Why I still have unlimited data

         From my first smartphone back on Virgin Mobile USA with the old $25 plan that included 2.5 GB of data and 300 minutes. But here's the catch about that plan. I remembered the TOS saying speeds maybe slowed down. Given that I was 12 with a smartphone, my data usage was never under the 2.5 GB of included data, I believe my lowest point was 3 GB and this usage data actually came from the Virgin Mobile website, not what was reported from my device. Also, I remember having a Virgin Mobile Mifi personal hotspot and with that we hit 17GB. But who is we? Well for a long period of my life our ISP was actually Sprint via Virgin Mobile and we as in my family used this hotspot thinking it was a 4G hotspot. Later after getting my first smartphone and reading up on some things, I found out this was a 3G hotspot and this later began how I started getting into mobile devices besides laptops. But that's a story for another day. 

  

       Now here I am 17 years old, not with the same plan or device but with the same device manufacture. But why do I still have unlimited data? Well, I can never predict my data usage every month. Why not? Every month is never consistent, thus some months being higher than others and some months being lower. Now before you start bashing me about me hogging data, the most amount of data I've ever used was 45 GB and I was staying somewhere else other than home and I had to check into school online. However, since the time of having Virgin Mobile I've learned that having mobile data is a luxury that isn't available everywhere. So whenever I do encounter an area where mobile data is slow or unstable, I think back to my times of having Virgin Mobile and not being able to use it and how network congestion works. With that being said, I don't get angry whenever mobile data is unavailable nor do I feel entitled to use hundreds of gigabytes of data and not feel any consequences arise. 

           

         But after anyone says "bandwidth costs money", I'll say this, "And so does the service I pay for". I acknowledge that EULAs and TOS exist, but I don't break them with excessive P2P connections or use a VPN to avoid consequences. Also, with later network improvements such as LTE-A and LTE carrier aggregation, I hope to see AT&T do better with their diverse spectrum portfolio due to them not having a lot of contiguous spectrum.   

        

Nexus 4: 3 years later (2015)

         Alright, I'll be blunt about this. I love this phone. Even with its 720p display and S4 Pro processor, I found day to day performance to be spot on. Tasks such as watching video streaming, gaming, music streaming, and phone calls were excellent. However, the difference with the Nexus 4 is the Nexus 4 is powered by the Adreno 320 GPU vs the Adreno 220 GPU found in the HTC One X and LTE Samsung Galaxy S3. But what does that mean? Well, over the years Android has grown up to use hardware acceleration and using the GPU for more tasks. So having a powerful mobile GPU is starting to pay off with this phone. Don't believe me? Download your choice of custom ROM on either of the devices I've mentioned and compare them to a Nexus 4 (Or device with S4 Pro chipset) and set the Nexus 4 to use only two of its cores. Notice the difference yet? See, the animations in 5.x.x Lollipop feel a bit heavier than 4.4. Thus, a faster GPU being needed to render these animations. But enough about the GPU. Let's get on to why I still use this phone.

            With this being 2015, cellular networks have changed quite a bit. The Nexus 4 has support for GSM/WCDMA and LTE unofficially. While this maybe appealing, let's actually get into why this phone may not work for you. I've been using this phone in the United States on T-Mobile, while I found no connectivity problems, your usage may actually vary. For LTE the Nexus 4 only offers unofficial connectivity on AWS (Band 4), while this maybe a limitation for AT&T customers outside of AWS who want a slice of LTE pie, it will be more than enough for a T-Mobile user who lives in a AWS LTE covered area. But why didn't I mention UMTS/HSPA? For the most part, UMTS/HSPA seems to be congested in most of the areas I've tested and it isn't better on PCS either. But don't let my mileage stop you! Since I'm using T-Mobile in Columbus, Ohio the spectrum offerings are PCS EDGE 5 Mhz, PCS HSPA 10 Mhz (DC-HSPA), AWS HSPA 5 Mhz (21.1 Megabit downlink), and AWS 15 Mhz of LTE. While 15 Mhz is being used for HSPA, it is still less spectrum efficient than LTE. Enough of this LTE talk. For anyone who wants to use this device on AT&T, you will most likely be restricted to HSPA+, which is enough for most users. Wi-Fi however is a different situation. The Nexus 4 supports A/B/G/N. However, the Nexus 4 only has support for 20 Mhz wide channels. But what does that mean? Simply put the Nexus 4's maximum link speed is limited to 72 Mbps. Let me remind you how different this is to other devices. The HTC One X can have a maximum link speed of 150 Mbps. But to sum of connectivity, I'd personally recommend using T-Mobile if you need LTE. However, this isn't to discount AT&T and their unparalleled coverage to T-Mobile. Also, The Nexus 4 will not be able to have LTE in some areas where T-Mobile is going from 2G-LTE. Quite a few sources say this upgrade entirely skips HSPA+ and uses Band 2 for LTE, which the Nexus 4 does not have.
               For ROM and kernel I've decided to use Franco Kernel and Chroma ROM. With this being a Nexus device, the developer support for it is almost unimaginable. So I needed something to put on it and those were the two I've seen first. Performance is no lose for the Nexus 4. No sort of slow downs ever on this device. Also, given that in Android 5.1 ART has also seen a significant improvement in application launch speeds and performance means this device won't skip a beat. But, this isn't to discredit any other devices, it is with its flaws. For example, navigating in applications mean in settings can be a little irritating dealing with some unsmooth scrolling and long loading times. However, if you previously used a device with a faster chipset, the performance gap will be noticeable. Another thing to consider is the phones LPDRR2 RAM, which is slower than newer devices and consumes more power. But that didn't stop my Nexus 4 from leaping through task switching. So how can it do it? One of the biggest key factors why the Nexus 4 can still be usable in 2015 is the Quad Core processor and 2 GB of RAM. Even if the device isn't using that RAM, it still makes task switching and multitasking possible. Processor wise the Nexus 4's 4 Krait 200 cores seem a bit puny to today's standards in benchmarks. But this is why benchmarks only show how future proof a device is to an extent. See, my philosophy on benchmarks is that they show how long the device can be operable with the latest OS until the performance is unbearable. With that being said, the Nexus 4 is not the strongest in benchmarks, which is fine.
                 As a general synopsis, I love this phone. However, some things I did not mention were the camera and battery life. Both are equally poor. Also, the testing on this device was done with a Nexus 4 Rev 11 model in black. So will I recommend you pick this device up? Maybe, but as a device to give to your kids or to someone who is entering the world of smart phones? Yes. The Nexus 4 3 years later is still an excellent performer and I see that continuing through 2016.

Services over Quantity.

       I get asked this question a lot "Myles, should I uninstall my apps to keep my Android device running fast". The answer is yes if you don't want to investigate further, and no if you want it. But what about applications that I didn't install that slow down my device? If you can't disable it, Hibernate it with Greenify. So it is not the application its self that slows down your device (Unless you are using F2FS), so what is it? It is the service the application has! These services are used by the application to provide some sort of service to it. Either that be a notification or other thing the app does. Unlike applications, services can be very hard to disable and sometimes the application won't run without them. To find out which applications on your device use services, go to settings, applications (or application manager), go to running and you will see which applications use a service. Now that you have found out which applications use services, now let's disable them. 

Download the free application "Greenify" and purchase the donation package (OPTIONAL)

While I am assuming you are not rooted, you will be running greenify is non root mode. So select the applications that Greenify prompts you to select with running services. Then, go to the menu button and create the widget for fast hibernation. There you go! A quick and easy way to save your Android device and its applications. One major note of this is that when an application is in hibernation, you will not receive notifications from that application. For example, if I hibernate KIK, I will not receive message until I manually open KIK. 

Fixes for performance! Windows edition!

            Windows 8 for me has always had either great results or lack luster results. But that didn't stop me from finding a new laptop with it! But, Windows 8 and its changes has taught me to expect change in ways you wouldn't expect it. For example, I really don't like that if you put your cursor at the top of your display while using a Metro app, you will see an annoying, long, black bar with the application name and options to minimize or to close the application altogether. But enough of the recent changes, and to make something clearer, I make these to share my ideas about technology!

1. Changing your pagefile settings. When getting a new laptop that is based off of Intel Silvermont architecture, I knew my problem wasn't CPU related. (Benchmarks confirmed this) So, I had this issue when changing workloads, like going from doing homework to playing a game. I would be using LibreOffice and Google Chrome for my school work (I am a online student) and my processor would be running somewhere from 1.8 GHz with only 2 cores having usage above 50%. So that eliminated CPU issues and I then went to see what was using so much of my I/O. I then realized it was the pagefile and superfetch. After manually changing my pagefile settings and disabling Superfetch, my performance remained stable when switching workloads.

2. Stay with the same antivirus. After using Microsoft Security Essentials for years on Windows 7, I wondered who could provide the same or even better coverage. But, after switching antivirus, I noticed that every time I had to re-install all of my Metroapps. VERY ANONYING. So, I am going to make this recommendation that you don't change antivirus unless there is absolute reason to, at all.

3. Stop using PC maintenance programs! Frequently, when I go to fix someone's computer I see they have some sort of maintenance program and it claims to have found thousands of errors within the system. Well, in an attempt the scare the user, the program will look for temporary files (Mostly lots of small files) and look for registry "errors". While I am not going to tell you what is best for your system, I am going to tell you what was optimal for me or others. But, in actuality, you don't need any PC cleanup application unless it is CCleaner. Why CCleaner? It actually looks for temporary files and is proven to do its job properly, and at no cost.

4. Remove unneeded files and programs. While this is confusing and because a PC can have so many different configurations, this may or may not actually work for you. Unless that application uses a service or is always present in RAM. While all PC users should always run some sort of cleanup. It may actually not be needed as frequently. A PC with a SSD should always be checking for TRIM and a PC with a mechanical drive should defragment their drives. Always remove bloatware, always remove anything you don't use. If it is difficult to remove Google it, if it comes up as being essential, keep it.

Cherry Picking Your Setup (ROMS and Kernels)

      This happens at least once a day, there is that one person who asks "What is the best custom ROM/Kernel?". Most likely another person says a ROM and says why they feel others are inferior to it. While other ROMs may be in its Nightly phase, do not let that discourage you from trying out that ROM. Some ROMs are in their Stable forms and still operate like a Nightly. That is not bad! For example, for the HTC One X, most AOSP ROMs are based or use something from CyanogenMod to make the ROM even boot. But my point is, every ROM is different. Every kernel is different! Some ROMs use Linaro Toolchains, some are based on a stock kernel with memory enhancements. Plus, everyone has their own particular setup that they run that they like! I use M-Kernel on Carbon ROM with all F2FS on my Nexus 7. Plus, I am at a -125 MV undervolt, will everyone like that setup? No, some over clock their devices and some under clock their devices. So it is up to you to find your perfect ROM/Kernel setup.
  
       So I will help you find your perfect setup. First things first, do you want to be on KitKat or Jellybean? The reason I say those two is because the best compatibility between modern applications comes to those two Android versions. So you chose KitKat, remember most KitKat ROMs are in a nightly phase and may stop working or have some features that do not work at all, so if you need features such as Bluetooth or Camera, remember bugs can come! Remember to download the latest release your ROM developer has, so if it is release 4.4.4 on July 28 2014, download that version. Now you have a ROM, find a custom kernel that your device will support. Some kernels do not allow overclocking and if you are just finding your setup, do not overclock your device, yet! You are just finding what you will like! Now download the Google Apps package for your ROM. If your ROM is based on 4.4.4 download the Google Apps for 4.4.4 and if otherwise, download the Google Apps for that Android version. The latest as of this writing on 7/29/30 is 5.0.89 for Google Play Services. Now you must flash that ROM and kernel. I usually flash my ROM and Kernel first to enter information such as APN info and disable vibration or other unwanted features and then reboot to flash Google Apps. Tinker around with your setup to see if you like it or not and if you do not, then try another ROM and repeat. Comment or find me on Google+ for any questions.

Why I support BYOD

         After moving from Washington DC to Columbus Ohio, I have noticed quite a few differences in how ISPs treat their customers. In Columbus, for high speed Internet, you primarily have two choices. One being WOW! and the other being TWC. Most people don't switch Internet service providers this fast nor do they always find some huge flaw in the service being provided. So in my almost 50 days of living in Columbus, I'm going to be telling you how I've ended up on TWC from WOW! and how problems like these can be solved by allowing customers to bring their own device!

          1. WOW! An Internet service provider that my family has used for quite a while before we moved. Back then, we used an Ethernet connection for two desktop PCs and the service was flawless. Fast forward 5 years and you have WOW! automatically giving customers a wireless router built in to their modem. One thing that I will say before I continue, is that I haven't had service related issues prior to switching to our own router. Not only was our internet traffic being throttled, but their own router actually prevented devices from being able to connect! Plus, probably the worst or most annoying thing about the service was the slow downs when connecting another WiFi device to the router. The most annoying time when this happened was when my Nexus 7 was downloading the latest nightly to Carbon ROM with F2FS (Highly recommended for 2012 Nexus 7 users) at 2.1 Mb/s, then I connected my One X to the router (No Internet traffic on the One X) and the download speed slowed down to about 60 kB/s. That's a speed decrease that anyone will notice, technology savvy or not. So the wireless was disabled by calling WOW! and we plugged in our own wireless router, speed decreases rarely existed but have shown us that their service was part of the problem.   

            2. TWC or Time Warner Cable, an ISP that probably most of America is familiar with. Their service so far is very reliable, however, when you plugin your our wireless router, your speeds maybe capped at 10 Mbps. No kidding. They give their customers a wireless router built into the modem, and the router completely blows chunks. If you try to connect to the router, it does not give the device internet access. At all! Plus, in order to disable it, you must call TWC for the user name and password. But back on the 10 Mbps cap I've noticed. My mother pays good money for their service, and it should just be provided without any restrictions on what router we use to provide Internet from the modem. But if you plug in a router into the modem that has a built in router, your speeds maybe capped at 10 Mbps. But this wasn't the case when the service was first installed, my first speed test gave the promised 50 Mbps, but has the days continued of using TWC's modem and router and having that plugged into our router, the speeds reached the 10 Mbps came that the modem had in place. But the way how I learned this cap existed was reading the modem's manual and seeing how our router was only receiving 10 Mbps of Internet. Now let's do some math here, 10 Mbps of 50 Mbps is 1/5 of the promised speed. And 1/5 of the $65 my mother pays is $12. But, no, she pays for 50 Mbps, it should be 50 Mbps regardless of what router we use.

Read this before you flash that! (Samsung)

           Samsung devices, the ones that shine out of the box. The ones that just have this solid (Not Premium there is a difference) feeling to them. The ones that have these software features on them that seem cool, but you rarely use them. Or the ones with Samsung's own CPU inside called "Exynos" (The one without LTE or DC-HSPA). So before you are looking at a shiny paperweight, I will tell you how you can prevent your device from being a paperweight.
  
            1. So you are looking at your internal storage and you have either a lot or only a few megabytes. So you decide what to backup in TWRP or CWM recovery and you decide to deselect the box marked "EFS" and just backup "system" and "data". With other devices, you can just backup /system and /data, and with others you must backup /boot if you change kernels or Android versions. But backing up that <20 MB partition can actually save you from buying another device. This partition contains very unique information about your device, like carrier unlock code and IMEI. In some instances a lost of /efs can actually cause the power menu to be obsolete.

             2. Install Odin or Heimdall on a computer with the drivers. Sure you just rooted your device without a computer, and the first thing you should be doing is making a full Nandroid backup with all of the partitions checked except /cache. You always want to make sure you have the firmware your device came on when you rooted it on your PC.  So if you have a Galaxy S4 on 4.3, then download the S4 firmware for your version of the S4.

               3. Know which version of device you have. No, I'm not saying give someone your IMEI to find your device version, but look at what carrier your device came from. Look at what CPU it has. For example, you may say you have the Snapdragon S2 from AT&T. Well, which one? If your device is the i9300 you should only download firmwares for the i9300, nothing else. Same thing applies to every other device. Only download and flash firmware for your specific device.