A Month With the Nexus 4

The first thing I did when I landed at Atlanta was to look around for a phone shop. What exactly was I looking for? Of course the Nexus 4. New stocks were just being released by Google and LG in the last couple of days after the supply ran dry form the launch.

The first couple of shops I went to has yet to receive a stock. But in was lucky the third time. It was a T Mobile vendor and I paid about USD 599 for a contract-free unit. And it was the last one. The stock only game in the same morning. No hesitations. I then got a rolling monthly data package to go with the phone and I was set! And that was about a month ago.

I hesitated to write about it earlier since for some reason I wasn't very happy happy with the camera. I then sorted out the quirks, and still something was missing. Somehow it lacked the charm of the Galaxy Nexus. It wasn't a disappointment. It was more about managing expectation.

Let's start with the good points. The camera was better then the Galaxy Nexus, but I doubt it if it trumped the Note II or the S3. My 4S produced better capture. But maybe it was the software. Downloading Snapseed improved matters. But only marginally. The camera has a few neat trick up their sleeves though software-wise. There was the panorama and the ability to produce a 360 degrees capture.

The processor was blazing fast. The screen wheezed through like a breeze, thanks to Jelly Bean and Project Butter. Calendar app and Gmail felt native - indeed they were. There was no lag whatsoever. My Nova Launcher screen loaded up without any hiccups. Switching between apps did not cause any stutter. Everything felt fast for the first time on an Android platform.

The screen was vivid and the resolution was as high as the iPhone, making reading a pleasure. It also came with Google Now, a smart update system which predicted what you would want to see on the home screen. Neat!

But there were price to pay for all this. My main woe was the battery life. It only lasted around 4 hours with constant use. I browsed around the forum looking for a solution but they involved compromising the Android experience by switching off updates and certain features. Nexus 7 ran without any problem - I also carry a 3G Nexus 7 unit with me. The battery lasts all day. I was sure that a software and setting tweaks may solve this, but at the moment, I had to live it still. Mind you, I used to have similar problem with the iPhone, but it was now sorted out. Even my Galaxy Nexus lasted longer.

And the battery issue would be enough to put off certain people, and I could relate to that. But this being a stock vanilla Google phone, was still the phone to have if you were like me appreciate reliability and getting the latest in terms of software, rather than having gimmicks on the phone screen. It helps to have a fast phone as well.

For those who wanted the latest in Google experience, definitely grab this phone if you must. It you already own one of the latest top of the line Android phone, or even still own a working Galaxy Nexus, you might as well wait for future software updates to sort out the kinks on the current batch.

Being Driven Around

As soon as I reached home after the morning ward round, Anita told me that we had to head to the apartment as a prospective buyer wanted to have a look at it. On a Sunday? But well. Our lease will be up next month, and we were waiting to move into a new place on the same block. That would be next month as well.

I thought of just having a sleep rather than follow her along, but she insisted. Luckily, she also asked the family driver to take us along. So, at least I get to nap in the van and not have to worry about driving. Good thing, as I could ask to be drop for my Sunday afternoon post-take rounds as well.

Call last night was busier than I anticipated. As it was raining in the evening, I thought admission would stop coming. But I was wrong. A couple of sick ones as well.

Just finished my rounds and being driven home. Would stop for tandoori take-out as well as United would be playing Liverpool tonight. Big match. Hopefully I could stay awake for that .......

Looks Stormy

Sime Darby Healthcare would be holding their Staff Annual Dinner tonight and looking at the weather outside, it was going to be a stormy one. Both the dinner and the weather.

I might be coming a bit later since I have to go back to Gombak first. It doesn't look promising as the proceeding would start at 5, and at 4, I was still waiting for patients in clinic. After that, I had to make a quick stop at Ara Damansara to visit a patient there. It's going to be a rush. And with me being on call tomorrow, I'd better take things easy ..... But for those who were going, have a blast .....

Planting Time

Anita and the boys had a trip up Cameron Highlands while I was in Atlanta. Over there, Irfan bought some seeds and wanted to try his hand at planting them. Maybe inspired by the fauna up in the mountains. They had a visit to a tea farm among others but Cameron Highlands was too crowded in these school holidays and they ended up either holed up in the hotel or stuck in a traffic queue.

At least the hotel Anita chose seemed to be a good one as the boys enjoyed it. And the food was good.

The first thing that Irfan asked me to do when I arrived at home from the airport was to help him plant the seeds. We finished things off the same afternoon, and after a week, a few sprout was seen. He seemed to have forgotten to water them after a couple of days …..

Wreck-it Ralph

It was a lot better than we expected. We thought Rise of the Guardians was good. Wreck-it Ralph trumped it. Big time. My boys were laughing their guts out, and with plenty of cameo of characters they knew over the years, it was understandable.

Funny and fast-paced. With enough twist and sappy moments, even I was kept awake.

The story revolved around the protagonist, Ralph, a villain in an arcade video game which after a while, got fed up and decided to be the good guy for a change. It didn't go according to plan and he ended up bonding with a misfit in another video game when tried to win a car race. Ralph ended up being a father figure to the racer until the end, where another twist was revealed.

I left the theatre feeling good. The boys had been talking about the characters they saw during the movie. The one which stuck to my mind was from a video game I played in the 80s called Tapper. I used to play this with my sister on the old IBM PC, in glorious VGA graphic. How four colours used to look so good .....

A highly recommended movie for the whole family. A nice day out at the cinema guaranteed.