Nexus 4

Buying it ¶

You can buy a Nexus 4 in Saturn, but the 16GB-version costs 395 Euro there (source). In Google Play Store, it costs "only" 349 Euro (source).

Comdirect ¶

So, I've decided to buy it from Google Play Store. But you have to have a Google Wallet account to use it. For a Google Wallet account, you need a credit card. Unlike in the USA, most people in Germany don't have a credit card. I had to get one and decided to use the free one from Comdirect.

Here is a list of letters I got... I've expected one or two.

08.02.2013

I sent my information for registration to comdirect

15.02.2013

Notice that I need to send a Meldebestätigung as I did identity verification with my passport and not with my identity card. The Meldebestätigung costs 8.00 Euro.

21.02.2013

General information like account number

22.02.2013

PIN for online login

28.02.2013

Visa-Card

27.02.2013

iTAN list

04.03.2013

.comdirect girocard

05.03.2013

re-activation of bank account

05.03.2013

bank account blocked: three failed online logins

05.03.2013

PIN for Girocard

At 28.02.2013, I first transferred 5 Euro to check if everything works as expected. I have to transfer it to my girocard. It arrived at 01.03.2013. Then I have to transfer it to my Visa card. It arrived at 04.03.2013. Quite a long time for an internal transaction.

As I made three attempts to login into my online account from comdirect bank, my account was locked. I had to send a fax and ask them to unlock my account! Another Euro for the fax. (By the way, I think this is a security leak. If I wanted to do harm to the bank, I could make lots of accesses to their customers accounts and lock them. I guess it wouldn't take me more than 30 minutes to write the code and about one day to let it run. Very bad.)

Google Play ¶

Ok, I've got a credit card. Now I will have bought a Nexus 4 in a couple of minutes, right? Wrong.

• 

  Google Mail from Google Play from 2013-03-06, 10:47
• 

  Invalid address: Google help
• 

  Google Play Store: Invalid address bug

What the hell? They think I live in Helgoland or have military address?

Ok, let's try it again:

• 

  Google Wallet 2013-03-06
• 

  Google Wallet 2013-03-06, 10:55

WTF? Although the transaction was canceled, my bank thinks it happened. I can't see the transaction in my bank account, though. According to my online bank account, I haven't reached my limit. But I cannot pay for the "second" phone. That sucks.

The next day it worked:

• 

  Google Play Store
• 

  Google Play Store 2013-03-06, 10:46
• 

  Google Play Store, 2013-03-07

2013-03-07: Now I have to wait for the phone.

2013-03-08: Hurray, it's here!

My old not-so-smart phone and my new Nexus 4:

Micro-SIM vs. Mini-SIM ¶

Did you know that different SIM cards exist? I didn't. I've learned that I have a Mini-SIM, but you need a Micro-SIM for the Nexus 4.

I use a pre-paid card from simyo. Currently, they offer a free exchange of Mini-SIM-cards to Micro-SIM or Nano-SIM:

Phew! I was lucky.

The Micro-SIM-card arrived at 2013-03-14 and will be unlocked the next day.

Beginners questions ¶

How can I take screenshots on my Nexus 4?

Press "Volume down" and "Power" at the same time:

Experiments with Nexus 4 ¶

Photo-Sphere ¶

You can create awesome photos with photo sphere. But objects have to be not very close.

Here is my first try with my room:

[sphere 60431]

At the moment, it is not simply possible to include a sphere into a WordPress blog. Code was published to create this effect and it works, but the WordPress plugin has some issues.

By the way, you can directly create a tiny world image from a photo sphere:

Adding a nicer alarm ¶

One reason why I bought this phone was that my alarm clock (which is my old phone) is awful. zedge.net seems to be one place where you can get ring tones. I like Sintels song, which was in Google Music.

I've installed Rings Extended, as I wasn't able to find the ringtone without it. That could be better.

Sky Map ¶

As my phone as quite a lot of sensors (GPS, compass, altimeter) I guessed it might be possible to store the well-known stars and show them on the device when you look in their direction. The app is calles "Sky Map". I have to try that when the sky is clear.

Movies ¶

I was very surprised that they don't have Blender Open Movies in the movie section of play store ☹

MyTracks ¶

MyTracks lets you record the track you take and see some stats about that. Quite nice, but the export doesn't work.

I filed my first bug / feature request for an app: Issue 1260

What it replaces ¶

Nexus 4 could replace quite a lot of stuff:

But it can't replace credit cards in Germany as NFC isn't supported by the shops by now. It can't really replace a camera as the quality is ugly. Just take a close look at the photo above. This was taken with Nexus 4. Sadly, if you don't install apps like AirDroid, it can't replace a USB stick or a MP3 player. Yes, you can use Google Music and that works, but I would like to be able to copy MP3s from my laptop computer to my smartphone. Directly. With a USB-cable and without having to use the internet. It does replace a notepad, if you only use it for writing texts and not for drawing or math. And, finally, at the moment it doesn't even replace my old phone because of the SIM-problem I've explained above. But as soon as this is fixed, the Nexus 4 will replace my Motorola W156.

Here is a comparision of those phones:

Here is the source for that comparison.

What it hopefully really replaces are maps. I've just downloaded maps for the center of Paris. That were only about 2 MB. Here is a screenshot of maps guidance in action:

Mounting as USB-Stick ¶

This is a mayor drawback of the Nexus 4. You can't simply plug it in and work with it like you do with a USB-Stick. You have to enter

mkdir Android
go-mtpfs Android
[do what you want]
sudo umount Android

Conclusion ¶

I finally paid 358,99 Euro for the phone and shipping, 8 Euro for the "Meldebestätigung" and 1 Euro for the fax to re-activate my bank account which is 367,99 Euro in total. But if you want to experiment with a high quality smart phone, I guess it's a good choice.

What's next? ¶

I have some ideas for apps. So my next steps are:

1. Kick Windows 7 and install Arch Linux as the implementation / QA for PSE is over
2. Start developing apps
3. Get Started with Publishing

I guess I'll also write an article what could get improved in Android.