Category: English

Nexus V

Nexus 5 Package
Nexus 5 Package

I’m happy … I received my new Nexus 5 just last Thursday. You won’t believe how amazing this 3 generation leap feels … remember I’m coming from a Nexus S. 😉 I had the chance to toy around with it over the weekend and I must say: I like it. It’s well-built. It has a beautiful screen. The software is top notch (at least if you’re not as paranoid as I am).

The screen resolution is a funny matter, because the Nexus 5 is now second rank at home. Only losing to a Retina MacBook Pro. 😉

What I like:

  • It’s blazingly fast (at least generally 😉 )
  • The screen is gorgeous
  • I can now run Firefox as my main browser without killing all other apps 😉
  • Going to alarms with a swipe (in the Clock app) is a relief
  • Configuring app icons and widgets on the home screen is well done

What I don’t like:

  • I’ve come to miss several niceties of CyanogenMod over the years
  • You can’t get rid of the Search bar on the home screen (yes, I know the “home screen” is part of the “Google Search” app now)
  • The speaker (yes, only one) is crap
  • You need a special desktop app to copy files over USB, WTF?!?
  • I need to start some apps twice, because they crash the first time 🙁
  • It comes without a headset 🙁
  • The abandonment of core apps on favor of Google flavored ones (like integrating the home screen into Google Search, mixing basic SMS with Google Hangouts or transferring G+ avatars in the Phone app)
  • Google Play Music can only play the first 69 minutes of “long” MP3s, WTF?!?

Still not sure:

  • Battery life on work days
  • The devices sturdiness
  • SMS in Google Hangouts

I’m so used to CyanogenMod by now that I miss several niceties it provides over the stock Android experience:

  • Getting the Notification Center or the Configuration Tiles depending on which side of the top bar you pull
  • Directly executing actions (e.g. turning WiFi on/off) by tapping Configuration Tiles
  • Making the device behave like an ordinary USB stick when connected to a PC
  • Having something like App Guard
  • Having the ability to give apps root (mainly for Helium, AdBlock Plus)
  • Superior music player
  • Auto-unlock when the PIN is correct

None the less, I’m happy. 🙂

Update:

Battery life seems fine, even after a day of moderate use.

CyanogenMod together with Open WhisperSystems just revealed secure messaging will be baked into CM. This will allow you to send encrypted messages to others through any SMS/messaging app. 🙂

Heavy Twitterers among South Korean Military and Spys

1.2 million tweets were sent out by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to smear opposition leaders, and 23 million tweets were spread by the Defense Ministry’s Cyberwarfare Command to tip the scale in favor of current President Park Geun-hye.

Source: Global Voices Online

Oh, no … Who could’ve known this was even possible?!? :/

Update 2015-02-11:
The former chief of the NIS was sentenced to three years of prison for trying to manipulate the 2012 presidential election.

Intriguing Serious Games

I don’t know how people come up with this, but I’ve come two very interesting games that pick up topics you wouldn’t immediately think of. I haven’t played them yet, but I’m intrigued by the concepts.

Papers, Please! puts you into the shoes of an immigration officer at an airport of a fictional country. You have to examine visa applicants and finally granting or denying them entry. You earn money from how many people you correctly admit or reject. And you need the money to pay for your own expenses: rent, food, heating, medicine. Screw up and you won’t be able to afford them.
This puts you into a difficult spot. Your performance doesn’t only affect the live of the person you’re examining, but yours too. You learn that (surprisingly)  You’re swayed between concern, duty, diligence, suspicion, courtesy and cynicism … and you get why border are no laughing matter. :/ I think the review on Arstechnica captures the feeling well.

In Blackbar is a different twist on puzzle games. You get to read mail between two fictional people with parts blacked out. Your task is to reconstruct the blacked-out parts. It’s as simple as that. You get drawn in into the story between the two and you need this context to deduce some of the parts. It feels creepy. :/ TUAW has a nice review of it.

Forensic Architecture

Forensic Architeture is an interesting research project analyzing target sites of drone strikes from publicly available information. They remodel and reconstruct the architectural features of those sites and provide necessary context for human rights violation investigations carried out by UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights (UNSRCT) Ben Emmerson.