Sharing a laptop with my other half is not that bad actually, even as a new age internet geek, I have much better self control to regulate my time online than say ten to fifteen years ago. Plus, I always have my mobile, if there was something urgent I needed to check on Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo! Mail. However, the device is still very much consumption rather than input. You quite quickly hit limits then I need to use the laptop and there is no other option. Transferring an mp3 (or FLAC) file to my music player still requires the laptop but I now have the in-between zone of my Nexus 7 tablet. To say it has changed my life would be an understatement. It has changed everything!

Let me start with a rather basic morning ritual. I read the Metro paper every week day morning, collecting a paper copy at Slough station before I board my train. Now, I just download the latest edition onto my tablet in the morning during breakfast and read at my leisure on the train. To be fair, there are only three sections I tend to read (Quote Of The Day, The Green Room and The Guilty Pleasures) before jumping to the Sports section and read the latest about Arsenal and transfer gossip. Now I no longer have to worry about the paper copy, I have the app which I update every morning.

I have installed the Glimmr app, which links to my FlickR account, so I can show people all of my images (over 6,000 now) that are in the cloud. Absolutely brings the tablet into a new league. Particularly when there are photos that I do not want to display on my work monitor as an example, I can show friends and colleagues on my seven inch screen.

I have finally joined Instagram by downloading the app. I have had an account for many months, wanting to reserve the account “tegala” to ensure nobody took it. Although at the time I setup my account I was hoping to switch to Galaxy SIII. I consider the Nexus 7 as my treat before I finally switch to the SIII later in the year. Most likely once the SIV is released in May. However I do then have a dilemma, what photographs to upload to Instagram. I use FlickR for all my photographs, but I feel I will use Instagram for mobile photographs in the future. Surely somebody will come up with a link between the two, so they can work together.

Finally I need to mention a fantastic UK resource run by Adam. I found it while looking for advice on screen protectors. (Yes I know I have bought a pack of five and still not applied any them to my beautiful tablet (preferring instead to just clean the screen every other day!) The tweeter account is over at @Nexus7UKfans and the fantastic website over at Google Nexus 7 UK Fans.