*nod* I do use Calibre; I break the DRM for anything I buy from Kindle (and convert MOBI->EPUB) and BN. Just in case the DRM servers ever go down, or my account gets hacked and they delete books from my device, or BN pulls an Amazon move and recalls books (Animal Farm debacle)... I bought it, I'm going to back it up, period.
For music I mostly use Spotify, so I typically keep one or two playlists set as offline-enabled and then everything else is streaming. Saves a lot of space that way. But I do have a subscription with them. I really do like BN, and I like the Nooks, and if it were just an ereader I wanted, or an ereader/video player, I'd be fine with the HD+. However, I want to do more. The BN app store is horrible. That's my biggest bone of contention. If they allowed the Google Play Store, those devices would have a LOT more viability. Skypeing from the tablet would be really, really convenient, instead of having to lug out my MacBook to the living room / office to do a Skype session. As for app piracy with SD cards, I'm not sure how that'd work, or why it would matter... if you have ADB access, you could just pull the APK to your local machine and refund the app and then reload the APK. Wasn't aware that there was actually a good process for returns outside of manually contacting the developer. As for the Amazon App Store permissions issue, they've since updated the app to make those permissions clear. I have both markets loaded on my rooted Nook Color. Thanks for the debate. I think my next step is to actually see if I can look at the Fire and the N7 in person; I've found that with displays, all the tech specs in the world don't mean spit until you've seen the device in person. Sometimes they just look unacceptably bad. (Like reviews indicate that the Lenovo Ideatab A2109 is actually an unimpressive display, despite the specs.) -- ~*~ StormeRider ~*~ "Every world needs its heroes [...] They inspire us to be better than we are. And they protect from the darkness that's just around the corner." (from Smallville Season 6x1: "Zod") On why I hate the phrase "that's so lame"... http://bit.ly/Ps3uSS On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 12:38 AM, Phil Pennock < [email protected]> wrote: > On 2013-02-20 at 22:13 -0800, Morgan Blackthorne wrote: > > I'm also interested in testing out compatibility for our revamped site on > > the tablet as well, which slightly alters my specs. Here's what I'm > looking > > for: > > You didn't mention "getting security updates so that you can continue to > trust the device". Unfortunately, that seems to rule out ~any vendor > except Google. If any other vendor wants to be taken seriously, they > need to work on establishing a track record of actually bothering. > > My Nook got updates, but was locked down to only take apps from the B&N > store. > > The Google-sold devices will let you install any apps, not constrain you > to their market. In the past, I have had the Amazon market app > installed; I uninstalled it because it gave no notice of permissions > required by apps it installs. But Google do not lock you into their > ecosystem. I've had three or four third-party market apps installed in > the past, exploring. > > When you buy the Google-sold ones, you can root just with a bootloader > option; it will restrict what you can do with the stock Market app, but > the option is there and _supported_: if you later decide to root, it's a > feature of the phone, not something that might have been "fixed" in the > meantime. > > Also, Amazon's Kindle app is available in the regular Google store. > I use it on my phone (Nexus 4, Android 4.2.2). > > No micro-SD, alas. > > I can't vouch for the N7 first-hand; I ordered it, the device never > arrived, apparently stolen in transit (or from porch) and Google's > customer service is so bad that they're the only vendor I've ever had to > call VISA on, to get a charge reversed. If I hadn't bought an iPad, I'd > have tried again. (I'd already given away the Nook and I needed a > tablet, fast, for reading an ebook for work, so walked into an Apple > store as the fastest way to fix things after the first few of the 28 > days it took Google to respond). > > As to battery life: I hear good things from friends, I suspect that > issues in charge/discharge rates are connected to whether or not you use > a 2.1A charger (iPad current levels) instead of a regular 0.5A charger. > > Android 4.2.2 is nice. > > I've used a Logitech bluetooth keyboard designed for iPads with my Nexus > 4. Worked nicely in combination with ConnectBot (SSH client). I can't > imagine that it wouldn't also work with an N7. The N7 would probably > look less silly resting in the tablet groove, too. :) > > > - Expandable memory slot highly preferred. I prefer micro-SD but I'm > not > > wedded to that format; the important part to me is the ability to > swap out > > storage if I want and to expand the capacity of the unit itself, > especially > > if I ever end up using it on say a plane ride and want to watch > videos. > > This is the only point of contention. I've come to the conclusion that > there has simply been too much piracy aided by the SD card (I'm told > that it works to buy, switch installation to card, shut down, copy data > from card, claim refund, restore app) and so the vendors are shifting > away from it, to provide more closed devices. I'm unhappy, to say the > least. > > I've ended up buying a small Sansa Clip and installing Rockbox on it. > Turns out, the vendors of SD cards like selling music devices that use > those same cards. :) > > Keeping the music off, there's enough room in the remaining GB to have a > few hours of movies. Remember that a DVD is 4.7GB single-layer and > can't use the most compact encodings for compatibility reasons (large > installed base), so even the 16GB tablets have quite a bit of room. > > > On the other hand, Amazon has a bit of a stranglehold on the > > ebook market and that's one reason that the wife and I went toward the > > Nooks in the first place. > > I have come to loath B&N because of how badly they've messed up with the > nooks. > > My Nexus phone has the Kindle, Nook, "Google Play" and other ebook > readers on it. > > So I recommend getting the Google Nexus 7: you'll be able to read your > existing library, and any other library from vendors who create an > Android app. You might also investigate Calibre for library management > (it's got an unfortunate security stance from the developer, but it's > still the only sane option out there); appropriate plugins can help with > format conversion to epub. > > -Phil >
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