Monday, February 11, 2013

Jelly Bean 4.2.1 - SMS send/receive problem

Disclaimer: Below information is shared to just help others based on my personal experience. Do it at your own risk. Am not liable or responsible whatsoever.

After i inserted the new microsim to my LG Nexus 4, everything worked except the incoming messages. After calling the cust care twice got to know the problem was with message center number that is wrongly set.
For latest android phones, the option to update message center is not direct. Especially with 4.2.1, you have to update two values.Message center number is specific to every career and is also shortly called SMSC. To know more about this go here.

Now let us go to the update of SMSC:
For usual phones, on the message settings, you will be able to find the 'Message Center' where you can update. this is the usual 12 digit number with a + (eg : Idea MH - +919822078000). If you do not know your message center number, you can get it by google or by calling your cust care.

On recent android.phones, the option is not available on message settings and the value is not straight as well. For 4.1.1 the SMSC value must be 16 digit PDU format number. To get this 16 digit number from your normal message center number, check this link . For Android 4.2.1 , it is two values separated by comma, first is the normal message center number of the service provider inside double quotes, and the next is 145 or 129 . Eg Usually for india service providers  : "+919822078000", 145 (145 indicates the message center number with + otherwise 129).
Follow below steps:
1. Dial *#*#4636#*#* (also ie *#*#info#*#* )
2. On the displayed testing  screen select 'Phone Information'
3. Now scroll down to see the empty field for SMSC
4. First 'Refresh' to see the already existing value
5. update SMSC
a. For Android 4.1.1, you have to update the field with 16 digit pdu without quotes or + eg: 0791198904100130 (SMSC PDU format - airtel TN)
b. For Android 4.2.1, as mentioned above  "+919822078000", 145
6. Update and refresh. If you dint receive any update error and if the same value that you updated appears after refresh then you are done.
7. Restart your phone  and you are done. might take 10 mins to reflect. You should now be able to send or receive SMS.

Spent two days to get this through and hence created a post on it to especially help 4.2.1 users as other info are available on google already.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

LG Nexus 4 - Review

Its been more than a week now that using it. Since ppl have already started asking me abt hows it, have been telling everyone that this phone is more than worth the money i paid. And thats true atleast for me. I never worried about non removable battery or memory expansion.
I had already owned Nexus S (that i lost) and a Galaxy Nexus (Wife's actually) and so perceptions are accordingly:
  • The phone is indeed attractive both front and back. 
  • After i got the Amzer TPU hybrid case, it is more comfortable to hold and use, though that covers the attractive back side.
  • Feel of the performance is good. (1.5 ghz Processor and 2 GB RAM)
  • Camera has so many grt features. But infact Photosphere isnt impressive, not sure when i would use it and it also demands a lot of patience to click a photosphere image. HDR seems to do a grt job. The photo editor has new options. Multi finger Zooming is comfortable than dragging as in Galaxy nexus. Focusing 'after zooming' had some issues to be frank. 8 MP click did look grt. Getting to select options on the screen with a finger touch creating the focus circle is actually interesting, you have to feel it to understand.
  • Tested android beam sharing an image 
  • USB, Bluetooth and wifi - all tethering options available as before.
  • Speaker sound quality seems better than galaxy nexus, not sure if its because galaxy nexus is already in use for many months now.
  • It has also gesture typing (swype in samsung) that i am yet to use properly. No comments.
  • I dont feel it heavy (139g)
  • Battery seems fine too. (2100 mAh). Wireless orb charger yet to come to market to test that.
  • Other Jelly Bean features continue and infact a few minor additional features because of the update to the jelly bean as well. 
  • I dont use it much for games but just tried 'temple run 2' that looked fine.

For complete tech spec, go to gsmarena. To compare with Samsung S 3 again.

One thing i missed is, it needs only Micro Sim and am yet to use it with one. So hadnt mentioned about call/signal qualities...

Update 17-Feb-2013 : Been using with an IDEA sim now for a week and i have frequent call drops! It continues even after 4.2.2 update. If anyone gets a solution or any update on it, let me know.

update 21-May-2013:
call drops arent happening much, probably becoz of 4.2.2 update
Display is bad in sunlight, doesnt auto adjust enough
Camera on closer objects doesnt focus rightly 

Update 03-Sep-2013:
Last 2 weeks hardware sound buttons arent responding frequently. works on restart but fails shortly after

Update 17-Dec-2013
After the update to kitkat the volume key issue is resolved. But I don't feel otherwise much abt the new update.

Update 27-Dec-2014
Got Lollipop update. Had random reboots, but after the 5.0.1 patch, reboots reduced. So far so good, infact lollipop UI features are looking good