Cautionary Tale for those Waiting for ICS

I want to caution those of you drooling over the Bionic's upcoming ICS upgrade. I own both a Razr Maxx and Bionic. Love both phones, even with my Maxx upgraded to ICS. But I want to warn you all that you run the risk of losing some key functionality of your Bionic. If I had known that Flash video was going to be borked on ICS for my Maxx I would not have taken the update. Go over and read up on the Razr forum and see for yourself. Some Razr owners have been sucessful some not. I have not been successful. To me this is a significant limitation to the ICS upgrade. Furthermore, those who do have it working on ICS report the loss of playback functionality while streaming flash vids. All you can do is tap the screen to stop and start it. Fullscreen appears to not work. Not sure about this since I cannot get it to work, in spite of factory resetting and applying all the known fixes.

If Flash video is a must for you then delay the Bionic ICS update until it is fully confirmed that Flash works, works consistently and without major glitches. This is a consequence of Adobe discontinuing Flash support and Google not maintaining support for older versions in their Android updates. Even the Nexus 7 with Jellybean requires rooting and a work around to get it to work. This was a major selling point of Android devices that sadly is no longer the case. Our devices are becoming more Iphony *sigh*.

Another big aspect is FoxFi, and for those rooted, Verizon WiFi hotspot hack, Google's WiFi Tether, etc. Ever since my upgrade to ICS on my Maxx it has been very flaky and I cannot maintain a connection to my phone when using any of these methods. The devices connecting to my phone always drop. The only tethering app that is rock solid for me is PdaNet via USB connection.

Please don't mistake me for complaining. Most of the benefits in my ICS upgrade outweigh the cons. Webtop 3.0 is awesome. I love it. It is much better than Webtop 2.0. The ICS look and feel is a lot nicer, along with the ability to do folders on your homescreen, very nice.

Just exercise caution and don't rush to update until some other chump can confirm any of these bugs I mentioned above. I will not update my Bionic because I have the luxury of using two phones and can switch back and forth. Most of you do not and if Flash and WiFi tethering is your thing then wait it out. Oh, if you are going to update your Bionic to ICS, you may want to do a factory reset of your Bionic just before ICS rolls out and start with a clean slate. It may cause less problems after the upgrade. I have no evidence other then my anecdotal a$$vice.

Hope this was useful to some of you.

 

Let's hope so. We'll see in any subsequent patches. Again, everyone's mileage may vary. Just don't jump on the ICS fanboy wagon.

Sent from my rooted Droid Razr Maxx on Tapatalk 2.

 

Good news so far. Just want folks to be cautious in their enthusiasm. Razr owners may have been the guinea pigs. Remember Flash is still widely used and very important to some.

Sent from my rooted Droid Razr Maxx on Tapatalk 2.