Nexus 7 Owners Thread - apps, tips & tricks!

kenyard · 02-08-2012 12:12pm

there has been lots of questions as to the benefits of rooting. people arent answering the main one.
USB or external Harddrive support.
if you root you can get an app or some additional firmware which allows you add a usb. i was thinking of getting it and getting a thumb drive usb to leave stuck in as it wouldnt add much bulk if any, or get a micro sd card usb thingy and use a 32gb sd card in it either. would be dead handy for movies etc to give space for them

balkieb2002 · 02-08-2012 12:18pm

kenyard wrote: »

there has been lots of questions as to the benefits of rooting. people arent answering the main one.
USB or external Harddrive support.
if you root you can get an app or some additional firmware which allows you add a usb. i was thinking of getting it and getting a thumb drive usb to leave stuck in as it wouldnt add much bulk if any, or get a micro sd card usb thingy and use a 32gb sd card in it either. would be dead handy for movies etc to give space for them

Ahem...

balkieb2002 wrote: »

StickMount - A big one for some people - Ability to use OTG cable which allows you to connect usb drives to your device i.e. expanding your space

Eponymous · 02-08-2012 12:35pm

balkieb2002 wrote: »

They are for using Chinese or Korean languages with your keyboard. I don't see any reason why they cannot be removed (you can download them again from PlayStore) though I'm not sure why you need to remove them.

Thanks.

No particular reason. I got a notification this morning for an update to the pinyin IME and it was over 6mb. Not much I know, but if it's unnecessary for me to use the nexus properly, I'd just rather remove it and avoid getting nagged to update apps I don't need.

BrookieD · 02-08-2012 12:47pm

ok so i am building up a nice collection of emulators and roms I have PSX, N64, SNES, Amiga 500 but was looking for a good NeoGeo one, i know there is a couple in the play store but has anybody first hand experience of them and provide a hand in choosing the correct/best one to purchase.

Also got a 2nd hand PS3 six axis controller, paired it upto the nexus 7 for gaming glory.. My kid no want my Nexus 7 and dumped his 3DS to the side.....

WeleaseWoderick · 02-08-2012 12:50pm

BrookieD wrote: »

ok so i am building up a nice collection of emulators and roms I have PSX, N64, SNES, Amiga 500 but was looking for a good NeoGeo one, i know there is a couple in the play store but has anybody first hand experience of them and provide a hand in choosing the correct/best one to purchase.

Also got a 2nd hand PS3 six axis controller, paired it upto the nexus 7 for gaming glory.. My kid no want my Nexus 7 and dumped his 3DS to the side.....

Do you need to root the Nexus to do this?

marcbrophy · 02-08-2012 12:52pm

kenyard wrote: »

there has been lots of questions as to the benefits of rooting. people arent answering the main one.
USB or external Harddrive support.
if you root you can get an app or some additional firmware which allows you add a usb. i was thinking of getting it and getting a thumb drive usb to leave stuck in as it wouldnt add much bulk if any, or get a micro sd card usb thingy and use a 32gb sd card in it either. would be dead handy for movies etc to give space for them

Any recommendations on a small usb reader for micro sd that will connect to micro usb?

balkieb2002 · 02-08-2012 1:18pm

WeleaseWoderick wrote: »

Do you need to root the Nexus to do this?

Not sure how BrookieD did his but for example using the Sixaxis Controller app does require root access. You can alternativly also use a WiiMote or the XBOX 360 wired controller and a USB OTG cable, so if you have any of the major consoles your sorted

BrookieD · 02-08-2012 1:31pm

balkieb2002 wrote: »

Not sure how BrookieD did his but for example using the Sixaxis Controller app does require root access. You can alternativly also use a WiiMote or the XBOX 360 wired controller and a USB OTG cable, so if you have any of the major consoles your sorted

Hi
Rooted the Nexus 7 to get the PS3 control working. the Wiimote would just not connect.
But i needed to change the mac address of the control to get it to pair. apart from that is easy as pie

WeleaseWoderick · 02-08-2012 2:23pm

BrookieD wrote: »

Hi
Rooted the Nexus 7 to get the PS3 control working. the Wiimote would just not connect.
But i needed to change the mac address of the control to get it to pair. apart from that is easy as pie

Cool, thanks!

Another question regarding rooting. If I want to keep the stock ROM, will rooting give me access to all this extra stuff? i.e. PS3 controller use, USB mounting, Flash, unfreezing Google Apps.

Or do I need to install a custom ROM to run these things?

balkieb2002 · 02-08-2012 2:44pm

WeleaseWoderick wrote: »

Cool, thanks!

Another question regarding rooting. If I want to keep the stock ROM, will rooting give me access to all this extra stuff? i.e. PS3 controller use, USB mounting, Flash, unfreezing Google Apps.

Or do I need to install a custom ROM to run these things?

All you need is the stock ROM.

It more or less: Get Nexus 7 -> Unlock Bootloader -> Root Device and have access to all those lovely things (hardest step is the first one

)

Custom ROMs just add features, change the UI or may have some of the above as features (Google Apps, Flash) as standard.

jonski · 02-08-2012 5:28pm

balkieb2002 wrote: »

Can't recommend the Nexus Root Toolkit v1.5 enough.
Very easy step by step process for unlocking your bootloader and rooting your device. The toolkit includes many other options such as backing up/restoring your device, installing applications, using ADB commands plus of course re-locking your bootloader and restoring back to factory settings which have all worked me.

.

Ok , when you said simple you obviously were not taking into account how stupid I am . For a star I mixed up the one from M.Sabra and this one from Wugfresh and went ahead with the M.sabra one ....... does this just root the device ?
Can I go ahead and use the WugFresh one ?
In the options for list your device it says 4.1.1 build JRO03c ...mine is 4.1.1 JRO03D ..does this make a hugh difference ?

Jaysus me head is addled

johnmcdnl · 02-08-2012 5:45pm

jonski wrote: »

Ok , when you said simple you obviously were not taking into account how stupid I am . For a star I mixed up the one from M.Sabra and this one from Wugfresh and went ahead with the M.sabra one ....... does this just root the device ?
Can I go ahead and use the WugFresh one ?
In the options for list your device it says 4.1.1 build JRO03c ...mine is 4.1.1 JRO03D ..does this make a hugh difference ?

Jaysus me head is addled

I haven't a clue what you've done or haven't done but if you reboot your Nexus now and when the Google screen comes up during the loading look to see if there is an Unlocked Icon at the bottom of the screen.
Something along the lines of this at the botttom of the screen basically

If there is Bob's your uncle your rooted as easy as that. If there isn't use the Root Toolkit by WugFresh.

EDIT - it's probably even easier to just install this app and check for root access.
Root Checker

balkieb2002 · 02-08-2012 5:50pm

jonski wrote: »

Ok , when you said simple you obviously were not taking into account how stupid I am . For a star I mixed up the one from M.Sabra and this one from Wugfresh and went ahead with the M.sabra one ....... does this just root the device ?
Can I go ahead and use the WugFresh one ?
In the options for list your device it says 4.1.1 build JRO03c ...mine is 4.1.1 JRO03D ..does this make a hugh difference ?

Jaysus me head is addled

Yeah I orginally got confused between the two of them as well but didn't actually complete the M.sabra install. I did use the drivers from his release though as that seemed to be the hardest part in the other program.

In order to Root your device your bootloader must be unlocked. You can tell it's unlocked by the very last line on the bootloader screen or even easier, if when you turn on your device you see a lock symbol underneath the Google loading screen.
N.B. To unlock your bootloader your device will be wiped, hence why this it's best to do this first thing when you get your device!

If it's unlocked there is a good chance you are rooted. To check this you need to find SuperSU in your list of applications (the first kit you ran should have installed this) and run it. It should prompt you to give it Root Access.

I know there is lots of information there but if you let me know what you see then we can work from there!

Bah johnmcdnl beat me to it... picture = easier then lots of writing

jonski · 02-08-2012 6:16pm

OK , it obviously worked then ..... I see the unlocked padlock when booting and can see the su app ......... I was also able to install stickmount which was my only goal .

Don't mind me lads ......I panic easily

Patsy fyre · 02-08-2012 10:23pm

Can we ever expect to get full access to services that they get in the USA?

johnmcdnl · 02-08-2012 10:52pm

Patsy fyre wrote: »

Can we ever expect to get full access to services that they get in the USA?

We tend to get them a while after - street view for example.. Won't be holding my breath waiting on them but I'd expect to see them at some stage.

dregin · 03-08-2012 12:20am

If apple can do it with iTunes, I'm sure Google will be selling music here at some point. Not sure what the deal is with devices... Can they just not be arsed meeting the demand of the whole world? By all accounts, their cover is brutal anyway

liamhana · 03-08-2012 9:25am

So has anyone got some cool tricks, tips or apps that dont involve rooting! Fair play to those of ye that have but I'm not that techie confident & certainly not with a new toy!

wingnut · 03-08-2012 9:27am

Anyone having issues with flash?

First time I installed FF Beta and the Flash APK it worked fine.

I did a factory reset and reinstalled the same combo. The flash works but it scales horribly and looks distorted. Flash video appears ok but flash UIs are horrible.

I did another factory reset and its the same thing. Frustrating as it worked fine first time out.

liamhana · 03-08-2012 9:46am

I've had the same with flash - videos work fine & been able to watch things but the interface looks out of focus...not overly bothered by it though as long as I can watch some TV!

wingnut · 03-08-2012 10:14am

What annoys me is that it did work the first time - so I know the potential is there! Maybe FireFox was updated??

balkieb2002 · 03-08-2012 11:03am

wingnut wrote: »

What annoys me is that it did work the first time - so I know the potential is there! Maybe FireFox was updated??

Just checked the play store there and Firefox beta is showing "Updated: August 2, 2012" so I think your right. That's why I make sure to manually update!

Your best bet would be to try find an older apk or use a different browser (ICS browser maybe?).

Patsy fyre · 03-08-2012 11:32am

Seems like a silly decision to disable flash since alot of websites still use it, surely a few years too early. What was their thinking behind that.?

wingnut · 03-08-2012 11:33am

The older version of Firefox worked a treat and flash is back to normal.

Mantel · 03-08-2012 12:15pm

Patsy fyre wrote: »

Seems like a silly decision to disable flash since alot of websites still use it, surely a few years too early. What was their thinking behind that.?

It's either security related or a move to get everyone to move away from flash a bit faster. If all android devices still ran flash then there would be less of a reason to move away from it and the process would drag on for years, if you have a large segment of your mobile and tablet audience incapable of viewing flash content then there's a pretty good reason for site owners to put in alternatives such as HTML5.

Professey Chin · 03-08-2012 12:17pm

Patsy fyre wrote: »

Seems like a silly decision to disable flash since alot of websites still use it, surely a few years too early. What was their thinking behind that.?

Because theres no point if Adobe arent going to keep supporting it. No point in beating a dead horse (and when its owner says its dead, its dead)

wingnut · 03-08-2012 12:19pm

Yeah they all want to kick the habit, but some websites using it mean we want one last fix.

For the longest time you had RTE player on Android and not Ipad. With the death of flash on Android it will the reverse unless RTE get the finger out.

thisguy145 · 03-08-2012 7:55pm

I currently have the nexus 7 and am loving it. Regarding games that are optimized for the tegra 3 chipset just download Tegrazone from the play store and it will show games that are tegra 3 based. Some are free and some you pay for. But all are good

anyways when we finally do get the full access to the play store will we get the free credit also? Or will that just get boycotted?

jonski · 04-08-2012 1:01am

Concentrating on other aspects of the Nexus for the first few days so I didn't notice about the video player not playing Avi's and the like , seems it only supports a small few file formats . I was waiting for the Android version of XBMC but there is no sign of that yet that I can see so I am downloading MXPlayer atm ........ any other recomendations ?

balkieb2002 · 04-08-2012 2:13am

thisguy145 wrote: »

anyways when we finally do get the full access to the play store will we get the free credit also? Or will that just get boycotted?

But we already have the free credit

jonski wrote: »

I was waiting for the Android version of XBMC but there is no sign of that yet that I can see so I am downloading MXPlayer atm ........ any other recomendations ?

There's going to be a beta of XBMC soon enough and I'd say an apk of it would easy enough to source soon after, but MX Player would def be top of my list of video players (dice also decent) and it hasn't let me down for any source I've thrown at it. Hasn't really been a definitive list of must have apps for this yet only one I know of is a camera launcher (which i didn't even really use!)

Nexus 7 Owners Thread - apps, tips & tricks!

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