Hardware

New Android, once more a laggy device. Thank you Google.

My Nexus 7 (1st generation, 2012 model, with 3G) is encrypted, so I guess that might also slow everything further down.

Three things I did to solve the lagginess:

• Wipe cache (howto),
• Clear space (I had some movies left on it, deleted a few big files and it seemed to instantly pay off),
• For some odd reason turning off WiFi optimalisation (advanced settings of WiFi) seemed to have the biggest impact on speed.

Edit (2/2/2014): Lagginess came back pretty quickly. I tried an entire reset/wipe and re-encrypted the storage. That didn't really help.

I’ve now done a complete wipe again, but have not encrypted the storage (and removed more useless apps). And it is noticeably less laggy.

While my 2010 Macbook Pro is at the Apple Repair shop for a (most likely) faulty GPU I borrowed a Macbook Air from Christophe. These are my random thoughts about it:

• It's light. Very light. My bag is now too big and I can barely feel it hanging at my shoulder.
• It's light. Very light. I used to, when moving around (for example when testing WiFi, changing desks, going to a meeting, etc), jungle my Macbook Pro on one hand, with the display open and everything, and it would stay on my three or four fingers very nicely. With the Air, I can't just move around like this as even the wind/air might knock it off my hand. Paper aeroplane comes into my mind.
• The CPU is somewhere near the letters 1-2-3-A-Z-E-Q-S (Azerty keyboard). I tend to let my fingers rest between the keys on the bare metal. This can get quite hot. I have never noticed this with the MBP.
• The keyboard of the Air is better. Smoother. More fun to hit. Nicer muffled sound. Hard to explain. Perhaps also because this keyboard hasn't been used as often.
• It stills seems ... breakable. Not as robust.
• I don't like the bezel. WHY APPLE WHY? It's metal instead of the nicer black glass that covers everything.

 

To continue my story, I replaced the battery with a new, and what appears to be a genuine LG battery (if not, then those Chinese are getting good at it).

It worked and booted, but the battery got drained in ~8 hours (100% to 0%). And it felt a tiny bit warm on the cover, just above the battery (battery area was normal). Especially in my pocket it would get quite warm.

On Thursday night I used my Nexus 4 as GPS (as I always do – it’s my main navigation device, so Google, please bring back a usable navigation app pretty plx!) to drive from Brussels to Antwerp (~40 minutes).

I had about 60% of battery left when I turned on the GPS. I tend to recharge my battery every night. It’s times like these I usually just use the GPS without using the car charger. I don’t mind my phone being at 10 or 20% when I arrive home, late at night, as it will be charged overnight anyway.

[ 0.184110] pci 0000:04:04.0: [10ec:8139] type 0 class 0x000200
[ 3.822258] 8139cp: 8139cp: 10/100 PCI Ethernet driver v1.3 (Mar 22, 2004)
[ 3.822281] 8139cp 0000:04:04.0: This (id 10ec:8139 rev 10) is not an 8139C+ compatible chip, use 8139too
[ 3.822574] 8139too: 8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.28
[ 3.822625] 8139too 0000:04:04.0: Chip not responding, ignoring board
[ 3.822675] 8139too: probe of 0000:04:04.0 failed with error -5

On a Debian machine.

The solution was changing PCI slot , blowing away all the dust in the mobo PCI slot and on the pins of the PCI card, and gently inserting and removing it a couple of times.