LG G6 launch event, right from the comfort of my home

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Feb 262017
 

LG has been kind enough to stream the launch event online and it deserves the thanks for doing that. Not all are able to make it to Spain to watch the event. But this is no reason to not be able blog on the magnificent device that the G6 is.
After the semi-success of the G5, combined with the drama surrounding the Note 7(nothing direct but inspired nonetheless), the G6 brings with it a lot of hopes, given the campaign run gathering lots of inputs for the perfect smartphone.
Sitting thousands of miles away, the device appears to be of the size of the Z3 (pardon the comparison) with a lot more screen.
The design language suggests a new generation of aspects with high concentration on the body-screen ratio.

The display is a 5.7 incher with an 18:9 ratio. Apparently this is an idea suggested by Vittorio Storaro (Univisium) on how a wide screen should really be. With most ignoring the fact that the 18:9 ratio can also be called a 2:1 ratio, the phone still is a very beautiful piece of hardware.

It has a special feature of zooming all content to the new ratio with the display being able to provide Dolby Vision (HDR 10) video quality in partnership with Dolby.

You get 200$ worth in-app purchases on 6 games in the Google play(not one being my favorite but hey, I do like other stuff). Temple Run 2, Sim city Buildit, Crossy roads, Spiderman unlimited, and two others I failed to remember. Simply put, not worth the effort.

Professor Freivalds from the Penn state university explains us about the research done on the kind of user experience which sets the beauty apart from other devices. The bottom bezel being 10.5 mm satisfies the minimum requirement of a 7.3 mm bottom bezel for very good experience.

After nearly 30 minutes of design choices with explanations we get to the actual design.

The G6 has minimised the bezel size, and the removed camera hump.

In order to provide reliability, the smartphone has been embedded with extra safety. Extra safe measures, battery capacity of 3300 mAh, a heat pipe for extra heat loss, distance between the AP(Application Processor) and the LCD IC for lower heat generation, following a highly green set of materials, IP 68 resistance. It also has the in-built AI(as introduced by Scott Huffman from Google Assistant), the Google Assistant helping you even when the screen is off.

Following wishes from the consumers, the camera has a 13 MP wide angle lens(125 deg). Michael from Qualcomm expands on the camera in the G6, using the Snapdragon 821 to work on the HDR10.

The LG UX 6.0 features a square camera with lots of camera shot features, neat tricks including grid shot, the 360 panaroma.

With a final video and a thanks to the presenters, the event ends.

Finally, the phone shouts out “handy” at the heart of the design language.

Pardon any unedited content in the post, pure perspective drove it. Also, there are now plenty of youtube videos showcasing the G6 for its handy beauty.

Why I won’t replace my N4 anytime soon

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Apr 232015
 

My N4 celebrated its 2nd anniversary with me last month and this is the longest time I’ve stuck to one phone. I must admit though that I used my 808 as my primary driver for almost 5 months in this period but the N4 was always there to get me through my day for entertainment.

After the latest editions of CES and MWC I was startled by the new and shiny pieces of hardware and the accompanying software. I was also impressed by Lollipop on my N4, and N7 2012.

Some background info to start off with, the N4 has a 4.7″ 720p IPS LCD display, with 2 gigs of RAM, 16 gigs of internal memory and as all Nexus devices, no expansion slot. It has an 8MP snapper with an LED flash and also can record 1080p video. It has a gorgeous glass back, rubberized sides and a gorilla glass 2 front. I have my N4 engulfed under so many layers of protection that it is not hard to see anything more than the charging port, mics and the 3.5 mm jack. Have installed a tempered glass in the front, a gadget shield back and is under a double layered case. Rugged.

It is important to note that the camera was not good enough for the time when it came out and obviously hasn’t improved 2 years hence. May be the updated camera app does some justice software wise but with medial hardware you don’t get to good an output despite the software.  Nevertheless, when the pics from the cam are viewed on the phone itself, they aren’t bad. It takes decent macros, and is generally good under medium to good lighting conditions. Wouldn’t rely on this to be my camera though, given that I also have that 808.

While I used the 808 for a few months I realised how much I would rather go for android. Symbian is good. But only when I used WhatsApp, phone calls, and SMS. Everything else, other than the camera, was age old. I couldn’t reliably view my emails, couldn’t read books, couldn’t play games, couldn’t browse the net well.

My thirst for these was quenched by the N4 and it still continues to do that. It still lets me play almost every game out there without lag.

Recently, I thought of upgrading from the N4. Looked at many prospects like the many flagships out there, but there wasn’t anything revolutionary about them which would completely make my existing device obsolete. The 4.7 inch HD screen lets me do everything I need. And the minimum one day usage(battery life) despite 3G always on makes me use it as my daily driver. I read my mails, play a few games, read books, listen to music, watch movies, browse the web, edit photos, download stuff and much more.

Now I think, do I really need to upgrade my phone?

I have written this not to tell you that the Nexus 4 is the best phone out there, trust me it isn’t. What I intended, instead, was that we should give a second thought when we want to buy our next phone replacing the current one. Does our phone currently do what we need it to do? If the answer is yes, wait for some more time. May be till our needs out of our phone outgrow its capabilities. lots of things will be saved. Money, materials, the planet too!!!

 Posted by at 6:09 pm

Does the Lumia recovery tool work on Symbian phones?

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Jan 052015
 

I came to know about the new Lumia recovery tool, more about it here on AAS. I experimented on my N8, and spoiler alert, it worked like a charm. So, yes, the tool works on Symbian phones.

The downloadable file is about 18 MB in size. After downloading the file, opening the file will take you through various installation pages, common procedure like with any other tool.

During the installation process, some more data will be downloaded, about 50-100MB depending on the versions of Visual C++ distributables you already have installed. Also, many USB drivers will be installed.

Once the installation process finishes, restart your computer. These drivers take effect only after a successful reboot of your computer, something they should have mentioned in the official page.

After the restart, open the tool and you will be greeted with this.

n8_1

Now connect your Symbian phone in the Nokia Suite mode and let the tool recognise it.

The tool will automatically check for the version online and give the details for you.

n8_2

Once all looks ok, hit Install.

n8_5

Mind you, this step will take a lot of time to complete, depending on your internet speeds.

My N8 needed a 1.36 GB data download, and left it to do its magic overnight.(Took me about two hours to download that though. Was asleep the rest of the way:P).

n8_6

n8_7

Just for this blog post, I hit install once again to see what I missed out on.

To be franker than usual, nothing much.

n8_8

Few more screens and voila, my N8 was flashed with the official firmware. I did get a few gifts though. The following apps came preinstalled.

  • Galaxy on fire
  • NFS shift HD
  • Real Golf 2011
  • India Today

In this day, mobile apps have grown in complexity. Those apps are part of the nostalgia which I haven’t been able let go off. My 808 is my daily driver, though I have a couple of androids lying around for other stuff.

Barring the last few statements, I hope I’ve presented the usage of the tool clearly. Please do comment if you have any questions or suggestions. I have my N8 to experiment on 😉

 

P.S. Some info for the geeks at heart, the gigs worth of files downloaded are available in the following path:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Packages\Products\

The content there is similar to what we’d have using the Navifirm, when it worked. Or I should say, when it was allowed to work.

In the first image there is a button asking if the phone does not start. This works only for windows 8 phones.

Disclaimer: I hope I haven’t hit any copyright or other legal stuff while writing this post. This post is just me, as a fan of Symbian, sharing information with others who like Symbian.

UPDATE::

I tried the tool on my 808 after it made work very hard deleting old sms. The download size was 1.94 GB, so an overnight attempt later the 808 is good as new. New apps which came preinstalled are

  • Climate mission
  • Videopro

Videopro is definitely a gift.

 Posted by at 7:53 pm

Moving on to the 808 pureview, in 2014

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May 222014
 

I, only recently, managed to grab hold of the camera with a phone, the Nokia 808 after more than six months of search. Bought it for 25k INR, given that that’s a high price(literally) for something with those specs, bar the camera of course, in today’s terms. Was a pretty elusive device and the seller I managed to find still has a few boxed pieces to sell.
I first entered into the symbian world with the 6220c, or was it the series 60, in 2008. It stayed with me for more than 2 years before succumbing to my heavy usage. Got waterlogged. India is a pretty warm place, so waterlogged doesn’t essentially mean water here. Keypad stopped working. And this was a very common complaint among 6220c owners. The battery started swelling. It was then that I finally bid farewell to it and exchanged it for a Samsung Wave 2. Brilliant device but marred by its highly limited app store. It didn’t stay long and I moved onto the the N8. This was about one year after it’s official launch.
Boy was it amazing to own it. GSMArena charts showed it as number 1 in one of its categories(and it stayed that way for more than 2 years). It had all the cool stuff one could have on a smartphone back then. Great HD games, excellent camera, hardware innovations and the looks. This was when the android wasn’t that exciting. I still do have it, and it still work’s fine. It has been ‘delight’ed though.
In parallel, I moved into the android ecosystem too, with the apollo, then the xperia s and lastly the nexus 4.
Being an enthusiast, I also bought the n900. A rock like device which can be used as a weapon to hurt someone. It is big and it is heavy and it has my favorite keyboard.
I should shove in a Sony Naite and a Nokia 7020 in there, but don’t remember where they exactly fit in.

Now to where I should be. The 808. In 2014.
My 808
It’s been almost 10 days with the 808 and let me tell you it has been a journey with mixed emotions. First one being, OMG what have I done!!!!! Burned 25k on a camera phone which is only taking blurred photos, thanks to my not very steady hands. I always had an option among the 1020 and the 808 and those whose advice i cherish, advised against the 1020. And it was 10k costlier.
All online reviews suggested that I go for the 1020, given the growing platform, apps, the nice camera interface and the like. I went for the original.

It is a device, which I’ve always felt, represented the whole symbian family. Almost all innovations in the platform have been incorporated into the 808. Camera, FM transmitter, OTG, multi codec player and so forth. The drawback mentioned in almost all comparisons online was the dying platform. Seriously, the number of sis apps available out there does not go with the dying nature.

Moreover, with the miniscule usage of internet on my phone, I can’t see why I can’t survive with the 808 in 2014. I do cheat as I write this though. I have the nexus 4 running in airplane mode satisfying all my other android needs. Hey!!! I like to use apps you know? There have been times when I ran so many apps in parallel on the N4 that I could feel it beg for my mercy.
At some point during the N4 usage I started to feel that I really can do without so many apps. All I wanted was device to make calls, send/receive texts, PMP features and supports internet for IM chats. This made me immune to the attractive device launches and the various marketing campaigns and also served as one of the reasons I chose the 808 over the 1020. And with the still existing support from the veterans of the symbian community, indies who don’t want to see the platform die, and great websites to hold on to for any such updates, I can’t see why moving to the 808 is a downgrade, as it has been pointed out to me.

P.S. I have been getting the frequent jaw drops among many of my friends, coworkers at the ’41’ number and that makes me happy and proud too 😉

 Posted by at 3:41 am

My N4 has been Kitkat’d

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Dec 082013
 

Sorry I took a long time to write this post. There has been so much in this update that I kept discovering new stuff everyday. I probably will realise something tomorrow too. I’ll update that here for sure.
Anyway, my idea behind this post is not to give a complete review of what changes you can expect or have found on your update, but to help you discover more on the update. Am judging that based on the numerous posts out there on the topic of the changes on a Nexus 4 after Kitkat.
Let me start with saying that I wasn’t too happy with the update. Honestly, I now use more memory than when on JB, running the same apps. My free memory has not risen above 900 MB. Let me put an example. Right now, all I have running on my N4 is the music player. I can now see that the free memory is only 728 MB. I remember days when I had at least a couple of apps running and the free memory would be more than 1.1 gig. Just to advocate on my point, I have restarted the phone and very soon I have less than 600MB left. I delete the services of Yahoo mail, FB, textplus, whatsapp and the like to get back to about 800MB of free memory. Long story short, no respite.
Now that I have cleared that of my chest, let me get to my original intention. What is new? At least in the front end.
Screenshot_2013-11-26-06-31-55A new screen showing the process stats. How long the apps have been running.

 

 

Screenshot_2013-11-26-06-31-35The screen which shows the option to change from DVM to ART and vice versa. There are two things I’d like to tell you here. One being that google hasn’t really migrated away from the classic Holo blue. They do use the new roboto font here and there and the occasional white but holo blue still exists on the decive. Two, when you switch from DVM to ART, expect a long time before a restart. I haven’t stressed enough on the long part here but I hope you get the point. Not every app out there supports ART, or should I say ART doesn’t support every app out there. (Cough! Whatsapp Cough!)

 

Screenshot_2013-11-26-06-45-22The clock app has changed quite a bit. We now have 4 tabs instead of three. The alarm clock option in the bottom in JB is now a new tab. I need those times for at work. So the world clock is pretty handy. The selection of the times is now clearly visible.

(I must thank my trusty old N7 2012 which still has JB 4.3 on it which helped me in giving me a comparative perspective. Disclosure: Am not planning to update it to 4.4 till I confide in it. Poor thing has only 1 Gig of RAM on it.)

 

Screenshot_2013-11-26-06-20-50 This picture is obviously pointing out to the camera switch on the right and the Google Now launcher in the middle. But my intention in showing this pic is not so obvious. See that white WiFi symbol on the top. Well, data was being transferred when i took the screenshot. And there was no indication of data being transferred. In JB, there was a little symbol that showed incoming and outgoing data activity no matter the connection option, WiFi or data. That little symbol is visible in the image in my previous post. Look for the WiFi symbol on the top. In Kitkat, this transfer of data is not displayed. All you can see is that your device is connected. If any of the apps running is transferring any data, that activity is invisible, at least on the icon on top.

 

Kindly note that this post was just to tell you what is not being told everywhere else, could be they haven’t noticed or they chose to ignore this(except the ART part, couldn’t resist mentioning that though). As I write this post the 4.4.1 is available via the OTA update. I will check that out and write if things have turned for the worse or the better.

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