I have a Nexus 7 which would also work for running the program but
it's absolutely useless in direct sunlight.Â* I considered making a
sun shade for it, but found THIS

I use the Nexus 7 all the time and never have a sunlight issue - Are you positive you went into setting and have it manually set to full brightness?

The default allows the tablet to adjust.... it needs to be set on full. Best $130 bucks I have spent.

I have 2 Nexus 7's and both work great!

WH