[Nexus 7 General] AssailantLF@gmail.com:
Awww yeah, I've wanted to find one of these threads forever. Despite joining the forum in 2010, I only really started using my account when I got a Nexus 7 last Christmas, so I'm still a bit new myself. However, I think I have a somewhat impressive mass of some of the best apps/options available to a N7 power user. Especially what's been posted so far, no offense. Sure, usage is mostly personal preference, but comparing apps to find the best is what's most fun about a competitive apps market. Also, there's no reason to think that custom roms/kernels/recoveries will "come with time." You should just do it now and have an awesome tablet asap! It's basically impossible to permanently brick your device, and it's very simple to do this stuff if you just read instructions and threads before asking questions.

On that subject, if you have any questions, ask away!

1. What are the best apps to use? What are the apps everyone is using?

Browsers: xScope (my fav), Dolphin, Firefox, Opera, Boat, AOSP

Launcher: Apex and Nova, lol

Music: PowerAMP, n7player, Google Music

Video: MX Player, Netflix

File Manager: ES File Manager (stream videos/media via wifi/LAN)

E-Books: Moon+ Reader

Word/Excel/PP: OfficeSuite Pro

Cloud: Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, Box, MediaFire, MEGA, Bitcasa

Weather: The Weather Channel

Misc: Beautiful Widgets, Reddit Sync (#1 reddit browser), TeamViewer, ShareKM (really cool), uTorrent+uTorrent remote, Changelog Droid, BetterBatteryStats

Games: Temple Run 2, Glow Hockey, TETRIS, Minecraft PE, ShadowGun: DeadZone, Dead Trigger, Jetpack Joyride, Major Mayhem, Robotek, The Shape Shooter, Cordy 1-3, GTA 3/Vice City, Cubes vs Spheres, The Impossible Game, Super Hexagon, Beat Hazard, Night Sky, Solar 2

Emulators: Mupen64 Plus (N64), Snes9x EX+ (SNES), FPSe (PSX), Gameboid/GBCoid (GBA/GBC), Gensoid (Genesis), there's a lot of emulators and they're easy to find.

2. What is the best things for Themes? I've heard of Novo and Apex but which one is the best? As a point of knowledge I'm looking for a minimalistic theme.

I don't use themes because stock is the only really great looking one to me, but there's a Themes List in the Themes and Apps section of the forums.

3. Is it really worth putting a new Rom on? Bootloader? Sorry all very new to me this stuff.

Roms, Recoveries, and Kernels are all very important when it comes to heavy optimization/customization on your device, and it's all very safe and easy on Nexus devices in particular, imo. They heavily impact functionality, speed, and appearance. Basically the Rom is what your operating system is, Recoveries are custom bootloaders that you can flash/backup/wipe/whatever with, and Kernels are like the backbone your Roms run off of.

I've tried a good few of the most popular roms/kernels, and there's a good reason they got that popular. TWRP is almost unarguably the best recovery you could get. ParanoidAndroid is outright the most used custom rom because of it's amazing customizable interface. M-Kernel is about the fastest by a margin and the developer is a cool dude. You can find these three (what I use) and a couple other good things in my signature. There's more detailed instructions if you just search around the forum or wikis or something. :D

4. What do people use they Nexus for on an average day?

I'm just a generally unbusy teenager, so I use mine for browsing the web, videos, reading, navigation, social networking, gaming, GAMING, file management, even working on documents for school. I know the iPad has a good handful of excellent tablet apps that just aren't really on Android, but there's still not much limitation with what you can do versus a laptop. It fits in your back pocket and the battery is god damn excellent.

5. I want an app that I can draw add notes in but it is seamless with the PC so I can then transfer it to that and work on it in windows (works pc) possibly something like One Note but not One Note.

Evernote? I dunno. I don't really take notes. :P

6. Where do people get the Nexus fix from? What is your source of information (apart from this wonderful website which I can believe Ive never registered on before)

reddit.com/r/Android is alright, I guess. Most important news surfaces there, and there's the occasional awesome app that recently came out. AndroidPolice is cool. Honestly, I mostly just browse the hell out of this forum and find pretty rad stuff.

7. Best Android browser (flash)

The Android Open Source Project Browser, AOSP Browser for short. It's the stock Android browser for most devices, but for some reason Google decided flashless Chrome would be a better fit, despite being slower and more quirky. The AOSP browser isn't available on any official site, but you can get it Here. Flashing it is easiest, but you can do it with ES File Manager if you wanna feel pro. Also most roms tend to replace Chrome with AOSP or a superior flash-compatible browser, just as a heads up.