48 Hours With KitKat

It's been 48 hours since i upgraded my phone to KitKat and so far, i didn't find any major problem that has been discussed by other people. There were some time when my phone got hotter, but it's still on the acceptable level due to many applications were opened at that time. During normal operations, the phone is still cold as it used to be.

About battery drain, i also have a good experiences. When i upgraded my phone, the battery was around 60% and last night, when i charged it, it was around 15%, so between two days ago and last night, the battery just drop about 45%, which is a good one. During that time, i use the WiFI and doing some activities like browsing, taking pictures, accessing dropbox, and many others. I have to conduct more experiments about this battery drain, but so far, i do have good experiences with it.

Note that i disabled the mobile data and wifi and location/GPS settings most of the time and only activate them when it's needed. I think that gives more battery life to your phone. Also, i tend to close any apps after i don't use it anymore, so it will not hog your resources.

Welcome to KitKat

Finally Sony released Android KitKat update to their Xperia Z Ultra, Z1, Z1 Compact series and since then, i have been gathering more information about this update through their Forum and i saw LOTS of issues regarding this update, starting from quick battery drain, easily to get overheated, a little lag, speaker low/loud alternatively, and many others. Also, some new features found on Z2 are not backported to Z1 update as well, so that's quite disappointing for me.

Anyway, i decided to take the risk and last night, i reboot my computer to switch to Windows and connect my phone to Windows and ran Sony PC Companion to detect the update. It started to download the updates, but since it was 1 AM in the morning, i went to sleep. This morning, i plugged the phone again and it started to upgrade to KitKat. There was no problem during upgrading and after the reboot, the upgrade process continued and everything is still there. There are no data loss at all.

About battery drain, i also experience it myself, although i think it's only a matter of time before the stamina mode find your usage pattern and it will try to fix it by themselves. I tend to turn off the location, GPS, and only use the WiFI or data packets if it's necessary. So far, it's good.

One thing i wanted to try was the ART runtime which is a technology preview for the future Android release that will bring performance improvements in overall system/apps. Unfortunately, Sony seems to disable this feature on their firmware, as i can't find it on the developer mode. After browsing some sites, i found that Sony Album, their pre-installed application is not yet compatible with ART, so they disable it. I'm hoping that Sony will be able to fix it soon and release an update to bring ART runtime to it's users. You can check for list of apps that is reported to be working/not working with ART runtime on this site

I'm now a KitKat users :)

KitKat Update from Sony

Just now, i saw a Tweet from XperiaBlog that Sony has finally released Android KitKat update for Sony Xperia Z1, Xperia Z Ultra, and Xperia Z1 Compact series worldwide. This is the new updated information about KitKat from Sony:
Android version: Google Android 4.4 (Kitkat)
Latest available software: 14.3.A.0.681
Release started: 2014-03-19

What are the changes? Well, i don't have it yet, but according to the release notes:

• Introducing Android 4.4.2 KitKat with many new features and enhancements
• Updated Camera application and overall tuning to improve the camera experience
• Enhanced email app
• Stability, performance & battery improvements

Also, Sony added this on their build:

• A tweaked Status Bar and Quick Settings – More intuitive and customisable.
• The same launch animation and live wallpaper as the Sony PlayStation 4 adapted across the lock and home screens.
• Sony’s native app portfolio will be updated to the latest versions. This includes Messaging, MyXperia, Smart Connect, Small apps, TrackID, TrackID TV, Sony Select and Smart Social Camera.
• Updated Media apps including WALKMAN, Album and Movies. Better Sony Entertainment Network & PlayMemories integration with a more intuitive UI and faster download speeds. 

Unfortunately, some new features found on Z2 will not make it into Z1 updates such as:

• 4K video
• Timeshift video
• Tap to wake
• Smart call handling
• Smart backlight control
• Glove mode (already included in the Xperia Z1 Compact).

For older devices, please be patient, since Sony is planning to release it on May:

KitKat will hit the Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia Tablet Z and Xperia ZR from the middle of Q2 2014 i.e. look for it in May. 

Alternative to Dropbox: Copy

For those who have used Dropbox and you need bigger space without having to pay more, you might be interested on Copy, a cloud-based storage that provide similar service to Dropbox. They offer 15 GB of free space by default when you joined (and it's free) AND if you join their service using this referral link, we will both get additional 5 GB:

https://copy.com?r=Lbi02H

One of the most interesting of Copy is what they called Fair Storage. Basically they will equally divide the amount of storage being used. So a 12 GB folder shared between 3 people only counts as 4 GB per person. This is something interesting, as more and more people you shared with (assuming the same content), you will have more empty spaces.

They secure the data using top-secret grade AES 256 encryption algorithm which is proven to be highly secure.

They also offered the client apps in different platform, including Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Android, and iOS. For Slackware Linux, Eric Hameleers has provided binary packages on his repository.

What are you waiting for? Sign up now and if possible, use the above link :)