at&t

iOS 7… Beta 2?

Already been using this iPhone for almost a month… I’ve gotten used to its innate quirks and undeniable flaws.
But that’s not what I’m here To complain about. In fact, I’m not even here to complain. (shocker, right?!?!?!) anyway. I actually want to inform anyone using an iPhone 5 for Verizon* and wants to beta test the iOS 7 beta 2, to actually go ahead and do it, so long as you don’t actually watch people’s Vine videos.
On the first beta, The features that I found most annoying were these 5.
1) Instagram wouldn’t load properly if you wanted to scroll back up.
2) After watching several Vines, the app would freeze and crash. Simply return home and kill the app to unfreeze it. Which was a bit of a bummer and inconvenience.
3) I can’t see the things people replied to on Twitter. Did Jimmy reply to this tweet or that? UGH
4) Google Translate (actual app) wasn’t working.
5) FUCKING BATTERY LIFE MAN oh and to go along with this the phone reboots (2 seconds really) which is also an inconvenience)

Alright, well, here’s how that list has updated in Beta 2.
1) INSTAGRAM WORKS!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!
2) Vine is destroyed and refuses to play videos. I cannot wait for Beta 3 to see if they fix this.
3) Twitter is still broken in this aspect.
4) Google Translate is still broken.
5) BATTERY LIFE IS IMPROVED TO NEARLY iOS 6 MAGNITUDE!!!! Still a bit horrendous honestly but it totally trumps Beta 1’s battery draining ass. Also it doesn’t reboot as much.

HOWEVER. I did find new bugs in Beta 2. Killing an app has an adverse effect on the wallpaper… Sometimes, not all, it removes the wallpaper leaving black nothingness. Also, I don’t know whether or not this is a bug, but in all iterations of iOS (including 7 beta 1) it was possible to view the big clock on the lock screen and double click to get to music controls. Now, iOS 7 Beta 2 has music controls permanently in place of the large clock. Inconvenient.
But some other improvements other than battery life are present. You can now swipe left on texting to see what time the messages were sent and received, which is a lot more sensible than 15 minute card time checks, which I do believe are still there for those too lazy to swipe.

Anyway that’s my observations on the topic. Feel free to leave comments about your findings!
*I am not entirely sure if these apply to the AT&T or int’l or any other iPhone build model, or if these apply to the iPads as well. Please leave a comment about these too!

HTC Rant: Broken Promises

This is my second Android phone (owner of just about over a year, now), The Droid Incredible 2 by HTC. As a member of the red-eye family, you’d expect the phone to be top of the line, but no. The Droid Incredible 2, at release, was a disappointment. No 4G LTE, apparently HTC decided to give that to the Thunderbolt, a non-Droid phone, which also disappointed many. The feel of the Dinc2 is very premium and sturdy, but it IS a mid-range device, even with the Droid moniker.

Now, being a late adopter of Android, I’m not too disappointed with only having 3G, I don’t travel all that often, so I do get to utilize Wi-Fi, and Verizon’s 3G is no slouch with full service, even at rush hour times.

What DOES disappoint me, however, is Verizon’s (and especially HTC’s) broken promises. The HTC Droid Incredible 2 and the HTC Thunderbolt, after just over 1 year since the release of Android 4.0, still have not received the update to Ice Cream Sandwich. The update was promised by HTC and Verizon to be given before September 1, 2012. It is, at this very moment, November 5th, 2012. Still no update.

The Droid Incredible 2 being a highly capable phone for Ice Cream Sandwich, it shocks me that Verizon still hasn’t rolled out the update. The Incredible S (int’l version of Dinc2) has had the update since July!

I wish I had $250 to spare, then I’d go and pick up a Certified refurbished Galaxy Nexus by Samsung, just like The Big Cheese.

And with the recent release of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean (also the name of Android 4.1), my phone is now three upgrades behind. Thanks, Verizon. Thanks a shit load.

Cell phone conundrum

Nexus 4
Photo courtesy of Google Play

So not having power and what not in light of what has happened in the north east coast of the US, I missed the announcement of Google’s next Nexus phone, the LG based Nexus 4.  Granted I only got into my first Nexus phone a few weeks ago (Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus), and even if it’s a year old (like a million years old in cell phone technology years), it feels very new, very quick, very modern, compared to my  Motorola Droid Bionic, which is only a few months older than the Galaxy Nexus, and I can see how it’s a special phone, being the first one to get any update on the Android OS landscape, and it is basically bloatware free.  It’s also vanilla Android, is as good as it gets (without skins) in terms of Android.  I’ve used Androids with one of HTC’s skins of Android, Sense 2, and Motorola’s watered down version of MotoBlur, and nothing beats plain vanilla Android.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus 
Photo courtesy of Digitaltrends.com

What am I getting at? Well, this version of Nexus will NOT have CDMA variants.  Meaning it will not come out for Sprint or Verizon wireless, the latter of which I am subscribed to.  It will only be out  for T-Mobile, and ATT, using HSPA+ speeds and not LTE.  I did some digging and it seems like Google had problems with the CDMA versions of the Galaxy Nexus, in terms of releasing the hardware, and rolling out Jelly Bean.  Pricing also plays a big part of it, the GSM variants can be sold for $300 off contract, as opposed to the CDMA versions costing $200 more. I got my Galaxy Nexus for $250 off contract, but it’s a certified refurbished unit.  Now, this poses a problem for me when it comes time to get a new handset.  I think I made a good decision to get the Galaxy Nexus.  It didn’t cost a whole lot, and it should last me another 10-12 months.

I was ready to leave Verizon, and perhaps jump to Sprint as they also offer unlimited data (I am still riding on my old unlimited data plan from way back in the day on Verizon Wireless), but I can’t even get the Nexus 4 from them.  I know there are other handsets out there that are just as capable, but, I don’t know, it feels like I have to do less work on Nexus, and it seems to get more support officially, and from the AOSP community.

Only time will tell on where I go from here.  I am really happy with my Galaxy Nexus, and it should keep me happy for many more months, and it shames my Droid Bionic ten times over.  Speaking of my old Bionic, it alone turned me off from getting any Motorola handsets in the near future.  Sure, Google owns Motorola Mobility, so we’ll see what comes out from that partnership.  It’s just funny, that the next Nexus phone is based off of the LG Optimus G, and not a Motorola handset (*CHEESECAKE NOTE! The reason that this is so, in what I have read and what I do believe, if I do remember correctly, is that Google did not want to give Motorola special treatment in the partnership when it comes to Nexus phones, after all, Android is open-source). Why I hate the thing is subject to another rant/post another time.

Motorola Droid Bionic
Photo courtesy of Amazon

Right now though, I do have other issues to think about other than what my next smart phone should be.  But it’s just something else to get my mind on, and a step to moving closer to normalcy.

Links:

http://www.zdnet.com/google-nexus-4-why-im-saying-goodbye-to-verizon-7000006636/

http://www.google.com/nexus/4/

http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/02/nexus-4-review/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus

Time to Catch Up, Apple.

iPhone 5. I hope people out there are disappointed by this lackluster device, because I am.

I’m not an Apple guy by any means, but I was actually hoping for a well spec’d phone from them this time. Not to say that the specs of the new iPhone 5 aren’t good, I’m just saying that it’s nothing new or impressive.

The two biggest upgrades to the iPhone are 4G LTE and the 4 inch screen. Apple will probably go as far to say that they are the pioneers of 4G technology, when they aren’t. Of course, now many more people will know about 4G LTE, considering that the technology is now on an Apple iPhone. Then there will be the people (especially those on AT&T) questioning how it is different from HSPA+, called 4G on the AT&T iPhone 4S. On Android devices running HSPA+ it is titled as such, or H+.

The 4 inch screen is lacking as well, and it isn’t even HD. It’s a 4 inch screen! Most phones are of 4.5 inches to 5.2 inches, with 4.8 being the average “sweet spot.” This iteration is a 16:9, a widescreen Retina Display. Of course, the pixel density is stellar, something I actually can complement an iPhone about. But it still isn’t HD. Apple is going to continue with its Retina display.

They added Facebook sync in iOS 6, so now all Facebook contacts will be on the phone if desired. Guess what? Android did that. From the start. Another thing Apple has blatantly stolen from Android is the notification pull down from iOS 5. Catch up, Apple.

They’ve used the same camera as the iPhone 4S, just with a newer, thinner, more durable cover. Improvement, but won’t change the fact that the iPhone will produce blurry images and pretty much work like a brick in low light situations. Even so, this overshadowed the brilliant Nokia PureView Camera on the Nokia Lumia 920, a gorgeously designed phone with a simple and clean user interface on Windows 8.

The processor it’s running is the Apple A6 chip. A dual core CPU with quad core graphics, essentially making the media experience smooth. But internationally, there are Android phones running quad core CPU’s along with quad core GPU’s. Apple is behind a bit on this one.

Apple decided to get rid of Google Maps in favor of their own native Maps. The native Maps app has a fly-over feature, essentially mimicking Google’s Street View and Building View. Oh, and the biggest thing improved for the iPhone’s maps? It now has turn-by-turn navigation! Isn’t that a surprise, the Maps application has features that Google Maps and Google Earth have had nearly from the get-go! Oh, Apple, catching up.

Siri has also had some updating, and now it copies the Google Now, Android 4.1’s native voice actions app. Siri can now tell sports scores and allow you to make reservations on the go.

But perhaps one of the most talked about things is the new dock connector, misleadingly called the Lightning dock connector. For one, the Lightning cable is only a USB 3.0 cable. Most iMacs are at USB 4.0, making for insanely fast data transfers. Also, people with all the speaker accessories will now need to buy special adapters so their new iPhone 5’s will be able to fit on the dock! A question asked moreover about this new dock is why didn’t Apple just go with the industry standard MicroUSB? The world may never know.

With all the similarities to Android phones, why isn’t Apple the company getting sued?

Point is, Apple is merely evolving the iPhone brand, but in the process making it less innovative, and less… Different.

Exciting, isn’t it? Apple is the one having to play catch up in the technology world.

Will you be waiting in line to buy the iPhone 5? Or will you wait for it to cool down to get it? Maybe you’ll wait for the inevitable launch of the iPhone 5S? How about switching to an Android 4.0 device or a Windows 8 device?

Time for a laugh.