Origins

I've been using Windows my whole life. I've grown up with Windows XP with those huge, clunky CRT monitors that get distorted next to magnets (don't question my childhood) and massive, space-taking, dust-filled, heat-induced PC towers. Those days, my life revolved around flash games on Internet Explorer and just having fun.

When Windows 7 came around, technology became more modern with smaller PC towers and better laptops. I spent the remainder of my Windows days on my first laptop, the Lenovo Z575 Thinkpad, as a birthday gift. I thought it was the most beautiful laptop at the time with its brushed metal finish and amazing keyboard. It was where I spent the majority of my time from gaming, doing school work, to watching movies.

As I got older and understood specs and did more intensive work, I realized my laptop wasn't the greatest for any of those things. It had a dual-core AMD processor clocked at 1.5GHz, which couldn't even watch a 720p 60fps video on YouTube without a little Chrome extension help.

As the years went on, I started having school projects that required taking them to libraries, school, houses, which caused me to realize again that my laptop was a hassle to carry around because it was so damn heavy, and the battery life was just horrible. It overheated quickly and only lasted 1–2 hours on a charge with medium brightness, which forced me to leave it at home as a home desktop. It was fine, since I had an iPad 4 with a bluetooth keyboard that held up way better because it didn’t overheat and lasted hours. Oh, and it also had games, because I was a kid.

In 2014, my WiFi adapter/card inside the laptop killed itself on me, probably because it finally realized just how bad it was. I resolved the issue by using a slow-ish 15Mbps ethernet connection (I get 65Mbps on 802.11ac devices), which also meant that my laptop was forever tethered to a wall, as if it were on life support, waiting for its owner to pull the plug. They were some dark times.

The Turnaround

One day, my friend asked me what they thought about Chromebooks:

"Are they good? Should I get one? I don't want to spend a lot of money."

Honestly, as far as Chromebooks went, I knew that they were cheap budget laptops that ran Chrome and that was about it. I’ve seen them from Google I/O presentations showing off some features, but I didn’t look into them that much. When I got home, I decided to look into Chromebooks and see if they really were just laptops that ran a browser. I wanted to see their appeal.

I ran into Google’s own ChromeOS video that explained a few things, and it showed me their philosophy and mindset towards a computer. To me, it made sense. The browser is the number one application that people click on when they want to do something on their computer.

After looking at what ChromeOS was, I started looking at a few Chromebooks. I ran into The Verge’s Chromebook video, and looked into the Toshiba Chromebook 2. It had a stunning 1080p screen which was eons ahead of my 1366x768 display, amazing battery life, and more.

I hate to say it, but it was the Macbook of Chromebooks. It looks really similar to a Macbook, and that’s not bad at all. I want a laptop that looks good, performs well, and is portable.

That’s where the Toshiba Chromebook 2 comes in.

I really wanted it after doing intense research to see if it would fit my needs. I hopped onto my Windows laptop and wrote a list of all the programs that I used and determined if I needed them or not. For the most part, yeah―I can use a Chromebook without ever needing to run those programs. If I did, I could just use my Windows laptop for a few minutes and go back to my Chromebook. That’s the most important thing about this article.

Anyway, I got the TCB2 after a lot of consideration, and went for it―kind of like how I gunned for Android from iOS.

Highlights

There are things that a Chromebook just can't do, but what it can do, it does well. Really well.

Here are the biggest things when it comes to a Chromebook:

1. Price. The biggest point of a Chromebook is that you’re getting an amazing laptop with a small budget. If you put that same budget into a Windows laptop, you’re getting junk. I’m sorry, but that’s really how it is.

2. Performance. Even with mediocre specs, a ChromeOS will make it fly. Again, it’s just a browser―you’re not doing anything else, really. You can be running a 1366x768 display with a 1.5GHz processor that works smoothly on a Chromebook, or a Windows machine that will sputter and ask for its owner to put it out of its misery. Your choice.

3. Battery Life. Since a ChromeOS is a very light operating system, it’s very simple. You use the browser, and that’s it. Since there’s nothing else really going on, you can run even the cheapest Chromebooks for 14 hours. There’s no funky things like an Anti-virus running in the background, or a Windows update installing while you relentlessly mash your keyboard or mouse trying to get things to work.

4. Reliability and Longevity. In terms of reliability, you can damn well expect the Chromebook to work all the time, every time. If I start a word document at school, I can close the lid, bring it home, and open my laptop to continue it without any worries that my files might be lost, or the app crashed. It’s already saved in the cloud. If anything does happen, factory resetting is insanely simple―click Powerwash, log back in, and everything downloads and syncs everything back within minutes.

You can count on Google to keep your Chromebook updated for many, many years. My Toshiba Chromebook 2 can expect updates up until 2019, which is 5 years of free support without having to buy an update or illegally pirating product keys.

5. Portability. This applies to 95% of all Chromebooks: everything is portable excluding the Pixel series and the larger 15" Chromebooks (Acer C910). This is the biggest thing I look for in a laptop: how light it is, and how thin it is. Frankly, when it comes to a Windows laptop that can come anywhere near what I want, I’d need to shell out 800–1300 dollars to get a Macbook Pro equivalent (Dell XPS 13, Asus Zenbook). My Chromebook does everything I need at under 3 lbs.

6. Browsing the Internet. It’s obvious, but you are buying a Chromebook because that is basically all you do. If that is true like it is for me, then you’re better off getting something that can last hours on a charge. I can watch Netflix, YouTube, write articles, browse Twitter, etc. all in a single day without having to think about charging.

7. Cloud connectivity and Google Services from the heavens. I'm not trying to say that Cloud services are a Chromebook exclusive, but a Chromebook has to deal with cloud services in a very different way. Since all Chromebooks have 16–32gb of storage, you have to put everything into the cloud including Music, Documents, Photos, etc. 

Luckily, Google’s got you covered. But that also means that a lot of your stuff requires an internet connection.

Here is what you can't do with a Chromebook:

1. Run intensive programs. Yeah, you should already know this. You’re not going to be able to run any programs, like Final Cut Pro or anything like that. Don’t even try. If you want to do something along these lines, you can install a new OS like Ubuntu, and dual-boot it! (As long as your processor supports it―Intel Processors, to be exact)

2. Support your phone. This one is tricky. If you have an iPhone, good luck backing it up to iTunes―it doesn’t exist. If you have a Samsung, LG, etc, then good luck trying to use Samsung Kies or LG Support Tool. That doesn’t exist, either. If you want to update your phone, you have to do it through OTA or on a Windows machine or Mac. This is actually why I keep my Windows machine around, actually―to root, install, etc.

3. Play PC games. This should be obvious, but some #pcmasterrace people complain that a Chromebook isn't capable of doing anything like playing games. This is not why you are buying a damn Chromebook. If you want to do that, build a PC, because you've spent hundreds of dollars by buying a Chromebook anyways. There’s some games on the Chrome Web Store, but not real games.

4. Everything else. There’s just so many things that a Chromebook can’t do, but you should know what you’re getting into. Do what I did, and look at everything you do and evaluate it. You can’t do simple things like downloading torrents, unzipping RAR files, etc.

4A. WiFi: Okay, look. It’s in the name. Chromebook. 90% of what you’re going to be doing on this laptop is on a browser, which needs WiFi. Does that mean that your laptop is rendered useless if you’re not in a coffee shop? The answer is actually no―You can still access your offline files, create files, and modify files (such as Docs) without the internet. When you get connected to WiFi again, then everything syncs back.

4B. Entertainment: Yeah, don’t expect to listen to music if you use Google Play Music. It’s in the cloud, not your laptop. Just use your phone or something. Oh, and good luck with the whole movies thing.

Why I use a Chromebook and a Windows Laptop

My biggest advice to anyone that isn’t in the intensive-program industry (AKA everyone else, including me):

Buy a Chromebook, and keep a Mac/Windows device handy. I actually use my Windows laptop once every 2 months or even less, because I rarely need it. But when I do need it, I need it. I do things involving Android a lot, so that means I need my Windows device to root and install flash images to test Android M, etc.

Overall, it’s been the best investment I’ve made. I love this Chromebook. I bring it to school way more often than my old Windows laptop because it’s reliable and lasts forever.

To me, the best combo is this: rather than buying a $1,000+ laptop, buy a Chromebook for under $350 and then build a PC for $800-$1000+ for all your big workloads. That’s what I plan to do when I get the money. I would even go as far as buying a Chromebook and a nice Windows laptop because I like both a lot, but ChromeOS more. It’s a simpler OS, and it’s also the prettiest between ChromeOS/Windows10/MacOSX.

If you can only afford a Chromebook, that’s still probably your best choice. For $330, I bought the Toshiba Chromebook 2 that has a better screen than even an 800 dollar laptop, and the battery life just kills everything under 800 dollars. Research every possible option.

Thank you for reading, and I'll see you guys next time.

--

Briefing

Buttons on a smartphone are obviously important. They work in tandem with the user―to either help the user, or to serve the user―and that's not a bad thing at all.
Without buttons, it becomes entirely impossible for a smartphone, or even any piece of technology for that matter, to function at all, which renders this article as completely useless.

So let's step back a bit. I'm talking about primary buttons.

Primary buttons, in my own definition, are the main buttons on a smartphone; volume rockers and sleep/wake button exempt.

There are three different kinds of primary buttons that will be discussed in this article:

• Hardware Buttons
• Software Buttons
• Capacitive Buttons

trackballs don't count

The iPhone's primary button is the home button―which is a hardware button.
The Nexus 6's primary buttons are the back button, home button, and overview button―which are software buttons.
The Samsung Galaxy S6's primary buttons are the home button―a hardware button―while the back and overview buttons are capacitive buttons.

While buttons may be overlooked as unimportant and negligible, each type of button has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Hardware Buttons

Background and Positives

Hardware buttons are the simplest. The user knows exactly what it acts as (a button), and at the same time provides a tactile feedback that tells the user that the button has been pressed.

Plus, they're everywhere!

People naturally push buttons out of curiosity, so it makes sense for a physical button to exist in order to teach the user what the button does.

Typically, hardware buttons require more technology under the hood such as the contact points and the physical home button itself. The most common hardware button used in smartphones are push button switches, and more specifically, use momentary contacts―they only work for as long as they're pressed.

In addition, hardware buttons can also function as a wake button. The iPhone and Samsung Galaxy line, for example, both allow their home buttons to wake the device, while leaving the sleep function exclusively for the sleep/wake button. This function is not available for capacitive or software buttons, as they require power to be used in the first place; a definite positive for momentary contacts.

Nowadays, Apple and Samsung have engineered fingerprint scanners into their home buttons to give them even more function and versatility. They now serve as a way to secure the device, as well as for paying things with a fingerprint.

The result is a reliable, tactile button that will work whenever pressed, but that leaves us with downsides.

Negatives

Since it is a hardware button, it can break.

What good is a button if it doesn't work?

Pressing buttons too many times can cause the contacts to degrade and eventually stop working entirely. In some circumstances, dust, dirt, or anything else can cause the buttons to become mushy, or even worse―it can get stuck.

In my own experience, my iPhone 4's home button eventually needed more than one press to work, while my iPod Touch's home button is still working flawlessly. It mainly depends on the usage per person.

From a manufacturing and designing standpoint, the inclusion of a hardware button requires more bezel use on the phone. For instance, the iPhone has a large bottom bezel (known as the chin) footprint to house the home button. As a result, the top portion of the iPhone (forehead) is also large to keep symmetry on both sides.

Therefore, a larger bezel on the top or bottom results in an entirely larger phone with a smaller screen size.
To put in perspective, the LG G2 has a 5.2" display with software buttons, which is around the same height as the iPhone 6 with a 4.7" display and home button.

Ironically, many users, whether Android or iPhone users, have come to seek refuge by finding software features to aid them in the degradation of their primary buttons―after all, most people are stuck with their smartphone with a 2 year contract; it would be wise to preserve its life by only using it when necessary.
The iPhone has Assistive Touch, which is a software button that performs almost every hardware-related task, while Samsung has a similar feature.

Google themselves have switched to software buttons long ago, but is it more intuitive? I'll touch on that soon.

Capacitive Buttons

PC: Jeffery Akuamoah-Boateng; LG G4

Background and Positives

Capacitive buttons are actually really interesting in the way that they work. The human body contains the ability to hold an electric charge and in practice, acts as a capacitor. Skipping all the engineering voodoo-nonsense, when your finger comes in contact with a capacitive button, it causes an interference with the capacitance. It changes the total capacitance, and the button can be engineered to perform its function when the disturbance occurs.

In smartphones, there is always more than one capacitive button because the workload is divided between 3 or more instances.

In the past, there used to be the menu button, search button, home button, and back button. The HTC Nexus One even went as far as having all of these buttons with a trackball on top of that! In fact, the trackball was also the notification light.

The upsides to having capacitive buttons is flexibility, but in a confined box.
Capacitive buttons may be weirder than hardware buttons for first-time users. To emulate a physical button, they vibrate when touched (but can be disabled) and light up to tell the user which button they had pressed.
They may be more practical by offering the user more options at a time, but they are mainly limited to Android.

The back button and home button are the most used capacitive buttons, with the menu button coming close.
However, in recent times, Google simplified the buttons to back, home, and recents.

Capacitive buttons rarely break because there's really nothing to break in the first place, except the sensors.
They're highly responsive and require less effort to press than a physical button. In some circumstances, it may be more natural to tap the buttons as a user would tap their screen, which is why many manufacturers use capacitive buttons to this day.

Some manufacturers and custom ROMs mimic the ability to add gestures to capacitive buttons. OnePlus and Cyanogenmod are well known to allow capacitive buttons to be double-tapped to activate recents, or even enabling the flashlight.

Negatives

Capacitive buttons and physical buttons share the same fate: they take up space in the bezel, but that's not the only thing.

There was never a rule as to how capacitive buttons should be laid out on a smartphone. As a result, manufacturers put the capacitive buttons in any order they saw fit, which wreaks havoc to consumers when changing phones. 

Furthermore, the icon for the capacitive buttons also vary between manufacturers. This adds on to the exclusivity of a manufacturer while causing fragmentation among Android phones.

Most notably, Samsung and LG's capacitive buttons were exact opposites. Samsung put their back button on the left side, and menu/recents on the left side, while LG put their back button on the left side and menu/recents on the right side. 

Samsung began using a combination of hardware buttons and capacitive buttons with the home button flanked as a hardware button and the back/recents as capacitive after the Samsung Galaxy SII.

LG stuck with capacitive and moved straight to software buttons after the LG Optimus G.

Finally, capacitive buttons may be more accidentally pressed than a physical button because of the recessed effort it takes to press. In landscape, phones with capacitive buttons also have less space to grab on the sides.

Google eventually got rid of the idea of a menu button and completely replaced it with the recents/overview button we all know today.

With the debut of the Galaxy Nexus, software buttons were born, and with a specific layout: back, home, and recents in their respective order.

 

Software Buttons

Software buttons, on-screen buttons, nav-bar, navigation buttons―you name it!

Background and Positives

Google set a precedent when they started using software buttons over hardware/capacitive buttons on the Galaxy Nexus.

Software buttons are exact replicas of capacitive buttons, mirrored onto the screen itself. They even vibrate, if you want them to. The result?
Customization, larger screens, smaller bezels, and sleeker phones―at least in theory.

In practice, that's pretty accurate!

With root, you can customize the look of the buttons. LG's skin, as well as custom ROMs allow the ability to add and rearrange buttons.
Phones like the Nexus 6 have a very small chin bezel thanks to software buttons. What's taking place of the bezel? Front facing speakers! That's definitely a plus.
Without buttons, phones look aesthetically more pleasing because they are cleaner. No distracting bells and whistles―just a screen and the typical front camera/speaker grille.

People may think that software buttons take up precious screen estate, but since they're software buttons and not physical hardware, they can be hidden in apps to create a more immersive experience. Google allows the nav-bar and statusbar to be hidden with Immersive Mode in 4.4 KitKat.

In Lollipop, Google simplified their design to simple geometric shapes―a triangle, circle, and square―reminiscent of a certain game console's controller.

Multi-tasking and using a smartphone or tablet with software buttons may be the fastest of them all, too. They require less effort to press than a physical button or capacitive button because they are as natural as a tap on the screen.

Gestures also help create more utility to the buttons. Google introduced a swipe-up to Google Search/Google Now, which ties into the ecosystem without unusual breaks or disconnects.

Negatives

Although Google released the API for Immersive Mode, not many apps are utilizing it. Reading related apps such as Google Play Books were one of the first to support Immersive Mode, but even games at the top of the chain do not utilize it. The result is wasted screen space and increase likelihood of exiting the game while playing.

Since the elements are bled into the screen rather than onto the bezel, it takes more time to adjust.
Users that switch to a device with on-screen buttons may have accidentally pressed home rather than the space bar while typing with a keyboard.

Software buttons also do not exist until the screen is on.
Consequently, the only option to wake the device is with the sleep/wake button or with software features.
Google as well as other manufacturers such as LG and HTC resort to workarounds to wake the device.
With LG's inclusion of rear keys, they created Knock On, which is double-tap the screen to wake the device. HTC followed suit one year later on the M8.
Google's ambient-mode follows Motorola's Active Display, which wakes the device when picked up and breathes notifications when on a desk.
Motorola one-upped everyone with the use of infrared lasers to wake up the device on the latest Moto X 2014.

While these new software features may be cooler and more flashy, sometimes a physical button just proves to work every single time. In my experience, the software features are amazing and can easily be the new craze―but only once they work at a 100% rate.

Such software features, though, work most of the time, but not always.

In some cases, software buttons have a small delay when pressed, but it depends solely on the software that the phone is wielding, such as the OnePlus One. Luckily, software fixes can solve the issues―which it did.

Final Thoughts

After using all three of these buttons on my smartphones, I have to admit that software buttons are my personal favorite. I don't want to deal with a broken home button or fear that it will break, nor do I enjoy reaching further down than I should to buttons that light up when pressed.

Software buttons have always been more reliable than any other button, and for good reason. They offer small features such as swiping to Google Now in an instant, more screen estate when hidden, and are much faster and responsive than ever before. 

Taps are just more natural than presses, too. If I were to rank them, it would definitely go like this:

1. Software Buttons
2. Capacitive Buttons
3. Physical/Hardware Buttons
4. Physical and Capacitive Buttons (I'm looking at you, Samsung!)

However, I also like choice. I have to give props to OnePlus and Cyanogenmod 11 for giving the option between Capacitive and Software buttons with their OnePlus One―even though the capacitive buttons had an outdated menu button rather than an overview/recents button.

Thank you for reading, and as always, I will see you in the next post.

--

I bought a dbrand skin a few weeks ago and decided to write about my experience with them. Enjoy.
Bonus: The dbrand image above was taken with my Nexus 6; every dbrand skin order comes with a dbrand logo. It's utterly impressive that the image came out like that; it looks like a digital render.

Overview

dbrand is a company based in Toronto that made their first debut with a skin for the iPhone 4, claiming absolute precision paired with 3M vinyl. dbrand is derived from the idea of "debranding" a phone by covering the brand, logos, and other pesky things like the FCC certification—something both minimalists and maximalists can enjoy.

For those unaware of what a "skin" is, they are essentially carefully cut vinyl wraps that are applied to a device for customization. Besides having a skin for aesthetic and personalization reasons, each skins feature a true-to-life texture based on whatever it is emulating.

Nowadays, dbrand skins cover not only smartphones, but also tablets, laptops, consoles, game controllers, and wearables which allow you to personalize just about any device you have.

The Buying Process

As stated, dbrand is based in Canada, which means shipping times vary.

"We ship everywhere except North Korea"

Unfortunately they don't use shipping tracking, and can only provide an estimate as to when it would arrive. Since I'm living in California, they assumed a 2-week waiting period, but it came after about a week. 

Shipping costs an additional 3 dollars to the US, but could go past $10 in other countries.

Options, options, options!

Besides accuracy, dbrand touts strong customization for their customers. 

For one thing, their textures are universal across all the devices and categories. There's no exclusive skin for a certain device.

Here are the textures they offer, as follows:

Carbon Fiber | Matte | Metal | Leather | True Color | Wood

On top of that, they offer different colors and types for those textures.

Beyond that, dbrand provides back coverage, front coverage, accents, and sometimes side coverage for applicable devices. The list goes on.

The Nexus 6, for example, has special nexus cutout options. I personally went for the full nexus, however.

How did I take this picture?

Dat macro

The only color option for the Nexus 6 through carriers is Midnight Blue, which attracts fingerprints and is too dark for my taste. 

To remedy that, I originally intended to get the Matte White skin but ended up going for the flashier White Carbon Fiber.

For extra spice, I went for the Zebra Wood Moto M and camera cutout, which are free of charge.

On top of that, I contacted dbrand for their limited edition Colored X because I had missed their sale. Luckily, their customer support is incredible and sent them. Unfortunately, they sent the Nexus 5 X cutouts by mistake but will be sending the Nexus 6 versions soon.

Some advice on choosing your skin: dbrand's renders on their site aren't entirely accurate. In my experience, they look much better in real life.
I would take a look at dbrand's Twitter page because they retweet customer's skins after they have applied them. You'll see almost all of the textures that way.

Application 

To apply, they have a YouTube channel for tutorials. In actual application, it took me quite a bit of tries to get that perfect fit. The Nexus 6 skin is more difficult to apply than other smartphones because of the Nexus letters, so experience may vary.

After about 30 minutes of applying, removing, and reapplying, I managed to get it on with quite the precision. Once a dbrand skin is applied, they stay on basically until force is applied to remove it. 

They stick through heat and are resistant to water, so they are quite durable.

Final Thoughts

I'm definitely going to continue purchasing dbrand skins in the future. They are the only company I trust when it comes to skins. Follow them on Twitter or Facebook to see their hilarious rap battles, Futurama references, lamborghinis, and more. If you're lucky, they'll playfully disrespect you.

Overall, I highly recommend dbrand skins over any other brand for their reliability and amazing customer support. 

One day, I will go caseless like the majority of dbrand users, but until then, I'm rocking the Spigen Ultra Hybrid case to protect my phone and show off my dbrand at the same time.

"It's not a product. It's a culture. dbrand or GTFO." ―dbrand

Thank you for reading, and as always, I'll catch you guys in the next post... when I have time for that.

...Actually, it's summer vacation! I'll be writing much more.

--

It's May 28th/29th, 2015, and we all know what that means!

Google I/O!!

In this post, I will talk about my first impressions with the Android M Developer Preview and look at some of the UI changes because AndroidPolice is too good at finding hidden features.
Keep in mind that I played with the Dev Preview for an hour until I reverted back to 5.1.1 because, well, it's a beta, and there's not much.

Start screen

Let's start with the most noticeable change. When you first boot up the phone with Android M, you'll see a few color changes.

On Lollipop, the background is actually the exact same thing, except green. 

The selection for language on the first page has been simplified to a drop-down menu rather than a preview of the selections on Lollipop.

The blue and yellow themes are transferred to the rest of the other startup screens.

Lockscreen

dat font

There's a few changes in the Lockscreen on Android M.

The clock's font is bolder, which is more easily noticed when using ambient mode or for quickly checking the time. 

The font under the clock has changed a bit for the better, and is now all in capital letters.

The font is now bigger, more refined, and overall more aesthetically pleasing. I love it.

I don't believe it's using the typical Roboto font that just went open-source, because this font is glaringly different from all the other fonts present in the lockscreen, as seen with the T-Mobile on the top left.

Finally, there's a change for the better or worse.

On the bottom left, there is now a microphone icon where the phone icon used to be. 

Before, a quick swipe to the right would bring you to the dialer—but now, it opens the microphone from Google Now, which allows you to do more things: call someone, send a text, get directions, and all that other good stuff.

Some may argue that a voice action is less convenient than going to the dialer when in public or in quiet places, which is true—but it brings more options at the same time. 

I would be on the side in favor of the traditional phone app, however.

Camera 

thin circles are so modern

While we're at it, let's take a look at the icon that stayed on the right of the lockscreen: the camera.

I didn't think there would even be a change in M, but there is—the focusing interface is now simplified into a thin circle that expands and contracts while focusing.

The exposure bug in Android 5.1 is also fixed—users, including myself, were unable to change the exposure values in any camera app. In low-light, images would be much more darker than they should be, which is especially noticed in apps like Snapchat. 

That's basically the only things that have changed. 

Moving on!

App Drawer

People will hate it, but I prefer it

Looks like Google is bringing the app drawer back to the Gingerbread days. 

When Ice Cream Sandwich came around, Google switched to a horizontal-scrolling app drawer, which became adopted by every OEM, except... HTC (and Microsoft, but they don't count).

When I first opened the drawer, the very top row did not appear. When my phone began updating Google's core apps, they appeared. Therefore, at the top, you are greeted with a row of icons that were either recently touched or modified.

Eventually, the top row will be tailored to the apps that you frequent the most—allowing for faster access to apps—though, quite honestly, I won't be using it that often.

You may miss it at first, since it's only 1 DP (density pixels) in thickness, but there is now a slider which allows you to scroll through your apps much more quickly than ever before. 

Apps are organized in alphabetical order, so the slider should work in tandem with the order very well. 

My normal setup on Nova Launcher is actually set to use vertical scrolling with a slider, so I am pleased. 

However, I can see many, many people holding their pitchforks at Google requesting to bring horizontal-scrolling back because it would showcase many more apps per page.

I'm predicting that Google will implement an option to switch between the two.

Notification Shade and Volume Controls

As a new feature in Android M, the toggles are now customizable, which I will get into soon. The newest toggle by default is Do not disturb, which... does exactly what it should be doing.

That bring us to volume controls, arguably one of Google's biggest mistakes in Lollipop. 

Google took note that users hated that they removed the entire silence mode, which is done in KitKat and below by lowering the volume past vibrate mode. 

In M, Google brought it back, which, when toggled, greys out the vibrate icon and shows that only alarms will be able to break through the silent mode.

In addition, the ringer is now accompanied by a drop-down icon on the right. When pressed, the menu is expanded to reveal media controls and alarm controls—something that custom ROMs and some OEM skins have been implementing for quite a while. Now, it has made it to stock android. 

It's a small, yet powerful feature that will definitely please a lot of users. 

Whenever I open an app that I know will play a loud sound on start-up, like, say, Kingdom Rush, I'm always trying to hold down on my volume button to lower it as quickly as possible but am always shown the dreaded ringer volume instead of media volume. Thanks, Google!

When pressing the volume rockers in Lollipop, None, Priority, and All appear under the slider. 

In M, they're gone and have been moved under the Do Not Disturb toggle.

Google's Now On-Tap

It's not called Google Now On-Tap, but rather Now On-Tap. 

In Lollipop, holding down on the home button would bring the playful Google Now animation to appear. In the beta, Now On-Tap doesn't work in this release, but neither does the Google Now swipe gesture. 

In my experience, the Now On-Tap froze a few times which was only fixed by a reboot. 

However, going into Google Now settings brings up a new toggle: Screen Assistance, which is what Now On-Tap is. Now On-Tap is a major Android M feature that can analyze text in the current screen and can show relevant information. 

For example, at I/O, it can bring up relevant Google Now cards based on the current screen information. If you're talking to a friend about the new Inglourious Basterds addition to Netflix, activating On-Tap would show up information about the movie, without even telling it that you wanted to know more about it. 

Changes in Settings

Doze: Better battery management

Wake-lock be gone!

Under the battery section in Settings, pressing the three-dot menu reveals M's new battery optimizations, codenamed Doze. According to Google, they used two Nexus 9's—one with Lollipop, and one with M—to test the battery standby times. The one with M yielded a longer lasting battery with up to double the standby time compared to Lollipop.

Doze works by analyzing the movement of the device and recognizes when to enter a low-power state with fewer wake-locks when the device isn't being used (not moving) for long periods of time, such as at night. 

However, it doesn't solve the problem to wake-locks in your pocket. 

In the battery settings, you can choose which apps to ignore the Doze optimizations.

The Small Changes

There is now a Google Tab in settings that actually brings you to the Google Settings, and that's about it.

In Backup & Reset, however, there is now a feature that allows you to back up app data to Google Drive (up to 25mb according to the Google site) which allows for easier setup on new devices or for restoring a device after a factory reset—something a lot of custom ROM users deal with if they don't use root methods like Helium or Titanium Backup. Best of all, it's all stored in the cloud.

There's also a Network settings reset, if you ever lose or mess up your carrier APNs.

Developer Options

It's called a kaomoji, you simpleton.

The first thing many of us do when getting a new version of Android is going to the easter egg. By tapping on Android M repeatedly, you're greeted with the M logo, featured on the top of this post.

When you hold down, it should bring up the easter egg as usual. However, since this is M and not the full release, it does not exist and will instead give you a kaomoji in the meantime.

Instead, I tapped the build number repeatedly to see what's new in Developer Options.

At first glance, I noticed there's more options for USB Configuration, such as RNDIS, Audio Source, and MIDI.

Annoyingly, the default option when it is plugged into a computer is set to "Charging only", and doesn't stick to what I set it to when I unplug it and plug it again.

I was having difficulty flashing the Lollipop factory images because it stayed in charging mode and couldn't fastboot with ADB.

Scroll further down, and there's an option to toggle the settings into Light Theme, Dark Theme, or Automatic.

But that's not the only thing!

Right above the theme mode, there is Show SystemUI Tuner.

When you toggle it, it seems like it does absolutely nothing.

But you have to leave the developer options to see the new tab appear for SystemUI.

All I want is a Sync toggle...

It's a good start by Google to allow customizability to the toggles, but it's very limited now, and doesn't work in this M preview.

You can, however, remove toggles from the list and don't have to see them ever again. 

This works great for when you try out Invert Colors for a second and have to deal with the toggle (unless you move your clock forward a month).

Actual Usage

Since this is a Developer Preview, I didn't expect it to be stable or run smoothly. Nonetheless, it was very fluid for the most part, except for dropped frames when using the newer features. It could have been used as a semi-daily driver, but I wouldn't risk it because of the freezing On-Tap feature.

On a final note, I might be crazy, but I swear the ripple effect when you tap or hold on things in the settings have slightly changed. I can't verify it because I don't have a second Nexus device to compare it with, but I can feel a difference. Maybe M is making me delusional already.

Unfortunately, I was unable to play with the new Google Photos app because it didn't update yet and I was experiencing too many problems with the freezing and had to revert immediately. 

Conclusion

Overall, I'm liking what I'm seeing on the M Preview. Since 5.0 Lollipop was the major overhaul, there won't be many visual changes, but rather under-the-hood improvements such as Doze or app data backups.

As of now, I'm not as enticed or excited for the M release just yet because of the lack of the major features showcased at M like On-Tap. When the time comes for the new Preview, however, I will report back with a Part Two.

Thank you for reading, please provide questions, comments, or concerns through the comments or through email. 

As always, I'll catch you guys in the next post...when I have time for that.

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This is my spiritual journey towards mobile platform Nirvana.

Preface

A lot of people know me as an avid fan of Android but I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for my initial encounter with Apple.

There really isn't a point to this post, but it's a sort of timeline of my experiences with Android/iOS that I'd like to share.

Warning: Massive wall of text with no TL;DR. I use historical context and facts to mix with my story. I also ramble on a lot.

The iOS Series

2009: New Beginnings

My first exposure to a mobile platform began with the iPod Touch 2nd generation in 2009. To put in context, I was in the 6th grade when I received the device as a birthday gift.

It was a completely new and different kind of experience. The only other technologies I owned at the time were the Gameboy Advance SP and Nintendo DS, which were technological gaming feats in their own right.

Scratches merely personify aging.

Looking back at the iPod Touch 2nd generation, it introduced me to Apple's philosophy towards mobile software and design. Under Steve Jobs, Apple had a reputation for expert craftsmanship in build quality, which is still immediately noticed today.

Apple was, and still is, known for having a sort of totalitarian dictatorship over their software (although in recent times, Apple is slowly retracting their strong presence). What attracted so many to Android at the time was its higher level of customization and flexibility.
Google achieved this by releasing Android as open-source and allowed other companies, as well as developers on XDA to modify the code if they didn't like Google's own software.

It gave birth to the controversial Android Skins and Custom ROMs.
But more on later.

2010/2011: The Peak Years

Black background? Minimalists rejoice!

The iPhones passed down to me were jailbroken (and unlocked, because it was the only way to use the iPhone on T-Mobile).
Jay Freeman, also known as Saurik, was a well-known developer that infiltrated iOS and found vulnerabilities that allowed him to develop the rogue App Store: Cydia.

And so I opened the application.

Cydia was the app store of software packages, allowing users to customize and modify their iOS device, which allowed more freedom in the OS. Comparably, it was seen as a mix of iOS and Android: Android's capability with iOS's familiar usability.
However, it also was home to soft-bricks, hard-bricks, boot-loops, crashes, and more when it fell to the hands of a less-than-average user. Luckily, most problems can be fixed with restoring the device on iTunes; one of Apple's stronger areas of software to tout.

To be quite honest with you, I had no idea what I was doing sometimes. My first experiences with Cydia were trial and error—I installed packages that weren't compatible with my firmware version, crashed springboard, and more.
By reading what certain packages did and eventually learning all the lingo with help from none other than the internet, I expanded my knowledge of iOS over a course of a few years.

My biggest advice to anyone trying to learn more about their device is to just read. Reading can get you very far in life. The only thing you had to do after that was to test out your knowledge by messing around with your device.
I was a curious little fellow that wanted to know what everything did, which kept me more and more interested in technology.

I never even dropped my phone a single time.

During the time I used the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4, I took full advantage of the vulnerable operating system.
I found the iPhone-and-Cydia-duo the perfect rival to Android, though my only exposure to Android at the time was my friend's* HTC Evo running Gingerbread with a Sense skin thrown over it.
*dat kickstand tho, Carlos

I really loved my iPhone back then. I've made so many memories with them, with folders among folders of moments in my photo cloud. It introduced me to all the major components of hardware—camera technology, screen technology, processors, you name it.
I used to religiously watch Apple's new keynotes right when I got home, clinging to every word that the Apple executives had to say.

You might have been able to call me an Apple fanboy for supporting Apple so strongly, and you may have been right; but it was more so because of Cydia. I had modified my iPhone so much to the point where I hated normal iOS.

It was too boring, too dull; too slow, and too locked down.

2012: The Downfall

Fast-forward a year or two, and the home button of my iPhone 4 began to deteriorate after years of use. Assistive Touch was really choppy and buggy on iOS 5, but by the time iOS 6 smoothed things out, I was done.

Coupled with a deteriorating battery and persistent crashing of Springboard, I knew it was time.
It was always in the back of my head to consider Android, but I didn't expect it to happen so.... easily.

Luckily, I had a friend* that was fond of Android and I asked for his opinion of switching to the S2 (SGH-T989 for you nerds). He noted the customization like any other Android fan would, as well as the expandable storage, removable battery, and larger screen. He encouraged that I should try Android considering how tech-savvy I was, so I went for it.
*Jeffery, the one that started it all.

And just like that, I joined Android. It was a mixture of curiosity and frustration; fear and excitement.

Android: A New Light

Source: Droid Life

Ah yes, Android. To this day, iOS is still the platform that I've used for the longest time. 

And yet, Android is the one I'm the most familiar with.

2013/2014: New Faces

The only time you'll see my iPad naked.

Now, I should note that although I departed the iPhone, I had the iPad 4th generation (the 3rd one was annoyingly and officially called "The New iPad" by Tim Cook, but I'm using the numbers anyway) to keep myself inside the Apple ecosystem a bit.

iMessage was sort of a good way to keep in touch with other iPhone users for its ease of use and maintaining a dual-OS life. 

I also used iTunes heavily not only to control and support my iPad, but rather to manage my music library. iTunes has a great system to edit the ID3 tags on music to keep it well organized. It seemed at this point that iOS wasn't fully out of my life.

In fact, iOS 7 was announced around the summer-time and I immediately jumped on the beta releases to have fun with it. It was rumored that Apple would redesign their OS with flatter icons and vibrant colors, so it was the most anticipated version of iOS yet.
It's weird, but the iOS 7 keynote was the last keynote I've ever fully watched. I view it as a symbol of my decreasing interest and attachment, but I'm also crazy.

Initially, I gave Android a bit of criticism as I was still getting used to it. Touchwiz (Samsung's skin) was more to blame, with its untasteful software design, cartoon-ish bleeps and bloops, and poor update record.

I met another friend* that happened to own the S2. He showed me what a launcher was and installed Nova Launcher, which got rid of a lot of the Samsung drab (Nova Launcher is still on my phone to this day). 
*Ravi, my future-self and once god of android. Absolute legend.

He also knew a thing or two about rooting.

What was rooting? In simpler terms, it was Android's version of "jail-breaking", although it was still very, very different*. 

Rooting allows the user to gain full access, or "root-access", to their device and allows them to go a step beyond jail-breaking (insert ascended super saiyan reference here). It was far more risky and much more fun. Well, at least it was to me.
*you peasant, never compare rooting to jailbreaking!!!1!!1!

There are two different kinds of things that users can do with a rooted device.
A device that is simply rooted can get more access to apps that require root, such as an advanced wake-lock detector or advanced hibernating app.
A device that is rooted can use a custom recovery such as TWRP or CWM, which allows a user to install a custom ROM.

Think of a ROM as the software that a phone comes with out of the box. A custom ROM is a developer-made ROM that will replace the original one. It's a bit hard to explain without visuals or drawings, so please reference the AndroidPolice article linked previously.

What you need to know is that the most popular custom ROM was Cyanogenmod, which used Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code and added in a lot of useful features, but still kept to the Google stock-feel. They supported almost every single Android device out there, which made them very popular.
I was part of the cool kid's* club.
*you're only cool to an android geek, and even then they'll still dislike you

Using Cyanogenmod and following Marques Brownlee's videos, I grew more and more akin to vanilla/stock/pure Android.

My first real Android phone, the LG G2.

After over half a year of using the S2 and Cyanogenmod, there were leaks of the LG "Optimus" G2, the successor to the LG Optimus G. The leaks became massively popular because it had something that no other phone had:
rear buttons. Unfortunately the original video leak that I saw years ago was taken down, but I linked an article commenting about it.

LG had been studying how people held their phones and realized a common pattern in grips, which led to their choice of moving the buttons to the back.
For the most part, it worked. Some people hated it, but I personally loved it.
It allowed LG to create a larger screen with thinner bezels, all in a compact package. In fact, the compact 5.2" LG G2 is about the same size as the iPhone 6, which has a 4.7" display with much bigger bezels.

LG continues to be the only OEM that uses rear buttons (except the Asus Zenfone 2, but it doesn't have the power button on the back) with each flagship release, such as the LG G3 and LG G4.

I chose the G2 because the other rival phone was the HTC One M7, arguably the best phone of that year, was aging, while the G2 was the first to use the Snapdragon 800 processor series (2.3GHz) while the M7 had a Snapdragon 600 processor with a lower clockspeed (1.7GHz) than the S4 (1.9GHz).
Therefore, I saw it as more likely to last and withstand the next year's flagships; which it did.

October/Android 4.4 Kitkat

I used the phone "out of the box" for a few weeks in October until I rooted it for Cyanogenmod after KitKat's release.
LG's skin... wasn't the greatest. It was like the twin to Touchwiz, with a heavy, cartoon-feeling skin and loads of features. It was a bit more tolerable, however.

When Google announced the Google/LG Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 KitKat just a few weeks after I was using the G2, I was excited. A new version of Android just in time for my new phone.
Then I realized the cons of using a non-Nexus device. I'd have to wait months for LG to develop their version of KitKat, while every Nexus would get it quickly (except the Moto X, which got it before Google's own Nexus 4 did).

I got around it by, of course, rooting and using Cyanogenmod.

2015: Android, then iOS, and Android again

Skipping a lot of events, my G2 was rooted with a custom recovery, and I flashed a lot of ROMs. I became a flashaholic, switching between Cyanogenmod to CloudyG3, to ParanoidAndroid, to AOKP, etc.
I also grew akin to customizing my phone's interface pretty cleanly.

Here's what my homescreen looked like in its prime: https://imgur.com/a/OH7wy

It carried on for an entire year and a half, until my phone experienced problems.

While using BlissPop, a 5.1 ROM at the time, I experienced reboot problems that I'd never experienced before, so I decided it was a good time to unroot and revert to LG's latest Lollipop update.

Using LG's Support Tool, I updated it, but the reboots just continued to happen. They wouldn't stop.
The phone worked flawlessly and lag-free, but the screen would just freeze and reboot; sometimes it would just shut down.

I forgot to mention my dying Windows laptop, but that'll be in my...Chromebook story (if I ever write that).
It was extremely difficult to work with while my G2 was in danger.
I tried many different ways to fix the reboots, which is documented on my reddit post.

Damn those two lines!

It overheated during the process somehow and caused my screen to get 3-4 black lines. I was completely shocked. I immediately turned the phone off to let it cool down, and fortunately one line went away, and then another. Two lines permanently stayed.

Coupled with the "damaged" screen and constant reboots, I was forced to switch with my father's iPhone 6 while he used a recently purchased iPhone 5s. This time I wasn't as reluctant to switch.

And here we go.

Back to the Roots: iPhone 6 | iOS 8

April 15-May 16 2015: The One-Month Stand

I hardly even knew you.

I've changed over the years, as everyone else does too.
By the time I owned the LG G2, I knew I was done with iOS. After joining the dark side, I wanted to stay in the dark side. I loved it.

Yes, now and then people would look at my G2 and ask,
"is that the new Galaxy?" or remark,"that phone is too big!"
but I was always prepared to educate them about Android and show it in a better light.
I became the defender of Android whenever the topic came up, so it was a surprise to some people when I walked into school with the enemy, the iPhone 6.

For a few times when I'd pull out the iPhone, some would react, "So you've left Android!" with much joy, while others would react, "Why do you have the iPhone?" "You have two phones now?"
This is one of the repercussions of being pro-Android, but I didn't mind it that much.

One time, I've even gotten "I like your phone!" which made me laugh a bit inside. The iPhone 6 is pretty common, but some people still admire it. It's an interesting power that Apple holds. Had it been a pretty looking Android like the S6 or M9, it probably wouldn't have been the same reaction.

In short, I told them what happened to my Android and that it was temporary. In reality, I didn't know if I was able to get a different phone, but one can keep wishing.

I was planning to definitely record each and every one of my annoyances with iOS compared to Android, but I was too lazy. I will, however, write my opinions in a different piece.

#materiyolo

The biggest takeaway was for me was this: iOS has terrible reddit apps. Sync for Reddit on Android is eons ahead of whatever the App Store can offer. That is the plain truth. I've used at least 6 of the top reddit apps on iOS, and none could come even close.

Now, that sounds like a bunch of whining, and I'll admit that. However, Matias DuARTe*, lead designer at Google, is onto something. He developed Material Design with his team and really hit it out there. Material Design greatly surpasses iOS's blurred and flat designs with meaningful animations and beautiful, vibrant colors, inspired by contemporary art and the sorts. I'll get into it in another time, but The Verge describes Android Lollipop's Material Design very well.
*have you heard our lord and savior, DuARTe?

Okay, back to the topic. Google fortunately has most of their services on the App Store, and I love them for that. Lack of Google Maps on iOS would have made me go insane, as Apple's version isn't my favorite. Here's one of my favorite articles of all time that analyzes the differences between the two, design-wise.

However, Google likes to Keep a few of their better apps. Get it? Keep? Google Keep? No? Nevermind.
Anyway, I used Google Keep and Evernote to manage my daily tasks. Google Keep for long-term thoughts and tasks, and Evernote for homework reminders and tasks. Evernote was worse on iOS, which made me seek out another task app. I settled with Quest, a great reminders app that was free for a short period of time.

It didn't stop there. Widgets on iOS 8 are terribly designed, custom keyboards are half-baked, and clicking links will not bring you to the dedicated app most of the time.
For example, clicking a link to a post on Twitter will not take you to the Twitter app like it should; it brings you to Safari, which will then prompt you to go to the app. It's frustrating. I don't understand how apps don't communicate with the OS as fluidly as it should.

I'm only pointing out the negatives here because they were my main impressions of going back to iOS.
The biggest things I'll highlight about the iPhone 6 is its insanely fast camera, which shoots 10fps burst mode—something I really loved—as well as the iPhone's great battery standby time.

I can keep going on about the positives and negatives, but it only lasted almost an exact month.

May 16th: Hail the Nexus

T-Mobile, to my surprise, lowered the cost of a Nexus 6 by $100. So I jumped ship.
This is going to be a short one since I'm writing this exactly a week after getting the Nexus 6.

I already know everything about Lollipop because of custom ROMs, but the hardware was new..ish. My other friend* got a Nexus 6 in March and I used it a few times before.
*ayy lmao -Fabian

***Edit (5.27.15): It's funny, but I always knew the Nexus 6 was water resistant, as listed on the Motorola page, but it wasn't until the morning after I just got the Nexus 6 that I tried it out by briefly and swiftly putting it under the shower head.
Unfortunately, by learning the hard way, the Nexus 6 actually does not have proper IP Certification for water and dust resistance, but rather has a nano-coating, which is good for rain and accidental spills; not submerging it.
When I got out of the shower, I tried playing a YouTube video and the audio would not come out. After factory-resetting and doing all the typical things a power user should know, I figured it must have been a defected Nexus, but it was odd because audio works for phone calls while the speaker is on, but doesn't work when using the earpiece.

A few days later, I was reading a post and found out that the phone must have gotten water inside the 3.5mm headphone jack, which caused it to think there were headphones plugged in. Oh, well. Exercising the warranty is great. But yeah, that actually means my current Nexus 6 is the second one I've owned.***

First, there's the size. You cannot escape it; with a 5.96" display, this phone is the biggest of all of them. Its codename is Shamu, for crying out loud. In the beginning, it was a slippery phone to deal with, but after getting the Spigen Ultra Hybrid case, all was fine. I got used to the size after 2-3 days.

Everything else feels smaller.

There's a few things I dislike: screen brightness and low-light camera performance. Other than that, it's a great phone, and probably the best I've ever used.
The screen is beautiful, but it doesn't get as bright as I'd want it to be in the sun. It also turns a bit pink when you put it to the extremely lowest brightness setting, but only when Adaptive Brightness is on.

The camera is actually really nice, with sharp detail and saturated colors. However, metering is average at best. Focusing is fast, but if you focus on the wrong thing, the exposure gets blown out, leaving you extremely white backgrounds.

Luckily it's fixed with Manual Camera. Video recording is above average, but it hunts for focus quite often. That is also remedied by the HTC Camera apk, which locks focus during recording. It's great.

Just don't try to take a selfie in low-light. In decent lighting, it's decent quality. In less than decent lighting, it's less than decent quality.

The front-facing, dual stereo speakers are one of my favorite hardware features of the Nexus. They get loud, and they are amazing. Any phone that doesn't have speakers on the front is doing it wrong. Some may get louder, but they don't provide an immersive experience because they lack the depth.

Overall, I'm liking it. With Google I/O right around the corner, I'm ready for Android M(acadamia Nut Cookie?) and will definitely flash the developer preview. It might even come earlier than it should!
I'll write on that when I get my hands on it.

Ending Notes

Thanks for reaching the bottom, whether you scrolled down to the bottom or made the journey here the long way. It means a lot, since this was my first real post.
Yes, I do ramble on a lot, and that's due in part to my damned fingers that seem to type everything I'm thinking.

I will definitely never write something as lengthy as this post, but this one is especially long because it's my story. Any post following this one will be much shorter and handle-able.
Please provide feedback, whether through email or commenting below.

This post was written over a course of a few days, spread out between weekends.
Thank you again, and I will catch you in the next post...when I have time for that.

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