Screenshot Shortcut for Nexus 7

This may be obvious to some but if you would like to take a photo of the current screen on your Nexus 7, press the power button and the down volume button at the same time. When you press and hold the resulting screenshot, it will give you options to share this screenshot via email / social media etc.

7 Ways to Speak to Your Nexus 7

One of my favourite features of the Nexus 7 has to be the Google Now feature which makes the Nexus do many things at the command of your voice. I've listed a few ways you can integrate Google Now into your daily life.

1. Set my Alarm - To set your alarm, open up Google Now and press the microphone then say "set alarm for 8:30". The Nexus will then set the alarm for you.

2. Navigate to a Destination - When Google Now is told to "Navigate to Oxford University", Google Navigation will start up and start giving you directions how to get to Oxford University.

3. Play a Song - Google can also be told to "Listen to Pachobel's Canon" which will activate a search on Youtube for "Pachobel's Canon". That's pretty cool...

4. Leave Note to Self - You can also leave a note for yourself with the instruction "Note to Self" "Do not take West Ring Road" and Google will create a note on your screen for your reference later.

5. Send Text/Email - This is a little more tricky because Google can sometimes find it hard to understand names but you can actually tell Google to "Send text/sms/email to Ben" and it will look for Ben in your contacts list. Then it will wait for you to tell it what to say to Ben via email/text.

6. Go to a Website - You might wonder why someone would want to speak to Google to go to a website but for example, there are websites which tell you where the closest speed cameras are to your current location. In that situation, you may be in the car and you may tell Google to "Go to PerthSC.com" so that you can quickly glance at the screen to see where the speed cameras are... which you wouldn't do because it is illegal to operate a phone whilst driving!

7. And finally.. Search for Anything with your Voice 
Here's an extract from Google's own helpful hints and tips for searching stuff using voice commands.

What you want	What to type or say	Examples
Sports information	[team’s name]	San Francisco Giants
Pictures	Pictures of [topic] images of [topic]	Pictures of San Francisco Images of cats
Convert measurements	[original measurement] in [new measurement]	30 degrees Celsius in Fahrenheit
Movie showtimes	Movie Movie [location] [movie name]	Movie Movie Chicago The Horse’s Mouth
Word definition	Define [word]	Define campanile
Weather forecast	Weather Weather [location]	Weather Weather Detroit
Identify an area code	Area code [###]	Area code 215
Identify zip code	Zip code [#####]	Zip code 46202
Time	Time Time [location]	Time Time in London
Flight information	[Airline] [flight number]	American airlines flight 390
Translation	Translate to [language] [phrase]	Translate to Spanish, Where is the Palace Hotel?’
Calculator	[A math phrase]	75 divided by 6
Food	[Type of food] [Type of food] in [location]	Mexican food Mexican food in Urbana, Illinois

Why Google Now is not Responding When I say Google

I was very excited with the Google Now features that the Nexus 7 allows. However, I found that my Nexus 7 would not respond to me when I say "Google" like it is supposed to. I ignored this problem but today, I decided I had to find out how this can be fixed and this is what I found. 

Apparently, the ability to trigger a search or action by saying "Google" is called hotword detection. To turn it off or on, start from the Google Now screen and touch Menu > Settings > Voice > Hotword detection.

EDIT: Actually, hotword detection was already on for my device. The problem was that when you set your English language to any other than US English (Australian English or UK English), Google won't recognise the "Google" command! Of course, because it is an American but who knew that would be a problem!

Which Nexus7 Case?

Carrying around such a nice little tablet leads to the next issue of finding a suitable case for the Nexus7. Recently, there was a youtube post which showed why you should not get the official Nexus7 case.

 

The suggested alternative of a "leather" case from ebay is $10 compared to the official case sold at JB Hifi for $25 in strange colours. The problem with the ebay case is that the form factor of the Nexus 7 seems to be lost because the case makes it quite bulky in the end.

There is another case which seems to keep the size down which is currently selling for $US13.99 + shipping as shown below. Oh yeah, its very important that you get a case which has the SMART CASE function which can turn on / unlock your Nexus 7 when you open the case.