Good Things Come In Threes

I’m generally very good about babying my electronic devices, especially phones. I don’t ever use cases, and I very rarely if ever drop my devices. The broken phone record came to an end in Iceland this past month when my OnePlus met an Icelandic road near Hofn. Compared to most damage you see when people drop phones mine was mild – The top right corner cracked, and it was missing a bit of glass from impact. Nothing affected the functionality of the screen, and none of the glass covering the display was damaged.

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

 …But it bothered me. So, I bought a Pixel 3.

As usual I had a few criteria for my purchase. I wanted a fast Android experience close to stock, good battery life, timely updates, and a good camera. The shortlist ended up being… Well, OnePlus again, or the Pixel 3. With the OnePlus phones just getting bigger and bigger and a great deal through Telus with my employee preferred pricing, I determined it was about time to jump back to the Google camp.

Hello darling.

Spec rundown:

·         Snapdragon 845 CPU w/ Adreno 630 GPU

·         4GB RAM

·         64 GB Storage

·         5.5” P-OLED display (2160x1080)

·         12.2MP f/1.8 OIS rear camera, 8MP f/1.8 (28mm) and 8MP f/2.2 (19mm) front cameras

·         2915mAh battery

·         148g weight

Design, performance, battery life:

The Pixel 3 comes in about a half centimeter shorter on both height and width compared to the OnePlus 3T, and about the same thickness. The front contains the very full sounding front firing stereo speakers, the dual cameras, and the gorgeous 18:9 P-OLED display which has fairly accurate colors in natural mode. Along the squeeze-sensitive aluminum sides, the only spot you’ll find buttons is the right side which holds a pretty tactile power button and volume rocker. There is nothing to really note on the top and left sides, and the bottom contains only the USB-C port and SIM tray, but no headphone jack. The back is all glass, partially textured for grip, and contains the Pixel imprint fingerprint reader and the single 12MP camera. Next to the camera is the LED flash and the flicker sensor. The phone feels premium with a good weight for it’s size, and the 5.5” model leads to great one-handed operation. The fingerprint sensor is well placed in the back and is quick to unlock the phone in my experience.

My two physical issues are the lack of headphone jack and the glass back. The included dongle does not sound as good as the DAC in my OnePlus 3T, but there are other options to explore such as a Bluetooth DAC like the Fiio BTR3 or higher quality USB-C dongles such as the Sonata II from Hidizs. The lack of headphone jack does afford the phone IP68 water resistance however, which is a jump over the 3T. The other issue I have is the glass back – Although it allows for wireless charging and Google’s implementation seems nicely textured, I’m on the fence on durability. I feel if this drops it’s pretty much game over.

#DongleLife

Performance is as expected pretty darn snappy – This is Google’s software on Google’s hardware after all, and they have tuned it to the extreme. Although the Snapdragon 845 is slightly underclocked compared to other models, and the 4GB of RAM seems to be miniscule in a field of 6GB and 8GB monsters, I don’t feel I’ve had any performance issues so far. Whether it be the awfully optimized Snapchat, or RAW editing in Lightroom, I’ve no issues with the phone. Android 9 further refines on the Android 8 experience, and the gesture-based navigation feels smooth and natural. Everything feels like Android.

#Basic

Battery feels good, and although it’s still settling down, I feel like I’ll be looking at about double the screen on time compared to the OnePlus 3T. Yesterday was about 5 hours of mixed screen usage before I plugged it in at around 15%. I could have coaxed a bit more out of it, but at that point it was bedtime. Google’s preferred quick charging option here is Power Delivery 2.0, capable of providing 18w to the phone through the USB-C port. My previous OnePlus dash charger lived in my backpack, so the Power Delivery charger will take its place. I generally find regular charge speeds off my Aukey multi-port or the 2A charger at my desk at work provide a fast enough regular charge otherwise, but it’s good to have a fast charger in case of emergency. Google is also allowing wireless charging now, but you only get the full 10w experience out of their Pixel stand – a $110 purchase which I’m still on the fence about.

Camera, software features, and other stuff:

The Pixel 3 likely offers the best camera performance in a smartphone on the market, and it does it with a single 12.2MP snapper. This is all due to Google’s software prowess, and the Pixel Visual Core co-processor. They’ve been tuning the HDR+ technology since Nexus phones, and it shows. The process is interesting – As soon as you open the camera app, it starts buffering photos into a “circular buffer”, discarding data after a few moments. As soon as you tap the shutter button, the software pulls the last nine to fifteen frames, and the phone gets to work quickly breaking the images into a grid of thousands of tiny images, and stacks and processes each section to reduce noise, increase dynamic range, and improve sharpness. This allows for zero shutter lag, and images that are consistently well exposed and sharp, even with weird lighting or movement in frame. For a single 12.2MP sensor, it does good work!

Front facing disheveled bathroom portrait selfie. Not bad separation!

Other fun features are an unrivaled portrait mode which utilizes AI learning and the dual pixel autofocus on the camera to intelligently depth-map and blur objects – Definitely not as good as a fast prime on my A7iii, but usable in a lot of situations. Super-res zoom uses the natural movement of your hand to take a larger image to crop into, increasing sharpness and detail compared to standard digital zooming. The object tracking is crazy – I don’t think I’ve seen better on a phone so far. Tap an object in frame to follow it and expose for it. It won’t let go unless the object goes out of frame or you tap the focus point again to release it. Google has also updated the camera software to allow computational RAW images to be saved, letting me post-process through Lightroom or another RAW editor. Finally, I’d like to touch on NightSight, which emulates long exposures and leans on AI to color correct images in conditions down to .3 lux. It’s intelligent enough to detect if it’s in hand or on a tripod, if there’s motion in scene, etc, and adjust the number of exposures and the exposure lengths depending.

Left: Standard HDR+ processing. Right: NightSight, handheld.

There are two front facing cameras on the Pixel 3, which is a first and feels a bit like a concession on Google’s part, but I’m happy with the performance. Like the rear camera, the front cameras are practically unrivaled in selfie performance, generally providing sharp and well exposed images regardless of lighting conditions. The inclusion of the ultrawide selfie lens is welcome and leads to much better group photos and environmental selfies.

Left: Standard front facing disheveled bathroom selfie. Right: Wide angle front facing disheveled bathroom selfie.

I won’t say the camera is the very best in every situation, but the experience is consistently good which is exactly what I’m looking for in a phone. I don’t need crazy high resolutions or zoom lenses, I just need something that nails exposure and gives me sharp images regardless of my lighting conditions. All the extra features are just icing on the cake!

Now Playing in action. Horrible music taste history included.

The Pixel has a few fun software features I like including ambient display with tap/lift to wake, and “now playing” with a history. It actively listens for music and flawlessly identifies tracks, displayed on your lock screen and in your notification bar. You can go back and check on what you’ve recently heard was well, which is great. Squeeze for assistant is cool, but I wish you could remap it to another function on the phone. Digital Wellbeing isn’t something I think I’ll use but seems like a neat concept. Really gives you an idea as to how much you use your smartphone in a day, and it’s scary how many unlocks I do in a day. I’ve yet to see how adaptive battery runs, but apparently it acts a bit like battery saver but only for less-used apps, delaying their access to data and other resources considerably.

Couple other things to note:

Unlimited full resolution video and picture storage on Google Photos until 2022. There is NO notification LED, which I’m not overly fond of. One of my favorite features on my old phones was the notification LED. The Pixel imprint fingerprint reader is quick, but the drag down to pull down the notifications feature seems a bit touch and go right now – Maybe I’m just not used to it. The included USB-C PixelBuds are not horrible, all considered. There’s no isolation, but the sound is reasonable. This phone will also get security updates out to 2021 as per Google’s policy – That means it’s relevant for quite some time to come! I also seem to miss the notification slider on the OnePlus 3T more than I thought I would. Who would have known?

Accessories included in box: USB-C Power Delivery 2.0 adapter, USB-C cable, USB-A to USB-C adapter, USB-C to 3.5mm dongle, USB-C Pixel Buds.

Overall I’m happy so far with this upgrade. Much like with the OnePlus 3T and the A7iii, good things do come in threes.

Sony Wireless RAW Transfer

Yes! It actually works! Sort of. This was done on a OnePlus 3T with Android 8.0, PlayMemories version 6.2.2, and an A6500.

• Ensure your Smart Remote Control app is up to date on the CAMERA. You need to use this instead of the default "send to smartphone" functionality within the camera/PlayMemories app.

• Start Smart Remote Control (Application tab, Application List, Smart Remote Control) and connect to the camera using NFC or PlayMemories. You should be presented with the remote control view.

• Tap the menu option, then tap "See In-Camera Images".

• Tap the menu in the top right corner, and tap "Copy Img Quality". Here you can select JPEG Priority, RAW Priority, or JPEG & RAW Priority. Select RAW priority and tap Close.

• Copy your images. Look at that, you have RAW transfer via wireless.

This definitely opens up a bit more usability even if it takes a bit longer to move files. I find the RAW files have a lot more latitude for editing and I tend to be able to coax a bit more out of tricky exposures with a RAW file, even on mobile.

A note, I believe this is only available on Sony cameras that have the PlayMemories app functionality. I tested this with a friend's A7Riii and was unable to view the camera images with the smart remote app.

Lightroom Mobile

Lightroom Mobile has been a surprisingly useful app ever since the Android update a few months ago. Not only have they improved the interface, they've also added pretty much all the features of Lightroom for the desktop into it, along with a fully functional RAW shooting camera with full manual control. 

Top all the new functionality off with Creative Cloud sync, and I can pick up any edits I'm doing on my phone directly on my desktop, or vice versa. While I can't pull RAW files directly from my camera with the PlayMemories Mobile app from Sony for editing, I can make tricky shots taken with the OnePlus a bit more flexible. Good job, Adobe.

If you haven't checked it out yet, it's definitely worth looking at now.

2017 Infrastructure Update - Networking and Servers

No real plans this year to switch out any desktop or notebook hardware, but my WNDR3700N is getting a bit old, and my servers really aren't being used to their fullest. We'll start with the server side of things, as that's probably the easiest to cover, and I'm still unsure if my choice was right. I can always change things in the future, but I've got what I've got now.

For a long while I've wanted to migrate to an all in one virtualization/storage solution for the reduced power consumption, footprint, and noise. I really want to retire the power hungry 95w i7 860 in my ESXi box for a solution that runs on my power sipping i3 2120T. This leaves out the idea of ESXi with FreeNAS as a guest, as the processor doesn't support VT-d. Proxmox VE was my next stop, as it supported the ZFS file system, but I primarily wanted a nice NAS GUI that also incorporated the virtualization management functionality, so that was a no go. Hyper-V has no ZFS support, so that's out the door. UnRAID has the features I want, but isn't ZFS and is also a paid service. Getting frustrated in my search, I finally came across FreeNAS 10. Although in it's infancy, it seemed really promising. Prior to 10, users were running services in BSD jails, but with the release of 10, FreeNAS adopted the BSD based virtualization tech bhyve, along with built in docker support (This is just a boot2docker vm that is manageable from the GUI). On top of that, it's primarily a NAS OS with a fantastic looking brand new GUI. Yes, it's a .0 release, and yes, there's little to no documentation, but I'm a nerd - jumping into this stuff feet first is what I'm all about. FreeNAS was my final choice of NAS OS.

With operating system picked out, it's onto the hardware. My file server is already running the optimal base (i3-2120T, SuperMicro X9SCL+-F, 4x3TB 7200RPM Toshiba drives, 40GB Intel SSD), but the 4GB of RAM wasn't going to cut it. If this was also going to be doing double duty of a host for virtual machines, it was getting a heat sink upgrade too. After a quick trip to the HCL and many internet searches, my wallet was considerably lighter and I had in my posession 32GB of 1600mhz Crucial ECC DDR3 UDIMMs and a trusty Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.

While waiting on gear to arrive, I took the opportunity to flash the latest BIOS for proper RAM support, and ensure I had all the appropriate ISOs downloaded and on a flash drive. The day everything arrived I got to work, and let me tell you, frustration was abound. I was able to successfully install the new RAM and the heat sink, but when reconnecting the power supply, I got a flash of lights from everything on the board followed by nothing... Alright, I may have destroyed a power supply, not a big deal. Plugging in my spare and powering things on gives me 4 short beeps followed by a long beep - SuperMicro seems to indicate this means no RAM installed. At this point I think I've fried 300 dollars worth of RAM and a power supply, so inside I'm pretty dead inside. Last ditch attempt to resolve, I connect the original power supply, plug it in, and boot successfully. Turns out SuperMicro boards are just picky about everything.

Onto the FreeNAS install - I've discovered that although flash drives are recommended for the install, you'll be 100% happier installing to an SSD. Install initially went fine, then for some reason FreeNAS couldn't correctly import the shares from my ZFS volume. I was able to redo all the permissions, followed by a setup of SMB shares and appropriately mapped to my computer. Confirmed I could read files, great. Attempt to write files, kernel panic of the NAS. At this point, it's 1AM, and I really don't feel like figuring things out and fixing it, so I throw a 2TB drive into my desktop, and start copying over the important stuff. Once copied, I nuke the ZFS pool, recreate a new pool, setup new datasets and shares, and recopy the files. All in, this was done by 4AM and I'm definitely a bit more data-light now, but with a fully functional nightmare of a NAS.

Day 2, I decide to move the install from a flash drive over to the 40GB Intel SSD. Boot times on the flash drive were taking 15-20 minutes, which is abysmal. I pull the configuration backup, and get to work. Apparently, SuperMicro boards are also very picky about boot options. After reinstalling numerous times and playing around with boot settings in the BIOS, I was able to get things successfully booted (much faster, as well), from the SSD. I import my pool, and upload my configuration... Which fails. Not a big deal, that's fine, the shares are still there, I just need to reconfigure users, groups, and permissions, and re-enable all the services. This was finished in half an hour, partially thanks to the SSD, and partially thanks to the previous night's lessons. There were a few times when I had to chown a directory from ssh, but that's about the extent of the command line work I was doing.

Day 3, I get to work creating some virtual machines and playing with Docker. I have to say, Docker is an absolute pleasure to work with! The FreeNAS implementation is a virtual machine running boot2docker, along with a very nice interface for configuring boot options and paths to throw into the container. As long as you're running a container from the FreeNAS library, things "just work". Dockerfiles from other libraries require a bit more work to get running, as they're not tagged for the FreeNAS interface, but over time more and more things are getting converted to include the FreeNAS tags to make things just work. Currently I'm running Deluge and a Minecraft server in containers, and have also played around with PiHole, Unifi controller, and ddclient as well. The Minecraft server and ddclient took a bit of work to get things functional, but PiHole, the Unifi controller, and Deluge were very simple to create and configure. I will likely start looking into converting existing containers into FreeNAS tagged ones, but I just don't currently have the time.

Virtual machines are a bit of another story. Although the interface is nice, there's no documentation for creating virtual machines that aren't in the FreeNAS library, so after digging a lot, I was able to get things worked out mostly, and it's not so bad now. Initial issue was with disk creation - Everything pointed toward having to create ZVOLs to house your virtual machines, but after looking into other install files, I determined you could just specify a *.img file when creating the virtual disk, and it would store the disk on a .img file, which feels easier to manage. The other issue I ran into was bhyve's GRUB implementation. With Linux installs such as Debian and Ubuntu who use non-standard grub.cfg locations, you need to tell bhyve's GRUB to boot from that location specifically. For that, you need to create a grub.cfg file (via ssh) in /PathToVM/files/grub/, with the contents as (This is for Debian/Ubuntu, will differ for other OS, but you're pointing it at the grub.cfg location on the actual VM):

configfile (hd0,msdos1)/grub/grub.cfg

Followed by running the below command in the FreeNAS CLI:

vm %VMNAME set boot_directory=grub

I understand this is a .0 release, but still, I shouldn't HAVE to do this to get a virtual machine functional within an operating system that advertises virtualization as a feature. I hope they improve this in future releases, but as of right now I'm just glad I was able to figure things out.

On the plus side, at least the graphs are cool.

I'll update more on FreeNAS as I spend more time with it, however for the time being, it's time to look at network infrastructure and the upgrade I'm going through with that. My WNDR3700N was aging. It's a solid gigabit router that supports DDWRT/Tomato, however it doesn't have the best range, or AC wireless support which practically everything in my apartment is capable of now. Being a bit of a networking and infrastructure nerd, I craved something a bit more. My first thought was PFSense box, but after reading into it further, for less money I could get everything I want and a more enterprise-eque experience out of an Ubiquiti setup. I decided to jump in full force on a full Unifi setup, and although I'm still waiting on my switch, I couldn't be happier so far.

The purchases for the networking replacement setup are ended up being:

• Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway
• Ubiquiti Unifi AP AC Lite
• Ubiquiti Unifi Switch 8-150W
• TP Link TL-SG108 (Stand in)

Well, that's all fine and dandy, but why Unifi over the regular EdgeRouter and a Unifi AP, or any other AP for that matter? Well, it's ecosystem. These things perform great, but setup and management is a breeze. Unifi does site management via "cloud". Now this can be either a local machine (Cloud key appliance, virtual machine, or physical box), or a remotely hosted instance. Yeah, you can manage your network from a VPS. On top of that, you can mange multiple sites from the same VPS, so if you had multiple networks in multiple sites, they could all be managed by logging into a single web portal. My choice in VPS was an OVH SSD VPS instance at just around 5 dollars a month. A single vcore, 2GB of RAM, and 10GB of SSD based hard drive space is plenty for running a single site, and I can even throw other small services onto it as well. I'm so impressed with what you get for the money from OVH that I'm considering moving my web hosting from HostGator over to another VPS instance. But hey, this is more about the hardware, so let's look at the USG.

I'll apologize for the cables, as I'll be moving things to a more permanent home once the 8 port POE switch arrives, which should be soon. The USG is essentially an EdgeRouter Lite internally, however requires the cloud controller for persistent configuration. It supports a single WAN interface, a LAN interface, a VOIP interface (This can be changed to a second WAN port through the config for failover support), and a console port. Most would think it's odd to see a router with such a low number of ports, but unlike consumer devices, switching is delegated to a separate powerful device which scales based on enterprise requirements. What does the USG bring that a consumer router doesn't? Higher reliability, higher throughput, more features. VLAN support? Check. Deep packet inspection? Why the heck not. Locally authenticated VPN? Well, it's coming to GUI in the next release, but it's there. It's not a perfect product, but it's definitely getting closer and closer each controller release, and the ease of setup and management make up for that in spades.

The access point I chose was the AC AP Lite. I didn't need the 1750mbps offered by the AC AP Pro, as my network speeds generally top out at gigabit anyway, and the range is approximately the same between the two. It's 24v POE powered and comes with it's own POE injector, but once the Unifi 8 port switch is in it'll be moved straight to that. A separate AP provides a much more stable and reliable wireless connection, especially in a 16 unit apartment building with a fairly saturated 2.4ghz band. In conjunction with the Unifi controller, I can offer a guest WiFi portal, some pretty neat band steering (Basically "steering" devices onto the best possible band and channel), dynamic channel selection, band scanning to determine channel saturation, etc.

I'll be honest I'm just scratching the surface of what this stuff is capable of, and I have a lot of plans to document it over the coming weeks and months. For the time being, I'll enjoy my full WiFi coverage anywhere in my apartment, with all of my devices, and then some.

Goodnight, My Old Friend

Another year, another disappointing Google phone release. In 2015 the 5X and 6P came and went, and weren’t enough of an upgrade for me to consider a switch. The OnePlus Two and the Moto X Pure arrived, and I sighed. The OnePlus X was tempting, but not enough. My Nexus 5 was still plenty for what I needed. 2016 came and went, and we saw a departure of what Google used to stand for. The Nexus brand was retired in favor of the premium Pixel devices, and I was unenthusiastic about dropping $900+ on a phone, no matter how attractive the device. I knew, however, that it was getting to the point of taking the Nexus 5 out behind the barn.

A brief history first. The Nexus 5 was initially purchased by me about a year after release to replace my aging, but reliable Galaxy Nexus. I’ve been madly in love with the Nexus 5 since I’ve owned it. For all intents and purposes, it has been my perfect device, with a few reservations. Like any piece of hardware, it ages overtime. The screen size and resolution are practically perfect. The build and design, although not perfect, are practical and durable. The cameras are serviceable, and even the aging internals are still relatively quick.

Now, as you’ve probably determined from reading this blog, I tend to lean more toward being a geek - A power user and an enthusiast. Though the aging hardware is still relatively quick, I’ve been craving something that stands up to current day multitasking. I would be wrong to say the Nexus 5 can keep up with my day to day heavy demands. To top it off, the battery life has been suffering more and more. I don’t believe it’s a fault of the device or the aging battery by any means, but instead just what I use for applications. Sitting at 25% currently remaining at the end of a slow day, I’ve had just over an hour screen on time. I haven’t been on anything but WiFi, and most of that access has been various social media platforms, snapchat, web browsing, etc. On a work day, I’ve been needing to top up mid day, with less usage.

My frustration with the Nexus 5 lead me on a bit of a search. I really, really liked the Pixel devices, but the price tag left a sour taste in my mouth. For the past many years, Google has offered affordable and impressive hardware in the form of the Nexus lineup, but felt the need to shift into a new brand to better align themselves against the market. Don’t get me wrong, these units are premium, and have just about everything I want for features - Pure Android released really quick, super fast hardware, premium build quality, and even the perfect size with the regular Pixel. But the price tag just feels like too much after spending so little on such a nice device as the Nexus 5.

Other options explored included various other manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung, Oppo, Xiaomi, etc. Unfortunately, they all had some form of problem. No stock android, poor speed to update, middling build quality, poor battery, too large, too expensive, etc… After crossing everything off the list, I returned to my previous runner up when deciding on my Nexus 5 - The upstart OnePlus.

OnePlus formed in 2013 as a subsidiary of Oppo, a large Chinese based smartphone brand. OnePlus wanted to build devices that balanced a high quality, flagship level phone, with a low and affordable price. Their slogan? Never Settle. At the time of purchasing my Nexus 5, the OnePlus One was my runner up. My major concerns were screen size and availability - It was very hard to get a OnePlus off the invite system they had in place, which ultimately led me to buying the Nexus 5. OnePlus has however dismissed their invite system and made device availability much better. The November released OnePlus 3T ended up being the best phone for the price point as of the beginning of March which matched up well with my planned retirement of the Nexus 5.

The OnePlus 3T is above and beyond an upgrade from my 3 year old Nexus 5, and I can happily say I’m pleased with my purchase. Before getting into it’s improvements, a quick spec rundown.

• Snapdragon 821 CPU (2x2.35GHz, 2x1.6GHz) w/ Adreno 530 GPU
• 6GB RAM
• 64GB Storage
• 5.5” Optic AMOLED display (1920x1080)
• 16MP OIS f/2.0 rear camera, 16MP f/2.0 front camera
• 3400mAh battery
• 158g weight

The phone is currently running OxygenOS 4.1.0 at the time of writing (Android 7.1.1) and has so far met all of my wants and needs in a smartphone for 2017. Where the Nexus 5 was starting to struggle with maintaining a silky smooth 60 FPS in day to day operation, the 3T seems to always have more power to spare. The radios, much like with the transition from Galaxy Nexus to Nexus 5, are improved. The cameras are absolutely fantastic, even if they aren’t the absolute best on the market. Low light and selfie performance are in a completely different league than the Nexus 5. If anything though, the biggest improvement is the battery. I have yet to have to charge in the middle of a day, and even on the heaviest use days I’m still making it to the end with juice to spare. For comparison, a heavy use day on the Nexus 5 might have netted me 1.5 hours screen on time before crawling to a charger or my powerbank. The 3T can eek 4 hours or more on the same workload. With lighter tasks, I’m guessing it would be pretty capable of hitting 6 hours of screen time without breaking a sweat. Did I mention that a fingerprint reader is probably one of the biggest game changers too? More apps adopting it means less PINs or passwords on the phone. I’m in love.

If I was to give any negative marks to the 3T, it’d come in the form of screen size. This is more personal than anything, and the 5.5” screen size is now the most common on the market, however 5.5” is bordering on almost too large for my hands. I will in time get used to it, however it won’t ever really rest in my hands like the 5 did. On top of that, the alert slider is usable, but I would like a bit more customization in regards to what each position does, and the ability to completely adjust the rules for each position would be fantastic.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I’m going to miss the Nexus 5. It was the perfect, size, the perfect weight, and the perfect price at the time, and it continues to kick ass, even in 2016. For a regular user, it’s an absolutely killer phone. For power users who yearn for the return of the affordable, powerful, and minimalistic Nexus line, you can find a great home with OnePlus.

Watch You Got There?

It's been a few months with the G Watch, so I figured I'd finally share my experiences with Android Wear, and the OG G Watch. For the basics, I'll start with the tech specs.

1.65" IPS LCD
400Mah Battery
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz CPU
512MB RAM
4GB internal storage
Bluetooth 4.0, 9 Axis sensor (Accelerometer/compass/gyro)

Yep, that's right, watches now have processors and RAM. The great thing about Android wear is that it's pretty well regulated across the board, and even newer devices coming out these days have similar base hardware as the LG G Watch. The only real difference is stuff like speakers, additional sensors, screen tech, and design. Otherwise, pretty much everything you get will have the same internals. I'm happy to say although the G Watch is one of the oldest Android wear devices, it's still receiving regular updates, and recently just received 6.0 Marshmallow, adding doze functionality, along with some other tweaks affecting devices containing speakers, and it added some new gestures.

The adjustment period for the watch didn't take long. I was used to wearing my BM8180, so other than a slightly larger case size, and a larger strap, it wasn't a huge deal. It does take a standard 22mm strap, so it was very easy to find a replacement for the horrible white thing that was included. If I was able to obtain a black model for the same price as the white one, I likely would have kept the strap. I do still have it in it's box in case my new one ever fails. More on that later. As for similarities to my BM8180, well... It tells the time, and shows the date. Other than that, it's essentially just notifications on my wrist. It's very good at a few things - lists in Google Keep (Groceries!), controlling Google Play Music, setting timers, alarms, and reminders with voice. I even find myself occasionally replying with short messages using the thing. The voice recognition is surprisingly good, but that's to be expected from Google. I'll check the weather with the Google Now cards, get ETAs to and from specific places of interest, but most importantly, it's a fantastic notification filter.

For performance, it's always zippy. The 1.2GHz snapdragon, although rather old, is plenty fast for what the watch is doing. The interface is pretty constantly running at 60FPS, with very little stutter or lag. I've had one instance since starting to use the thing that it actually locked up on me, but it quickly recovered itself. For battery life - It really depends on daily workload/notifications. If I'm getting a lot of notifications, or checking things a lot, or heck, even playing a bit of Ingress, battery will usually end at around ~35% with screen always on and the basic digital watch face you see above. If it's a slower day, I can sometimes hit bedtime with 60% or more remaining. A 2 day stretch on battery is definitely possible, but would require minimal use or a low number of notifications. Overall, daily charging doesn't bother me, as I do have the dock right next to my phone's charger, which also gets thrown on the charge when I go to sleep. Charge time is about an hour.

For my replacement strap, I decided to reach out to Popov Leather again. I am still absolutely in love with my wallet I got from them, and the watch strap is no different. I did end up having to trim my strap and add an additional hole, but I don't think you can really tell. (I have what feels like dainty, un-manly wrists, and anything Popov Leather provides should fit the general population just fine!) Shoutout to Popov Leather, they provide a high quality, Canadian made product for a decent price. The strap also looks a heck of a lot nicer than the white one included.

Anyway, for anyone looking to check out Android Wear, find a watch on the cheap and give it a try. If you look hard, you can probably find a G Watch for around 100 bucks like I did! It's well worth the try if you enjoy any form of geekery. I hope to be posting a bit more over the next week or so, as I do have a few other new things to showcase, and some possible future plans to throw onto the internet as well!

Nexus Player, Ultrawide, G Watch?

We've had a Chromecast in the house for a while, and it's been awesome. Really easy to put stuff on the TV, and cheap too! When I noticed the Nexus Players received a price cut though, I couldn't resist. My one real complaint about the Chromecast was the fact that it only had 2.4GHz wireless. Wireless N helped a little bit, but unfortunately we live in a 16 unit apartment, which has a 2.4GHz wireless router in each unit... For something as sensitive as streaming media, that's a recipe for disaster. Although most of the time the Chromecast was good, you'd get good hiccups with HD content in the evenings when everyone was online. The TV we have has 5GHz wireless N, but it was still really slow and not at all a pleasure to operate. The Nexus Player however supports up to Wireless AC (2x2 MIMO), which is fast as hell, provided we have an AC router. (At the moment we don't but we'll take advantage of the 5GHz wireless N anyway). So, the Nexus player is basically a beefy Chromecast, with built in and downloadable apps and games, and voice search. It's a nice replacement, looks good, feels good, operates quickly. Let's just hope that Google doesn't plan to wrap up the idea of Android TV.

Also back to 3 monitors! I ended up getting a 25" LG Ultrawide for ~200 dollars as a birthday gift for myself. My GTX670 still pushes 2560x1080 about as well as 1920x1080, judging by game performance in Battlefield and Borderlands, and the extra screen real estate is absolutely awesome for EVE online. I'd love to add an additional one, but I really don't have the desk space. I'll likely end up just switching my 19" for another 21.5" and keep things like that.

Last but not least, I ended up scouring the internet over vacation for a G Watch. Yes, it's one of the first Android Wear devices released, but guess what? The internal specs really haven't changed, even with the newer, higher end watches. They all run on the same chipset, with similar battery sizes, and similar sized screens. The only real difference is the quality of the screen and watch case, and if it does or doesn't have GPS/heartbeat sensor built in. Considering the 100 dollar price tag, and the fact that wear has been receiving pretty regular updates, I figured it's time to see what it's all about. I hope to have some pictures and a quick review up sometime after it's arrived.

Long Time, No Update?

It sure has been a while since posting anything. I figured since I'm on vacation I may as well update a few things here. First off - The Nexus 5 is still an absolute monster of a phone. I fall deeper in love with it every day. It's now ~2 years old and I'd still consider it a flagship. Running 5.1.1, stock to the bone, it's absolute butter when it comes to the interface and day to day use. I can see myself being happy with this phone for at least another year or so. Battery is meh, but it does last a day. We'll see what Android M brings! By the looks of things, the Nexus 5 should be one of the first devices to receive it, and battery life improvements seem positive already.

The Shield tablet received Lollipop 5.1, which improved performance a ton - No more random lags in Chrome, or when switching apps. I likened the Shield to a truck prior to 5.1 - Slow to get up and running, but a beast once it started moving. Now it's more like a sports car - Super quick and super powerful. I can say the tablet is a pleasure to use, a pleasure to hold in hand, and it fills the hole that the Nexus 7 left when I gave it away. Maybe one day I'll get the controller and cover for it as well, but for now it's been great as just a media consumption device/web browser/kitchen assistant.

I've also started playing EVE Online. I think at some point I ranted about how I detest the idea of pay to play titles, but I can see the advantages now. EVE is fantastically complex and absolutely hilarious - The entire game is essentially PVP. It doesn't matter where you're at, there's always a risk of getting killed by another player. I do have a bit of an interesting take on the game as I got a fairly well developed character from a friend who stopped playing a while ago. You can check out my adventures by clicking this link here - I'll be updating it from time to time, hopefully with pretty screenshots. (Now dead)

My EDC hasn't really changed a lot. I've changed from the mechanic's ring to a dangler type system as I was finally able to find some cheap ones on eBay. I love supporting communities, but at 20 dollars for two P7 suspension clips? I'll have to pass. The cheaper knockoffs seem built just as well and I was able to get 5 for about 10 dollars, which is probably more than I'll ever use. The nice thing about the dangler is that it prevents things from just turning into a ball in your pocket and looking awkward. It's a lot easier to just pull out your key chain as well!

I was also considering switching out my MiniChamp for an Alox version, but thinking now, the most commonly used pieces on it are the blade, the file, and scissors... Which all exist on the Classic SD. So I might end up just grabbing a Classic SD in plain silver Alox and retire the MiniChamp to a first aid kit or something, where it might get a bit more usage. Silver is definitely a must though! It seems silly, but most of my other stuff that I carry in my pockets now is silver (Everything else on my keychain), and so is my Cadet. There's a lot else I'd like to add or change in my carry, but it's really not a necessity.

Anyway, that's about it for right now... I'm going to get back to enjoying my vacation, maybe play some EVE.

Mobile Tech For 2015

Okay, okay. I know I did say earlier this month I was going to be sorting out my flashlight situation, but I had a good opportunity to replace my now non-existent Nexus 7. I had been looking for a while to replace it due to poor quality memory (Either controller or flash) causing the thing to be slow as dirt for multitasking. It served me well for 2.5 years, but ended up leaving me as a gift to someone else. As a result, I've been tablet-less since Christmas, and I definitely missed not having one.

I really wanted to replace the Nexus 7 2012 with another Nexus device. The first possible choice was the Nexus 7 2013 which improved on the 2012 in pretty much every way. The only issue though is at this point it's close to a 2 year old tablet, and the SoC (System on Chip) is getting a bit long in the tooth. A new 2 year old tablet started at 250 bucks, and there were better options for a bit more. On top of that, I wanted something just a bit bigger in the screen department. The next stop was the Nexus 9. Although it was a lot newer and faster, the 8.9" 4:3 screen was a bit of a turn off, and the price point felt a bit high for what you were getting in a device.

Final stop for my tablet search is what you see above. In my opinion, it's what the Nexus 9 should have been. It's the Nvidia Shield tablet. The specs are:

• 2.2GHz quad core Nvidia Tegra K1 w/ 192 core Kepler based GPU


• 2GB RAM


• 16GB storage (MicroSD expansion available)


• 8" HD IPS display (1920x1200)


• 5MP front and rear facing cameras


• 6700mAh battery


• 390g weight

Also included are dual front facing speakers, a stylus, micro HDMI output, and your usual array of connectivity options. The cherry on top of the package is it runs on stock Android Lollipop with a few Nvidia goodies baked in. I can't really offer much beyond initial impressions, but compared to my Nexus 7 2012 this device is night and day difference. I was initially fearful that the 8" size would be almost as unwieldy as a 10" tablet like my Transformer, but it I was wrong to be afraid. The 8" size makes it more appealing to grab compared to my phone when I'm looking to do reading or browsing. On top of that, it still retains similar portability of the Nexus 7, however I will need to look into a new sleeve for it.

The screen is considerably better and the resolution is exactly what I wanted. Though 2560x1600 would be nice, 1920x1200 is plenty high res for an 8" device. Color reproduction and contrast is good and there aren't any dead or stuck pixels. The back light is very bright, and goes down to very dim as well. The front facing speakers outperform just about any other tablet solution I've come across, making for good and clear audio even in noisy environments like the kitchen. Build wise it feels good in hand with no real flex or play. My only complaint with the hardware is the power and volume buttons. They're very shallow travel and take time to get used to pressing, but I feel I'll get used to this in due time.

Performance wise the tablet flies. I've experienced no real issues with lag or stuttering with normal multitasking. The specs on the tablet also ensure some future proofing, with the SoC currently being one of the fastest on the market when it comes to gaming and general day to day use. Although the tablet is marketed as a "The ultimate tablet for gamers", my reason for purchasing wasn't gaming. The device is arguably the ultimate 8" stock Android tablet on the market currently. My only issues with performance would be in regards to battery life, which is a bit middling. This is to be expected considering the SoC in the tablet. I can estimate I'd get a good 8 hours worth of screen on time for browsing and general usage, dipping down to 2-4 for gaming depending on the title. Standby drain however is pretty exceptional, dropping only about 5% a day idle. So for casual use, I could expect the battery to last a few days, but only a day if I'm using the thing constantly.

The Nexus 5 and the Shield make for a very powerful and very portable Android pair. I don't think I'll have many complaints related to speed in 2015, that's for sure. For now I don't plan on adding anything more beyond accessories. Perhaps a sleeve, the Shield cover, a Bluetooth keyboard, and perhaps the Shield controller. Just enough gear to make things a bit more usable while on the go. Later in the year, if I plan on blogging a bit more, I may add a Windows or ChromeOS notebook. There are some things that the notebook form factor and "non-mobile" operating systems do better, and content creation is one of them in my eyes.

Goodnight, My Old Friend

I first purchased my Galaxy Nexus in February of 2012 as a hardware upgrade from my HTC Desire Z. I was really tired of the small issues with the Z, and found myself not using the hardware keyboard all that often. It was a big toss up between the Nexus and the Galaxy S II, however the newer, stock software and the HD screen ultimately won me over. From that point on it was my constant daily companion. Pictures? Handled. Scheduling? No problem. Games? Sure! The list could go on in regards to what functionality that phone provided me, but let's keep it short. The phone was hands down the best smartphone I've owned in my lifetime, though that doesn't say much.

In late 2012, the Nexus 4 was released. Although I wanted one, I couldn't justify it over my then speedy Galaxy Nexus. The glass back had durability issues, and the camera, battery, and screen weren't really much of an upgrade over what I already had. In late 2013, the Nexus 5 was released. This was what I could consider an upgrade, but again, the Galaxy Nexus was functioning fine, and I couldn't justify the additional cost, even though just about everything would be considered an upgrade over the Galaxy Nexus. Once again, my Galaxy Nexus was getting slower and less shiny, but was still a satisfying device.

Over the years many software upgrades were seen. The jump from 4.0 to 4.3 brought a slightly slower device, but more fun features. When 4.4 Kitkat hit, I was flashing the latest custom ROMs, as Google's support stopped at Jellybean. But things were slower. There's only so much that can be done with a now unsupported dual core processor from a now non-existent company and a gigabyte of RAM. In 2014, discovering Ingress, I found the phone was functional for the game, but overall the GPS performance wasn't great, and the battery was definitely suffering. Day to day performance wasn't spectacular for me either, with newer apps causing lag, and an overall poor multitasking experience.

In late 2014, the monster known as the Nexus 6 was released. Although Android 5.0 Lollipop was attractive, and the specs on the phone were amazing, a 6 inch device is a bit too big for me. So again, the Nexus 6 didn't cause me to leave my Galaxy Nexus. What did cause me to abandon the phone is failing hardware. The power button appears to have suffered from some water ingress, causing it to intermittently work. I could only take this for so long before deciding an upgrade was finally necessary. But what to upgrade to with the Nexus 6 being too large, and none of the common flagships supporting stock Android? I'd love to have a Play Edition Galaxy S4 or HTC One M8, but they're expensive and not easily available in Canada. Everything else felt like it had bloated software or silly features. Look at Sony's Z3C - The phone is perfect hardware wise, but the dated manufacturer's skin makes it less of a pleasure to use.

I quickly narrowed my choices down - I needed a phone that was affordable off contract (Forget a hardware upgrade through Bell... I'd be shafted by the pricing on the new plans), and one running stock, or close to stock Android. Ultimately, my choices came down to the OnePlus One, and the Nexus 5. The OnePlus One was a very new and very affordable phone, with flagship specs. Unfortunately, it's hindered by most things a new company has trouble with - Supply, quality control, and poor/slow support. They work (Or did at the time I was considering buying one) off an invite system. You need an invite to buy the phone, which most are either giving away sparingly, or selling. This is a bit hard to get a hold of, so one needs to hunt a bit to be able to buy the phone. On top of this, if you receive a poor device (screen problems, camera issues, etc), chances are you're going to be fighting with poor/slow support just to get a replacement. To top it off, the screen is 5.5", and after handling a Galaxy Note III (Approximately the same size), I determined it'd be foolish for me to own a phone that couldn't fit in my pocket.

So, process of elimination, the Nexus 5 was my choice. It's an upgrade in every way to the Galaxy Nexus, and I can openly say I'm pleased with my purchase. It may be over a year old now, but I can easily say it's one of the best performing budget smart phones on the market. A quick rundown of the specs:

• 2.3GHz quad core Snapdragon 800 CPU w/ Adreno 330 GPU


• 2GB RAM


• 16GB storage


• 4.95" True HD IPS+ display (1920x1080)


• 8MP camera with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and LED flash


• 2300mAh battery


• 130g weight

As soon as I received the phone I sideloaded the Lollipop update and was happily on my way. I feel I should have unlocked and rooted at the same time, but for now, stock is treating me well. Performance is better as expected with multitasking being very fluid - There's no noticeable lag switching between apps or opening games, and all the animations run flawlessly at 60 frames per second. Reception is definitely improved as well - The radios are much better than the Galaxy Nexus. I get better reception in areas at work that I never did before, and I rarely lose signal in our basement apartment. The camera, although not as good as some other flagships, still performs well for me. Color balance is natural and low light performance is decent, but not great. This still puts it way ahead of the Galaxy Nexus when it comes to shooting photos. To top it all off, it's thinner and lighter too, while maintaining the same approximate size. This means it still fits in my pocket great, and doesn't add any more weight to my pockets.

My only issues with the phone are the same that most have had with it. The battery life is a bit mediocre, although this definitely should improve when developers start implementing the project Volta API into their apps. The phone still gets me through a whole day, and on WiFi I can probably expect about 5 hours of screen time. On mobile data, depending on signal quality, 3 hours seems to be the norm.  Poor signal drives that number down of course, and even with the improved radios, signal quality isn't great at work. It's definitely enough to get things done though, and I'm never too far from a power outlet or my Anker. My other issue can't be fixed, that being headphone port placement. It's on the top of the phone, which makes placement in my pocket a bit odd. A minor nuisance, and I'll get used to it over time. My final small problems are software related, but should easily be patch-able in the near future. One being the current issue with Lollipop memory leaks, and the other being the camera/LED flashlight going non-responsive if the light is left on for too long. Reboots resolve this issue, and they don't come up too often, thankfully.

Overall I'm pleased with my decision. It's an affordable device that should last me at least another year or two, until a better sized Nexus comes out. I like it so much however, that it might end up staying with me until I wear it out.

Phone Updated

Finally up to date when it comes to Android. Figured I'd do something productive today and update. Still using my Galaxy Nexus, I decided to wander away from stock again and picked up LiquidSmooth 3.0. It's based on Kitkat 4.4.2, making me up to date with the latest version. Along with LiquidSmooth, I also went ahead and flashed Fancy Kernel for some added quickness/stability. It was surprisingly quick too! I really could have done things just with the phone itself, considering I was able to install TWRP recovery from their app. After that, it was just a download of the latest ROM, Google apps, and kernel, boot to recovery, and queue up the files to flash.

My reasoning for updating is a bit silly. I was just tired of the OTA update notification, and too lazy to get rid of it. I suppose the added advantage of this is I get a faster phone with newer features. Lastpass, my preferred password manager, recently released an update for their Android app, allowing autofill to apps and Chrome. Autofill to Chrome was only supported on Android 4.3 or higher, so that's another good reason. Also, why didn't I play with DPI scaling before? 280dpi makes it feel as though I have a lot more room on my homescreen. May switch back to 320, but I'll give 280 a try for a bit.

Minecraft: Pocket Edition

Minecraft: Pocket Edition is quite possibly the best 10 cent app I purchased during the 10 cent sale on Google Play. The worst part is, I didn't even know. I let it sit doing nothing for months, until I finally picked up the game, after spinning up a server for some friends. I never saw the draw of Minecraft. During college, all of my friends were playing it pretty heavily, back during the Alpha/Beta stages. I personally thought it was a pretty big tech demo, just to show a little bit more of what Java could do. Boy was I wrong. This is like a digital version of Lego, letting you build whatever you want, and I'm hooked. Well, at least on the mobile side.

The app is coded really well, it seems to run smoothly, not skipping many frames, even at 720x1184 on my phone, or 800x1184 on my tablet. I'd love to see how it ran on the Nexus 10 however. Features are a bit sparse compared to the full version, but each release gets better, even though they seem to be pretty far between.

Check out Minecraft: Pocket Edition on Google Play.

The Nexus 7: My Review

I originally purchased the Nexus 7 during launch, jumping on the slightly cheaper 8GB model. Since release, the 8GB model has been discontinued, and it's spot taken by the 16GB model, and a 32GB model was introduced.  I believe in the time I've owned it, I've formulated a pretty fair assessment.

Background

With the release of the Nexus 7, a new era of cheaper tablets was ushered in. There were always cheaper tablets available, but this was truly the first really good, cheap tablet. I couldn't help myself. The Transformer I had was pretty much sitting and gathering dust. Although the features of the Transformer were awesome, Tegra 2 was aging, and the unit was a bit heavy and awkward. Overall, the Transformer felt like a pretty beta product. I knew for a long while I wanted to replace it, but I didn't have any good options out there. Sure, there were lots of 7" tablets, like the Playbook, and the Galaxy Tab Plus, but I just knew I needed to wait for something better. And it really did come along.

The Hardware: Overview And Opinions

The Nexus 7 is an awesome little tablet. Though construction is mainly plastic, it still feels like it's worth every penny paid. The front of the tablet is consumed by a wonderful 1280x800 7" IPS display, which compared to other tablets of the same screen size on the market is a decent bump in resolution. A lot of people found the bezel surrounding the screen to be a bit much, but I find it's great for holding the unit, as you don't need to worry about accidentally touching the screen or obscuring something on the display. Above the 7" display is a basic 1.3mp shooter, used for Google+ hangouts. Like all current Nexus devices, there are no hardware buttons on the front face, instead being replaced by on screen buttons. Like the Galaxy Nexus, when the screen is off, it's basically a black glossy slate. Surprisingly, there's no notification light on the unit, which I don't really like. Heading down to the bottom of the device, you'll find the standard MicroUSB port, along with the 3.5mm headphone jack. On the left side of the device are the 4 pogo pins for the optional dock and a mic, the top has another mic, and the right side has the power and volume buttons. The back of the unit is a nice soft touch rubber like material, with the Nexus and Asus logos adorning it. Near the bottom, there are some decent stereo speakers, which are surprisingly full and loud for a tablet.

For a $200 tablet, it's specifications are pretty good. Powering the device is a very quick 1.3GHz quad core Tegra 3, with a generous 1GB of RAM. It also has 8GB of on board storage, with 5.92GB usable after the operating system. Like other Nexus devices, there is no expandable memory, so I'm stuck with the 8GB unless I want to replace the unit. Connectivity includes the standard suite of Bluetooth 3.0, NFC, and 802.11 /b/g/n wifi @ 2.4GHz. Rounding out the unit is a 4325mah non-removable battery.

Build quality is really good, like most other Nexus devices. Despite the unit being mostly plastic, it still feels like it's a quality product. This isn't to say there weren't issues. Most units have a slight glass lift on the left side, which, although unnoticeable on casual inspection, may cause those who are picky with their devices to be a bit disappointed. My unit does not display a lot of glass lift, with the glass being mostly flush with the edge. The overall size of the tablet is great too, being a very nice companion device. I can comfortably hold it in one had for reading, unlike the Transformer. This is thanks to the weight, and the nice grippy back. It doesn't feel awkward.

The screen is very nice and bright, but can also drop down to a nice low level for reading in the dark. The IPS display has awesome color reproduction, and good black levels. The viewing angles are great. My unit has no dead pixels, which I'm very thankful for. I have the same opinion on the on screen buttons, thinking it really is the way to go vs hardware. Capacitive buttons can die or seem to lose effectiveness over time, which I found happened with my Desire Z. No notification LED is a bit of a drag, but it's not a deal breaker having to turn on the screen to check notifications. In most cases, if my phone is flashing, I know my tablet has the same notification.

For what it's used for, the camera is pretty good. It's clear enough for Hangouts on Google+, and that's all it really needs to be used for. I find a rear facing camera on a tablet is pretty useless, so I was pleased to see there wasn't one on the Nexus 7. The thought of pulling a tablet out in public to take pictures makes me cringe. You have phones, or point and shoot cameras for a reason.

The processor and GPU are very pleasing. Seeing something as powerful as Tegra 3 in such a cheap device is awesome. Multitasking is a breeze thanks to the 1GB of RAM and the quad core, and I haven't really experienced any slow downs or stutters. The only game I've had issues playing would the GTA Vice City, and even then, turning down the settings makes it playable. The 8GB of internal storage is enough for me. Like I said earlier, I really do use a lot of cloud services, so I don't need to have on device storage. The main thing taking up space on it right now is games. That is really the only bad thing about 8GB. With newer games coming out that are larger and larger, you almost need to uninstall those that aren't being used at the time. All of my books, magazines, video, and audio are streamed, so for those purposes, 8GB is fine. Connectivity works well, playing with Android Beam between my Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 is fun, being able to send web pages to and from devices is simple. With more people getting Nexus devices, or even more Android phones implementing it, I could see it as an easy way to share data. Part of me wishes I waited for the 4G version. Maybe that'll come in the future. I could see it being a lot more useful having data anywhere.

Software: Overview And Opinions

My Nexus 7 is currently running Android 4.2.2, the latest version of Jelly Bean. Jelly Bean was introduced on the Nexus 7, and brought some neat features to the table, the main ones being Project Butter and Google Now. It's definitely a unified operating system now, with design being very similar between my phone and tablet. Like Ice Cream Sandwich, everything is nice and clean, with the Holo theme being implemented everywhere. Project Butter works well on both my phone and tablet too, offering a big boost in responsiveness. This is achieved through VSync timing, triple buffering, and matching touch inputs with the VSync. It also offers nice boosts in processor speed when it detects a touch, making the entire interface fly.

Google Now is pretty awesome, and something I use daily. It has been steadily improving since release, and will keep getting better. It's pretty location aware, so if you're walking past a bus stop it'll give you departure times, it can update you on your favorite sports teams, show you the weather, give you movie times, etc. Very handy tool for quick information at a glance. It also includes an awesome voice search that works really well, and talks to you for a lot of inquiries. This is similar to Siri on the iPhone, but considerably faster. (Seriously, I've tried it vs a friend's 4S. It's speedy).

Notifications have also improved with 4.2. They're expandable and actionable. One can share directly from the notification bar. There's also a quick toggle option too, which is a nice addition to the notification bar. On my phone, swiping down with 2 fingers shows it, or there's a little icon that flips over from standard notifications to the quick panel. With the tablet, swiping on the left side of the notification bar gives you standard notifications, swiping on the right gives you quick toggles.

Battery life is pretty good. I generally use the tablet in the kitchen when I'm cooking or baking to display recipes, or I'll read magazines at work, or browse/watch videos in bed or in the living room. Google rates the device at about 9 hours of continuous video playback, however, I haven't been able to test that. I'm assuming it could do that pretty easily, but for day to day use, it generally gets about 3-4 hours of screen on, with days of idle time in between. I'm pleased with the results, considering it's completely stock, and if I were to use it for a full day, I'd probably see about 7 hours+ screen on time.

Google Support and RMA

It was my unfortunate experience that my first device quickly bricked after about a month of use. I hadn't done anything to it, I didn't even unlock it, but one day it just completely locked up. After soft booting the unit, it got stuck on the Nexus loading screen. Anything I tried resulted in the same problem, even a complete flash of the stock OS. Quickly re-locking the bootloader, I contacted Google, and was assisted by a great rep named Andrew. It was quickly determined that nothing we could do over the phone would solve the problem, so he arranged an advanced device replacement. They shipped me a new unit, and provided me with shipping labels for the old one. Everything was handled in about a week from contacting Google, so I have no real complaints. Service was great, warranty support was awesome, and the new device has been working flawlessly since receiving it.

Conclusion

The Nexus 7 is Google's first foray into the tablet market with a Nexus device, and they did well. The Nexus 7 is priced to move, and has the specifications of a tablet twice it's price. It was really a smart move by Google to push it out, as it's a great way to push their services into more hands, and at a price consumers can't resist. Pushing it at that price point shows that quality devices can be had for cheaper, pressuring more companies to produce cheaper, high quality products. It's realistically a win for both Google and the consumers. As for me, the Nexus 7 has solidified my opinion on the Nexus series of devices, and I don't think I could buy anything but a Nexus from now on. This is really a full featured tablet, and would be an awesome compliment to anyone's day to day life.

Back to stock

A while ago, with the release of Android 4.2, I decided I wanted to try it out on my Galaxy Nexus. I was also extremely lazy at that point in time, and decided it was a really good idea just to dirty flash 4.2.1 over my 4.1 install. Everything was great, phone worked fine, but I found that performance was spotty. Some of the issues included connection speed dropping, making it unbearable to stream Rdio, interface lag, and poor battery life. Silly me put that to issues with 4.2, and my Galaxy Nexus being slightly outdated, but that all changed last week after a backup and clean flash.

Realizing that I had probably made a mistake dirty flashing the phone, I did my duty and backed up my text messages, then played around with fastboot. After downloading the stock 4.2.1 image from the Google developers page, and some platform tools for fastboot from eFrant’s back to stock instructions on the XDA forums, I was back to a fully clean stock experience. Well, I did have a bit of a hang up with driver installs, but all in all, I was back to where I should have been in about an hour. A few days later, I got the OTA for 4.2.2. All is well.

The best part about being back to stock is all the fun stuff that actually works now! The camera is quick again, the interface is nice and smooth, and along with that, Google Now actually works! I was amazed to see movie times posted the other night for my local theatre, and that there are weather notifications in my notification bar. Battery life is once again awesome. I did a whole 2+ hours of screen on time with the stock kernel, which I think should be considered a basic benchmark for any phone I own.

Speaking of kernels, Ezekeel is back from a long hiatus. He was off recovering from a broken leg, followed by a very hectic work schedule. You’ll probably remember me mentioning his work; the GladOS kernel, from back in my Galaxy Nexus review. I’ve been running GladOS on my Nexus for the past few days, and I’m actually a bit disappointed this time around. I don’t find it handles idle and low signal areas great, even though any screen on time is awesome. For instance, I had 35 minutes of screen on time this morning after waking up, and my battery only drained to about 90%. I also find there’s a little bit more lag with this compared to the stock kernel, however, I’m going to leave it for a few more days to see how things go.

I still do feel the Galaxy Nexus is aging. It’s been an awesome phone, and it’s treated me great. I’ve had the opportunity to discover a lot about Android and the phone community with it, and for that, I’ll probably always remember it. I do feel it’s getting close to the time to replace it. The Nexus 4 was released, and I can’t help but salivate over a phone with those specs, especially one that’s practically the same size. I won’t go into detail, as I think I’ll save those for an eventual review. Suffice it to say, my next device will definitely be a Nexus, and it’s probably going to be the Nexus 4.

Things I like: Rdio

Rdio is a multi platform music streaming application, designed to make managing your music collection easier.

I used to have a vast collection of lossless music, taking advantage of the extremely large storage space available to the iPod Classic line. Coupled with my Etymotic ER6i earbuds, I was in audio heaven. Obtaining a smart phone however, made things a bit different. No longer did I want to carry around a second device solely for music, and my smart phone didn't play back ALAC files, and didn't have the storage space for them either. Although I kept my music, I ended up selling the iPod and the Etymotics, and dealing without music on the go for the longest while. I however decided to give it another try, grabbing some new Etymotics, the HF2s, and playing with playlists that would fit on my phone. Re-encoding was a pain, managing playlists was a pain, and dealing with different players was a pain. I'd have to go through my entire collection, pick out which songs I wanted on my device, re-encode them to 192k MP3s, then move them via USB to the device. You can imagine that this could be an extensive undertaking, and most people would have just given up and purchased an iPod and dealt with having another device solely for music.

Mid 2012, after getting tired of the playlist management, I looked at other alternatives. Rdio seemed rather well received, and although I wasn't a fan of spending per month just for my music, it was quickly justified when looking at what I would normally spend on an album, followed by what would have to be done to have that new album loaded onto my device. With the cogs moving in my head, I quickly signed up for the 7 day trial and fell in love. For once, the music on my desktop was all accessible from my phone. Hell, it was accessible from anywhere I wanted it. This was a revelation. Rdio ended up showing me that I really couldn't tell the difference between an ALAC encoded song and one streamed from their service, which as far as I know, is encoded in MP3. Even with my accurate HF2s and Sennheiser HD555s, I really couldn't tell a difference. Adding new songs was as simple as searching for the artist and clicking the plus sign. Making playlists was simple, and there are even some social networking aspects, with the ability to follow other listeners and artists, subscribe to their playlists, and discover new music.

Rdio wasn't without it's bumps however. Initially the Android app was fairly buggy. I ended up getting 2 weeks of free service out of them for a bug which caused the app to stop playback after 3 songs. It's still not a perfect solution, but they're constantly working on it, adding nice features, like collection shuffle, a smoother user interface, and the ability to use the mobile app as a remote control. Overall, it's been pretty bug free for the past little while. The only real disadvantages to the service would be with the data usage for streaming, and the inability to stream with no network connection. Although I don't find it uses ludicrous amounts of battery, it definitely does make use if my 6GB of data from Bell. I stream music for at least half an hour a day, 5 days a week, and with the high quality setting, I can see Rdio using about a gig of data on its own. Coupled with my regular browsing and streaming habits, I can see that 6GB creeping up rather quick. Those of you without good data plans can make use of offline sync however, storing playlists on your device for playback without a network connection. This also mitigates that issue with poor/no signal quality.

Just last month, I removed all of my local music from my computer. I uninstalled iTunes. It feels good. All of my music, plus more than I could ever want, now lives in the cloud, and I'm satisfied again.

The Galaxy Nexus: My Review

It’s been about 2 months since I replaced my slightly aged HTC Desire Z with the Galaxy Nexus, and in this time, I’ve formulated what I believe to be a fair assessment of the device.

Background

With my HTC Desire Z starting to fall behind a bit in terms of speed and features, I decided to look into replacements. For a month a analyzed what was available on the market, narrowing it down to two phones. Those two phones being the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and the Samsung Galaxy S II. The big things going for the Galaxy S II were the better camera, and the slightly better processor/GPU configuration. The Nexus ultimately won it over for me though, as there are some things that peeved me about the S II.

• Still stuck with Gingerbread at the time. I was definitely anticipating Ice Cream Sandwich.


• Even when upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich, the interface would remain largely the same due to the evil known as Touchwiz.


• The screen was a lower resolution in comparison to the Nexus.

So, I purchased the Nexus. And I’m happy.

The Hardware: Overview And Opinions

The Nexus is a beautiful phone. Construction is mostly of plastic, but I definitely find it to be of high quality. Adorning almost the entire front of the phone is the gorgeous 4.65” 1280x720 Super AMOLED display, along with a 1.3MP shooter for video calling and quick pictures. Since Ice Cream Sandwich was designed with on screen buttons in mind, there are no capacitive buttons on the front. When the screen is off, the phone basically looks like a glossy black, slightly curved glass slate. Below the display is a multi color notification LED that is only visible when active. On the bottom of the phone is the microUSB port, a microphone, and the 3.5mm headphone/mic combo jack. The right side of the phone houses the 3 gold connectors for pogo docks, and the power button. Along the left side of the phone you’ll find the volume rocker, and there is nothing on the top of the device. The back of the phone is home to the extremely fast 5MP shooter with LED flash, and on the slight bump near the bottom there is a second mic for noise cancelling. The back plastic cover is textured to provide a decent grip even in a sweaty palm, which I find holds true.

Inside the phone you’ll find a TI OMAP 4460 chipset with a 1.2GHz Cortex A9 dual core processor and a PowerVR SGX540 GPU clocked at 308MHz. The phone also runs on 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal memory. There is no SD card slot expansion. Connectivity includes a pentaband radio, Bluetooth 3.0, Wifi 802.11 A/B/G/N, NFC, and GPS. Powering the device is a 1750Mah Lithium battery.

Build quality seems really good, even though it is constructed mainly of plastic. It’s a lot thinner than my HTC Desire Z, which actually makes it feel smaller in my pocket even though it’s a much larger phone. It didn’t take me too long to get used to the size, and as it stands right now, the 4.65” display is just perfect for my hand. The slim build and slight curve helps it too, as if it was any thicker, it might be considered a bit unwieldy.

The screen is gorgeous, as stated above. Colors are nice, blacks are really deep, and response time seems great. It’s also very viewable in sunlight. This is all a big thanks to the Super AMOLED technology in the display. The display isn’t true RGB, as it runs off a pentile matrix, however, at the extreme screen resolution of the Nexus, image quality and sharpness don’t seem to suffer like in most lower resolution pentile displays. Having no capacitive buttons on the front is really nice as well, as I found with my Desire Z, the buttons could be a bit fiddly at times. The multicolor notification LED is a great feature, as I can set color based on the application, allowing me to know what kind of message I received before even activating the screen.

Headphone jack and power button placement were a bit weird at first, but I quickly got used to them, and they’re more ideal. Having the headphone jack at the bottom is logical, as that’s how I pull my phone out of my pocket, bottom first. The power button on the side makes for easy access too, as it’s pretty much where my index finger would lay when using the device.

Both cameras seem to function well. The 5MP shooter on the back is really fast, and the flash seems to work alright. In practice, the camera will take photos as fast as you can press the shutter. I believe this is more to do with Ice Cream Sandwich than the camera sensor though. The low light performance isn’t great, however, understandable for a phone. Well lit pictures are absolutely beautiful. Very good color, nice sharpness.

    

  

The processor and GPU in the phone seem to be a good fit. Although I do find the phone can get a bit warm with prolonged usage. Everything I need to do is done quickly, with almost no slowdowns. The 1GB of RAM is plenty enough for any multitasking that needs to be done, and again, even when doing multiple things on the phone, I notice no real slowdown. The 16GB of internal storage space was almost a dealbreaker for me, however, after owning the phone, I found I could whittle down my music collection to my most listened to songs, re encode them, and change it up every now and then if things started getting old. Worst case scenario, I have access to everything available on my Subsonic server anyway.

The radios on the phone seem to be good. Reception is never an issue. The phone being pentaband also means I can take it to almost any carrier in the world, as long as they use SIM cards. It’s truly a world phone. Wifi is strong on both the 5GHz and 2.4GHz N bands of my WNDR3700N, providing excellent download and upload speeds. GPS seems good from what I’ve used it for, locking on quickly, and maintaining an accurate location. NFC will be absolutely awesome once Google Wallet legitimately comes to Canada. I cannot wait to use my phone instead of my credit card.

Battery life is purely dependant on software running the phone, so I’ll touch on that once I finish my opinions on the software side of things.

Software: Overview and Opinions

The operating system running this phone is what was the much anticipated Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. Ice Cream Sandwich is essentially a merging of 2.3 Gingerbread and 3.0 Honeycomb, to create one unified OS for both tablets and phones. Design elements are really refined from previous versions. The Holo theme is absolutely gorgeous. It uses very simplistic design elements, with a lot of symbols and clean lines. The Google applications and widgets follow this theme really well, making the entire phone interface look spectacular.

4.0 brings GPU acceleration to the table. With Gingerbread, all rendering was done by the processor, which could make for some less than appealing stuttering and lag when navigating the phone and various applications. With Ice Cream Sandwich, the entire UI is rendered using the GPU, making for an extremely smooth experience. Although Google allows applications to be GPU accelerated as well, some are not. This can be remedied using the developer options that force GPU rendering on all applications.

More nice features added with Ice Cream Sandwich are improved multitasking with a new task switcher/manager, Android Beam, which allows you to send links to another ICS phone with NFC, responding to calls with text messages, and built in photo editing.

I won’t go into detail on any of the applications, as by now, many other reviews have covered the changes in many of the apps, but suffice it to say, everything is a lot shinier and more usable than what it was in Gingerbread. All of the base Google applications are overhauled to be more user friendly, and take advantage of the new, slick holo theme. It just makes everything easier to use and navigate.

Of course, this being a “developer phone”, it’s extremely easy to unlock and modify. For this reason, I’m not running the stock ROM or kernel. My ROM of choice at time of writing is AOKP Milestone 4, coupled with my kernel of choice, GladOS by Ezekeel from Rootzwiki. I find these two modifications add just the little bit of extra control I like to have in my phone (Mainly notification bar toggles and some visual changes from AOKP, and the better battery life, audio/screen mods, and charge limiting from GladOS). So, I suppose this is more from my experience with this software installed on the phone.

The software is great. Coming from CyanogenMod 7.1 on my Desire Z, it just feels a lot faster. Moving between applications is much quicker, opening the camera app is faster, music doesn’t lag like it occasionally did on the Desire Z. Although I am a big fan of Swype, they’ve done awesome things with the new ICS keyboard. I’ve been running that for the past week or so and I’ve really enjoyed it. I don’t feel annoyed by the persistent Google search bar on the home screen. In fact, I find it fairly useful.

Soft keys are awesome. I really didn’t like the capacitive buttons on my Desire Z. I don’t mind losing a bit of screen space just to have those nice, modular, persistent buttons on screen. Dropping from the 4 in Gingerbread down to the 3 in ICS simplifies things too. I don’t miss the search button, or the menu button. I like having the task list button available. It makes switching between apps just one step quicker.

Touching on battery life quickly too, I can pretty easily get through a day of average use with the stock 1750mah battery. I rarely use wifi anymore, however, when I did, the best I managed for screen on time was approximately 3 hours with 5% remaining. Depending on what I’m doing, on 4G HSDPA+, I can usually see about 1.5-2 hours of screen on time, with the inclusion of music listening. Very impressed with the battery in the phone. It performs considerably better than that of my Desire Z with similar tasks. I can only assume that it’ll be even better when my extended battery arrives.

Conclusion

The easiest way to describe a Nexus phone is that it’s not really supposed to be an uber powerful awesome flagship device. The phone is put out to launch a new version of Android, and to really give manufacturers a baseline as to what an ideal phone is for the OS. It’s a device designed to spark development. Most importantly though, it’s a piece of hardware designed to just get out of the way and showcase what’s really important, Android itself.  Does the phone do this well? Yes. It does this extremely well. I will be the first to admit the phone isn't the greatest thing on the market. There are a number of better Android devices on the market with better specifications. This phone however, offers something that many manufacturers don't; a pure Google experience, which is exactly what I want when buying a phone. I believe this will be a phone that I will remember for years to come.