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Archive for Michael Grasser

[Counter-Point] Nexus 4

06/11/2012 none No comments

This is in response to a post earlier about the brand new Nexus 4 from Google, and The Verge’s score for it. You can read it here.

WARNING – COUNTER-RANT
Well, to start off, the reviews of those devices done at this time would probably be lower, seeing that the last Nexus was reviewed around a year ago, and the iPhone was reviewed over a month ago, technology changes fast, and those ratings would change. Let’s break down the ratings for both of them highest to lowest for the Galaxy Nexus, comparing them. Both the Nexus’ got 10/10 in performance and software. The performance of both devices is phenomenal, even the Galaxy Nexus performs well still. If they were to review it today, they’d point out that some newer games will take a while to start up, and can have skipped frames and lag sometimes, as expected from a year old device. Galaxy Nexus performance score at this point in time: 8. Android evolved into an operating system that was 100x better with the introduction of ICS, and hasn’t had any large overhauls since then. I’d say that I’d give the Galaxy Nexus with ICS a 9, because it’s out of date. The iPhone 5 got a 9/10 for performance, and 8/10 for software, I’ve used one for a few minutes, and if you don’t take the different operating systems into account, that seems fair. The Galaxy Nexus received 9/10 on display and reception/call quality, versus 8 for display and 6 on reception/call quality for the Nexus 4. The Galaxy Nexus’ display was good for it’s time, though it was over-saturated at some times, and the pentile would show through at dim brightness, which went too low on auto-brightness anyway, though for today’s demand, I’d give it a 6. I have not seen the Nexus 4′s display, but it is obviously better than the Galaxy Nexus’ old display, though it’s said that it can look washed out, yet still too dim on auto-brightness. Call Quality was fair on the Galaxy Nexus, and on the Nexus 4, but I’ll discuss data speeds later. Reception/call quality and Display were both given 9′s for the iPhone 5, though the display was made by Sharp, and call quality wasn’t lacking, it wasn’t really Apple’s parts, but this is the wrong place for discussing the validity of Apples parts. Next come design and ecosystem, both get 8 on design, and the Nexus 4 gets 9 on ecosystem while the Galaxy Nexus got an 8. Design is an opinion, and I think both look good, so 8 is reasonable. For ecosystem, the Android ecosystem has grown a lot since the Galaxy Nexus, and  I’d give it a 7 if the ecosystem from that time was now. Quickly through the rest. Camera was okay on the Galaxy Nexus, I’d give it a 6 now, and 8 is fair for the Nexus 4. Battery life was fine to me on the Galaxy Nexus, but I’d still give it a 7, because you can actually replace the battery on it. We know how much people hate on the Galaxy Nexus’ camera, but I’d give it a 5 now. Now onto LTE.

Disclaimer: I’m an American.

Lack of LTE has been a sore spot for the Nexus 4 to a lot of people. True, the Galaxy Nexus didn’t have LTE (Unless it was the Verizon Version), and I’d give it a 6 these days for that. LTE is a wonderful technology, I can get 25Mbps download in the middle of rural Pennsylvania, where the HSPA+ AT&T phone got 5. LTE is a global technology now. Canada has a rather large LTE network, Japan has a sizable LTE network, plenty of European Countries are starting large rollouts of LTE, and the UK to my knowledge is starting to expand their LTE network more too. The world consists of more than just the UK and the US, and LTE is in lots of those places, even if it isn’t widespread. Most people stick with a phone for about two years, whether it be because of a contract, or because of funds. If you’re stuck with a phone for two years, shouldn’t it have the wireless technology that will be extremely prevalent one year into owning it, and should absolutely be the standard by the end of your time with the phone?

Final scores according to me at this time:

Galaxy Nexus: 7

Nexus 4: 8.3

Impawsible Tunnelbear Contest

22/10/2012 none One comment

UPDATE: Contest is now closed. Winner to be announced shortly

 

Remember the review of Tunnelbear that I wrote yesterday? You may have read something about a contest at the bottom, and now that contest is here. Your job is to come up with an unbearably punny caption for the above image sent to email hidden; JavaScript is required with the subject line ‘TunnelBear‘. If you come up with the Grizzliest caption, you win six months of the Grizzly Tunnelbear package. Good luck to all that can bear the difficulty of this contest. And do not forget to download the app from the Play Store.

CONTEST RULES:

This contest is open until Midnight the 5th of November 2012. That is midnight UK time. Any entries received after this date will not be eligible. The contest is open pretty much worldwide. It is not available to residents living in China, I am sorry, TunnelBear does not work in China. Also this offer is not open to those that work on the Droidaphile website or their families. The winner will be the entry who amuses the Droidaphile team the most. All decisions are final and no other prize will be offered in place of this.

Tunnelbear VPN App Review

21/10/2012 none One comment

So, I’m back! Yes it’s true, and I’m planning on kicking it off with a few app reviews. First is Tunnelbear, a beautiful VPN app. Tunnelbear is a free VPN for use anywhere (except China, Panda Bears don’t seem to like Tunnelbear), and use their servers in the US or the UK. The setup is easy, and only takes a few minutes. (Requires Android 4.0 or higher)

After you’re in and ready, you can set it to US for all those US only apps, or to UK for BBC material, or whatever else you want. It’s simple, beautiful, and fast. I don’t think that I lost any speed using the UK setting (Merlin doesn’t air in the US for a while). When you turn it on, a dialogue pops up asking if you trust it (you do), then you’re ready to do whatever you’d enjoy in another country.

Pricing and Contest

Pricing is amazing, 500 mb is free per month, and if you tweet about it, you get an extra 1GB. After that, It is 5 USD per month for unlimited usage (Giant Bear), or 50 USD per year (Grizzly Bear).

 

 

 

And you thought I wouldn’t tell you about the contest? Well, make sure to check back in the next few days for a contest for a few months of the Grizzly level Tunnelbear!

Play Store: Download

Tunnelbear: http://www.tunnelbear.com/

Pricing: http://www.tunnelbear.com/pricing/

APC is Available for Pre-Order Today (Maybe)

11/06/2012 none 2 comments

If you were waiting for the $50 Android System, you may be able to get it now. Some people have gotten their orders in, some have gotten a “Sold out” response. If you’d like the small Android PC, go to apc.io and try to find out how to get it. In my email it goes to http://apc.io/order/pre-order/ but that shipping is a painful price.

ICS on Google Chromebook CR48

30/05/2012 none No comments

Some of you may have gotten a CR48 when Google had their initial Chromebook program, and it may have gotten boring staying on ChromeOS this whole time. Now you can install Android 4.0 ICS on it! All hardware is functional, except for the function keys up top (at one point I rotated the screen somehow, I’m still trying to figure out how). I can not guarantee that Verizon data will work, I do not have the plan. If you have any experience installing Linux, this will not be too much of a challenge for you.

Protip: Use a Gparted USB to partition your drive before installing from the Android USB

I, nor the Droidaphile team are responsible if you end up ripping your Chromebook apart, and setting it on fire, or any other damage.

If you already have a replaced BIOS, you may skip to part B.

A. 1. Create a backup of your current system and flash BIOS. Directions: http://cr-48.wikispaces.com/Flash+BIOS

B. 1. Download unetbootin to create a bootable USB for Android: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

2. Download the iso for Android. File name: android-x86-4.0-RC1-eeepc.iso Link: http://www.android-x86.org/download

3. Create a bootable USB with unetbootin with the iso you downloaded.

4. (Yes, I realize it is technically for an eeepc, but that does not matter)

5. Power off your CR48 and put in the USB.

6. Turn it on, and right away press F10, or the volume up key to go to the boot chooser.

7. Choose the name of your USB, and hit enter.

8. Choose install, and go through the guided install.

9. You will want to choose an sda partition, if you partitioned with gparted it will probably be sda1, if you want to create one here, do so.

10. After doing that, you will probably want a virtual SD card, I chose the default size, you may choose to put in you want.

11. You’ll also want to install GRUB bootloader, if you want to boot.

12. From here you should be good, reboot, take out your USB, set up wifi, and go bother all your friends for apk files that aren’t compatible.

If you have any questions, contact me on my Google+ account ( https://plus.google.com/?fd=1#116972407892019099522/posts) just comment here.

Are You a Crackflasher?

29/05/2012 none One comment

Hello, my name is Michael, and I’m a crackflasher. The first step to quitting is admitting you have a problem.

Many of us love to flash ROMs, right?  Personally, I tend to flash a new ROM about 3-4 times a week, sometimes more. Some people flash daily, some flash weekly, some flash monthly, how often do you find yourself flashing an update, or a new ROM? Leave your answer in the comments, along with how you access those ROMs.

Google’s Android Device Gallery

15/05/2012 none No comments

 

Have you ever felt the urge to go look at a whole bunch of Android devices? Well, even if you haven’t Google gives us a Gallery of all Android devices approved by them. If you don’t know what an approved Google device is, it is any device that is shipped with Google apps (Play Store, Maps, etc.). This gallery could also help you help someone new to Android choose a device, whether they want a lower end phone that costs little and that’s updated well, or a higher end phone that’s more expensive, better quality, but may not be as up to date. It also could help get all those people off of your back, if you’re a person like me who brags to everyone that my phone is better than theirs.

Here’s the link for your viewing pleasure: http://www.android.com/devices/

The Needed “Introduction” Post

11/04/2012 none No comments

Image

Hi there, it’s my first post on Droidaphile, so here’s some random information. I’ll keep it slightly Android-centered. I got into Android when I heard about the Nook Color on NPR, and how it could be, as they called it, “rooted.” Yeah, it’s a pretty common term to us now. I accidentally installed Cyanogenmod 7 on the device memory once, then there was no going back. I learned about how everything worked, and I ended up wiping my boot partition. That didn’t go very well, but I got it back. I currently have a Galaxy Nexus, an HP Touchpad, two Nook Colors, a Droid 2 (currently bricked), and this little known cheap tablet that is easily hackable called the Pandigital Novel is in the mail. I know stuff, it’s very varied, and may show during my time on this site. I also hide on Google+ (here – http://goo.gl/AIJlE), and that’s where I got connected to this site. I will post here whenever there is something worth posting, that isn’t already covered everywhere else.