So my wife picked me up an early gift and I was hell bent on getting the iPad mini. Something for my camera bag. An iPad has some really useful tools and apps for working with many Canon and Nikon dSLR's.

Well, the iPad mini came out and I was hoping for a few things. 1) A retina display and 2) and entry level price point. Sad to say, neither happened. Still, the size of the device was compelling over the normal iPad (my wife has the iPad 2 -- loves it). So I started google'ing around and saw Android has some cool options as well. Free Eye-Fi apps, cr2 RAW file readers (I shoot Canon), and a DSLR Controller (via USB/Canon only at the moment -- the limit of my search). So one day, the wife and I were out shopping and on display, they had the Nexus 7. So she is tooling around in the store and there I was toying with it and I casually mentioned that might be a decent alternative to an iPad.

So, last Friday while I was working, my wife comes home with one that was on special to the warehouse club advantage members and says "Merry Xmas, you are getting this early to see if you like it". Well I charged the device, loaded a few apps, ordered a OTG cable.

I was no fool, I added Angry Birds Star Wars HD to it first... And that is when the device disappeared. Kids took over. I have no idea what level they are on, but hey, +1, it will be great for road trips. Day one with the device was a wash. We had basketball tournaments in the evening anyway and the device served as entertainment for my youngest.

Day 2, I got up early and started putting the apps I mentioned above on the device. Still no OTG cable, but should be here soon (Amazon Prime, baby!). Also added some favorites like Dropbox, Kindle reader (got to read my mobi files), and setup my mail and stuff on it. I used to have issues with my old DROID2 crashing on several apps. So far so good with this device. Payed for a few apps to stream movies from my Synology NAS, +1 - WOW - even BD MKV's play well (hardware acceleration on). The screen is very sharp; the iPad 2 will not do that (Retina iPad will). Holding the device is about as good as using a Kindle keyboard; better than original Kindle Fire. Interface is tons better than the Fire as well.

Loaded it with photos I took at Friday nights game to show about to try and generate some interest in my work with a camera. Sent my wife around to some of the other moms and got asked to shoot some photos for other folks and they would buy them... Very nice. Was told the school might like some for the yearbook (those will be on the house so long as I get some kudos in the yearbook or somewhere)...

I'll write more as time goes on, but so far, I am happy with my second go with Android. Off to do more kid running now.

Android 4.2 adds multi-user... that is just cool. Will iOS do that??? Everyone does not need an iPad... folks can share.

Coming from iOS devices, I miss the home button, but for the most part I am over it. Still working on getting over the proximity of the power and volume rockers. On the same side of the device. Different than iOS devices... No rear camera either, but hey... I am using this to showcase my photos; not take pictures... that is what my dSLR is for!

More to come...

Over the missing Home button. Got an OTG cable and it has proven useful for my photography work already. Had some random crash issues that ended up being an app misbehaving on the 4.2.1 update. It seems to be fixed now, but this leads me to my next statement. That has never happened to me on my iPhone or my wife's iPad2. I think something is to be said about Apple and their control for their product. They strive to provide the best user experience. That said, overall my Nexus 7 experience has been very good and it is proving to be a useful tool and toy for me and my family.