khammondnm

What is 4.4.4?  

 

I just posted this in the Google I/O thread..

 

WHOA...while I was out for a long, sweltering job beneath the angry Georgia sun, my phone apparently downloaded Android 4.4.4??  WTF is that?  It's installing now.  Anyone else get this??  

 

Confused in Atlanta, 

 

JG

It's been rolling out for several days and there has been much discussion in this thread already.

Why couldn't it just be an app?

 

Maybe Android L will have a Wifi Calling feature built in! One can hope

I wonder if it will include a radio

I would expect that if it did, it would be no different than the .16 radio.  I could be wrong though.

Nexus 5 developer images for Android "L" come tomorrow!

Are you certain there's no B26? Ericsson has been very aggressive rolling it out lately. I've found that they have enabled B26 on a couple of sites near me, but left them in "donut" mode, forcing me to 3G in places I used to have good B25 coverage. That's on any radio.

 

Edit: Disabling B26 fixes the problem in my area. Forgot to include that.

 

 

The network actually doesn't force you to 3G. The network wants to keep you on LTE as much as possible. Unless something has changed, it doesn't have a way of pushing you to 3G from LTE. Aside from sites set up improperly of course.

I can't say with 100% certainty that there is no B26 in Albuquerque yet, but since we are still only maybe a third of the way rolled out for B25 and I have yet to capture any B26, I don't think it's around.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

After keeping a close eye on the .13 radio behavior over the past few days, I think I know why I am getting tossed back to 3G so often.. and it makes sense.

 

This radio causes my N5 to connect to B26 far more often than any of the previous ones. But I have yet to connect to a B26 site that appears to have been optimized. B26 signals have been averaging ~8-12 dB worse than B25 from the same site. My N5 appears to switch over to B26 whenever it sees it, but since the coverage is currently worse, it can't hang onto it everywhere. Instead of falling "back" to B25 when it loses B26, it drops to 3G. This is probably intentional, since eventually the B26 signal will be the strongest LTE connection available.

 

I should also note that adjusting the band priorities on my device has no impact on this. And I have yet to see any B41 in my area.

 

YMMV, this has just been my experience northwest of Boston.

 

-Mike

Your observations seem valid, but I don't think that explains my phone getting thrown onto 3g constantly in an area that doesn't have any B26 deployed even though we have B25.

Guess who got ota.

say goodbye to that one bar of lte...

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I want to say LG engineers code the baseband with some help from Qualcomm. And honestly since the nexus out performed the G2 on RF performance, it could have been a move on LG's part to lower RF performance, in order to make the G2, or G3 look more appealing. Think if you live in a fringe area and after an update you lose some bars. You think well maybe I will just get a new phone, cause most likely it'll be out of warranty by the time they realize it, so they will go buy a new phone, and with easy pay that'll happen yearly now. It is in no way good business sense to build a product that is the best and will last forever, because you won't get that person to buy again, because the first never wore. So through subtle updates manufacturer's can slowly degrade performance enough to make it look great but make it where the newer model looks appealing. In a sense it could be what is happening here.

I would really hope that it was not intentional to degrade rf performance.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I just don't see how Sprint can let this sit for a while. This has taken out a ton of LTE that we already had. Regular users will have no idea how to get back to an older radio.

 

It's always possible, though, that there aren't enough "regular" Nexus 5 users out there to make a difference.

I worry that Sprint won't have the clout to fix it with Google. Either that or the voice of s4gru members who are actually in the know how about the real issues will not be heard by Sprint.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

A question for those much smarter than I.  Is there a way that someone who is familiar with radios could dive into the new .13 radio and decipher what change was made to enable spark?  Could this be implemented into a previous radio?  I know this would probably not be an easy task, but it was a thought I had earlier.  

Yes. Just don't forget that both the D820 and D821 are capable of connecting to many different bands, and share the same software. So there could be a new radio, but it might not impact your personal situation at all because it only included tweaks that affect bands you don't happen to use.

 

-Mike

I understand that. I wonder if it's just too many variables to optimize to get the n5 to connect to every band optimally across carriers. Does anyone have insight in to this? When they are adjusting or releasing a modem are they adjusting physical voltages or tuning similar to tweaking clock speed on a processor. I assume it's not exactly the same, but it would make sense in my head that since radio performance seems to be variable across modem releases that it's just one big balancing act to get the radio to perform well on all the frequencies it's designed for.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Does a new radio typically accompany major os version updates? I wonder if we will get another radio with 4.5/5.0.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

So they just announced ios 8. I'm watching the live blog on Engadget. Did anyone else notice that the screen shots they used of ios 8 were definitely a different aspect ratio than that found on the 5s?

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

De ja vu! Another carrier reporting the update! Does that mean we have another month and a half to wait? :-)

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Don't even talk like that!

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I have a question for those of you using an att sim in your n5. Is it a nano sim, and if so how exactly do you go about putting it in? My sim card tray lacks the ability to hold a nano sim from what I can tell. I'm asking because I'm taking a trip to the middle of no where and I wanted to put my girlfriends att sim from her iPhone 5s into my n5(better reception and then I wont have to use an iPhone:P).

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatak

The nexus uses the micro sim if I remember correctly.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Tramway and Paseo???

Yes. It was with my nexus 5 lte hunting beast though. So, ymmv.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I'm betting Albuquerque gets "launched" in a few weeks. I'm seeing lte all over the place. Notice the mapping I just did on the north end of tramway down paseo. That was probably at least three towers I was connected to.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

And, as frustrating as it is, wouldn't most of us prefer a polished and optimized product versus a laggy, unreliable product that would only lead to yet another wait for potential bug fixes? Clearly there is a reason that it's been delayed and Google engineers are no doubt working tirelessly to get it up to par. Otherwise, it'd already be out.

I think most of us would have preferred spark come out three months ago apart from being included in this update.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I've been noticing the same thing too

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

Same problem with me. I'm pretty sure there is no tower here

 

Also on my nexus. This did not show up until recently. Not a big deal at all, just an interesting observation. The photo was generated by the signal check coordinates.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

But there are plenty of things 15 people would like to be able to do at 10mbps simultaneously.

This is the correct thinking. We will never have too much mobile bandwidth with the increase in the number of connected devices. It's all about providing a solid connection to each connected device no matter the tower load.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I think it would be good. I would go through dan@sprint.com though. I seem to get a call back within a day. They know more that calling cs.

I know it can take a while to get the software update working, but this seems a little long. Unfortunately, I'm expecting some response about how it's not launched here and blah blah blah, but I'll give it a go.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Would it do any good to report eCSFB problems to Sprint? There are a couple sites that have been problematic for nearly a month in ABQ. Kind of sucks not being to leave lte on using the nexus 5.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Since when did Albuquerque get so much LTE coverage? The last time i checked, there was barely anything.

Most of the sites were sitting ready for the integration team to hook them up. That speeds up roll out

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Do my kiddos who just moved to an active tri-band area (Ft. Worth) need to do anything for band 41 to work?

Well, I should have said does the DiL with an N5 need to do anything as the son just has an iphone 5s and it's a moot point for him.

Are we still waiting for a Google update?

Update PRL or profile?

Update firmware?

 

Please excuse the question without research as I'm at work and will have to wait until I get home to rummage around the thread(s).

In the mean time if someone wants to show off their knowledge feel free.

We are still waiting on the update to allow b41 to work properly.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I dont know about my luck. unlocked my phone to see this. No drops or anything

 

I would be getting on the phone with Google right about now. I would imagine they should give you another phone.

 

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