Christmas came early this year! I was waiting for a package to arrive, and made the mistake of telling my family what was coming. That’s like telling the crocodiles at the reptile zoo that you’re expecting a shipment of live chickens. When it showed up on my doorstep I was really wishing that I was a football player, or experienced Black Friday shopper, because I was no match for 3 grabby children and a former rugby player of a husband. Luckily my brain is quicker than my feet, and a mention of bacon and chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen allowed me to run for cover before they discovered that there were none of those things.
What were we fighting for so hard? It was the fabulous Nexus 7 from Google. I was so excited to have my very own tablet! I did have an iPad at one point, but it’s regularly covered in kid slime, heavy, and impossible to get my hands on because the kids are always using it.
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| Look how clean it is! No food or kid slime to be found!! And is it just me or does Nerdguy look a little too cozy with the tablet, like he’s not giving it back or something? |
I go to a lot of meetings and appointments about the kids and I prefer to take my notes on a tablet instead of on pieces of paper that I will just lose. I feel a lot more credible walking in with the Nexus that isn’t in a giant rubber case, and covered in candy. Evernote is a great app on there for taking my notes, and then they are also available on my phone and computer. Autism moms know that managing our kids’ therapies, schooling, and behaviour plans is a full-time job, with lots of notes and moving pieces. We have to have the information with us, and an easy way to jot it all down, for everything to run smoothly.
I am also really enjoying using it for reading blogs – something that I don’t do enough of because my computer is a pain to lug around, and my phone screen is too small for a lot of reading – the Nexus 7 is perfect for that. It is also feeding my Netflix addiction. I like to have a show or movie playing in the background when I do chores like laundry or dishes, and with the crisp display and easy-to-carry size it is perfect for carrying from room to room. I bought a case for it so that I can prop it up, and protect it in my disorganized purse. Seriously – my purse would be perfect for that game on Let’s Make a Deal when they asked the audience for random things from their bags. It’s really quite alarming. But there is just enough room to pop the tablet in there.
Nerdguy was so desperate to get his hands on the Nexus 7 that he asked me if he could review it. Pretty sneaky. So please give Nerdguy a warm welcome for his first-ever guest post on Don’t Lick the Deck. Don’t make him too comfortable though…I don’t want him lurking around here too much.
I see the Nexus 7 as agenda / book replacement. It is the perfect size for reading books, reviewing documents, playing games, and reading and writing emails using the easy-to-use on-screen keyboard. Speech recognition is incredible.
From a technical point of view, I like that it is a stock Android set-up. I have used the Galaxy Tab 3 and I found that the Samsung additions to the environment took away from the consistency of system. One feature that I really like on the Nexus 7 is the ability to add additional users to the device. It doesn’t seem that is possible to do that on the Galaxy Tab. This is really helpful with kids so you don’t have to navigate through all their games and you can keep your own environment.
I find that the Google integration on the Android devices is wonderful and makes it so easy to use across your devices.
I decided to try out a couple of apps that can exercise some of the cool features on this tablet. So I tried to deposit a cheque with the ING Direct app. It took a great picture of the front and back of the cheque and was deposited super-fast. No more going to the bank for me anymore. I used the app to transfer the money to my normal bank account, and that was so easy. The second app that I tried was MyFitnessPal to track my eating and exercise. With all the Christmas treats around here there were lots of barcodes around to scan to find the nutritional information.
So all in all, two thumbs up. Hopefully Tara will let me use this tablet once in a while.
Thanks Nerdguy! You were doing so well until you used the tablet to figure out if my crankiness was caused by a magnesium deficiency. You really should have thought that one through.
Now look away Nerdguy.
Shhh…can you keep a secret? I’m going to give it to Nerdguy for Christmas. It is so awesome to be able to get him an amazing present that he didn’t have to pay for. I reserve the right to borrow it every dayfrom time to time though, because I’m not that nice!
I received the new version of the Nexus 7 from Staples Canada, but all of the opinions expressed are mine and Nerdguy’s.
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