Ling has all but given up trying to find the right gadgets when it comes to my birthday. There was this occasion when she bought an (expensive) electronic shaver, that on my first try using it, turned my chin into a bloody mess. Not long after that, and knowing my love for mobile devices, she did thorough research and got me an Asus Transformer TF101, that very well-received tablet when it was released in 2011 – only that she got me the Wifi-only model which basically limited what I could do with it outside home. Lesson learned, so she said – so she got me a non-electronic and very useful notebook backpack for this year’s present to replace an old that has got frayed all over the edges.
I still love my electronic toys though. So, in the last week, I picked up two Android-based devices: the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and also the new Google Nexus 7.
I’ve really liked the Samsung Galaxy Note series, owning the first two generation devices. And while other competing mobile phone manufacturers have come up with similarly themed and styled phablets, none have come with the built-in digitizer and stylus support that the Note series have – a feature that I use a lot e.g. when jotting down notes that come to mind. Hannah loves doodling on it too. My contract plan with the telco was up for renewal, so that was opportune time to get the new phone on discount.
The new Note certainly has a nicer build than the Note 2. It’s slightly thinner, lighter, less rounded around its edges, and with its faux stitched back really feels nicer to hold. The bumped up resolution is a bonus though at my typical view distance holding the phone, I really couldn’t see that much of a difference. The Note 3 also has an enhanced feature suite for the S pen, though I found it intrusive – I prefer to just use the stylus for simple writing – that I disabled most of the new pop-up features. The device on the whole also feels snappier and quicker in doing most things, exhibiting none of the occasional sluggishness I got on the Note 2. This was an easy upgrade choice.
The Nexus 7 on the other hand was a much deliberated purchase, especially considering I already have a Motorola Xoom 2 that was picked up from clearance sales when it was getting phased out more than a year ago, and also an about year old Apple iPad 4 Retina. The iPad 4 is still working well and survived the iOS upgrade to version 7 recently – but the device also weighs a ton that of late that I’ve found myself using it less when on the move. Once the iPad Retina breaks, I’ll go with the iPad-mini instead. I’ve also been quite keen to try one of the custom ROMs that have been put together by the thriving Android developer community. This wasn’t quite possible for the Xoom 2 – OS upgrades from Motorola for this tablet has been quite disappointing, and the device is now stuck permanently on Android 4.0 – the device though still works great for Hannah, so I’ve got it loaded up with lots of her usual cartoons.
After picking up the Nexus 7 LTE over the weekend and taking the next few days to become familiar with its functions and quirks, I went about rooting, unlocking the device, and installing a custom ROM on it. The procedure wasn’t quite as smooth as I’d hope though. The version of the custom recovery software I flashed into the tablet didn’t play nice with the ROM I initially wanted to try. And compounding the problem – I accidentally deleted my backup factory image that I’d installed too, resulting in a tablet that for a couple of hours had no OS installed, couldn’t boot past BIOS, and couldn’t be detected by Windows 7 either for me to do a sideloading of a new ROM. For those us who’re not geeky – that basically means that for several hours, I had a tablet that couldn’t connect to a computer, and also had nothing on it. Potential brick and return to manufacturer situation, without warranty even LOL.
That said, and several hours of checking out self-help forums, postings and guides from the developer community, I had the ROM difficulties sorted out – I still couldn’t get my choice ROM working on it, and eventually settled for the most recent stable build of the CyanogenMod ROM instead. Most Android users won’t ever have to worry about custom ROMs like these, but for those of us who love tweaking and heavily customizing our devices, custom ROMs are great. That said, I’d only install custom ROMs on devices that aren’t critical though – so the Note 3 is going with the official firmwares from Samsung.
Ling seemed quite impressed by the Nexus 7. Not by the device itself – but that it was small and compact enough for me to fit it into my bermudas pockets.=)
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