DESIGN

The design of the phone is very nice.  Though it is very similar to the Galaxy Nexus, LG did try to make the phone their own.  They added a glass panel at the back.  While it does look good, handling it is a different story.  Glass is very slippery.  With the phone being thin and light, it’s easy to accidentally drop the phone.  Many people have also said that placing the phone on an unleveled surface could result in the phone sliding off.  That’s why most have opted for a case or skin with more grip or some sort of bumper to combat the problem.

Another place where LG/Google did right was the screen.  The screen is crisp and clear, but one minute detail that phone manufacturers should starting doing is curved edged screens.  We  use touch screen phones so we always swipe up down or left right.  What many do notice is that when we swipe left to right or vice versa, our fingers go off the screen.  Having a curved edge screen gives the user a more comfortable swipe.  It’s just so smooth.  You just don’t feel any stops or edges.  Also, some people might say the screen is washed out.  It’s really not.  The screen is showing more of the natural colors.  Most people that say it are those that came from an OLED screen which is always cranked up in saturation.  Over time you’ll not even notice and care to like to even more.

All the usual aesthetics that are a norm for a phone these days are there.  Faux chrome bezel, tapered edges, and branding at the back.  Thank the E-gods that there was no labels on the front.  Unbranded phones just look better no matter what.  One area that LG/Google should have done better was the speaker phone layout.  Laying the phone flat just lowers the volume range of the phone significantly.  Just raising the phone 2-4mm from the surface makes a huge difference.   If they wanted to keep the back flat, they could have either put the speaker on the sides (top or bottom) or just make a tunnel indentation on the back so that the sound can travel out.  But I’m sure they’ll improve this next time.

HARDWARE

The specs are pretty high tech for the time.  Quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chip. 720p IPS screen (1280×768).  And one thing that is catching on is NFC and wireless charging.  Thanks to Nokia and Google this year we’ll see more phones with these features.

Wireless charging on the Nexus 4 is using the standard Qi implementation.  While great on paper, different chargers may act differently even if they have the Qi certification.  Take for instance using the Nokia Lumia wireless charging base.  In the beginning people were saying that the Nexus phone was not charging.  Later on they have found out that the phone had to be over the charger around 1/2 centimeter to a centimeter for it work.  While using a LG wireless charger worked with no problem.  None the less, when all the kinks are worked out.  Oh yeah, don’t bother using it with a wireless charger that doesn’t have Qi certification (HP/Palm Touchstone), it will not work and may even damage your phone.  Wireless charging is here to stay.  Not only is wireless charging convenient, but it is also takes less wear on the usb port.

Sound quality on the phone is great.  Some have said that they get noise (crackle and pops) on the  headset speaker, but I was lucky to not have this issue. Sound on both the Headset and speaker phone is loud and clear with the speaker phone set to have it’s equalization with a high tremble.

It’s cellular modem is quite interesting.  It has been officially said that the Nexus 4 is only an HSPA+ phone.  The thing is the chipset actually has both a HSPA+ and LTE.  The only problem is that the LTE part only works on the one band.  That band has been tested in Canada and actually works.  The good thing for those that are in the United States and uses T-Mobile is that when they activate LTE this year, the Nexus 4 will be compatible.  I’m sure it’ll just be an update away.  Anyways for now T-Mobile’s 4G is comparable to LTE that is provided by other Telecoms.  Reception for me is great. Always either in 3G or 4G in my area and never having any drop outs with calls or data.

The camera on the phone is much better than the previous Nexus.  It comes with a 8mp back camera and a 1.3mp front.  Video is your standard fair and photos taken with low light isn’t very good.  With good lighting the camera shoots very well and could be comparable to other higher end phones.  Due note, even though some phone might take pictures with richer colors, this phone’s screen and photos are set so what you see is what you get.  Colors are truer to real life.

THE OS AND OVERALL EXPERIENCE

With the Nexus 4 having Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean.  It’s got to be the best Android yet.  Having Google Now is great.  Photosphere and Panorama have been improved.  The overall snappiness of the phone is great.  There didn’t seem to be any lag to the phone.  The only lag I got was based on how well a program was designed and if the program was fetching data from the internet.  Doing web surfing is great using Chrome.  And if you have an itch for Flash, you can side load it and install Firefox to get the full Flash experience.  Videos are no problem for this phone.  Smooth as butter.

I’ve never had any issues with battery life with the phone.  For me it would last a good “work day” and if you work around computers all day, battery life would be a moot point.  Or get a car charger to get while you’re driving to combat it.  Though battery life for Android has been it’s negatives, the newer versions are getting better at it.

Some are worried by the low storage of the phone.  The phone comes in either 8gigs or 16gig.  I have the 8gig version and after the OS is installed, the phone had 5.67gigs left.  It didn’t bother me at all.  I don’t dump all my media in my phone.  Plus there are cloud storage available like Google Drive or Sky Drive that will work for most people.  If you need more storage then either get a wifi drive or just get a completely different phone with expandable storage.

All in all, I’m very happy with the phone.  Not looking at just the hardware, but the support that you’ll be getting will be great.  Since this is a Google device, it’ll be one of the first phones to be updated to Google’s latest Android.  You’ll get LTE when it’s available so the phone doesn’t become obelete in a couple of years.  Most of all the price is just ridiculous.  For a phone with these specs, user experience, and support no one can touch these.  People thought that when Chinese companies sell their phone over here that it would be competitive it.  From what I see it isn’t the case.  They’re pricing their phones here just like any other unsubsidized phone.  The Nexus 4 is the phone to get if you looking for that balance of price, performance and support.  Now Google, when is that Orb wireless charging coming out.  Accessories are supposed to be release close to product launch not 6 months to forever…

For the touch aspect of the device, the tablet is capable of multitouch (probably around 10 fingers).  It’s only activated when the stylus is not in the range of the tablet.

Wondering about the drawing surface of the tablet?  Well it has the same coating as the intuos4.  Meaning that it feels like paper, but that coating will disappear over time.  It will also make the nib on your pen degrade faster as well.

Another cool feature is the wireless add-on.  The downside is that you’ll need a usb port still and the battery life isn’t very good.  Depending on the size it can range from 16 hours to 6 hours.  Not very good, but oh well.

As for those people thinking about upgrading, I’d say it’d be a wait see approach.  With Windows 8 just around the corner though, touch input will be even more popular now than it was before.  Oh yeah, did I mention the pricing seems to have been reduced?  It seems like it’s $100 less compared to  the same size of the intuos4.   If I was given one or had the money,  I’d sure as hell grab one (now only if the touch implementation worked seamlessly).

The model design itself is very good.  Very realistic yet has that almost photoshopped look.  It’s a really good take on Marvel’s Juggernaut.  If you’re just a beginning modeler or just like to see what goes in the making of a character, watch the video below.  Make to grab something eat a play some music as the video is over 1 hour long.

As far as animation goes, top notch all the way around.  Smooth and fluid as some of the big boys.  Story was simple and easily understandable.  Character design was different, but not ugly.  The colors were very vibrant and relaxed.    Hopefully this isn’t a one-time-thing and that the guys at Fruit Punch Studio create more in the future.

There are many uses for this.  I’m not sure what right now, but I’m sure it’ll be used for surveillance.  The one thing I know will be that we will be seeing for UFO’s in the sky very soon or maybe SkyNET will be beat them to it.

With forgotten memories, TV’s Chuck aired its final episode #GoodByeChuck. In the last few years, this show could have ended 4 times, but fortunately it kept going and with its great writing could have gone 5 more seasons. This show combined action, comedy, quirkiness, and heart like no other movie or television I’ve seen before. If you are a real nerd, you would have found a lot of familiar elements in this show. What 90′s teen geek did not want to work at gadget heaven Best Buy? In Chuck’s Buy More, the backroom steel fences brought back my old memories of the steel fenced cages in Best Buy’s stockroom where all the video games were stored. In a recent episode, Chuck featured a popular YouTuber that only geeks would know. This show was one of the few that was able to cast numerous stars from other geek TV shows and movies, including Terminator’s Linda Hamilton, Quantum Leap’s Scott Bakula, Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk, Superman’s Brandon Routh, Matrix’s Carrie-Anne Moss, and more. Heck, even Chuck’s sister (Sarah Lancaster) was from Saved by the Bell! It seems like the only well-known sci-fi actor that didn’t guest star was Firefly’s “Nathan Fillion”.

When it came to the finale, it wasn’t about the guest stars, but about Chuck. Every fan knew this was the last year. The show felt like it would end in an extremely happy note. Chuck and Sarah were married, planning to buy a house, and talking about babies. Casey finally is falling for someone, while Morgan got his girlfriend back. Captain Awesome and Ellie were ready to start new lives in Chicago. Chuck the show, has a knack for pulling your heart out, smacking it around, and make you smile again. I thought there was no way the writers can do that in the finale as most of season 5 had its main characters floating in cloud nine. I was wrong.

By the last hour of the show, Sarah Walker had lost all her memories of Chuck and the show felt like season 1 or 2 with Chuck getting emo trying to make Sarah remember their relationship. Some fans may not like the “emo” component of Chuck, but that’s part of his character and memorable stories usually are the ones that get you teary-eyed. Plus, we can’t always be the badass Driver from the movie “Drive”. Instead of ending in an extremely happy note, we got an almost indie-movie like ending with no definitive result. In Chuck, the last scene ends with the main characters kissing, but we never know if Sarah’s memories return.

At first I didn’t like the final episode, but I kept thinking about it and re-watched the episode a second time. Jeffster’s “Take on Me” cover still made me smile. It was great seeing the supporting characters moving on and we do get hints of Sarah regaining bits of her forgotten memories. The flashbacks were memorable because they are presented as Chuck tells his story to Sarah in hopes of making her remember the past. The flashbacks reminded me that in the world of Chuck, the saddest events almost always lead to happier times. The best stories end with its characters being okay and made you care to wonder what happens next in their lives. Chuck ended with its two characters smiling and being passionate. They’re obviously okay and I’m wondering what villain Nathan Fillion will play against super Spy-Intersect couple Chuck/Sarah in the future Chuck movie. I changed my mind; this was by far the best series finale I’ve seen in a long time.

Well, we leave all the complaints to other sites and forums.  What I want to see is will the next Adobe iterations of the Creative Suite be enough to get everyone to upgrade?  Well if we were to look at the next Photoshop.  I’d say yes.  This looks to be an upgrade.  From first looking at it, it looks more like Cinema4D.  Heck it even has an animation timeline.  It also has a viewport for 3D.  It looks like we’ll be seeing functions starting to overlap from other softwares in the near future.  Who knows, maybe all the creative suite will just be one software and will be a jack of all trades.  Well here’s a sneak peak at one of the functions of Adobe’s new Photoshop Cs6.

Even though I don’t know how it’ll be, since it’s open to a select amount of Vimeo users.  All is pointing to a more expansion of just not the desktop experience, but mobile as well ask the living room experience.  Let hope that 2012 will bring us more great shorts and animation for all to see.