Android 4.4 (KitKat) Available for LG Nexus-4

A few days ago, I received the prompt on my LG Nexus-4 notification bar informing me that there was an update available for my Nexus-4. When I checked the update, it was for Android 4.4 (KitKat).

This blog entry will be about the update process as well as my early thoughts regarding Android 4.4 (nicknamed KitKat).

After receiving the prompt indicating that there was an update available and that my Nexus-4 had automatically downloaded the update, I decided to install it. Excluding the download time (since this will depend on your internet connection and unfortunately I didn't time this because it happened on my phone in the background), the update process was under 15 minutes. The size of the update as shown in my screen capture is 238.9 MB.

The update process was completely automated and it restarted twice without any user intervention (even though my SIM had the SIM lock activated). Below are some pictures that I took of my actual LG Nexus-4 screen when I was upgrading my Nexus-4 from JellyBean (Android 4.3) to KitKat (Android 4.4).

Prior to the update, the screen of my LG Nexus-4 looked like the screen capture below:

After the update, the screen of my LG Nexus-4 looked like the screen capture below:

In terms of the differences in Android 4.4 on my LG Nexus-4, the most noticeable differences is that the notification bar for the time/battery/wireless went from blue to white. I personally preferred the blue but really is a matter of personal preference.

Another noticeable difference is that the phone dialer has changed dramatically. I haven't included a screen capture of it since it shows some of my contacts on it but I have included an image below that I found on the internet from Google's promotional webpage on the features of KitKat. The tab to switch from the dialer and history selection are now at the bottom of the phone screen on KitKit as opposed to being on the top of the screen as it was with earlier versions of Android.

The caller ID on KitKat is supposed to be "smarter" in that it will get the names of businesses that aren't on the phone's contact list and display it on the phone (if the business is calling you) provided that the business has a listing on Google Maps. There is also a setting that enables it to display your name from your Google account in the event that you call someone and your name is not listed in their phone's contact list if they are using an Android 4.4 phone. I rarely get called by businesses on my phone so I haven't really experienced the "smarter" caller ID which is offered by KitKat yet.

In terms of the SMS feature and it being integrated with Google Hangouts, on my LG Nexus-4, I didn't incorporate that feature when I upgraded my Google Hangouts. When I checked my SMS messages, they appeared in the same way as they did previously (prior to my upgrade).

I've been using Android 4.4 only about 3 days at the time of this blog entry and the battery life seems to not be as good as it was prior to me upgrading it. I won't say that it is bad but it definitely seems to not be as good as it was prior to my upgrade.

One other thing that I would like to mention because I use it is that Android 4.4 includes the ability to print photos, documents, and webpages to any Google Cloud enabled printer or HP ePrint enabled printer. Previously, I was using HP's own HP ePrint application for Android. Having this built into the OS of the phone opens up new possibilities for printing.

For a list of the features of KitKat, you can refer to *THIS* webpage. Please note that some of the information on the webpage is specific to Android 4.4 (KitKat) on the LG Nexus-5.

If you have any comments/questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that the comments are moderated and any comment containing a URL link (whether embedded or not) will automatically be flagged as spam and will not be posted.

Linksys Internet Phone Adapter with 2 Ports for Voice-over-IP PAP2T Review

I've been using my unlocked Linksys Internet phone adapter PAP2T for about a year now with my SIP service provider and I thought that I would write my thoughts on it.

Configuring the device was fairly simple. It involved connecting the device to my router and the power supply as well as connecting an analogue telephone to the PAP2 Line 1 port. After waiting approximately 60 seconds, you would pick up the phone receiver and then hit the "*" key on the phone 4 times. You will then hear a message about the configuration menu. Press "110#" and the system will then reply with the IP address for the device.

Using your web browser connected to the same network as the newly plugged in Linksys Internet Phone Adapter, you basically only have to plug in the IP address into the browser's address bar and it will go into the configuration screen for the device.

Depending on your SIP provider, you will have to make the changes in the configuration screen for the Linksys Internet Phone Adapter.

I use VoIP.ms and I found the configuring the Linksys Internet Phone Adapter for VoIP.ms to be pretty straightforward (comparable with configuring SIP clients on my smartphone). Yes, the Linksys Internet Phone adapter has a lot more parameters than the standard SIP client on a smartphone but all I did was configure the parameters that were required.

VoIP.ms actually has a configuration document specifically for the Linksys Internet Phone Adapter PAP2T. I created a PDF (printed to PDF) from the wiki created by VoIP.ms.

I configured each telephone RJ-11 port to work with a different account with different phone numbers.

In terms of the quality of service, like with all VoIP solutions, the sound quality will depend a lot on the speed/bandwidth/latency of the internet connection that it is plugged into. I would say that the sound quality is better than what I am getting with my SIP client on my cellphone configured to use the same wireless router/network because the Linksys Internet Phone Adapter uses a network cable and doesn't connect to a wireless network which is generally less stable than a wired connection. The Linksys Internet Phone Adapter also had the added benefit of using a real phone which I find has better sound quality than most cellphones.

If you are subscribed to a SIP provider, I have no problems recommending the Linksys Internet Phone Adapter (as long as you purchase it unlocked since some Linksys Internet Phone Adapters are locked to a particular SIP provider or SIP carrier). It works very well and set-up is relatively simple.

If you have any comments/questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that the comments are moderated and any comment containing a URL link (whether embedded or not) will automatically be flagged as spam and will not be posted.

Review of Blackberry Messenger (BBM) for Android and iOS

I've been using Blackberry Messenger (BBM) for Android for approximately 2 weeks along with using it on my Blackberry Q10 and I've decided to write my thoughts about the version that is currently available for Android (v1.0.0.72) as well as for iOS (v1.0.3.120)

You can download BBM for Android on the Google Play Store *HERE* and you can download BBM for your iPhone/iPad from iTunes *HERE*.

I've tried BBM for Android on my LG Nexus-4 as well as my Samsung Nexus-S. When I first downloaded the program when it was first released, because Blackberry wanted to control the number of users and make sure that nothing went wrong with too many users, there was a sign-up period which for me lasted a few days. However, as of the date of this blog entry, there is no waiting period in order to register/activate the program and get a Blackberry PIN.

The thing with BBM is that it uses a unique code/ID called a Blackberry PIN in order to add people into your Blackberry Messenger (BBM) contact list. You generally must know the person's Blackberry PIN in order to add/invite the person into your BBM contact list. The benefit of this method is that it requires approval from the person you are trying to add before you can chat with the person. Someone can't simply add you into their BBM contact list by knowing your phone number or your e-mail address. The drawback to this method (when compared with WhatsApp) is that there isn't a simple way of finding your friends who are using BBM when you are using the Android version of BBM.

With WhatsApp, the program will match the phone numbers in your phone's contact/addressbook and it will display all the people in your phone's addressbook who installed WhatsApp. The negative part of WhatsApp is that it goes through your phone's contact list for people who've installed WhatsApp and you might have someone in your phone's address book but you don't necessarily want to have them show up in your chatting program nor do you want your name to appear in their chatting program just because they have your phone number in their phone's addressbook.

On my Blackberry Q10, finding people who are using BBM is a bit easier but still requires the approval process. When I go into the BBM Menu on my Blackberry Q10, and then click on "Invites", there is a tab where I can see "Suggested" invites. I'm not sure how Blackberry does this but I believe that on Blackberries, it compares the people currently in your Blackberry Contact list and it will use this based on the e-mail address that someone used to activate BBM on their device. If BBM on Blackberry 10 detects a match, it will list the contact in the "Suggested" tab. Even if you add someone using BBM for Blackberry 10, the person must approve you before you are able to chat with him/her. On the current Android version of BBM, the "Suggested" tab is not there nor is the "Suggested" tab on the current iOS version of BBM.

During my tests with BBM on Android as well as on iOS (I tested it more on Android than on iOS), I found that sometimes the message would be delivered to my non-Blackberry phone while other times it wouldn't be delivered (the sender would see the check mark corresponding with the message having been sent but not delivered to the recipient's phone yet). I sent the message from my Blackberry Q10 to my Android phone as well as my iPhone 3GS and noticed that sometimes for some strange reason, there was no notification that a BBM message was sent to my non-Blackberry phone. When using my Blackberry Q10 to communicate/BBM with another Blackberry device, the messages were consistently received without any issues.

The Android and iOS version still requires a bit of work in order to make sure that messages are sent/received properly and instantaneously on non-Blackberry devices and I would like to see additional features such as the ability to talk or videochat between different platforms. The Blackberry version of BBM has more features than the current Android and iOS versions of BBM but hopefully Blackberry will include the features that Blackberry users are used to on the other platforms as well as improve the reliability of sending/receiving notifications of BBM messages waiting.

If you have any comments/questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that the comments are moderated and any comment containing a URL link (whether embedded or not) will automatically be flagged as spam and will not be posted.