PROS and CONS of ICS update Bionic

K10sity

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FINALLY! The ICS update bionic users have been waiting since the phone debuted last year is here. As time progresses, there are many trade offs that I have acknowledge with the new update. I'll state my PROs and CONs, and hopefully many of you will also post your own experiences.

PROS
  • sleek new skin interface - easier to drag and drop apps to home screen, lock screen is awesome! better animations on app scroll menu,
  • more accessible to useful apps such as the chrome browser(able to pull my bookmarks on chrome)
  • Have not had a 4G cell drop AT ALL. (YET and crossing my fingers). Phone is running significantly more smoothly on data.
  • smart actions - i actually think this is quite useful, but have not used it yet.
  • face unlock seems cool.
  • developer tools would seem cool if i were a developer.

CONS

  • Noticing battery dying significantly faster. Phone does not last the whole day anymore.
  • Can't use tethering with easy tether.
  • Adobe FLASH incompatibilities with chrome browser. stock browser has flash but its not reliable as it once was before the ICS update.
  • USB connectivity modes have gone down. mount as Disk drive and charge only are gone.
These are just some of my thoughts, hopefully others can find more pros and cons and add them to the list!

The most significant for me is the 4g consistency, which in fact is one of the most essential things in having a phone. Finally glad it was fixed, but as what cost? One year of hell trying to operate the phone knowing that inevitably it was going to crash. (I live in the SF Bay area, with full 4G coverage). I really should have known better, with all the complications the phone had - delaying its deployment date. Nevertheless, this seems to be the phone the original droid bionic users like me, seemed to be waiting for.
 

bbucks36

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thanks for you input. but without sounding like a total doucher.. this has been brought up during the leaks thats been out since june. just like most update from microsoft to IOS you will always loose some things and gain others. all i care about is my bionic does not drop 4g once since being on ics since june. ics has made my bionic smoother and more enjoyable to use. so to deal with a slight change does not make me want to complain nor write another pros and cons post that has been written in june. so with minor ui changes i would never go back to gingerbread.


flash i have no probs with. go with foxfi or tetherwifi or do the entitlement check hack for hotspot. usb conectivity mode is moto's way of saying charging thru usb is really not perfered. usb charge = slower charge. battery drain equals roaming is more extreme to compensate data drop. plus 4g is a drainer anyways. go with power toggle to turn off data quickly or use smart action to turn it off when sleep mode is on. i have extended battery. with smart action and power toggle to turn of data when not in use. has put my battery to at least well over a day to 2 days without a charge, moderate use. with all said ics is the way to go. anyone wanting to stay on gingerbread is missing out on what there phone should have been on release.
 

hAHAha Halo

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1. If you'd like a battery booster, try these steps:
Run down your phone until it's dead
Charge your phone in charging mode to 100%
Run it down to 15% then recharge it in charge mode again to 100%

2. Flash Player
I don't really know where the link is, if someone can post it here that'd be great. There's a download link that allows ICS users to use Flash Player, it's a little different somehow though, it's not as user friendly I guess.
 

wheeler062505

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hAHAha Halo said:
1. If you'd like a battery booster, try these steps:
Run down your phone until it's dead
Charge your phone in charging mode to 100%
Run it down to 15% then recharge it in charge mode again to 100%

2. Flash Player
I don't really know where the link is, if someone can post it here that'd be great. There's a download link that allows ICS users to use Flash Player, it's a little different somehow though, it's not as user friendly I guess.

I found my flash player on the market.
 

kornholio788

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For a while my phone didn't drop 4g at all when on ICS. Now I drop it like 3-5 times a day. So infuriating. Any tips?
 

PhoebeAnn

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Camera app (Camera360, maybe others) uses 17% of the CPU, whether you're using the camera or not. Only cure seemed to be to uninstall it; no big loss. Native app appears not to have this problem. Camera still doesn't focus properly.

Bedside dock mode unusable -- can't read the time, can't adjust contrast. Switched to Dock Clock.

Got an incoming phone call just after upgrade, and couldn't figure out how to answer it before the caller gave up. Cutesy screen was not intuitive for me, but I figured it out by the 4th call.

Is there an ICS User Guide somewhere? (I'll look.) (I looked; it's at https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/product_page/faqs/p_country_code/US/p/30,6720,8048).
 

bluezdawg

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Has anyone else lost the use of Google earth and navigational apps? My GPS is also near useless also. Prior to ICS all of my maps and GPS worked fine!!
Jim

Have not used Google Earth, but Navigation app is working fine.

Sent via Tapatalk Bionic ICS Mind-Meld Option
 

Tonik

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jlrsn said:
Has anyone else lost the use of Google earth and navigational apps? My GPS is also near useless also. Prior to ICS all of my maps and GPS worked fine!!
Jim

Not on ics but have in the past. On maps uninstall all the updates and clear the data/cache.
 

PhoebeAnn

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Maps works fine, navigation as well. Don't use Google Earth on the phone.
 

LBrooks

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I am about half afraid to post this ... Okay - more than half ... I like ICS fine - I could just never get it to work or make any setting *set* ... For some reason I feel like I should hit the submit button then run away screaming like a little girl :icon_eek: ...

I had a lot of problems with my phone after the ICS update - I understand that A LOT of people haven't had so dont' think I'm calling ICS a piece of junk or anything because I want to make it very clear than I AM NOT!!! LOL - I'm just saying that *I* had a lot of problems with *MY* phone after ICS pushed out - *that's all*. I also understand ICS has fixed the data issue for a bunch of people and for those people - I am happy for them! Now, I did all teh standard things you're supposed to do - I cleared cache on all the programs - I wiped the cache partition - I did an FDR SEVERAL times (more than I care to remember or count) and it just never wanted to *stick* bless it's heart ...

The couple of things that really worked and worked well ~ the new camera (I found that it worked best under the new "Low Light" option - no shutter lag at all, but depending on how "low light" your photo was depended on how long the processing time was for the photo - so a full daylight photo taken in "low light" mode barely took any time to process and the color was so much better blah blah - and focus, even up close was very good - once in a while you had to direct focus (put your finger on the screen) but more of than not you didn't) ... The other thing that worked really well was I had a better "extended 4G signal" - and oddly, when using 3G only ~ of course, I had better battery life on ICS 3G only but when using the 4G LTE program to make the switch to 3G (the one made for Thunderbolt???) battery life was no bueno - BUT - if I switched to 3G using the *#*# etc, code - no battery issues (a little bizarre, I know - all the program does is give you access blah blah blah - but I experimented and it is what it is ) ...

A few things to note ~ I didn't / don't have a whole lot of extraneous software on my phone that could / would / should interfere (and after FDR'ing several times I quit installing anything of course just trying to get my phone to *work dammit* ... I didn't have one of the 'problematic' Bionics ... I am *not* opposed to new software / software updates or upgrades, etc ... No, I don't think I need / want an iPhone - I am a 'technically minded' individual and am perfectly happy with a Droid and feel at home in teh guts of a computer (even though, I apparently cannot spell "t h e" ) ... Yes, I did an FDR many times ... I waited through it for 2.5? 3? weeks (I really don't have a very good concept of time, sorry) before I started thinking I was having *real* problems ...

Nonetheless - I have a new / old phone - still a Bionic.

As far as battery issues ~ Because I was having battery life problems (yes, I did the run down to 15% etc etc) - I would periodically throughout the day go see which programs were running and even though I'd killed them earlier, various programs would miraculously start running again - Maps, etc. (I don't use Location Services unless I need them). Several programs running like that will eat up your battery quickly.
 

TatDroid

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Pro - Webtop 3.0. Makes using the lapdock a pleasure now!
 
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