Tablet Wars just Heating up with Google Nexus 7

With the Microsoft Surface announcement and now the Google Nexus 7, it would seem we have all the major players entered in the big tablet competition. But wait, there's more! As CNET reports via Boy Genius Report, Amazon is readying two new Kindle tablets for an end of July release. So you may want to wait on that Nexus 7 purchase for a month just to see what the options are.



Nexus 7 Review

CNET has a complete hands on review of the Nexus 7. Basically, a beautiful looking tablet with great performance for only $199. The Nexus has no expansion capabilities (no SD card slot or memory options beyond 16GB). But unless you have a large movie or music collection, this is gonna be just fine for most people. The fact that it is Wifi only should not be a surprise given the price.



There are a couple of key points for me.

• Media - Can Google compete with Apple and Amazon on movies and books and such. To me, there is no clear advantage to going with Google in this area. While there are for Apple and Amazon Prime. My idea. Buy Netflix and offer it for free or at a big discount on your devices. That would get some attention.


• Voice - Can they do better at voice than Siri. I'm waiting for more info on this. Some of the reviews seem to imply you can do voice dictation without an Net connection. That would be cool if it turns out to be true.

Anyway, things are getting very interesting in the summer of 2012!

Nook Touch Battery is not Holding Charge

I just got back from a week long trip. Much to my frustration, my brand new Nook Touch can't hold a charge longer than 4 days. This is not good for a device advertised to hold a charge for 2 months under normal use.



So to eliminate possible issues I:

1. Turned off Wifi


2. Removed my 8gb MicroSD card

The Nook showed no improvement. If anything it got worse.



So I called tech support this morning. First person was clueless. Second person disconnected. Third person (who was helpful) suggested I drain the device 100%. Then let the device charge for 4.5 hours to see if that resets the battery.



That should take 24 hours to try (for the battery to drain all the way). I will report back with the results.



Update: I fixed my Nook. Details can be found in a newer post here.

Impressive ePub3 Book

Cult of Mac has a cool link to a sample ePub3 book. The amount of interactivity is quite impressive. I did not know something like this was possible.



Of course, I not sure it would look real great on a Black and White Kindle or a Nook.

iPad Catching up to Kindle

The iPad is gonna crush the Kindle? Well that's what the folks over at All Things D think.



However, the article is an oversimplification. Kindle books can be read on the iPad as well as on the Kindle. So the one device is outselling the other device is a very narrow view. My guess would be that Amazon is selling more Kindles not less because of the iPad. Plus, the Kindle for iPad is the best book reader available on the iPad. More books, better interface, you name it.



Without eBook sales included in the analysis, you are not getting the whole picture.

iPad Validating eBook Readers

According to WSJ, iPads are not killing the sales of eBook readers. In fact, they seem to be accelerating their sales. This makes sense to me. First, the iPad and future tablets are driving down the prices of the readers. In addition, Kindle for the iPad validates the usefulness of having all your books in electronic form.