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Googles Nexus 7 tablet discussion, reviews

firky said:
I haven't got one of the 3G N7s myself but I was just going off past experience - would whack a SIM card into other tablets straight out the phone, reset the network settings and then the tablet. Voila! Worked.

Have a look at GiffGaff?
Click to expand...
I was working near the O2 shop in Kensington today so I thought I'd pop in there about the problem I've been having. The bloke I saw agreed with you that any SIM should work. We tried one, then another which was supposedly an iPad PAYG SIM and then another (!) and they all came up with the same message I got before about "mobile number not recognised" when it tries to register the SIM with O2 to top up. Eventually, he tried activating and topping up the SIM from his PC, it came up with the same message. He tried another two via his PC and came up with the same message each time! :mad:

He phoned someone to help. They said it should work. Eventually they came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with the O2 website page or the systems behind it even though they weren't getting any error messages saying there was a problem.

The bloke on the other end of the phone activated the SIM, added some credit (for free) and now... IT WORKS! :D

So, there's nothing wrong with my Nexus, there was nothing wrong with the SIM but there's something strange going on with O2's systems.
 
Leafster said:
I was working near the O2 shop in Kensington today so I thought I'd pop in there about the problem I've been having. The bloke I saw agreed with you that any SIM should work. We tried one, then another which was supposedly an iPad PAYG SIM and then another (!) and they all came up with the same message I got before about "mobile number not recognised" when it tries to register the SIM with O2 to top up. Eventually, he tried activating and topping up the SIM from his PC, it came up with the same message. He tried another two via his PC and came up with the same message each time! :mad:

He phoned someone to help. They said it should work. Eventually they came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with the O2 website page or the systems behind it even though they weren't getting any error messages saying there was a problem.

The bloke on the other end of the phone activated the SIM, added some credit (for free) and now... IT WORKS! :D

So, there's nothing wrong with my Nexus, there was nothing wrong with the SIM but there's something strange going on with O2's systems.
Click to expand...

Great news :D

It is a shame you don't run a big tech review site or something, O2 would fall over themselves to keep you quiet! They won't people wanting to know when their system goes belly up they don't even know about it!

Glad you got it going, they're a great little device 8)
 
firky said:
Great news :D

It is a shame you don't run a big tech review site or something, O2 would fall over themselves to keep you quiet! They won't people wanting to know when their system goes belly up they don't even know about it!

Glad you got it going, they're a great little device 8)
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Yeah, I really like it. It's the perfect size for me and I didn't want to fork out a fortune for an iPad mini (£239 for the 3G Nexus 7 or £449 for the equivalent iPad mini!). The only slight disappointments are the sound quality from the speaker and I can't find an easy way for it to sync with Outlook on the PC. But apart from that it's all good! :)
 
I've had a play with one today. The urge to buy straight off was heavy, but I can wait until the end of the year. Also considering a 3G model, it's £239 sim free - worth it?
 
Balbi said:
I've had a play with one today. The urge to buy straight off was heavy, but I can wait until the end of the year. Also considering a 3G model, it's £239 sim free - worth it?
Click to expand...

Yes, it is worth it :cool:

Is that a 32GB model for that price?
 
I bought my mum the 32GB jobby from Argos for Christmas, Ballbag. They had the 3G in stock when I was there (last week).
 
firky said:
Is that what it works out at? :eek:
Click to expand...
How much will it cost me?

1) You can purchase the Nexus 7 by ASUS for £50 with the Digital Pack subscription for £17.33 each month for 18 months. The monthly payments for the subscription will begin in the first month so the total one-off payment for the first month is £67.33.
Click to expand...

e2a: oop :oops: I see I was a few days / a page behind :facepalm:
 
Here's the latest on the saga of my Nexus 7 3G and the O2 SIMs. :(

I couldn't connect via the SIM today but I didn't get the message about topping up. I could only assume the free credit which was manually put on the SIM had run out.

So I've been on the phone to O2 yet again! :mad: I have now been told the following:

The SIM in my Nexus is an iPad SIM (I knew that) but the only way it can be topped up is via iTunes and and since it's not in an iPAD that's not going to work! (The reason it worked for a while was that someone (the bloke on the phone in my previous instalment) had manually fiddled the systems to add some credit.

The website I was originally linked to from the alert on my Nexus was the mobile broadband top up page. Apparently, for that to work it requires some firmware (?) in the dongle with the mobile broadband SIM in it. That's also why the bloke in the shop couldn't get it to work. I can only assume that because the bloke in the O2 shop changed all the settings to the iPad ones, I didn't get the original alert again about topping up with a link to the mobile broadband top up page again.

O2 PAYG SIMs come in different flavours; iPad SIMs which can only be topped up via iTunes, Mobile broadband SIMs which usually use the firmware in the dongle to add software to your PC which manages the connection to the O2 website to obtain credit and bog-standard mobile phone SIMs which you can top up via the phone, with a top up card or online.

Any O2 SIM card with credit put into the Nexus will work BUT it isn't possible to top it up from the tablet once it's in the tablet. :( Presumably if you opted for a monthly plan this wouldn't be an issue.

So, he had two suggestions; get a mobile broadband SIM from O2 then get a pair of scissors and cut it down to Micro SIM size! :D, or get a bog standard micro-SIM for a mobile and top it up online.

He wasn't sure the first one would work but if does then you should be able to top up if you ran out of data. But then he also mentioned having to swap the number over for some reason. By now I was losing the will to live (if you've read this far, you probably are too!) and couldn't be bothered to press him further on the reason especially as he said I'd need to phone them back once I'd got the SIM to get that sorted - I think it was something to do with it not being in a dongle but in my Nexus and I had visions of all the hassles I'd already had repeating themselves! The second suggestion will work but once you've used up the 500Mb data allowance you'd have to wait a month (apparently) before you could top it up again. He also mentioned something about getting a bolt on so I'd effectively have 1.5Gb for a tenner a month but I'd given up listening by then. :oops:

So.... I've just put a bog-standard PAYG micro-SIM in I had lying around, reset the settings on the Nexus and topped it up online and it's working again.

For now...

I think the moral of the story is that O2 aren't geared up for any tablet other than an iPad and I'm not tech-savvy enough to be an early-adopter of so-called new technology. :oops:
 
Absolutely. Any fule know you just get a regular sim and cut it to micro size. You can get the cutter thing on eBay for less than a fiver for greater accuracy.

Mobile phone stores do seem to make a habit of employing people who know jack shit about anything.
 
I also think Google are also to blame. If you visit the Apple site to buy an iPad 3G they explain data plans and how get a SIM. they also provide links direct the correct part of each of the UK mobile networks' websites for more details.

The UK Google shop has nothing. In the US there are plans set up with AT&T and T-Mobile. Surely, before the launch of the Nexus 7 3G in the UK Google would have made some arrangements with UK networks to ensure a satisfactory user experience for those choosing a Nexus over an iPad?

ETA: this was in response to firky's post
 
got the option of swapping an 18 month old ipad2 for a nexus 7. worth it?

i'm not a huge fan of the ipad, too heavy, slow to scoll down long web pages, itunes, maps etc and i quite like the idea of something smaller that i can tinker with.
 
I'm getting one of these for the Mrs. It seems as though the cheapest way to do it is to go into currys/pc world and get them to price match carphone warehouse and chuck in a case for another £20 discount or soemthing.

This seems to make a 32gb model good value against a 16 where I can't see any deals.

Has anyone seen any good deals about?
 
N1 Buoy said:
I'm getting one of these for the Mrs. It seems as though the cheapest way to do it is to go into currys/pc world and get them to price match carphone warehouse and chuck in a case for another £20 discount or soemthing.

This seems to make a 32gb model good value against a 16 where I can't see any deals.

Has anyone seen any good deals about?
Click to expand...

They matched for me, and gave me 10% of the difference off making £177. I had to push and prove it though... The case I bought online for £6 and they were £20 in store. Argos are doing it for £199 with a £10 voucher back. Carphone Warehouse £179.
 
You'd think! I went in having checked that my CW had stock and then asked for my price match. They checked it online and checked stock too but also called all PC techies to tell them that CW had them for that price. That was about two weeks ago so I would expect they've had plenty of practice by now :D
 
Slowly getting the hang of it......I was a bit peeved at first that I bought the 16gb a few weeks before the 32gb was announced....... But its now irrelevant since I've got the hang of multiple syncing with Astro file manager..........
Its linked my sky drive,drop box ,Google drive,adobe drive,hotmail account ,outlook account ,all in one place to access........its an astounding little app... And its free
 
Elvis Parsley said:
got the option of swapping an 18 month old ipad2 for a nexus 7. worth it?

i'm not a huge fan of the ipad, too heavy, slow to scoll down long web pages, itunes, maps etc and i quite like the idea of something smaller that i can tinker with.
Click to expand...
What apps do you use on the iPad? I'd suggest you make sure that they're all available first. A straight swap for something you might use more seems quite a good idea - have you used a Nexus 7 before?

I had an iPad 2 lent to me for work. I used it for work but hardly at all for personal use because of it's size and weight. Bought a Nexus 7 and use it all the time - the iPad 2 now lives in my office desk drawer.
 
Tankus said:
Slowly getting the hang of it......I was a bit peeved at first that I bought the 16gb a few weeks before the 32gb was announced....... But its now irrelevant since I've got the hang of multiple syncing with Astro file manager..........
Its linked my sky drive,drop box ,Google drive,adobe drive,hotmail account ,outlook account ,all in one place to access........its an astounding little app... And its free
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommend, great little app that.
 
Tankus said:
Slowly getting the hang of it......I was a bit peeved at first that I bought the 16gb a few weeks before the 32gb was announced....... But its now irrelevant since I've got the hang of multiple syncing with Astro file manager..........
Its linked my sky drive,drop box ,Google drive,adobe drive,hotmail account ,outlook account ,all in one place to access........its an astounding little app... And its free
Click to expand...

Cool, will try that out
 
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