tablet has poor acoustic performance for making VoIP calls with the builtin speaker and mic. By including this style of jack they would have overcome this issue. One of the main reasons for travelling with a laptop or tablet is to use Wifi hotspts to make free VoIP calls home. With the poor acoustics of the Nexus 7 and no way around them, this tablet is a poor solution for the traveller and I would recommend something else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this just a three conductor jack? Or is it possible that it is a 4 conductor and the software support is just absent? The tear downs don't show the solder pads, so it's difficult to tell. But the traces indicate more conductors than a 3 conductor jack would require.
LttrX said:
-ability to connect with the mic of a bluetooth headset. While the Nexus 7 has Bluetooth, it will not connect to a Bluetooth headset and allow the mic to work. The mic of a bluetooth headset could offer another way around the lousy acoustical design. This would not mean that the 4 conductor jack should be excluded as when you are travelling it is nice to not have another device to power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Confirmed this with my Plantronics BackBeat 903 Stereo bluetooth headset. I suspect that this is a software issue, as that is simply more content to stream via bluetooth. Perhaps this will be in 4.1.2? Let's add this to the Google requests... http://support.google.com/nexus/bin/request.py?contact_type=contact_policy
LttrX said:
- micro SD slot. This one is big. The absence of this slot is the one thing that really made me think twice about buying the product. With no way to add memory, I'm boxed in and I don't have the easy trasfer or files that the SD card brings. While 16 G seems enough now, add some movies, music and offline maps and quickly the memory is full. This is 2012. Memory is cheap and will become cheaper. So why pin me down?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not a perfect solution and no where the same in functionality, but I use a MicroSD to MicroUSB adapter. Using an app allows me to access content from the SD, but not to install apps there. Google could write code to allow native mounting from the USB port, but will they?
I'm not sure they left this out due to cost, as the parts are supper cheap. I'm more inclined to think it's a way to enforce us to embrace their Cloud architecture vis-a-vie Google Play and streamed movies/music. But Wi-Fi isn't ubiquitous enough to really pull that off yet. Strongly wish a MicroSD was present, but I purchased knowing this was the case.
LttrX said:
Some might wish for the HDMI port but this is not too important for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps we'll see Miracast? HD via Wireless. Apparently the Tegra3 SOC used supports it, so it may be a matter for Google to code for it.
Wow, I've had my N7 since July 21st and never realized how crappy it is!!!!!!
Holly crow!!! "Nexus 7 used as HD monitor and controller with ultra-high-resolution DSLR camera" :cyclops:
That was gay. err Funny and weird. err puzzling and stupid. emm okay just really gay. (no offence intended)
Related
I have the device for 5 days and i went through every little corner of it so i would like to share this with you and maybe help others make a decision to buy it or not.
Hardware:
1. Very good build quality. The rubber coding and the metal plate feels good.
2. Its incredibly thin!
3. The camera has sharp edges which scratches my desk. I always put the phone on top of the leather pouch that came with it so i don't scratch my desk.
4. The screen is impressive. Having a capacitive 4.3'' screen on a WM device is like being in haven.
5. The earpiece does a good job. Its better than my (sold) TP2, but not too loud (as some have reported).
6. The speaker is decent. Not too loud and not to quiet. Having a device so small i guess its impossible to put a better speaker.
7. The 3.5 mm jack entry is so enjoyable. I always struggled with charging and listening to the headphones at the same time. It was impossible on my previous phones without some big, ugly adapter.
8. Finally we have a standardized port for sync/charge. Unfortunately i can't find a microUSB cable anywhere. The only way to get them is to order them online.
Software:
1. HTC Sense is very well done. Having a 1GHz processor it moves along panels and menus very fast. When i took my TP2 in hand after playing with the HD2 i felt like trowing it away. Once you played with the HD2 you never go back.
2. HTC skinned most of the settings of WM which is a good thing and a bad thing. In some cases the skinned settings don't show every little option in that category so its annoying, but i managed to get a shortcut for the windows mobile settings in my start menu.
3. The facebook integration doesn't let me choose what i want to update for my contacts. On my TP2 i would get asked if i want to get the contact's photo and his birthday. Now it doesn't ask anything and if the contact doesn't have a facebook photo but it has an outlook photo (set by me) it deletes the photo. After getting back my contacts i stopped using the facebook integration. SOLVED
4. The twitter client is OK, but i expect an update from HTC in a future rom where lists are implemented. Otherwise its useless.
5. Doing pinch to zoom in Opera is a joy. Having a large screen, web browsing becomes a pleasure. Now i can say that i can always rely on my phone to do web browsing.
6. Google Maps and iGO 8 work fast and the GPS signal comes in about 10 seconds with the proper tweaks.
7. The FM Radio just doesn't work. I only get static and its not like i'm in the middle of a field. I'm in a 4 million people city.
8. The Audio Manager does a good job but there's a problem with the Audio Booster which doesn't stay on after the first song you play. There's a solution for that but its ugly. Once you start the audio booster don't press done, just leave it running by pressing the home button for example.
9. The camera takes very good pictures. I applied the super fine tweaks. I own a semi professional camera and i have some experience in that area and the pictures taken by the HD2 are pretty OK for a phone camera.
10. In regards to the SMS issue: i don't have it. The device already came with the GSM only selected as a band for sending text messages. The only downside is that i tried once to send an sms to 16 persons and i got around 5-6 undelivered messages. I know it has a limit but i applied the tweak to make the limit go to 50 but no result.
11. My Location works and doesn't work. It gets my location but when its time to get the weather it fails. It shows and error message that it cannot retrieve the weather. So i disabled it completely.
12. The unlock screen is useless. I always set my phone to turn off the display after 1 minute. Watching a movie resulted in a lock. I removed it and installed S2U2 which accepts exceptions and it works great on the HD2. It's like it was meant for this device.
13. HTC Album creates a rather large cache on the main storage resulting in a decrease in available MBs. That is not acceptable for me so someone from xda modified the exe file (changed the path of where the cache is stored) and i installed it and it works great so far. The cache is now in My Documents folder on the storage card.
14. I changed the icons in the start menu using the reSTART application and the iReflect icons found on xda. Now my start menu looks very clean and beautiful.
15. I can type really well on it. I just have to trust the keyboard. I'm not using XT9 cuz i don't have my language there but with the ABC mode i'm quite fast. Its not always perfect but that's to be expected anyhow. I make a lot more mistakes on my brother's iPhone than on the HD2 (and the iPhone keyboard is famous for its accuracy).
There is a downside to all of this: the battery life. It's a little disappointing. I feel like i use an iPhone now. I usually get a full day out of it with moderate use. I plan on buying a desktop cradle and a spare battery just in case.
I'm running the 1.48 version and judging by my experience so far i'm almost certain that there was a batch of phones that was bad, that's why some owners state problems with hardware or software.
If i missed something let me know, or if you have any questions fire away.
Very well written. There's one point I'd like to correct, though. You can set the contacts tab to show Outlook pics even with Facebook integration. Here's how:
1. Start editing the contact.
2. Tap on the contact picture icon on top right.
3. A list of available pics for the contact should come up. The second of which is your Outlook contact pic, if you have one saved. Tap it.
4. Voila
Now, can you please link the reSTART and ireflect icons? I'm curious and want to check them our. I did some searching, but the results returned are staggering.
iReflect icons: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=533993
reSTART: http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=186033&d=1242539721
PS: Thanks for the tip on the facebook integration. I'm now going through all my contacts and changing the photos.
Nice review, lorin.bute.
I have switched back to this device after 4 months iphone 3Gs usage. This device is the best I have ever used in the past 7 years. The screen reacts and the softwares run just as fast as iphone 3Gs but with rooms for my customization. Just looks forward to the upcoming WM6.5.3 to enhance this device, and most likely WM7 in 2010.
The battery life is indeed disappointing. Well HTC wanted it to be slimmer than the iphone.
A desktop cradle and a spare battery is a must i feel. We are all using a relatively new battery. Just imagine 6-12 months down, it may not even last a day. A cradle apart from showing off the phone also prevent from tripping the cable while charging.
Well, if a spare battery is a must for the HD2, then what do all the iPhone users do?
The iPhone has even worse battery life and you can't swap out the battery...
freyberry said:
Well, if a spare battery is a must for the HD2, then what do all the iPhone users do?
The iPhone has even worse battery life and you can't swap out the battery...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i use mobile chargers.
click it in the iphone and it starts charging. works perfectly.
Yes, I had one of those, too, for my iPhone 3G
That was more of a rhetorical question, but I can add that those chargers are less convenient to carry around than a second battery.
Just looks forward to the upcoming WM6.5.3 to enhance this device, and most likely WM7 in 2010.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=606932
freyberry said:
Well, if a spare battery is a must for the HD2, then what do all the iPhone users do?
The iPhone has even worse battery life and you can't swap out the battery...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like what my friends do. They charge whenever possible, i see their phones wired most of the time in office.
Had a question about NFC tags... I'm seeing a bunch of coverage on them lately and it looks like it indeed could be useful.
It seems you would almost need 2 tags per "action" though.
I'd love to have one at work, but wouldn't I need one for "arrive at work" and "leave work" to turn on/off certain things?
I did see (at least some) apps that make use of TOGGLE - however, what if for example I had a Car NFC which I want to turn on bluetooth when I get in, and turn it off when I get out - what if I happened to enable bluetooth earlier - maybe listening to a bluetooth speaker? This would create an inconsistency and kind of break the toggle (assuming I was toggling multiple things, at least...)
Still trying to read through and thoroughly understand it - any insight from people who actually use these on a daily basis?
Seems like these NFC taskers need to create a new service to always listen to NFC - is that true? Are they battery killers?
Lastly - any recommendations on where to pick some NFC tags up?
I'm no NFC expert but I do use it with the Tagstand NFC Task Launcher.
1. You don't need 2 tag with NFC Launcher for, like you said, it can toggle. Toggle works by performing Action 1 the first time its scanned and then Action 2 the second time its scanned.
2. Say, for example, Action 1 says to turn on Bluetooth and Action 2 says to turn it off. You scan it and it performs Action 1 but its already on, it will do nothing (wont create some universe shattering paradox ). Then if you have take the phone off the tag and scan it again it will turn Bluetooth off (Action 2) and then loop back to action 1 and so on.
3. On our phone, if not all of them (idk), the NFC chip is only on when the screen is on. A mod found here enables it to be on always but this eats battery life.
4. I currently use Tagstand's own NFC stickers from their store and they are pretty cheap and work great. buynfctags.com has then cheaper but the blank ones have a minimum order of 5 and the custom printed ones have a minimum order of 250.
VERY IMPORTANT!- The Nexus 4 wont work with Mifare Classic 1K Stickers, these include Samsung tech-tiles, because they use proprietary standards (see here for more).All truly NFC compliant tags will work, eg. The Type 2 (NTAG203) and Type 1 (Topaz 512) stickers.
NFC stuff is great, don't get me wrong. But there are alternatives so I just wanted to offer some suggestions just in case you weren't aware. I'm writing this based on your "work" scenario.
I do a LOT of the stuff that you can do with NFC Task Launcher etc. with automation apps. You can in fact, do all the basics you can do with NFC with automation apps, the bonus of NFC is being able to pin point areas and to design complex macros. I've used Tasker in the past but right now I use llama primarily.
For me, NFC is more of a boon in "trusted" areas, like in my home, my car or say at work vs. out and about. I'll admit I'm slightly paranoid about nfc scanners/readers siphoning information right out of my phone. It's very highly unlikely but tech has gotten all the better and thieves are getting super creative - we're also making it so very easy for them. The culprit would have to be close to me and in case of our devices, the screen would need to be on, but that wouldn't be difficult in a cinema or in a crowded area. My habit right now is to disable it unless I'm home or have a reason to use it while out. Eventually I'll source a nice case for my phone and tablet that blocks it, then I can leave it enabled.
So, yeah...keep the alternatives in mind if you're just interested in basics. I set my wife's llama to set her phone to the silent profile when at work. She's not allowed to use her phone there but I hate her turning it off because sometimes she doesn't remember to turn it on when leaving but rather when driving on the way home. So her llama sets the phone to full silence when in her office and as soon as she leaves the garage it sets it to normal.
As I mentioned, with NFC it's more about the ability to pin point within certain areas and design more complex conditions. For example, llama can detect when I leave my home but it can't detect when I've moved from my office into my kitchen or into my bedroom. This entire area is just, Home. Maybe it could if I trained it but goodness knows I would hate to have to set adjustments based on each of the areas in my home anyway. NFC allows you to focus on the actual area. I haven't found a whole lot of use yet for my tags, but I do have one in my kitchen and bathroom which starts music on my N7. Of course, that's just really, really lazy of me vs. useful. There's also one in my car's phone mount that is set to turn on navigation when I mount the phone but I don't use that one since I have to enable GPS manually anyway.
Kevin has said everything re: the use of the tags and the stores. Some additional stores are here. Like him, I got mine from Tagstand because they look nice, were pretty cheap and they do try to beat competitor prices.
Good Luck.
Kaitlyn2004 said:
Had a question about NFC tags... I'm seeing a bunch of coverage on them lately and it looks like it indeed could be useful.
It seems you would almost need 2 tags per "action" though.
I'd love to have one at work, but wouldn't I need one for "arrive at work" and "leave work" to turn on/off certain things?
I did see (at least some) apps that make use of TOGGLE - however, what if for example I had a Car NFC which I want to turn on bluetooth when I get in, and turn it off when I get out - what if I happened to enable bluetooth earlier - maybe listening to a bluetooth speaker? This would create an inconsistency and kind of break the toggle (assuming I was toggling multiple things, at least...)
Still trying to read through and thoroughly understand it - any insight from people who actually use these on a daily basis?
Seems like these NFC taskers need to create a new service to always listen to NFC - is that true? Are they battery killers?
Lastly - any recommendations on where to pick some NFC tags up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does anyone know the real max range possible of the NFC system the Nexus 4 uses or the range other devices can interface with it at? I guess really I am trying to find out if there is a way to increase the range from the official .2m / 8" to something farther away. I am trying to figure out how far away from my phone someone needs to be to read my info if I have my NFC turned on?
donec said:
Does anyone know the real max range possible of the NFC system the Nexus 4 uses or the range other devices can interface with it at? I guess really I am trying to find out if there is a way to increase the range from the official .2m / 8" to something farther away. I am trying to figure out how far away from my phone someone needs to be to read my info if I have my NFC turned on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well for the chips in our phones, it usually needs to be within 1 inch, like a key fob RFID scanner. I've heard CLAIMS that people can do it from across a room, although I don't believe the chip has enough power to make such a connection at that distance. (Someone correct me if I'm truly wrong, because I'm curious too).
For NFC chips, it usually requires that the chip touch a specific part of the back of the phone. Same with Google Wallet on pay pass. NFC is pretty neat and can be used for various things. Like wallet, tags, sharing items with another phone, etc.
Kaitlyn2004 said:
Had a question about NFC tags... I'm seeing a bunch of coverage on them lately and it looks like it indeed could be useful.
It seems you would almost need 2 tags per "action" though.
I'd love to have one at work, but wouldn't I need one for "arrive at work" and "leave work" to turn on/off certain things?
I did see (at least some) apps that make use of TOGGLE - however, what if for example I had a Car NFC which I want to turn on bluetooth when I get in, and turn it off when I get out - what if I happened to enable bluetooth earlier - maybe listening to a bluetooth speaker? This would create an inconsistency and kind of break the toggle (assuming I was toggling multiple things, at least...)
Still trying to read through and thoroughly understand it - any insight from people who actually use these on a daily basis?
Seems like these NFC taskers need to create a new service to always listen to NFC - is that true? Are they battery killers?
Lastly - any recommendations on where to pick some NFC tags up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the confusion is in the word "Toggle" - instead for NFC Apps let's call them "Switch Tags". This means the first time you tap them, the execute one set of commands and the second time you tap them they execute a second set of commands. But these commands can be anything. So for example you wouldn't have either set of commands "toggle" Bluetooth - instead, you'd have it "Turn BT On" or "Turn BT Off". If you're BT was already in the state then nothing would happen.
NFC was developed to use very little power - part of the reason why the range is very small and you have to pretty much tap a tag. The affect on your battery leaving NFC enabled will be barely noticeable. The apps themselves are not "always on" - the tag is programmed to trigger the app when your phone's nfc antenna detects the tag.
As for where to pick up tags, of course I'd recommend AndyTags, but I'm biased. You can check them out, but there are lots of great places to get tags. For the Nexus 4 phone, make sure to get NTAG203 tags.
Hey I am still confused on these NFC Tags. I watched some video on how it works and it looks pretty awesome but i have some questions.
For example. I have a phone holder in my car. i only use it when i use my GPS. i want to paste an NFC Tag on the holder so every time I place the phone in the holder it turns on my GPS, launches my GPS app, and maybe turns off my Wifi. From what I have seen this can easily be done.
Here is the part I am confused about. When the phone is in the holder it will be right beside the tag. What effect does that have on the tag? Is it constantly communicating?
The feature i really want is this: when I remove the phone from the holder and away from the tag can I program it to turn off the "car settings"?
So I am wondering if I can use a phone holder and NFC tags to create a dock(without the charging). Put the phone on the dock and leave it there and it changes to "car settings" and keeps it at that setting. Take the phone out of the "dock" settings turn back to non-car settings.
everything i see involves tapping.
Prelude38 said:
Hey I am still confused on these NFC Tags. I watched some video on how it works and it looks pretty awesome but i have some questions.
For example. I have a phone holder in my car. i only use it when i use my GPS. i want to paste an NFC Tag on the holder so every time I place the phone in the holder it turns on my GPS, launches my GPS app, and maybe turns off my Wifi. From what I have seen this can easily be done.
Here is the part I am confused about. When the phone is in the holder it will be right beside the tag. What effect does that have on the tag? Is it constantly communicating?
The feature i really want is this: when I remove the phone from the holder and away from the tag can I program it to turn off the "car settings"?
So I am wondering if I can use a phone holder and NFC tags to create a dock(without the charging). Put the phone on the dock and leave it there and it changes to "car settings" and keeps it at that setting. Take the phone out of the "dock" settings turn back to non-car settings.
everything i see involves tapping.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The tag is only a marker, in Stock ROM you need to actually unlock your phone before your NFC will start pooling (There are mods for this so no worries). The actions are all programmable depending on what kind of apps you use to program it, that's all!
Personally I find tasker to be more useful than NFC tag. I don't buy all the marketing gimmicks.
I have started to tinker with NFC tags.
Is there a way to start the stock android clock timer (from zero or a countdown from a preset time) using nfc tags? I tried NFC task launcher but it just uses their own in app timer, which im not a fan of (it doesn't show time remaining/elapsed and all that stuff). Or maybe an automation app that can be triggered by a nfc task.
So I purchased my LG G Watch about 10 seconds after they were made available. I've been using it basically since I/O and love it, but one use-case I've had in mind since they first started talking about them is functionally broken at the moment, and I think it would require a change to Android Wear to make it better (though I'm not certain).
I ride my motorcycle whenever possible -- basically anytime the temperature is 50+ and it's dry outside, I'm on the bike. I wear gear, including gloves, so navigation is generally an annoyance. GPS units made for motorcycles are ridiculously expensive (a $100 GPS for cars is around $500 when made for motorcycle use, for basically just a bit of water-resistance). From the time I first started hearing about Wear (and because of the images Motorola was showing) I've been craving the idea of being able to look at my watch to see my navigation info. The images Motorola had shown (and others), basically worked just like Google Maps navigation, but in reality it doesn't work like that at all.
The biggest problem is that raising the watch turns the screen on, but the card is still minimized. This is *completely* useless for people actually operating any type of vehicle (whether it be a motorcycle, car, or even pedal-bike), since it requires someone to use both hands to operate. Even worse, many times those directions don't even have a distance or any type of visible indicator on what's ahead. I don't have a picture example at the moment, but generally it says "Turn Left at Market St" or something, but with no idea how far that point is.
Any ideas here from people that know more on whether this could be fixed in Maps or would require a more low-level change to Wear? This is my only complaint, but it's a somewhat big one...it's one of the main reasons I was looking forward to Wear, and the functionality is almost useless in implementation.
This seems promising: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dheera.wearmaps
for you can think about this:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/0...igogo-goal-in-less-than-an-hour-after-launch/
I am considering a smartwatch for this very reason. Now that you've had it for a while, is it useful or at least better? If you are riding and traffic sucks, will it suggest faster routes? Can you dismiss things, and respond to a message (while stopped) with gloves on?
I was thinking about getting one mostly for occasional nav (I've gotten really good at finding my way around without nav since going 2-wheeled full time), traffic updates, and to see if whoever is calling me is worth pulling over for.
Hello all,
I just wanted to let all who are interested know that the MyGica A681 USB stick works 100%. I have it hooked up to one of those flat window mount antennas and it receives full HD signal that I view through the PadTV app found on Play Store. The PadTV app lacks in a lot of ways, it would be cool if someone around here was able to come up with something better. A few of the channels have a major A/V delay but it may be due to reception and not the tuner stick or app. Overall, it was a very worthwhile purchase for me, if anyone has any questions let me know.
Hopefully this is useful information for a cord-cutter somewhere. I'm not in any way affiliated with MyGica, just a fellow MOJO owner who couldn't find any info on a TV Tuner stick that would work with our boxes so I took the dive on my own.
Thanks buddy, this is a great discovery!
AndroidSupaFan said:
Thanks buddy, this is a great discovery!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. I've pretty much been doing a lot of my own discovering what works since there's not much documentation for our devices. Like I said in my first post, it would be awesome if someone around here was able to come up with something better for a channel surfing app. PadTV gets the job done, but it's certainly not the prettiest. I forgot to mention that it also does DVR, but one of my issues is that it will only save to internal storage and not something like an external drive or an SD card. The channel info/current episode descriptions are several hours behind. If theres a button on my remote for Channel +/-, I haven't found it. You have to use your mouse to bring up and scroll through channels. Again, it gets the job done, I can watch 39 or so OTA channels, and quite a few of which are HD. It's just not the most MOJO friendly UI, since it was intended for phones.
Some other things I use daily that work 100%: Ouya controller (as 2nd controller), Plugables brand 7x USB 3.0 hub, & a Rii Mini i8 keyboard. Obviously stuff like my Logitech Bluetooth receiver that I run to my stereo also works to receive audio from MOJO. My USB wired Logitech PC game controller works great as well.
Just trying to help fellow XDA'ers and Googlers not worry about compatibility before they order something like I did. That said, most if not all of my worries were completely unfounded because everything I've thrown at the MOJO so far works like a charm!
Would a wired XBox 360 controller work?
psxfa said:
Would a wired XBox 360 controller work?
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Click to collapse
I don't have one to test but I'm 99% sure it would.
I'd just like to clarify a point: it may sound like nitpicking, but it's not the PadTV app that works; it's the PadTV-HD app. The standard PadTV just says it can't find a device.
That being said, the little MyGica is a little giant. I live in a fringe reception area, for decent reception I need a huge rooftop antenna, but this little thumb-drive-sized receiver still picks up a round dozen stations on the 10-cm piece of coat hanger wire it comes with. Yes, the weaker stations have audio lag problems; I hope a better antenna fixes that. It also costs about half what other similar units do, and most of them work on windows only.
I tried a few of the other TV apps on Play Store but the PadTV-HD was the only one that recognized the A681. I didn't find it all that bad an interface, except that the sidebars won't stay in place longer than a couple seconds, and I couldn't find a setting for that. It also lacks a volume control, as the MOJO itself does, so you must hope you have some control somewhere else. And there is no info in the EPG (electronic program guide) even though it appears to have that function. But I was able to find and watch several different channels without any real problems; except, of course, that TV programming in general sucks. Unless you're a sports fan.
So thanks, @tideee88, for the heads-up here!
kevinthefixer said:
I'd just like to clarify a point: it may sound like nitpicking, but it's not the PadTV app that works; it's the PadTV-HD app. The standard PadTV just says it can't find a device.
That being said, the little MyGica is a little giant. I live in a fringe reception area, for decent reception I need a huge rooftop antenna, but this little thumb-drive-sized receiver still picks up a round dozen stations on the 10-cm piece of coat hanger wire it comes with. Yes, the weaker stations have audio lag problems; I hope a better antenna fixes that. It also costs about half what other similar units do, and most of them work on windows only.
I tried a few of the other TV apps on Play Store but the PadTV-HD was the only one that recognized the A681. I didn't find it all that bad an interface, except that the sidebars won't stay in place longer than a couple seconds, and I couldn't find a setting for that. It also lacks a volume control, as the MOJO itself does, so you must hope you have some control somewhere else. And there is no info in the EPG (electronic program guide) even though it appears to have that function. But I was able to find and watch several different channels without any real problems; except, of course, that TV programming in general sucks. Unless you're a sports fan.
So thanks, @tideee88, for the heads-up here!
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Click to collapse
Yes, thank you for mentioning that it is in fact the PadTV HD app. Hope I didn't cause anyone any confusion. I also had no luck trying other tuner apps and I tried literally every one available on Play Store (including non-ATSC ones) and even tried sideloading a few because I dislike PadTV HD so much.
I agree that the MyGica stick is a great little device. I'm really impressed with it when it's able to do it's thing properly. I never tried the dinky little antenna it came with, I ordered a 25-mile distance flat window-mount antenna and it gets me about 39 channels here in Pittsburgh, PA. Lots of them are HD, and look and sound great. However, many of the Play Store reviews for PadTV HD seem to indicate that the slow motion, lag, and stuttering are a result of the app not taking advantage of hardware acceleration and thus is trying to encode 1080p on the fly via software rendering or something to that effect. Other than the mild inconveniences of things like not having a dedicated button for CH +/- and as you noted, the channel info being totally useless, it's a real bummer that I can't even get the channels I could be getting if it weren't for a poorly written app that is unfortunately our only option at the moment. I feel as though this is a real hole that could be filled with the rate at which Android set top boxes are becoming popular.
I mostly purchased this because the only time I ever need to watch broadcast TV is when my Steelers are on and hence have no use to pay for cable. I'm really hoping we have a new app sorted out before football season because FOX is one of the channels that currently comes in very laggy and out of sync for me at the moment.
Your MOJO doesn't have volume control, though? It certainly should. Do the hardkeys not work on your C.T.R.L.R.? Android system volume works perfect for me in all apps. Failing that, I've found you can change the volume in Pad TV HD by clicking somewhere in the video frame and dragging your mouse up or down, like a swipe if it were touch. Hopefully that helps!
tideee88 said:
Yes, thank you for mentioning that it is in fact the PadTV HD app. Hope I didn't cause anyone any confusion. I also had no luck trying other tuner apps and I tried literally every one available on Play Store (including non-ATSC ones) and even tried sideloading a few because I dislike PadTV HD so much.
I agree that the MyGica stick is a great little device. I'm really impressed with it when it's able to do it's thing properly. I never tried the dinky little antenna it came with, I ordered a 25-mile distance flat window-mount antenna and it gets me about 39 channels here in Pittsburgh, PA. Lots of them are HD, and look and sound great. However, many of the Play Store reviews for PadTV HD seem to indicate that the slow motion, lag, and stuttering are a result of the app not taking advantage of hardware acceleration and thus is trying to encode 1080p on the fly via software rendering or something to that effect. Other than the mild inconveniences of things like not having a dedicated button for CH +/- and as you noted, the channel info being totally useless, it's a real bummer that I can't even get the channels I could be getting if it weren't for a poorly written app that is unfortunately our only option at the moment. I feel as though this is a real hole that could be filled with the rate at which Android set top boxes are becoming popular.
I mostly purchased this because the only time I ever need to watch broadcast TV is when my Steelers are on and hence have no use to pay for cable. I'm really hoping we have a new app sorted out before football season because FOX is one of the channels that currently comes in very laggy and out of sync for me at the moment.
Your MOJO doesn't have volume control, though? It certainly should. Do the hardkeys not work on your C.T.R.L.R.? Android system volume works perfect for me in all apps. Failing that, I've found you can change the volume in Pad TV HD by clicking somewhere in the video frame and dragging your mouse up or down, like a swipe if it were touch. Hopefully that helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try the volume control thing. I'm using CM12.1 and maybe it has a volume control somewhere but I haven't found it yet, I'm used to hardware switches. I'm not using the CTRLR either, just a keyboard & mouse. I'm still working on display resolution problems, as I don't really have the right display hardware for the MOJO, and it's picky that way. I'm about to give up entirely on the powered HDMI-2-VGA adapter to the 1280x1024 computer monitor, too unreliable even just in Android. Neither it nor the HDMI-2-DVI cable to the old Dell monitor will display at all in recovery, for that I have to commandeer the living room and the only true HDMI display in the house, which is a projector--not the best setup for tweaking a device. Still doing my homework on tweaking TWRP to 720P which I hope will solve that problem.
kevinthefixer said:
I'll try the volume control thing. I'm using CM12.1 and maybe it has a volume control somewhere but I haven't found it yet, I'm used to hardware switches. I'm not using the CTRLR either, just a keyboard & mouse. I'm still working on display resolution problems, as I don't really have the right display hardware for the MOJO, and it's picky that way. I'm about to give up entirely on the powered HDMI-2-VGA adapter to the 1280x1024 computer monitor, too unreliable even just in Android. Neither it nor the HDMI-2-DVI cable to the old Dell monitor will display at all in recovery, for that I have to commandeer the living room and the only true HDMI display in the house, which is a projector--not the best setup for tweaking a device. Still doing my homework on tweaking TWRP to 720P which I hope will solve that problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running a rooted stock rom via HDMI so I'm not sure about your display issues as I haven't had any. But I use a bluetooth keyboard/mouse most of the time and the volume hardkeys work on that as well. If your keyboard has volume hardkeys and they don't work, it may be some sort of issue with your rom. AFAIK, my keyboard's drivers are just generic Windows ones.
tideee88 said:
I'm running a rooted stock rom via HDMI so I'm not sure about your display issues as I haven't had any. But I use a bluetooth keyboard/mouse most of the time and the volume hardkeys work on that as well. If your keyboard has volume hardkeys and they don't work, it may be some sort of issue with your rom. AFAIK, my keyboard's drivers are just generic Windows ones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same display issues regardless of ROM. AFAIK there are only four, and I tried them all. (This is a very rare instance of me following my own advice: try all the different flavors before deciding on a favorite.) Several people have reported similar issues while in system but I think I'm unique in the recovery problem. Changing the resolution by editing the build.prop improved my display in system but did nothing in recovery; I will just have to carry the MOJO into the living room whenever I need to use recovery, which shouldn't be that often. The bright side is that I learned to unpack and repack recovery images.
My keyboard is a wired mini with no extra room for media keys, but it does have a third control key (FN) to emulate them. But I can't see the blue-on-black icons to use them unless the room is brightly lit! Volume control is not a biggie for me though, I run the audio through a seventies-vintage amp and speakers. I pity those who grew up with "modern" surround sound, satellite speakers and a single subwoofer. My setups often fool both myself and the dogs, we can't tell if the noise is outside the open door or inside the TV.
BTW Windows keyboard drivers won't work on Android, but it's such a low-level thing they are just included in the kernel. Somewhere in the ROM is a keyboard map that can be edited (with root of course), but I misremember where. I never had to remap a keyboard.
PadTV HD app no longer works for me as of the latest update. For anyone considering purchasing a tuner, I recommend against it. Flushed $40 down the toilet.
If you'd like I'll send you the old version, I'll just need to save it then upload it. You'd just have to uninstall the newer version then sideload the old one and not allow it to update. Just PM me.
kevinthefixer said:
If you'd like I'll send you the old version, I'll just need to save it then upload it. You'd just have to uninstall the newer version then sideload the old one and not allow it to update. Just PM me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you please send me the version that works?
Last night I got one of those cheap Chinese smartwatches for $40 locally. (Amazon seems to have some for $20 at amzn.to/2qpSftK) Yeah I know, I know, but I work at a job that is anal about cell phones (a major gripe of mine the way places can be that way) and I need to know if my child's ride at school doesn't show up or if school lets out early due to a power outage etc, if that happens then I HAVE to pause what I'm doing and make a call or two to make pickup arrangements or else it's a legal issue of child abandonment. Such may only happen 2-3 times an entire school year, but it has happened a few times--my mother-in-law's battery was dead and she was running late, or she couldn't find her keys etc--in such cases I had to track down someone locally and get them to step-in, last minute.
Thus, I need a smartwatch which can relay calls which have come in so I can see them and it also needs to push SMS messages and let me reply to them, that way without even pulling my phone out of my pocket I will know if this has occurred (and can quickly reply to SMS) but I can otherwise keep my phone in my pocket knowing beyond any shadow of a doubt that if a call or SMS has come in, this watch WILL pick it up and I WILL be able to reply to them.
This watch I got, it is fine with relaying phone calls and it even relayed the audio from a YouTube video I was watching on the phone itself, but it WILL NOT WORK with relaying SMS. At first it did, such requires installing a "BT Notifier" on the phone (which is the best?) but even then it was hit or miss, and then it just stopped. I've done EVERYTHING in terms of different BT Notifier apps, I even scanned the "OCR Code" or whatever to point to the BT Notifier specific to that model (it appears to be a GT08 type, with the "fan" style of icons, menu/phone on the bottom left and names/text on the right, this YouTube video Ksy0pd-12BI shows one like it), I set that app up--no matter, IT WILL NOT push SMS to this smartwatch, no way/no how.
Is this a common occurrence with such smartwatches? Is this a case of that I'm going to have to just accept this model CANNOT handle SMS no matter what and get something else, vs being able to actually fix this? One model I had read good things about in an article (BIT and 2lTVoxg) called the OUMAX Bluetooth Smart Watch S6 for around $50, this model looked like a good one because it downplays "fitness" features I do not at all need and instead stresses pushing smartphone notifications and being able to replay to them, which is what I DO need. I started to get it on Amazon but then it would've required several days to get here and I need something up & running quickly but without spending $250. Maybe I should've just gotten that and waited?
Tips in general?
If anyone has any tips please do reply, I am only say this because I have an update but that doesn't mean I am not still looking for help.
I've somehow got it working just fine, no timing out of connectivity or any such thing. I had saved the downloaded BT Notifier .apk file from the app it referenced in the barcode I scanned, and I tried again but this time I disabled an app I've used on the phone for a long time--NoLED, which displays a moving dot on the LCD when notifications arrive, making it unnecessary to "wake up" the phone to see missed calls etc. I've used that app for forever, it's a long-time staple of mine, but I wondered if it was possibly interfering with this process.
I'm not sure if that is the case, but since disabling it (but also turning the watch off and letting it charge to full overnight) it's working great today. I possibly could get beyond that eventually but for now I'll take it, I mean having a smartwatch does somewhat make it less necessary anyway. The only issue now--the band, it won't attach and it's apparently a permanent part of the watch's structure, not easily swapped out. I'm not sure how I'll get around that, maybe stitching another watch band on top of it using a sewing kit?
Ultimate Fix: Watch-Specific App/Disable/Install 3rd Party
I'm somewhat disappointed in the lack of replies. Is this because this watch is now perhaps an older model, or what is the reason?
In any case, I now have the ultimate fix.
It's 3 things:
(1) Install the watch-specific app by scanning the QR code and "sideloading" the app
(2) "Force Stop" this app in Google settings but DO NOT uninstall it, leave it installed.
(3) Install the 3rd party app by "Shenznen Fan Yun Technology Co, Ltd" (green background, white circle with exclamation point) then under the "Accessibility" enable the second "BT Notifications" entry, leave the 1st one at OFF
When I got this watch, the first thing I did was download that 3rd party app, it worked some but not consistently, then it totally stopped. I then stumbled across the QR code in the watch, scanned it, installed that app, and that worked--but that app was FULL of adware, constantly bugging me to install this app or that, launching a new tab and page in my Chrome browser, and just being a total pain. I was glad the watch worked, but hated that behavior--so much I disabled the app, figuring I'd just have to re-enable it when the watch was being used.
On a hunch, eager to try again, with the watch-specific app still disabled, I downloaded the 3rd party "Shenznen Fan Yun Technology Co, Ltd" app and, just totally guessing, under "accessibility" enabled the 2nd entry (both entries have identical names so you can't tell which is which), but didn't uninstall the watch-specific app only because I figured that I would end up having to revert back to it anyway.
To my surprise, this has worked. It seems to require me turning the watch off and connecting through the watch initially, but however I get a connection and the SMS message log on the phone populates on the watch, at that point it is stable and reliable from that point on. I had it running today all-day and was receiving texts and the inbox was coming up reliably.
I hope this helps somebody. (Note: this watch is still being sold as eBay item #381686066028.)