ICS reduced functionality overall...Auto-correct, music, favorites, alarm clock, etc

Okay I have to first say that I am an ordinary user and have had lots of personal electronics of all kinds for years(as well as managing a large retail electronics chain for almost 20 years). So needless to say I have a lot of general experience with hardware and software...
I bought a Razr Maxx earlier this year and quickly learned to love a lot of the features and ease of use running under Gingerbread. I was moderately intrigued when news of the ICS update started rolling out and was thinking how great it would be to have even more functionality and features. Little did I know how wrong I would be. I really wish a large warning had popped up before installing the new update warning me that I can NOT return to the GB OS, because had I known that, I may have waited on the update.
Since I cannot revert back to what I feel was a better performing OS, here is my list of items that really need to be addressed to restore some of the greater functionality of the phone.

NOTE TO ALL PROGRAMMERS: IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!
I say that because there were many changes that occured from gingerbread to ics that were completely unnecessary and actually reduced the functionality of the phone.

Here is a breakdown of some of the changes. Please add to this list if you know of something that worked better BEFORE ICS:

The unlock screen:
This actually added a little more functionality to the phone in that it reduced a keystroke for people wanting to text or call someone. No big deal here but no great benefit either.

Auto-correct/word suggest list:
Unfortunately this was ruined by ICS and it's almost completely unusable now. Under GB OS, I was able to type a couple of letters and around 10-12 words would come up in a row above the keyboard. I was able to quickly type out almost entire sentences with just a few keystrokes. Now under ICS, the developers seemed to feel that spacing was more important and reduced the auto-word list to 3 words (and a lot of wasted space). Of course I can press on the center word with the "..." and pull up a more "complete" list of words to choose from, but this is very inefficient and annoying and I have resorted to typing out most words. This needs to be returned back to what it was capable of during Gingerbread. I have talked to many actual users and everyone I have spoken to has complained about this issue.

Smart actions not working/unreliable:
This capability is great when it works, but after ICS, it seems to have a mind of it's own on when it is or isn't going to work. I have several custom actions (for example disabling all sounds when I am at church on Sunday morning or during the night between 12am and 5am) that had worked flawlessly under GB. Now for some reason, the "triggers" seem to have no effect at times and the programmed actions fail to engage. The only recourse that I have found so far for this issue is to reboot the phone. This resolves the issue until the next time when it decides "at will" when to not work again. This really sucks when actions like your battery extender fail to engage....

Favorites list changes:
Again, I'm not sure why they felt the need to change this because it worked PERFECT under GB. First off, the green text icon is the wrong icon for the new function which is email (the email icon on the phone is a white envelope with an @ symbol on it everywhere else) Under GB, that icon would take me immediately to a new chat bubble for a text message. When I was using the new feature for the first time (again thinking it was text based on the icon), it came up with a list of options, one was for text messaging and the other for emailing. There was also a check box to set either action as default. So I clicked on the text msg option, hit default and closed the screen. BIG mistake! That screen is apparently a ONE TIME only accessible setting option as I have taken the phone into verizon to change it and even they have been unable to fix it. Now when I hit that button (the green text button) under my favorites, it opens a new window for text, but limits my emails to 140 characters like it would for a text message. Of course I can get around this by going directly to my email or text message buttons, or I can hit the tiny white text chat button next to the mobile number that comes up in the list. The other function that appears to have been lost is the default phone number. I know that it really hasn't changed the number of keystrokes for calling someone, I just liked the cleaner look and ease of having a single button to push (to a defaulted number) without the clutter of sometimes 3 or 4 other phone numbers.

Voice activation/auto type:
This worked flawlessly for me under GB so I don't know why they make you hit a button when you stop talking. It worked just fine before ICS and would stop automatically, so why do I have to push a button to tell it to stop now?

Alarm clock/timers:
I couldn't believe it when they messed with this. Before ICS, when my alarm went off in the morning, all I had to do was touch ANYWHERE on the screen for the snooze function. If I wanted to dismiss the alarm altogether, I had to slide a red button at the bottom of the screen or push the power button on the side of the phone. Now under ICS, I have a small square box in the middle of the screen broken into 2/3 and 1/3. The 2/3 top part of the box is the snooze button and the bottom 1/3 is the dismiss. This absolutely SUCKS when you are fumbling around still half asleep and accidentally touch the dismiss instead of the snooze. I'm still scratching my head on why they felt the need to change this (and make it worse in the process).
One additional change that should be made is the ability to set your own length of snooze time. My previous samsung phone had this and it should be a feature of android as well.

Inconsistant menus/slow refresh:
I would have to assume these are oversights but they are worth mentioning. The first annoyance is my text message list. When I hit the text message icon and it takes me into my recent text exchanges, many times all I see is the phone number. Once I scroll down the screen and come back to the top, then it finally updates (refreshes?) and replaces the cell number with the contacts name. I don't know why it lags so badly on this screen but it didn't have that problem before ICS.
Why can't I access my contacts from inside the phone icon now? I have dialer/recent/favorites but no contacts tab like I did before ICS. I can get there in a roundabout way but really?...
The manage apps function from the home screen has 3 tabs (internal storage, running, and all), but the only way you can switch between them is to actually touch the tab. In every other menu where tabs are involved you can slide between them. I'm guessing this was an oversight and is a minor issue but still an annoyance.

Last but not least, Music:
I've read and spoken to a lot of people that their music folders, specifically the albums and album art, were totally screwed after the update. I found this to be true as well. I have around 1200 songs in over 100 albums stored on my sd card. After ICS updated, it completely ignored all album information and lumped all my songs into to 2 unknown albums (one with ~1100 songs and the other with ~100). This was really annoying. I am planning on pulling it all off and redoing it, but I simply haven't had the time to mess with it. I shouldn't have to even deal with this and screwing something up as simple as mp3 music albums shows a clear lack of quality control.

Well, that is my basic list. I apologize if this is in the wrong place since this is my first time posting. I have read of various other issues that people have had (battery life, video quality, etc) but I can't really say anything on these issues as of yet. I will say that my battery life has seemed to improve since ICS.
I know that there are various apps available out there to overcome some of these issues, I just feel that if the OS and software included with it from the providers worked like it is supposed to the first time, people wouldn't need to root phones and install 3rd party apps. That of course, would make for much happier customers and ease of use.

If you know of other changes that in your opinion reduced functionality of your phone, please add to the list. Hopefully some of the developers will take notice of this posting and convey the message on to others and fix some of these annoying issues.

 

Okay I have to first say that I am an ordinary user and have had lots of personal electronics of all kinds for years(as well as managing a large retail electronics chain for almost 20 years). So needless to say I have a lot of general experience with hardware and software...
I bought a Razr Maxx earlier this year and quickly learned to love a lot of the features and ease of use running under Gingerbread. I was moderately intrigued when news of the ICS update started rolling out and was thinking how great it would be to have even more functionality and features. Little did I know how wrong I would be. I really wish a large warning had popped up before installing the new update warning me that I can NOT return to the GB OS, because had I known that, I may have waited on the update.
Since I cannot revert back to what I feel was a better performing OS, here is my list of items that really need to be addressed to restore some of the greater functionality of the phone.

NOTE TO ALL PROGRAMMERS: IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!
I say that because there were many changes that occured from gingerbread to ics that were completely unnecessary and actually reduced the functionality of the phone.

Here is a breakdown of some of the changes. Please add to this list if you know of something that worked better BEFORE ICS:

The unlock screen:
This actually added a little more functionality to the phone in that it reduced a keystroke for people wanting to text or call someone. No big deal here but no great benefit either.

Auto-correct/word suggest list:
Unfortunately this was ruined by ICS and it's almost completely unusable now. Under GB OS, I was able to type a couple of letters and around 10-12 words would come up in a row above the keyboard. I was able to quickly type out almost entire sentences with just a few keystrokes. Now under ICS, the developers seemed to feel that spacing was more important and reduced the auto-word list to 3 words (and a lot of wasted space). Of course I can press on the center word with the "..." and pull up a more "complete" list of words to choose from, but this is very inefficient and annoying and I have resorted to typing out most words. This needs to be returned back to what it was capable of during Gingerbread. I have talked to many actual users and everyone I have spoken to has complained about this issue.

Smart actions not working/unreliable:
This capability is great when it works, but after ICS, it seems to have a mind of it's own on when it is or isn't going to work. I have several custom actions (for example disabling all sounds when I am at church on Sunday morning or during the night between 12am and 5am) that had worked flawlessly under GB. Now for some reason, the "triggers" seem to have no effect at times and the programmed actions fail to engage. The only recourse that I have found so far for this issue is to reboot the phone. This resolves the issue until the next time when it decides "at will" when to not work again. This really sucks when actions like your battery extender fail to engage....

Favorites list changes:
Again, I'm not sure why they felt the need to change this because it worked PERFECT under GB. First off, the green text icon is the wrong icon for the new function which is email (the email icon on the phone is a white envelope with an @ symbol on it everywhere else) Under GB, that icon would take me immediately to a new chat bubble for a text message. When I was using the new feature for the first time (again thinking it was text based on the icon), it came up with a list of options, one was for text messaging and the other for emailing. There was also a check box to set either action as default. So I clicked on the text msg option, hit default and closed the screen. BIG mistake! That screen is apparently a ONE TIME only accessible setting option as I have taken the phone into verizon to change it and even they have been unable to fix it. Now when I hit that button (the green text button) under my favorites, it opens a new window for text, but limits my emails to 140 characters like it would for a text message. Of course I can get around this by going directly to my email or text message buttons, or I can hit the tiny white text chat button next to the mobile number that comes up in the list. The other function that appears to have been lost is the default phone number. I know that it really hasn't changed the number of keystrokes for calling someone, I just liked the cleaner look and ease of having a single button to push (to a defaulted number) without the clutter of sometimes 3 or 4 other phone numbers.

Voice activation/auto type:
This worked flawlessly for me under GB so I don't know why they make you hit a button when you stop talking. It worked just fine before ICS and would stop automatically, so why do I have to push a button to tell it to stop now?

Alarm clock/timers:
I couldn't believe it when they messed with this. Before ICS, when my alarm went off in the morning, all I had to do was touch ANYWHERE on the screen for the snooze function. If I wanted to dismiss the alarm altogether, I had to slide a red button at the bottom of the screen or push the power button on the side of the phone. Now under ICS, I have a small square box in the middle of the screen broken into 2/3 and 1/3. The 2/3 top part of the box is the snooze button and the bottom 1/3 is the dismiss. This absolutely SUCKS when you are fumbling around still half asleep and accidentally touch the dismiss instead of the snooze. I'm still scratching my head on why they felt the need to change this (and make it worse in the process).
One additional change that should be made is the ability to set your own length of snooze time. My previous samsung phone had this and it should be a feature of android as well.

Inconsistant menus/slow refresh:
I would have to assume these are oversights but they are worth mentioning. The first annoyance is my text message list. When I hit the text message icon and it takes me into my recent text exchanges, many times all I see is the phone number. Once I scroll down the screen and come back to the top, then it finally updates (refreshes?) and replaces the cell number with the contacts name. I don't know why it lags so badly on this screen but it didn't have that problem before ICS.
Why can't I access my contacts from inside the phone icon now? I have dialer/recent/favorites but no contacts tab like I did before ICS. I can get there in a roundabout way but really?...
The manage apps function from the home screen has 3 tabs (internal storage, running, and all), but the only way you can switch between them is to actually touch the tab. In every other menu where tabs are involved you can slide between them. I'm guessing this was an oversight and is a minor issue but still an annoyance.

Last but not least, Music:
I've read and spoken to a lot of people that their music folders, specifically the albums and album art, were totally screwed after the update. I found this to be true as well. I have around 1200 songs in over 100 albums stored on my sd card. After ICS updated, it completely ignored all album information and lumped all my songs into to 2 unknown albums (one with ~1100 songs and the other with ~100). This was really annoying. I am planning on pulling it all off and redoing it, but I simply haven't had the time to mess with it. I shouldn't have to even deal with this and screwing something up as simple as mp3 music albums shows a clear lack of quality control.

Well, that is my basic list. I apologize if this is in the wrong place since this is my first time posting. I have read of various other issues that people have had (battery life, video quality, etc) but I can't really say anything on these issues as of yet. I will say that my battery life has seemed to improve since ICS.
I know that there are various apps available out there to overcome some of these issues, I just feel that if the OS and software included with it from the providers worked like it is supposed to the first time, people wouldn't need to root phones and install 3rd party apps. That of course, would make for much happier customers and ease of use.

If you know of other changes that in your opinion reduced functionality of your phone, please add to the list. Hopefully some of the developers will take notice of this posting and convey the message on to others and fix some of these annoying issues.

PS Sorry for the double post. When I went to create the thread it said I wasn't logged in so I logged in. After I was logged back in I hit create thread, not knowing it had posted the first time...

 

Welcome to DF Gr8fulHman! ICS defintitely takes some getting used to and there are things that they have changed that do not make any sense. They are working on an update so hopefully that will restore some of the functions that offered more efficient "ease of use." There are also work-a-rounds for many of the things you mentioned. Maybe that is why Motorola and ICS was designed as it was... to develop a more efficient operating device that allows the individual user to apply the ease of use functions they are interested in.... just speculating.

In addition, if you have not yet done a Factory Data Reset (FDR), it is highly recommended and will make your ICS Razr run smooth as butter. Here is a helpful guide to backing up your information and doing the FDR so that it is less painful. The time it takes to the FDR and set your phone back up is well worth the added improvement.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/rescue-squad-help/219101-getting-most-success-upgrading-ics-gb.html

Hope this will help some!

 

I too preferred my phone on GB. Other things to add to your list:

The sound controls are now separated with no quick access.

No flash support.

The GPS is no longer reliable (sometimes it locks on quickly and is accurate but most of the time out isn't).

Google maps voice is now just peculiar in general, voice changes on its own and seems to be just writer in general.

The screen cursor when typing will work its way off the screen.

Battery life isn't what it used to be even after three FDRs.

You can no longer copy/paste on Facebook.

Edit:
Also just noticed that you can't change call volume in call with the screen off......

 

Yes I just noticed the volume issue the other day. Actually, a master volume widget would be a major improvement, since sound settings don't work they way they used to with GB.

They really need to fix the auto-correct/word list spacing issue. Texting or emailing sucks now....

 

I feel your pain. Ics worked great for me at first. Now I'm rebooting my phone every other day to keep my system half way smooth. I've even noticed a redraw lag on the home screen here and there..... I haven't seen any redraw since my thunderbolt days.... I want to try the 215 leak but im a little Leary to do it now after the slow decent of ics greatness. I guess the ice cream is melting in the summer heat. I kinda want my gingerbread back......

 

I had all sorts of little annoyances with .211, the biggest being an overall sense of lag, even after two FDRs and countless cache wipes. I was pretty discouraged. I DLed .215 last night and its the best its been since GB(which was better IMO).

Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX using Droid Forums

 

I agree with all of the above...including that .215 does help with some things. I also hate the "new" word prediction under ICS. It was MUCH better under GB. I also HATE that I cannot clear the FAVORITES list in the phone dialer app. WHY????? :blink: I certainly hope that the powers-that-be get some of these things fixed properly real soon. :angry:

 

Ha some of the words it "predicts" are words that will never be used! Sometimes I scratch my head and wonder if it is even a real word.

 

The only thing that made mine somewhat useable again was flashing the eclipse ROM. Before that, I hated even using the phone at all. GB was much better.

Sent from my rooted and rom'd DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

Yeah, I would like to root my phone and have done this sort of the thing in the past. But quite frankly, I don't have the time to spend doing stuff like that anymore. It's too bad that they felt the need to jack with everything in GB and "fix" things that didn't need fixing. I continue to have real issues with smart actions working when it wants to. When it doesn't, I have to reboot the phone as mentioned by Smmfc above to make it run properly.
So for me to root my phone and update it with .215, I would have to know specifically what it addresses. I have had no battery runtime issues and I'm afraid they are going to again "fix" something that is working fine already on my phone...

 

Clearing the favorites is as simple as touching the little star in the upper right corner of the contact.





----posted MAXXED OUT WITH dessert----

 

The losers at Motorola failed with ICS. Yes they made a few things better, but how in God's name can you have a device in 2012 that will NOT allow you to forward emails to groups? Yes you can generate a new email to groups (which is unbelievably annoying compared to GB), but you CAN NOT forward to groups. What an epic failure. I have talked to the highest level of tech support at Motorola and finally they admitted that they FAILED! What a bunch of morons. I could do this on my Blackberry in 2003. FAILURE...I hope some people got fired for this epic failure.