Snacking with Adel

I’m the type of guy who’s on a never-ending, eternal search for the right case for my iPhone 5. And never really getting satisfied.

I’ve tried everything, from the cheap, tiangge-bought generic cases, to the highly stylized, ergonomically-correct, protection-from-a-nuclear-attack, very expensive boutique bumpers and shells. I’ve recently been reviewing heaps of cases for the iPhone 5/5s for this site, and while they’re perfectly adequate, I still haven’t, after all this time, come across the perfect one for me: simple, no-nonsense, and made from the best materials you can find.

Although I think I just can’t come to terms with the fact that what I really want in a case is—no case at all.

I really like the iPhone 5 the way it is, bare, with its subtle lines, very simple yet elegant; with its lightness and lack of weight, yet strong where it counts; the gleaming edges and wonderful screen; the svelte form factor of the physical phone, OS notwithstanding.

It’s meant to be naked. Bare and beautiful, and unencumbered by a case.

So, I’m finally going to stop this nonsense and start using it without one.

But reality, as is its wont, always intrudes. While you cannot protect it from accidental drops and falls (what case can, really?) at least you need to protect it from the daily nicks and scratches, from the vagaries of objects coexisting in your bag or pocket like keys and coins, the odd little sharp points of everyday, mundane life.

I’m going to need a sleeve to keep it in when I’m not using it, while just carrying it around. So I went looking for one.

I went looking for weeks and weeks. Not really a lot in the stores. There were some pouches going around, and there were drawstring fabric cases in some, but nothing really perfect.

There was a brand that sounded interesting, but it was only online. It was called Sena, and in their catalogue they had this exceptionally thin, professionally made, handcrafted leather sleeve specifically made for the iPhone 5 that they were selling. Not exorbitantly priced, but pricey just the same. And, like most nice things, they weren’t selling the sleeve here in this country.

That is, until I came across one for sale on the marketplace of another site I frequent, a forum for Mac users, and for which I was one of the moderators.

I went and contacted the guy right away. He had ordered from Amazon, and he had ordered more than one, and now he was selling the extra one, sealed and pristine in its packaging. I computed the Amazon price and factored in shipping, and he wasn’t that far off from it. We haggled back and forth, and pretty soon we had a price we were both agreeable with.

So, just like that, I bought the Sena Handcrafted/Italian Leather UltraSlim Classic for iPhone 5/5s.

Apparently, it’s a pretty famous and prestigious sleeve, and is their best seller. It’s been on the market for exactly a year now, and why I’ve only heard about it recently I’ll never know. Although there’s not much to tell, really. It was a leather sleeve for the iPhone 5, and that, as they say, was that.

But, oh, what a sleeve it was.

You can tell right away this thing is expensive and made with care. The meticulous hand-stitching on the case screams quality. There is a subtle, understated Sena logo on the top that you can miss if you’re not looking closely. It was deceptively thin and made of black, rich full-grain Italian leather which fit the iPhone like a glove. A tight glove, to be sure, since it was new, but as leather products go, it’ll wear and fit beautifully over time.

And apparently, there was a break-in period for the leather sleeve—in fact, there was something about that included in the packaging, which, frankly, intimidated me a little:

“THE BREAK-IN PERIOD FOR GENUINE LEATHER

Every Sena case is individually handcrafted from the finest quality, full-grain, European Napa Leather. Sena cases are precisely hand-stitched by leather artisans and our designers select specific leather matched to particular case designs, based on the material’s ability to age and uniquely form to each device.

Due to the break-in period and the nature of the quality genuine leather, Sena designs each case for the tightest fit, while allowing the leather to soften and improve over time. The leather adjusts to the device and individual habits of the user. If the overall usage and fit initially seems tight, please allow a few days for the leather to adjust for improved functionality. Gentle use and massaging of the leather helps ease the break-in period.”

This certainly wasn’t your typical sleeve.

It’s soft and light, and it was almost lost in the packaging. It’s the thinnest leather pouch that Sena sells, and I can believe it. It was made of Napa leather that had some tiny holes in the bottom so that I could hear the speakers when it was in my pocket, but other than that it was a closed sleeve. (There are other Sena models that had cutouts for the Lightning connector and the headset, but this was the UltraSlim Classic, which was as simple as you can get. And which was how I liked it.)

My iPhone 5 slipped in it very tightly, and it was an exact fit. It was like a second skin, and didn’t add any to the bulk and size of the iPhone. But insert just the iPhone—no cases allowed, no matter how slim. You could slip the iPhone in with a screen protector, I guess, but that’s it. The iPhone alone’s a very tight fit already.

The hand-stitching doesn’t go all the way to the top of the sleeve, and it’s looser where those two flaps are on the top, but the thing is wedged in there pretty tight. In time, it’ll conform and shape itself to be more loose and easier to pull out.  There was even a note instructing users how to pull their phones from the sleeve. I had a hard time in the beginning pulling the phone out, but got used to it after several tries. No matter what the instructions said, I found that simply pulling it out by your thumb and fingers with a bit of force usually works.

The inner lining is made of soft felt, which gave the iPhone’s screen a cleaning whenever you pulled the phone out from the sleeve. Which, if you use an iPhone and are used to it being a damned fingerprint magnet, you would really appreciate.

The full-grain leather won’t really protect your phone from a determined sharp object intent on scratching your screen, but it deflects the minor damage inflicted by the errant key or coin, and in the end, that’s all these various cases and protectors can really do.

But at last, I’ve found what I really want in a sleeve. Simple, no-nonsense, and made from the best leather you can buy. This one’s going to last me a long, long time.

The Sena Handcrafted/Italian Leather UltraSlim Classic for iPhone 5/5s is available in nine different colors—Green, Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, White, Tan, Brown, and Black—for US$29.99 from its website, www.senacases.com. They ship internationally via FedEx for a flat US$10, or you can also get it from Amazon or eBay, or from any other sites that sell these kinds of sleeves. And I’ll tell you one more thing—it’s worth every centavo.

*Reprinted from Technoodling

In a world where there are hundreds of third-party iPhone 5/5s cases, there are still a precious few ones that include a cover to protect the front of the iPhone, much less ones whose covers fold back and become a stand. They used to make them in the beginning, but not so much anymore.

The most recent case-stands are like what Apple still makes for the iPads—the Smart Covers that fold back and become prop-ups for the thing. Wouldn’t it be great to have something like that for your phone?

Which is what the SmartCase Foldable Cover Stand for the iPhone 5/5s is, apparently. This rare-ish case from a company called The Core has a folding cover that lets you prop up your iPhone 5/5s in portrait or landscape mode.

It’s basically a slip-on rubber case for your iPhone with openings for the power, volume, and mute buttons, and openings in the bottom for the speakers, Lightning synching/charging port and headphone jack, but it incorporates a patent leather folding cover for the screen which has a magnetized flap over the edge to keep the cover in place, and which protects it from the elements and the errant key or coin that can scratch and rub against the smartphone’s screen and damage it.

Additionally, the cover is configured to fold back in a certain way so that it becomes a stand for your iPhone, in Japanese origami-like fashion. The folding of the cover is held in place by more magnets placed at strategic points inside it.

You can prop up your iPhone 5/5s in landscape mode, if you’re watching a video—

—or in portrait mode if you’re doing other work, or generally require it to be motionless and upright.

It’s certain a damn sight refreshing to still have something like this for the iPhone. Specially if you’re watching a long movie, or reading a book.

It’s packaged in an attractive box, with the obligatory screen protector and microfiber wipe cloth included. I was sent Black, Yellow, Blue and Orange versions of the case, but there are a lot of other colors available, nine in total.

The SmartCase Foldable Cover Stand for iPhone 5/5s from The Core is currently available in Beyond The Box, Digital Hub or Digital Walker branches for P1,200.

*Reprinted from Technoodling

Bluetooth speakers these days come in all shapes and sizes and configurations: some are simple and straightforward, while others add all sorts of extra features to make users buy them. So it’s kinda refreshing to have one come up that is simple and portable and no-nonsense.

Presenting: the NudeAudio Move M Bluetooth Speaker with Speakerphone.

Yes, it’s labeled M, ostensibly because the other two models are labeled S and L, from which you might deduce that this is the middle, or medium, model. The two other models are on either end of the size spectrum, with Move L bringing the most feature-laden of the three, as it should be.

NudeAudio is a new, small startup company headed by the former owner of Gear4. This Move M they have is a lot better than their Move S, and it has a larger acoustical chamber so you’re going to get a stronger, louder sound, and a lot more bass than you have any right to expect. But we’ll get to the audio aspects in a moment.

The Move M is square with rounded corners and about palm-sized. It’s basically a small speaker box enclosed in a thick, protective silicon sleeve which helps guard against bumps, thumps and scratches. There is a neon-colored lanyard attached to one corner to help you hang it on something or carry it around.

And carry it around you will.

It’s very light and unobtrusive, weighing about as much as a typical cell phone does. It defines portable. You can just slip the lanyard around your wrist and carry the Move M that way, or slip it in a small bag where it won’t take up much space.

It works with Bluetooth devices within the prescribed three-meter or 30-foot radius. There is a power button, volume up/down and Bluetooth pairing button, and a small hole for the microphone on one side of the device. On the left side you have the microUSB port for charging and in one corner, a 3.5mm AUX IN port for those non-Bluetooth devices.

Nope, there aren’t any controls for playback—strictly volume only, and you’ll have to have your cell phone or MP3 player around to control your tracks. (I told you this was a simple device.)

I have a slight problem with the buttons though. They’re under the silicone sleeve and there are raised protusions to show you where they are, but they are unmarked and unlit, which makes them hard to find and operate in low light or the dark.

Once you find them though, there is a green power LED above the power button that lights up and turns red when battery power is low, and a blue (naturally) Bluetooth indicator light above the pairing button, a three-bar light that shows you the strength of your Bluetooth connection.

You can answer calls by using the speakerphone function, which you enable by pressing the pairing button once to answer, and once more to hang up. (But why would you have to? Controlling the audio playback requires you to have the cell phone near anyway, so why not just answer on the cell? These speaker guys, really now.)

Call audio was adequate, although some folks asked me to speak up, particularly if I was outdoors and there was a lot of ambient noise.

In the box, it comes with a short USB charging cord (no power adaptor, sorry), a Quick Start Guide, a Product Information booklet and a couple of NudeAudio stickers.

It reproduces audio well enough. Loud, clear, with adequate bass. It distorts and clips at the loudest level, but bringing it down a bit quickly solves that. But loud as defined by the NudeAudio guys is really relative; it’s great for intimate audio settings like in a small room or carrying around on your person, but lousy for big groups or parties. It’s just too small.

But it doesn’t really have that loud-bass-creeping problem that most small speakers have, because the silicone sleeve that envelops it provides a large, immovable surface contact area and keeps it steady, mostly.

The built-in high-performance Lithium ion battery inside gives you about eight hours of power, and can be charged from any USB source. When the power’s getting low, the Move M reminds you by periodically lowering the audio and give you a soft trilling sound, which is kind of irritating, but necessary.

The NudeAudio Move M Portable Bluetooth Speaker comes in light gray with light green accents and lanyard, and black with red accents and lanyard. It sells for the equivalent of around US$69.99, and it’s available now at Beyond The Box, Digital Walker and Digital Hub branches.

*Reprinted from Technoodling

I got it several months ago. My Leap Motion control device.

After a protracted (to me, anyway) waiting period in which I had to email the company several times to see what was taking them so long, and then the shipping company to find out what was taking them so long to deliver it, it finally arrived.

It looks small and simple from the outside. Just a small lighter-like metal-glass-and-rubber object (a long lighter, granted) and a USB cable was all it was. But inside was magic and alchemy that enable no-touch control. Cool.

It works as advertised, after a fashion. It did control things from the air, although just a very precious few things, and things that only came from it. It took some getting used to, and my arms got tired pretty quickly. Sometimes it worked, and occasionally it didn’t.

The honeymoon period didn’t last very long, and reality set in quickly. I tried out the apps on AirSpace (from which came the only suitable and working apps), getting all the free ones and buying a few, and got tired of them quickly.

I had an average of 50 apps. There were a couple I used regularly—Touchless for Mac, which enabled a few rudimentary gestures to control the computer, and the New York Times app, which I checked every morning—I could check the news on a regular browser I guess, but the novelty of it kept me coming to it everyday. The other apps were simple games dressed prettily, but still simple at heart.

After a few weeks I got tired of it, and when the first opportunity came when I needed a USB port for something else, I kicked out the Leap Motion right away and put it back in the box.

But I kept the app on my system, and Airspace, and got more new free and paid-for apps, when they came along and I liked the idea of having them, but I didn’t bring out the Leap Motion to try them out. Pretty soon there were a couple of pages of new ones on Airspace, so this morning I brought out the Leap Motion from storage and plugged it back in.

Wow, these apps have come a long way. These new apps had a usability and dimension to them that were missing in those early days. Like a couple of drum and bongo apps, that Stan Lee game called Verticus, the Weather Channel app, a Freeform drawing app, a bunch more.

I think I’ll keep the Leap Motion on the machine regularly from now on. I can diddle with these new ones for quite a while (as long as my arms hold up, I guess)

It seems Leap‘s getting its second wind as more apps come in day after day. Cool.

Braven’s on a roll.

The blue-blooded Bluetooth-speaker-making company just came out with a new speaker: the eminently more compact, more portable, more affordable weatherproofed brother to the bigger Braven 855s, the Braven 440.

It’s the smallest speaker Braven has ever made, but it doesn’t scrimp on the quality build and the power that the company is known for. But we’ll get to that in a bit.

First, the specifics.

It’s just about four and a half inches wide by three inches deep by a little over two inches high, but packs the audio power of its many (bigger) brethren. Moreover, the thing is weatherproof. It isn’t waterproof (what speaker is?) but it’s as close as it’ll get.

The Braven 440 is rated IPX 5 Water-Resistant, and its control ports at the back are protected by a thick rubber panel that you can remove if you want to charge the thing. (Which begs the question: why didn’t Braven think to attach the panel to the speaker? You could conceivably lose the thing in an outdoor party setting, and where’d your water-resistance be then? No matter, it’s still a good product.)

That said, the control panel has almost everything under there, including the battery indicator LEDs and a button to check it with, a 3.5mm AUX port to connect non-Bluetooth devices (yes, Virginia, you can use them on this device), a microUSB port for charging the speaker, and a regular USB 5V/1A port for charging your other devices.

Braven decided to opt out of the latest Bluetooth protocol (for lowered costs, I wager), and settled for just Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity, which is just fine. It works anywhere within 33 feet of your Bluetooth device, and if that’s too limiting (or you don’t have a Bluetooth device) you can always use the audio cable.

The 440 lasts for around 12 hours of battery power, a bit less if you use the charger to power up your MP3 player or cellphone.

The grill is on the front and on the bottom of the wrap-around painted ABS polymer cover, with the control panel on the back and the control buttons (power, play/pause and volume up/down) on the top. There is a noise-canceling microphone embedded inside the front grill so you can use the 440 as a speakerphone if you like.

The two ends of the device are smooth and clear black plastic, save for holes where you can tie off a lanyard (provided in the box, along with an AUX audio connector and a USB charging cable) if you so wish one. Braven also conveniently adds a tiny USB power adapter to the packaging, if you don’t have one yet.

Now for that audio thing. As expected, the Braven 440 has excellent sound output. Very loud and very clear, actually, for such a small device. But with loudness comes problems.

The thing moves.

With volume turned up to the maximum level, the Braven 440 moves and creeps with every loud bass hit, and could tumble off a tabletop if you’re not looking.

This is a perennial problem with small but powerful speakers. There just isn’t enough weight in the thing to keep it motionless when the bass rocks, and repeated thumps can send it across a table and onto the floor. They put in rubber strips on the bottom to minimize this, but the thing still moves, especially if it’s on a smooth surface. But this is a necessary evil we have to live with with small, compact speakers.

The 440 has a 6W output, with two custom extended-range drivers for stereo audio, and left and right channel passive subwoofers.

The Braven 440 has enough audio in it to fill a small room, and would do well in a relatively intimate outdoor setting, but no more than that. We’ll have to move up to the bigger weatherproofed Braven 855s if you want bombastic sound for your picnics. But for smaller venues, particularly outdoor ones with a little splashing involved, this thing is perfect.

The new Braven 440 is coming to stores like Beyond The Box, Digital Hub and Digital Walker (if it hasn’t already) for the equivalent of US$89.

It comes in Lunar Black, Fiji Green, Rio Purple, Monaco Blue and Sahara Red (like the one I got). And it makes a great, affordable holiday gift for your favorite geek, hint hint.

*Reprinted from Technoodling

With the release of the new iPhone 5s, SwitchEasy has released a new batch of phone cases, which is especially nice because they also fit the dowdy old iPhone 5 (which I have, and which isn’t all that different from the 5s, at least on the outside).

I received a whole pile of them the other day to review, and I thought, why not dump them all in one post? It’s not as if they’d be all that different from each other. They’re iPhone cases for Pete’s sake, how can they be that different from one another?

In the package I got a bunch of SwitchEasy Numbers in five different colors, three SwitchEasy Shades, a couple of SwitchEasy Melts and a single SwitchEasy Tones model. There was another bunch of other iPhone cases, but since they’re from a different brand, I thought I’d keep them separate.

They all come with included accessories like a Protective Film to protect the screen and MicroFiber Wipes to keep off thumbprints, so let’s get that out of the way now. They all come with different prices, some inexpensive, others costing a little more, but they all do one thing well: they protect your iPhone 5/5s from bumps, scratches and scrapes.

So let’s take a look at what we got here:

SWITCHEASY NUMBERS

These came in several colors—Juicy Lime, Bright Turquoise, Hot Pink, Stealth Black and Frosty White.

It’s a solid, no-nonsense case, which covers most of the iPhone’s back and sides. Numbers is made of shock-absorbing rubber, which is great for short drops, but not very helpful for long ones, like if you knock the phone from a tall table to the floor. But it’s adequate enough for most situations.

There is a cutout in the back on the top left for the camera, and one for the mute switch on the side. There are tactile buttons though where the volume and power buttons are, and they’re covered but easily operated. The bottom of the iPhone is also covered completely but there are integrated plugs where the headphone and Lightning jacks connect. These plugs are removable and fold over when you need to insert the jacks.

The bad part is, they render use of my beloved, cheap, imitation iPhone 5 Dock (which I bought from CDR-King for P200) moot, and I guess it would do that to a real one too. The bottom of the case makes the iPhone too girthy to fit in there. Well, I guess I can live with just the Lightning cable.

SwitchEasy Numbers is available for P795 each.

SWITCHEASY SHADES

This one makes the iPhone bigger. I mean, really big, considering.

The thickness of the case is apparent on the edges, and it sort of bulges out the back of the phone, ruining the 5/5s‘s svelte figure. But it’s made of extra thick casing that’s UV Scratch Resistant, from Super Strong Polycarbonate and Thermoplastic Polyurethane. At least that’s what the packaging says.

As with Numbers, there is a cutout for the camera in the back, and for the mute switch on the side, but unlike Numbers, the tactile covering for the power and volume buttons are not just made from the same shock-proof rubber, but is metalized gold, which is a damned sight preferable. They can also operate properly, as though there was nothing between your finger and the buttons.

Shades doesn’t cover the bottom of the phone though, but instead includes two “Connector Protectors” (one in reserve, in case you lose the original one), and it plugs into the ports and the bottom of the iPhone and completely covers it.

SwitchEasy Shades comes in several colored “shades”: purple, green and black, among others, and sells for P1295 each.

SWITCHEASY MELT

Talk about honest advertising. The Melt cases look like they are, well, melting.

This iPhone case comes in two parts: a softer inner case (much like Numbers), and a more rigid, different-colored second layer that looks like it’s melting. You place your iPhone inside the first part, then insert the whole thing in the second, Ultra Tough PC, not-so-whole, “melting” portion. Otherwise, it’s the same banana. Same cutouts, same shock-proof rubber, same tactile buttons, same integrated plugs.

SwitchEasy must be trying hard to introduce design variants into their cases, but there’s only so much they can do. But you gotta give them points for trying.

SwitchEasy Melt comes in several color combinations (I got the blue inside-pink outside and the more Christmassy red inside-green outside variants), and sell for P1195 each.

SWITCHEASY TONES

This is more of the two-tone type (as far as material goes, anyway) of iPhone 5/5s case.

Tones is a single case, but the middle portion is made of a hard, Ultra Tough PC Shell, while the upper and lower ends are made of softer Shock Absorbing Rubber. Soft and Hard protection, as the packaging says.

Otherwise, it’s the same as most of the cases, down to the Integrated Plugs cover of the the bottom of the case.

The SwitchEasy Tones case for the iPhone 5/5s sells for P1195.

BOTTOM LINE

Again, all these cases come with a Protective Film to cover the screen and a MicroFiber Wipe, which is de rigueur for cases nowadays. And again, none of these cases work with the iPhone dock, sad to say. Still, having a good, protective case for your iPhone 5 or 5s is I think a good trade-off, and these cases from SwitchEasy certainly do the job.

These SwitchEasy iPhone 5/5s cases and other models are available at Digital Hub, Digital Walker, Beyond The Box and other phone accessory shops.

*Reprinted from Technoodling

Now this is an odd one.

It’s a three-in-one device—it’s a speaker, it’s a handset and it’s a speakerphone.

It’s like part of what used to be a pair of headphones: cut off one of the earpieces from the headband, and there you have it. It’s kinda like… a Monocle. Which, apparently, is also its name.

This Victorian-style phone earpiece from a company called Native Union is certainly an oddity in this world of stereo headsets. It’s like you throw all practicality aside and do what you please, if what you please is using just one-half of your conventional headset, which you let hang over your shoulder or hold up to your ear, user comfort be damned.

It’s so odd I really don’t know what to make of it. But it’s an interesting device, whatever it is.

The Monocle is basically a portable speakerphone that doubles as a speaker for your music, or you can use it a a handset when calling your friends. On the long, fabric-covered cord, there is a microphone, and on the singular headpiece there is a button that doubles a a control for your music playback: press to play or pause, double-click to move ahead a track, or triple-click to go back.

The outside edge of the headpiece rotates to increase or decrease volume and clicks at the end to turn the speakerphone on or off, as indicated by a white LED.

When off, it’s a standard handset that you hold up to your ear which you answer by clicking the button, your voice being picked up on the mike.

On the headpiece is an AUX port for daisy-chaining your Monocle if you have a friend who has another one and you’d like to share your audio or your call. As a matter of fact, you can connect as many as 10 Monocles one after the other, assuming you had ten other friends with the same exact gadget.

There is a micro-USB port on the headpiece which you can connect to a wall wart or your computer for charging it up. (There is a short USB charging cable included in the package, as well as a loop that you can use to attach the Monocle to your person.) Once you charge it up, the Monocle will play for around five hours of continuous music, or longer if you just use it as a speakerphone.

Just a little below the headpiece, on the cable, is the microphone, and lower down is a cable-length adjusting loop. On the far end of the sturdy cable is your standard L-shaped 3.5mm plug that you connect your phone to.

Just how exactly you’re going to carry it around is part of the mystery of the thing. You can simply drape the cord over your shoulder while it’s connected to the phone in your pocket, and let the speaker dangle on your chest while it’s playing music, and let it stay there while you’re conversing with someone, or you can loop it onto your bag. You can also keep it in your jacket pocket and pull it out to put it against your ear when someone calls, but keeping it in your pocket while using it as a speaker won’t really make much sense. Whatever.

I used the Monocle to call some people, dialing some at random on my phone, and they all told me I was coming in loud and clear whether I was using the Monocle as a speakerphone or as a plain handset.

Then I used it to play music on my phone, and I have to say, the sound was good, even if it was on mono. The 40mm driver was loud and gave good, crisp audio and adequate bass. The maximum level was surprisingly higher than I was expecting, and didn’t distort much. I put it on a table and listened to it from there, but if I was walking out in the street, I wouldn’t know how to position it on my person. Holding it against my ear would be too loud, and made me prefer a more private, stereo listening experience via a typical headset. But hey, Monocle does work in its own way, after a fashion.

The Monocle is a nice, if a bit odd, speaker-speakerphone-handset device. If you’re in the market for tastefully “unique” accessories and say to hell with convenience and practicality, this one’s right up your alley. As their packaging says, Wear It Your Way.

Native Union’s Monocle is available for P2250 in Digital Walker, Digital Hub and Beyond The Box branches, and comes in Coral, Marine Blue, Mint or Slate. For a little bit more, you can also get them in special edition colors Brushed Black Diamond or Brushed Black Copper.

*Reprinted from Technoodling

On the heels of my Tech Musings column on updating apps, I wake up and find the OS update to my Nexus 7, Android 4.4, had come stealthily in the night.

About time.

I was actually thinking of side-loading KitKat (the name they bestowed upon the update) to my device as it was taking so long.

Three weeks ago, it was officially released with the launch of the Nexus 5, and I assumed it was coming over to the Nexus 7 really quickly, with the hardware manufacturer, Google, being said creator of the OS as well. I mean, it was logical, wasn’t it?

But a week came, and still no Kitkat.

Two weeks, and no sight of the thing. The update was appearing for other new third-party phones already, like the Moto X, and still nothing for the Nexus 7 and 10. I was still on Jelly Bean 4.3. Come on, Google.

This wouldn’t happen with Apple. When they say they’re posting an update on a particular date, it comes on the date they say it’s gonna come, for all related devices, within hours of each other, like with iOS 7.

Three weeks. Zip.

Nexus tablet owners were in an uproar. Well, those of us who tend to be like that, anyway. I was considering just downloading the thing and updating manually, and in truth, I was going to do it over the weekend if it still wasn’t released.

But that Friday it finally arrived.

The update just downloads itself to your device, and then, with your permission, writes itself to your gadget. After a restart, there is an interesting new animation with four colored balls in the middle of the screen that starts it up, then it proceeds to take time to update each and every app on the device. I didn’t have that many—about 150 only—so it didn’t take that long. Then after that, it’s just sitting there, as if you didn’t wait almost a month for it.

What took it so damn long?

A quick look at the Build Number reveals this version was KRT16S. Apparently there were bugs in the previous version, KRT 16O, similar to the ones that plagued the 4.3 update for the Samsung Galaxy S3, and I guess Google delayed the release until it could get to the bottom of them. I guess we’ll never know. Now, it’s up for all Nexus devices, and they’ve also posted the source codes for Kitkat.

So what’s new?

I was discussing it with Carlo, a friend of mine, briefly over Twitter that morning, and we both agreed it made things a bit snappier, a bit faster on the uptake.

Other changes are under-the-hood things, like Google Cloud Print that allows you to print things directly from the device, there’s Emojis on the keyboard now, and a few apps can now operate in full screen using Immersion Mode, but most of the improvements are the little hidden fixes.

What isn’t in KitKat for tablets is the Google Experience Launcher, which is exclusive to the Nexus 5, although you could still install it manually. Also missing are the Translucent Notification Bar and Nav Bar, which for some reason Google left out for the tablets. I also noticed the new Tap & Pay option is missing from my settings menu; then again, I have the older Nexus 7, so I guess that must be the reason.

It’s much better for Google Nexus, Moto X and other phones, where there are these and a bit more improvements, but us second-class tablet owners are left in the dust again. Figures.

We’re still checking on the changes. More on this as we get more acquainted with KitKat, but on the surface there doesn’t seem that much changed.

Which got me thinking—what the hell was the fuss about?

UPDATE: Over the past weekend, Google explained why the roll out is taking so long for some users. As Google engineer Dan Morillo explains, “Rollouts are conducted in phases. Typically they start at 1% of devices for around 24 – 48 hours; we watch the return rates and resulting device checkins and error reports (if any), and make sure nothing looks wrong before sending it to more. Then typically it goes to 25%, 50%, 100% over the course of a week or two.”

No word though on why it still took three weeks for them to get started distributing it to Nexus tablet users.

*Reprinted from Technoodling

A big pile of new stuff to review arrived at the house today, courtesy of Digits Trading. Yay!

Well, at least it seemed that way. In retrospect, there weren’t that many, really. Maybe just seven, eight items all in all.

There were a ton of iPhone 5/5s cases, as Howard promised, but in actuality there were only five distinct models. And the models came in different colors per kind, which made it seem like a lot. There was one with eight color variants, while the others came in four or so. (I wonder why they would send me the same unit, and all the colors it came in. They could’ve just sent me one and saved space in the bag. They’ve done it several times before. I just chalk it up to the unfathomable wisdom of Digits’ marketing people.)

Then there were the audio stuff in the bag: a portable new Braven speaker, 2 units of the Monocle (I’m tired explaining what it is; just wait for the review tomorrow), and the Nude Audio M Bluetooth speaker.

Strangely enough, the in-ear headset I was supposed to get from Vic wasn’t there; he was sent two different units, and we were supposed to split them up and review one each. Huh.

They arrived at around three this afternoon, and Howard asked if I could review the Monocle first. I did it right away and finished it up, and it’s waiting for publication tomorrow.

Am testing the others now: I have one of the cases on my iPhone, and I’m playing Hall & Oates on the Nude Audio thing. Gotta piece the reviews out though, and intersperse the iPhone cases in between the audio gear so they don’t bunch up and crowd the site. Would be good for a couple of weeks, I think.

I love it when I get stuff to review.

It’s kinda odd and slightly off-putting to talk about this, but I’m kinda compelled to.

It’s like this:

I’m a regular guy, with fairly regular bathroom habits. I have to go do No.1 every six or seven hours, and it’s basically like clockwork.

Pee when I wake up, another around lunchtime, once again around six or seven at night, then just before going to bed. I’ve actually taken note of it, and timed myself over the years. You can set your watch by it. I can hold it in longer if needed (eight, maybe 10 hours if necessary), but that’s my basic routine. It’s a nice and healthy habit.

But I’ve noticed that sometimes it all goes out the window whenever I watch a movie in a theater.

I always pee in the comfort room just before going in, just to make sure that my movie-watching is not disturbed, even if I have no urgent need to pee in the first place.

But invariably, even though I’d emptied myself already just before the movie starts, I get nature’s call again two-thirds of the way through to the film’s end, sometimes so urgently that I have to struggle to hold it in and I stay that way until the credits roll. By which time I have to run to the bathroom and pee like a horse. Again.

And like a horse it was. Like I haven’t peed the whole day. Lots and lots. Really damned odd.

Then after that, everything goes back to normal.

It never happens when I watch a movie at home, on the TV. Just outside, at a theater. It doesn’t happen all the time, too.

Just occasionally. In my adult life, like maybe a dozen times. Once, I had to go in the middle of a movie’s climactic denouement, which ruined the viewing experience for me.

Why does this happen?

All I can think of is that it’s so cold in the movie house that all the wastewater that I normally sweat out gets trapped inside me and I gotta pee it out. (I sweat plenty these days, because, I think, of my maintenance meds—I sweat standing still; I don’t even have to move a muscle; it’s really debilitating and limiting, but what can you do?) But I don’t think sweat that much fluid, do I?

Or maybe I get so relaxed at a screening that I don’t sweat at all, and my body has to let it out somehow. Again, not that much!

Hell, I don’t know.

Happened again the other night, when I saw The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. That was a reasonably long film, over two hours, but not enough to dent my urinary refraction period of six or eight hours. When the hero Tributes were planning to electrocute the others with Jeffrey Wright’s specially designed wire from the lightning striking the tree, my urge to go to the bathroom was so bad that I was jack-knifing my legs in order to alleviate it. When the credits started, I sprinted to the john, when I would normally sit it out until the end.

Heh. See? Not a topic for normal, everyday conversation. Kinda odd and slightly off-putting, like I said in the beginning. But this is my journal, and I can write about anything I please here.

But damn it. What’s the matter with me?