Saturday, October 27, 2012

Run Linux on the Nexus 7 Tablet

The ultimate ROM? I guess this really does not even qualify as a ROM when it is an entirely different operating system. Would you like to run the complete Linux operating system on your Asus made Google Android Nexus 7 tablet? Or maybe the new Samsung Nexus 10 coming out just around the corner? If you decide to go down this path you will be running the Ubuntu 13.04 version of Linux. Currently this is in the earliest stages of development with Jono Bacon heading the way. The group is looking for testers as well as programmers. If you have a Nexus 7 and would like to help, it would be appreciated. Make sure you fully understand everything you are doing before you take any action. You will not be running an emulator of linux. You will be erasing Android completely and replacing it entirely. Can you imagine the possibilities? All the linux software software at your disposal in a comfortable and very portable package. I will be following up with instructional videos and test results. Subscribe to the blog to keep up. Its in the upper right side.

Check out the Nexus 7 Linux Ubuntu project here.Nexus Linux Project

Buy your Nexus 7 tablet here. Google Nexus 7 Black Wi-Fi 16GB Tablet - NEXUS7ASUS1B16

Friday, October 26, 2012

Nexus 7 Android NFC Hack

Watch out! That NFC antenna built into your Nexus 7 tablet and other model phones is vulnerable to attack. Basically NFC provides a way into the rest of the device. Originally NFC was built to be a system of data transfer that requires two devices with NFC antennas to be within one inch of each other. NFC allows people to move data like photos, music, and whatever else you like without the need of wires or even a wireless network. NFC was designed to only work at close distances similar to and even closer than bluetooth. Just like bluetooth, our friendly hackers have found ways to connect to active NFC antennas at distance. What does this mean for  you? Unless you are actively using NFC turn that antenna off. Short of being off one other safety feature is built in. When the lock screen is on NFC is designed to be disabled. But who knows how long that will be effective if someone has has not already broken through that. Darren over at Hak5 covers the NFC vulnerabilities.

Hak5 NFC Hack

Google Nexus 7 Black Wi-Fi 16GB Tablet - NEXUS7ASUS1B16 
 (Google Affiliate Ad)


Thursday, October 11, 2012

Nexus 7 Fix!

My new and second Nexus 7 tablet has arrived. After just over twenty-four hours I finally have a working tablet. I must say that the last guy I spoke with at Google customer service was great. He was not “over customer servicing”, but rather down to earth and very realistic. He took the time to explain to me the faults of the first few customer service people and then he made it right. Unlike the previous, he remained on the phone with me until I received both the necessary emails. One email contained the order for the new model which put a $250 hold on my credit card. Which, once again, the customer service person was kind enough to explain before it happened. The other email provided me with the funded shipping label to send back my physically defective tablet. Short of the many weeks of problematic customer service and one defective tablet, I am a very happy guy. I highly recommend the Nexus 7 tablet as it is super inexpensive and yet very capable.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Google Nexus 7 Epic Fail

It appears that I jumped the gun a little earlier when posting about the great customer service at Google for Nexus products. Nexus 7 tablet’s failure has been epic. $199 starting price coupled with what could be an excellent product seems almost to good to be true. Perusing the forums shows up with some wonderful user experiences with the Nexus 7. Yet, a large portion of unknown size seems to be having some very annoying hardware issues with little or no support from the Google Nexus 7 team. The horrible treatment by the Nexus 7 customer service appears to be even worse for those living out of the country.

For those of you that do not know, the Nexus 7 is a Google released Asus made 7” Android tablet priced beginning at $199 for 8 gigs. Mine was $250 since I bought it with the extra internal storage. At first I was a little under whelmed by the size after coming from a 10” tablet. However, very shortly after some initial use I found the 7” size to be optimal for me. The Nexus was a more convenient size to carry around and just about the physical size of an average paper book. I was equally afraid that movie watching might suffer, but even that turned out to be pretty perfect at least from a screen size standpoint.

Sadly the screen is the focal point of the failure. Notice I did not say epic failure as that is to come. Right off the bat the screen was obviously having problems. When I power it up, especially after not using it for a few minutes, the LCD is almost entirely whited out. As I use the Nexus it progressively gets brighter until finally showing its’ full color and brightness. But this usually takes up to ten or more minutes just to get there. How do they expect a user to deal with this?

I then started to notice what looks like little rips in the corners under the glass. It appears to be screen separation at each of the four corners just a few millimeters in length. The tears are just enough to constantly notice it.

The next issue is the flicker. Getting random lines flickering during reading or movie watching is quite annoying. The flickering seems to be spontaneous expect that I might not have been able to pin down the exact cause.
The worst of the physical issues is the temporary burn in or ghosting of images on the screen. So I surf the net and the last page I am on is the Google search page. I jump over to the Netflix app and all I can see is a faded Google logo and search bar shining through my red Netflix load screen. This gets old fast as it can take a long time before this ever goes away. It is enough to make me put the device down.

If you remember I said there was an epic level failure. Well that would have to be Google itself. I called the Nexus customer service hotline and got right through. Unlike many reports from other customers on line, I was able to get a service person very quickly on a Saturday night at that. He went into detail with me about the issues with my tablet. His first response was that this was an immediate warranty issue and he was sending one right out. I offered a credit card to help confirm and he said it was not needed. He said it would arrive in a couple of days with a return prepaid shipping label to send back the defective Nexus 7. This was just about the best customer service I have ever experienced from a tech company so I thought. I even left a raving Blog post and answered the customer survey. But then it ended up all being false so I guess it was not that great.

A week passed and I was wondering what was up. So I called again and got through quickly once more. This different Google rep then told me that the last person I spoke with did not have the power to warranty my item and that this rep could not either. He said that all he could do was label my issue “escalated” in their system. He said he would have transferred me over to the people that could warranty my Nexus 7, but Google’s systems were down. Now I am sitting here being told that I should just try to call again in a few days. It has been a week without anything and now I am out of the 15 day window. What the crap Google?

This device is really awesome and at such a great price point. They say you get what you pay for, but I did not pay for a broken tablet. Sure, a sub $200 tablet is expected to have some limitations, but I did not even get to find out what those are. I just got a broken one.

Maybe with your help this message will get out to Google or even to Asus. I want to hear from someone that can actually replace my Nexus 7. I do not want a refund, I want a functioning Nexus. That is it. I will gladly do another review if things ever improve.

All you awesome KDtech youtube subscribers and KDtech blog reader could do me and what appears to be many troubled Nexus owners a favor, hit that like button on the video (when I post it) and blog, help share the video, and subscribe to my channel so you can hear what happens. It is all free and will help protect you and everyone else from future crappy customer experiences. Or at least it may make me feel a little better...

Thanks for watching and all your support. You can follow me on twitter @kraisydave, my website at KDtech.co and Google + @kraisy dave. Have a good one.


Written by: kraisydave
Everyone deserves to get the most out of their device. - KDtech.co

Nexus 7 Tablet - Issues and Great Service

The Google Nexus 7 tablet arrived on my doorstep about a week ago. Right off the bat I was amazed at how small the box was. Being use to a 10 inch tablet had me worried. Those worries were later changed to love. Powering up the Nexus 7 for the first time went really smooth. However I had to do an erase and then fresh start up again as I have two internet connections at my home. One is out of Canada while the other is in the US. Initially the Canadian one gave me a more limited step and refused to give me the $25 gift card to the Google play store. All was remedied upon the fresh US start. But then my issues began.
My Nexus 7 began to show similar issues to many others reporting in the forums. The corners where the screen meets the glass seems to have permanent black scratch like marks under the glass. It seems to be screen separation. The larger issues are a type of screen burn in and a white out gradual fade in. The screen burn could be called ghosting. The last program ran leaves a very detailed, but transparent copy of itself in the next app ran or even in the home screen. Over about 5 or 10 minutes this fades away. The white out looks like the LCD crystals are just not getting the color information needed. If I have not started the device for a while the screen white out fade is really bad. But as I use the Nexus 7 it improves until the point where all color is properly restored. I am evening typing on the Nexus 7 now to write this. At the moment all colors are perfectly correct.
Today I decided it was time to call Google and explain what had been going on. I waited for a while as I had hopes a software patch would fix most things. However, I have learned that it is more of a hardware issue. Many people on the forums stated horrible stories with customer service. Mine was nothing short of excellent. I called and listened to the options. Number 2 was for anyone under the magic 15 day return policy. After just a few seconds of ringing on a late Saturday evening a Google rep picked up. I explained my situation and he stated it was likely a hardware issue. He told me a replacement was on its way out and that it would contain a paid shipping label for my current one with no credit card needed. It was just about the best customer experience I have ever had over the phone which was all completed in about 5 minutes. I even answered the followup survey.
Aside from the above issues I would highly recommend this tablet. The Nexus 7 tablet is the ultimate pure Google, pure Android experience at the best price and what I later learned was just the right size. If you are looking for a tablet or just have a little money burning a hole in your pocket, then get the Nexus 7.