Nexus 4 Owners Thread - apps, tips & tricks!

jonski

Harps wrote: »

Anyone else having problems with maps not being able to find your location since the update? Very annoying as I use my phone as a sat nav and it's becoming too unreliable

Also another problem I'm having is Google Now randomly losing connection, even if my internet is working fine I get a no connection error in Google now when I try to refresh it

Not having any problems with either the of them .

Slevster

Harps wrote: »

Anyone else having problems with maps not being able to find your location since the update? Very annoying as I use my phone as a sat nav and it's becoming too unreliable

Also another problem I'm having is Google Now randomly losing connection, even if my internet is working fine I get a no connection error in Google now when I try to refresh it

have not noticed any issue here either (on 4.4 here. do you mean 4.4.1?)

jonski

Latest news now is that there is a 4.4.2 , on the way to the N5 and N7 but coming to the N4 as well .

god's toy

jonski wrote: »

Latest news now is that there is a 4.4.2 , on the way to the N5 and N7 but coming to the N4 as well .

Yep pushed OTA 4.4.2 to my N5 yesterday and N7 this morning! :cool:

Alpha Dog 1

jonski wrote: »

Latest news now is that there is a 4.4.2 , on the way to the N5 and N7 but coming to the N4 as well .

Just installed 4.4.2 hopefully it helps improve the battery as it's been woeful recently.

Fresh Pots

Alpha Dog 1 wrote: »

Just installed 4.4.2 hopefully it helps improve the battery as it's been woeful recently.

Manually or ota?

Alpha Dog 1

TheTechGuy wrote: »

Manually or ota?

Ota, must say I was pleasantly surprised, didn't even realise there was a 4.4.2

MiCr0

just got 4.4.2 on my n4 and n7-2013

Alpha Dog 1

Alpha Dog 1 wrote: »

Ota, must say I was pleasantly surprised, didn't even realise there was a 4.4.2

Unfortunately looks like it didn't do anything to improve the battery!

Zonda999

Got 4.4.2 on my N4 this morning. Is it just me or the status bar going translucent when the screen locked a new thing in 4.4.2?

Haven't really noticed anything much different. Whatsapp had been acting up on me in the last week tho so hopefully this has sorted it out

micks_address

Anyone else having trouble with bluetooth connections since 4.4? My bluetooth connection is dropping during calls after about thirty seconds in the car

robo

micks_address wrote: »

Anyone else having trouble with bluetooth connections since 4.4? My bluetooth connection is dropping during calls after about thirty seconds in the car

Me too, thought it was to do with my headset. Goes for about 2 seconds, comes back and then goes again once or twice more during the call. Annoying when driving

micks_address

robo wrote: »

Me too, thought it was to do with my headset. Goes for about 2 seconds, comes back and then goes again once or twice more during the call. Annoying when driving

i did a facory reset last night which is supposed to fix the issue. I need to pair my phone again with the car and see if its ok now.. other option is to install 4.3 image from google.. dont want to go down that road though.. still its not much use having a handfree kit and not being able to use it!

bluesfan

I use bluetooth in the car all the time but I rarely make or receive a call so I haven't seen this problem. I use it to play podcasts mostly. The thing I've noticed is that now when I turn off the radio in the car the podcast continues playing from the phone, where before it would have the effect of stopping the playback. Not a major problem but a minor annoyance.

jonski

Just got the ota 4.4.2 update there .

robo

micks_address wrote: »

i did a facory reset last night which is supposed to fix the issue. I need to pair my phone again with the car and see if its ok now.. other option is to install 4.3 image from google.. dont want to go down that road though.. still its not much use having a handfree kit and not being able to use it!

I'm now updated to 4.4.2 and was on the phone last night on bluetooth and for about 10-15 minutes, it kept cutting out to the phone every 2 minutes. It was annoying but after about 15 minutes it was ok, very annoying. Let me know if your factory reset has worked?

Stench Blossoms

Stupid insurance company won't fix my screen because I bought my phone through Flubit and not in Ireland.

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Anyone have any recommendations for somewhere in Dublin to get it fixed?

DECEiFER

Stench Blossoms wrote: »

Stupid insurance company won't fix my screen because I bought my phone through Flubit and not in Ireland.

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Anyone have any recommendations for somewhere in Dublin to get it fixed?

Bastards, that was one of the reasons why I didn't insure my phone due to the vague wording in the various policy documents. I almost took the plunge in spite of it but procrastination got in the way. Whoever said procrastinating was a bad thing...!

Have you considered going the DIY route?

Stench Blossoms

Don't think I'm even bothered going down the DIY root. Wouldn't have the time tbh.

5uspect

Anyone tried out ART?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2013/12/13/how-to-make-your-android-phone-faster-and-its-battery-last-longer/
Working fine for me and my set of apps so far. Looking forward to seeing how battery life does.

TPD

Just making the switch to ART now after seeing that. Will report back if there are any issues!

dastardly00

Just switched over to ART as well.

DECEiFER

+1 for ART here too, great find! Let's see how it works in practice.

Fresh Pots

DECEiFER wrote: »

+1 for ART here too, great find! Let's see how it works in practice.

Seems it doesn't like large games.GT Racing 2 keeps crashing. :-\

DECEiFER

TheTechGuy wrote: »

Seems it doesn't like large games.GT Racing 2 keeps crashing. :-\

I'll try the two I have installed once the conversion is done. That's Vice City (no San Andreas until next week ) and Need for Speed: MW.

UPDATE: Vice City works. MW has to download an update so I'll let that happen and then give it a try. One app that I've noticed so far that does crash is Silence, which I use to mute the phone at night and set it to full volume in the morning automatically. Ah well!

UPDATE 2: MW worked also.

It seems that any type of app may be affected or not so it's not a collective of large games or small apps, etc., all at once that won't work. Hopefully apps that are affecting people are in continuous development so a fix may be on the cards soon. Silence, the app that isn't working for me, isn't updated regularly at all so I just installed Phone Schedule instead and it seems to have everything I need and more.

Arrow.

Switched to ART also. IMDB app seems very slow with it. Other than that. All good so far.

DECEiFER

Agreed. IMDb is pretty bad right now. I'd say it'll improve since Google will possibly make ART the only standard in the next major release.

Fresh Pots

Has anyone got adaway working with art on a rooted n4? I get as far as applying the changes to system and then it stalls.

Raoul

Is it safe to do this if you are on a custom rom?

Fresh Pots

Raoul wrote: »

Is it safe to do this if you are on a custom rom?

If the option is there I assume it is.

jozi

Is it normal to have to root again after every update?

I just rooted mine after changing to ART, it's optimising all the apps again. Also had to manually install SU

DECEiFER

jozi wrote: »

Is it normal to have to root again after every update?

I just rooted mine after changing to ART, it's optimising all the apps again. Also had to manually install SU

I had to root after the OTA update, which is normal, but not after switching to ART. It always optimizes the apps again after the Dalvik cache is cleared and in this case it's also preparing them for ART. That's normal.

jozi

Thats fair enough. I had noticed an app missing yesterday after updating to ART, just wasn't sure what it was until I went looking for SU.

Now to root install avast theft aware like i meant to do ages ago but couldn't because they messed up something stopping it from doing it when updated to 4.4 :rolleyes:

DECEiFER

How's avast theft aware? I use Cerberus and Android Lost. Great features. Hopefully will never need to use them!

jozi

I've never had to use it

The main reason for me is that when root installed even a factory reset doesn't get rid of it. Or, thats how I understand how it works.

I tried another one for a few days, it did much the same tbh. They all seem to over lap on most features with some having a few better options than others.

Avast wrote:

Self-Protection

Extremely difficult for thieves to remove (especially on rooted phones), Anti-Theft protects itself from uninstall by disguising its components with various self-preservation techniques. On rooted phones it is able to survive hard-resets and can even disable the phone's USB port.

---edit---

Androidlost looks good also! Might install it as well

DECEiFER

jozi wrote: »

I've never had to use it

The main reason for me is that when root installed even a factory reset doesn't get rid of it. Or, thats how I understand how it works.

I tried another one for a few days, it did much the same tbh. They all seem to over lap on most features with some having a few better options than others.

That's because it can probably copy itself onto the system partition, and thus make itself a system app like the preinstalled apps would be. A factory reset doesn't get rid of those, however, a thief can flash the phone with a new firmware image or custom ROM and it'll be gone. There's no 100% way to guarantee that the apps will remain and of course the phone must be switched on for them to be of any use to you. Cerberus and Android Lost can do the same and I have them both running as system apps and they are not in the app drawer list (but of course they'd be in the task manager). Android Lost disguises itself with the name "Personal Notes" and a notepad-esque icon.

At least these apps are more feature rich than Android Device Manager. The only option there is to locate the phone (and it was a bit shifty, the last time I checked) or wipe it.

Here are links to the two I mentioned:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lsdroid.cerberus
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.androidlost

I'll have to look into Avast's offering and compare. Maybe installing a third anti-theft app isn't such a bad idea!

srsly78

Those apps are only useful if you lose your phone. If the phone actually gets stolen you can forget about it... It will turn up in morocco or wherever, the thieves are very organised and will easily reflash your phone.

DECEiFER

srsly78 wrote: »

Those apps are only useful if you lose your phone. If the phone actually gets stolen you can forget about it... It will turn up in morocco or wherever, the thieves are very organised and will easily reflash your phone.

It depends on who steals it! It's simply not that black and white. Some kid could pick-pocket you and the phone will likely end up back at their gaf at first, before being sold to someone (who's possibly unsuspecting).

srsly78

Even then, what will you do? Kick their door down? The guards won't help... the gps won't be accurate enough.

There are organised networks of phone thieves, they work internationally. Even local scumbags will sell the phones on to them.

You should report the phone stolen and blacklist the IMEI number, it won't work in Ireland then at least. It shouldn't work in europe either, but the phone companies haven't bothered implementing their "self regulating" eu wide blacklist yet probably.

DECEiFER

srsly78 wrote: »

Even then, what will you do? Kick their door down? The guards won't help... the gps won't be accurate enough.

There are organised networks of phone thieves, they work internationally. Even local scumbags will sell the phones on to them.

You should report the phone stolen and blacklist the IMEI number, it won't work in Ireland then at least. It shouldn't work in europe either, but the phone companies haven't bothered implementing their "self regulating" eu wide blacklist yet probably.

Of course that's always possible but it's not as if the only thieves out there are affiliated with that network you mentioned. And if my phone was stolen and I was able to get a GPS location on it (since it's rooted, it can enable GPS on the sly as I normally keep it off) I would certainly pay them a visit. I'd start by knocking on their door instead of knocking it down. If they're outdoors then I'd use another phone to keep updating me on their location and then find a way to approach them before they can take off.

It's not as though I'm saying it would certainly work 100% but you'd have to at least try your best to get it back unless you really don't care about it at all.

Harps

Changed to ART a while ago and definitely noticing speed improvements and generally smoother running. Hopefully battery life will be better though I'm not holding my breath

jozi

I'm just counting on never losing my phone but if I do at least I have the option to try and find it. Without Avast or any other app your phone is as good as lost.

If it's stolen, there's still some time to recover the phone or try before it's wiped and who's to say they flash a custom rom and not just perform a factory reset. The average user won't be aware of any theft apps.

Harps

Something I've been meaning to ask..

Is there any way to get Google maps as a widget on the lock screen? It'd be really handy when driving if sweeping left would quickly open maps in the same way swiping right opens the camera but maps doesn't show up on the widget list. Anyone know of a way to get it working?

cruhoortwunk

Battery seems to be improved since changing to ART. Will monitor over a few more days

BeanFlicker

Hi does anyone know how I change region back to the Irish Playstore?

I'm set up as UK and have tried changing my credit card and billing address to Ireland in Google Wallet, I've tried clearing cache on my phone etc etc but still no joy

Any help would be great

Thanks

Fluffy88

I love this thing

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Android%20Changing%20App%20Store%20Location

BeanFlicker

Fluffy88 wrote: »

I love this thing

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Android%20Changing%20App%20Store%20Location

Well done there on your originality :rolleyes:

I've obviously done a search on google and like my previous post stated I've tried various things but had no luck so was hoping someone on this forum would have a solution & not a lmgtfy boring overdone response

Fluffy88

Well if you took two seconds out of the time it took you to be a 'smart' ass you would have found the second link on that page....

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/44677/how-to-change-my-device-location-on-the-play-store

And then you could have appreciated me trying to help you out a little bit instead of writing a narky & condescending response.
The reason I posted that is because it's the exact text I searched a few months back when I wanted to change my store location and that's the link that worked perfectly for me.

If that's not helpful enough send me the phone and I'll do it for you

BeanFlicker

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Well if you took two seconds out of the time it took you to be a 'smart' ass you would have found the second link on that page....

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/44677/how-to-change-my-device-location-on-the-play-store

And then you could have appreciated me trying to help you out a little bit instead of writing a narky & condescending response.
The reason I posted that is because it's the exact text I searched a few months back when I wanted to change my store location and that's the link that worked perfectly for me.

If that's not helpful enough send me the phone and I'll do it for you

Thanks for the proper link, a lot more helpful than your initial post

Anyways, cheers and happy Christmas

Raoul

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Well if you took two seconds out of the time it took you to be a 'smart' ass you would have found the second link on that page....

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/44677/how-to-change-my-device-location-on-the-play-store

And then you could have appreciated me trying to help you out a little bit instead of writing a narky & condescending response.
The reason I posted that is because it's the exact text I searched a few months back when I wanted to change my store location and that's the link that worked perfectly for me.

If that's not helpful enough send me the phone and I'll do it for you

I think these are the reasons he was annoyed with you first. As when someone posts that google search thing they are usually doing it to belittle the other person.

I think this may have just been a mix up.