Some ICS Install Observations & TIPs (Please add, especially ICS TIPs)

[bluezdawg]

Sounds like we are having different results with the OTA update, figured it would be good to share with consideration to sticking to observations & tips.

Dawg's ICS OTA Observations: (downloaded from system updates)

• October 23 10:00
• Phone was stock .905, never rooted/modified
• Took about 40 min to download and install
• Most apps on desktop reappeared with the exception of an app called Folder Editor and apps in those folders. 86'd the app, like stacking apps anyway
• Bionic seems wicked fast!
• No whine or hiss on audio, used earbuds and Bose QuietSound headset.
• Noticed that I do not see all my music in the standard Play Music app, but shows up in PowerAmp (Update Oct 24: Seemed to fix itself, everything shows up)
• Beautiful Widgets clock and weather skins work, calendar widget does not
• Email apps work fine (Notes Traveler, Gmail, Xfinity)
• Ran Quadrant(2572). not quite as fast as my Asus Infinity (4400), but works ok.
• October 24 6:30am
• At coffee shop, normally no 3g only wireless. Now 4G! Did Speed Test, 8mb down, 4mb up, I'll take it! Liking this! Initial thoughts, very pleased so far! Will keep checking things out and update on observations and progress
• 8:16 PM Only slightly negative thing so far is that I noticed my battery life was a bit worse. I normally unplug from charger at 6:00 am'ish and get home aroud 6:30 pm'ish, normally have about 60% battery life, today was about 40% (use extended life battery)
• Ran another Quadrant, had not rebooted, still runs about 2570
• TIP: If you need to take a screen-shot, hold down power and volume-down bottons at the same time
• TIP: Good YouTube video showing ICS basics (on RAZR) http://www.droidforums.net/forum/sho....php?p=2312085
• TIP: Decent thread on extending battery life using Task Manager & Smart Actions on the RAZR (ICS) http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-razr/192212-smart-action-battery-tips-2.html
• TIP: Awesome catch if your Bionic is sluggish after update! http://www.droidforums.net/forum/mo...ion-slow-sluggish-phone-after-ics-update.html

Enjoy!!

 

[aaf709]

There's some tips at 20 Android Ice Cream Sandwich tips and tricks | News | TechRadar

Another tip to those who haven't gotten ICS....temporally move your music to your pc if you have a lot on your Bionic. The "Updating Media" can take hours.

 

[bluezdawg]

There's some tips at 20 Android Ice Cream Sandwich tips and tricks | News | TechRadar

Another tip to those who haven't gotten ICS....temporally move your music to your pc if you have a lot on your Bionic. The "Updating Media" can take hours.

Great tip on the music, took mine over night!

 

[bionicDman]

If you want to bump up your quadrant score, go to developer options, and select Force GPU Rendering. Also, disable any bloatware and shut off any unneeded background processes - like gps. Then check quadrant score - probably at least 200 points higher, or more. I got the bump to 1.2 when i went to ICS, and my quadrant score was 3200, bone stock. Good luck!

View attachment 57569

 

[Milehighjc]

Mine updated this morning (Required that I "Check for updates"). It took a similar amount of time to complete the update.

• Had an odd glitch when it restarted - I had no home screen. The screen was backlit, but blank. I thought perhaps it was just still completing the update, but I was able to use selected apps through the pull down, and everything was running great. After 30-40 minutes, I shut the phone off, and rebooted it, and everything was fine.
• My Bionic is clearly faster than before the update. Animations are smooth, app loads seem faster as well (although I cant figure out why that might be true).
• The network option to use only 3G (turn off LTE) seems to be grayed out. That may not be a big deal, but I have had serious battery life issues in locations where 4G was spotty (including my basement). This could be an issue - but will monitor to see how it goes.
• My extended life battery seems to be draining quickly - but that may not be fair as I know the media update had to run. Will monitor over next few days - battery life has been a ongoing issue. Since the 4G migration started around my home, the battery life has been poor at best. The phone is usually off the charger around 6-6:30 AM, and will be stone cold dead by mid afternoon. This is NOT true when I am in solid 4G areas (Phoenix) where it will still usually have 50% in the tank when I go to bed.
• Im seeing repeating notifications (about every 5 minutes) asking for permissions my msn mail - I did not see this before the upgrade. Not sure what is going on there, I have checked the passwords, everything is fine. It is syncing fine as well. The sync interval is 30 minutes. Odd, very odd.
• WIFI seems to be turning itself on, and requesting to connect to hotspots. I generally run with it off, and turn it on only when I want to use WIFI. Ill have to see if I can find a setting for this.
• Really like the new look/feel. The fonts are MUCH better, the screen looks better than it ever did. Its like having a new phone.

More later as it comes up...

jc

 

[shadowsjc]

You can still select 3G only if you download the LTEonOff app from the Google play market

 

[nomadh]

its not so obviosly faster as it is smoother. i like it. the taskbar seems smaller and much harder to read .

 

[whippleman]

Literally is like a new phone now. I was really hoping my 4G issues would be fixed but it still drops 4G for a couple minutes Every time I try to use it! Other than that everything is more awesome!

 

[bluezdawg]

If you want to bump up your quadrant score, go to developer options, and select Force GPU Rendering. Also, disable any bloatware and shut off any unneeded background processes - like gps. Then check quadrant score - probably at least 200 points higher, or more. I got the bump to 1.2 when i went to ICS, and my quadrant score was 3200, bone stock. Good luck!

How ru you disabling bloatware? Is it disable persistently? Nice tips!

 

[intmd8r]

How ru you disabling bloatware? Is it disable persistently? Nice tips!

Uninstall updates and then go back in and choose the "disable" option! One of my fav new features of ICS!! dancedroid

 

[Milehighjc]

You can still select 3G only if you download the LTEonOff app from the Google play market

Thanks, that is helpful!

 

[aaf709]

If you have the SwitchPro widget, it also has that toggle available.

 

[Fordworth]

I'm liking it so far and my phone is definately faster. I like the new unlock feature that lets you go directly to the phone, camera, or text functions. I have not, however been able to figure out how to add widgets to the screens. Now when you press a blank spot on the screen instead of getting the menu with a list of options for what to put there you only get a wallpaper change menu. I realize that you can add app icons by and direct dials by holding them down in their respective menus but I can't figure out how to get my weather widget back. Any advice?

 

[shadowsjc]

go to the main apps screen, and then on top of the screen it should say widgets (to the left of the google play market button). click widgets and you will find all sorts of stuff that you can then drag to the homescreen

 

[Fordworth]

Thanks for that. I'm a truck driver and I've been trying to figure the new stuff out from behind the wheel today so I missed it. My only dislike now is the fact that it now takes an extra step to make a call from the contacts menu since there's no phone icon with the names. I have to touch the contact on the list which brigns it up by itself in another window before I can choose to call. Am I missing something?