Lenovo Yoga 720 power buttons

Lenovo Yoga is my favorite laptop. Today I performed a power button removal for 720 13". The power button had resigned months ago and I have started up the machine with Novo button from the other side of the computer. Now Novo button also broke. I could not start up the computer by original means. So I put my electronics pants on and opened the gadget. As usual opening of the computer was the hardest part. I had good guide from here.

https://www.insidemylaptop.com/taking-apart-lenovo-yoga-720-13ikb/

I had found a loose part. The power button was only attached to the motherboard with a one leg. Novo button was shattered to three pieces. I decided to get rid of both of the buttons as the power button was without one of it's legs. After the assembly I powered up with a screwdriver. The old jumper start up worked but only from the keyboard side of the motherboard. I had to leave two screws unscrewed and bend the motherboard and stuck the screwdriver on the leads of the unattached power button. Now I had the powers back on and decided head to BIOS to enable Thunderbolt start up. I hope this will enable to start up the machine with the thunderbolt power cord plugged in. I also made sure that the computer will only sleep with the lid closed and doesn't shut down when unused from Settings>System>Power & Sleep.

Computer, tablet and phone buttons should be pushed gently as they are attached only with the solder to the PCB. Here are few pics that I took with an optical microscope from the power buttons.

And of course the working computer...

Xiaomi Mi5 Prime white

I like the build quality. Software seems very snappy. Phone do not have Play store installed when shipped by the manufacturer. The retail store installed Play store for me. Unfortunately Play store did not download software as I got the device. Probably cache and data clean for Google Service framework, Google Play Services and Play store and rebooting would have helped but ended up to install software again. Now Play store works great. So if you want Play store installed and working from the box. I suggest to wait for the international software version. That should be out very soon.

Very pleased with the phone. I did run Antutu three times with best score of 137897. It run little lower scores in palm and in a gel case. Device did feel warm but no means hot when stressed. Geekbench3 did give respectable 2322 for single core and 5433 for multi-core performance. I did also Stagefright detection with result not vulnerable.

Link to cache and data clean howto:

[http://techbeasts.com/2015/06/13/how-to-fix-error-retrieving-information-from-server-rpc-s-7-aec-0/].

Faster lte fdd bands 1, 3 and 7 are supported but slower lte band 20 is not supported.

Link to Europe LTE-FDD Bands:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks_in_Europe]

Xiaomi Mi5 announcement 24th February

Xiaomi mobile market comet has announced new flagship phone for 2016. The company is founded in 2010 and first phone was released in 2011. Last year company sold over 70 million phones which is phenomenal for start up company. It is first time when Xiaomi announces new phone in Mobile World Conference (MWC16). The Xiaomi Mi5 phone was presented by Vice President of  Global Hugo Barra former Google executive. The Mi5 is 5.15" flagship phone with top notch specifications.

	32 Gb	64Gb	Pro 128Gb
SOC	Snapdragon 820 Lite 4x Kryo @ 1364 / 1592 Mhz	Snapdragon 820 4x Kryo @ 1593 / 2164 Mhz
RAM	3Gb LPDDR4 1333MHz	3Gb LPDDR4 1866MHz	4Gb LPDDR4 1866MHz
Flash	32Gb UFS NAND	64Gb UFS NAND	128Gb UFS NAND
Display	5.15" Corning Glass 4 1080p IPS LCD
Modem	2G/3G/4G LTE Cat 12
Dimensions	144.55x69.23x7.25 mm
Weight	129g		139g
Camera rear	16MP Sony IMX298 F/2.0, 28mm eq, 4-axis OIS
Camera front	4MP F/2.0
Battery	3000mAh
OS	Android 6.0 with MIUI 7
Connectivity	BT 4.2, USB-C, GPS/GNSS, NFC, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac dual-band 2.4 & 5 GHz
SIM size	NanoSIM
Back cover	Gorning Glass 4		Ceramic
Color	Black/White/Gold		Black

Mi5 is available with three colors black, white and gold for 32 and 64 Gb models. The pro version is only available in black.

The design takes much from Xiaomi Note but takes it even further. Glass or ceramic back is seamlessly integrated to metal body.

On the camera side, Xiaomi consist of a 6-lens system with an aperture of f/2.0 and an 35mm equivalent focal length of 28mm. The Mi5 sports Sony IMX298 16MP sensor which has phase detection auto focus and deep trench isolation for better color reproduction.

Mi5 is first phone to introduce 4-axis optical image stabilization. Along with rotational compensation the Mi5 sports transversal stabilization.

There is clear difference between traditional 2-axis stabilization used in iPhone and 4-axis stabilization used in Mi5.

Deep trench isolation is used to isolate sensor pixel from each other. This converts to better color reproduction and lower noise.

Sample picture confirms good color reproduction.

Front camera takes also beautiful pictures.

 Mi5 display is bright with 600 nits. Display has 16 bright LED lights. Xiaomi even claims power consumption is reduced by 17%.

Display has Sunlight technology. This means that display brightens the dark areas of the picture in direct sunlight. This converts to clear and easy to see pictures in bright conditions.

Mi5 is insanely fast! Mi5 sports Snapdragon 820 system on chip. Qualcomm new flagship product for flagship phones. 

Mi5 Antutu score 142084 which makes this phone the wold fastest phone.

Speed doesn't stop here. Blazing fast Qualcomm X12 modem will support up to 600Mbps download speeds. You can actually download full hd movie within 30 seconds.

Google's announcements, 29th September

Google's CEO Sundar Pichai opened the Google's first event as a member of Alphabet inc. Google inc. is changing its operating structure and renaming it self as Alphabet inc. Google is a company bellow Alphabet inc. umbrella. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3192884/Google-Inc-Alphabet-Inc-shakeup.html]

The 6P is Google's new flagship phablet for 2015. The phone sports large 5.7" display with WQHD resolution. The Nexus's housing is a premium unibody aluminum and it's powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor. Despite of large display and metal unibody the phone scales only 177 grams. The phone is made by Huawei and it starts from 499$.

The 5X is phone maker LG's third iteration for Nexus series. All the predecessors have been very popular phones. The 5X has 5.2" FHD display and is powered by an hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor. Device has plastic back panel and starts from 379$.

Both phones have 12.3MP pixel camera on the back. Which supposedly have good low light performance due to large pixel size of 1.55 µm.

Sample pictures confirm the fact that the sensor gathers more light than competitors models.

New technology for the new Android phones include Android Sensor Hub. All the processing are done in dedicated sensor processor that will use much less power. Phone also detects when it is picked up and displays notification messages with low power mode. Thus there is no need for notification light any more.

Google on tap is essentially google search from subjects that you are currently working on. For instance, if your friend suggests you dinner in a restaurant Dino's at 7 pm. Google tap shows you the restaurant's menu and you can make even reservation from the restaurant's web service. You can launch On Tap from holding the home button or just saying "Ok Google".

Sophisticated voice command can be used to locate nearest grocery shop or just listening online radio. For instance, if you launch radio app the app will ask which program you would like to listen.

Phone will doze while long period unused. This means that phone will use much less power when left on the table at night. This also means that phone will sync more frequently when used heavily. User experience will be better and the battery will last longer.

The phones will be in pre-order in seven countries with prices starting 379$ for the 5X and 499$ for the 6P.

Chromecast family get two new members as traditional Chromecasts gets a little brother Chromecast audio. As name suggests the Chromecast audio streams music to the home's speakers with AUX, RCA or optical output. The traditional Chromecast will include three antennas for better transmission and better video quality even when the wifi signal is weak. Chromecast has also fast play functionality that preloads the periods with seamlessly without any lag due to buffering.

Pixel C is new comer in Google's Pixel series. The tablet has 10.2" display and powerful Nvidia Tegra X1 processor. Most interesting part though is the keyboard which attach to the tablet with magnets. The magnets are strong enough that you can hang the tablet with the keyboard upside down. Pixel C starts from 499$ and the marvelous keyboard with 149$.

Cyanogenmod 12.1 for TF300T

Android 5.1 looks great on the device. I feel like I have got a new machine. On the lock screen you have now notifications and you can access the camera with a single swipe. The home screen looks pale and simplified at least now when don't have any software installed.

The launcher window is clean with more space between the app icons. Now I can actually find the apps I am looking for.

I installed Cynogenmod 12.1 for the TF300T with steps found from wiki.cyanogenmod.org:

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_tf300t

Last weekend I tried to install Cyanogenmod to my few years old tf300t. I went through howto from http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_tf300t. Everything went smoothly before the actual installation of cm. The recovery installation with Clockworkmod succeeded. Problem was that CWM could not mount any partitions. Then I tried to reset the machine. This totally erased my hole system. I had only bootloader left.

I got back to stock with this page. Only command I gived before the second post was fastboot oem unlock. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2179759&page=2.

This is what I should have done. I should have installed TWRP recovery as CWM doesn't support ASUS 4.2 bootloader. I should have choosen recovery with 4.2 in the name from http://techerrata.com/browse/twrp2/tf300t. Then I should have continued with wiki howto to install Cyanegonmod from http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_tf300t.

Clockworkmod do not support ASUS tf300t 4.2 bootloader.

TWRP has ASUS tf300t 4.2 compatibility.

Windows 8 have been unsuccessful in many ways. It has Metro UI that is designed for tablets. Desktop users have been forgotten totally. In many ways the Windows 8 metro is step backwards. It can display only one program at the time. Heck what Windows stands for? It is even printed on their logo. Multiple windows screens is the essence of windows operating system. I think they have been copying other tablet UIs with their pros and cons. Made it simpler in graphics which have been successful by the way. Simple tiles with one color is the best that Metro UI provides.

Desktop looks almost as in Windows 7. The graphics have been simplified as mentioned. The 2D feels quicker and it is easy for eyes. Many have been unhappy with the lack of start button. I see the chance only as lack of physical button. Start window is as good in many ways that Start button before. It has customize options and have all the functionality as before. I think the best way to please desktop users would be provide desktop versions of the programs used in Metro and leave Start window as it is. Then desktop users would have multiple windows as before and functionality of Start button which would be Start window. Is there button or not is totally irrelevant.