KitKat Android 4.4 what's new

Glenn · Nov 01, 2013, 14:32:10

Lots of improvements http://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html#44-audio-tunneling It will be coming to your Nexus device in the next few weeks.

Gary · Nov 01, 2013, 14:44:50

Quote from: Glenn on Nov 01, 2013, 14:32:10
Lots of improvements http://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html#44-audio-tunneling It will be coming to your Nexus device in the next few weeks.

Shame it probably wont make many mainstream android handsets.

pctech · Nov 01, 2013, 19:43:16

Would be nice if Samsung released it for the Ace 2 as JB does feel a little sluggish at times.

pctech · Nov 01, 2013, 21:42:34

Been looking around the net and rumour is the Ace 2 might well get 4.4

Sweet

Gary · Nov 02, 2013, 01:58:51

Quote from: pctech on Nov 01, 2013, 21:42:34
Been looking around the net and rumour is the Ace 2 might well get 4.4

Sweet

Hope you do, there was a rumour the HTC Sensation was going to get JB but it never happened

pctech · Nov 02, 2013, 18:02:31

Had a temporary member of staff at work who had one of those, he was thinking about whether to get a 4G phone and what to get when his phone contract ended at the end of November.

4.4 does look great though.

Gary · Nov 03, 2013, 09:55:05

Quote from: pctech on Nov 02, 2013, 18:02:31

4.4 does look great though.

They all look the same to me, even iOS under its candy coat, nothing new in phones now. I think if you go Android use a Nexus then you get the latest patches. The Nexus 5 looks good.

Glenn · Nov 03, 2013, 09:59:49

Quote from: Gary on Nov 03, 2013, 09:55:05
The Nexus 5 looks good.

And approximately 50% of the cost of it's rivals, I'll be keeping my Nexus 4 for at least 1 more year, maybe 2 or 3.

Gary · Nov 03, 2013, 11:03:39

I kept my old Nokia N95 8GB for years, looked on ebay and people are selling immaculate ones for £80-100

It was easy to get spares and put casings on, new sliders etc, wish I had kept mine. Its nice to keep a phone for more than two few years...

pctech · Nov 03, 2013, 18:53:55

I won't be in the market for a phone again for at least 18 months so we'll probably be on the Nexus 8 by then but will keep it in mind

Android does look a bit samey across devices with only the icons being tweaked and widgets being added as far as I can see.

As have said though, for me to keep it the phone has to work well first and foremost as a phone as that is the primary reason I have it.

Simon · Nov 03, 2013, 19:07:41

I'm surprised they can get away with calling it KitKat. I would have thought that was a trademark.

Glenn · Nov 03, 2013, 19:23:29

They came to an agreement with Nestle http://www.nestle.com/media/newsandfeatures/google-nestle-announce-android-kitkat

Simon · Nov 03, 2013, 19:43:49

Ah. You'd think it would have been easier just to have thought of another silly name for it.

Technical Ben · Nov 03, 2013, 20:38:33

Quote from: Simon on Nov 03, 2013, 19:07:41
I'm surprised they can get away with calling it KitKat. I would have thought that was a trademark.

It's actual paid/arranged advertising. It's the fall of Andrion IMO. It's what put me of Metro (I'll hold out on my "predictions" there. It's an advertising platform and nothing more. It's GUI/Design reeks of "we can advertise with these features"), and Apple OS is too tied down for me. But if Andriod is moving over to advert powered OS (I'd expect em to pursue addwords IN the kernel next

) I'll skip.

nowster · Nov 03, 2013, 20:54:39

The one that will fall foul of trademarks is "Nexus 6" unless they get an agreement with the estate of Philip K Dick (and some electric sheep).

pctech · Dec 06, 2013, 20:14:52

I reckon they'll call the next release Lollipop and the phone will be Nexus 5.5.

The advertising will probably use the song Lollipop as Dell did when they started to sell coloured notebook machines a few years back.

nowster · Dec 07, 2013, 08:00:37

4.4.1 is out, and it's supposed to fix the camera problems.

Steve · Jun 04, 2014, 08:29:48

Kitkat 4.4.3 is out although being impatient and couldn't wait for the OTA, I had to side load it to my Nexus 5.

Glenn · Jun 04, 2014, 11:02:55

What does it add or is it bug fixes?

Steve · Jun 04, 2014, 11:10:12

Bug fixes mainly I far as I can work out , the Dialer App is new with the ability to customise the favourites, I'll hopefully see if it's managed to address the intermittent poor WiFi performance.

nowster · Jun 04, 2014, 16:33:47

I'm waiting for the OTA... (Nexus 4 here).

Glenn · Jun 04, 2014, 17:39:47

Is 4.5 or 5.0 going to be announced at the end of the month?

Steve · Jun 04, 2014, 17:48:23

Quote from: nowster on Jun 04, 2014, 16:33:47
I'm waiting for the OTA... (Nexus 4 here).

I was worried I might for some reason miss it, I read somewhere that it was only available OTA for a week or so. When I got the Nexus 5 it was on 4.4.1 and 4.4.2 had been available for some time but I didn't get any notification of an update in the first few days so I side loaded that update.

Probably my impatience again winning out but since I'd not done this method of update before I thought I'd try it out. I've not lost anything with either update yet.

Steve · Jun 04, 2014, 17:51:46

Quote from: Glenn on Jun 04, 2014, 17:39:47
Is 4.5 or 5.0 going to be announced at the end of the month?

The rumour is it will be announced the same time as the Nexus 8

nowster · Jun 04, 2014, 19:58:38

I'm guessing there won't be a Nexus Six without some major haggling with the estate of Philip K Dick.

Glenn · Jun 24, 2014, 21:14:36

My Nexus 4 has just updated to 4.4.4, mainly bug fixes and introducing more bugs.

Simon · Jun 24, 2014, 21:42:37

Do the bugs know each other?

Glenn · Jun 24, 2014, 22:13:15

They may have a Lollipop tomorrow or Thursday.

sparky · Jun 25, 2014, 09:30:23

As I'm still pondering over a new phone, this is what annoys me. Is it not possible to stop an android phone updating or nagging you to update?

With the old Nokia Symbian O/S, if your phone worked for you and you didn't want the upgrade, you simply didn't bother. Now it seems that Android and Windows Phone updates get pushed out, irrespective of whether they shaft your phone or not.

Glenn · Jun 25, 2014, 10:01:51

It hardly nags you, just cancel the update, job done. I think this is the 2nd update this year for Nexus devices, manufacturers (Samsung, HTC etc), may not even send out updates. Lillipop (Android 5.0) may be announced today or tomorrow at the Google I/O conference.

sparky · Jun 25, 2014, 10:31:22

Ah OK then. Maybe it's just some phones.

I've seen forums with people complaining about continuous update notifications and then it automatically goes and does the update overnight when they are not looking! Maybe they just had the phones set up wrong. This was namely Motorola and Sony phones I think I was looking at.

Simon · Jun 25, 2014, 11:48:51

Looks like there will be even less choice soon...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27992439

pctech · Jun 26, 2014, 09:51:13

I think it will come down to Google vs Apple.

Technical Ben · Jun 27, 2014, 08:56:08

x2 to have Windows 8 themed Android desktop...
Support: "Which phone do you have?"
Customer: "It's definitely Windows 8, has the icons and everything..."
Support: "Hmmm, cannot understand why feature/button x/y/z is not there then..."

john · Jun 28, 2014, 19:17:57

Quote from: Glenn on Jun 24, 2014, 21:14:36
My Nexus 4 has just updated to 4.4.4, mainly bug fixes and introducing more bugs.

The other day my Nexus 7 updated to 4.4.4 too but I've not noticed any bugs yet (but then I didn't notice any before either).

Steve · Jul 04, 2014, 16:43:29

I've just spent 2 weeks SW of Haverfordwest and my Nexus 5 on Kitkat 4.4.4 has been virtually bloody useless as a mobile phone. My wife's iPhone 4s on the same network has shown a mobile signal where mine has not on many occasions plus the iPhone will lock on to a mobile signal where one is present much quicker than the Nexus 5. I do wonder whether the mobile operators assign a priority to mobile devices ie mine's low however it will make me think next time that I should check if the data is available of the devices ability to work as a mobile phone.

Technical Ben · Jul 04, 2014, 17:40:56

I'd say it was the aerial and/or power saving functions in the OS.

peasblossom · Aug 09, 2014, 19:16:15

Quote from: Simon on Nov 03, 2013, 19:43:49
Ah. You'd think it would have been easier just to have thought of another silly name for it.

Indeed. Ubuntu manage it quite nicely. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DevelopmentCodeNames

(In a good way, though.)

pctech · Sep 21, 2014, 21:12:52

I think some phone manufacturers put ridiculously small antennas in their phones because where they develop them they are probably on top of a mobile mast.

I know the HTC Desire S had two small copper strips mounted to the removable plastic back panel and I found it would struggle to connect in places where a Nokia had no issue.

nowster · Sep 22, 2014, 11:22:59

Quote from: pctech on Sep 21, 2014, 21:12:52
I think some phone manufacturers put ridiculously small antennas in their phones because where they develop them they are probably on top of a mobile mast.

Aerial size is all to do with resonance and nothing to do with signal strength.

sparky · Oct 23, 2014, 11:39:41

Well, after about a year of deliberation over a new smartphone , I finally got myself a Nexus 5.

It did a couple of updates after initial setting up and now currently sits with 4.4.4. Really pleased with it, all seems to be working great.

Apart from one annoying (well to me anyway) issue which has appeared to creep into all smartphone operating systems over the past 12 months or more. When using pop3 mail, checking the box "leave mail on server" has no effect if you delete the email on your phone it deletes on the server as well at the next synch. That doesn't happen when using Thunderbird, Live Mail, Outlook etc on a PC, but looking around various forums seems to have crept into all mobile operating systems. I'm sure I read somewhere that it didn't happen on a Nexus, until Kit Kat came along?

And before anyone suggests it, no I cannot use IMAP as my companies email server doesn't support it without additional charges which my boss refuses to pay.

Anyway, I don't want all of my emails and folders stored on my phone, I just want to be able to read incoming ones. It's not a big issue as my last phone didn't work like that either, but I don't understand why smart phone operating systems have ignored the pleas of people and stopped this happening.

Simon · Oct 23, 2014, 11:52:53

I use IMAP on all my mobile devices, so can't help with that, sorry. Only thing I can suggest is to have a look in Settings > Accounts and Sync > Mail, and see if there are any additional settings in there.

sparky · Oct 23, 2014, 12:04:28

No Simon, it's a common issue that is posed all over the internet in forums.

As I understood it the way pop3 worked is that your email client, downloads any unread mail, that mail gets flagged on the host server as read, and depending on your settings gets deleted or left on the server.

Nowadays, phones don't seem to treat pop3 like that, they seem to "synch" every time with your inbox, if you've deleted on your phone, then it gets deleted from the inbox. I have checked the box that says leave on server but it makes no difference. And so say hundreds or thousands of other phone users out there........

colirv · Oct 23, 2014, 12:23:50

Can you forward mail to a second account, and have the mobile read that instead?

sparky · Oct 23, 2014, 12:37:48

Yeay, I suppose that's one way around it.

To be honest it's not really a problem for me, I can work around it. I just thought that I'd mention it here as the thread is titled "KitKat Android 4.4 what's new" and I'm sure I've read that this has changed since Jelly Bean.

nowster · Oct 24, 2014, 13:40:29

For email on Αndroid, k9mail is probably the best app to use.

Glenn · Oct 24, 2014, 14:58:31

I've sold my Nexus 4, now a proud owner of a OnePlus One. It's working well, very responsive, too responsive if scrolling through pages as it has a habit of opening as soon as you touch the screen. The battery is great, on to my 3rd day today still showing 50% charge, but I would say I'm a light user.

Simon · Oct 24, 2014, 16:06:40

Sounds good. Aren't things supposed to open when you touch the screen, though?

wecpcs · Oct 24, 2014, 19:48:59

Quote from: sparky on Oct 23, 2014, 11:39:41
Well, after about a year of deliberation over a new smartphone , I finally got myself a Nexus 5.

It did a couple of updates after initial setting up and now currently sits with 4.4.4. Really pleased with it, all seems to be working great.

Apart from one annoying (well to me anyway) issue which has appeared to creep into all smartphone operating systems over the past 12 months or more. When using pop3 mail, checking the box "leave mail on server" has no effect if you delete the email on your phone it deletes on the server as well at the next synch. That doesn't happen when using Thunderbird, Live Mail, Outlook etc on a PC, but looking around various forums seems to have crept into all mobile operating systems. I'm sure I read somewhere that it didn't happen on a Nexus, until Kit Kat came along?

And before anyone suggests it, no I cannot use IMAP as my companies email server doesn't support it without additional charges which my boss refuses to pay. Anyway, I don't want all of my emails and folders stored on my phone, I just want to be able to read incoming ones. It's not a big issue as my last phone didn't work like that either, but I don't understand why smart phone operating systems have ignored the pleas of people and stopped this happening.

I use a Sony Xperia Z2 with POP3 and have ticked the box to leave emails on the server and if I delete any emails on my Z2 they are still on the server (I use 1&1 for my email on my own domain). So is it a problem with the Nexus 5 or with IDNet email if that is what you are using.

Colin

Glenn · Oct 25, 2014, 08:41:51

Quote from: Simon on Oct 24, 2014, 16:06:40
Sounds good. Aren't things supposed to open when you touch the screen, though?

Sorted, the sensitivity can be adjusted, it was on the most sensitive.

Steve · Oct 25, 2014, 08:44:51

@Glenn , How many invites does a new OnePlusOne owner get?

I think I read somewhere that there's no 4G on the OnePlusOne with EE but it's fine on O2 and Vodafone or it's the other way round.

Glenn · Oct 25, 2014, 09:12:01

Steve, I don't know. Apparently the invites are sent randomly, I haven't received any as yet. If you join the http://oneplus.net/ forum, they get notified first when the pre-orders are being taken, they take them in batches.

The multi-point touch has issues, the screen will jump about, but if I look through the options or on the forum I think there will be a solution.

Glenn · Oct 26, 2014, 23:09:38

A reboot sorted the multi-touch issue, all working fine now.

sparky · Oct 27, 2014, 10:12:39

QuoteI use a Sony Xperia Z2 with POP3 and have ticked the box to leave emails on the server and if I delete any emails on my Z2 they are still on the server (I use 1&1 for my email on my own domain). So is it a problem with the Nexus 5 or with IDNet email if that is what you are using.

Thanks Colin, no it happens with two email accounts I use, my idnet one and one from freecom.net. Might have to give K9mail a try, apparently it works fine with that app.