The Good Great

• Google integration: this is a no brainer. If you spend a lot of time on Google properties (like I do), the integration is superb! Nexus 7 is meant to be a device for content consumption so it’s no surprise that Google Play is almost “pushed” in front of the user. It even synced the known wifi networks (and passwords) from my Galaxy Nexus!
• Form factor: I’ve only used the iPad 2 and the new iPad briefly. Though the Nexus 7 is visibly smaller, it’s a lot more comfortable to hold with one hand without building muscle. (On the other hand, one could argue that it’s only slightly larger than Galaxy Nexus…)
• Performance: this baby is fast! Those quad-core Tegra processors sure do their job — I haven’t played any intense games yet, but everything else (switching between apps, Angry Birds, Google Earth, browsing through music and photos, playing videos etc etc) is super snappy.
• Bang for buck: at $200, the price point couldn’t get better. This price advantage alone will put the Nexus 7 within reach of many could-have-been iPad owners.

The Bad Good

• Build quality: this is no iPad, but the tablet feels solid. I like the textured back panel. But the screen gets smudged quite easily (similar to the iPad) and is a tad too glossy for me. I miss the smart cover!
• PDF reader: the built-in default PDF reader sucks. I can’t swipe to go to next page, for instance. The Kindle PDF reader is much better in comparison.
• Book reader: Again, this is no Kindle (but the Kindle Fire is toast) but the Play book reader is pretty good. All caveats w.r.t e-ink vs. back-lit screens apply. There is one problem though: if while reading you accidentally end up touching anywhere near the bottom of the screen (which is fairly easy to do, if you consider how you normally hold a book or an e-reader), you’ll end up either going to the home screen or opening up the task switcher. Either way, its extremely distracting. I wish they added a “locked” mode while reading books that can only be changed by using the physical power button.

The Ugly Bad

• Camera: there’s no (easy) way to take pictures on this device. Yes, there is a (crappy) front-facing camera but it is only meant for hangouts. I seriously don’t understand why Google doesn’t want to put a good camera on their devices. I’ve previously complained about how crappy the Galaxy Nexus camer is compared to the iPhone 4S‘s, and the Nexus 7 doesn’t change anything.
• Packaging: given that unboxing is the first experience with the device users have, I’m bitterly disappointed by the Nexus 7 packaging. The sleeve is too snug; the black packaging just too cardboardy; and there should be an award for opening the inner box without struggling. Overall, it was just plain frustrating getting the device out of the box (and I’m not alone in this). Yes, first world problems but whatever.

More later.

For instance, on my iPhone I read pretty  much everything via Flipboard. On Android, I’m still struggling to find a good Flipboard replacement and shuttle between Pulse, Google Currents and recently, Feedly. In either case, I rarely ever go to the actual website.

I still get some of my content fix from Google Reader (xkcd, Abstruse Goose etc).

Most of the “news” — that is, when I’m in “skim mode” — comes from social media, mostly G+ and a tiny bit from Twitter.

I remember the days (several years ago) when Techcrunch changing it’s site layout used to be a news in itself. Now I can’t remember the last time I visited Techcrunch (well, that could be partially attributed to the content quality…)

My point is, in all of the above cases, the app or service presents the content in an origin-agnostic manner. When you read something on Flipboard, it’s presented to be consumable via the Flipboard interface (in most cases), and not meant to preserve the look and feel of the origin website.

And such apps and services are just becoming more and more prevalent: Evernote Clearly; Readability; content-provider specific apps such as those from Time, CNN, NYT etc.

So, is website design becoming irrelevant? Especially for content-heavy sites?

(The Oatmeal is an exception — Matthew forces you to visit the website, and it’s always worth it)

Summary: the NDTV app is probably one of the best free apps. I didn’t consider paid apps.

First, the usual suspects:

Times of India: The ToI app’s UI is functional, but otherwise not remarkable at a first glance. In true ToI tradition, the “Entertainment” section is feature prominently on the home page, just under top news. Of course, readers of ToI know that “Entertainment” and “Photos” are just euphemisms for soft porn — ToI happily parlays all kinds of NSFW material under the guise of “news”. I’m really curious to know how much of their app traffic (indeed, their website traffic) goes to the entertainment section.

Thankfully, buried under the “Settings”, the app allows reordering the various sections. You can also optionally specify a home city. I haven’t really used the Video section of the app, so can’t comment on it.

Overall, the app is not bad, but it can’t compensate for ToI’s reporting.

NDTV: The NDTV app feels only slightly more polished than the ToI app; structurally they’re quite similar and most differences are cosmetic. Unlike ToI though, NDTV’s Photos section is closer to what I’d expect on a news app (there’s still a heavy entertainment bias, of course).

But perhaps the most killer aspect of the NDTV app is that you can watch various channels of the NDTV group live!!

The only downside of the NDTV app is that it shows a lot more ads than the other apps I looked at.

Hindustan Times: the HT app is probably not being actively developed — it still has a CWG section!! Other differentiators are a dedicated “Blogs” section. Compared to ToI and NDTV, this app offers basically no customization, no videos. The content is not as rich or fresh as the other apps.

There were a lot of other news apps but none of them felt credible. The IBN Live app looked interesting but it seems to focus mostly on live TV and not news articles. For now, I’m sticking with the NDTV app.

What apps do you use to get your does of Indian news?

I’m a Linux guy; Windows was never my thing honey
Apple seemed interesting, but required too much money

I have ideological problems with Apple too,
What with all the DRM and hardware lock-in they do.

But people are crazy about Apple, and I used to wonder why,
I had a dream: to own Apple products that I didn’t have to buy.

A few months back my wife gifted me an iPhone, bro!
And then at work I got the new Macbook Pro!!

Thus suddenly I was an Apple user,
Sure, some people called me a sore loser.

Allow me to share my early experiences,
Some accolades and some grievances.

I’ll try to keep a neutral tone,
Shall focus on the Mac and not the iPhone.

Integration, integration, integration!
The attention to detail gives a wonderful sensation.

User experience is the key,
Excellent design is for all to see.

They’ve taken care of the enterprises,
Exchange support, Google integration — no surprises.

It’s by far the best laptop I’ve ever used,
The hardware is slick, the software is smooth.

But boy do I hate iTunes,
It’s so broken it should be called Looney Tunes.

Try connecting multiple iPhones to the same device,
Or plug your iPhone in another laptop (poor advice).

Sync is threatening, sounds like a bully.
“I shall sync or destroy”, that just sounds silly.

The Terminal app should aspire higher,
No 256-color support leaves much to desire.

Keyboard shortcuts are hard to find,
Change them? you must be out of your mind!

“Features” like “Spaces” are overrated,
More like awaited, belated and deflated.

I prefer iTerm over Terminal and Adium for chat,
Chrome over Safari, and this over that.

I’m certainly not blown away,
But a Mac is convenient, I have to say.

Stanford is undoubtedly one of the top most engineering schools in the world. In my mind, a computer science curriculum at such top schools should do just that — teach computer science. Courses that cover computer architecture, software design, operating systems, networking, graphics, theory, databases, algorithms etc all make sense to me. But a course to teach students how to use the API on a commercial SDK? I think other organizations (vocational institutes, community colleges etc) are better suited for such courses. What is so great about such courses being taught at Stanford or MIT or Berkeley? I personally think those resources could be used better elsewhere.

It seems this is part of a larger trend. More and more schools are designing courses that are aligned with the hot buzz-words in the industry, perhaps in order to attract applications. For instance, you can learn how to provide Software as a Service (SaaS) using Ruby on Rails (RoR) at Berkeley. Stanford has another class on building Facebook applications.

I would much rather see a class on say “building scalable web services” and have Facebook, Twitter as case studies in the class.