Ah yeah, I use that extension on Chrome. I think Chrome at some point gained the ability to run native code, perhaps the extension relies on something like that which other browsers can't handle? Not sure. But you should still be able to use Hangouts within a Gmail tab.
Tablet market is all to play for right now. Growth is about to explode and there's no clear winner on the Android side. Samsung's tablets are mostly garbage. As great a tablet as it is, for some reason the 2nd gen N7 hasn't matched the success of the first one. I think it needs a price drop here in the UK. Statistics may prove me wrong, but I haven't personally witnessed much buzz about the iPad Air or Mini 2 either. Maybe there will be a couple products at MWC this week that catch the public's eye. I'd like Moto and HTC to get back into the tablet market with a fresh design language and something unique.
Yeah, I only know of one person that bought an Air a week or two after its release. I could be wrong, but I think everyone that needed a tablet, got one finally. I think many jumped on the iPad 2 and then the iPad 4 since it was the second iteration with a Retina display. The rest got the Mini, and I know a few with those. No rMini or Air. On the Android end, I think most got either the 2012 N7 or the Samsung Tab 2 or something. I've seen a decent amount of Samsung tablets.
If you think about it like that, then people that bought their tablets 2 years ago probably don't need any more hardware power than they already have. Casual users, at least. And those professionals that do need a better screen or internals, they are the ones with the Airs and Samsung 10.1 2014 Editions. Or whatever the high-performance Android tablet is these days.
I think I read that the sales for the 2013 N7 were not up to the mark, and that the N7 might skip an update this year and instead focus would be on an 8". Did I post that article? But that's unfortunate. The 7" market is lame, outside of the N7. The Dell and a few other big name tablets look lame. I think that same article that said we'd get an 8" Nexus tablet also said the N10 should get a refresh too.
Tablets aren't like phones where they can be upgraded every 2 years. I'm willing to bet that regardless of what tablet they bought, most people will use their tablet until it absolutely dies.
EDIT: I could have a tab open with GMail to use Hangouts, but it seems like a pain. I could never close the tab. It's ok, I have been leaving Chrome running in the background with no window open, and so the extension still works.
And I am rocking my Sprint S3 since 9/2012. Due for an upgrade in April, but three others in my family have been due for an upgrade since the new year. I'm not going to reward myself with new, expensive gadgets until I pass my boards, which will hopefully be by this summer. Then I'll splurge my savings on a tablet and a nice set of headphones and then maybe get that phone upgrade as well.
Has anyone replaced a cracked screen on their S3/4 before? I've had mine since day 4 of owning my phone and only recently saw that the glass was around 10-12 bucks on eBay and they said to use a hair dryer or heat gun to take the old glass off and use the new, adhesive one to make it good as new. If I upgrade my phone, I'll use my old S3 as a test device to see if I can sell it for something. Not sure anyone would buy a cracked S3, even for cheap.