Review: Upgrading Android 4.3 on Google Nexus 4

Today when I got up in the morning, incidentally I checked the "Settings >About" page of my Nexus 4 phone as if I got a message from God(Google) last night via dreams. 

Do you usually check your phone settings as a first thing in the morning? This is the first time I am doing it in the morning.

Surprise…. I see that the new Android 4.3 update is available and it started downloading the update… Hurray!!

I was excited to see what’s new it? The update was 167.7 MiB to be precise. My mode is changed to “Curiosity” as always. The only next focus is to get this update downloaded and feel the difference.

With the 512 kbps unreliable BSNL broadband I managed to download and install the latest android 4.3 update by Midday.

After the upgrade I went through the release notes to see actually what’s inside.

I found, restricted profiles, multiple users, Low energy Bluetooth, and location detection without keeping wifi always on, virtual surround sound. Auto complete on dial pad, new algorithm for android key board etc.

But it is written there that some of these featured will work only on Android tablet.

especially the restricted profiles and multiple users etc.

I felt this release is mainly targeted at the Tablet users. There isn't any fancy new stuff for the smartphone users like me. Disappointed!

Apart from this Google claims perceived speed and usability. I didn't find any noticeable difference in speed. My Nexus is as fast as when bought. Not more not less.

After upgrading the OS. I immediately got an update notification for Google maps. I accepted it and when checked, I found the Google Navigation app is removed completely from my phone. Probably Maps and navigation is combined together in one app. Nice!

The biggest disappointment was that after upgrade my video players VLC player and MX player stopped working. Probably they are not written forward compatible. This was not expected from these people. I right away I filed bugs.

The default android video player does not play my torrent downloaded movies properly it’s like watching a stop motion or time-lapse recording… the moment I felt I should not have upgraded now.

Then I explored other apps to see if others are also broken. Fortunately other app were working fine. I have 65 apps. I went and checked each of them. So no major damage there.

My next attempt was to check the bug fixes. It looks like some bugs are fixed. I had a bug that switching profiles from mute to normal does not restore volume. This appears to be fixed in this release. There’s a notification bar freezing bug and a camera app bug I am yet to test and confirm. They were not reproducible always.

I checked the default camera…Ooohaa!.. The settings interface is totally revamped. I think Google realized that the earlier onscreen interface was really hard to use and error prone. They completely changed it. Now almost all camera features can be changed onscreen. The position of some buttons is also adjusted to be easily accessible close to the shutter button. And I found nothing new in the camera except camera settings interface.

New features on Android 4.3

-          Restricted profiles ( Tablet only )

-          Multiple users (Tablet only)

-          Support for low energy Bluetooth devices

-          No need to keep Wifi on for location detection using Wifi.

-          Virtual surround sound (Tablet only )

-          TV Wireless Sharing ( Tablet only )

-          Dial pad with auto complete

-          New improved (?) interface onscreen camera settings.

-          Open GL 3.0 for better graphics & gaming

-          Additional language support. Android is now translated in Hindi also.

-          Disabled apps tab in settings ( Tablet only )

-          Bug fixes.

What you will loose if you update now:

-          VLC player wont work

-          MX player won’t work

-          And any other app which depends on OS version won’t work.

Summary:

There’s nothing great in this update for phone users other than minor bug fixes and incompatible play store apps. Compared to 4.2 this update is very very minor.

My suggestion is to wait one more month before you try an upgrade to Android 4.3 Jelly bean. By that time you will have your play store apps upgraded to support the new OS version.

Tablet users can try the restricted profiles, multiple users, TV sharing and virtual surround.

Reference:

1. http://www.android.com/about/jelly-bean/

2. My Nexus 4 phone

Update:

VLC player update android 4.3 is available now.
MX player update for android 4.3 is available now.

Why Indians are not part of worlds greatest inventions?

Everybody in India knows that we do not innovate, we just follow the west.
But have you ever thought why?

Just think about a couple of inventions that changed the world.
Telescope, gravity, clock, telephone,electric power, bulb, rail, bus, train, bicycle, camera, computers, mobile phones, internet, Unix, windows, Facebook.if we go on listing...there are too many..

The question is why none of these come from India. Why not? Don't have have 5000 years of history, brilliant people, and the greatest education system in the world.

If your answer is excuses like,  British colonization or poor country, bad politicians etc in the past. I am sorry...We have everything now.We are well connected with the rest of the world. We have educated people,money, power everything. Still we do not innovate..

Even now, world is seeing a lot of innovations every now and then, whether we realize it of not.

During a coffee break, I discussed this with my friends and a our initial guess was that western countries are developed, rich. So they can afford to fund these inventions.Then we thought about Thomas Alva Edison. Who funded him? There was no money or govt. support for him.Then we thought their brain is genetically more creative than ours. But there was no basis to believe that because we are not that far behind.

Then we looked at it from a different angle. What is different between the west and India? Cultural difference!! But how cultural difference can be come the seed for innovations  We digged further... Innovations required a lot of focused and persistent effort. And the less limiting factors that you have, the more focused you become and that leads to innovations. When I talk about "focused", it doesn't mean focusing on one thing for 40 hours a weeks for 1 or 2 years. I am talking about focusing 24x7 for several years, may be 10 or more years.

Indians simply can't do that because of the close kit family structure we have. We have to support our wife, children, father, mother, sometime even grand parents. If I go on inventing something..90% chance that I loose family...which I can't afford to loose. I may have to struggle with limited resources with several years. I may not earn during there 10 years.

Indians care a lot about family life. Our system of single marriage, supporting children up to adult age supporting parent at old age. These limit freedom of thought and act. So our brains are tuned to live a balanced life. The society expects that their children will keep this balance. We rarely take risks.
We always try to play safe. We never walk the way untraveled.

Disclaimer: This is just my personal view and should not be treated otherwise.