Moto X vs Nexus 5

With the Moto X launch due,people are running it down as being a mid-range dual-core phone,with a quad-core price tag.While on paper the Nexus 5 might be better than Moto X,in real world,Moto X is at par,with most of the Nexus' specifications,and packs in some extra punches of its own.
So,here goes a quick compare of the two :

Design : 

Moto is 5 inches in length,with a 4.7 inch screen,while Nexus is almost 5.5 inches with a 5 inch screen.

Both use plastic at the back,both have Gorilla Glass at the front.
Though,the polycarbonate on the back of Moto feels slightly better at handling finger prints than the Nexus.
Also,given the slight curve at the back of the Moto,compared to the flat back Nexus,the Moto feels more comfortable in hand than the Nexus.

I am a sucker for thin bezels,and hence prefer it over the slight bigger one on Nexus(the bottom one).Also,this makes the overall phone size smaller.

The buttons,ports,et al. are the same on both phones.
Both come with non-removable batteries,with the Nexus having 100 mAh advantage over the Moto.

In comparison,both are almost the same.Just a matter of personal preference.

Processor :

Moto packs in an Snapdragon,S4 based,dual core Krait processor,clocked at 1.7 GHz.It also contains two low powered cores,one for natural language processing and one for contextual processing.

The Nexus houses a Snapdragon 800 based,quad-core Krait processor,with a clock freq of 2.26 GHz.

The old processor on the Moto,translates to the 600 series of the Snapdragon processors.
So,from the looks of it,Nexus is miles ahead of the Moto,when it comes to the processing power.

But,bear in mind,unless you are a real power user,so much of power at your disposal is total waste.For day-to-day activities of music,surfing the net,facebook-twitter-whatsapp multi-tasking,even the dual core on Moto would not be working on its 100% load.

On the GPU front,Moto uses a quad-core 320 Adreno,whereas the Nexus has a quad-core 330 Adreno.
Nothing much to compare here.

Both have a 2 GB RAM at disposal.Again both win here as well.

Bottom line,unless you run an app which needs to utilize 4 cores of 2.26 GHz worth of processing power,combined with 4 cores of GPU,clocking in at 450 MHz,then you really shouldn't be running that app on your phone.
Moto will easily get you through your daily activities,without any lags or problems.

Screen :
Moto houses a 4.7 inch,AMOLED screen,with 720p display,whereas the Nexus has a 5 inch,IPS LCD,with a 1080p display.
I prefer the Moto in this case,because,firstly its AMOLED.Always prefer it over LCD,despite each having its own advantages.

Another reason,720p over 1080p.
Sure,with a bigger screen and better resolution,the Nexus seems to have clear edge over the Moto,but unless you nit pick,there is barely any difference between the two at such a small screen size.
Now,with a smaller screen,HD display and an AMOLED screen,Moto consumes lesser battery than the Nexus.

Also,both are protected by Croning Gorilla Glass.

UI/Software :

Both run stock 4.4.2.But while the Nexus has its proprietary Google Experience Launcher,with a few tricks up its sleeve,the Moto runs a simpler version of the Launcher.Most of the visual tweaks can be achieved by installing Nova Launcher on the Moto.

Moto has done a fine job of keeping the stock Android experience intact,with almost zero bloatware.It provides some useful tools like Moto Migrate,to help migrate date from your old phone to the new one,and two of the best features,active display and touchless control.

Active display,lights up the screen with the time and pending notifications,everytime it detects motion,like picking the phone from the table,or taking it out from the pocket.
Remember the AMOLED screen? So,it lights up only those pixels which displays the time and the notfiications.
Saves battery,plus saved the power button from being pressed time and again!

Touchless control,keeps listening to you,for the keyword,"Ok Google Now",and responds to your voice commands,even from the sleep state!
Oh and this app keeps getting new features,like the recent "Whats up Google Now",keyword,which reads out the time and unread notifications(if any)

For these,it'd require a processor to keep running,all the time.
Remember the 2 low powered cores? Brilliant,right?

Also,another cool feature of the Moto,flick your wrist twice to start the camera app.Again,works from the sleep state.

Moto is the clear winner in this case!

Other Specifications :

Both phones pretty much match up to each other in all other aspects.
No expandable memory,only 16 and 32 Gig options.

Bluetooth 4.0,NFC,GPS,A-GPS,GLONASS,accelerometer,gyroscope,etc. and host of other sensors.
No comparison!

Radio :

No,I am not talking about the FM radio.
Radio here,are the mobile radio signals.
After the screen,this consumes the most battery strength.

Remember,Motorola were the pioneers of mobile technology.This is evident form the better signal strength,clear crisps voice across phone calls on Moto devices.

Basically,if your phone can't pick up radio signals,it tries harder,consuming more processing power,while doing so.Once it does,it needs to maintain the same strength,consuming more power.
The weaker the signal,the more power it needs to search for a signal.(Which is why your battery drowns  faster when moving to places with low signal strength).

Using the Moto at the same places as I was with my old phone,getting 4 bars,as I did earlier.The difference was in the battery consumption,the signal stayed green throughout for the Moto,whereas I used to get yellow/red bands earlier.

Moto X wins this battle hands down,in comparison to the Nexus.

Camera : 

Both have an average camera,nothing quite special.

Megapixels don't count.
Though Moto can only click photos at 10MP,Nexus can shoot at various sizes.

Recording,both can shoot at 1080,30 fps.

Nexus has a special HDR+ mode,Photosphere,which the Moto lacks.

Picture quality is better on the Nexus in comparison to the Moto.
So Nexus wins on the camera front!


Overall,both line up well against each other,with their own advantages(and disadvantages),even though on paper they fall into two different categories.
To be fair,Moto X seems like a Nexus device in itself,given that its the first phone released by Moto,after being taken over by Google.2 years of development,and they could finally make a product which would compete with Nexus range of phones.

Rooted essentials

Rooting implies getting root access on your Android device.Usually it stops on flashing a custom ROM.
But there is much more to rooting than just flashing Cyanogen or AOKP or any other ROM for that matter.With root access,you have a deeper control over the phones hardware.

Phones with locked bootloaders need to go a step further,unlocking it,to gain access to kernel.

Following is a list of apps which come in handy,once you've rooted your device.All of these can easily be found on the play store,and quick search on xda would give you an even more insight on the app.

1. Greenify

This app maintains a list of apps,which you want to be killed from its incessant background services/process or "greenified".Apps like Maps,Facebook are useful,but constant background services not only increase data usage,but also take a toll on the battery life.Worse,these consume valuable RAM.

Greenify runs a process,at a specified interval of time,after you lock your screen.Once run,it kills off all the apps in the list,freeing the device of valuable RAM,at the same time keeping a check on the battery life.

(The latest update makes Greenify run on non-rooted devices too!)

2. Xposed Framework

Most Android tweaks on the system packages require a tedious task of decompiling the apk,making the changes,and then recompiling the apk.Not only is it a tedious process,but it is device and ROM specific as well.Also,for multiple files,we usually flash a zip from recovery.

Xposed provides a framework for 'modules',make the necessary changes in the apks on the start-up itself.This makes the modules independent of the device,ROM,etc.

Point to be noted here is Xposed is just a framework.You need modules like GravityBox,for eg,which provides an AIO solution to visual and functional tweaks,usually found in most custom ROMs.
Even Greenify provides a host of experimental features,which can be activated via Xposed.

Only downside being this is not ART compatible.But that shouldn't matter much.

3.Solid Explorer

I used to swear by Root Explorer,when I first rooted,but this file manager came bundled in with one of the ROMs I was trying out,and,I haven't looked back since.

It has one of the most simplest and elegant UI there is to for an Android file manager,with a host of features like 2 panels side-by-side,FTP,bookmarking of favourites,quick access to media,etc.

4.Titanium Backup

This is the AIO rooted toolkit.

Backup up app,its data;Convert system app to user app and vice-versa;Automate the backup process;Freeze system apps,uninstall system apps;move apps to SD card(well you get the point!)

A true life saver!

5.Viper4Android

This is by far the most exhaustive sound mod for Android,I've come across,with loads of support for custom settings.

Cyanogen's custom music tuner,the DSP Manager is the most basic sound mods out there(In no way is it inferior though).V4A is DSP Manager on steroids.

If you know your sound,you are gonna absolutely love the Expert mode on this app.

6.CyanDelta(CM only)

Instead of downloading the whole ROM,what this app does is maintains a local copy of the current ROM zip,and downloads only the changes it finds against the latest ROM that is available.So,instead of downloading almost 200 MBs,you end up downloading only a tenth of that,to upgrade between ROMs.

You just need to hit the download button,it downloads,packs up a new zip and then you click on install.It boots to recovery,wipes the cache(if you've opted for it),flashes the zip and boots up,all by itself.

Another killer feature about this app is you can maintain a list of additional zips that can be flashed after it flashes the ROM itself.
Needless to say,it provides automatic checking of updates,which can be configured by time.

Two Thousand Techteen

2013 ended.So here's a quick recap!

Wearables:

2013 was dominated by wearable devices.We had Google Glass,Pebble Smartwatch,Oculus Rift,et al!

Starting off with Pebble Smartwatch,which was showcased in CES,right at the beginning of the year,it paved the way for Sony's smartwatch,Samsung's Galaxy Gear.But the problem with the latter ones were the bloatware that came along.

Pebble was neat,minimal and e-ink!

Then Google teased it's Glass,and well,I need not say anything.It's just one of those,"Shut up and take my money" moments.

While Glass was more like HUD,Oculus(yet another Kickstarter porject),was like a freaking display slashed onto your face!Oculus Rift displayed the most immersive experience that is to when it came to Virtual Reality.

With Valve in process of showcasing their own VR goggles,whatever the future holds,whenever wearables become commonplace,2013 will be marked as the year that wearables became mainstream.

Displays:

There was HD,then came 2K.What was to follow?
4K of course.

And this Ultra-HD wasn't just restricted to TVs.No sir,we had tablets offering 4K resolutions.

Just feels like yesterday when I was awestruck by a 720p resolution and here we were witnessing more than 4 times the pixel density!

Ultra-mega-humongous resolutions were the only highlights for displays.We finally witnessed what had been teased a lot 2012,flexible displays.Not only did we get prototypes,there were consumer products,with curved OLED displays on sale.
And as the year drew to an end,we got phones with curved displays from LG and Samung.

Gaming Consoles:

It was like 7 years since Sony had a major refresh for the PS,and almost same time since Microsoft updated their XBox.So,well,come 2013 and both Sony and Microsoft updated their consoles to PS4 and XBox One,respectively.

With on paper specs which made the previous versions look like handheld,8 bit consoles,both the consoles took things online and cloud storage.Both a pro and con.

There was also OUYA's,ultra cheap Android based gaming console,Razer's and NVIDIA's,hand held consoles,Razer's gaming laptops,Android updating its Play Games app,and what not!

All and all,a good year for gamers. :)

Mobile Phones:

Two major headlines of the year,RIM renaming itself to BlackBerry,and BlackBerry with its final ace in the pack,unveiling the BB10,and failing.

Other being Nokia's takeover by Microsoft.

Samsung unveiling tons of mobiles under the Galaxy series,Apple,for the first time unveiling more than one iPhone,LG releasing the next Nexus series.
Amongst these,my picks were Sony giving huge support to the development community with the release of source codes for their flagship devices,and,Motorola.Boy,did Moto make its presence felt in 2013!
Firstly the Moto X,and towards the end of the year,the mid range Moto G.Again,embracing Open Source with open arms,and updating their devices to the latest software on offering.If only Moto,you'd release your phones all over the world!

And just before the year ended,Oppo released the first phone,with out-of-the-box after market ROM,CyanogenMod.

Oh,the usual patent trolls continued through the year.

OSs:

All pc,mobile OS saw their yearly updates.

Biggest of them all,Canonical's preview of Ubuntu for phones.Ubuntu,by far cleanest Linux experience was finally a full fledged OS for the phone.Though just a preview,it got the ball rolling,with the OS ported to major Android devices.

Windows bumped both desktop and phones OS,with desktop version criticized for leaving out the iconic start button.The phone version getting incremental updates,to finally compete with Android and iOS.Also,helped with the merger of Nokia,Windows can finally develop the mobile OS,with control on both software and hardware.

BB moved to a touch-oriented OS with the BB10,betting all its fortune on this one piece of software.While BB10 did have it moments,it couldn't really connect as a whole OS,and failed to revive BB.

Android updated it self from 4.2 to 4.3 Jelly Bean and finally 4.4,Kit-Kat.With 4.4 came major Kit-Kat promotions and on the software front,Google's promise to optimize low end devices.To an extend,I did feel the 4.4 better than 4.3,on my i9000,and no,this isn't placebo!
With 4.4,Google also pushed it's new runtime environment,dubbed ART(Android Runtime).Set to optimize the startup time for applications,and amongst other things,its a step ahead from the Dalvik VM,but the downside being it's still in Beta phase and not many apps as of now.

And finally iOS completed its Android transformation with the release of iOS 7.Moving away from the black-white-grey colour scheme,iOS 7 was all about bold colours,for the software(and,it came with matching hardware).It included an improved notification center and a central command center.

Macs updated themselves to OS X Mavericks,shying away from the tradition of naming the OSes after cats,to places in California.That being the only major change,rest being the usual incremental updates on visual and functional line.

Miscellaneous:

- CyanogenMod went from being an Open Source ROM to a corporate company,Cyanogen Inc.,and finding itself an OEM partner in Oppo,to release the Oppo N1 with out-of-the-box CyanogenMod

- Ballmer stepped as CEO for Microsoft

- JBQ quit. :(
- Hugo Barra left Google to join Xiaomi

- Bitcoin became serious moolah!

- Nokia released its Windows based tablet
- Fingerprint scanner on phones

..And lots more that I missed!

No-Soft?

Admist the hegemony of Android and iOS,Nokia had a very tough decision ahead of them,whether to ditch their proprietary OSes,and adopt the burgeoning Android,or try and work up on MeeGo.Nokia arguably has the best hardware out there in the market,which is why many longed for its marriage with Android,to get possibly the best smartphone.But,Nokia entrusted itself with the nascent Windows,a move which raised a lot of eye-brows.

Both Nokia,and Microsoft are no strangers to the mobile world,but when did decided to join hands,both were still struggling to set a foothold in the smartphone category.With both having a soft corner for each other,other OEMs must have felt a bit snubbed by Microsoft's partial treatment towards Nokia.To an extent,both helped each other a bit,with the launch of Lumia series.

The Lumia series of phones were a healthy change for Windows,from the secondary designed HTCs and Samsungs.Though it was pretty much an extension on the N9,it was something new and refreshing for the Windows line of phones.Nokia had the perfect hardware,the AMOLEDs,Carl Zeiss lenses,but yet again,the OS failed on it.Nokia was let down by the software counterpart.Though,it still continued to put its soul into it,while Microsoft continued its dainty updates.

Ballmer's retirement plans,speculations turned up of Stephen Elop being his successor.And with those,rose rumours of Microsoft acquiring Nokia.Given the kind of relation between the two companies over the years,the move seemed quite plausible.

With the formal announcement of both,the future of Nokia phones,for series other than Lumia seems shaky.For starters,Microsoft now has control over Lumia and Asha series.While Lumia will continue to work its way up,Asha series will have a tough time surviving,without Nokia's aid.Basically,Nokia has signed itself off from the smartphone game with this move.
Also,Nokia still has an huge influx in the lower end phone market,owing to its credibility.Nokia brand still has control over the Series-30 and Series-40 phones,but the huge question still remains whether Nokia will continue making these phones.If not,it would be the demise of one of the greatest powerhouses of the phone market.
On a plus side though,like Apple and to an extent Google,Microsoft now has total control on not only the software,but also the hardware.With deep integration of both hardware and software,Windows could produce its own Nexus or iPhone.

It feels like yesterday when you owned the sturdy 3310,playing snakes for hours at end,or the communicator,which seemed like the smallest laptop,or the pioneer of mobile gaming,the NGage,or even the humongous 40+ mp camera on the PureView.Flip,touch,slide,QWERTY,they did it all,but somehow they were beaten at their own game.

With the announcement of the merger,came a very sad news of demise of one the best innovators of the phone industry.Maybe it was all pre-planned with the Nokia and Windows phone marriage,and they were just waiting for the right time to get the ball rolling on this.Anyway,here's hoping this marriage gives us more options in the smartphone category and revives Nokia!

Or well,maybe 9GAG sums it up best!(Image credits : 9GAG)

iOS 7

It was known for a fact that Apple was going to completely rebase the existing iOS UI,into a flatter model.Now,this went completely against Jobs and Ive's skeuomorphic,leather-wood laden,grey-white-black based UI.Infact,these were the very points,which they boasted about themselves,and riddled about its competitors.
And so,following the latest trend of drifting away from Jobs' Apple-esque world,iOS too,was sucked into the Tim Cook world!

Being a complete rebase,there is barely anything reminiscent of the old UI,right from the patented icons/slide to unlock to the multi-tasking,every freaking thing,flatter,colourful.

Switch on the screen,and trademark lockscreen,with place holders for time,camera and slide to unlock are no where to be seen.Instead,both blend in with the wallpaper and a simple arrow,which on swiping would take you directly to camera.Seriously speaking,looks so much sexier than the earlier renderings.

Unlocking the phone,takes you directly to the apps,and the first thing you'll notice is the childlike,colourful array of icons.
Sexy? NO!
Classy? NO NO!
Disaster? YES!
I mean come on,its a smart-phone,not a child's plastic replica to have icons like that.Not that flatter icons with colours are always child-like(MIUI),but seriously,theres no co-relation between the icons and the apps they launch.The Photos app for example,how does an overlapping,multi-coloured array of ellipses,againsr a white background represent photos? or Overlapping,multi-coloured spheres anyway resemble a gaming center ?
Only useful change I could see is the clock app is not static and updates itself with the current time,like the calendar app.

Notification panel is still a disaster.Instead merging multiple notification for an app into a single event or a centralized clear-all (or even a larger clear-all button against each app notification),all Apple did was changed the background from a dull grey,a gaussian blurred one!

A "new" feature,the control center,which can be accessed from anywhere,by swiping the screen upwards.As the name suggests,its a control center for all the settings and a few other.This by far is the most messed up update.
While this is pretty much what iOS lacked,Apple has tried to include everything into this.Toggles are good,but a persistent brightness bar,music controls,AirDrop,everything is dumped into this,irrespective of its use.We need some organization,Apple.And again,the background is a plain gaussian one.

Double tap the home button,and we move onto the multi-tasking screen.No longer does the screen slide up to reveal a row of open apps with a small 'x' mark to close them,this time,we get an active screen,revealing the status quo of the app,with a swipe gesture to remove them.Apple just took a leaf out of WebOS's book!

Apart from these,there are certain universal changes,like the font.Also a swipe gesture that takes you back.

Frankly speaking,iOS now looks how WP8,Andorid,WebOS,would look together.Which is not bad,but given Apple's out look towards "inspired designs",seems a bit hypocritic.
The changelog is huge,so much so,that I wished they would have named it iOS 2.0 .

iOS 7 looks promising,but it is still in its diapers at the moment.Its going to take more than just a few quick updates to make this as robust as say iOS 4 or 5 was.But its a start none-the-less and I am happy they finally moved away from the grey-white-black UI!

S4

Hypes-anticipation-disappointment,this one had everything.The much awaited successor to the best Android series,the Samsung Galaxy S series,the S4 was finally launched.

Sure,the launch was pathetic :
a)Well,it was plain dumb(I mean c'mon,tap dancing,kittie parties?)
b)Leaks had already showcased everything(well,almost all the features)

But that doesn't make the S4 a dumb phone.In fact,S4 is quite a powerhouse,and a glimpse of future.

Starting off with the design,which many totally detest for the sheer amount of plastic(polycarbonate) on the phone,but,who cares as long as I am able to hold it,as I want it,without the need for bumper stickers.But,apparently,looks takes precedence over functionality.

The phones heart is an Octacore/Quadcore processor depending upon the regions.Yes we like to show-off power,be it cars,phones.But seriously,I don't see any point an Octacore processor.
There are only a handful of games/apps which demand real high performance,and frankly,these processors are overkill most of the times.

2 GB DDR3 RAM is spot on.
13 mp camera,meh.But some good software bundled in for various modes,and a first of its kind dual shot and sound in still photos is something worth checking out.
NFC.LTE,et al in place,in short,all the standard features expected from a flagship device.They also bundled in an IR blaster.

On the software front,its running 4.2 out-of-the-box.Bravo,Samsung,brownie points for you.While the rest of world is running 4.1,Samsung is already a step ahead of the competition.
Picking up from the Smart Stay they brought in with the S3,they took it a step up,with the ability to scroll a page,based on eye movements,and play/pause videos,in case of turning away head from the screen.
S Health

Sure,the S4 looks shit in front of its competition(Sony Xperia Z/HTC One),but apart from that,there isn't much to complain about.The hardware and a few software capabilities,are a glimpse of what lies in store.
Lets just hope Samsung doesn't screw up the Android community again,by locking up their sources!

BB10

After months of hide and seek with Mr.Blurrycam,BlackBerry unveiled their much awaited BB10 series.But,this was far from an ordinary launch,as the whole fate company was to be decided on its success,which is why they had to develop the whole OS from scratch.

At the beginning of the new millennium,RIM launched the BlackBerry,aimed at people who need access to their mails on the go.Armed with dedicated secure servers and top notch qwerty,BlackBerry was far from being just a phone,it was a status symbol.They ruled the roast when came to smartphones.BBM,an exclusivity to BB owners.

But towards the latter end of decade,with the launch of iOS,Android functionality started losing precedence to form factor.Suddenly mega-pixels,4 inch touchscreen displays,high pixel densities were more important than robust qwerty or dedicated servers.
Losing most of its clientele,RIM finally gave in,and joined the touch-screens/mega-pixels bandwagon.But a horrid a fusion of a dated OS with a comparatively newer hardware got BB nowhere,and they still couldn't win over the lost crowd.
Amidst this,came the tablet evolution,and RIM tried its hand there,and failed there too with half-baked Playbook.Pretty soon,BB was down the drain in terms of market share,with its only clientele being the avid BB buffs,who just couldn't do without the qwerty or BBM.

On the verge of being extinct,RIM gave it their all,with BB10.Designed the OS from bare-bonesb,taking into consideration the current "needs" of their new client base,they are willing to win over,at the same time not disappointing the already loyal fan base.

Renaming itself from RIM to BB,it set itself in motion again,with the launch of BB10.
Their efforts are clearly visible,as their flagship device,Z10 has barely any reminiscence to the pre-BB10 era.Near zero in weight,non-glossy body,8 mp camera,with full HD recording capabilities,no qwerty(heck,no button on the front panel!),this one barely seemed like a BlackBerry.
On the software front,the story is the same.A touch based OS,with gestures being the heart of navigation,again no resemblance to any of its previous iterations.And with no buttons to guide you,gestures are the only way to get around this device.While you may seem lost for a few moments,gestures seemed to stick after a couple of tries,and to be frank were quite intuitive and hard to let go after a while!
Lockscreen was minimal,which notifications for calls,messages,mails.Very neat and functional.
The multi-tasking screen,made visible by swiping from the bottom of a screen looked like a brilliant feature.Only downside being the number of apps being limited to 9,which meant adding further would automatically removed the former ones.
The Hub,a central place for all calls/messages/emails,again accessible by gesture swipe from any application was another great feature,as the key feature on a BlackBerry is obviously mails.
But the biggest drawback of the Z10(atleast for the aficionados)would be no qwerty.BB had to deliver a keyboard worthy enough to replace their trademark.While at first glance,it may not have seemed any different from other touchscreen keyboards out there,a few taps on them revealed predictions,which can be completed by swiping up on them.Also the predictions seemed quite accurate.Very neat!
Voice commands,another need of the hour,accessible through a button,jammed between the volume controls.

Though what BB10 lacked the most,in comparison to Android and iOS,was sheer no of apps.Though they that covered a little,by having the ability to run Android apps,via Android Player.

Given the nascent state of the OS,not many people are likely to switch over to BB instantaneously,but BB has surely got their wheels rolling,with Z10 targeted at the touch-oriented base,and Q10 with the qwerty,for the loyal base.But the high pricing is not a smart move by BB,if they are trying to gain a strong hold on the current market.Hopefully better pricing,little improvements on OS front,and of course an increased app market in the coming years,BB might have just saved the ship from drowning.