Google Nexus 10 advice

[Tray von Gutenberg]

My dad (late 70s) is fairly proficient with a PC... considering his generation. He doesn't like much to learn new things, and was, only a few months ago, completely resistant to the idea of a laptop or tablet. He has a basic cell phone, and no desire to move on to anything else. That is, until 3 weeks ago. Suddenly he mentioned looking at tablets online - so I did a massive amount of research, and queried his wants/needs, and came up with a few suggestions.

I originally had it narrowed down to the latest incarnations of an Asus MeMo Pad 2 7" FHD (only $149 with nice specs) or a Google Nexus 7 Generation 2 for $229 (both 16GB models).

I am a PC genius, but am a tablet buffoon. Don't own a smart phone, and never even touched a smart phone or tablet. So we went searching to try hands-on playing with tablets. Very little success. Almost no stores had the models we wanted to try, and the one that did had no wi-fi, so was useless. Finally we found a store that had working tablets so at least we could test 7" vs. 10" models (brands did not matter). It became rapidly apparent that my dad needed a 10".

Now that size was settled, Asus has a new 10" model debuting in early September with very nice specs, but NO price info - only that it would be under $500. Whoa - too much $$$ (maybe). Google Nexus 10 is coming out with a new model, but latest info is, will be in time for the holidays. Too far in the future - my dad wants one NOW.

So I narrowed it down to perhaps a new Samsung Tab 3 10" or a Google Nexus 10. Bottom line is, both sell for MSRP, with Amazon selling the Nexus 10 $30 ABOVE MSRP. However, I was able to find ONE retailer willing to discount the Nexus 10 a bit, plus I was able to use a "promo" coupon, so the price delivered to the front door, no taxes/free shipping was $350. (Newegg)

FANTASTIC! Nexus 10 has the highest resolution of any tablet in the world (2560 x 1600, or 300ppi) which beats out the Apple Retina display easily, and was $150 CHEAPER. We were constantly refreshing the UPS tracking site all yesterday - didn't come until 6pm. What a beauty. Way beyond expectations. Spent the next 9 straight hours doing research and installing free apps.

So I set up his "home page" real nice, he won't be playing games, just web surfing, text/email, reading eBooks, and other various stuff. I added ES Explorer, eReaders, navigation apps (for the built-in GPS), medical/drug apps, a few neat widgets, an APK installer, Skype, Facebook, etc. - you get the idea. Still need to install Flash.

Well, finding the BEST apps (free) can be a PITA, if for no other reason, they may look fine in description, but then reviewers trash 'em. I'd rather not spend a lot of time installing/trying/uninstalling, when I can maybe get some real-world opinions about what to have.

Free is best, but I also have access to hundreds/thousands of "paid" apps from numerous websites. Here's what I'd still like to get:

1) An office suite, so my dad can view MS office docs when sent to him via email (he'll compose on his PC).

2) An AIO chat program that can handle numerous chat platforms. My sister and niece were brainwashed into buying 2-year-old hardware at 50%-100% inflated prices, just to have aluminum cases and an Apple logo, so they use Apple chat and Apple video apps. Would like to be able to chat/video chat with them without having to use the same app (Skype worked fine, but my relatives insist on using their Apple sh*t)

3) A great multimedia player, capable (hopefully) of playing most video codecs (especially mkv), and of course mp3.

I'm not one to seek advice about this kind of stuff, but I'd just as soon not waste time installing 10 different apps to find 1 that is best. I'm willing to try a few based on opinions here.

Aside from the above three requests, I'm also open to anything that is just damn cool. Doesn't matter what it is, but if it's outrageously cool, I'm game. I installed an awesome 3-D human body app that every surgeon, physician, and nurse should have - it shows every part of your body in exquisite detail, while being able to rotate and zoom on any axis. Incredible learning/teaching tool for patients. It is fantastic on the Nexus 10.

http://www.visiblebody.com

In conclusion: Nexus 10 rules! Just an incredible machine.