Only 4 months to catch up...

OK, so to be fair, Verizon caught up and jumped back to the front line where we should be. However, that doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside about Verizon's ridiculous update delays. Verizon's Galaxy Nexus never saw the 4.2 update that its GSM cousins received back in November/December and chugged along on 4.1 for almost 4 months. 4.2.2 rolled out on February 11th putting us even further behind (3 updates, though 4.2.1 was just a bug fix). I was shocked to see the 4.2.2 "soak test" start to roll out after only 19 days, and I had the leak installed on March 5th. One can only hope the general roll out isn't too far behind.

If you are running stock 4.1.1 build JRO030 you can update to 4.2.2 now using either clockworkrecovery (if you are rooted) or using ADB (if you are unrooted). Directions can be found on Droid-Life and the update can be downloaded HERE. Note that this is an UPDATE not a full 4.2.2 build so you have to be running stock 4.1.1 to install it.


Based on the ICS and JB leak timelines, barring any issues with 4.2.2 I would expect the general rollout to commence somewhere between March 25th and April 1st. 


-DnT
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Just for future reference, I often find myself revisiting this timeline to try to figure out when Verizon's update for my Galaxy Nexus will occur.

4.0.4: ICS update
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4.0.4 was pushed by google (GSM) around March 30th.
4.0.4 was soak tested by Verizon on May 1st.
4.0.4 was pushed by Verizon around May 31-June 1

So, right on 60 days to 4.0.4


4.1: Jellybean
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Google began updating their GSM Nexus to Jelly Bean (4.1) on July 10th.
Verizon's soak test started on August 29, 2012.
An early leak was posted online in the first week of September. (I installed on 9/5)
The full update was rolled out 9/21

So about 73 days to Jelly Bean 4.1.


4.2: JB update
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The 4.2 update began rolling out on November 13, 2012 to the Domestic GSM variant "takju". 
4.2.1 was pushed out with a bug fix on November 27, 2012.
The Sprint CDMA variant started updating on January 30th, 2013
Verizon NEVER saw 4.2 or 4.2.1


4.2.2: JB update
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4.2.2 was released on February 11, 2012
4.2.2 hits Verizon testers on March 2, 2013 (only 19 days! That has to be a record)
On March 4, 2013 a leaked version was posted online. (I installed it on 3/5)
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Happy Anniversary Samsung Galaxy Nexus!

Saturday was the 1 yr anniversary of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Verizon's first (and hopefully not last) Nexus phone. 

In other news, its been a year (yeah, I picked mine up on the 16th) with my Galaxy Nexus and I don't regret it at all.  Sure I have some complaints, but it is by far the best phone I've ever had and will be with me for at least another year!

My complaints....
1. Battery life requires a lot of tweaking. but I'm OK with that. I just wish that Google did a better job out of the box maximizing battery life. In particular, I wish that maps/location would stop hogging so much CPU time and battery life.

2. Its a little slippery on the sides, I wish it had a little texture there.

3. I wish Verizon would speed up their update release schedule.

-DNT
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ACT NOW: DON'T LET COPYRIGHT HOLDERS STEAL OUR PROPERTY RIGHTS!

Visit www.youvebeenowned.org

[I'm sure DemandProgress.org won't complain about me cutting and pasting their content - I don't think they'll file a copyright claim on this! Please pay attention as Hollywood, The RIAA, Publishing companies, and manufacturers push to strip us of our right to sell what is ours.]

Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether you have the right to sell your stuff on eBay. Do you really own the smartphone or computer you’re using to read this? If you sold your books, would you be breaking the law? A federal court in New York says you would be, even if you legally paid for and bought them.

It's unbelievable, but trademark and copyright holders are trying to use a legal loophole to take away your right to sell things that you own. The mainstream media is starting to catch on, with the Wall Street Journal just running an article headlined, "YOUR RIGHT TO RESELL YOUR OWN STUFF IS IN PERIL". Please add your name at right to fight back.

Public interest advocates are taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court, and Demand Progress is joining up with a coalition of groups -- including many of those that came together to kill SOPA -- to support the rights of ordinary Internet users and everyday consumers.

Once again, big entertainment company lobbyists are fighting us in the courts to ensure their profits are given higher priority than consumer rights. But this time the MPAA and RIAA have the Obama administration on their side --they've all filed legal briefs asking the Supreme Court to restrict our right to resell the things we own..

We only have a few weeks to make our voices heard before the Supreme Court makes a lasting ruling. We are working to defend a long-standing principle known as the "First-Sale Doctrine." This common-sense rule gives us the right to sell most property we own, but big businesses have been trying to chip away at out our rights in the courts. If the Supreme Court supports the lower court’s decision, we won't really “own” anything if any part of it was made in a different country. And practically anything you own -- from your iPod to your house -- could have been made abroad, in whole or in part.

If we lose this fight, practically anybody who wants to resell products they bought -- from Macbooks and iPhones to our clothing and textbooks -- will have to ask copyright holders for permission first. And they'll have the right to deny it!

It's bad for so many reasons: It'll undermine Craigslist and Ebay, hurt the environment, increase incentives for manufacturers to move jobs off-shore, and effectively ban the traditional American yard sale. For more info, please check out Marvin Ammori's article about the lawsuit.

Jelly Bean for Verizon (UPDATE!)

While the official Jelly Bean update for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus is still MIA, there is a leaked version (JRO03O) that has been making the rounds on the internet. 

(UPDATED 9/21) The official Verizon update has arrived! Users are reporting the update is now available via Wi-Fi ONLY for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. Get on Wi-Fi and hit that 'Check For Update' button now! 

I installed the leak on my rooted GN on September 5th and have been running it since. I thought I'd share my impressions here for those who may have grown impatient.

Jelly Bean definitely shows marked improvement in the responsiveness of the phone in terms of swiping, scrolling, and opening apps. Google Now offers some really intriguing features, but at this point for me they offered little value. The updates on sports scores were nice (at least once Google got NFL scores going for week 2!). I imagine people who do a lot of travelling would love the flight updates and travel features, but as I rarely move about the country (and even less about the world), they were of little use to me. Same goes for traffic updates - I work from home so traffic notifications offer me no help. I tried to  activate "places" to get updates on nearby events or businesses but I never had a card show up. Its possible I just hadn't given Now a chance to learn about me before disabling it.  The real issue for me, though, was the seemingly large increase in battery usage attributed to map/location-related programs. Under Better Battery Stats, there were no fewer than 5 different processes responsible for 'waking up' the processor on my phone, some with significant usage. Location services have always seemed to use an excessive amount of background processor time which always bugged me, but the increase I saw with Google Now active was just too much.

(Update: I'm giving Google Now another shot but with limited location features to see if it works any better)

The most obvious other change I saw in Jelly Bean was the device settings page. Instead of the previous "accounts & sync" line, Android 4.1 brings all your accounts to the main list for easier access and modification. I really don't find this to be a valuable addition as I rarely ever find myself adjusting things like app syncing. I usually keep all but the minimum necessities OFF. I feel that this change didn't add anything and just cluttered up the main settings screen and forced me to scroll more to get down to things like 'developer options' and 'about phone'.

The most useful change in Jelly Bean is the notification bar. Aside from the font style and color change, the notifications are far more useful. Instead of a very limited listing of your notifications, Jelly Bean provides you with a very detailed list of what's waiting for you including the content of SMS messages and an extended amount of info from received gmails, not to mention the ability to call contacts directly from missed call notifications.  It really makes the notification bar so much more useful.

As far as functionality goes, the radios did not appear to offer me any improvements over the prior versions, but then again, I never had major problems despite being in a borderline 3G/4G area.

[Note: If you were rooted on ICS and flashed the Jellybean update, you probably lost root and don't even know it. To regain root, copy this updated SU zip file to your sdcard and then install the zip through cockwork recovery.]

-DnT

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Apple plays catch up...

Or.... "The all-new iPhone 5"
Or.... "The new iPhone XLT"
Or.... "The innovative new device everyone else was already making...."

OK, so maybe I kid, a little.

But honestly, let's look at what's "new" here.

4" screen - Done 2 years ago, and a new 4"+ phone is released almost every day it seems.
Also, didn't Steve Jobs once say “3.5 inch handset size is the “sweet spot” for mobile phone design; big enough to produce detailed, legible graphics, but small enough to fit comfortably in the hand and pocket.”  I guess things change.  Maybe people evolved bigger hands in the last 2 years. To be fair, different screen sizes work for different people, which is what makes Android and all of its choices so great in my opinion. To each his own, size.

16:9(ish) - Again, Steve Jobs didn't like 16:9. Thought it was only good for movies. Times change I guess. I am a little surprised that their solution to resolution change on older apps is to letterbox. I guess they'll be pushing devs to update to the 16:9 ratio so they don't want to make it too complicated in the meantime.

UPDATE: Something else that's been bugging me about the iPhone is the display. While Apple unquestionably produces a phone with a great display, it still surprises me that they stick with a 640 horizontal line display. With almost all of today's manufacturers producing a 720 line display I find in interesting that they are sticking with 640. Obviously the benefit is transitioning apps to the new longer display more easily, but it just seems like having 720 lines gives you 'more' when it comes to video. Most HD video is 1080p or 720p, so scaling down to 640p implies a loss of some lines of resolution.

Headphone port on the bottom - Not sure that the Galaxy Nexus was the first, but it sure had that last year when it came out. It makes sense too. I'm pretty sure everyone puts their phone in their pocket upside down right?  Only fitting to put the port on the bottom so you can be plugged in while its in your pocket without switching things around.

Panorama photograph mode - Had that on my Galaxy Nexus last year. Check


LTE - Done early 2011.  In Apple's defense, there was no rush to be early to the party... as other than Verizon almost no one has a substantial LTE network in place anyway. No penalty for the late arrival.

Sharing tabs between mobile and desktop - Chrome Browser / Android Browser. Check.

SMS response when declining calls - Android. Check.


I'll give Apple some points for making it lighter, that's for sure. In terms of making it thinner, well its 18% thinner but its 18% longer, so no points there.




Also, while I completely understand them going with a new connector, the adapter they are showing just looks absolutely redonkulous.

UPDATE: The adapter is $30!  Ouch. That's a lot of extra cash coming Apple's way for everyone with an existing dock....






All in all, Apple is finally updating the iPhone to what consumers have been demanding for more than a year now. A 4" (or more) 16:9 screen and, for some, LTE. A lot of the 'new' features won't seem all that new to Android users, but with Apple's focus on litigating, it must leave little time for innovating!  Obviously, no one has touched one of the new iPhone 5's yet, so no one can comment on the performance of the processor, camera, or any of the other software features. They might turn out to be incredible, even if many of the other features are today's standards.


-DnT
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Where are those Jelly Beans?

As most Android addicts on Verizon Wireless know, Verizon is a bit slow to push updates. We suffer through it because they have the best speed and best coverage... and best customer service.

Anyway, as many people are aware, Google released their most recent version of the Android OS 4.1 codenamed "Jelly Bean" back in early July. Owners of the direct-from-google GSM variant of the Galaxy Nexus were treated to that update starting on July 10th.

So what does that mean for those of us on Verizon Wireless?  Let's see what happened with the 4.0.4 update to Ice Cream Sandwich.....

4.0.4 was pushed to Google's GSM variant around March 30th.
4.0.4 was soak tested by Verizon on May 1st (Which I immediately flashed to my phone!)
4.0.4 was finally pushed by Verizon around May 31-June 1

So, right on 60 days basically.

Google began updating their GSM Nexus to Jelly Bean on July 10th.
Based on the ICS timetable, I'd expect a Verizon soak test in Mid August.... which is now-ish.... followed by a full push in early September.

I guess we can only wait and see....



-DnT

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Black Wallpapers - for the extreme power saver!

So, with an AMOLED screen, colors are generated by illuminating individual LED's. Black is 'created' by NOT illuminating LEDs. Needless to say, dark screen = less power (unfortunately black is not zero, but its as close as we can get). As a result, some of the more serious battery power conservationists out there run black or very dark wallpapers to minimize power usage.  I just thought I'd share a handful of my favorites. I didn't make them, I just like them!

All Black - The name says it all.

 Blocks - What would you call it?

 Black Steel

Carbon Fiber

Carbon Fiber 2