5.1 Can't Come Soon Enough

While I've been complaining about Apple's quality problems lately, other manufacturers seem to have equally hard time with early versions of a new major version OS. In this case I'm referring to Android 5, i.e. Lollipop.

I've now been running Lollipop for quite a while on my Nexus 5, and while I do like the enhancements it brings to the Android experience, it's starting to be rather obvious that there's quite a bunch of issues to fix. At first everything seemed to be running more or less on KitKat stability level, but lately I've been experiencing some really annoying issues.

The most annoying issue is a screen redraw lag that occurs when exiting an app. Whenever I start seeing just a blank screen without any icons for a noticeable while after exiting an app, I know it's time to reboot my Nexus. The problem is that those occasions occur increasingly more often. Today (actually it's the previous day as it seems to be past midnight when I'm writing this) alone I've had both a redraw reboot and a more or less forced reboot as my screen wouldn't wake unless I tried various key combinations to trigger a reboot.

So as Android 5.0.1 seems to be more and more problematic, I'm definitely looking forward to 5.1 (which should be released in February 2015) fixing at least some of the issues. My Nexus is ready for the update, so I hope Google makes it available soon.

Android Wear - (Almost) One Month In

I've had my Android Wear device - an LG G Watch - for a few days short of a month now, so this is good time for the first checkpoint. Do I still use it? Oh yeah. Every day and almost everywhere. Do I like it? Yes I do. In fact, I like it to the point that the phone I typically use around the house is my Nexus 5 as I can't (at least not yet) tether the watch to my iPhone.

With this newfound wearable addiction I'll be looking closely at the release of the Apple Watch. That one would solve my phone dilemma as the iPhone is still my go-to phone for most things, but I'm somewhat concerned about its battery life and it being a first-gen Apple product (they don't quite often get things right on the first attempt). If this 9to5mac article is accurate, going from the G Watch to the Apple Watch would be a downgrade regarding the traditional primary use of a watch, i.e. telling time. If the Apple Watch can really do anything with the screen on including telling the time for only three hours, I'm rather inclined to stay with my G Watch which displays the time all the time and I have absolutely no problems making it through the day with one charge. I know the Apple Watch is supposed to detect the motion of turning your wrist to look at the time. However, with the G Watch's always on screen (which I can actually switch off to save even more battery) I only need to look at my wrist without moving the wrist in any manner to see the time in most situations. Of course there's a possibility that the Apple Watch has other awesome features to make up for that shortcoming, but with the somewhat limited initial SDK that possible awesomeness would most likely have to be a built-in feature. We'll see.

This information is there all the time

Oh, I also like the fact that my G Watch is water and dust proof for virtually all cases where I might be wearing a watch with its IP67 rating. In addition, having iFixit's repairability rating of 9/10 is also a plus in my books. It'll be interesting to see how the Apple Watch compares to these. But apart from the phone mismatch, I'm a happy camper with my G Watch for now.

The Stuff I Use RIght Now

I really should pick up my blogging pace, yet another long gap between posts. I'm sorry about that and try to do something about that in the future. I had one half-finished post hanging here for a few weeks now, and after reading it again today I ended up deleting it. Some posts are just not meant to be. So instead of finishing that failed post, I'll do something completely different and take a brief look at the mobile gear I use now.

What comes to phones, I still carry an iPhone 6 and a Nexus 5. The iPhone 6 is a nice device, but I'm somewhat concerned about Apple's current software quality and more than concerned about their handling of the App Store. I really hope they'll get their act together before frustrated developers jump to Android which has been making nice progress (Lollipop, Material Design, Android Studio 1.0) lately, but which has its own issues as well (e.g. WebView vulnerability leaving millions of relatively new devices unsafe with no fix in sight).

The Nexus 5 is also a nice phone, but its camera is no match to its iPhone 6 counterpart. Even more irritating is the poor battery life, which unfortunately wasn't improved as much Project Volta promised. However, it's my only phone that can read the balance of my travel card for the local public transportation so it's nice to have at hand when I'm out and about in public transit. If iOS 9 opens NFC access to 3rd party developers as well, I think that part gets solved, though.

My latest piece of mobile tech is the LG G Watch I have on my wrist. As it's an Android Wear device, it's naturally tethered to my Nexus 5. However, there have been some rumors about Google possibly bringing Android Wear support to iOS as well. If that ever happens, I'd definitely give it a go just to see how the experience compares to having it tethered to an Android phone. It would be a nice stopgap solution before there's a good version of Apple Watch available in Finland. Based on the current information the first generation Apple Watch might not fit the definition of good, but naturally we'll know only when the device actually gets released and the reviews appear. I'm particularly concerned about the battery life. If it really can have the screen on for only three hours including showing the time, then I'm not quite impressed as my G Watch shows the time all the time and I've had no problems whatsoever getting through the day with it. But the killer feature of the G Watch is that it's a Bluetooth device that I'm very likely to have where also my phone is, so I've set it up as a trusted device for my Nexus, so I don't have to be typing in my passcode all the time while not making any major compromises to my security.

I also have my Windows Phone devices (a Lumia 620 of my own and a Lumia 925 from work), but those are currently just backup devices for emergencies and testing out web stuff. Of course I could pick up my 925 for active use (for after all, Elisa Wallet SIM does work in both of my Lumias), but that would require Windows 10 for phones being really awesome, the app selection improving and having some way to avoid constantly inputting my passcode without disabling it altogether. Having Touch ID on my iPhone and the watch as a trusted device for my Nexus, I'm becoming really allergic to constantly inputting my passcode. I'm not sure if the Microsoft Band allows something like this, but it wouldn't be a fix anyway as it's not available in Finland yet and it's somewhat unclear if it's even coming here at all.

I would really like to scale down the gear I carry to just one phone and a watch to accompany it. However, that would require getting an Apple Watch or Google adding iOS support to Android Wear. If I could pair my iPhone with the LG G Watch, I could actually leave my Nexus 5 home most of the time as I can have it forward both the calls and SMS's (thanks to Tasker!) that come to it to my iPhone, while SMS forward is a much trickier thing to pull off on an iPhone without at least jailbreaking it. Another possibility is to get an Android phone that beats or matches the iPhone 6 in camera (not just specs alone but the whole experience of getting good pictures quickly and consistently) and battery life and replace my iPhone with that, but that would require a larger investment and maybe dealing with a phablet-sized Nexus 6. From cost perspective Google adding iOS support to Android Wear would be most optimal as I could achieve my goal with my current hardware, but I'm not exactly holding my breath for that.