Kindle Fire data plan - only beats iPad at the low end.

There are two interesting things about the Kindle Fire HD.

One is that it introduces parental controls to Android. It even includes OS X like scheduling controls that are missing from iOS 5. I don't know how well they work, but they can't be worse than Apple's feeble restriction system.

The other is the inexpensive $4/month 256MB data plan. That's only enough data for messaging, light email, downloading books (they are tiny!), and perhaps a bit of Facebook on occasion. But it's still a good rate - esp for AT&T. Even Ting, a Sprint MVNO, charges $3/month for only 100MB. The iPad 250MB data plans is $15!

Things are different though as you move to the 3GB mark: 

The Catch in Kindle’s Data Plan - Digits - WSJ: "Kindle users who know they’ll want more data will have to pay a lot more than $50 a year: $30 a month for 3 gigabytes or $50 for 5 gigabytes – plus a $36 activation fee (which isn’t charged with the Amazon promotional plan, but will apply to any upgrades)."

Not coincidentally, the iPad is $30 for 3GB on AT&T (LTE).

So it was only at the very low end that Amazon was able to extract a better deal from AT&T. Even so, Amazon got a better deal Apple - that's an achievement even if they're somehow paying AT&T for the honor.

So what's in it for AT&T? They must estimate that a significant number of Fire users will convert to the 30GB plan. 

We're all keen to see if Apple gets a similar deal ...

johngordon on App.net - now as a feed

alpha.app.net, the test bed for app.net development, is improving quickly.

it's a bit hard to find, but there are now feeds for user posts and for tags. For example, here's the feed for my app.net posts: https://alpha.app.net/johngordon.

There's no feed yet for mentions, I'm looking forward to that. It will be helpful to add some of these to Google Reader for consumption in Reeder.app.

My posts to App.net are my pinboard postsprocessed by IFTT and Buffer (yeah, a real hack) then posted to alpha.app.net. So they are equivalent to my Twitter posts (except not truncated!) and my google indexed wordpress archives of my pinboard posts.

I'm hopeful that app.net will eventually what Google Reader Share might have been. In time it may become my primary microblogging platform (displacing pinboard, though pinboard has been pretty good to me).

See also:

• Gordon's Tech: Pinboard and IFTTT - blog, task, share 7/2012

http://tech.kateva.org/2012/07/pinboard-and-ifttt-blog-task-share.html

Photo gallery sharing is dead. Why?

E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e
rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the
bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
Monty Python, the Dead Parrot Sketch

Photo gallery sharing is an ex-parrot.

SmugMug is still around, but they recently raised their rates and started a wee twitter storm. Google discontinued support for Mac uploads from iPhoto. Flickr is a zombie. Apple killed their photo gallery service. A bunch of printing/sharing services have closed. Apple's Aperture pages have dead links to extinct sharing plug-ins. Old products like Gallery don't have Aperture or iPhoto plug-ins.

Facebook has some photo sharing, but albums are limited to 100 images and there's no full res download. Twitter and Photo Stream and Dropbox are different products.

The interesting question is - what killed photo gallery sharing?

I assume lack of interest. There just weren't that many people interested in sharing photo albums, and perhaps even fewer people interested in browsing them much less downloading their own images. The number of people willing to pay to share photo albums was even smaller. Now add in the considerable complexity of personal photo management ... (my Aperture consolidation project almost finished me)...

Now factor increasing costs, as image size grew faster than storage capacity.

What interest there was ended up being largely served by Facebook.

It's surprising the businesses lasted as long as it did.

I miss amateur web page technologies, and I will miss the online photo gallery.

Don't bother with the open source Aperture to Picasa export plugin

I decided to try the open source Aperture to Picasa export plugin.

It worked for about 100 images, then died. I couldn't get it to upload additional images; I got a range of cryptic error messages.

There are 24 open defects, it was lasts uploaded Nov 2010, 3 years ago.

Don't bother with it.

Ubermind used to make a plug-in, but it's gone (I wouldn't trust the versions I can find around the net).

Once I get time to upgrade to Mountain Lion I'll presumably be able to share the library with iPhoto, I think Google still maintains an uploader for iPhoto.

Update: Google has discontinued support for the Mac uploader. I'm so glad I pay for Google storage for my photos.

The US iPhone scene: Options and trends

The American iPhone scene is at once bewildering and stone cold simple.

The bewildering part is the long list of MVNO options to the big 1.5 (VerizATT and Sprint). The simple part is that most of those options are gone or going.

So if you're an iPhone users the list is relatively short:

Notice i'm not going into many details here. The relative simplicity of the list is based on these assumptions:

• Verizon and AT&T are a duopoly that increasingly functions like a coordinated monopoly (VerizATT). They expect every iPhone customer will eventually send them $100 to $150 a month - one way or another. To that end they will methodically eliminate all other options.
• Sprint is desperate and eager to please. They or Sprint/Virgin are therefore the best deal if they work for you.
• Walmart is one of the few corporations that can lean on VerizATT and operate an MVNO
• T-mobile data is very weak and their future is comparable bleak, so I omitted them for the moment. Might be a Straight Talk alternative.
• I omitted AT&T paygo because I assume H2O Wireless is a tad better, but some like them.
• My family's experience with H2O wireless, even though I expect their future is bleak.

Based on the above options list my recommendations for individuals are:

Situation	Savings
Sprint network ok, don't travel, good at math	Virgin - Buy a $650 16GB iPhone 4S and pay $35/month on Vig - but be warned, no contract cuts two ways. Virgin can change their rates at any time, and you're stuck with a Sprint-only phone.
Sprint network ok, don't travel, don't have $650	Sprint 2 year contract.
Business user, some family users, corporate discount	VerizATT, new phone every 18 months.
Sprint not ok, have unlocked GSM iPhone, personal use	Straight Talk GSM, BYOD
Want iPhone w/o data, very very cheap	H2O Wireless, maybe AT&T Paygo. BYOD.

I expect the options to get worse over the next decade unless one of these four miracles occurs:

• Apple or Google or both buy Sprint.
• Apple or Google or both buys T-mobile.
• Google Fiber rolls out and Google starts building a companion mobile network.
• Al Franken becomes President and breaks up ATT again.

See also:

• Straight Talk: an alternative to AT&T for my unlocked iPhone 4S?
• Mobile broadband hope: Walmart, TruConnect, Netzero, Sprint, Amazon and why I'm waiting on my next iPhone
• American MIFI - priced for a limited and shrinking market

Update 9/4/2012. 

Harold Zeh, posting via Macintouch, came to similar conclusions about Straight Talk. It's competitive if you bring your own device (BYOD) and for personal non-business use.

...The difference between a two year subsidized iPhone and factory unlocked (no carrier commitment) is $500. Divided by 24 months is about $21 per month. Add that to the $45 per month of Straight Talk unlimited talk, text and data (yeah, right) and the price is actually $66, if you want the new iPhone.

Now, for Straight Talk, subtract the ability to use AT&T WiFi hotspots and the prospect of unceremoniously being terminated for going over 2GB of data. Subtract also, no unlimited mobile to mobile minutes (your friends on AT&T regular plans will not like you anymore!)

Three iPhones, fully subsidized, on the new AT&T Mobile Share plan with a bucket of 6 GB will cost $195, or $65 per iPhone - a buck cheaper than (the true cost of) Straight Talk and you do not have to cough up the entire price of the new iPhone up front. Four iPhones on the 10GB share drops the per unit to $60 a month. Two phones on the 4GB, cost is $75 per phone. For two smart phones, it might be better to stay on a regular family plan and deal with limited minutes (or Straight Talk.) But there is more to factor.

Now, for AT&T, add no messing with APN settings. No unlocking to get MMS to work. No tower drops in favor of "real AT&T customers." Additionally, you may not have to wait the entire two years to have another fully subsidized upgrade available, I never had to.

The only time it makes sense to go with second tier carriers is when you already own a non-new older phone outright, like a two year old (and getting older,) iPhone 4, for example...

Also, the Babbage Blog featured a fascinating post on the spectrum wars, including a telling point in Virgin's recent acquisition that suggests MVNOs may have some future (thank you Obama FTC!) ...

Verizon Wireless ...  a swathe of unused frequencies from a consortium of cable-television companies that includes Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House Networks. Apart from receiving a large sum of money, the deal allows these cable companies to repackage Verizon’s mobile-phone service under their own brands. Verizon has also struck a similar deal to acquire spectrum from Cox Communications, another cable and wireless provider.

Update 9/5/2012: Via Slashdot, announcing that Sprint was unleashing their MVNOs to compete, I learned about Ting. It bills in stepped usage intervals for voice, text and data. We pay about $160 from AT&T; at Ting the same services would be about $110. Of course you have to bring your own phone, but Ting is a nice alternative to Virgin Mobile for the same network. Tethering/Hotspot is included. Alas, Ting is Android only. No iPhone. So it doesn't go on the list, but I like their business model.

How to embed a Google Docs spreasheet into a blog post with a generated iFrame tag (MarsEdit, Blogger)

This Google web page gives you part of the solution for Embedding a spreadsheet in a blog or webpage. Unfortunately, they only talk about Google's near defunct "Sites".

The directions for blog embedding are cryptic: "If you want to embed a form in a website or blog, click the More Actions button at the top of the editor, and select the 'Embed' option from the drop-down menu." I think this language is obsolete.

Here's how you do it now. In the Publish to Web page on Google Docs there's a drop down that defaults to web page. Choose HTML to embed in a page instead. You get an iFrame tag you an put in MarsEdit HTML or in Blogger.

 

Straight Talk: an alternative to AT&T for my unlocked iPhone 4S?

I've paid off my 4S, and completed the authorized unlock. So I'm free to consider other options with for my GSM iPhone. That includes H2O Wireless (we use it for the kids voice/SMS) and Walmart's Straight Talk, an AT&T MVNO.

Straight Talk costs $45 a month for "unlimited" text, talk and data. According to the Terms of Service that does not include tethering for a "laptop or personal computer", but that does leave iPad and Nexus 7 in a gray zone. There's been at least one report, however, of Straight Talk terminating service for heavy data use. (Virgin Mobile doesn't allow tethering either.)

It's not impressive enough.

Mobile economics in the USA are challenging. I'd like to buy an unlocked iPhone at full price and then buy my voice and data separately, but currently the market is biased to the subsidized device model. It will be very interesting to see if any new options emerge with the iPhone 5 -- assuming it's LTE. 

If an option does emerge, it better charge me for my data. I don't trust any vendor who offers me unlimited data -- those plans always come with strings attached.

Update: I might have been too hard on Straight Talk -- see this GigaOm review and Gordon's Tech: The US iPhone scene: Options and trends

Unlocking an AT&T iPhone - Experiences after a 3GS, 4 and 4S.

So far I've legally unlocked 3 contract-complete AT&T iPhones (I don't think you can legally unlock Sprint or Verizon iPhones, so this is a real AT&T advantage). Time to share my experiences.

The process I've followed is described in this April 2001 OS X Daily post. AT&T has recently added a pure web based approach but I've not used it. The short version of the process is:

1. Get your phone's IMEI and Serial Number, but really you need the IMEI.
2. Go to AT&T's mobile site and look way down the page to the tiny 'contact' link. Or click on the 'bot helper and say you want to unlock your phone.
3. Say you want a technical support chat.
4. Fill out the form, you'll be asked for the IMEI and your last four of your SSN (if you forget, just Google it. Amazing that this is proof of identity.)
5. You're told it will take a few minutes to get the email and 1-2 days for things to be processed; which doesn't seem to make sense.

On two occasions I got the email within ten minutes. On a third occasion I waited 48 hours with no email. I contacted them again, they said their part of the process was done and they resent the email. The email just says to backup, then "Restore" (wipes the phone and reinstalls latest OS) then "Restore from backup". (Yeah, that Restore stuff is confusing).

 

After the "Restore" (wipe phone, reinstall OS) when the phone mounts in iTunes, but before it's been registered, you see the unlock indication.

 

After that just restore and then you're asked to register your phone with your AppleID [1] then do the restore.

 

AT&T's newish unlock portal has some details on the process.

AT&T will unlock an iPhone under the following circumstances:

The person requesting the unlock is:

a current AT&T customer or a former AT&T customer who can provide the phone number or account number for the account

All contract obligations, including any term commitment, associated with the device to be unlocked have been fully satisfied; and The iPhone has not been reported lost or stolen.

Current customers will be allowed five (5) unlocks per account, per year, so long as their account is in good standing with no past-due amount or unpaid balance and has been active for at least sixty (60) days. Former customers will be allowed five (5) unlocks per former account so long as they owe AT&T no Early Termination Fee or other unpaid balance.

The 5 unlock limit is interesting, I'm actually closing in on it. It's interesting they'll even process unlocks for former customers.

We have one iPhone 4 a friend gave us (needed repair), I'd like to unlock that one too. It sounds like she could do the unlock so long as she can provide the account number that the phone was purchased with. I'll have to give that a try sometime, I'm curious to know if it will work if I 'restore' that phone to my AppleID.

I really don't understand why AT&T ended its previously infuriating eternal lock program - a lock that applied even to a fully paid off phone [2]. It's so unlike my image of them. It's equally mysterious why Verizon gets away with their eternal lock.

[1] Currently I have one phone on one Apple ID, and a bunch of phones and computers on another. Apple's ID system is so very broken. [2] Note, however, even a carrier-locked AT&T phone will work with AT&T resellers such as H2O wireless. 

See also:

• AT&T Customer Device Unlock Portal - Request
• iPhone: About unlocking: Apple's directions, which are a bit different from AT&T's directions. Apple advises erasing content from the iPhone, AT&T advises doing a "Restore" from iTunes. (Restore, of course, doesn't 'restore from backup', it "restores" the phone to a fresh state. Reminds me of when we used format a: to format a floppy disk and a typo ("c") would wipe your hard drive.)
• Pay-as-you-go voice and SMS service for a contract-free AT&T iPhone with H2O Wireless

Update 9/17/12:

I unlocked another iPhone 4, this time using their new web form. This phone had an H2O wireless SIM and was registered to my Mac account, but I was able to unlock it with the prior owner's AT&T number (she still has active account and the number that was previously used with this phone) and the last four of her SS. I can't remember if we needed anything else. It did take several days for the unlock email to arrive.

Don't lose your Apple iPhone SIM extractor tool (or other small things)

Old time iPhone users have an official Apple SIM extractor; they came with the 3G and 3GS. I had two, just lost one.

I put a plastic lock tie through the handle of the remaining one; I'm now much less likely to lose it. A key chain would work too.

So why don't I think of these preventive measures before I lose things? (See also: kids are not allowed to bring electronics into the bathroom.)

A toilet dunked iPhone cannot be serviced by Apple (but is the real policy don't ask don't tell?)

Note to past self - children should not be allowed to take electronic devices into the bathroom.

Hope that works for a different multiverse. In my multiverse #2 child dropped his inherited, unlocked, iPhone 4 into the toilet.

That's bad, but I knew that Apple will often replace out-of-warranty soaked iPhones with similar refurbished models for a flat rate that varies by model. In my case I'd expect to pay about $200 for a refurb with a fresh battery; much cheaper than the $500 or so cost of a similar unlocked no-contract device.

Alas, toilet phones are considered a biohazard. They can't be touched by Apple. If you think the phone is clean enough, (maybe you could soak it in a disinfectant?) you might consider selective truth. Hey, Romney lies, so it must be ok.

You could also try saying it got wet, or simply "it's not working" - without specifying how that happened.

I'm a lousy liar, so these options don't work for me.

This isn't a new policy; I've seen mention of it as far back as 2007. I suspect enforcement may vary, but it's the rule.

Do consider not allowing iPhones to approach toilets. Personally, I'd be happy if the iPhone 5+ was relatively water resistant (Blackberry is almost waterproof.)

PS. If you do drop an iPhone in water, this post has advice. We keep a set of DampRid packets on hand. Briefly: Dry it. Power off. Sandwich between DampRid packets in airtight air-exhausted baggie. Pop SIM card. Place beneath warming light. Do not touch for 24 hours. Retry. Unfortunately son #2 waited until the audio cut out before confessing his crime. I think he was hoping it would all go away.

Update: A friend, who is obviously more clever or duplicitous than I, suggested I clean the phone, then dunk it in the sink. Then I could truthfully report it fell into the sink.

Update 8/29/2012: Curiously neither of the water indicators appear to have been triggered. This fits with other stories I've heard; they're not always very sensitive. (No idea how specific they are.). More curiously, the phone is now making calls, at first it didn't. Likewise the external speaker is working again. That was out of order yesterday. Of course it would not be surprising if they failed in the near future.

Thinking back to my 'genius' (tech really) encounter, I think he was heavily hinting that he'd have had much more leeway if I'd just said the phone wasn't working -- or if I'd said it had gotten wet but not where or how. He had no options because I made the mistake of entering the explicit details when I registered for my appointment. In some cases I think the techs practice "don't ask, don't tell".

Along similar lines, Laura Tucker replaced a toilet phone a year ago -- and none of the various Apple stores she visited objected to the repair. In the end she used Apple's Express Repair Service; it starts with this screen. If you use it I suggest limiting your comments to the known problem (ex. no speaker). For an out of warrantee 32GB iPhone 4 the replacement cost is $30 (ERP fee) + $7 (shipping) + $149, + applicable tax. So about $200 -- assuming Apple gets the defective phone within the 10 day limit. This particular iPhone 4 is unlocked, I suspect a refurb replacement would be locked.

Update 8/30/2012: A NYT post on waterproof cases suggests toilets may be a majority of iPhone water incidents; "don't ask don't tell" must be the real policy. They liked:

• LifeProof, $80
• Joy Factory Rain Ballet, $50
• Liquipel, $60 (not a case, a "waterproof coating" applied by vendor)

Liquipel got a positive review from one tester. LifeProof's Amazon reviews are pretty negative, so it's certainly imperfect. Joy Factory reviews are entirely bleak.

 

Prices will fall after the iPhone 5 comes out, I'll look at the LifeProof then. Liquipel should be something Apple applies, or perhaps Hzo (website).

 

I wish there was more pressure on Apple to make iPhones more water resistant. Again, BlackBerry did it. We'll see if any of those linked rumors come true. For me that would be an iPhone 5 killer feature.

 

I liked the little essay on iPhone water safety from the Hz0 site:

 

... An industry article published in November 2010 (http://www.articlesbase.com) lists the top five ways to protect your cell phone against water damage:

 

Never bring it with you to the bathroom;

Place your cell phone in a waterproof case;

Make certain that it is well protected from storms or rain;

Always remove your cell phone from your pocket the minute you get home;

Make sure your cell phone is waterproof by buying waterproof gear.

 

This is great advice, but obviously of little actual value...

Update 9/17/2013: 

The phone is still fine. I didn't expect that.

See also:

• Gordon's Tech: The stolen (or lost) iPhone - choices

Mountain Lion's WiFi bug

I haven't had any problems at home, but on the road I ran into this Mountain Lion problem at my parents home. They have a cheap Dlink dir-615 (dir615 rev C1), and this report fits my experience ...

HT1338 upgraded to mountain lion and...

My wifi connection was also dropping every few minutes. I could expedite the drops by streaming a couple videos at the same time. Snow Leopards wifi was never perfect for me either (it would drop about once a week) but it was stable. Upgrading to ML made it so much worse. I had found a solution that made it completely stable (see below) but still looked for a proper fix:  

Enable WLAN: Yes Mode: IEEE 802.11g Only Channel: 7 Transmitting power: 100% Enable WMM QoS: No   Not having EXACTLY this brought the problem back.

… I went to the dlink website (i have a dlink dir-615) i found a new firmware version had been available for the past 2 years. After updating the routers firmware my wifi is running so so smooth with whatever settings i choose...

I've made the firmware update, but hard to know if it works. Sounds like the issue relates to 802.11n. Hard to know if this is a real bug, might be a security fix that the old router doesn't support.

In praise of Google Voice

I dislike G+, but there are some old-school Google products I love.

Google Voice might be at the top of the list.

It's not just that I save over $1000 a year on long distance charges because Google Voice.app lets me call Montreal for free from my AT&T 4S.

It's also that when I travel I configure my Google Voice business and personal numbers to send me email only. Then I forward my mobile and home numbers to my Google Voice [1]. I get all my messages by email when I've got WiFi -- and I don't run up any roaming charges. Tonight, for example, I picked up a message that VISA had locked my card due to international charges (easily fixed, next time I'll call ahead).

It's a great service. I worry that Google is going to drop it -- they don't seem to have a way to make money from it. I wish they'd just start charging me.

[1] There's a bit of a trick to this. You can't forward from a number that's associated with the GV account -- you just get your voice mail interface. Since I have two GV numbers I can work around that.

Why does Navigon.app glitch in cities?

We've been using Navigon for iOs extensively during our latest US/Canada road trip.

It does well in rural areas, but in urban areas we've twice run into significant glitches. On two occasions, just short of a key junction, Navigon abruptly changed its recommendation.

Navigon acted as though its lost track of where we are, and it transiently thinks we've missed a turnoff. We get the recommendation for backtracking -- before we go off track.

It's like getting a message from the future; a self-fulfilling message because the updated directions make us go off-track (so causality is not violated). This can be disturbing, as when Navigon sent us for an unplanned tour of Detroit.

I assume this is a GPS satellite access problem, perhaps exacerbated by a lack of useful wifi data. I've not seen this discussed much however. I'd  like to know, for example, dedicated devices have less problems than iOS devices. Do some software packages handle this better than others? Are there ways to minimize glitches? (Example: try not to vary speed as one approaches key junctions).

I'm quite fond of my 4S/Navigon package and the car windshield mount we use, but I could do without the unexpected tours. At least I've gotten enough experience that when the GPS goes haywire I'm less prone to make a sudden, dangerous, lane change.

Using an MacBook as a car server for multi-device home sharing doesn't quite work

Home Sharing is cooler than i'd realized. Since all our family devices use one Apple Store ID [2], and all media in the home was purchased with that Apple ID [1], each of the kids can stream anything on the family Library to any of their iOS devices. So in Videos we all can see ...

Since I've been envious Charles Stross' AirStash I wondered if I could move the movies to my Air, set it up for Home Sharing, then create a computer-to-computer network for use in the car.

It almost works. I can create the network (128 bit WEP at best on my Air, I used no security) and if I force the phone into Airplane mode/wireless enabled I can connect to the media library. Connect, that is, after a long pause where I suspect something times out. After connecting I can't see anything.

Given the long time out I suspect the phone wouldn't connect because it couldn't authenticate.

So it almost works.

[1] Is this legal? I think so. Is it what media owners want? Of course not. They the five of us to have five Apple IDs, and buy "Captain America" five times -- stored only in the cloud and streamed on demand. Happily for them, very few households have managed the trick of a unified device and media library.
[2] I personally have four. How many do you have? Did you realize you can't get rid of any? That your purchases and hardware registration and email may be scattered among them and even hop around? That your Apple ID is a huge security risk? That Cook needs to demote a direct report?  

Nexus 7 - first impressions

I bought an 8GB Nexus 7 (Asus) primarily as an eBook reader. I didn't want a Kindle because I really don't want to be locked into Amazon's DRM, and the iPad 8" is still 3 months away.

Ok, so maybe the iPad Mini is only 8 weeks away. I admit, it's not a logical purchase. It's at least a look into the Android world, and I'm sure I can find a new owner in a few months.

First impressions:

• In packaging and in look and feel it's a poor man's iPad. Instead of Apple's compact power supply, it comes with a mini-brick.
• It's not gorilla glass, just scratch resistant. There's no slip case in the packaging. (Given Google's negative margin on this, a slip case might bankrupt them.)
• There's no proprietary connector of course, just a micro-USB cable. It's not obvious which way is up, Apple would have embossed the top side of the connector to make that obvious.
• If you use two-factor authentication authentication/2-step verification things are bit kludgy.
• If you have multiple google accounts you need to decide which one gets to be "dominant" (others are currently somewhat second class citizens). Shades of my AppleID problems. The device defaults to the Gmail account used to purchase it, which happens to be my two-factor account. I ended up going with that. That's the account that gets contacts and son on.
• In addition to the $25 app store credit it included one non-public domain book (Bourne Dominion) and one movie (Transformers, dark of the moon). Neither to my tastes, but nice touch.
• It includes NFC and "Android Beam"
• There's supposed to be a dynamic range issue with the display. It's not obvious to me yet, but I haven't looked at photos. 
• You can select wallpapers from your Picasa web albums. The bundled wallpapers are pretty blah.
• I got an update shortly after launching. No problems.
• It includes GPS.
• I like the range of unlock options. I'm trying face unlock for the heck of it. Is slick.
• It supports encryption, but it's a 1 hour optional process.
• You can download offline voice recognition support (!)
• Backup is to the cloud of course.
• The gesture controls are different from iOS, but there are similarities. I like the calendar interaction.
• Most things seem stuck in portrait mode.
• Text entry and editing is less sophisticated than iOS. Also, it doesn't seem to remember that I've disabled acoustic feedback.
• You can enter multiple Google accounts, each account with a credit card gets $25 on the store. I have 3 accounts of my own, but this means the device supports multiple users.
• I'm not quite sure how account switching works. After I entered two Google accounts I can switch between them from Gmail, but not from Contacts. I think my Contacts list may be  sum of all accounts?
• Overall account management seems to be at the app level, and it's incomplete or rocky.
• There's a set of Google apps, like Gmail, then there's also a Mail app.
• The UI is a bit puzzling, but I'm used to iOS/Windows/Mac. I can't say the UI is particularly bad, I'm too familiar with the alternatives.
• I'm surprised there's no Google Drive or Google Docs apps on startup.
• Messenger creates a G+ account whether you want to or not. I stopped halfway through. Although I never confirmed Picasa integration I think some albums were converted, the old URLs still work but generate a redirect warning. Google can be a rough companion.
• It fits a 1 quart baggy.
• There are no parental controls. Not a surprise.

This is a real computer, and Asus is supposed to supply a keyboard/case combination. It will be interesting how much a future version with LTE support will cost.

The Nexus 7 isn't the $125 Barbie B-Smart Netbook I predicted. For one thing it's $75 more, though it does include a battery. For another it's far better value for the dollar. 

So I guess we've made it back into the price range of the 1982 Commodore 64 (cheaper, adjusting for inflation). The price collapse in computing has arrived later than expected, but it's here.

I suspect Apple will come in at $250 for the iPad Mini, whereas a week ago I'd have said $200.

See also:

• The $80 ultra-portable - in unexpected form 9/2010
• Computing for the rest of us: The iPad and the ChromeBook 1/2010
• Squeezed 2009: Netbooks, Android and Microsoft 1/2009