What can I do with an HDX?

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

At the moment, I'm partial to OfficeSuite Pro, which was offered at a considerable discount on Black Friday.

As a writer and editor, I revise endlessly and compulsively, as my revisions even of posts on this site tend to show.

I need to be able to revise Word docs on my tablet and OSP has worked perfectly in that respect.

Most of us got that app for free back when the very first Kindle Fire came out. It's $5 at the Amazon app store.

I edit my posts here too alot as I am dyslexic and sometimes I don't make any sense. So I am always correcting my posts. So if my post looks like gibberish it's because my brain is acting up.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

That's right, Blossom -- you did say that, which was one of the reasons I wasn't worried about the 8.9 initially.

I might buy an HDX later when the price comes down, but that would be strictly for content consumption. I actually do a lot of writing and other kinds of work on my Nexus 7. The form factor's perfect for that.

I still prefer reading books on my Kobo Aura HD.

I've given up on eInk. The HDX 8.9 is also too expensive for me. I just bought a $600 Samsung ATIV Book 4 laptop on Black Friday so no more big purchases for awhile.

[mcrow]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Most of us got that app for free back when the very first Kindle Fire came out. It's $5 at the Amazon app store.

I edit my posts here too alot as I am dyslexic and sometimes I don't make any sense. So I am always correcting my posts. So if my post looks like gibberish it's because my brain is acting up.

People can tell when I'm posting before coffee because my posts look like random junk fell out of my head with no edition at all.

[mcrow]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I've given up on eInk. The HDX 8.9 is also too expensive for me. I just bought a $600 Samsung ATIV Book 4 laptop on Black Friday so no more big purchases for awhile.

So is it fair to say at this point that your prefered reading device is the HD2 or do you have something else?

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by mcrow

So is it fair to say at this point that your prefered reading device is the HD2 or do you have something else?

It's go between from the HD2 to N7.2. Reason being is my HD2 is being used daily as my Jukebox for Christmas music. So when I turn it off around 10:30 at the night the battery is pretty depleted but that's after 8 hours of playing cloud music.

One of the main reason I got the HD2 was for music as for at the time the Android app had yet to add play by genre which is now finally has. I never expected it to be such a great reader.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by richbrown68

Fair point. Still, I can't imagine that a slight blue halo around a screen would be nearly as distracting as the machine shutting off in the middle of a paragraph....something that I believe you're in agreement with.

I have experience with that---it started happening to my Kindle Keyboard when my archive became too large for it to handle. Every time it connected to the server, a short time later, it would reboot. Very annoying.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by booklover6

I have experience with that---it started happening to my Kindle Keyboard when my archive became too large for it to handle. Every time it connected to the server, a short time later, it would reboot. Very annoying.

Oh I forgot about that old bug! At the time I had a smaller archive. Now I have like 6000 I think Android app can't handle it well because it only shows last 1000 books I added.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by Blossom

One of the main reason I got the HD2 was for music as for at the time the Android app had yet to add play by genre which is now finally has. I never expected it to be such a great reader.

You keep making me want to buy one of those. Like I need another tablet! I'll bide my time for a $99 sale.

[richbrown68]

Originally Posted by booklover6

I have experience with that---it started happening to my Kindle Keyboard when my archive became too large for it to handle. Every time it connected to the server, a short time later, it would reboot. Very annoying.

It's ironic, given my current love of the HDX 7, that this is the device where I had my first issues with regular random reboots. It got to the point that every day it would reboot once or twice....and I almost returned it over the matter. However, then they updated to Mojito 3.1. In the several weeks since they did that update, I've had one unexpected reboot. That's something I can live with.

[AnemicOak]

Thankfully I haven't experienced any random rebooting on my HDX 8.9 (or any of my various devices for that matter). It would tick me off if it happened while reading or during some other activity with any kind of regularity.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Thankfully I haven't experienced any random rebooting on my HDX 8.9 (or any of my various devices for that matter). It would tick me off if it happened while reading or during some other activity with any kind of regularity.

I think I've narrow it down to internet. If too many apps access the internet at the same precise moment it restarts.

[Carmelreader]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Oh that is a really good deal! I got my KFHD 16GB for $50 off on Cyber Monday! I am loving these sales Amazon is having. They never use to do sales on Kindles.

You're going to love the 8.9 I saw one when grabbing some cables the other day at BB and it looked awesome! I wanted to take it home with me. It uses White LEDs so there is no fringe. I still can't believe Amazon used Blue on the HDX I am confident next years will back to normal colors or they will figure out how to hide the light bleed. Amazon does listen to it users at first they were saying the blue is normal and no replacements allowed. Now they say we'll replace it but can't promise the new one will be any better than the last. The techs I talk to last time were aware of the issue and no longer called it normal. One person reported a tech telling him they can just keep replacing it till he is happy. You got to love Kindle Support! No other store will do that.

I am sure looking forward to getting it. Suppose to be Monday. I was so pleased to see that deal!

I gather you read my post before I deleted it. Just didn't want to add to the soup, so to speak. Maybe I should have left it. Anyway from reading it you know I totally agree with you on the bluing. Glad to hear they are going to work on it. That smaller tablet deserves to get the same leds as the bigger one, because it is a great tablet. I'll let you know what I think of the bigger one when it arrives.

[Barty]

So I got the nexus 7 and I'm setting it up and putting it through the paces.

Hardware feels solid. I hope my sis is ok with form factor. A little worried. I think it's too big for her to hold in her palm like a phone, so she will have to hold it with a thumb grip, but the side bevels are two narrow.

Not thrilled about the power button on the side. (at first i thought there was a smudge on the front but later i realized it was a mark to tell you which end is up, so you can find the power button.) The screen and bevel are both glossy black and when using night theme they blend together so I keep touching the screen inadvertently.

Screen looks pretty good thanks to the 300+ dpi. But black levels are just so so. Black text looks grey compared to my iPad 3.

Overall, it feels a bit rough. Things are fast and responsive until they are not. For example: scrolling. It goes really fast and then grinds to a near stop then does a couple jerks then stops.

The app switcher is really nice. Better than iOS. I like the customizable home screen, once I figured it out. (wow, google spared no effort spamming with every service they have. If this is the clean android build I don't want to know what the spammy ones look like)

Stereo speakers! okay, tinny, but stereo nevertheless

Battery life seems low for a brand new fully charged device. Maybe 8 hrs?

One thing I really appreciate about android is a lot of apps go for the dark high contrast look. I hate the flat, unrelentingly white and bright look adopted by ios 7. Apple must realize how eye tiring all that white is, so what do they do? Add color blobs to app background. :facepalm:

Android has what I wish apple would add: a common, general storage space that can be accessed by all apps. (ios has that but only for music and photos). unfortunately, android apps all have their own idea of where to put files so I have folders littered all over.

The major apps on android are pretty much the same as on ios (many of them were probably ported over from ios, so that's not surprising). However, the smaller, independent apps are not very good, from what I see so far.

Example: I'm trying to find an ebook reader and there's nothing as good as Marvin or Stanza on the iPad. I've tried moon, aldiko, montano, cool reader. They all have some annoying flaws -- not missing or incomplete features, but flaws in basic operation and lousy implementation of features. Like: it's all or nothing when it comes to publisher css settings. You can't just change font and margin and keep the other CSS settings intact. Tapping to turn page does not working consistently (I installed a touch test app, and it registers my touches fine). Ditto comic / manga reader. Perfect viewer has a ton of settings and tweaks, but doesn't have a simple scrubber. Komik doesn't let you flick scroll, you have to drag the page from too to bottom if you are zoomed in. Etc

My problem with these apps 1/ they seem to follow the do-whatever-you-feel-like design guideline. One app uses double tap to return to library instead of zooming in. Another uses swipe up as show menu. They all look and behave differently with idiosyncratic defaults. Like one has 9 tap zones assigned to various functions so it does weird random things until I dug into the menu. You think they could've shown you on first run the tap zone assignment. 2/ none of them is good at giving you visual feedback and telling you what is happening. A lot of times, I tap something, nothing seems to happen, I tap again, then again, then 3 things happen quick succession. 3/ they put emphasis on customizability while not getting basic functions working correctly. 4/ just lousy user experience in general. Since I've done gui programming myself, I'm way better than the average person at putting myself in the head of the developer, but I still spend way too much time trying to figure out how to do things.

Ps: I don't have a menu or search key. Since they're soft keys, there must be a way to add them, but I can't find it.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Barty

So I got the nexus 7 and I'm setting it up and putting it through the paces.

Hardware feels solid. I hope my sis is ok with form factor. A little worried. I think it's too big for her to hold in her palm like a phone, so she will have to hold it with a thumb grip, but the side bevels are two narrow.

Not thrilled about the power button on the side. (at first i thought there was a smudge on the front but later i realized it was a mark to tell you which end is up, so you can find the power button.) The screen and bevel are both glossy black and when using night theme they blend together so I keep touching the screen inadvertently.

Screen looks pretty good thanks to the 300+ dpi. But black levels are just so so. Black text looks grey compared to my iPad 3.

Overall, it feels a bit rough. Things are fast and responsive until they are not. For example: scrolling. It goes really fast and then grinds to a near stop then does a couple jerks then stops.

The app switcher is really nice. Better than iOS. I like the customizable home screen, once I figured it out. (wow, google spared no effort spamming with every service they have. If this is the clean android build I don't want to know what the spammy ones look like)

Stereo speakers! okay, tinny, but stereo nevertheless

Battery life seems low for a brand new fully charged device. Maybe 8 hrs?

One thing I really appreciate about android is a lot of apps go for the dark high contrast look. I hate the flat, unrelentingly white and bright look adopted by ios 7. Apple must realize how eye tiring all that white is, so what do they do? Add color blobs to app background. :facepalm:

Android has what I wish apple would add: a common, general storage space that can be accessed by all apps. (ios has that but only for music and photos). unfortunately, android apps all have their own idea of where to put files so I have folders littered all over.

The major apps on android are pretty much the same as on ios (many of them were probably ported over from ios, so that's not surprising). However, the smaller, independent apps are not very good, from what I see so far.

Example: I'm trying to find an ebook reader and there's nothing as good as Marvin or Stanza on the iPad. I've tried moon, aldiko, montano, cool reader. They all have some annoying flaws -- not missing or incomplete features, but flaws in basic operation and lousy implementation of features. Like: it's all or nothing when it comes to publisher css settings. You can't just change font and margin and keep the other CSS settings intact. Tapping to turn page does not working consistently (I installed a touch test app, and it registers my touches fine). Ditto comic / manga reader. Perfect viewer has a ton of settings and tweaks, but doesn't have a simple scrubber. Komik doesn't let you flick scroll, you have to drag the page from too to bottom if you are zoomed in. Etc

My problem with these apps 1/ they seem to follow the do-whatever-you-feel-like design guideline. One app uses double tap to return to library instead of zooming in. Another uses swipe up as show menu. They all look and behave differently with idiosyncratic defaults. Like one has 9 tap zones assigned to various functions so it does weird random things until I dug into the menu. You think they could've shown you on first run the tap zone assignment. 2/ none of them is good at giving you visual feedback and telling you what is happening. A lot of times, I tap something, nothing seems to happen, I tap again, then again, then 3 things happen quick succession. 3/ they put emphasis on customizability while not getting basic functions working correctly. 4/ just lousy user experience in general. Since I've done gui programming myself, I'm way better than the average person at putting myself in the head of the developer, but I still spend way too much time trying to figure out how to do things.

Ps: I don't have a menu or search key. Since they're soft keys, there must be a way to add them, but I can't find it.

Welcome to Android! First make sure you go to settings/ device and touch system update and click check now to make sure you have the latest firmware. You should but you want to make sure.

Second there is no menu key in Android 4. All menus are at the top of the app. Look for the symbol with three horizontal lines or three vertical dots. That is your menu for the app. Now about the search it's up to the developer if it has it or not. It's usually on the menu if so.

You can hold the N7 in your palm its that light but I prefer to hold it in my right hand resting on my palm and the thumb on the small bezel to turn pages. A case will help with holding the tablet better though.

The Nexus battery life will improve after the first couple of charges. I believe it has 9 hour battery life but in standby it doesn't use hardly any battery at all. I charge mine once a week but mine is in sleep mode alot.

You have to get use how Android tapping works. It takes a lights touch on some apps and harder touch on other apps. So it varies. On Moon+ for example it feathery touch that works best unlike say the Kindle app which takes leaving your finger a little longer.

Moon+ isn't the best for real CSS that would be Mantano it shows the most true publisher's look. Kindle well it varies. Aldiko is outdated. No there is nothing like Marvin for Android but we make do.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Most of us got that app for free back when the very first Kindle Fire came out. It's $5 at the Amazon app store.

After a business-oriented friend recommended that app -- excuse me, I meant suite -- to me a few weeks ago, I was dismayed to find it selling for $16 in the Play Store. So when the price dropped to $3.99 on BF, I grabbed it while I could.

And when you say "most of us," it sounds as though you mean most of you who use the Amazon app store, which I do not. I tried it in the very beginning but didn't like the complications introduced by buying Android apps from a circumscribed vendor.

I tend to buy gadgets which I can put to particular creative uses. In the case of my N7.2, I'll be using it for writing with a bluetooth keyboard, but I'll also be using it to give readings, since my e-ink devices have proved too temporally unreliable for that.

Originally Posted by Blossom

I edit my posts here too alot as I am dyslexic and sometimes I don't make any sense. So I am always correcting my posts. So if my post looks like gibberish it's because my brain is acting up.

I remember reading an interview with the late Robert Lowell in he was asked how often he revised. His answer was this: "Incessantly. All my thoughts are second thoughts."

I take comfort in that confession by a poet who was often labeled confessional.