7" Tablets (iPad Mini, Nexus 7)

[szycag]

The iPad Mini ($329) and Google Nexus 7 ($200-250) are both super powerful tablets for a great price, and the slightly smaller size is the perfect balance between portability vs. screen space. I got the Nexus 7 and it never feels too big or too small, for any task (even watching movies!) Plus, that cheap for something with Tegra 3? As for the iPad Mini, it seems like the biggest competitor the iPad 4 has. If they can get a Retina Display on whatever they replace it with in a year, I'm sure the mini size will be what takes off. Nearly half the price for something that's nicer to hold!

Anyways, I'm wondering what you guys enjoy on tablet systems. I've already been playing a lot of Danmaku Death on my Nexus 7 which runs great. I guess I can keep wishing regarding Cave ports (who has a Windows Phone anyways?) Admittedly a bit addicted to Temple Run and some of it's clones. I also see Shiren the Wanderer is coming soon. Just this moment, I'm looking into this app that lets you use a Wiimote on the system with no need to root. Hopefully I can get it working with The Pinball Arcade, because even with tons of practice I know I could never beat my Xbox 360 scores with touch controls.

[trap15]

The CAVE ports are now on western Android Markets

[szycag]

See I could have swore I heard that, and sure enough you're right, but for whatever reason they are not listed as compatible with the Nexus 7 currently! Searched in Google Play and none of them came up. Some comment on ESP Galuda II says it works fine on Nexus 7, I'm guessing you would have to buy it on your computer's browser and then move it over to the tablet via USB?

EDIT: Just did some research and read Matskat's technique for getting the Cave ports on a Nexus 7. Guessing it's just a matter of time before they're approved to work with Nexus 7 officially though, if they work flawlessly?

[cools]

They work fine, the publishers are just idiots.

[beatsgo]

I'm actually planning to get a Nexus 7 instead of lugging around my laptop for school and probably for work in the future. I would go for the iPad Mini, but damn it's overpriced and PPI is terrible.

[gct]

The Nexus 7 has a really impressive spec, but the dealbreaker for me is that it has no SD card slot. For reference, I use a 1st-gen Galaxy Tab P1000, recently installed Cyanogenmod 9.something on it and I should add a disclaimer that I don't use Apple products.

But what's my opinion worth, I only use it to watch porn clips and play Androminion while sitting on the can. But that's where the importance of removable storage media comes in - on a Nexus 7 I can't have naughty clips saved on a card that can be easily removed when I need to do something legitimate with the device. If I upgrade in the near future, I would probably go with a Galaxy Tab 2 even though it has a bit of a weaker spec compared to the Nexus 7.

One thing to watch out for in the Android tablets is whether the OS was built with a complete bluetooth protocol. Builds from certain manufacturers are incompatible with Sixaxis/Wii controllers unless you install a custom ROM, if you were planning to use the tablet for emulation and such. But again note that whether or not the controller works, the input lag will render most action games unplayable.

[szycag]

I wish it had a card slot too, but USB OTG allows for attaching storage devices, not to mention the device seems to be built around accessing all your stuff from a Google Drive or whatever, which I would need to get used to I suppose.

Playing with Sega Genesis emulation and the Wiimote, I did notice some lag there. I wonder if it's possible to hook up my USB Saturn Pad with something?

[Vexorg]

I think I'm a little too close to the subject to be completely objective (I've spent the last eight months working on the Kindle team at Amazon, albeit mostly on the e-ink readers) but I have yet to see a 7-inch tablet that I really like (and in fact, I think most of the 7" models are too small for my liking.) At this point, I'm looking for something with which to replace my first-gen iPad (which has a habit of crashing every five minutes in Safari) but haven't really found anything I really like. The Kindle Fire HDs are nice from a hardware standpoint, but also a little too dependent on the Amazon ecosystem (and the limited selection of apps available therein) for my liking. The iPad Mini is just plain overpriced, but it will probably end up outselling every other 7" tablet by a 2-to-1 margin just because it's an Apple product. Right now I'm mostly just waiting to hear more about the Surface Pro before I pull the trigger on anything.

[gct]

I wish it had a card slot too, but USB OTG allows for attaching storage devices, not to mention the device seems to be built around accessing all your stuff from a Google Drive or whatever, which I would need to get used to I suppose.

Playing with Sega Genesis emulation and the Wiimote, I did notice some lag there. I wonder if it's possible to hook up my USB Saturn Pad with something?

That's good to know about USB OTG, I suppose that could be a good solution and might be even better if it supports NTFS-formatted devices. Google Drive, is that some cloud BS? Will be complete and utter BS if you don't have WiFi access and/or cheap/uncapped mobile data.

There was a tiny bit of discussion about input lag in the Ouya thread. It probably won't go away even if you get the Saturn Pad working.

[Domino]

A little off-topic but I been looking at the 10 inch tablets of the market. I'm debating because I would love to watch all of my anime and comics in my bed or my lovely seat. This laptop works ok but I use it just for basic web surfing and watching youtube. This laptop issue is part of the screen is a little off-colored.

Here's what I'm seeing right now:

*iPad: Price is too high. Don't like iOS but Apps support is amazing.
*ASUS Transformer tablets: QC issues with a weak back speakers/headphone jack. Hard to watch shows when the heapdhone jack can't drive a simple 32 ohm headphone like the Grados that I use.
*Nexus 10: No SD card slot is a pain in the butt. I'm not sold yet on the cloud.
*Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1: Price is too much for storage and screen resolution.

I swear it's one thing to another that is making me not pick a tablet to buy!

[BrianC]

I'm getting frustrated with iPad prices, especially with them staying the same price for Black Friday. Even iPad 2 16 GB is still selling at 400 dollars. The only Black Friday deals I saw were for gift cards with purchase.

[Strider77]

Does anyone here hate apple as much as I do... especially after their patent wars. I found it funny that Samsung raised the prices for their chips by 20 percent ONLY for apple.

Then there was that whole case in the UK where they thumbed their nose at the judges order twice by trying to be crafty in their posting etc. Then the judge told them to pay ALL of samsung's court costs.

They have really opened a can of worms... then it's getting obvious they are basically releasing prototypes then the finished model later. The i-pad 3 to 4 thing is rediculous and their are rumors that the 5S will be soon as well. So sleezy in my eyes.

In line for an i-phone 5 for no reason....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMsLArefSOw

[Stormwatch]

If you want to game, I think the Archos GamePad is the tablet to get. Look at this thing. Motherfuckin' buttons and dual analog sticks!



Release: November 2012
Price: €150
OS: Android 4.1 (Google-certified)
CPU: Rockchip RK3066 1.5 GHz dual-core
GPU: Mali-400 quad-core
RAM: 8 GB
Storage: 8 GB + microSD
Screen: 7" capacitive at 1024x600

[beatsgo]

I like the idea...but holding the gamepad for tate games seems awkward.

So this Thursday I'm getting myself a 16GB Nexus 7. What you guys recommend for apps on it, besides DDPDFK and Espgaluda II?

[szycag]

Yeah, what stuff are you guys playing on Android? I guess I should have made it the topic, but it was the original point of my post

[cools]

Towers & Trolls
Wordfeud
Pinball Arcade

[brentsg]

I found it funny that Samsung raised the prices for their chips by 20 percent ONLY for apple.

Then there was that whole case in the UK where they thumbed their nose at the judges order twice by trying to be crafty in their posting etc. Then the judge told them to pay ALL of samsung's court costs.

They have really opened a can of worms... then it's getting obvious they are basically releasing prototypes then the finished model later. The i-pad 3 to 4 thing is rediculous and their are rumors that the 5S will be soon as well. So sleezy in my eyes.

On the first point, it was debunked by Samsung in a story today.. http://www.thestreet.com/story/11766909 ... e-bit.html

On the second point, it's customary in these kind of cases that the "loser" be required to pay the other party's court costs. It's just that we're talking about Apple, so it's customary to write click-bait stories deriding them because there are so many people that lap this stuff up.

Apple is in the business of making money and they should defend their patents just like anyone else. It's a use it or lose it scenario. What they're doing is exactly what I'd expect of any publicly traded company for which I owned stock. And seriously, I realize that there's a group of people that hate Apple just because. It was and still is, to some degree, also true of Microsoft, Sony, etc.. But today it's Apple's turn b/c of their profile and performance. I seriously don't see how anyone could objectively NOT think Samsung's in the business of cranking out copies of anything and everything.

The iPad 3-4 thing is perfectly reasonable. They needed to release a revision around the time that the 3 was available, but the A6X and low power LTE chips simply were not yet available in numbers for production. Had they delayed the release of the 3 it wouldn't have pleased the market one bit, and the move to a high resolution screen was a great selling point and huge differentiator. Now that these chips are readily available, why would they intentionally delay a HUGE performance gain simply to keep with some arbitrary release schedule? The 5S thing is just a dumb rumor and it won't happen. It's from a Chinese source with a poor track record.

[Adderall]

After playing a LOT of DDP Max on an iPhone 5 I am almost convinced that the mini tablet is worth it. I'm playing better with touch than a joystick/cab! If it can do HDMI out to a monitor I'll be picking one up.

[Strider77]

The iPad 3-4 thing is perfectly reasonable. They needed to release a revision around the time that the 3 was available, but the A6X and low power LTE chips simply were not yet available in numbers for production. Had they delayed the release of the 3 it wouldn't have pleased the market one bit, and the move to a high resolution screen was a great selling point and huge differentiator. Now that these chips are readily available, why would they intentionally delay a HUGE performance gain simply to keep with some arbitrary release schedule? The 5S thing is just a dumb rumor and it won't happen. It's from a Chinese source with a poor track record.

I don't see it that way and there are others that feel the same (4 of my friends have switched over due to Apple's current behavior and the galaxy S 3's launch)... more folks are pissed about them not waiting for 6 months to release a finished i-pad. This and the i-phone 4 (4s was the final product) were prototypes. Along with the mini i-pads crappy screen. I am an apple hater but all this patent war crap started with them on the big time scale. They should have delayed the i-pad 3... not the 4. It was done to make folks double dip.... the cult will do just that. To each his own though... but I won't drink the apple juice.

They have stated before many a time how they thought mini tablets were pointless and also larger 16x9 screens. All of a sudden 4x3 screen aren't the perfect shape with the i-phone 5 and mini tablets are ok. They are being the copy cats with the mini tablets also. I am not a fan, but that's ok.

From what I read it hasn't been disproven that samsung did do a price increase though. It's good water cooler talk either way.

In my eyes the i-phone 5 just caught apple up to the galaxy s 3... even still it lags a bit behind to me.

On the second point, it's customary in these kind of cases that the "loser" be required to pay the other party's court costs. It's just that we're talking about Apple, so it's customary to write click-bait stories deriding them because there are so many people that lap this stuff up.

Read up on the UK judge's ruling and their following actions...

[szycag]

I don't know if it's to do with the Android update recently but I can't get Wiimote Controller to work anymore (the app that lets you connect Wiimote via bluetooth.) Couldn't find anything on Google about it, and nothing's changed except for the update. It's almost too tempting to just root so it wouldn't be an issue and I could map to touch controls and use it for Pinball Arcade. I'd gladly rebuy all the TPA tables since I'm addicted to the Xbox 360 version, but that won't have new tables any time soon because of Microsoft's inane content policies. Maybe Android consoles will take off since Google Play doesn't charge $40,000 to devs to update their programs.

[gct]

I'm surprised it worked at all on your previous OS version.

I'm guessing the new kernel was compiled with an incomplete Bluetooth stack, so rooting won't solve your problem either, unless your purpose is to root so you can install an older or otherwise custom ROM that has the necessary Bluetooth components.

Or maybe you just need to pair the controller again?