Howdy, It’s been a while. A long while.

So… what brings me back you say? The Nexus 4 of course! I’ve been contemplating this phone ever since it was announced. The early reviewers didn’t cover what I thought were the key issues for me and what I feel a lot of other folks like me. Also, no benchmarks here; just my usage of the devices.

Let’s get into my tech/device background. I’m an apple fanboy, maybe? I like to try new other devices though. Don’t know if that disqualifies me though. Anyways, I’m pretty tech savvy. I don’t need the latest and greatest but I want good design and functionality. Oh, and a great camera. That one is important.

I was in the market for a new phone and I was leaning heavily toward the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note II. Here were the features that mattered to me: camera, call quality, and phone that will get out of my way and just let me connect to whatever. And yes, I still make phone calls. I was using a android 2.4. Either way, was it’s a big upgrade for me. The iPhone would be last resort as I am growing tired of iOS. Too many clicks/touches to do things. Annnnd I’m addicted to Swype. Swype has to be one of the best ways yo type on a touchscreen.

When the note 2 was announced, I was immediately attracted to it. The size didn’t put me off. I was really looking forward to using the stylus as I’ve grown to love it with Paper on the iPad. To my dismay, the S pen needs a lot of work still. The apps are half baked for the S pen & pressure sensitivity is just not up to par yet. I could over look this though. Samsung has created a great phone with a lot of great features for touch whiz… turning off the auto-rotate when your face is aligned with the screen is genius! They’ve built a lot of other features such as best picture and two apps at once. WOW! Not mention the camera. It takes great pictures. One of the best cameras on a android device. Yeah, I was going to get the Note 2.  Then they announced the Nexus 4!

And so, my dilemma began.  The only thing I kept thinking was that I couldn’t count on Samsung to update the note 2 to keep it relevant. The S pen would mean extra dev time for an android upgrade. I know there’s a healthy mod community out there, but that’s just not my cup of tea. I want my phone to work without having to anything to it. I decided to bite the bullet and get the Nexus 4.

AND it came yesterday!!! I’ll be rating the Nexus 4 on a 60 point system. Yep 60 points. 6 categories, 10 points each, we’ll do the math at the end. And let’s be clear here. Scoring a 5 is not average. If we go back to school, that’s failing.

• Design
• Screen/Display
• Battery
• Everyday Usage (OS & calls)
• Camera
• Apps

Design – 9
YES! The Nexus 4 is as gorgeous you’ve seen through out the web. LG and Google have done an amazing job with the phone. This phone feels great in the hand. Very light. I kinda wish they would have made it a bit thicker and added some more weight to the phone. Nexus 4 weighs approximately 1/3 of a lb. iPhone 5 weighs 1/4 lb. for comparison, but it feels appropriate for it’s size. The Nexus 4 though… that screen is so big. I hate to say this, but the Nexus 4 feels fragile. That’s my only complaint for design the phone.

Screen/Display – 9
It’s not the best screen out there, but it’s pretty damn good. I would have given it a 10, but you can’t use it in direct sunlight. I have a phone that’s 3 years old with a TFT screen that I could use in daylight. I just think the industry is going in the wrong direction with screens. I hope they stop focusing on the ppi and more so on brightness for outdoor use. The Droid DNA is a great example. 1080p but the brightness sucks on it.

Battery – 6
The battery on the Nexus 4 is sub par. I haven’t been doing a lot of heavy  usage on this, but man, the battery life on this Nexus 4 is pretty bad for this day and age. FYI that beautiful screen comes at a cost;  it’s consuming ~40% of the battery. The battery is not user replaceable. I don’t know how many charge cycles the Nexus 4’s battery will be able to handle. I had to replace the battery on my previous phone exactly 2 years into ownership. I would like this to last for at least 3 years. We’ll see how this pans out.

Everyday Usage (Calls & OS) – 3
This device can multitask like no other. It’s super fast and smooth. The Note 2 with it’s better benchmarking processor isn’t this smooth. Is cause of 4.2? Who knows, but at this point and time, the Nexus 4 blows it and everything else out of the water.

So why the 7? There are some UI tweaks that need to be made to enhance it. But mostly I took off points because the nexus 4 gets HOT. UNACCEPTABLE GOOGLE & LG. After a less than 5 mintues of surfing the web and playing with the phone’s features,  the Nexus 4 got HOT, not warm, but HOT. It’s wasn’t the battery getting hot, it was the screen and I’m guessing the cpu. Hottest spot was the top middle of the phone. Again, UNACCEPTABLE GOOGLE & LG. I am hoping that this can be resolved with a software patch, turning the cycles or something along those lines.

Camera – 7
Ok, so a camera is one of the main reasons I get a phone. It’s gotta be good. The Nexus 4’s camera is ok. It takes desaturated images which can then be adjusted post via one of it’s many features. I guess that’s pretty cool, but take a good pic to begin with please. Also the pics are a bit soft, not a lot of sharpness to them. I’ve also yet gotten to a good HDR pic.

Why the 7? It’s still a decent camera for an android. Why did get this phone if the camera is so important to me? Snapseed. Google bought Nik Software a few months ago who developed Snapseed for iOS. It’s a great app that let’s you do many things post. I think some of their functions are already in 4.2. I’m counting on Nik to work out the kinks on camera sensor. Supposedly, it’s the same camera as the ones Samsung uses in the Galaxy line so it should be able to take good pictures. Everyone knows google will update the nexus 4. Again, we don’t know about Samsung’s intentions on upgrades.

Apps – 8
Android has come a long way. Google Now just works. Plain and simple. It’s not hidden beneath a skin ala other android devices, it’s front and center. There are a lot of other apps (games, productivity, etc) missing from Google’s catalog. Even Facebook is not up to par with it’s iOS sibling. I think FB works other versions 4.1 and earlier. For me there are enough android apps that I can use to get me through the day. For my data connected device, I want information and the web, that’s where android 4.2 succeeds with the Nexus 4.

So, where does that leave us? 9+9 is 18. Add the 3 and 7 together you get 10.. add 6 and 8 you get 14. Carry the one, and BOOM: 42! Holy shit! 42!!! I should end this here.

Pssst… that only gives a score of 70%… What is that a D? Well… We can’t give this phone a D. The nexus 4 is a lot better than the sum of the parts. And bottom line it got a 42! How wicked is that?!! I want to say it’s the bet android device I’ve seen to date and a true flagship. But until fix the nexus 4’s issue of it getting hot, I can not say that. i am hoping I just have a rouge model. Will update as I find out more; after all it’s been just 24hrs.

Today is my birthday. Today marks the start of  my few remaining Fibonacci years. Your birthdays based on the Fibonacci Sequence. Not to be grim or anything, it just reminds me to realize how special this year is. I have to make the most of it.

I have been blessed with many great opportunities…

UPDATE:
HAHAHAHA…. Yea, just came back write about the Nexus 4. Well, so much for the afterglow. This year has been good to me; made me realize what’s important to me and who.

It’s not the year I envisioned. But, it is the year I needed.

Times are a changin. Yes. Yes they are Mr. Dyaln. Last night over 111 million people tuned in to watch the Superbowl. But I would say only half of  them tuned in for the game. The ones not watching Rodgers firing on all cylinders, were tuning in for the commercials.

Gone are big budgets, yet we tune in. Gone are the overboard productions, yet we tune in.

Gone are the talented writers, yet we tune in.

Ah, yes, the Design 100 challenge. I haven’t touch this since last March I believe.

Failed miserably. This is an attempt to get back into the creative free flow of the tools at hand. thought I would go back and brush up on my PS and AI skills; rediscover what some of the filters and effects can achieve.

Yes. We met while back actually. First off, I want to say that I love your sexy new look. Look at you using the latest and great web tech, and blazing a path of your own. Mmmmm Mmm! Hot Damn! Okay, but that’s as far as the sexiness goes.

I miss the version that would clean & cook for me. You know the one. Wasn’t as flashy as you, but took care of my needs and knew how to get into my heart. Yup, you know that old adage—”only way to get into a man’s heart is through is stomach.”

I miss the way you served up heaping helpings of that good stuff. Now all you want to is be secretive and not share any of the tasty tidbits. What happened? I thought we a good thing going. C’mon gimmie that good stuff one more time.

Please baby, please baby, please baby, baby baby please!

What’s got me quoting old Spike Lee movies? DATA.

The NEW Twitter is great for people wanting to consume info & tweets that others post; displaying images and videos without having click a link at all. But if your business relies on knowing who’s watching your videos,  you are SOL right now.

When someone views an image or video from a service supported by twitter, those stats are not logged in most of the services they are coming from. I’m not sure that this was a calculated move by the talented folks at Twitter to shift towards monetization, but it sure looks like it. I’m surprised that a lot more people are not up in arms about this. Where are the social media experts?! I need your help! As Twitter Analytics rolls out I’m sure that they will address this issue. Why? Because Twitter Analytics is only for advertisers.

Yes, this is about Farmville. We’ll get to it later. This past week I was trapped in the house due to a freak winter storm that our State was not ready to handle. I was going stir crazy. Twitter was no fun; everyone was complaining about snow/ice. And I had run out fresh content on the intertubes.
So I decided to something wild and crazy. Play Farmville. If you know me you’re going, WTF?! But rest assured this was not for entertainment purposes alone. I wanted to see what attracted so many players to the game. What made Zynga more profitable than Facebook this year.
As I began playing, the game reminded me of Warcraft. No not WOW, but the original game. Very task based and directed at first and then it gave you the freedom to what ever you wanted within the game once you started leveling up.
Lest go over basic gameplay first. The soundtrack is a simple melodic tune that comes to life when you complete simple tasks. Think Vegas slot machines. The game lulls you into playing and cashing in to hear that sweet cha-ching sound. But you can only hear that sound so often with out neighbors. In order to level up, you must get neighbors, your facebook friends to play the game. Brilliant.
This creates a swarm of activity on your farm, that your resources (energy and cash) can’t keep up with. Zynga has masterfully partnered with other business to give you game cash if you sign up a particular service or product. Kind of like a squeeze page if you will.
I was wondering what happened to them on the net. Zynga cornered the market and moved it to Facebook. I don’t know if I should be happy that a lot of that gunk has been cleared from the tubes or upset that these practices still exist on a different level.

This is the year of the Farhan. The year of me. I am returning to my roots. I am returning to the things that ignite my passion. Music, art, & learning.

Let’s start with the fun stuff, music. Those of you that have been to a show with me know that someone/something else emerges. I get enthralled by the rhythm become one with the crowd. At that moment I transcend. I want to capture this energy and use it in other environments.

Art is one of them. Remember my design 100 challenge? Yeah… By going to more shows, I’ll fuel the fire for my art. This year, I’m starting a new.

Finally, I’m going to start learning again. I really haven’t brushed up on my physics or psych & that really irks me.

These past two years, I feel, have been stagnant for me. I have been resting on my laurels. No more. 2011 is the year of the Farhan. See you at the top.