Help me learn how to use my google Nexus 7 Tablet and listen to podcast

January 7, 2014 9:34 AM

Well I finally made it over to the tablet, after being a long time hold out. I see “kids” reading powerpoint lectures and taking notes on theirs, so I finally decided it was an investment in my education (I’m a grad student). I read the Nexus 7 book that came in my “library” but I still have a lot of questions. Please help so that I can get the most out of this tablet.

In a nutshell, I want to be able to record class lectures, and see how long the lecture is (like you can do in itunes) and easily jumpback/reverse 10 secs or so, if I missed something. Is there a good audio player app you can recommend?

I am mostly reading PDF files. What is the best way to view these docs? in Quick office or Kindle? Regardless, how can I see the page numbers when I am reading? In addition, it looks like you can take notes and highlight when reading, how do I do that?

Powerpoint:
I notice that there are some compatibility issues. Is there an app to download the “real” powerpoint? Also, how do you swipe to the next slide? it is not as easy as I would like, I am obviously doing something wrong.

Lastly, since I am studying women and public policy, I would really love to be able to listen to or watch my favorite policy wonk- Melissa Harris Perry. How can I get the show for when I am offline? I found Rachel Maddow on Stitcher, but I can not figure out how to get the full show audio of MHP.

posted by TRUELOTUS to Technology (3 answers total)

That's quite a lot of questions. Here are some answers!


I want to be able to record class lectures, and see how long the lecture is.

The Nexus 7 has a mic built in, but it's not really designed for stuff like that - it's more designed for someone speaking into it from close range. You can try recording lectures with it, but it may be very quiet or inaudible. This isn't something that I personally do a lot, but Lifehacker reckons your best bet is Tape-a-Talk, which thankfully has a good free version for you to test out. Have a play with it and see if it's usable.


Is there a good audio player app you can recommend?

Any audio player will let you see how long a track is and skip backwards and forwards. PowerAmp is very good, but there's cheaper/free alternatives that will work just as well for what you need - I like VLC.


I am mostly reading PDF files. What is the best way to view these docs? [...] it looks like you can take notes and highlight when reading, how do I do that?

Again, there's hundreds of apps that will work well for this, including Kindle, but I've personally always just used Adobe Reader. Long press (hold your finger on the screen for a second) to bring up a little menu that lets you highlight or add notes. Page number is displayed in the bottom left corner.


Powerpoint: I notice that there are some compatibility issues. Is there an app to download the “real” powerpoint? Also, how do you swipe to the next slide?

Microsoft do offer a version of Office for Android, but you need to be an Office 365 subscriber to use it. If you're not a subscriber, or you don't want to shell out the $100/year for it, you're going to have to settle for a third-party app, which will almost definitely have some compatibility issues. Quickoffice is probably your best bet for this. If you're using Quickoffice, there's a play button at the top which lets you view a presentation as a slideshow, and you can tap the screen to advance a slide.

For viewing offline - I guess it depends where you're getting them from, but you can either download the files and access them from the Downloads app, or add them to your Google Drive. Google Drive integrates nicely with Quickoffice, so I'd recommend that. If you're using Google Drive, you can tap the little ⓘ icon next to a file and set it to be available offline in the settings menu.


I would really love to be able to listen to or watch my favorite policy wonk- Melissa Harris Perry. How can I get the show for when I am offline? I found Rachel Maddow on Stitcher, but I can not figure out how to get the full show audio of MHP.

I'm not 100% sure what you're asking here, but it sounds like you're after a podcast app. Again, there's loads - I use Pocket Casts. If you search for "Rachel Maddow" it comes up with both the audio and video versions of her show, and once you've subscribed you can set options to automatically download and store episodes for as long as you want.


I've skimmed over a lot here, but I think I've more or less answered most of what you asked. Hope that helps!
posted by spielzebub at 12:08 PM on January 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

You can also record using Evernote - a while back they made an update to allow up to a 90-minute recording based on the length of some college classes.

It won't necessarily do a better job of recording or playing back audio than the other recommendations, but it would let you organize your audio notes along with other kind of notes if you choose to use the Evernote app for other things.
posted by altcountryman at 6:38 PM on January 7, 2014

Your university might have a service that can answer some of these questions in person, one on one. It might be the library, you can start there and they can point you to a better resource if that is not something they offer.
posted by katieanne at 7:01 PM on January 7, 2014