android gingerbread

It only took them a month or 2.... but Verizon finally started pushing the 4.0.4 update to its Galaxy Nexus users yesterday. The rollout seems to be going gradually, with some reports that Verizon plans to spread it out over 10 days.... which seems ridiculous yet on par with how they've handled everything about this phone.

That said, if you can't wait, there's always rooting and flashing the update yourself. I've been enjoying it for a month now.

Good Luck!


DnT

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I read about a lot of people who think they are making their phones run better by 'swiping' things out of their recent apps menu (the two little rectangles at the bottom right of your phone). The reality of Android is that this is at best a waste of time, and at worse, making your phone operate slower. This is not like a desktop running Windows where these other apps are running in another window. Most apps are actually in a 'standby' state when they are in the background - except if you have music or Navigation or something that is actually open and running - but that's not really what we are talking about here.



As for swiping items from "recent apps" to free up memory, there really is no point in doing that. Most of your recent apps aren't actually running. If an app is actually running in the background (like streaming Sirius), swiping it out of the recent apps doesn't actually do ANYTHING. If you go into settings > apps > running, you will see that most of the things in your recent history aren't actually running. The OS puts them in a 'suspended state' that isn't really doing anything. If you click on "cached processes" at the bottom, you will likely see many of your recent apps there. Swiping these apps from the "recent apps" tray basically is just erasing this cache and doesn't really serve any purpose. By swiping these apps out of your recent history and clearing the cache, all you are doing is 'freeing up' memory that you don't actually need. If the phone is running low on memory the OS handles this on its own by prioritizing what it keeps running or cached in the background and will close apps completely if it needs the memory. In reality, by clearing these items from the cache, all you are doing is ensuring that the next time you open that app it will take much longer to load as its doing so from scratch instead of resuming from the cached state.

I don't want to get into the discussion of task killers as they are really unnecessary, especially on devices running ICS, for the same reason. The OS does a great job at managing apps and memory. It doesn't need your help. Now, you could manually close running processes if you really felt it was necessary, however that is really not recommended unless you feel like the app has gone rogue and won't shut itself down or something.


-DnT

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I don't play many games so don't expect to find any listed here! These are in no particular order other than the order I notice them on my phone...which is basically alphabetical.

Apps:
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1. 4G Toggle (Free) - OK its not really an app, its more like a widget, but its really just a shortcut. And it doesn't even do what we all wish it would.... but if you are the owner of an LTE Galaxy Nexus and live or travel in iffy 4G areas. You need this widget. Its really just a shortcut to the screen that lets you switch between CDMA and LTE modes.... but it saves you about 3 steps going through the menus.

2. AirDroid (Free) - Forget the USB cable. Airdroid makes transferring files over wifi the way to go. Its not drag and drop but its easy enough to use and it works.

3. Better Battery Stats ($2.89) - If you are like MANY Galaxy Nexus users and find yourself running short on battery life, this app is a valuable tool for finding out why. I wrote an earlier post about the app and how to use it so I won't go into more detail here. I believe BBS is also available free for XDA members.

4. ES File Explorer (Free) - It is what it is. A file manager. It is simple, works well, works with Root, and its free. What more do you want?

5. Light Flow ($1.99) / Light Flow Lite (Free) - Take advantage of the multicolor LED notification light by assigning different colors for all your app notifications. The free version supports most basic stock notifications but if you want to set notifications for 3rd party apps like Facebook, Twitter, Skype, etc. you'll need to shell out for the full version.

6. Nova Launcher (Free) - Just like the stock launcher/homescreen, only way better. Fast, stable, and lots of options missing from stock. Some of the best features are 360 degree screen rotation, fully customize-able dock and dock icons, adjustable # of homescreens, ability to change animation when flipping between homescreens. There is Nova Launcher Prime ($4.00) which adds some more features like gestures and the ability to hide icons in the app drawer - which is nice if you have icon packs and other things that you don't ever want visible in your app drawer. The base version is good enough for me. I'd love to hide icons but not for $4.

7. Titanium Backup (Free) / Titanium Backup Pro ($6.58) - If you root and rom your device you cannot live without this app in my opinion. Titanium is the go-to app for backing up and restoring all your apps and data for users who wipe their device and install new roms. $6+ seems pricey for the pro version, but its worth it after the first time you try to manually re-install your apps one by one! The pro version allows you to install your apps/data all at once instead of going through one by one and hitting "ok".

8. TripIt (Free) - Trip it is a great app / site for keeping track of your travel plans. Its really useful for even the occasional traveler. You basically forward your confirmation emails from airlines, hotels, cruises, car rentals, etc. to Trip It, and automagically, the information appears in your account. Its visibile via the web or in app and is really nice to have every piece of information readily available in one place....from the price of your airline ticket to the phone number of the hotel you are staying at, to the departure time of your return flight. Its all there and easy to use. There is a "pro" service offered by TripIt that runs $49/yr and adds instant flight updates, tracks travel rewards, helps find alternate flights, and more. I don't travel much so the free service is plenty for me.

9. Volume+ ($1.99) - Speaker on your phone too quiet? Fix it with Volume+. This enables you to boost the volumes on just about all the audio outputs from speaker to headset. I think you can download it free from the developer's website too.

10. Wifi Tether (Free) - Need to tether that Touchpad you got in the firesale? Well, Wifi Tether is what I've been using since the days of my "OG Droid". I rarely am away from Wifi so I rarely need to tether, but its a great option to have. Requires Root - available on XDA Forums.

Widgets:
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1. Beautiful Widgets ($2.79) - its one of the few apps I paid for but it is worth it. So many widgets, clocks, weather, and totally customize-able with downloaded skins. You can even make your own skin.

2. CalWidget (Free) - I like the stock calendar widget but it still doesn't display all day events.... which makes it worthless. There are lots of 3rd party calendar widgets, but I just like the options CalWidget has to offer....from widget size to background color and opacity, it just does what I want.

3. Circle Battery Widget (Free) - A minimalist, but customize-able battery meter. Change the color and size to match any theme.

4. Widgetsoid (Free) - Like the stock power control widget? Then you'll love Widgetsoid. There's almost nothing you can't control with these fully customize-able controls. From Wifi Toggle to CPU meter, to flashlight, to airplane mode. You can create a stock looking row off toggles and readouts. The options and colors are fully user configureable to fit with any theme.

That's it for apps and widgets. Hope you enjoyed my list.


- DnT

So, two days ago Google started rolling out some updated Ice Cream Sandwiches. Namely for the GSM Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus S. So where's the love for the LTE Galaxy Nexus?

Well, according to Google, the reason is that they no longer consider ANY CDMA devices to qualify as "developer phones". Now, lots of people read this as "Google no longer supports this device" but that is simply untrue. They are still developing and building the Roms for these devices, the difference is that they cannot push it directly to the phone, nor release it for users to install. The reason, according to Google, is that the technology behind CDMA devices (used by Sprint and VZW) require the carriers to "sign a key" that enables telephony functions. Because Google cannot DIRECTLY update these devices, they no longer consider them "supported developer devices". But rest assured, they should still receive timely updates like their GSM cousins. "Should" being the key word as we all have grown to distrust carriers, especially when it comes to timely updates. Nevertheless, its only been about 48 hours since the 4.0.4 Rom was released so I'm willing to be patient. If VZW hasn't pushed out the update by next Friday, I'll start steaming....if its not out by the following Friday I'll be leading the angry mob!

Relevant links:
Phandroid - CMDA Nexus support

Android Dev Dan Morril's explanation

- DnT

Just a quick update on ICS for the touchpad. The Cyanogen team has started releasing nightly updates again. I recently installed the 3/29/2012 update. No problems. Runs smooth. Using the 4.0.4 build of ICS.

CM9 Official Nightlies

The only bugs I see in CM9 are the browsers (both stock and Chrome Beta) crashing/closing occasionally. Not sure what causes it but I am guessing its some sort of unsupported plugin. These crashes have happened on CM9 alpha 2, the 3/17 and 3/29 nightlies so its not something new I am seeing.


- DnT

Last fall I managed to score a few HP Touchpads during the great firesale. I sold a few and kept one for myself.... a 32GB model. Now, I bought it hoping that eventually Android would get ported over, but knowing that for $150 WebOS would be good enough for my needs. Primarily, this was going to be a couch surfing device and a media player for the kids when we travel, and WebOS can handle that just fine.... it even has plenty of games for the kids to mess with - though the market is sadly limited. That said, I was always hoping for the Android port.

Well, its here. Actually, its been here for a while, but I haven't wanted to mess with it until now. Recently the CyanogenMod team released their 'Alpha' build of CM9 (Cyanogen's custom ICS ROM). There are bugs, and not everything works, but honestly, its good enough. I installed CM9 Alpha 2 last week and I haven't really run into any problems. The only minor thing I've seen is that some embeded web videos don't play in the page, but really I don't care too much about that. The Chrome beta browser lacks the ability to change the user agent to 'desktop' or request desktop versions of sites like the stock browser. It is the same issue on the Galaxy Nexus, but I think being able to get the desktop site is clearly more important on a tablet.

Other than the minor browsing issues, everything else works fine. Market....sorry Play Store.... is up and running as are all the Google apps like Gmail, Maps and YouTube. Netflix is working too.

So, the bottom line is, even though this is not even a Beta yet.... its quite stable and functional and I don't see any reason to go back to WebOS. But its nice to know its there if ever I wanted it.

Install instructions can be found HERE.

Current Files can be downloaded HERE.

I installed the CM9 Alpha 2 release, but I am currently running the 3/17 Nightly release without a hitch. If you want the latest stable nightly release, I recommend installing this build and the 3/17 version of gapps. Nightly builds are available HERE.

NOTE: I ran into a weird situation during the install. The Moboot screen came up with options to boot to WebOS, WebOS Recovery, Clockwork Recovery, and Reboot. It was missing the option to boot to CyanogenMod. I uninstalled and reinstalled to no avail. I couldn't find anyone else who ran into that problem. I experimented and was able to manually install the CM9 zip. If you run into a moboot screen with no option for booting to Cyanogen, try this:
Boot to WebOS
Plug in to your PC and verify that the CM9 zip file is saved to the cminstall folder on your touchpad. If not, copy it there again.
Eject the Touchpad from your PC.
Reboot your Touchpad.
From the Moboot screen, choose "boot to clockwork recovery".
Once in clockwork recovery, choose install from zip. navigate to the cminstall folder and select the CM9 zip to install.
Install it.
This should get CM9 installed on your Touchpad. Once installed, boot to CM9. The installation should take a few more minutes. Once you have CM9 running, you need to reboot again. Boot to Clockwork recovery again, choose install from zip again.... but this time choose the gapps zip file. Once installed, reboot to CM9 and you should be all set. You just have to setup your google account and install your other apps.

(Moboot is the screen that appears during boot that lets you choose what to boot to: CM9, WebOS, Recovery, Reboot, etc. - kind of like the Safe boot selection screen on Windows).


NEXT UP: Invaluable Apps - All ICS approved of course!


- DnT