What about the ROMs matey?

ROMs I am taking my time with. Now that I have all of my Android devices happily functioning on Jelly Bean 4.2.2 stock ROM  (the GS2 is on a Samsung version), I'm hesitant to go the whole hog as they say in Wiltshire, and turn one of them into a 'brick'.

So, I went part way, attracted by the words better battery performance, the Franco-kernel Updater was next on my list. I had read nothing but good about this kernel, and the updater app made light weight of the job. It was/is well worth the NOK 30 or so it cost, divided by the three Nexus devices I have it running on.

Where battery performance is concerned, take a look at last night's..

Couldn't wish for better results than that, with wi-fi on too!

Big scare..

Pressed the ON button on my Nexus 10, and NOTHING happened! What..?

I have been very careful to swipe off unused apps when I've finished using them, particularly as I'm monitoring battery conditions in the last day or two, see http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries.

So I plugged it in and hoped that nothing mysterious had killed the beast. Thankfully, after a few minutes, the screen blinked in a dim mauve colour, showed a battery icon, and went out again :) So, all is not last, but I must admit, this was scary.

Nexus 7 from Multicom

I felt a bit fed up my Samsung Galaxy Nexus was not getting a swift update to Jelly Bean, and had heard only good reports of the ASUS Nexus 7, so on Saturday 25th August at 11 AM I ordered a US model from Multicom..

On Tuesday at 1:30 PM it was delivered to the door by my friendly postman :) That I call service!

I plugged it in to charge, started adding key apps, and was a little surprised to be advised that an update to 4.1.1 was ready, even if the battery level wasn't. I continued adding apps, including Evernote. That was a mistake as I have almost 5000 notes containing a number of images. It took a long time, and I don't think it did the battery much good..

When the battery level allowed, I upgraded to 4.1.1 OK, and continued adding apps. However, although I was happy with the look and feel of the Nexus 7, I was worried how slow the charging was going. Checking battery state with Spare Parts Pro I found it said the device was discharging.. WHAT!?

I tried a few things to narrow things down: swapped the Nexus USB cable with my GS2's. No change on the Nexus, but the GS2 certainly charged OK via the Nexus cable.. then I used the iPad's charger, but still the device said 'discharging', even when it was slowly moving towards 75%.

Ended up plugging it in beside my bed, and it reached 100% by the morning. Will add comments as and when I learn more. By the way, there are a number of other posts about slow Nexus 7 charging on the web.

NFC problem on Galaxy Nexus

Spent a number of hours and tried lots of apps in my search for reason why it didn't react at all. Then I remembered some connection with batteries, and realized I might have a defect (or fake) spare battery.. YES! that was it.

Swapped back what must have been the original battery and everything works OK.

Have more 1KB NFC stickers on the way which will give me more scope for experiment. The Sony Xperia Smart Tags are only 48byte capacity..

GS2 Reboot fixed?

Haven't had a reboot since 1st December, i.e. after removing the 32 GB Sandisk card.

I don't think its a problem with the card, but rather Android's handling of the card.. I'll give it another day or so before posting an update to the XDA thread.

The battery is giving between 1.5 - 1.8% per hour use, which I think is fine :)

May have found the battery culprit

The battery remained at around 85% throughout the night, which is what I expect with wi-fi off and no notifications expected.

The culprit might well have been the Eye-Fi app which I had seen taking an enormous amount of CPU, and it wouldn't stay force-closed, so I logged out of it totally, and then killed it.

Will be following the battery biz up anon..

Not 100% happy with GS2 battery consumption

I have no problem with it lasting through the day, but it runs down too fast during the night, and I haven't found what's causing it, though I have some good tools to monitor things (CPU%).