WhatsApp icon greyed out

Problem:
Yesterday my WhatsApp icon on the home screen had greyed out. It had turned into that translucent grey colour and it seemed to be not responding. The app would not launch even from the Application List, obviously.

Solution:
Turn on the backup
Settings > Backup > App + Settings > Backup Now

Cause:
I remembered that the last activity that I was asked by the OS to do was to backup. It seems I had started the backup process, but it was too slow, so I switched off the Wifi and went to sleep. I just restarted that process of backup and WhatsApp icon was in its normal state in around 10 minutes. It looks like WhatsApp is one of the apps that performs a backup during this operation and it remains in an unusable state during the initial part of its backup process.

Battery

"How is the battery life after 2 years?", I have been asked that many times in the recent few weeks. I still manage to tell them that on 'Batter Saver mode, it lasts for almost 2 days'.

I see videos on YouTube and listen to songs at work. Other than that the phone is used to send and receive phone calls through the day. I seldom use Facebook on the phone. WhatsApp is turned on at an average of 2 hours per day. The screen brightness has been set to Automatic.

The OS takes care of the battery management and that is the reason why the phone cannot be turned off while the battery is charging. You see, the OS has to be running to ensure that the battery is optimally charged and used.

Super saver

Came across an very useful post that provides a solution for fixing a bricked Lumia.
http://forums.wpcentral.com/nokia-lumia-920/203979-fix-bricked-920s-after-reset-flash-process-defined-inside.html

I certainly hope that I do not have to encounter my bricked Lumia. But the link gives some insights into how things work. There is hope that one can apply the firmware and OS patches/ updates by downloading them to the computer instead of relying on the availability of a good WiFi connection.

I do not have a Wireless router and I m still working on a Windows XP Sevice Pack 3 machine. So, I tried to setup Connectify hoping that it would use the internal WiFi adaptor to create a wireless transmission. THe problem here is that on Windows XP there is one cannot set up Wireless network in Access Point mode; it only allows ad-hoc mode. Sadly, Nokia Lumia 920 does not support ad-hoc mode.

Why? One might ask. The right question is 'Why not?'.

Ad-hoc mode is considered to be insecure or less secure. Considering that the device is going to contain a significant amount of personal data and with the user's security in mind, Nokia restricted ad-hoc access.

I would have preferred that the user be given a warning when connecting to ad-hoc mode with proper information. If one is to read it correctly, Lumia 800 allowed access to WiFi in ad-hoc mode.

At the waiting room

So, I was at this waiting room today. A man in his 40s was sitting next to me. His sons in early teens were standing next to him. He asked me about the device in my hand.

"Is it a Lumia?"

"Yes. Lumia 920", I said.

"How is it?"

"Very nice. No issues so far.", I answered.

"I saw that you are carrying a smaller phone, too. Is it a backup phone because you do not trust Lumia?", he continued probing.

"No, the smaller one is my wife's phone.", I explained.

"It is bright colour. Canary yellow.", he continued.

"Yes, it is.", I was getting impatient and wanted to get back to fidgeting with my phone. My curiosity and the fact that I was discovering something new about the phone made me impatient.

"Does it have Angry birds game?", he wanted to know about Angry Birds!

"Yes, I can add it.", I replied calmly.

"Mine, too", he said rather proudly. "Does it have FM radio?", his questions continued.

"No, not yet. But, it might in some time.", I wanted to add that there is hardware for it, but the firmware upgrade will enable the radio in the future.

"Does it have a torch?", he interrogated.

"No, it doesn't.", I said with a false chagrin.

Somehow he was happy with my answers... happy that his phone was better. He turned around to his elder son and said "Our Samsung is better, no?"

His son, who had been witnessing this conversation, said "Papa, it is a Nokia Lumia 920... NOKIA... LUMIA. 920."

I smiled at him.

Got some apps

Day2:

Yea, no day 1 because I was doing nothing different. I only read and tried the things mentioned in the manual. So, I tried the adding few more contacts and linking contacts. I thought it was a cool feature. If you have multiple entries for the same contact in the Contact list, you can link them so that they all appear as one single entry.

Day 2 started with me installing WhatsApp from the MarketPlace. After doing this, I sycnhronised my hotmail contacts which got a lot of duplicate entries in my PhoneBook. The linking feature discussed earlier was a good help. After about an hour, the device was stuck on the WhatsApp screen. No buttons were responding. The screen blanked out after the lock period. I was a bit nevous to see that the device is not responding. As we know, one cannot even remove the battery and put it back in to restart the device. Bing came to my rescue.

To force a restart of Lumia 920, press the volume down button and the lock button at the same time. I did that and after the restart all was fine.

On further enquiry, I learnt that some other users of 920, 820 and 620 had reported issues when using WhatsApp.

I went to the Magnet store in the evening. They got the apps updated for me. There is also a Windows Update/ Firmware update that is available. However, their WiFi was too slow and I had to go out so I did not wait for the update to complete. It looks like a big update (over 100MB) which resolves stability issues and improves camera. 

Andar ke andar kya hai?

The insides

Day 0.5:
OS Version: 8.0.10211.204 - this will change as MS pushes patches 
Firmware Version: 1232.5951.1249.1001 - this will come in from Nokia
Hardware Version: 1.0.0.0 - don't see this changing soon
Radio Version: 1.0.202075.3 - this means we can expect FM radio in a future upgrade
Chip SOC version: 8960 - what is this?

Where: Settings > About > More Information

Hello world

I am not going to spend time putting the technical specs. But this is more like a diary of my experiences with Nokia Lumia 920.

I have switched to the phone from LG Viewty which I had got used to since Oct 2009.

Day 0:

I got my Nokia Lumia 920 from Magnet, Irla branch, on 11th April 2013. An unexpected Gudi Padwa offer package worth INR 35899 comprised of the following:

• Nokia Lumia 920 - Yellow
• JBL Micro II portable USB speaker
• SSK Bluetooth Headset - H35
• SSK Power Bank portable charger
• 7 days warranty on any issues with the device
• 1 year national warranty on damage to the software/ firmware

All of this is in a proper bill receipt. The MRP stickers on these boxes is way higher than what it should be and I will not get there.

The sales person even cut the SIM for me using a proper SIM cutter and helped me setup the phone for first use. The part of the SIM that did not get inserted in the phone was handed back to me with the advise that it should be stored in case I need to use it in a phone that does not support MicroSIM. The phone took some time (upto 10 mins) for loading from the SIM. It seemed to have stalled, but it was probably setting itself up. Another piece of advice handed out by the sales person was that I have to charge the phone for up to 8 hours before first use. The phone was at 23% battery when I left the shop.

The box contained:

1. phone
2. SIM door-key
3. Yellow Ear phones with mike
4. White USB charging cable
5. White round Charger 3-pin plug with USB connector
6. Manual

When I came home, we could not resist clicking some photos. Then we unpacked the rest of the contents and plugged it in to charge. It took approximately 2 hours 30 mins for the battery to show 100%.

The traffic sounds in Mumbai did not cause any issues while carrying the speech from and to the phone. The clarity was outstanding. The volumes for the ringer, the speakers, the music and the headset are all controlled using the first vertical button the sides. There are no buttons/ controls on the left side of the phone. The phone felt heavier than expectations.

The excitement kept me awake for longer than usual. I slept listening to a song from Ashiqui 2 that I got from the Nokia Music App.

Eventful.