The Nexus 4 has incited a great deal of buzz amongst reviewers and users following a new Skype update this week, upcoming AirPlay-like features and the recent discovery that the Nexus 4 does, in fact, supports LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks which had been a frequent gripe amongst several reviewers. It seems Nexus fans will have a lot to talk about following the new updates, revelations and upcoming features for media and apps in Google’s pipeline.
The Nexus 4 provides very fast mobile broadband connectivity in certain coverage areas so the lack of LTE support was never really a major problem and it has been noted, by iFixit’s ‘Nexus 4 Teardown’ blog entry, that the Nexus 4 does in fact have a seven band Qualcomm LTE chip. While this still doesn’t guarantee LTE connectivity, some Canadian users have reportedly been able to access LTE networks, though US users are unable to do so.
Anandtech, a popular tech reviewing for hardware of electronic devices, identified the Nexus 4’s capability of connecting with LTE networks when adjustments to a certain setting were made, while in the 1700-2100MHz (AWS or Band 4) range. Unfortunately, US consumers may still have to wait before they can access LTE networks, since the US has no carriers that use AWS or Band 4, though consumers in Canada will be able to access LTE networks. LG has explained the presence of an LTE chip by stating that the latest S4 series of processor from Qualcomm have an integrated LTE chip. Therefore, though the capability is present, hardware like a signal amplifier have been omitted, which makes LTE use possible only in very strong signal areas.
Aside from this, a new update for the popular video-calling application Skype has also been released. Skype 3.0 has been integrated with SILK codec for improves voice quality. The tablet version for the application makes better utility of large screens, despite being limited to landscape use only. Google is also working on further developing their latest feature that allows for seamless real-time mirroring of videos from Android devices to devices like the Google TV, similar to AirPlay functionality. The feature has already been partially implemented and will be capable of the same functionality in the opposite direction as well; i.e. directly streaming video from live TV to Android devices and creating a second-screen experience for the user.
