Nexus and PureView
by Volker Weber
This is an odd couple I am currently using: a Nexus 7 Tablet and the Nokia 808 PureView. Great fun, but an unlikely pair. Like my other pair, a BlackBerry and an iPad, it covers very different use cases. Where the BlackBerry provides excellent connectivity and the iPad gives me all the multimedia, and content creation, the PureView is simply the best camera, and the Nexus adds all the software the PureView misses.
Well, this works when I am at home and close to home. The PureView cannot push photos into my Photostream, and even if I could move photos from the PureView to the Nexus, that would not work either. Vendor lock-in. And the Nexus, as nice as it is, does not cover all the rest of the use cases. Can't watch TV from the tizi for instance. And the screen is too small to read A4-sized PDFs. It's no match for the Retina display on the iPad.
If I would not be in the area, and started traveling as I will in September, I would miss a lot of things. For instance, I cannot run presentations from either one. Technically, I could use HDMI on the Nokia, but that won't work with VGA projectors. The Nexus 7 has turned out to be autistic. It does not show up as a USB drive, it's very low on storage, the Nokia USB-to-go dongle does not physically fit into the MicroUSB port. So my stuff is either in the Google cloud or not accessible.
The Nexus is very useful around the house. It's a nice Sonos controller, it will let me check on Google Reader, Google+, my mail and calendar. But it does need a WiFi connection. Potentially that could be the PureView, but it only comes with a stripped down third party client, which would not even encrypt the network. Yes, I could buy a full client, but hey, Nokia, this is not 2010. Everything, the Windows phones, the BlackBerrys, the iPhone, other Android phones, they all have a mobile hotspot. You can no longer pretend it's a third party add-on.
Of course it all starts with the Nexus being unable to connect to 3G networks. That already killed the PlayBook. I know we are in Kindle Fire territory and not in iLand. Did you notice how Google plays around this non-connectivity issue in their camping ad? Father and son bonding, in their backyard. In the real world, you would need an iPad. Or another device playing hotspot, and we know how fast that depletes the battery. Not good, when camping out in a tent.
So, when it's time to leave home, I will be back on BlackBerry and iPad, with an iPhone as backup.
Comments
I am sure your Nokia Pureview is bluetooth tethering enabled and so is your Nexus 7 (at least my one year old Acer A100 with ICS is). Just pair it with your smartphone and choose "Internetzugriff" from its listed profiles ...
I am afraid the Nexus 7 does not have that option.
Could be the PureViews fault. Some mobile phones support Bluetooth PAN networking (that's the one we need), others only Bluetooth Dial Up ...
Android phones need 3rd party apps to offer the first option (Bluetooth Auto Tethering is the one I use on my Nexus). IPhones do it out of the box ... Nokias? I don't know ...
If you manage to get it working it saves a lot of battery on both devices (and laptops can use that connection, too ... at least my Macbook). I really don't know why everybody wants Wifi tethering in todays world ... even the iPad supports Bluetooth tethering ;-)
@Volker: For your presentation, would DLNA be a solution? You might show your stuff on the 808 via the "Play To" application. On the other hand, there was something called "Big Screen" on Nokia Store, which works very nicely on my N8. Maybe give these apps a try?
My two cents,
I own a Galaxy Tab2 and a Nokia N8 and I feel your pain it took me a while to find this solution until finally a friend of mine did it. From an iPhone you can a get a Bluetooth profile to connect, unfortunately Nokians (most of them but not all) use DUN profile, and for some odd reason, a PC an iphone a even a Blackberry can pair to that BUT Android fails... excellent combination, the only weird protocol and the only OS that does not support it...
Solution, download BlueVPN on your Nexus, it will simulate via software a DUN protocol (no root required!) and it creates a fake "VPN tunnel" to forward all the traffic from the table to the enabled DUN device :), as Sebastian Herp mentioned BT Thetering saves a LOT of battery on both devices.
At the end of the day is as easy as opening BlueVPN, click connect to "Nokia N8" and wait 3-4 seconds until the VPN tunnels gets up and running.
Happy browsing.
Tip1: For another odd reason, if the data is turned on on your Nokia, it will split the 3G speed in two, keeping half for the phone itself and half to tether to the tablet. It works, it just slow depending on your 3G speed. Whenever I need the extra speed I just turn off the data (using the widget in the notification bar) and the modem connection will work at full 3G speed.
Warning2: For another (YES ANOTHER) odd reason, some android apps seems to rely heavily on weather you have an active WIFI connection or not, for example NETFLIX will not even try to use the VPN connection, it will immediatly complain about not having wireless connectivity and you can't launch the app...
Thank you, Ramiro. This works a treat.
Does anyone have any idea how Google, at the unveiling of the Nexus 7, was able mirror the Nexus 7 screen on the monitors? It is frustrating knowing that they did it and current Nexus 7 owners cannot do so.
stigler
Well, they own the software, they can pretty much do whatever they please.
