iOS or Android - Which One Suits Me Better?

So, I've been now running Lollipop for a while on my Nexus 5 (I got impatient while waiting for the OTA update and flashed a factory image instead), so it's time to check whether the problems I had with KitKat have been addressed and what are the current strengths and downsides on the latest revisions of both platforms I'm actively using.

What comes to changes in Lollipop, I'm liking them in general. Material Design was a welcome refresh and I'm already making use of some of the new features that arrived with Lollipop. Smart Lock is especially nice as I no longer need to type in my passcode if I need to change what's playing in my car. This is also something that makes getting an Android Wear device much more enticing as I'd naturally add that device as a trusted device for smart lock and enjoy a mostly passcode-free life without making any major compromises to my device security.

What comes to Bluetooth, I'm happy to report that so far it's looking quite good. Connection times and reliability are close to iOS and the only complaint I'm having right now is the occasional stutter that's sometimes present in the first half a minute or so. So while iOS is still better in this regard, the gap has narrowed quite a bit and I could actually use my Nexus for podcasts without any showstoppers, so unless there's a major deterioration after a couple of months of use, I can scratch Bluetooth from my list of Android problems. Jury's still out regarding the streaming issue, but to my delight I noticed that Sonera Viihde's app on Android didn't have a block for casting CHL games to Chromecast while the iOS app blocks both AirPlay and HDMI out. While occasional choppiness was present in the stream, it was perfectly watchable and that choppiness was a small price to pay for getting the game on a proper screen instead of watching it on the iPad's small display. I'll have to see whether the regular Liiga games work better now when casting from Lollipop.

With at least the other major gripe seemingly tackled, it's time to look at what I need to do on my mobile devices and how both iOS and Android perform that function.

IRC (irssi on a remote server connected via SSH)

Admittedly IRC as a protocol is far from optimal to smartphone use, but it's still my primary communication channel with quite a lot of people. This category is something where Android wins hands down. I'm using Juice SSH with a pinned shortcut for the actual SSH part and Irssi Notifier for getting informed about highlights and private messages. There are decent iOS SSH clients as well (my current favorite is Prompt), but as connections themselves cannot be pinned to start screen as shortcuts and there's the 10-minute limit for background activity, I hardly ever use SSH+IRC on my iPhone as it's just too clumsy. I can also get the notification functionality via prowlnotify on iOS, but it's much clunkier to set up than Irssi Notifier.

However, I've recently picked up IRCCloud for my mobile IRC needs. With IRCCloud both platforms are served equally well. I just need to have my SSH available as well for times when someone DMs my nick running on Irssi, but even a clumsier solution is sufficient in those cases as it's not needed that often.

Camera

Having a toddler in the house (and knowing he's a child only once) puts quite an emphasis on having a good and quick to use camera readily available most of the time. I don't think it comes as a surprise that my iPhone 6 has a major edge here. While the Nexus 5 packs a decent snapper, it's no match to the iPhone which is surprisingly good even in not-that-well lit situations. However, there are Android devices with a better camera than the one on the Nexus 5 so this is hard to judge in general level. Software-wise I'm somewhat disappointed with iOS 8's changes as the camera roll is now harder and slower to access than it was before, so with better camera hardware I might end up preferring Android here. Because of this, I'm keeping a close eye on Sony Xperia Z4 rumors. I'm skipping the current Z3 generation as I would've preferred wireless charging instead of having to deal with those flaps covering the ports. Some rumors suggest that Z4 has both of those issues addressed, so it might end up being a really interesting device for me.

Exchange

At work we have Exchange in use and especially the calendar is crucial to have available on my phone so that I know where to be and when. At least on KitKat this support was somewhat disappointing and approving meeting requests was rather flaky. Jury's still out for Lollipop, but so far iOS has the edge in this category as it's been working reliably with Exchange for a few years now.

Music Apps

By music apps I refer to apps dealing with making and playing music especially on the guitar. For listening to music both platforms are well covered, but music creation apps have been an iOS show for quite a while. For a long time this was due to the fact that it wasn't simply possible to create apps like AmpKit or others that rely on real-time audio due to the audio latency caused by the Android architecture. However, Google has been tackling that problem and there were additional latency reductions in Lollipop, so technically it should be now feasible to port some of these apps over to Android, but naturally it's up to each developer to determine whether the port is feasible for them. Algoriddim already made the jump with their djay 2 app for Android. It'll be interesting to see whether anyone else will follow. But currently points go to iOS.

Dual SIM

This is something that I don't currently use, but I'd like to use as I don't quite like carrying two phones with me all the time. I'd rather stick both of my sims into one good phone, but so far the dual SIM phones they sell over here have been mostly in the low end or midrange at best, and I'd like a dual SIM flagship with all the flagship goodies. HTC One M8 Dual Sim is actually available here in a dual SIM format, but unfortunately that phone's camera has turned out to be quite lackluster in various camera shootouts I've read. LG seems to have a dual SIM version of their G3 available in Asia. That one looks like something I'd buy in a heartbeat if it was available here, so it seems like I have to hope they make that model available in Europe as well. What comes to iOS, I give better odds to Finland making it to a major tournament in football (soccer to you people over at the other side of the big pond) than Apple ever coming up with a dual SIM device, so this is clearly Android stuff.

Wireless Charging

Another point for Android. My Nexus 5 supports Qi charging and despite it being slower than wired charging, it's convenient as I just have to put my phone down on the charger to give it a quick top-up charge. I have chargers at home, in my car, and at the office, so there are plenty of locations where I can use this fine feature. Back when I had the iPhone 5 I got a Qi charging case for it, and that worked quite OK apart from the fact that the case itself was of poor quality and I ended up returning it after part of it broke off with me just sticking the phone in my pocket. As the Apple Watch supposedly supports some kind of wireless charging, seeing that capability on the iPhone is not quite on the hell freezes over probability level, but I'm not going to hold my breath for seeing it in the 6S generation yet.

Notifications and Notification Center

This one is a complicated one. iOS 8 added actionable notifications which I've already used e.g. for replying to text messages, but the actual notification center in iOS is somewhat underutilized for me as I don't know if there's anything worth looking at there. Android populates the bar at the top of the display with icons related to new notifications, so I can immediately see that there's something for me to look at and I already get an idea about what it might be. However, Today widgets for the notification center in iOS have made it somewhat more useful for me. Especially Authy's widget is surprisingly useful.

NFC and Payments

As a Finn NFC is currently an Android show. I have the NFC hardware in my iPhone 6, but as of the time of writing this it's even more useless than Windows Phone's NFC as it's completely tied to Apple Pay, which is not available in Finland yet. On Android I can use NFC for various automation tasks and e.g. for checking the balance on my travel card for the Helsinki region public transport. However, there are already rumors about Apple Pay coming to Finland in 2015, with the rumors coming from a rather reputable payments processor. This could be a game-changer for me, and I'm also hoping that in iOS 9 Apple does the same for NFC as they did for Touch ID on iOS 8, i.e. introduce the new hardware in ultimately locked-down manner one year and open up the API for external developers the next year. With Apple Pay and the travel card reader I could do quite well without the undeniably nice Android automation capabilities. Currently the score goes to Android hands down, but iOS has some potential according to rumors. Unfortunately there's no information about Google Wallet's possible introduction in Finland. To add insult to injury, my Nexus 5 isn't compatible with the new Elisa Wallet SIM a local operator Saunalahti introduced recently. Nexus 4 would be, but as Nexus 5 opts for the host card emulation instead of utilizing the SWP support it has in the hardware, it can't be used with the Elisa Wallet SIM right now. That's a shame, as I currently have the NFC sticker version of Elisa Wallet in use with my iPhone and that insanely huge and ugly sticker leaves much to be desired, especially when the companion app is equivalently clunky and doesn't even support Touch ID despite being too eager to ask for my password every chance it gets.

Touch ID or Equivalent

This is where Apple shines. Touch ID has been really convenient although with the Finnish climate it's of limited use outdoors for quite a large part of the year. At least Samsung offers fingerprint readers on the Android side of the fence, but based on what I've read about the implementation it's not a match to Touch ID neither in reliability nor in ease of use.

User Interface and Apps

This is a mixed category. The main launcher UI on iOS is getting somewhat stale and unnecessarily restricted. Why exactly still in iOS 8 we're restricted to filling all app positions starting from top left with an early page break as the only customization option? Android is much more flexible here and widgets can be used much more freely. However, when we get off the launcher part into actual apps, a quality gap becomes evident. Even though many Android apps are typically good enough and some of them even great, especially the multi-platform titles often seem to be better on iOS. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the gap now that Android Studio hit 1.0 a little while ago.

Conclusion

While Android offers some highly enticing flexibility for my use, with my current hardware the iPhone is still a better overall package for me especially now that I use IRCCloud for IRC. However, the most annoying failures I've encountered with Android have been more or less eliminated in Lollipop, so with proper hardware I could live with Android just fine although I could be missing my music apps unless Android developers step up with that app category. Another thing that could make me jump to Android full-time is me finally getting too fed up with Apple's douchebaggery related to iOS App Store review system. Marco Arment sums up my thoughts about the App Store quite perfectly with this piece. I hope Apple gets its act together before my patience runs out. At least they've sorted out the Transmit and Drafts issues already, so I hope there's not more to come and developers haven't abandoned the idea of making innovative iOS apps.

Apart from the App Store issue, I think the next major checkpoint for platform selection comes when Sony Xperia Z4 is released. That camera should have a potential to give the iPhone a real run for its money. However, there are rumors of the next iPhone getting a monster Sony camera sensor too. So let's see what happens with Z4 and the 6S generation.

I'd also like to emphasize that the conclusion above applies to me and me only. Your mileage may and is highly likely to vary. Civilized discussion in the comments is welcome regardless of whether you agree with my points or not, but please spare your energy and troll elsewhere.

Keeping iOS and Android in Sync

As I'm currently living with two phones and two active cellular subscriptions (one personal and one from work) and the phones are of two ecosystems -- iOS and Android -- you'd think that one would have to be the primary phone and other the backup. However, that's something I'm trying to avoid and this post details some of the apps I'm using for that.

Notes are one essential thing to keep in sync, and thankfully there's lots of options available in that department. Evernote is hugely popular and I've given it a fair try, but so far it hasn't quite caught on for me. I'm actually using OneNote right now as it's supported on all platforms I'm actively using and I like the app nowadays. It's quite a turnaround from the crash & burn failure I encountered with an older Windows version a few years ago.

As an avid podcast listener another priority is keeping my podcasts in sync. On the podcasts I regularly listen episodes are typically over an hour long, and as my commute is (thankfully) much shorter than that, I end up listening to most episodes in fragments. That brings a requirement of having my list of unplayed episodes and playback position in sync between my devices. Fortunately Pocket Casts does just that and I've been a happy user for quite a while now.

There's one more app category that would make life painful if things weren't in sync, and that's authenticators for 2-factor authentication. Back when I hadn't discovered Authy, it wasn't only once or twice when I was doing something requiring a login on my phone, only to realise that the phone with the authenticator configured for that account was charging in another room. Now that I have Authy up and running, I don't have to think about possible authentication needs when choosing the phone to pick up.

After reading the paragraphs above it should be obvious why Windows Phone is out of the picture. While there are Windows Phone apps that do more or less the same function as the apps I use on iOS and Android, very few of them sync between the WP and non-WP versions. Microsoft apps plus a few others are a nice exception to the rule, but something like Authy or Pocket Casts don't exist on WP, so that makes WP a non-starter in my current use.

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.

Returning to iOS

Oh wow, it's been quite a while since my last post. The previous Windows Phone update that did arrive during my hiatus didn't actually do anything regarding my Bluetooth problems, but there's actually a new one coming next month with some Bluetooth-related improvements, so maybe I'll need to give it a try once it arrives.

However, despite being rather happy with my Nexus 5 and not quite satisfied with the price of the iPhone 6 (especially when I need to shell out extra 100 euros for decent storage), it looks like I'll be getting the 64GB iPhone 6 Plus. Why's that, when it doesn't even have wireless charging?

Well, it all boils down to Chromecast failing to compete with the Apple TV. I didn't notice this shortcoming during the summer when it's off-season in hockey, but now that the new season started I tried watching a game with my Nexus 5 streaming to Chromecast. It was all pixelated and choppy. Tried with Chrome browsers on two different computers with similarly bad results. Switched back to my iPad 3 + AppleTV and the result on my 32" TV was indistinguishable from a TV broadcast. I even tried doing the streaming on an ancient iPhone 4 and there was no visible deterioration in quality. This combined with the fact that as a hobbyist musician I'm still much better served with apps available only on iOS and Bluetooth still working much better there, I think I'll just cough up the price and get myself the new iPhone, which my wife gets to enjoy when I quite likely upgrade to the 6S. She just doesn't like Android or Windows Phone, so me continuing on iOS means a steady supply of hand-me-down iPhones for her.

What comes to Bluetooth, even though I was relatively happy with the Android performance when I disabled the phone profile, it has recently started taking longer and longer to connect to my car's Bluetooth receiver and it's starting to be in the "really annoying" territory. Many benefits of wireless charging are negated by having to wait for a small eternity for Bluetooth to reconnect. It's actually so bad right now that I've actually taken an old iPhone 4 back into use just for Bluetooth in the car. It connects really fast (I haven't even got my seatbelt on when it's already connected) and once the connection is there, I don't get the occasional choppiness in the playback that I'm experiencing more and more on my Nexus 5. It looks like the notion of Android's performance deteriorating over time is not completely unfounded. Oh well, Android L might change that, but currently I'm using mostly my iPhone for podcasts as Bluetooth is just so much more reliable there. I'm using Pocket Casts as my podcast app and it has both iOS and Android version which sync their playback positions surprisingly well, so consuming the same content on two different phones is not an issue.

Now the question is how long will it take before I'm able to get the 64 GB Plus. It looks like they're in quite a short supply already. The 4,7" would be a nicer form factor, but when buying a phone that expensive, I'd rather take also that optical image stabilization and the relatively much better battery.

Waiting for Updates

Looks like I have multiple updates to look forward to. There's iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite coming for my Apple devices, Android L for my Nexus 5, and looks like there's also a new update for Windows Phone available soon: http://www.wpcentral.com/official-update-1-windows-phone-81-next-week-preview.

It'll be interesting to see whether the Windows Phone update solves any of the Bluetooth shortcomings I've experienced, but the most important thing is that Microsoft seems to have accelerated their WP update pace. Maybe there's some hope left for Windows Phone after all?

Google Play Issues

Just my luck. Of course it's only shortly after I publish a post praising Android when I run into issues with mine. I'm trying to migrate my todo manager to Toodledo, but it seems like Play Store is refusing to install the Android app on my Nexus 5. It's stuck at installing and I've got error 495 once. I've rebooted my phone and cleared Play Store's caches and app data, but so far nothing has helped.

I can install other apps (although they do take their time), but Toodledo appears to be stuck. I've tried to install the app on both WiFi and mobile data with similarly bad results. Sigh. Time for some additional troubleshooting, I guess.

UPDATE: It was up to WiFi. On a mobile network with a better reception and on a different WiFi network I could download the app just fine.

Liking the Green Bot

First of all, sorry about the delay with confirming that changing the audio settings as described in the previous post did indeed solve my Bluetooth issues and I've been a happy Nexus 5 camper ever since. I also got my case issues sorted out with a Spigen Neo Hybrid case, which I bought after a short tryout with the LG Snap Case for Nexus 5. The Snap Case added minimal bulk to the device, but I wasn't quite happy with the protection it provided. The sides were completely flush with the screen, so if my Nexus falls display first, the screen is most likely cracked. The old bumper case had its sides extending a couple of millimeters above the screen and I rather prefer that setup especially with a toddler around in the house.

So I went forward and bought a Spigen Neo Hybrid case in Champagne Gold after a recommendation in Google+, and my search for a case is over for now. I get decent protection, the case looks surprisingly good, and Qi charging still works. If only there were more room for a larger headphone jack, it would be close to perfection. I must also thank Google Play's customer support for its handling of my complaint about the discoloring bumper. When the support rep learned what had happened in such a short timeframe, they offered to refund the purchase straight away without any additional hassles. I've read some horror stories about Google's lack of customer support, but my personal experience so far has been quite the opposite. It was also a Saturday when I called them and got the issue sorted out. I was almost sure that it would be Monday to Friday only, but it seems like the Google Play support has rather decent opening hours. Good stuff, Google.

So with the Bluetooth and case issues both sorted out, the Nexus 5 is now my definite daily driver. Due to having two active cellular subscriptions (work and personal SIMs), I'm still carrying also my work-issued Lumia 925 around with me, but its use is relegated to acting as a backup just in case I run out of battery with my Nexus 5 and for playing Hill Climb Racing (and if someone knows how to sync my WP progress with the Android version of the game, please drop me a line :)). I also take a Lumia 620 with me e.g. to fishing trips and elsewhere where there's a serious risk of (water) damage to my phone. If there were a water-proof high-end Android device with stock Android available for purchase in Finland, I think I'd need to get one of those. Sony Xperia Z2 looks promising, but it's still a customized version and I'm rather impatient about getting the latest OS goodies, I'd really like a vanilla Android with those hardware features. If such a phone exists and I've just missed it, please do point out my ignorance and make my credit card sweat a little ;)

What comes to eagerly waiting for OS updates, Android L has some goodies I can barely wait for! I'm really looking forward to the battery life improvements, new design, personal unlocking, and the low latency audio recording and USB audio support. Maybe we'll get some of the iOS music apps I like ported to Android now? With Android L getting released in the fall, I'm rather happy that my Android device is a Nexus 5 so I'll be in the first wave of constantly checking for updates. If I had a spare Nexus, I'd try out the developer preview as well, but for now I don't think I want to take the risk with my daily driver. Maybe I'll do it somewhat closer to the release if impatience takes over. Oh, I almost forgot about the Chromecast improvements. I've bought one recently, and with the latest changes I think I'll be getting a couple more.

As I'm happy with the current usefulness of my Nexus 5 and the Android L update looks really promising, the iPhone 6 needs to be something truly exciting for me to justify its cost. Yes, I still think iOS 8 is a huge upgrade to iOS, but now when also Android L features have been revealed, I'm not sure if it provides enough advantage over Android for my use. Now the decision depends rather heavily on the iPhone 6 hardware. It might be that for example lack of wireless charging could turn out to be a deal-breaker for me now. Well, we'll see what Apple's up to in the coming months. Meanwhile I'm happy with my Nexus 5 and waiting for Android L to make it even better.

Technically Windows Phone is still in the race, too, but Microsoft really needs to pick up the pace and make something truly extraordinary to make me consider using WP before Android and/or iOS. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Nexus 5 - Getting Better and Better

The Nexus 5 is seriously growing on me all the time.  In the last post I complained about the Bluetooth issue being the most annoying,  and while I cannot say for sure yet,  it looks like I've found a solution which has improved the reliability quite a lot. Or then I've just been extra lucky throughout the day.

What I did was to disable phone audio from my Bluetooth receiver and left only media audio selected there. Losing the phone audio is not a big deal as the device is positioned so that it doesn't pick up my speech that well,  and I bought it for media use anyway.

So now this 5" beast is not only incredible value for money but my daily driver as well! The next big test is the autumn when iPhone 6 is released,  but if I've really got the Bluetooth audio issue solved,  the iPhone 6 really needs to deliver for me to spend the money on it.

Oh,  I also wrote this post completely on the Nexus. SwiftKey makes it a breeze with swype.

Nexus 5 - One Month In

I've had my Nexus 5 for about a month now and this looks like a good time for a quick recap.

At first I was naturally excited. For after all, I got new hardware and kind of new OS (I had a Nexus 7 a while back, but I sold it before KitKat was released) and the phone was pleasant and fast to use. In general I was pretty satisfied. However, then the "ooh shiny!" effect wore out maybe surprisingly quickly and I felt even somewhat disappointed.

However, within the last week I've found myself constantly picking up my Nexus 5 even for tasks where I usually pick up my T100 or sit in front of my Mac mini (IRC, answering e-mails etc). With some customization/configuration I've made the Nexus a nice IRC machine as well as a nice all-around pocket computer. I've also switched my podcast listening back to the Nexus 5 and the old iPhone 4 I got from my wife when I gave her my iPhone 5. I use that old iPhone because that's the device where Bluetooth audio works like it should. When I get into my car and switch on my Avantree Cara, the iPhone starts playing my podcasts wherever I left off previously as soon as I press the multifunction button on my Cara, but the Nexus 5 fails to react all too often (sometimes it does, though). I can usually get my Nexus back in shape by toggling Bluetooth on and off (an NFC tag helps quite a bit here), but I shouldn't have to jump through those hurdles. If this issue didn't exist, I'd be singing the praises of Android, but currently the iPhone is so far ahead in the Bluetooth reliability that getting an iPhone 6 is rather likely when it's released. However, as my current iPhone is the iPhone 4, it's really too slow for anything else than listening to podcasts, so it's just riding along in my laptop bag for scenarios where I want the Bluetooth to Just. Work. Typically I'm using my Nexus and resolving the Bluetooth issues with a quick Bluetooth on/off cycle helped by an NFC tag I've placed in my car. For the actual podcast listening I'm currently using Pocket Casts which is available for both iOS and Android and does cross-platform sync, so bouncing between the devices is not that much of a problem.

Well how about Windows Phone then? Yes, I still carry also the Lumia 925 with me, but it's been relegated to a secondary device. It's still running my financial apps, but out of convenience I might switch them to my Nexus at some point. I must admit it's more often than not when I'm concerned about Google's lack of respect for my privacy and whether I should migrate away from Android just because of that, but despite its downsides Android seems to cover my use cases better than Windows Phone with its current offering. Of course both platforms are developing constantly and Windows Phone might get there some day, but it's still not daily driver grade for me despite having some advantages over Android.

So it looks like the Nexus 5 will be my go-to device at least until the iPhone 6 is released. iOS 8 looks promising, but as the iPhone 6 hardware specs and pricing is not yet available, I can't say for sure whether I'm getting one even though currently the odds are pretty much in favor of me making a purchase. But the iPhone 6 is still at least a couple of months away, so the Nexus 5 now has its chance of making a permanent impression. We'll see how it turns out. But first I do need to get a new case for my Nexus. The yellow bumper case I ordered together with the phone itself is already all black at the corners as it's been sitting in my jeans pockets and the current combination is rather ugly to look at.

Whoa!

If you hear a screeching sound, it's just me hitting the brakes hard on the migration away from iOS I had been doing in the last few months. I had rather mild expectations about yesterday's WWDC keynote and I thought it would more or less reassure me that getting that Nexus 5 was a good idea.

Well, the reality turned out to be something completely different. While I had expected only Healthbook (the app itself turned out to be called Health) and some minor additions that might not be that relevant to me, I was suddenly watching Craig Federighi nail my iOS frustrations one after another. When they got to developer part and introduced Swift - the new programming language for iOS - I was more or less picking my jaw up from the floor. At least to me Swift came totally out of the blue and it eliminates most of the annoyances with Objective-C. My gut says that this will be a huge change.

So, the probability of me getting an iPhone 6 once it becomes available jumped from around 50% to well beyond 90%. Apple will really have to disappoint with the hardware for me not to want one together with iOS 8.

Lumia 1520

I think I promised a few words about the large 6" I had for a couple of weeks, so here it goes. As anyone familiar with the model knows, it's a large 6" phone, or so-called phablet to be more precise. However, even though it looks ginormous, it doesn't actually feel THAT huge when you're actually holding the device, maybe thanks to its thinness.

The camera in the phone is a 21-megapixel shooter that can capture also raw, so the specs are there and quite unsurprisingly for Nokia, it also delivers. The photos are also a joy to watch on the large screen.

Other hardware niceties include built-in wireless charging and a microSD slot, which is actually a first for high-end Lumias and a really welcome addition especially if you shoot raw.

Size-wise the phone was a joy to use especially when reading or otherwise consuming content, but a little bit trickier to carry. However, in my case the carrying problems are mitigated by the fact that I have a dual SIM subscription (so two different phones receive the same phonecalls and text messages) and I have also a Lumia 620. So whenever I'm in a situation where the 1520 is just a little bit too much, I can just pick up the 3,8" 620 and be just as reachable without additional SIM swapping.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like a phablet, but now it feels rather sad to send it back. Maybe I'll need to keep an eye on the deals. If Windows Phone didn't have the shortcomings I've discussed in the previous posts, I think I'd own one already.

Mixed Feelings

I've now had my Nexus 5 for a couple of weeks and it has (not-that-surprisingly) turned out to be a very capable phone. However, some areas haven't worked as well as I thought they would. For example Bluetooth playback seems to have similar initialization issues and occasional stuttering I've had with my Lumias and pretty much never with the iPhone, so for the time being I've reverted my podcast listening back to the Lumia 925 as both phones have issues with Bluetooth, but with Windows Phone 8.1 the issues are faster to resolve on Lumia (at least until I get around to automating much of that recovery process on the Nexus).

There are many things I like on the Nexus, but still I'm not as enthusiastic about it as I should be given the capabilities. Something in Windows Phone is still appealing despite its obvious current shortcomings. Well, at least the Nexus gives me a nice break when WP's limitations start really getting on my nerve. Maybe in the following months we'll see which one I end up actually using.

Going Android (at least for now)

Me getting an Android phone? Well, what can I say? Strange things do occur. Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview arrived, so I tried it and while there were lots of nice improvements, some areas still remain behind the competition and the experience didn't improve as much as I had hoped it would. Granted, some of these issues are out of Microsoft's control since a lot of problems boil down to inferior 3rd party app quality when compared to same apps on iOS and Android. Maybe it was IE, which despite getting bumped to version 11 still doesn't quite work with many pages. "Oh, this article on Google+ sure looks interesting" ended far too often on me staring at a blank page instead of the article I was trying to open.

Then there's also the fact that drop-downs on many pages don't all too often work since the touch support has been implemented with WebKit browsers in mind while Microsoft is sticking to their own Pointer Events API which they've also submitted for standardisation. While technically Microsoft is right by avoiding de facto standards instead of true standards (apparently they did learn a thing or two from IE6), their market share on mobile is currently too low to allow any stubbornness on providing WebKit compatibility as the end result of the current approach is their customers getting a sub-par mobile web experience.

So while my "I can use Windows Phone as my daily driver" theory was busted or at least delayed until updates fix the most glaring issues, I still have my iPhone to cover for the areas that don't quite work on Windows Phone, right? Well, not exactly. My wife got my iPhone 5 to replace her old and slow iPhone 4, so I also needed a phone to take me through the stuff that my work phone couldn't handle. I thought about getting an iPhone 5s (yes, they spell it lowercase nowadays), but I didn't feel like shelling all that cash for a phone that still has only a 4" screen, no wireless charging, and is about to be replaced soon by the allegedly larger-screened iPhone 6. I also didn't want anything by Samsung since TouchWiz is very high on my list of things I don't want to use. So what to do? Well, Google Play has finally started selling devices also in Finland, so a reasonably priced Nexus 5 was finally within easy reach and that offered great value for money, so I decided to give it a shot. I'm not completely new to Android as I've had a crappy ZTE phone before as well as the original Nexus 7, but never before I've had an Android phone that's good enough to be considered my daily driver.

I've now had my Nexus 5 for a week and in general it has been a nice experience. I was a little worried about the camera, but it turns out to be better than I thought it would. For after all, the exhibition space in the Finnish Railway Museum has been challenging for my previous phones due to the dim lighting, so you can imagine how surprised I was when my Nexus pictures turned out to be better right out of the camera than my Lumia shots. Granted, I was shooting pretty much with full automatic settings, so I tend to think my Lumia shots would've been better if I had spent some time tweaking the settings available in Nokia Camera, but for casual photography Nexus seems to produce nice shots also in somewhat more challenging environments.

Before my Nexus arrived I had a brief period of Lumia-only use where the limitations really kicked in, so when I got my Nexus it was nice to once again have a fluent Google+ experience and not experience any "Resuming..." animations or white screens when checking out Facebook Messenger and Instagram.

While it looks like the Nexus 5 will be my main phone at least for a while now, I haven't totally given up on the Windows Phone. At least most of my financial apps remain on the Lumia as I have much more trust in WP keeping my stuff secure compared to Android (even when you avoid the typical risks). In addition, it looks like I'll be reverting my podcast listening back to Lumia, since my Nexus 5 is giving me some issues with starting playback over Bluetooth. While the Lumia has some issues as well (especially using the current beta OS), they are faster to solve on WP.

It'll be interesting to see what will be my main phone at the end of the year with the iPhone 6 coming out in a few months. Currently all three options are open and it's down to which platform does the best job at removing the downsides.

Oh, I also have a Lumia 1520 to try out for about a week still (thanks to Nokia's Facebook campaign!). I think I'll have a few words about that beast as well.

My In-Car Audio Setup

While waiting for Windows Phone 8.1 to arrive, I thought about documenting my current in-car setup and how I arrived there with relatively low expenses.

I drive a 2004 Renault Megane II Break and this is what my center console looks like right now:

When I bought the car little over 2 years ago, it came with a player that handled CDs and the radio, but nothing more. Being an avid podcast listener and not quite intrigued by the idea of burning episodes to CDs, I quickly started finding different ways to integrate audio from my smartphone or other suitable devices to my car.

At first I used an FM transmitter typically connected to an iPod nano and occasionally to my iPhone. It worked quite OK, but there was all the hassle with FM frequencies and interference from proper stations at times. While the quality was OK for podcasts, music didn't sound too good in that setup and toying around with the frequencies was something I wanted to get rid of.

In my previous car -- a 1996 Renault Clio -- I simply switched the player for a more capable model. However, that approach wasn't too enticing with the Megane due to the added integration. I quickly got fond of the playback controls behind the steering wheel and having some player information in the clock display was nice too, so ditching all those for an aftermarket player was relegated to plan B or C. After browsing through Renault forums, I learned that the Tuner List radio in my Megane did in fact have a CD jukebox connector, and since my car didn't have one, the connector was still free. I found an AUX adapter that connected straight to the CD jukebox port on Amazon.de and ordered it. The adapter itself cost 38€, but postage to Finland was somewhat outrageous 15€. But still, 53€ for not having to deal with an FM transmitter was peanuts. Life was good again, or was it?

I quickly came to realise that the process of taking my phone out, connecting the AUX cable to the phone, and navigating to an audio app to start playback involved way too many cumbersome steps. I needed Bluetooth.

First I bought an Avantree Cara (44€ with shipping from Amazon.co.uk), which is the black orb near the climate controls at the bottom of the picture above and which connected to my phone via Bluetooth and to my car via the AUX cable. When I used mostly my iPhone for my in-car stuff it worked wonders. Startup was fast, playback was reliable and phone responded quickly to the multifunction button. In my typical commute I had no need to take out my phone. I just stepped into my car, switched Cara on and pressed the multifunction button to resume playback. When I needed to stop or pause the playback, the multifunction button was there. However, when I tried to use my Lumia with it, things weren't all that rosy. After initial pairing everything pretty much worked, but trying to resume playback typically failed. I first thought that Bluetooth in Lumia just plain sucked, but after having flawless resume with a Bluetooth speaker I have, I realised that Cara might actually the culprit here despite working fine with iOS and Android devices.

So I started looking for Bluetooth adapters that would be more likely to play nice with Windows Phones. Hello Nokia BH-121. I actually had to spend quite a while looking for a place where I could get it for a decent price and shipped to Finland. For after all, turns out that the device was available e.g. in Germany and the UK well before this remote and obscure country that Nokia has apparently never heard of and has no following whatsoever there. Oh, wait...

My initial attempts of bying one from Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk were foiled by outrageous shipping fees. It looks like there's something wrong with Amazon's systems when many items especially from 3rd party resellers offer quite inflated shipping fees to Finland. My reaction to this was venting about it on Facebook, which turned out to be quite beneficial as one of my friends there tipped me about http://www.luurinettikauppa.com having them in stock right here in Finland. I ended up ordering one for 55,80€ including shipping. It arrived fast and the store's support actually sent me a comprehensive response when I complained about a missing SmartPost delivery option in the additional info field. These guys seem to care about customer service, which is always nice to see.

In actual use BH-121 is somewhat slower to start and respond to the first playback command compared to the Cara. It takes a small forever of holding the power button down to actually power up the device while with the Cara you'll just flip a slider to another position and be done with it. It's also evident that the BH-121 is not designed for in-car use like the Cara is with its integrated magnet. However, I had a spare Brodit ProClip base for my car, and while I don't use the iPhone 5 mount I had attached to it anymore, the base itself provided a workable place where to attach the BH-121 with its built-in clip. That ProClip base had cost me 18,90€ The base with BH-121 attached to it can be seen on the left in the picture above. While the Cara won some parts of the comparison, the BH-121 is not without its benefits. The most obvious is naturally that it works flawlessly with a Windows Phone device and with it I've been able to continue the "no need to touch the phone" usage I had with the iPhone and the Cara. However, the BH-121 also has some Windows Phone goodies like the battery status in a live tile. With the Cara I had to guess or wait for the low battery signal, but if I have any doubt about the BH-121's battery, I just need to take out my phone while it's connected to the BH-121 and check the battery percentage from the live tile. BH-121 and Cara both allow two devices to be simultaneously paired with them and with the BH-121 this worked almost perfectly during the recent trip I had with the family. I had my 925 in the front seat while my wife controlled Spotify from my 620 from the back seat where she was keeping company to our 2-year-old. Switching between playing podcasts from the 925 and music from the 620 was seamless and logical while with the Cara I had problems when having two devices present. However, it needs to be made clear that in those scenarios the Cara was used with an iPhone and a Lumia, and Lumias have proven to be a difficult companion for the Cara, so I can't say for sure how it works with two devices it actually supports.

With audio out of the way, there's still one more component in the picture that I haven't talked about. It's the car mount that's also a wireless charger. As my Lumia 925 is equipped with a wireless charging cover, it's rather convenient that I just need to place it into the car mount to have it start charging. That charger cost me 43,95€ from Amazon.co.uk with shipping included.

So while in the beginning I had a Megane that was totally oblivious about my smartphones, I now have integration that's sufficiently reliable and hassle-free especially when the cost is considered. Let's recap the costs of the currently active system:

-AUX adapter: 53€
-Avantree Cara: 44€
-Nokia BH-121: 55,80€
-Brodit ProClip Base: 18,90€
-Wireless Charger & Car Mount: 43,95€
Total: 215,65€

However, that total can be broken down into smaller parts when the dual receivers are not needed (I still have the Cara there just in case I need to play some audio from my iPhone). For an iPhone-only setup the total would be 97€ without the car mount and 140,95€ with it. Similarly the Cara is not needed for the Windows Phone setup and the audio only setup there would be 127,70€ without the charger mount and 171,65€ with the mount included. The hours of in-car entertainment I've got with that system have more than justified the price of any of the combinations above. All this without losing any of the integration I had in the original setup, unless you count the fact that my Megane thinks I'm constantly listening to CD 1 Track 1 that just happens to be insanely long.

Could I Switch? - Halfway There, Actually

While I haven't made any actual switch, I've just noticed that I've been using my Windows Phone devices more and my iPhone less as of late. A couple of essential services are still running on my iPhone, but both of those are available also on Windows Phone and all it would take is a little time spent setting up the apps on my Lumia. So it looks like the app gap is narrowing down at quite a pace at least for my use. 

Granted, there's still the fact that e.g. Google+ is a much better experience on the iPhone and that's unlikely to change anytime soon given Google's attitude towards Windows Phone, but the interesting part is that for Skype (on which 99% of my use consists of the IM part) I'm also relying on my iPhone. As anyone who's been paying attention to the industry knows, Skype has been owned by Microsoft for quite a while now, so you'd think it would be Windows Phone where you could get the premium Skype experience, but unfortunately that's not the case. At least not yet. Maybe some day (pretty please, Microsoft)?

Rumors about Windows Phone 8.1 features have been really intriguing as they would bridge also most of the functionality gap that still exists. If the rumored features do in fact make it to Windows Phone 8.1, I might be making a full switch. However, Apple can always pull a trick or two out of their sleeve with iPhone 6 and/or iOS 8, but both of those are still months away while Windows Phone 8.1 is just around the corner. Interesting times.

T100 Battery Drain - It's Gone!

Now I can safely enough claim that the T100 battery drain issue was indeed solved with the latest BIOS. The device is much more usable when I don't have to worry about disconnecting the keyboard dock whenever I'm going to leave it unused for a couple of hours. So kudos to ASUS for fixing this issue. Too bad there's no software fix for the loud touchpad, but given the device's price I'm rather happy with that one being the only issue that's worth noting.

Wireless Charging and T100 Updates

Wow, it's been quite a while since my last post. I'll try to get back on track with more frequent posts. Anyway, now that I've been living with the Lumia 925 for a while I've been getting into wireless charging. I've bought the wireless charging cover for my 925 and got charging plates for home, office, and my car. One additional plate is on its way as well. I've liked it so much that I guess the last time I charged with a wire was when the cable was sticking out from Nokia DC-19 portable battery.

My bedroom is the environment where wireless charging really shines. That's because my phone which also doubles as an alarm clock is on a small shelf about an arm's length above my head (but so that I can grab my phone without sitting up). Back when I didn't have wireless charging I had an annoying struggle with trying to get that charging cable to stay up on the shelf after grabbing my phone and disconnecting the cable. Now there's no such problem and I can just lay the phone down on the charging plate (or should I say pillow since I got the Fatboy version of Nokia DT-901 with the use case in mind) and then pick it up in the morning without worrying about cables falling on my face. This is one of the features you don't actually miss beforehand, but once you get used to it you're reluctant to give it up.

What comes to the other part of the title, I just noticed that there was a bunch of updates waiting for my T100. I don't get e-mail notifications about them since despite multiple attempts, I haven't been able to complete my registration on the slow and buggy ASUS website. So if someone from ASUS stumbles into this, could you please try to do something about the registration site? It's obviously broken since multiple attempts on multiple browsers and multiple networks haven't helped a bit. But as the updates included a new BIOS revision as well as SOC driver package, I'm interested in seeing whether the battery drain issue is now gone. I surely hope so.

WP8 Bluetooth Shortcomings

Now that my Lumia 925 is running Windows Phone 8 Update 3 + Lumia Black, I decided to give Bluetooth audio on WP8 another try. Pairing with the Avantree Cara in my car went just fine, playback was uninterrupted, and the phone also promptly paused the playback when I pressed the multifunction button on Cara. So when I arrived at the daycare to pick up my son, I just paused the playback and shut down Cara before I turned off the engine like I normally do.

The point where things went south was when I returned to the car, turned on the engine as well as Cara, and pressed the multifunction button to resume playback like I typically do with my iPhone. Nothing. A few more attempts. Still nothing. I'm not sure whether it's actually WP8 or the app (WPodder) to blame here, but I'm not impressed. You'd think that at this point Windows Phone would play along with Bluetooth a little bit better. Well, I hope Windows Phone 8.1 does something about this. If you know it's the app and there's a better option out there, please let me know in the comments.

EDIT: It might not actually be Bluetooth that's to blame here. I've got similar issues when trying to resume a podcast also when using a wired headset. So maybe the flaw is in the way Windows Phone handles external audio controls (e.g. multi-function buttons in headset and Bluetooth receivers) and listens to input from them.

Transformer Book T100 Issues - Battery Drain

Looks like I ran into one obvious issue that's plaguing the T100: Battery drain when the keyboard dock is connected. I've now accidentally run the device all dry by just having it sleep overnight with the dock connected and not having the charger connected. Twice. On the first occasion I thought it was due to some process having gone wild on my browser (I had a bunch of tabs open), but on the latter occasion there wasn't anything special running.

So I made a test and charged the device all the way to full and then after using it a while I let it sleep with the dock disconnected -> battery went down 7% during the night with my usage included. In the morning I plugged the tablet part to the dock and put the combination into my bag (in sleep mode) while getting to the office. During the hour or so charge had gone from 93% to 80%! That's quite an insane pace, considering that for the rest of the working day the keyboard dock was disconnected and the battery went down only to 76%.

So it looks like there's a major battery drain with this device when the keyboard is connected. Also the idle battery drain is a bit high in the tablet only mode, but fortunately it's still on manageable level. This is an unfortunate downside on otherwise fine device. I hope there will be a firmware update to fix this.