I have a Google netbook. The only thing I hate about it is that I HAVE TO have access to WiFi for it to function properly. Is that true w/ the nexus?
ok, i guess we're getting way off topic here, but I feel like I should answer some of your questions, as I've done extensive research into both chromebook and the nexus 7.
the nexus 7 is a tablet running android, so no, you don't have to have constant net access to use it, it's very offline friendly. of course, it's not a laptop, think of it as an ipad and all the limitations that come with it.
depending on the chromebook you have, there are custom builds of ubuntu available for it, which will free you from a lot of the limitations of the chromebook. it's not an easy install, but it can be done by anyone with a medium amount of linux knowledge, and even if you don't have that, if you follow the instructions to the letter you should probably be able to do it.
I guess the way I look at it, if i am gonna use my phone's data I may as well just use my phone
true, i prefer to have as few devices as possible.
Alot of towns in my general area have free wifi. It wasn't until I discovered access to the internet was mandatory for functionality that I had a problem...other than that I look at the tablets and I think they are kind of neat in a "I want that shiny new technology" kind of way but I am not sure I can justify it....what would it really do for me that I can't do between my netbook and my phone?
like i mentioned before, a tablet isn't a laptop, so there's a lot it won't do. you won't have a keyboard obviously (unless you get a bluetooth keyboard for it) just the on-screen keyboard. i HIGHLY recommend purchasing/pirating SwiftKey, it's the best on-screen keyboard out there, it's fast and the text prediction is phenomenal. easily makes writing 10x faster.
if you already have a chromebook and a good android phone, id say install ubuntu on it and you'll have a pretty good setup. the best reason to have a tablet is for fast access to general stuff like the internet, email, youtube, movies, reading books, etc. unless you're an extreme power user like myself, you won't get much more out of it than that.
i was right, the 4g is available now... runs $250 to $300 on amazon... 32gig version.... iit will be my next tablet... but keep in mind, data plans for 4g tablets are almost always necessary... with the exception of the old kindle nook, mobile broadband is not free, which only leaves wifi... so either way, u are gunna pay for mobile broadband, whether u use ur phone or not....
this is true. im going to be buying the 4g version at the end of the month. im using it as a phone replacement (just sold my android phone). since I make very few calls (maybe 200 mins a month) im going to get on tmobile's data-only plan for tablets.
their plans range from 25-50 bucks, depending on how much data you want. i'll probably go with the 25 for 2.5gb. it says in the small print that they "throttle" you after 3gb, so at least they don't cut you off completely, just slow down your speed a lot.
I'm going to use the talkatone app for making calls over the internet (requires a google voice account) and the google voice app for texting, and that should hopefully work for all my communication needs.
the reason im going with a tablet instead of a phone is because of the larger screen size, awesome battery life (8 hrs regular use), and it's a way to get online and do some writing that doesn't require me to pull out my big bulky video editing laptop.
the nexus is pretty awesome because it has a quad core cpu, and a tegra nvidia gpu, so it should be able to handle anything i need to throw at it.
i dunno, i have never had a netbook myself.... i use my tablet for everything, with or without wifi... store pics, skype, pdf's, couple thousand songs ( i use it as a big ipod) draw, play piano, a few other games, read news, make music tracks, sell my artwork, offline maps galore, gps without internet, navigation, listen to various scanners, battery last about 7-9 hours continuous usage, store and watch vids and movies, download youtube vids..... etc etc.... suits me fine i suppose even without wifi
oh, by the way, i've been hearing rumors that there's going to be a new nexus 7 coming out in a month or two, so if you want to upgrade, you might want to wait for that.