Blackberry Priv Initial Thoughts

I haven't written a blog entry for quite awhile and thought that I would try to restart my blog entries with the newest smartphone that I tried which is the Blackberry Priv. This will be one blog entry among many regarding my thoughts/feelings about the Blackberry Priv as I continue to use it.

In terms of the specifications for the phone, I will summarize it briefly (all of this taken from Blackberry's website *HERE*) but it has a 5.4" diagonal screen size at a 16:9 aspect ration. The resolution is 2560 x 1440 with 24-bit color depth at 540PPI. It has an 18MP autofocus rear camera capable of 4K recordings at 30fps or HD 1080p recordings at 60fps and a 2 MP front camera capable of 720p HD video recording. The version that I have/tested PRIV-1 (US model) comes with wireless charging (the Canadian model PRIV-3) does not come with wireless charging. For the processor specs, the Blackberry Priv comes with a Qualcomm 8992 Snapdragon 808 Hexa-Core, 64 bit Adreno 418, 600MHz GPU. For the memory, it comes 3GB of RAM and 32GB of Flash memory. It also supports expandable memory via the microSD slot (up to 2 TB). For the SIM card size, it uses the nanoSIM card format.

In terms of what makes this phone unique, it is that it is a Blackberry running Android OS and not the proprietary OS that Blackberry makes which is Blackberry 10. Out of the box, the version of Android is 5.1.1. For Android lovers, what makes this phone unique is that it has a built-in sliding keyboard and that has some PRIVacy features built into the phone.

I am one of the unique people who will generally carry around both a Blackberry phone and an Android phone at the same time. Prior to getting my hands on the Blackberry Priv, the phones that I would have with me were my Blackberry Passport and my OnePlus One (or my LG Nexus-4). In terms of Blackberry devices, I've had/used a Blackberry Bold 9700, a Blackberry Q10, and a Blackberry Passport. In terms of Android devices, I've had/used a Sony Ericsson X10 Mini, a Samsung Nexus-S, an LG Nexus-4, and a OnePlus One. I would generally swap between Android devices but keep my Blackberry phone with me since I generally type out very long e-mails and I've just never gotten comfortable using the onscreen keyboards from the various different phones.

In terms of the "flavour" of Android on the Blackberry Priv, it looks/feels like Google stock Android except for a few applications like Yahoo Finance, Blackberry Hub, BBM, and DTEK. The Blackberry Priv also uses Blackberry's own version of Calendar and Contacts.

You can see Blackberry's video introducing the Blackberry Priv on the YouTube video below:


You can also see Blackberry's very nice & artistic promotional video on their Blackberry Priv below.

When I first opened the box and configured the Blackberry Priv, I tested using the transfer of information from my LG Nexus-4 to my Blackberry Priv using NFC but because I had a lot of Android apps on my LG Nexus-4, I stopped it midway while it was downloading my Android apps onto the phone. However, prior to doing this, I noticed that the phone was somewhat hot. Up until that point, my phone was downloading a lot of Android apps from the Google Play store via WiFi after I used the NFC connection/configuration option for the initial configuration.

I decided to do a factory reset of the Blackberry Priv and this time instead of using the NFC connection, I selected my OnePlus One as the phone to base my Blackberry Priv's installation and then I manually selected the applications from the list of applications which were installed on my OnePlus One. After doing this, I later decided that it would probably be better for me to do a factory reset again and this time configure the device as a brand new device and then manually go into the Google Play store in order to download the apps that I wanted. This was my final set-up for the Blackberry Priv and was the starting point that I decided to keep.

After installing a few of the Google apps that I was sure that I wanted on the device (ex: Netflix, Bell TV, NFB, Kodi, TMN Go, Crave TV, and the Amazon Apps Store), I powered off my Blackberry Priv and decided to let it charge to 100%.

When the battery was at 100%, I powered my Blackberry Priv back on and tested out Netflix and it worked very well. I watched an entire 30 minute television episode and the earlier issue that I had with my Blackberry Priv getting unusually hot when I was initially installing applications on it was not as noticeable but I still noticed the phone being warmer than it was initially prior to me streaming the video. I then tested out YouTube and this also worked very well.

In terms of the keyboard on the Blackberry Priv, after having used my Blackberry Passport keyboard for ~1 year, I found the keys on the Blackberry Priv to be somewhat small but I didn't have any problems typing with the Blackberry Priv's keyboard. I liked being able to access the numbers via the physical keyboard as I had done with my Blackberry Bold 9700 or my Blackberry Q10. I also liked that just like on the Blackberry Passport, the Blackberry Priv's keyboard is touch sensitive and can be used like a trackpad. You can use it to scroll through webpages or scroll through documents or even the Android's home screen. In terms of using the keyboard, I did find that because of the sliding nature of the keyboard with the shape/size of the phone, it was a bit "top heavy" but it wasn't uncomfortable for me to type a relatively long e-mail to a colleague.

The screen is slightly curved (it has curved sides) and although this looks very nice, as someone who likes to put a "tempered glass screen protector" on most devices, I think it will be difficult to find a tempered glass screen protector that either covers the entire screen (including the curved edges) or the tempered glass will be more expensive than typical tempered glass smartphone screen protectors that have a completely flat screen.

I've only been using the Blackberry Priv for under 1 week while I wait for my orders of a microSD card, a nanoSIM card (to replace the microSIM card that I was using in my OnePlus One or my LG Nexus-4), a tempered glass screen protector, and a case to arrive (before I fully switch over). So far, during the week that I've had the Blackberry Priv, I've been enjoying it. The Android apps that I enjoy using work seamlessly on the Blackberry Priv. I like having a physical keyboard that I can use to type out long emails. If I don't want to use the physical keyboard, I can also use the onscreen virtual keyboard when it is more convenient.

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.

Blackberry 10 Software Update Available for 10.3.1.1565

There was a somewhat major software update on Blackberry 10 devices last week. The update brought Blackberry 10 devices all to v10.3.1.1565. I was using a Blackberry Passport so the update for my Blackberry was not as large as for other Blackberry 10 devices such as the Z10, Q10, & Z30. The update was "only" 470MB on my Blackberry Passport which was previously running 10.3.0.908. Most of the other Blackberry 10 devices (if they were running official releases of the OS) were running a variant of 10.2.1.

The update for v10.3.1.1565 was very straightforward. Since my Blackberry Passport was already running v10.3.0, I was already used to to some of the features that comes with the v10.3.1.1565 update such as the Amazon Appstore, Blackberry Blend, and Blackberry Assistant.

The update recommends keeping the device plugged into a power source during the update but because I didn't have my AC adapter with me and my Blackberry Passport was fully charged (it was above 95%), I started the update process without plugging in my device to a power source. This didn't present any issues. The downloading/installation took ~1.5 hours.

The update process was straightforward and after accepting the update, I was presented with the screenshot below asking me to restart the device.

After my device restarted, my Blackberry Passport continued to apply the update without any issues. The restarting of my Blackberry Passport took ~20 minutes.

After my Blackberry Passport restarted, I verified the Settings and it was updated to 10.3.1.1565.

In terms of the update, I've been using it for approximately one week now and I don't notice anything significant since I was already using 10.3.0 prior to the update to 10.3.1. What I did notice was that the unlock screen font is larger and I also noticed that the Systems Settings changed somewhat.

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Resetting Blackberry Q10 to Factory Defaults

I decided to sell one of my Blackberry Q10 phones that I had since getting my Blackberry Passport and having a spare Blackberry Q10 as a backup "keyboard" phone. I had used my Blackberry Q10 phone for approximately 1.5 years before opting to sell it and the internal memory on the device was almost completely used (~14.5GB of 16GB). I also had a 2GB microSD memory card in the device.

I generally encrypt my devices and with my Blackberry Q10 (and the 2GB microSD memory card inside it), I encrypted both as well. Before selling my device, I needed to reinitialize it back to factory defaults.

The first step to doing this since I wanted to keep the information on the microSD memory card was to unencrypt the microSD card. Forgetting this step would mean that the information on the microSD card would be permanently encrypted. To unencrypt the microSD memory card, I went into the Settings menu, Encryption, and then turned off the Media Card encryption. My microSD memory card was not completely filled (and it was only a 2GB microSD memory card on top of that and not a 32GB memory card) so the amount of time that it took me to unencrypt the memory card was not too long. After the memory card was unencrypted so that I wouldn't forget it in the phone when I sold it, I ejected it from my Blackberry Q10.

The next thing that I did was to issue the command to reinitialize my Blackberry Q10. As mentioned, I used my Blackberry Q10 for approximately 1.5 years and the amount of free memory on the device was a little over 1GB (and my Blackberry Q10 was encrypted). I wasn't sure how long it would take so I kept my Blackberry Q10 plugged into the electrical outlet and initiated the reinitialization process.

It took roughly 7 hours for my Blackberry Q10 to reinitialize itself. During that time, the Blackberry Q10 was completely unusable and I was somewhat worried since for a large portion of that time, it appeared as if wasn't doing anything. About 2 hours into the reinitialization process, since I wasn't sure how long it would take, I decided that I would go to bed and hopefully it would be done by the time I woke up. However, it wasn't finished by the time I woke up. I then decided to unplug the Blackberry Q10 from the AC outlet and bring it with me to work. When I arrived at work, I looked at the Blackberry Q10 screen and it had finished reinitializing itself. The total amount of time between when I started the reinitialization process of my Blackberry Q10 and when I looked at my Blackberry Q10 was ~7 hours so I was lucky that I had decided not to reinitialize it in front of the seller or start the reinitialization process at work since I was meeting the buyer during my lunch.

One of the reasons it might have taken ~7 hours to reinitialize my Blackberrry Q10 to factory defaults is because my Blackberry Q10 was encrypted and only ~1GB of free memory (out of ~16GB) existed on the device.

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Blackberry Passport Review

I received my Blackberry Passport ~1 month ago and I've been using it since that time so I thought that now was the perfect time for me to write my thoughts on the Blackberry Passport.

As shown in my other blog entries, I use a wide variety of phones (Android, iPhone, Blackberry, etc.). In terms of Blackberry phones, I've used a Blackberry Bold 9700, a Blackberry Q10, and now a Blackberry Passport.

I won't go into the Blackberry 10 OS but the Blackberry Passport ships with Blackberry OS 10.3.x and includes the Amazon AppStore. This review blog will mainly be my thoughts on the Blackberry Passport when I compare it with my old Blackberry Q10.

With lots of phone manufacturers making phablets, the size and shape of the Blackberry Passport takes some time to get used to. It is about the same size as a Canadian Passport (although obviously thicker).

I find that the Blackberry Passport is speedier and more responsive than my older Blackberry Q10. What I like about the Blackberry Passport is the larger screen size and the additional memory that the phone ships with. I also like the fact that the Blackberry 10 browser renders webpages very well.

In terms of what I'm not crazy about when it comes to the Blackberry Passport, one of the things that I'm still trying to get used to is that there aren't any physical keys for the numbers and you must use the onscreen numeric keyboard when you want to type numbers. This is not really a big deal except that I've discovered an app that doesn't show the onscreen numeric keyboard (it is possible that there are other apps as well) so it isn't possible to type a number when using this app.

The physical keys also don't feel like the keys on my old Blackberry Bold 9700 nor do they feel like the keys on my Blackberry Q10. Personally, I find that the Blackberry Passport keys feel a bit "cheaper" compared to the other 2 models that I mentioned but others might have a different opinion. However, the Blackberry Passport's keyboard has "trackpad" functionality. It is difficult for me to explain this but by moving your finger over the keyboard, you can control the cursor and depending on the finger gesture on the keyboard, you can also delete words that you've typed very easily.

Currently a lot of the apps (both from Blackberry App Store as well as Android applications) don't appear perfectly on the Blackberry Passport. Even programs that show up correctly on the Blackberry Q10 sometimes don't appear perfectly on the Blackberry Passport. At the time of this writing there are also quite a few apps that I installed on my Blackberry Q10 which are listed as incompatible on the Blackberry Passport.

The Blackberry Passport uses the newer nanoSIM (my Blackberry Bold 9700 used a standard miniSIM & my Blackberry Q10 used a microSIM). I know that phone manufacturers like to use smaller footprints whenever possible and using a smaller SIM card is part of this philosophy but personally I would prefer that they stick with the microSIM sized SIM.

As mentioned, the Blackberry Passport ships with Blackberry 10.3.x and one of the benefits of Blackberry 10.3.x is Blackberry Blend which allows people to access their Blackberry Hub from their computers or certain tablets using the Blackberry Blend program. This is great if you forget your Blackberry at home and want to access BBM to send/receive messages. Another benefit with Blackberry Blend is that I can keep my Blackberry Passport in my vest pocket and send/reply to BBM messages as well as access my Blackberry's e-mails without constantly having to remove my Blackberry Passport from my pocket.

For the Blackberry Passport User Guide, you can get it from Blackberry's site or you can get it *HERE*. If you're interested in the Discover Blackberry Passport The Guide to Working Wide, you can download it *HERE*.

If you have any questions/comments 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 which contains a URL link (whether it is embedded or not) will automatically be labelled as spam and will not be posted.

Truphone Mobile SIM Service Review

Since I'm currently in the US on vacation, I thought that I would write about my experience with the Truphone Mobile SIM. I purchased a Truphone mobile SIM after reading that Lycamobile was changing their airtime balance extension/rollover policy such that regardless of the date of the last billable charge, the airtime balance would expire 90 days after the top-up. Since I go to the US regularly but don't go there often enough to exhaust $10 worth of airtime in a period of 90 days, I opted to search for another US prepaid SIM card. I search led me to Truphone.

What I like about Truphone is that the airtime balance will rollover as long as you have a billable charge in the last 180 days. For me, this was perfect.

In my opinion, here are the pluses of Truphone:
1) The airtime balance will only expire if you don't have a billable charge in 180 days. As long as you have a billable charge, the balance will rollover for 180 days.
2) The Truphone SIM roams in other countries (at higher rates). What this means is that if I don't go to the US within 180 days, I can still make a billable charge on my account and have the remaining balance rollover for 180 days.
3) Truphone allows "unlimited" free incoming calls while in the Truphone countries. Currently these countries are: the US, UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Germany, or Hong Kong. I'm sure that the "unlimited" has a fair usage policy.
4) Truphone allows "unlimited" free SMS anywhere in the world.
5) Truphone charges the same rates for all the Truphone countries which can be substantially lower than other travel SIM cards (or local SIM cards)
6) Customers get a US phone number. They can opt for 2 additional Truphone country phone numbers tied to the account but this would involve monthly charges
7) The Truphone SIM uses both the AT&T network as well as the T-Mobile network.
8) They use direct dialing so there is no need to remember any special codes to get a preferential rate.
9) The activity log on their website for the account not only shows the phone numbers for the outgoing calls but it also shows the phone numbers for the incoming calls which I find very unusual.
10) The phone offers data (but in my opinion it is expensive)

The minuses with Truphone (in my opinion) are:
1) The number of rings can't be increased. I timed it and it is under/roughly 15 seconds. I'm not sure about most people but it will take me a few seconds to realize that my cellphone is ringing/vibrating when it is in my pocket when I'm walking and there is background noise. It will then take me a few seconds to get the phone out of my pocket and look at the display to see if I want to answer. By the time I do all of this, a lot of the time, the caller has been sent to voice mail.
2) You can't remove/disable voice mail from the account but you can contact customer service so that you don't have a voice mail box. Does this sound confusing? What I mean by this is that when someone calls your Truphone number, if they reach the maximum number of rings (~15 seconds), they will get a message and it will count against them as a completed call where they were routed to the carrier's system message. With some other carriers, if the caller reaches the maximum number of rings and they get the system message, it isn't counted against the caller as a completed call.
3) The startup cost to become a Truphone customer is somewhat high when purchasing the SIM card (~$30). However, they give you $15 worth of airtime credit so in effect, the SIM card really only costs $15. However, even at $15 for the SIM card, I still find it somewhat expensive.
4) The rate for Truphone is higher than a lot of other MVNOs. At the time of my blog review, they charged $0.09US/minute to make an outgoing call to a Truphone country. They also charged $0.09 per outgoing SMS to a Truphone country.
5) The rate to call Canada while in the US with Truphone is $0.27/minute (which I consider to be high for an MVNO).
6) Data is available for Truphone users but it is expensive ($0.09/MB which would be $45 per 500MB).

I used my Truphone for ~1 week while on vacation in the US and didn't have any issues with reception or sound quality. In fact, I would say that it functioned "better" than my Lycamobile SIM (which I also had with me) because in the area that I was visiting in the US, AT&T has better coverage than T-Mobile.

Depending on your roaming and traveling needs, you can check out their rates *HERE*. For example, to use the phone in Canada, it will cost $0.40/minute (incoming/outgoing) and $0.45 per outgoing SMS. While in Italy, to use the phone, it will cost $0.25/minute for outgoing calls, $0.08/minute for incoming calls, and $0.09 per outgoing SMS. The rates that I've mentioned above depend on what country you are calling.

I have no issues recommending Truphone for travelers to the US as well as any of the other Truphone countries.

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.

Android 5.0.1 Available for the LG Nexus-4

With the annoying problem that I was having with my LG Nexus-4 after the upgrade to Android 5.0 (Lollipop), I was glad to have received the prompt informing me that Android 5.0.1 was available for my device. I was hoping that it would fix the annoying problem where after a few hours of non-use (typically after I woke up), my Nexus-4 would be in a frozen like state where I could not turn on the phone or power on the screen using the power button.

The update took about 1 hour for me to download and apply. As mentioned in my earlier post *HERE* my LG Nexus-4 is encrypted so the upgrade time might be shorter on a non-encrypted Android device.

After applying the update and rebooting, my phone appeared to behave normally but the big test would come after leaving my phone unattended for a few hours to see it would become frozen again. As mentioned in my earlier blog post, my LG Nexus-4 never froze prior to me installing Lollipop on it. The morning after I updated my Nexus-4 to Android 5.0.1, my phone was not frozen and I was able to quickly turn on the screen by pushing the power button. I thought that the annoying frozen issue that I experienced was fixed with the Android 5.0.1 update. However, after using my phone for a few days now with Android 5.0.1, the frozen issue has not really gone away. It still appears to happen randomly overnight were sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I'm able to turn on the screen quickly by pushing the power button while other times, my phone is in a frozen-like state where I have to hold the power button to forcibly turn it off and then wait a few seconds before pushing the power button again to power on the phone.

I spoke with a friend who also has an LG Nexus-4 and he informed me hasn't frozen up on him even after he updated to Lollipop which makes us believe that it might be an incompatible app on my Nexus-4. However, currently, I don't really feel like reinitializing my phone back to factory defaults and then reinstalling my Android applications one at a time. When I fully migrate/use my OnePlus One and retire my Nexus-4 to a "testing" phone, I'll probably be more likely to reinitialize my Nexus-4. In the meanwhile, I'm alternating between my OnePlus One and my LG Nexus-4 when I need/use an Android phone.

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.

U8 Pro (U8Pro or UPro1 or U Pro1) Smartwatch Review

I purchased a U8 Pro Smartwatch a few weeks ago. Based on my research, this watch is also sometimes advertised as a U Pro Smartwatch.

I was interested in something that would alert me in real time about calls that I was receiving on my smartphone since I often miss calls when my smartphone is either in my backpack or in my pocket and I either don't hear the ringing or feel the vibration from an incoming call until it is too late.

I considered getting a bracelet that would alert me of incoming calls but since the cost between one of the bracelets and a U8 Pro or U8 Smartwatch wasn't that much, I opted to go with the smartwatch. The main difference between the U8 Smartwatch and the U8 Pro Smartwatch (which is what I purchased) is that the U8 Pro Smartwatch will also work independently as a cellphone. Since the price difference between the U8 Smartwatch and the U8 Pro Smartwatch was under/roughly $10, I opted just to get the U8 Pro Smartwatch. In order for the U8 Pro Smartwatch to function independently as a cellphone, it requires a miniSIM card which is inserted into the watch underneath the battery.

The U8 Pro Smartwatch has the following features/icons: Call (which allows you either to make calls when connected via bluetooth to a smartphone or make calls if you have an active miniSIM card inserted into the watch), Messaging (which allows you to send text messages either independently if using a minSIM card in the watch or send text messages when connected via bluetooth to a smartphone), Phonebook (which shows you the local/watch's phone numbers or the phone numbers on your smartphone via bluetooth), Call History (shows you the watch's call history or the call history of your smartphone), Image Viewer (views the images taken using the smartwatch), FM radio (allows you to listen to FM radio as long as you use the included earphones which also function as an FM antenna), Audio Player (which allows you to listen to the music from your smartphone), Camera (which allows you to take pictures with the smartwatch), Alarm (allows you to set alarms), Stopwatch (pretty self-explanatory), Settings (which allows you different sound profile settings and configure some of the independent phone features of the watch), Bluetooth (to connect to your smartphone), Notice (to get notifications from your smartphone sent to your smartwatch), Anti-Lost (alerts you when you are away from your smartphone), Pedometer (estimates the number of steps that you've walked), Personal (allows you to set personal data for a more accurate pedometer calorie display), Car Theft (I'm not sure what this does), Find Phone (I'm not sure what this does since it didn't work with my smartphone), Remote Capture (allows you to use your watch to take a picture remotely on your smartphone), and Sleep Monitor (monitors your sleep patterns). Some of these features will only work with Android phones such as the Remote Capture and the Notice applications since they require an Android application to be installed/configured on your Android smartphone.

Even though the U8 Pro Smartwatch will work with almost all bluetooth enabled smartphones, in order to get the full functionality of the device, you will need to have an Android smartphone since some of the features will require the BT Notifier application to be installed on the phone. The instructions that came with U8 Pro Smartphone aren't very good to say the least. It makes mention of downloading a mode.apk file from ftp://221.231.140.226 with the username "uwatch" and the password "good123". However, the QR code that is produced on the watch when trying to use a feature which requires the application to be installed on an Android phone is:

I've used the above application *HERE* as well as the 2 files that I obtained from the above FTP site *HERE* and *HERE* and all of these Android applications work relatively well with the smartwatch. I also tried using the application on the Google Play Store called "Mediatek SmartDevice" with relatively good results as well.

In terms of the functionality of the smartwatch, I find that it works relatively well. The notifier application on the smartwatch will notify me of Facebook posts, Android BBM messages, e-mails, and any other Android application which uses the standard Android notification area on the upper left corner of the Android phone. The watch will notify me via a vibration and/or a sound. The amount of information that is received on the watch varies but in most cases, I found it lacking and I needed to use my Android phone to see what exactly the particular notification was regarding in detail. The reason for this is that depending on the notification APK program that I was using on my Android phone, I was either presented with 1 line on the watch showing me the name of the application that I was receiving a notification or sometimes 2 lines showing me the name of the application as well as the sender of the message. Also, a lot of the smartwatch's applications which depend on the Bluetooth Notification APK file on the Android phone will work sometimes or will not work at all. For example, when I got the Remote Camera feature to work properly, a few hours later, it would not longer work. I could get it to work again by rebooting my smartwatch but during times that I might want to use the Remote Camera capability, having to reboot the smartwatch before doing so is a nuisance. Most of my testing was on my LG Nexus-4 running stock Android 4.4.4. After upgrading my LG Nexus-4 to Lollipop (Android 5),  the smartwatch's features which depended on the BT Notification app no longer worked (ex: Remote Capture) and the smartwatch notifications became limited to only phone calls and SMS (it no longer would notify me of e-mails, Facebook posts, Android BBM messages, etc.)

One of the things that I didn't really like about the smartwatch was that in order to see the time when the watch's touchscreen was off, I would have to push the button on the side of the watch. I discovered that it would turn on if I turned the Pedometer function on when I abruptly moved my hand in a fashion similar to me trying to look at the time but this only worked approximately 50% of the time.

I tested the Pedometer function of the smartwatch and it seemed to be relatively accurate. It calculated the steps that I took and the moment I stopped, the number of steps didn't increase. I also tested the Sleep Monitor but I'm not sure how accurate it was since when I kept it on during a 24 hour period, during part of the day that I was at work sitting in front of my computer and typing, according to the chart on the smartwatch, it mentioned that I was in a "light sleep" mode.

The watch has 4 faces in order to tell the time which you can easily toggle through.

When the smartwatch is linked to my Android phone, all the sound produced by my Android phone was relayed to my smartwatch similar to my smartwatch functioning like cordless/wireless speakers.

In terms of battery life, I find that based on my usage, the watch lasted for over 24 hours. Of course this will depend on how often you receive notifications on the smartwatch and how often you check your notifications on the smartwatch. I generally will turn off the bluetooth function on my smartwatch in the evening to preserve the battery since I don't want to be notified of things like Facebook messages while I sleep.

I find that the vibration is noticeable on my wrist when I receive a phone call. I mainly purchased this smartwatch in order to be notified of phone calls and it does this well. The other features are a bit of a hit-and-miss.

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.

OnePlus One OTA CyanogenMod Update to XNPH38R

After having my OnePlus One for ~1 week, I noticed an OTA (over the air) update was available for CyanogenMod earlier this week.

I decided to update it to see what the process was like as well as how it behaves after the update. Considering I still haven't really played with my OnePlus One for a long time (I only had it ~1 week and was still using mainly my LG Nexus-4 as my Android phone), I didn't really notice any issues with it prior to the update. That being said, generally when there are OTA updates for my devices, I will update them.

The update happened very seamlessly. After clicking on the "Install update", the phone rebooted and the update was applied immediately. I'm not sure if it was because my phone was encrypted via the security settings but the boot up seemed to take longer than usual so I powered off my phone and then repowered it back on. The phone powered on without any issues when I did this.

I then tested my OnePlus One briefly to see if it worked properly and based on the things that I tested worked without any issues.

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.

OnePlus One Purchasing Experience and Unboxing

I apologize for not having written a blog entry in close to 3 months since I've been busy with some other things and mainly write my blog reviews as a hobby and because writing and technology are 2 of my passions.

Although I've purchased/received many items that I could write about, I'll start with the latest technology gadget that I recently purchased. This would be the "exclusive" OnePlus One mobile Android smartphone.

I ordered it on Monday September 29, 2014 after receiving a random invitation from the company and was a bit hesitant on whether to purchase it or wait for the next Nexus version. As it turns out, a co-worker had offered me an invite the week previously on Friday but informed me that if I wasn't 100% sure that I would purchase it, he wanted to know so he could give it to someone else. Since I wasn't 100% sure that I wanted it (I was thinking of getting the next Nexus phone), I informed him that it might be best if he were to give his invite to someone else.

I didn't get the HTC Nexus-One but purchased the Samsung Nexus-S, skipped the Samsung Nexus Galaxy, got the LG Nexus-4, skipped the LG Nexus-5, and I was planning on getting the next Nexus version but it hasn't been announced yet. Because I probably wouldn't get another invitation to purchase the OnePlus One, I decided to redeem my invitation and ordered the OnePlus One when I arrived home from work on Monday September 29.

For those of you unfamiliar with the OnePlus One purchasing method, I'll just cover it briefly here. First of all, the reason that I wrote that the OnePlus One was an "exclusive" phone was because unlike most other phones where a customer can just purchase a phone given the amount of stock available at a retailer, someone wanting to purchase a OnePlus One must be invited to purchase it. Even after being invited to purchase it, he/she must purchase it within 24 hours of the invitation since the invitation expires. Also, in order to purchase the OnePlus One, the customer must create an account on the OnePlus One website as well as have a PayPal account since at the time of me writing this blog post, PayPal is the only accepted method of payment however OnePlus One will ship the phone to an address that isn't verified (I shipped it to my work address which isn't listed on my PayPal account).

The invitation marketing method is similar to how Google first distributed their Gmail and GoogleVoice accounts. If I were to want to purchase the latest 2 phones (Blackberry Passport and iPhone 6) available now, I can basically pre-order it from my carrier or I can purchase these phones from one of the retailers who sell them. With the OnePlus One, excluding purchasing it second hand, you can only purchase it from their website and in order to purchase it from their website, you must be invited to purchase it either by randomly being selected by the company or being invited by someone who already purchased it.

I was surprised how fast I received the OnePlus One after working it late on Monday September 29 (~10:00PM EDT). Because I knew that I would have to pay taxes/duties/customs/brokerage fees, I opted to send the item to my place of work as opposed to sending it to my place. On the OnePlus One website, it showed the "Processing" status the following day on Tuesday, September 30 and then on Wednesday, October 1, the item shipped from Los Angeles. I received it in Montreal during my lunch on Thursday October 2 at work at ~1:58PM where I left the fees after having received a phone call from the courier company (DHL) informing me what the fees would be after it passed through Canadian customs.

I didn't open bubble-wrap envelope before getting home but after opening it, there were 2 boxes; one small OnePlus One labeled box and another brown cardboard coloured box.

When I opened the brown cardboard coloured box at home as well as the small OnePlus One labeled box, I saw that the small OnePlus One labeled box contained the AC USB adapter plug and the brown cardboard coloured box contained a large OnePlus One labeled box. I believe that within the smaller white OnePlus One box, there was also a nanoSIM card adapter/tray. I was a bit curious on what the nanoSIM card adapter/tray was used for but when I ejected the OnePlus One SIM card tray and saw that it was a microSIM card tray, it was quite obvious that the nanoSIM card adapter/tray are for those users who have a nanoSIM. Instead of having to purchase a microSIM to nanoSIM converter, the included nanoSIM card adapter/tray is used directly instead of using the microSIM card adapter/tray that was already in the phone. This is ingenious and I wish most manufacturers included a different tray for at least the 2-3 common sized SIM cards for their phones without having to resort to an adapter.

Opening up the large OnePlus One labeled box, I found the OnePlus One phone. Underneath the white board that the phone sat on, was the USB cable as well as the SIM extraction tool.

It will take me a few days/weeks of using my new OnePlus One phone in order to write my review/thoughts about it but the phone is noticeably larger than my LG Nexus-4 and in terms of responsiveness/speed, I find it to be quite fast and responsive. After opening the box on Thursday evening after work, because I arrived home late, I didn't really "play" with my new technology gadget but charged it for the entire evening and after work on Friday I spent most of my time configuring it as well as installing/customizing the Android applications on it.

You can get some information of the OnePlus One from the keynote document either from the company's own website *HERE* or from my blog *HERE*.

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Nexxtech 43-165 Business Caller ID Speakerphone Review

I was looking for an inexpensive landline corded phone which had speakerphone capability as well as a headset jack and didn't require it to be plugged into an AC source in order to use it with my ZTE WF720 Wireless Home Device.

I wasn't really interested in the call display that the phone offers but since it included it, I don't really mind having it. The phone get's the power for the screen display with three AA batteries.

The manual for this phone can be found *HERE*. I won't cover all the features of the phone but will mention some of the things that I don't like about this phone and some of the features that I do like about this phone.

I purchased this phone mainly for the speakerphone capability and one of the things that I don't really like about this phone is that in order to use the speakerphone, there must be batteries in the device. For example, if the phone rings and I want to answer it using the speakerphone, pushing the speakerphone button will probably not work if there are no batteries powering the screen display. I mentioned "will probably not work" as opposed to it definitely not working because if the phone was used a few seconds prior, the speakerphone button will work regardless of whether or not there are batteries powering the screen display. Without batteries in the unit, in order to use the speakerphone capabilities of the phone, it is a 2-step process. You first have to pick up the handset and then push the speakerphone button and then put the handset back onto phone unit itself. For the purpose of why I wanted a corded phone with speakerphone capability (and without needing to be plugged into an AC outlet), I find this 2-step process annoying and I didn't want to put batteries in the unit just so that I would have the ability to push the speakerphone button in order to activate it without having to lift the handset first.

Another annoyance to me is that this phone uses three AA batteries. Since I use mainly rechargeable AA batteries in my devices, I find any electronic device that uses an odd number of AA batteries to be annoying since most battery chargers will either charge two batteries or four batteries at a time. Not only does it use three AA batteries but when using rechargeable NiMH batteries, the screen display is very dim and the batteries don't last a long time powering the screen display before needing a recharge. In my opinion, the manufacturer could have easily made the device use four AA batteries so that the screen display isn't as dim and the batteries last longer between recharges/replacement.

The final thing that I don't really like about the phone is that to control the ring tone and ring volume (as well as the tone/pulse control), you must remove the battery cover underneath the phone base unit. In my opinion, it would have been better to place the controls for ring tone and ring volume on the side of the phone. Since the tone/pulse control is generally only used once, having it underneath the battery compartment is not that bad unless you are still using a pulse line and after making your phone call, you need to switch it to tone in order to enter a code such as a calling card number, an extension, or a PIN using the phone pad.

What I like about this phone is that it has a standard phone headset jack so that I can continue to use my hands and speak on the phone without having to use the speakerphone. The only negative thing about the phone headset jack functionality is that just like the speakerphone function/button, it will only work if the device is powered with three AA batteries or if the handset is off the hook prior to you pushing the headset jack button.

I don't have any problems with the sound quality of the phone and people have not complained about the sound quality of my voice when I use this phone. I have tried the speakerphone a few times and it appears ot have built-in noise cancellation in it so when there is faint noise (like wind), the microphone will turn off. It will then turn back on automatically when it detects someone's voice or when the background noise is loud enough.

All the other phone features are good and as long as the shortcomings that I've mentioned in my blog does not bother the person interested in buying it, as long as the price is under $25 (taxes/shipping included), this is a good phone to have in case of a power failure when cordless phones won't work.

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.

Blackberry 10 Software Update Available for 10.2.1.2977

There was a minor software update on my Blackberry Q10 a few weeks ago. As you can see, the file size was only 17MB in size.

According to the screenshot, the software update is to version 10.2.1.2977.

The update process was straightforward and after accepting the update, I was presented with the screenshot below asking me to restart the device.

After my device restarted, my device was updated without any issues. While my device restarted, even though my Blackberry Q10 still had over 80% power remaining, I plugged it into the electrical outlet in order to be on the safe side.

In terms of the update, I've been using it for a few weeks now and I don't notice anything significant. The two major issues that I have with my Blackberry Q10 still exists. It still gets unusually hot after using an internet enabled application for a few minutes and the battery doesn't seem to last as long as it used to back when it was running a version of Blackberry 10.1.x

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.

Blackberry 10 System Update Available for 10.2.1.2941

I received a prompt on my Blackberry Q10 about 2 weeks ago regarding a minor update that was available for my device to 10.2.1.2941.

My Blackberry Q10 was at 10.2.1.2102 prior to me receiving the prompt to update to 10.2.1.2941.

This was a minor update and was only 99MB in size. The update happened in the background with my Blackberry Q10. After my Blackberry automatically downloaded and automatically installed this minor update, I was informed that the update finished installing and I was prompted to reboot my phone.

I did not reboot immediately since I was in the process of typing a few e-mail messages when I received the message to reboot my phone. The reboot process seemed to take longer than a normal reboot (or it might have just been my imagination) and after my Blackberry Q10 rebooted, I checked the version that I had on my Blackberry Q10 and I was updated to 10.2.1.2941.

During the time that I've used 10.2.1.2941 for ~2 weeks, I haven't really noticed anything dramatic.

One of the two issues that I noticed (which I'm still experiencing despite updating to 10.2.1.2941) is an issue where my phone will get extremely hot when I'm either browsing the web or performing certain other tasks (like browsing Facebook, reading the Twitter Tweets, etc.). The other issue that I experienced since I upgraded to 10.2.1.537 is that my Blackberry Q10's battery would drain faster than previously. As mentioned, both these issues are still present with 10.2.1.2941.

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.

Blackberry 10 System Update Available for 10.2.1.2102

I received a prompt on my Blackberry Q10 about 2 days ago regarding a minor update that was available for my device to 10.2.1.2102.

My Blackberry Q10 was at 10.2.1.537 prior to me receiving the prompt to update to 10.2.1.2102.

This was a minor update and was only 39MB in size. The update happened in the background with my Blackberry Q10. After my Blackberry automatically downloaded and automatically installed this minor update, I was informed that the update finished installing and I was prompted to reboot my phone.

I did not reboot immediately since I was in the process of typing a few e-mail messages when I received the message to reboot my phone. The reboot process seemed to take longer than a normal reboot (or it might have just been my imagination) and after my Blackberry Q10 rebooted, I checked the version that I had on my Blackberry Q10 and I was updated to 10.2.1.2102.

I tested the upgrade for a few days hoping that it would solve 2 issues that I noticed after I updated my Blackberry Q10 to 10.2.1.537. Unfortunately both of the issues that I experienced don't seem to be corrected with 10.2.1.2102.

One of the two issues that I noticed (which I'm still experiencing despite updating to 10.2.1.2102) is an issue where my phone will get extremely hot when I'm either browsing the web or performing certain other tasks (like browsing Facebook, reading the Twitter Tweets, etc.). The other issue that I experienced since I upgraded to 10.2.1.537 is that my Blackberry Q10's battery would drain faster than previously. As mentioned, both these issues are still present with 10.2.1.2102.

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.

Manually Installing Android Applications on a Blackberry 10 Device running v10.2.1.537

After upgrading my Blackberry Q10 to v10.2.1.537 (see my previous blog entry), I decided to install some of my favourite Android applications onto it now that I no longer had to convert these Android APK files into BAR files in order to sideload it onto my Blackberry 10 device.

Since I have a few Android devices, it was a somewhat simple process for me to get the APK files that I wanted onto my Blackberry Q10. For me, I used Dropbox in order to get the APK file to my Blackberry since my Blackberry Q10 has Dropbox capability built-in but you can also download the APK files directly from a website or e-mail them to yourself once you have them.

For organization sake, I placed all my Android APK applications on my Blackberry in their own group/folder and called it Android APK applications but when the Android application is installed on a Blackberry 10 device, they appear as a normal Blackberry 10 application except that you get a bottom bar on the bottom of the application which you can remove by swiping from the top of the screen to the bottom and then selecting the "Hide Bar". I find that most applications are better without the bottom bar showing but some applications actually work better with the bottom bar showing.

There are other ways of getting APK files other than the method I used. My friend who didn't have any Android devices found the APK files that he wanted by doing Google searches however I find this somewhat risky as you can never know whether the APK file has been modified from the original file which is in the Google Play Store.

I have quite a few Android applications which were on my Android devices (LG Nexus-4, Samsung Nexus-S, Acer Iconia A100 tablet, and the Android installation of my HP Touchpad) which I wanted to transfer/copy to my Blackberry Q10 but I decided to begin by installing the following programs: Ebay, PayPal, Netflix, a local public transit application, YouTube, Google Translate, Lync 2013, Glympse, Microsoft RD Client, miCoach, and SpeedTest.

There is already an Ebay on Blackberry World which can be downloaded for the Blackberry Q10 but that version of Ebay is a port of an older version of Ebay for Android which was put into Blackberry World so everytime I started it, it would give me a message in my Blackberry Hub indicating that there was a more recent version of Ebay for Android available. With Netflix, SpeedTest, and Glympse, I already installed the converted BAR files of all of these applications and placed these onto my Blackberry Q10 but they were earlier versions of the Android APK file which were converted to BAR format so I decided that I wanted the current version of these applications (which was available from the Google Play Store) to be installed on my Blackberry Q10.

To get the APK files from your Android device, you can use a wide variety of apps. I used AirDroid and for my rooted devices I used Titanium Backup Pro (since the APK files were already backed up). Since AirDroid doesn't require a rooted device to get the APK files, this was the easier method. To use AirDroid for this purpose, you install it onto your Android device and then you launch it. After it starts up, you will be presented with a URL webpage/address to use on your computer's browser. You then enter this URL webpage/address on the browser of your computer and you will be presented with a message on your Android device prompting you whether to accept the connection or reject it. After accepting the connection on your Android device, you will go to your computer and notice an icon that entitled "Apps". You will then click on this and you will be presented with all the applications installed/accessible on your Android device. From that point, it is a simple matter of hovering your mouse over the item and then selecting the download button that will appear on the right.

After downloading the APK files that I wanted from my Android devices onto my computer, I just uploaded these APK files onto my Dropbox account. I then went to my Blackberry Q10 and clicked on the "Connect to Dropbox" (which was already configured to use my Dropbox account prior to me doing any of this) and I clicked on the APK file that I wanted to install.

After clicking on it, the file would download from Dropbox and I was presented with the install option for the program. You will need to enable apps installation from other sources if you haven't already done so. To do this, you will go into System Settings -> App Manager -> Installing Apps and turn on "Allow Apps from Other Sources to be Installed."
.

I then clicked on the Install button and within a few seconds the Android application was installed on my Blackberry Q10. At that point, it was just a matter of testing the Android app to make sure that it would work on my Blackberry Q10.

In the case of my example Android app (SpeedTest), the screen resolution of my Blackberry Q10 was not sufficient to display the app properly but it did work "properly."

In my case, the final step was just moving the Android app into the appropriate group/folder on my Blackberry Q10.

Please note that not all Android applications will work properly. For example, I installed Google Translate and it did work but I'm not sure about whether it is because I'm using a device with a physical keyboard but when trying to type in the word that I wanted translated, for every character that I typed, the cursor and screen would constantly jump from the top of the screen (where I was typing in the word) to the bottom of the screen as it was searching based on every single character that I typed. This made the application more problemsome that it was worth so I deleted it.

For the time being, it isn't possible to use any Android application that uses the Google account login without some hacking to the system. Personally I did not try to do this but I've read where others have tried it and were successful. Some of these Android apps will install and will work such as YouTube but you will not be able to link it with your Google account so you won't get a "personalized" YouTube experience. Most of these "incompatible" applications that require Google account login are created by Google. However, non-Google apps also sometimes use the the Google account or Google Play services information partially such as PayPal. After installing PayPal, when launching it, I would get a warning message below but the app appeared to run without any problems.

Some Android apps will exhibit strange behaviour that it doesn't exhibit on an Android device. For example, Glympse will show the last/family name of some of my contacts twice on my Blackberry Q10 and it doesn't do this on my LG Nexus-4 or my Samsung Nexus-S.

Some Android apps will also randomly crash. I've experienced these random crashes with Glympse and some other apps.

There is no way of knowing what Android apps will work on your Blackberry 10 device and which Android app won't work. The only way of knowing it is to either find this information on the internet or to try installing the Android app onto your Blackberry 10 device and testing it.

There is another way to install Android apps to your Blackberry 10 device directly using a Google Play application listing program called "Snap." I will outline this method in a subsequent blog entry.

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.

Blackberry 10 Installation Process to 10.2.1.537

Blackberry released v10.2.1.537 for their Blackberry 10 phones recently and I decided to update my Blackberry Q10 last week.

The size of the update was ~310MB. I didn't time the update but I did check it at the 1 hour mark and again at the 1 hour & 30 minute mark and my Blackberry Q10 was finished applying the update after 1 hour & 30 minutes and I received a message to reboot my phone.

The update process was completely seamless and trouble-free. I was a bit worried during the reboot process as the reboot process seemed to take longer than expected.

As mentioned in my previous blog entry, the two things about this update that I liked was the ability to install APK files directly onto my Blackberry Q10 without first having to convert the APK file to a BAR file was was problematic and the ability to listen to FM radio broadcasts during on the phone without using a data connection of any kind.

During the installing/updating my Blackberry Q10 to v10.2.1.537, I kept my Blackberry Q10 connected to a power source (which I believe is a requirement for the upgrade to work). I didn't try it but if the installation/updating works without it being plugged into a power source, I wouldn't recommend it since if the Blackberry were to run out of power mid-install/upgrade, your Blackberry might no longer boot up.

The version of the OS that I had previously was Software Release 10.2.0.424 (OS Version 10.2.0.179).

The update process was a 2-step non-user prompted process (if you exclude the reboot step). The first step as shown by the snapshot below was the downloading process. The download connection speed that I was using during the upgrade process was ~2 Mbits/second.

After the update finished downloading, it automatically installed it without any user intervention.

As mentioned, I didn't exactly time the  process but checked my phone twice during the upgrade process and after 1 hour & 30 minutes, I received a message prompting me to reboot my phone. I rebooted my phone and it seemed to take longer to boot up than normally (although I didn't time it, I would say that it took maybe about 5 minutes).

After my Blackberry Q10 rebooted, I was able to access the phone again and I obtained the screenshot below.

I then verified the version of Blackberry OS I had after the upgrade and I obtained the screenshot below:

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