TETHERING WITH TM $30/M0 PLAN ON NEXUS 5 WITH ANDROID 4.4.2
This is to use your Nexus 5 as a wifi hotspot on occassions when no wifi is available for your laptop or tablet but your cellular data plan from T-Mobile is working and that plan is the cheap one, the T-Mobile $30/mo plan, which dosen’t work with the Nexus 5. (The Nexus 4 will do this without modification.) You would have to “root” the phone. I recommend Nexus Root Toolkit (NRT) to root the phone. Then you have to modify a file in the “root” directory that tells T-Mobile that you are tethering (and would prompt you with a popup to pay them more money if you are using the Nexus 5). You also have to change your APN from ipv6 to iv4/ipv6. I know this all sounds like gibberish. This post is not a “how to”, just a statement of a workable path to accomplishing this task. It can be done and didn’t take much time THIS TIME.
ANDROID 4.4.2 KITCAT ON NEXUS 4,5,7 AND 10
The Over the Air updates for Android 4.4.2 are going out for Nexus 4 and 5 smartphones and a couple Nexus tablets. I have installed the ota on the Nexus 4, and it works fine. I chose to install a factory image of 4.4 and wait for the ota to come to the device. After booting in 4.4, I was informed the update to 4.4.2 was ready within minutes. Haven’t had time to check out the camera because it’s dark. but the new camera app seems to work better.
The Android 4.4.1 update lasted a couple days and was immediately replaced with 4.4.2. Aparantly an overnight bug fix.
KITKAT 4.4.1 VASTLY IMPROVES THE CAMERA APP
The new Over The Air (OTA) update of Android 4.4 to 4.4.1 is due in a couple days for Nexus 5 and in a few more days for other devices with 4.4, such as Nexus 4 and Nexus 7. I think Nexus 4 got the update to KitKat 4.4 several weeks ago with little problem, by the way.
4.4.1 makes some vast improvements to the camera app. The improvements are so good that industry pundits claim that the camera app is in the middle of the bunch of the top level smartphones, which is a luxurous place to be.
From usage tests, the older 4.4 camera app, was too slow for the way that many people were using it (the ergonomics were wrong). The focusing was taking too long and the shot would be missed or the person would move the camera before the (in HDR+ setting) the HDR would be finished, making a blurry picture. Also the pictures showed the full brightness range of the picture rather than “punching up” the saturation and contrast, as people are want to prefer. So now the pictures look more like an iPhone image. The new camera app triggers the shutter as soon as the focus is “acceptably close” to right, instead of overfocusing and coming back to the sharpest focus. People who do most of their photography with a telephone are not diciplined in holding still. So this fix matches the ergonomics and situation of the operator. So far, all the testers prefer it. I have been increasing the saturation and contrast in many of the photos I’ve taken with the Nexus 5 on Android 4.4, so this will likely save me a few steps.



