Got the update on all 3 devices (N4, GNex, N7), and I have not noticed any differences. Maybe a little smoother

 

4.2.2. supposedly has some battery optimizations. not scientifically proven though.

Charging your phone with a tablet charger is soooooo much faster

 

Some Orb pics that are not mine:


Might look for a place in my car to put one... Although the really weak magnets or possibly no magnets at all might make it susceptible to falling off while driving.

 

well those pics got taken away... One guy tested it in his car while moving and it somehow worked without falling over or knocking his phone off. Seems like the bottom of the Orb has some super grippy material.

 

Look at the article I posted. Had nothing to do with smoothness.

 

thus the "" smiley and the word "maybe"

 

new app for rooted users.

Greenify.

You gotta download this if you're rooted.

read about here
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/02...he-foreground/

essentially what it is going on is you can pick apps for which it to "greenify" so when you turn your screen off and after a short time it will hibernate the app. So apps like fb that can sometimes kill battery it will turn off after you turn the phone screen off.

 

CM 10.1 Experimentals available for certain HTC One devices (XL, S, EVO LTE):

http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/02...s-and-evo-lte/


GApps:

http://goo.im/gapps


I'm not sure why the regular X version isn't available yet but I'm sure its coming if the other variants are being made. Lots of Nightlies being built today are 4.2.2 so all my devices are now on 4.2.2 (Galaxy S, Nexus and 7). The status bar pulldown has been greatly improved. On 4.2.1 flinging it down on the Nexus 7 was incosistent as I wasn't sure if it was gonna stay down or not. Now, flinging it down in 4.2.2 makes it so that flinging it will respond the way I want it to. It also looks like they slowed it down for the better.

 

For those that use Google Voice, do you set the caller ID to show the caller's number or your GV's number?

I'm contemplating having it show my GV number just so I don't mix up some stuff, but it sucks that if you select that option, it shows doesn't show you the actual number/ID that called...

 

^I leave mine as the incoming's caller ID but I only use it to call 800 numbers mainly and voicemail so I have a different usage pattern than you.

 

DashClock Widget just got updated to 1.2 with the ability to center the clock and adjust opacity, among other stuff.

It's cool, but a bit pointless for me since I don't use the simple slide lock and have the notification bar. I might try to find a use for it on my home screen instead.

 

They got USB OTG working on the Nexus 4!


http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2151159

Its still early stages and you need a Y Cable to supply power but I am going to keep an eye on this. This could be what'll make me pick this phone up. My bro finally decided to use his and I've been playing with it. Fastboot OEM unlocked it already and flashed a custom ROM. Lol. Its way faster than the Galaxy Nexus for sure.

 

Oh no. I've been Scroogled!

DcxH53u.png

In all seriousness though this is pretty cool. Made reservations via OpenTable and got a confirmation email then Google Now created the reminder automatically.

 

i want google to scroogle me all day erryday

 

They still need to fix the problem with Google Play store shipments not being shown. It's due to them putting the tracking number in a sort of giant graphic vs. actual text in the email.

And most of the other cool cards are still random at showing up, if at all

A couple more days until MWC madness begins..... being a journalist is hard, y'all.

 

Yeah the package shipping has been inconsistent for me as well. I'm guessing it has to do with different companies sending emails that aren't consistent to one format.

You going to MWC?

 

So, those of you with an N4, what's your setup? How do you like it?

Mine:

ROM: Team Asylum CM10.1 2/16
Kernel: Franco R72
Min - 384mhz
Max - 1188mhz
Stock voltages

I can get about a day on it, and the phone is fast as f*ck. I also recently switched from Apex Launcher to Nova Launcher (free version). It feels like Nova is slightly faster. Francos kernel allows gamma tuning now. My settings:

RGB - 255/255/255
Whites - 12
Mids - 255
Blacks - 255
Contrast - 0
Brightness - 0
Saturation - 7
Grays - 0

Its not quite the AMOLED that Ive gotten used to over the past two years, but the screen looks amazing now compared to stock.

Also, my Rearth Ringke Fusion case came in yesterday, along with the screen protectors. I liked the feel of the screen protector on my friends GS3. The case is like the standard TPU case around the side, but the back is clear polycarbonate. Its got a really nice feel, its not too bulky, and it feels solid.

 

Same here. Working package shipment would be great to have consistently. So far I've only gotten maybe 2 out of about 10.

 

this was delivered home sometime this past week

only if i got the case before my phone fell :/

well now i have a green phone

havent tried out the techtiles yet though.

 

lol, so did you end up getting a screen protector, or do you wear Flintstones band aids on your fingers now?

 

 

its not chipping anymore... no screen protector lol

 

Nah, its still chipping. Your fingers are just numb from all the glass shards

 

in all seriousness though when i was looking at screen covers, like zagg. How is it that a screen cover can protect a screen from cracking?? I understand scratches from keys and what not that go and touch the screen. But how cracking. They claim like military grade something that adds protection and what not. Is that true?? Or just a gimmick.

 

Sounds like a gimmick to me, but Im not sure.

 

Screen protectors doesn't prevent it from cracking. I don't think any screen protector company can claim that statement.

And the statement from Zagg is due to the fact that it's extremely hard to puncture the Zagg material. That only means the Zagg material can withstand a lot of scratches that will not harm your screen. But again, your screen can still crack from impact.

 

In your case, I was simply suggesting one to hold all the shards together and not detach into your skin. Think of it like tint for your windows or your car's windshield: that piece of "magic" will hold together the pieces when it shatters so that you don't end up with glass shards as facial piercings.

As for the military grade claim, that is actually true. The military uses them mostly for their helicopter blades. It protects against crap in the air hitting it at high speeds to prevent scratching, chipping, etc... to maintain the aerodynamics.

ZAGG doesn't actually claim to protect against cracking, here's their FAQ:
ZAGG's invisibleSHIELD™ is an exceptionally clear and virtually indestructible film that will protect your device from scratches. The invisibleSHIELD™ will not protect your device from breaking or your screen from ever cracking. We are in the business of scratch protection.

 

my mistake.

I'm also not using that green case lol. Too colorful for me....

Gonna set up a tech tile tomorrow for my car. To turn left on GPS WiFi off enable driving mode if possible and open up Pandora.

 

I bought two of the Orbs. I've been using them since Friday. The top is really grippy rubber and also features magnets. The grippy rubber is probably there so that a vibration, like the phone's alert, won't break the contact with the charger, and magnets hold it in place and help to locate it for proper positioning to a degree. It works both vertical and horizontal.

My first beef is the daydream feature shuts off once the phone is fully charged. I was using it as a night clock, so the first four hours or so everything's peachy. Once charged, the daydream goes away even though both "when docked" and "when charging" are checked off in the settings. Boo.

 

Back of phone is Xperia Ion, front is a Samsung Tab 10.1 dual speakers lol.
Sense 5.0 looks interesting...


I foresee HTC being bought up by Google/Motorola by 2014.

 

The entire phone could be branded Sony and you would believe it. The buttons on the side remind me of the Xperias. New Sense is like a combination of Windows Phone tiles and Flipbook.

And only 2 capacitive buttons NO multitask button!!

 

Much better video...and in English:


Downside to having a full metal back = no wireless charging.
Overall, cool phone with great new concepts. Especially loving the dual speakers and possibly kick ass camera, but a lot of wtf stuff also~New Sense (say it fast and without the space).

 

Very Metro like. Not sure if that's a good thing...The phone design looks nice and finally someone put in dual speakers in the front where it makes sense! Specs seem pretty nice. Camera with f/2.0 and the new Qualcomm 600 (Sony release your phones!). Battery life looks to be the killer of this phone again. Its like HTC doesn't learn that their batteries coupled with Sense is craptastic.Sense 5.0 looks bloated as ever but I guess that remains to be seen. Now HTC just needs to be dev friendly again and this phone can be great.

 

Interesting phone. It def looks good but I dont see it being a game changer. I do bet that screen is amazing though. Also having IR built in is a nice touch.

 

After watching that video, it looks to be performing great. I guess making that newsfeed combined with the regular homescreens makes sense for the majority of people following their social feeds. At least the regular homescreens are still there for widgets and the like. I wonder if the feed will filter nsfw things. Lol. HTC needs to market their phones and drop their sources at a better pace. The phone design looks good though and it looks crazy fast. Now that the Qualcomm 600 CPUs are coming out the Xperia Z has become somewhat outdated.

 

FYI the Qualcomm 600 is the Snapdragon S4 Pro. Pretty much the same chip, just with the new moniker. The one to watch out for is the 800. But looks like both the Z and One are coming out in March, only to be forgotten because the Galaxy S4 will be announced that same month and people will choose to wait for that in the Summer. People need to learn to release phones BEFORE Samsung and Apple do their announcements!

I'm not a fan of blinkfeed because news/snippets/social media is not my #1 concern. I'd rather have Google Now, which is what HTC is trying to hide away from people. I get the feeling HTC wants to build it's own OS like Samsung and Tizen, but they don't have the money.

Well here's one downside to the Orb: You need at least 0.0000001% of juice in your battery for it to work. Phone was completely dead on battery and it wouldn't turn on. Knew it was dead when it made this loud scream noise and then shut off. Freaked out and thought it was really dead until I plugged in the usb wall charger and it turned on that way. Put it back on the Orb immediately and it worked again... phew.

 

Yeah the 600 and S4 Pro are pretty similar but the 600 has slightly higher OC capability both in CPU and GPU. It also brings in DDR3 for higher bandwidth. The changes may be minimal but that higher bandwidth is crucial for 1080p things. In review videos, you can see the Droid DNA get bogged down in some areas in early previews of the phone (still happening now) and some people are saying the same thing with the Xperia Z. In the preview video of the HTC One, there was no laggage although it is still pretty early to tell. The 800 probably won't be out until October at the earliest. Makes sense if the 600 is just coming out now.

 

do you guys think that the S4 will actually have an octo core??? Dont you think thats overkill

 

There's a high chance they'll be using their octa core tech on the S IV. They've always used their in-house Exynos chips for their phones. I believe the only reason they went with the Qualcomms on the US S III was because of the LTE chipset that they didn't have until the Note II variant of their Exynos chip. They probably won't make that same mistake this time around.

The octa cores they created are special because it won't run all 8 cores at the same time. (It can do it but its probably not very efficient to do so.) The set up will be a big.LITTLE architecture which they already demoed. It'll have a Quadcore A7 and a Quadcore A15 configuration. Depending on the task it'll switch off the two groups. This makes the best sense because at the moment, they're not getting the best battery performance out of the quadcore A15s. Running just the Quadcore A15s would destroy battery life on current phones. The quadcore A7s will probably run most of the tasks for the phone with the A15s giving it a "boost" as needed.

 

CyanogenMod just included HDR shots on phones that didn't have it in the latest Nightlies. It takes the proper 3 shots: one normal, one overexposed and one underexposed then combines them. For the Nexus devices, you have to use the open sourced camera so this means you lose PhotoSphere and PicasaSync for photos in the Gallery.