Nexus 5 & Android KitKat

It has been two weeks now since the new Google/LG Nexus 5 was released. Many people, me included, got excited about this newcomer which theoretically should compete at a lesser price with this year's top ranked smartphones.

I got mine last week and had to play with it the whole weekend. Its hardware configuration (4 x 2.3GHz processor, 2 GB RAM & 5" Full HD Screen) makes it very fast and really fun to use. The design has been greatly improved in comparison with the Nexus 4, and we find it in two flavors: black & white. The camera still has the same 8 MP resolution, but has been enhanced with an optical image stabilization and better software. I took a lot of pictures with it and found it much much better than the camera of my old HTC Sensation having the same resolution. A new camera mode called photo sphere has been added. This takes panoramic photography to a whole new level by making it possible and easy to take 360° pictures. This mode takes advantage of the device's gyroscope to assist the user in taking pictures at different angles and effectively concatenate them. The camera displays target points that help in taking key photos in the directions we are interested in. Once we are finished, we hit the capture button to render the final photo. The result is just amazing; we can browse inside the picture that we get using the photo sphere viewer :-)

The device's battery is not too different from other phones. It can make it to the end of the day in normal use conditions. It also can not be replaced, so better try to preserve it as much a possible.

KitKat as announced brings stock Android a step further to providing a unique user experience that makes it as attractive and pleasant to use as third party android devices. This Nexus 5 really got great potential, and that is why I decided in the first place to make it the replacement for my old HTC phone.

MAME4droid

MAME4droid is an application that should make a lot of android users happy. It is an android port of the well known Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME). As of this writing, the application is at the 1.5.2 version and is provided for free on the Android Market https://market.android.com/details?id=com.seleuco.mame4all.

This application adds a whole bunch of successful games, once available on other platforms (NES, SNES, Neo Geo, ...) to the Android's games library. The only difference and challenge being the lack of a physical controller, the user will have to deal with simulated buttons and joypad. Those can be configured and changed for the convenience of the user, and I highly recommend a 4-inch screen at least to enjoy a better and less painful experience.

I've tested few Neo Geo games that I managed to get to work. To be able to run Neo Geo roms, you will have as with the Windows version of MAME, to add the Neo Geo bios into the rom directory. And since it is hard to find a working version of the bios, I made it available for you here. Trust me, there is no viruses or malware involved :)
So, go head, give mame4droid a shot because it is worth it!! You will be able to enjoy many great games such Metal Slug that worked for me like a charm, base ball star, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, and many others ;)