Google nexus 7 review part Zwei:A $159 Windows 8 Pro tablet able to play the likes of Diablo III,Starcraft 2,Max Payne 3,Sins and Flash as fast your desktop

My nexus 7 is currently running Windows 8 Release Preview, using Splashtop HD.

In just a few seconds after installing Splashtop streamer on my laptop and purchasing the Splashtop HD app for Android I am using the most gorgeous 7 inch 384g Tegra 3 12 core GPU powered Windows 8 pro tablet  at a total cost of $159, no need to lust after those yet to be released surfaces  and no need to compromise with ARM and RT when you can have the full Windows 8 Pro experience ( here represented by the Release Preview).  


With Windows 8 Hand writing recognition I can test the finesse of the nexus 7 touch screen. And as you can see it copes with my insanely bad hand writing quite well : 

then we can start using all the toys in Windows 8 ,panes ,charms and desktop 

On our nexus 7  Windows 8 RP  tablet we can open Metro apps whilst opening other apps , take advantage of  real browsing with full java flash and even silverlight as you can see below all in the palm of one hand ...

Your google nexus 7 Windows 8 RP tablet is of course capable of far more than playing simple App or Flash games so let's begin by playing some Max Payne 3 straight of Steam :

or those perennial Blizzard favourites : Diablo III 

which plays like this 

and Starcraft 2 : 

which plays like this 

Warcraft to follow ! but for now let us indulge in a little nostalgia , with The Secret of Monkey Island , here running in a Chrome browser , this is Dos Box but not as you know it , the game being streamed within the stream of Windows 8 that is being streamed using Splashtop to the nexus 7 ! Still with me?  Well playing Dos games in a browser this way does away with the need to download a dos app or to worry about side loading roms . 

Naclbox is still in its infancy but has come a long way running in Chrome and as a Chrome Store App both of which options you can indulge in when streaming Windows 8 on your nexus 7 using Splashtop. 


Now let us move on to another of the PCs finest Sins of A Solar Empire Rebellion : I have never seen this game look so cool as it does streamed to the nexus 7 : And consider you can play this on larger tablets but the weight gets you after a while, the 7 inch screen of the google device is perfect for this game check out some shots and much video below as I come to grips with the interface : 

My Windows 8 tablets are many as you can tell by my coverage of Windows 8 since the first preview was released last November within hours I had it insalled and running on Atom , i5 , i7 , dual 7 inch and 14 inch tablets used as surface computers months before the big M came up with the term ( or not ) but none of these devices looks as cool as the google nexus 7 with its feather weight , and high res screen. 


As your hardware say your desktop , laptop or even Windows 8 surface is doing the grunt work the device you are actually using the nexus 7 remains amazingly cool in your hands . 


Most people including very highly praised pundits at Apple Google and Microsoft probably still see the tablet form factor as a walled garden app delivery device , I know I and others used to rage about that in the days of iPad and when Steve was still physically amongst us . Today though your first use of of any iOS or Android tablet may be in fact be to stream a full OS by passing all the walled gardens altogether and what is more the likes of Apple , Google and Microsoft are reaping benefits ,so if you are a long time Windows soon to be Windows 8 fan , there is nothing stopping you running the full OS streamed on your iOS or Android device.  Nothing to root , nothing to hack no dodgy side loading app stores , it is all official and simple. 

I firmly believe that the physical desktop and the traditional gaming console as a form factor are dead  and the arrival of the Google Nexus 7 is just another nail in the Lian Li Pc Armorsuit  coffin of my desktop.  Very soon we will just lease server time , streaming to tablets like the nexus 7 irrespective of OS and so it is that my favourite  Windows 8 machine is actually an Android Jelly Bean tablet , the only one that I can hold in one hand by the way...

Thanks to the cloud we already game on PC using onlive , we are expecting to on consoles and tablets and phones and store and stream most of our data and media in the cloud. 


For now streaming in this way we may be tethered to our laptops or even desktops but thanks to the progress made by the likes of Splashtop , the ever expanding cloud ,faster wifi and tiny actually portable tablets like the nexus 7 that tether grows weaker every day.


Windows 9 and OSX puddytat may just be the first OS release that require no hardware on your part , you just stream from Apple or Microsoft's server farms to whatever generation of iPad , Android or Surface tablet  your have lying about ....  


More Google nexus 7 usage to follow ....



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Google nexus 7 review part I : Installing Flash , Playing LA Noire onlive,browser gaming multitasking and gettng the box open

You nexus 7 ?... I do your eyes... 

And so it came to pass, a nondescript bubble envelope was signed for on delivery and opening it revealed my first Android tablet. With extensive experience of opening elegantly boxed and fragrenced joojoos,iOS and Windows 8 tablets  I launched straight into opening the box. but as if to mock my lack of Android experience the nexus 7 did not want to come out and play :

Happily I got there in the end and this  is being typed using the official blogger app , which appears to be far better suited to the nexus 7 than the scaled up phone version on the new iPad. In fact the iPad was designated to filming duty, so I am using Android and iOS to create this post before adding the finishing touches using a Windows 8 tablet. My desktop has most verily been retired, holding the nexus is a joy compared to heavier larger and extremely hotter rivals. Typing and speaking this in portrait is super fast and I am not even looking down at the keyboard as the text is corrected on the fly by the blogger app.

The text entry is amazingly accurate, better than iOS and more accurate than the release preview Windows 8. Correction on the fly is also far cooler than the iOS equivalent which throws up a suggestion underneath your mistyped word always at the wrong time!

The form factor is really what makes this a joy to use, the blogger app just looks perfect in portrait on a 7 inch display, sorry Steve you were wrong the text is razor sharp, reads just the right length across the screen, i.e. exactly the same length as the keyboard which sits beneath and with which I am practically touch typing on my first go and hey if you want just speak and the words will be typed for you. I do miss the Windows 8 hand writing recognition though speed of typing on the jellybean nexus 7 more than makes up for that.. but we will tackle Windows 8 on the nexus 7 in part 2 of my review..



The iPad is great but currently has had one app that I crave placed in purgatory since the first gen iPad. Unlike Apple ,Google have allowed the release of this app, which of course is onlive. You may ask yourself if a tablet with just 2.4ghz N wifi can handle onlive, when over on PCs and laptops you really need wired or 5ghz to keep your cloud gaming session going. Well the answer is it works and here is some proof. Me playing LA Noire over 13 minutes or so without a single drop in connect ion or lag. The video will also show you ,multi tasking , fast switching between apps and a surprise for me that Sarien.net works through the Chrome browser. 

I also  installed flash 11 apk ( yes I know)  and it works with the Firefox beta, no rooting required and I also used some of my £15 allowance to splash out on Splashtop HD  to stream PC games and more importantly Windows 8. On Android Splashtop has yet to hit version 2 but owners of the HD and first version will get an automatic upgrade when it releases.



The heat is none....oh ee wu ho ...the heat is...none!
I have been using the nexus 7 all day and this device goes nowhere near the egg frying temperature of my new iPad , the red hot Al case of which has the added benefit of autoclaving my hands and throws in the odd static shock to wake me up when I am nodding off ... In fact the only heat I detected over the two days I have used it is from my own hand holding it , this coming from the sun melting heat of the Tosh Libretto or the static shock and heat of the iPad is awesome and probably has something to do with the fact that putting a rubber back on your tablet gives said tablet neither the propensity to conduct heat nor to statically shock you from time to time...


More testing to follow, these are just my first impressions the knee jerk in gut first satiating acts for cravings of a long term iPad owner, feeling the the need the need for Flash, playing full cloud games ( onlive ) and checking out what Windows 8 Pro will be like on a 7 inch 384 gram Tegra 3 12 core GPU tablet ..


The Google nexus 7 is a winner, costing less than some cases and accessories for your iPad .Even if you have an iPad and Windows 8 tablets the Google Nexus 7 will find its own place on your tablet life, because the light weight ,development community and unique 7 inch high res form factor make it unique. Android is alive and kicking and the only valid reason for you not owning one right now is that they are out of stock. 


With established players in the tablet space, in your tablet space, the time for platform rivalry is over. In writing this article I used an iOS device the new iPad to film, take pictures and upload that data to apps which are universal across iOS, Android and Windows 8 or even at a browser level. I used an Android device the nexus 7 to check up on my uploads to youtube and Google plus and to type most of this entry, I then used a Windows 8 tablet to finish the whole thing off, suddenly I have 3 times the screen real estate and real multicore parallel hardware and software computing multitasking power  far more than I used to have with my leviathan desktop whose monitor is cooking my face as I type this ... Synergy, grown up attitudes in sharing apps across platforms, is what separates and elevates the computer industry from the console games industry which is rapidly failing. 


The cloud and cross platform, cross browser and cross OS applications are the enablers and they thought it would be java ? Today we use Mac software on PCs, Windows 8 tablets , Google apps on iOS devices and every body benefits not least you and me.  So the arrival of the nexus 7 is not just another chapter in the tablet war it is actually the point where all these devices, the software and hardware that drives them start to work together and change the way we work and play ...and what better way to illustrate this than to check out Windows 8 on the Google nexus 7  ..which will form part 2 of my review...


Coming right up after I solve this pesky murder case....

Microsoft Office 365 preview part II: Microsoft Office 365 on the 384 g Google nexus 7

Here you see the entire office 365 suite running on the Google nexus 7 via Windows 8 being streamed through to the little jelly bean nexus 7 via Splashtop  and so imagine the scenario there you are checking up on the sports and other things with flashy metro apps out and about streaming Windows 8 to your Google Nexus 7 and then it hits you that maybe you should do some work for that major presentation you are late for, but you are too lazy to open your laptop or dekstop , well  here is how you run the full office 365 suite on the 7 inch 384g device in the palm of your hand : 

and runs 

So here is power point  

word 

one note 

publisher 

excel 

all running on a 384g tablet in the palm of your hands...

So what are you waiting for power up your nexus 7 , and laptop install Splashtop and the office 365 preview and check out the fun for yourself ... to think we used to sit in front of 286s back in the day with those grimy things they called keyboards....

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How Steam's Big Picture will liberate you from living room TV slavery altogether !

Hey you!  Did you know  Valve's Big Picture actually makes for the most awesome little picture too?

The point of Valve's Big Picture is to introduce your PC to your living room with a beautiful front end for all your hundreds of Steam games.. The problem with the Big Picture is you still need to have a PC connected to your living room tv and the problem with the living room for gaming is you compete for that space with all around you ... 

These days we love to play with tablets, phones and hand helds whilst we watch tv on the big screen. Right now I am working on a big screen, watching a film on a laptop screen with an iPad and Google Nexus 7 running other duties .. 

So where does the Big Picture fit in ? Most gamers would not risk their 4k gaming rigs living in their living rooms ... and then consider the cost of buying another gaming laptop or machine for that room and the Big point of the Big Picture seems totally lost ...

That is unless there was a cheap, effective and uber cool way of having all the features of the Big Picture but without any additional cost or moving expensive tech into the wild non gamer infested jungle of our living rooms.. My recent shenanigans with Splashtop THD on the Google Nexus 7 streaming Windows 8 and onlive games got me thinking. Why not take the best of the Big Picture and make it mobile .. freeing us from the living room altogether or allowing us to keep watching Die Hard whilst playing our favourite Steam games and here is how we do it and what would you know? Steams Big Picture makes an awesome front end for playing all your Steam games streamed to your Nexus 7. And here is living proof : First let us check out how the big Picture interface looks on the Nexus 7:

playing X COM Enemy Unknown

Shogun Total War 2 

Retro City Rampage 

All in all the Steam Big Picture front end runs excellently on tablets like the Google Nexus 7 , yes you could use the old Steam games list and store, but Big Picture is far more up to date with today's world of Metro live tiles, you can see why Gabe was so miffed at Windows 8 ..when he had his own Big Picture in the wings .. The way the opening screen is personalised to your game collection is very cool. As it is Big Picture is way cooler to use on tablets than on tvs .. now if Valve would only wake up to streaming, cloud gaming and throw in some optimisations for tablet users ..how cool would Valves own version of Splashtop THD be?  

A decade ago now ..really .. Valve shocked the world with the first digital delivery system , people screamed and complained about having to go on line to activate their game (Half Life 2) , it is time they did some as shocking and controversial again. 

You see Gabe , you have the right idea , people are moving away from their rigs for gaming , but they do not want to move them to their living rooms. What was missing in the Big Picture from the start was a way to stream your game from your gaming PC to your TV. And this is what Splashtop THD gives you , the ability not only to stream your game to your TV via a cheap tablet but to actually game, fully PC game on a 7 inch Android tablet ..not just in your living room competing for tv time but anywhere .. doing so with Big Picture as your front end on a device that weighs less than a joypad, has longer battery life and stays cooler!

Of course this way of gaming is not perfect yet , all the examples above really require optimised controls for tablets,  but that is where our feedback will hopefully shock Gabe and co into once again shocking the world, how about releasing Half Life 3 as the first streamed cloud only Valve game? 

Exciting times ..right I am off to play the game of the year winner Dark Souls using Big Picture on my Nexus 7 more 2 follow as soon as I can video the action and upload it... Now I can prepare to die anytime any where thanks to Splashtop THD, Windows 8 and Steam's Big Picture...

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Asymmetric Multi Cloud gaming : Crossing Splashtop THD on Android with Onlive PC streams to play everything everywhere

You are used to streaming your music or films every where on any device , but what about your far more expensive PC games collection .. would it not be great to take that with you without having to reinstall or risk mocca chocca latte death of your expensive gaming laptop or newly mortgaged Apple device  at your favourite tax evading coffee emporium? Would you not like to exploit the power of  that 10K gaming rig you have currently doing torrent duty whilst you are (rarely) out and about in the sun or cold cruel winter fog ....?

Well thanks to the cloud you now can, thanks to what I likes to call Asymmetric Multi Cloud gaming

Asymmetric because we are going to use a tiny cheap low cost £159  (but excellent  ) device the Google Nexus 7  to play AAA games from a larger more expensive laptop and from even more powerful gaming servers..

Multi Cloud because  we are going to use said Laptop to play AAA games with 0 install time ,at speeds and detail impossible for it using  the onlive cloud service . Then we are going to use Splashtop THD cloud streaming service to provide a control overlay and beam the onlive games  running on  PC ( which have no touch controls in onlive as of yet) to the Google Nexus 7 in the palm of our hands and play them anywhere...

Why use one cloud when you can use two ?! I love cloud gaming  , it is the reason I picked up my first Android tablet this year , the awesome Google Nexus 7 which would allow me to mess with Splashtop THD and onlive .  The former, which  has only recently been activated for the Nexus 7 , allows you to stream AND play ( not just watch or broadcast) any PC game from your gaming PC of choice.

The Nexus 7, is a beautiful tablet to game on, primarily because of the insanely cheap price, but also because of that screen ratio, the 1280 by 800 res games just look amazing on it when streamed and it has the perfect weight and balance take a look see below 

First lets check out how simply playing games directly using Splashtop THD from my Lenovo X220T works out.. in these tests my laptop is 3 floors away from the Google Nexus 7 ...

Here is how amazing Hitman Absolution looks on the Google Nexus 7

Far Cry 3

Sine Mora

Planetside 2

Now all of these examples actually use the cpu and gpu grunt of your laptop or PC/Apple thing ..there is a far better way of playing though and that is by crossing Splashtop THD and onlive streams :  I love the idea of onlive , it is the reason I bought my Google Nexus 7 the first Android tablet or device I have owned. The promise of full PC gaming anywhere is pretty is awesome ,but onlive have been slow to introduce touch controls for tablets with only LA Noire really attempting to wow tablet cloud gaming fans. And then it came to me as my hardware struggled to stream and run Planetside 2 in the above example ...why not Splastop THD stream an onlive  stream ? Doing so means your PC uses very little resources, Splashtop THD allows you to create a touch control layout for all the games you still do not have them for on onlive ..and these are the results: All these games were only playable with external joypads and mice etc but the dream of every cloud gamer is to have optimised touch controls as good as the real thing ...dream I said! Splashtop THD puts on the bus and sets us on that road ..and I am firmly confident I will make it there with you too.. unless the Jokers henchmen get me again :

Batman Arkham City

Aliens Vs Predator Predator Mission

Aliens Vs Predator Marine Mission

Darksiders 2 demo

Assassin's Creed Revelations  

I can see a time in the very near future where developers optimise their games for cloud and streaming play , as tablets and phones continue to dominate even if they are eventually Windows 8 Pro tablets , you as a power user or even casual will not want to waste the power of your device playing AAA games or install /download terabytes of your Steam collection on each device .. and if Steam want to move our gaming collections they will have to incorporate the option to stream games into their services or Gabe sorry dude you will have missed the Big Picture ...which is actually a small picture and is asymmetric , multi cloud and right here in the palm of my cold Google Nexus 7 holding hands... 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached