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Topic: Tablets

12 good entertainment apps for the Nexus 7 tablet

Summary: The Nexus 7 is now in the hands of a lot of folks who have never owned an Android tablet before based on the correspondence I receive. Tablets like the Nexus 7 are great for entertainment activities, and these apps are the ones I use most.

James Kendrick

By for Mobile News |

 |  Image 8 of 12

Google Play Music

If you buy music from the Google Play Store, this app is a great way to listen to it.

It streams music stored in the Google Cloud, and also plays music stored locally on the Nexus 7.

It is integrated in the Nexus 7 lock screen, so you can play/pause music without unlocking the tablet.

Free

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Topics: Tablets, Android, Apps, Google

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15 comments
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  • Hulu+

    Has Hulu released a version of the Hulu+ app for the Nexus 7 yet? I've got it on my HTC Flyer and it's great.
    dsf3g
    Reply Vote

  • I'm hoping for a flash solution

    As it stands right now I cannot play content through my Amazon Instant Video account on the Nexus 7
    NC_Prince
    Reply Vote

    • firefox + flash

      If you can get Firefox's apk file and the last Flash .apk that Adobe released, then yes the Nexus has the power to run Amazon Instant Video, but it takes some work to click through the mobile site to get to the full site with the video player. Annoying, but it can be done.
      SeanBlader
      Reply 1 Vote

  • So few available in Canada

    I bought my wife a Nexus 7 for her birthday. It is a beautiful piece of technology. What is really frustrating, though, is the lack of access to key apps from Canada.

    No Google Music, Voice. No Amazon Music, App Store, Cloud. No Spotify, Pandora, etc.

    Songza just signed a deal in Canada, so perhaps the music gates are opening, please!

    What does work in Canada? Apple and iTunes.

    Appreciate the opportunity to rant. Love the N7,as well as my Asus Transformer TF101.
    sal1957
    Reply 2 Votes

  • Most of them aren't Nexus7 optimized

    Many of them are streched phone app spaning nexus 7's screen. using default Android's spaner widget.

    Need more small tablet optimized app - specially for Nexus7
    thandermax
    Reply Vote

  • Locally Stored content vs 16Gigs max memory

    It certainly is nice that you can stream music from Amazon or Google or wherever when you have an internet connection but how much of your precious memory do you want to fill up with music, pics and videos plus all of your apps and games. Looks like it can get really crowed inside that N7 in a hurry. Another strike against it for not having some type of expansion slot. Yeah, I know with some fiddling you can plug in a USB stick but that looks really good hanging off the side or bottom.
    johnnylumber
    Reply Vote

    • 16 gb mem is plenty

      I have over 1000 high-res photos, hours of music, 2 movies, 7 yoga videos and dozens of apps on my 16gb Nexus. The storage is barely over 1/2 used. Plus I can stream from my pc's. I can hook up a memory stick if needed but I don't need it. It's not a storage device. I agree they should've included a card slot but I don't need more mem yet. Not even close.
      Raw Burt
      Reply Vote

      • Use storage intelligently

        I agree, there's enough storage for a number of books and plenty of music. If you plan on taking a trip and need a couple of movies, load them up in advance. We've gotten so used to carrying everything with us (my daughter insists she needs 80GB music player, how many years would it take to listen to all of that?) that we don't want to think about what we're doing.
        big red one
        Reply Vote

      • Those aren't the best way to think about memory

        Those memory sticks are kind of slow compared to SSD storage, so those are only good for transferring memory from one device to another, but not using it like it's SSD storage.

        For tablets, since apps are pretty small, 16G is a fair amount of storage.
        RichDavis1
        Reply Vote

  • It's All about the Apps

    I own both a Kindle fire and an Ipad 3. I really like the Nexus 7 but I'm not convinced yet. I still consider these media consumption devices. Both the Ipad and the Kindle Fire have much better media consumption apps (my opinion anyway).

    Both the Fire and Ipad have HBOGo, Amazon Instant Video and the DirecTV app. I also use Netflix and Vudu. I know the Nexus 7 has Netflix not sure about the Vudu app.

    The DirecTV apps James features in this article are a joke compared to the one directly from DirecTV. The DirecTV app from DirecTV is not available for the Nexus 7 (not yet anyway). I urge anyone to compare them if this is going to be one of your deciding factors for deciding which tablet to purchase.
    marionspd
    Reply 1 Vote

    • It sure is

      The DirectTV app is a joke compared to the Xfinity app. And the directtv app is an issue with Jellybean not the Nexus 7. You can be sure they will fix that in a hurry. I much prefer the Nexus media consumption apps over the kindle and ipad. The Nexus 7 is so much faster than a kindle that there is no comparison. And apple just sucks. The Nexus is a fraction of the price and a better size. I urge anyone to compare them if this is going to be one of your deciding factors for deciding which tablet to purchase.
      Raw Burt
      Reply Vote

    • More than a consumption device

      The Nexus 7 makes a good choice if you're wanting more than a consumption device, and especially if you don't want to be locked into EITHER Amazon or Barnes and Noble. The Nexus gives you a four way choice (Google Play, Kindle app, Nook app or free books from the library via Overdrive). Plus you can do some productive work with it.
      big red one
      Reply Vote

    • N7 stands pretty strong in that as well

      Beyond the amazon prime stuff there really isn't much of a difference in terms of content between N7 and fire. I would argue you can probably fine all that prime content for N7 in other outlets. Google play is already showing its going past amazon. Magazines is a good example. Amazon magazines are awwwwwful. They are scaled down versions of the real thing. I bought a national geographic from amazon and there are barely any photos. Thats one of the major appeals of national geographic. Meanwhile reading magazines on an N7 has a much more realistic feel of reading a magazine.

      There is something very intangible about the N7 that makes it great. Its an experience that is very approachable much like tablets in general. But this form factor just makes a lot more sense to me. I don't even touch any of my larger tablets. I always used them occasionally because it was felt like a hassle to carry them around.

      There really isn't any compelling reason to stick with the current fire. The prime content certainly is not enough. I certainly hope the next fire will be great because that will only make the tech advance. The N7 is going beyond a smaller tablet. I barely use my phone now beyond using it as a phone. Its major task now is to provide my N7 with data. I'm finding that in the past 2 weeks the N7 is going everywhere with me and its a no brainer to do it. More than likely my next phone will be really scaled down which means I can just buy something thats on boost, virgin mobile or one of those pre paids with unlimited data and 4G. The N7 will just pay for itself just in the cellular savings.
      rengek
      Reply Vote

  • What poor slideshow

    Dear James Kendrick,
    maybe I'm spoiled and too used to read good content from you, but this time this slideshow doesn't deserve to be on the mailing list or featured on ZDNet:
    - 2 out of 12 apps for DirectTV users ( huh?! )
    - youtube, kindle, pandora and netflix app... what a revelation.
    deBrice
    Reply 3 Votes

  • Google Music

    If you buy music from the Google Play Store, this app is a great way to listen to it.

    Although the majority of my online music purchases have been from Amazon, I find the Google Music player to be far superior to Amazon's player. I uploaded my entire music library to Google Music last year, and as I have added new content, it has automatically been uploaded. I've downloaded about 8 gb of music to my Nexus, so that I can play whether I'm online or not.

    I installed the Amazon Cloud player earlier this month, ran into horrible bugs, which Amazon confirmed.
    S_Deemer
    Reply Vote
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