Bring on Lollipop!

So, as it turns out, Android L stood for Android Lollipop. I know for a fact that for the next (hopefully not too many) weeks I'll be abusing the Check for Updates functionality on my Nexus 5 way more than I should. It'll be interesting to see how Lollipop performs on my Nexus 5 and whether it solves the issues that drove me back to iOS.

If it does indeed solve the Bluetooth and streaming issues, then I have some hard decisions ahead. The newly announced Nexus 6 has Qi charging, a good (as far as the specs go) camera, water resistance (according to Motorola site, but suspiciously missing from many other spec listings), and vanilla Android, something that Samsung devices that match the other specs don't have. That combination sounds like something I could really use, although I'd miss the Touch ID I've grown to love on my iPhone 6. The size of the Nexus 6 is also somewhat concerning, especially when you keep in mind that I chose the regular iPhone 6 over the 6 Plus as the Plus turned out to be a little too large. However, with the recent announcement of Android Wear devices becoming available also in Finland, the size wouldn't be that much of an issue as I wouldn't have to take my phone out all that often since the necessary information would be available on my wrist.

But I guess I have to wait for Lollipop to land on my Nexus 5 to see if my main gripes have been addressed. I think I've mentioned how much I hate these staggered rollouts where you can't be sure when the new version is available for you. That's one more part where iOS still has a major edge in my books.

Viskiä ja olutta! Whisk(e)y and Beer!

This post has nothing to do with the typical topics of this blog. This is a statement against the nanny state my beloved Finland has become. We've reached the point where the Finnish authorities have banned the word viski (whiskey or whisky depending on our viewpoint and the nature of the actual drink at hand) in private blogs, because they interpret it as an advertisement for Olutexpo festival.

Yes, you read that correctly. The authorities here, in a supposed Western democracy with free speech as its natural ingredient have in fact threatened to cancel alcohol licenses for the Olutexpo festival unless the Olutexpo organizers get unrelated private bloggers to take down their blog posts where they discuss the upcoming event and possible whiskeys served there (read more about in Finnish here). Yes, that's right. An unaffiliated private blogger can actually do major harm to your business by blogging about it. All this in Finland in the year 2014. What the hell is going on in this country? WTF? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? WHAT THE FUCK!?

In their over-obsessed craze over diminishing alcohol consumption in Finland the authorities in Aluehallintovirasto have simply gone too far. Free speech is one of the cornerstones of a modern civilized society, and abusing one's legislative position (holding the alcohol license to unfair ransom) to diminish such a basic freedom is simply unforgivable. Just in case you wonder why the expo has only olut (beer) in its name when it has also whiskey there, it's because the very same authority made them drop the whiskey part from their name. That's how low they can go.

I just want to make clear that Olutexpo does indeed carry also whiskey (viski) and friends of either or both beverages might find the expo highly entertaining. I also wish to make it clear that I'm not in any way affiliated with Olutexpo but I'm furious about Aluehallintovirasto trying to turn this country into a new North Korea. I'll be awaiting for the takedown request.

I also suggest that folks in Aluehallintovirasto and everyone who shares their point of view take a brief course in Finnish history. The course should focus especially on how well the prohibition period managed to abolish alcohol consumption in Finland (Hint: Not quite).

iPhone 6

Even though in the last post I said I was going for the iPhone 6 Plus, I ended up making a last-minute diversion for the regular iPhone 6. While the 5,5" screen itself wouldn't be too large for me, the large bezels make the device a little too big for carrying around. I made myself a cardboard mockup based on the dimensions of the iPhone 6 Plus and the end result was that I would have too few clothes with big enough pockets to actually carry it with me. As I'm not too keen of the idea of having to use a bag to carry my phone around, I switched to the regular iPhone 6 to keep it pocketable. In addition, it was Erica Griffin's review that finally tipped the scale for me. Around the 12 minute mark she mentions performance issues she's not used to seeing on iPhones. That combined with teardowns that have confirmed only 1 GB of RAM also in the Plus and the scaling that's done for the display (read the details here), I'm somewhat afraid that the hardware in the iPhone 6 Plus might be a little inadequate especially when newer iOS releases arrive. As I already own an iPad 3, I didn't want yet another "whoops, we kind of underestimated the hardware needs for this one" iOS device, so the regular 6 looked like a safer choice with a smaller resolution to drive with its relatively low RAM.  

Now that I have my iPhone 6 I'm glad I did choose it. The phone feels great in my hand and the 4,7" seems rather optimal as a size. In fact, I like the size somewhat more than that of my Nexus 5, which is a bit on the large side even though it's still perfectly usable. Too bad that optical image stabilization and the better battery are available only in the Plus, but with the current bezels the Plus is somewhat too large.

What comes to the software, I'm really liking the extensions in iOS 8. Transmit and 1Password are insanely more useful with extensions, even though 1Password having to rely on the share sheet (iOS limitation here) is somewhat weird UI-wise when considering what the app does. I'm still happy to have that functionality available even though the current implementation is somewhat kludgy from the user experience perspective. What's more worrying is the amount of issues iOS 8 seems to be having. 8.0.1 broke cellular reception and TouchID for many iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users and now there are lots of reports about broken Bluetooth functionality. I seem to be among the lucky ones who haven't had any Bluetooth connectivity issues in iOS 8, but the amount of issues is somewhat alarming. When you add the iCloud Drive issue to the mix, it's clear that Apple has a QA issue on their hands. I've also had an issue where I could start slow motion video capture, but couldn't stop it in any other way than force rebooting the phone. Not good. I hope Apple gets their act together, as the reliability has been one of the selling points for iPhones. It'll be interesting to see how my Nexus 5 works when Android L comes out. If ART makes Android even more stable than it is now, Apple can be in for some rough times if they don't get their quality back on the track.