Nexus 7™For Dummies®

Nexus 7™ For Dummies®

by Dan Gookin

Nexus 7™ For Dummies®

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Nexus 7 is a trademark of Google Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Not all content that is available in standard print versions of this book may appear or be packaged in all book formats. If you have purchased a version of this book that did not include media that is referenced by or accompanies a standard print version, you may request this media by visiting http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit us www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012949141

ISBN 978-1-118-50873-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-51438-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-51441-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-50872-5 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for over 25 years. He combines his love of writing with his gizmo fascination to create books that are informative, entertaining, and not boring. Having written over 130 titles with 12 million copies in print translated into over 30 languages, Dan can attest that his method of crafting computer tomes seems to work.

Perhaps his most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one bestseller (though, as a reference, it could not be listed on the Times’ Best Sellers list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.

Dan’s most popular titles include PCs For Dummies, Word For Dummies, Laptops For Dummies, and Android Phones For Dummies. He also maintains the vast and helpful website www.wambooli.com.

Dan holds a degree in Communications/Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he enjoys spending time with his sons playing video games indoors while they enjoy the gentle woods of Idaho.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions and Editorial

Sr. Project Editor: Mark Enochs

Acquisitions Editor: Katie Mohr

Copy Editor: Rebecca Whitney

Editorial Manager: Leah Michael

Editorial Assistant: Leslie Saxman

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cover Photo: Background © beakraus/iStockphoto.com; image of phone provided by author

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Katie Crocker

Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Tim Detrick, Joyce Haughey, Christin Swinford

Proofreaders: John Greenough, Christine Sabooni

Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Kathy Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

Welcome to the 21st century. Computers? Forget them! They’re old, heavy, and clunky and not designed with the modern lifestyle in mind. Instead, you need to follow the trends and get a tablet, a mobile communications gizmo — something you can take with you and stay connected wherever you are.

Avoiding temptation to follow the trendy crowd, you’ve selected something unique. The Nexus 7 is not your normal tablet. It lacks a digital cellular connection and the monthly bills that come with it. It also lacks a rear-facing camera because, let’s face it, tablets make lousy cameras. No, the Nexus 7 is truly different.

As a Nexus 7 owner, or someone who’s interested in purchasing the device, you obviously want to get the most from your technology. It can be intimidating. It can be frustrating. No matter what, your experience can be made better by leisurely reading the book you have in your hands.

About This Book

This book was written to help you get the most from the Nexus 7’s potential. It’s a reference. Each chapter covers a specific topic, and the sections within each chapter address an issue related to the topic. Definitely, you don’t have to read this book from front to back. In fact, I forbid you to do so.

The overall idea for this book is to show how things are done on the Nexus 7 and to help you get the most from the device without overwhelming you with information or intimidating you into despair.

Sample sections in this book include

Locking the Nexus 7

Activating voice input on the keyboard

Importing contacts from your computer

Setting up an Email account

Running Facebook on your Nexus 7

Talking and video chat

Placing a Skype phone call

Helping others find your location

Flying with the Nexus 7

You have nothing to memorize, no sacred utterances or animal sacrifices, and definitely no PowerPoint presentations. Instead, every section explains a topic as though it’s the first thing you read in this book. Nothing is assumed, and everything is cross-referenced. Technical terms and topics, when they come up, are neatly shoved to the side, where they’re easily avoided. The idea here isn’t to learn anything. This book’s philosophy is to help you look it up, figure it out, and get on with your life.

How to Use This Book

This book follows a few conventions for using the Nexus 7. First of all, the Nexus 7 is referred to as the Nexus 7 throughout the book. I might also refer to it as your tablet, for short.

The way you interact with the Nexus 7 is by using its touchscreen, the glassy part of the device as it’s facing you. The device also has some physical buttons, as well as some holes and connectors. All these items are described in Chapter 1.

The various ways to touch the screen are explained and named in Chapter 2.

Chapter 3 discusses text input on the Nexus 7, which involves using an onscreen keyboard. You can also input text by speaking to the Nexus 7, which is also covered in Chapter 3.

This book directs you to do things by following numbered steps. Each step involves a specific activity, such as touching something on the screen; for example:

3. Choose Downloads.

This step directs you to touch the text or item labeled Downloads on the screen. You might also be told to do this:

3. Touch Downloads.

Some options can be turned off or on, as indicated by a gray box with a blue check mark in it, as shown in the margin. By touching the box on the screen, you add or remove the blue check mark. When the blue check mark appears, the option is on; otherwise, it’s off.

Foolish Assumptions

Even though this book is written with the gentle hand-holding required by anyone who is just starting out, or who is easily intimidated, I’ve made a few assumptions. For example, I assume that you’re a human being and not a colony creature from the planet Zontar.

My biggest assumption: You have a Nexus 7, manufactured by Asus and distributed by Google on the Internet as well as in various stores in the real world. As this book goes to press, the Nexus 7 has only two variations — the 8GB model and the 16GB model. The differences between these models aren’t great enough to warrant separate coverage in this book.

I also assume that you have a computer, either a desktop or laptop. The computer can be a PC or Windows computer or a Macintosh. Oh, I suppose it could also be a Linux computer. In any event, I refer to your computer as your computer throughout this book. When directions are specific to a PC or Mac, the book says so.

Programs that run on the Nexus 7 are apps, which is short for applications. A single program is an app.

Finally, this book doesn’t assume that you have a Google account, but already having one helps. Information is provided in Chapter 1 about setting up a Google account — an extremely important part of using the Nexus 7. Having a Google account opens up a slew of useful features, information, and programs that make using your tablet more productive.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is divided into five parts, each of which covers a certain aspect of the Nexus 7 or how it’s used.

Part I: Introducing the Nexus 7

This part of the book covers setup and orientation to familiarize you with how the device works. It’s a good place to start if you’re completely new to the concept of tablet computing, mobile devices, or the Android operating system.

Part II: Keep in Touch

In this part of the book, you read about various ways that the Nexus 7 can electronically communicate with your online friends. There’s texting, e-mail, the web, social networking, and even the much-wanted trick of using the non-phone Nexus 7 to make phone calls and do video chat.

Part III: But Wait — There’s More!

The Nexus 7 is pretty much a limitless gizmo. To prove it, the chapters in this part of the book cover all the various and wonderful things the tablet does: It’s an eBook reader, a map, a navigator, a photo album, a portable music player, a calendar, a calculator, and potentially much more.

Part IV: Nuts and Bolts

Part IV of this book covers a lot of different topics. Up first is how to connect the Nexus 7 wirelessly to the Internet as well as to other gizmos, such as a Bluetooth printer. There’s a chapter on sharing and exchanging files with your computer. Then come the maintenance, customization, and troubleshooting chapters.

Part V: The Part of Tens

Things are wrapped up in this book with the traditional For Dummies Part of Tens. Each chapter in this part lists ten items or topics. The chapters include tips, tricks, shortcuts, things to remember, and things not to forget — plus, a smattering of useful apps that no Nexus 7 should be without.

Icons Used in This Book

This icon flags useful, helpful tips or shortcuts.

This icon marks a friendly reminder to do something.

This icon marks a friendly reminder not to do something.

This icon alerts you to overly nerdy information and technical discussions of the topic at hand. Reading the information is optional, though it may win you the Daily Double on Jeopardy!

Where to Go from Here

Start reading! Observe the table of contents and find something that interests you. Or look up your puzzle in the index. When these suggestions don’t cut it, just start reading Chapter 1.

My e-mail address is dgookin@wambooli.com. Yes, that’s my real address. I reply to all e-mail I get, and you’ll get a quick reply if you keep your question short and specific to this book. Although I do enjoy saying Hi, I cannot answer technical support questions, resolve billing issues, or help you troubleshoot your Nexus 7. Thanks for understanding.

You can also visit my web page for more information or as a diversion: www.wambooli.com.

Enjoy this book and your Nexus 7!

Part I

Introducing the Nexus 7

In this part . . .

After several thousand years, tablets are once again all the rage. Babylonians wrote on them. Moses brought them down from Mount Sinai. Ancient Roman schoolboys did their homework on them. Tablets are nothing new.

Then again, those ancient tablets aren’t really the same as modern mobile computing devices. Ancient tablets didn’t use batteries. They didn’t communicate wirelessly with the Internet. They didn’t let you update your social networking status, read books, play music, find tacos, or do any of the wonderful things a modern tablet is capable of. So maybe the Nexus 7 is something new and different. Consider this part of the book your introduction to the 21st century tablet.