So... was the JB upgrade worth it?

[GeneralZod]

As with all these upgrades, there seems to be as many people complaining as cheering. Currently, I'm at .215 and not sure I want to go through the hassle of downgrading to .211 and then upgrading. It doesn't seem like the upgrade contained any "must have" features. Am I missing something? Thanks.

Greg

 

[Redsnk95]

It is all in the eyes of the beholder. I personally enjoy using the latest and greatest software updates. I was very close to doing what you are doing and staying on .215 But once I found out how easy it was to maintain my WiFi hotspot (main reason for staying on .215) I made the move to JB. I do enjoy Google Now plus the enhanced voice controls that come with it. The device is running a bit smoother. Is it mind-blowing different....no. Don't expect a GB to ICS change. JB, in my opinion, is just a smoothed finish of ICS with small upgrades. I've had JB on my tablet since July so I was pretty familiar with it before it sent to my Razr Maxx.

 

[xxwabbit]

As with all these upgrades, there seems to be as many people complaining as cheering. Currently, I'm at .215 and not sure I want to go through the hassle of downgrading to .211 and then upgrading. It doesn't seem like the upgrade contained any "must have" features. Am I missing something? Thanks.

Greg

This is where I'm at too. I have been keeping a close eye on all the threads here and nothing is really telling me to switch other than longer battery life. But I get great battery life. Everything is running great with ICS with the only exception being 4g will switch to 3g once in a while and the phone is unable to switch back unless I reboot the phone. I don't want to root the phone just to get hotspot as I have no other reason to root I suppose.

 

[cybertj.2000]

Google Now rocks!!!

Options in notification pull down curtain (dial or message missed call, see text of emails and texts, and newly added by Gmail is to delete and reply to emails) are great

Speed of phone is awesome

Enhanced and faster voice recognition and dictation

Just a few of the updates to the phone, all good features

We are the Droid!!
You will be assimilated!!
Resistance is futile!!

 

[aarong03]

Same here. I'm running .215 leak and have been since it was put up here. My battery life is awesome 40+ hrs on single charge, and I have no problems with anything on ICS right now. But I'm watching this forum to see how Jelly Bean is running on the Razr Maxx.

 

[pdoyle]

How do I go back to ICS??

:frown: Not happy. Wish I could return to ICS, but either Motorola or Verizon warns that cannot be done once upgraded to JB. The only plus I've seen in 2 days is the fancy art-deco font of the clock on the locked Maxx...with no explanation as to what Google Now does, i'm hesitant to set it up on the phone. No improvement in holding the wifi signal, or battery life noted. Photo gallery has been redesigned to present a collage of photos, instead of stacks of files. Like making it different for different's sake; maybe like the iphone; but no substantial improvements. Scratching my head wondering is this the best they could come up with, to justify the new OS?
Big down side with music and ringtones...the only option seems to be Google Music, which I took off before cuz it was impossible to reliably transfer music from pc to phone. Don't know what i'm going to end up with, gain or lose with music files. ICS with motocast usb and stock music player was great, easy to use, predictable and had equalizer; great sound modification.
The kicker is the alarm and ringtones seem to only allow for their cheesy synth sounds; instead of Christmas Canon Rock, i woke to a rooster crowing.
With the upgrade, there's no truth in advertising; no explanation of changes, in fact it appeared on my phone without identification whether it was from verizon or motorola; at first I thought it might be a virus. The arrogance of Verizon taking away their own music player as an option, allowing only google music; terrible from a customer service point of view.
Any answers to the above would be greatly appreciated. Stay away from JB. :r_c:

 

[Redsnk95]

What do you expect Verizon to personally call you and inform you of the upcoming update and what all the changes are? Verizon & Motorola have posted information on their respective websites (along with posts on Google+, FB and Twitter) concerning the update and what changes to expect.

Google Now is basically a phone assistant. Based on your Google search habits, calendar activities, travel habits and other items...Google Now will provide you with update cards with this information before you look for it. It gets better over time as it learns what you are looking for. It has enhanced voice controls as well. I use Google Now daily and love it.

I never used the Motorcast or stock Motorola music player, so I can't speak on that. Google Play Music is a nice music player. You can upload your music to Google Play to access as needed via data transfer. Or you can load the music on your device or SD card and use the Google Play Music to listen to it. And the app has a very good equalizer. Transferring music from my PC to the device is simple for me, just a drag and drop onto the SD card.

I personally like the new gallery setup. Everything is in one place (instead of 3 places) and the files are separated out for me based on how they were obtained.

I use the stock style ringtone and alarm clock, sorry can't help you with custom ring tones.

 

[TriciaH]

I got the Christmas Miracle OTA and should have stayed with that. The final build is not working out well. System media server is keeping the phone awake all the time, thus depleting the battery at a much higher rate. A few things they removed should have been left alone. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Media is killing me right now. Battery already down to 92%. I used to hit that long about 11 am. Just not working out well. I used to get 2+ day on a charge. At the rate this is going I will be lucky to get a day out of the battery anymore.

 

[_skibum]

I am not having any problems with ring tones. As a matter of fact, the custom ringtones that I made under gingerbread somehow managed to propogate to both ICS, and now JB. They must have uploaded to the google servers and get downloaded after the OS upgrades (or you do an FDR).

Did you every have any custom rigtones before the update? How did you make them? Why not just copy some music that you like to your phone, and then use an app like Ringdroid to creat some ring tones that you like? JB will do what you want, you just have to do a little work to get it there...

 

[ford7379trucks]

The 1st day i got jb my battery died in 1 day. I charged it and now its at 56% 48hrs later. so its working for me. Does seam to do thing faster. Did you check your smart actions? Theres changes to that and i re set it up. the 1st day I think smart actions was off because the notification never cam up for it but it dose after i re set it up.

 

[sandiegosteve]

Thumbs up here. Did a FDR after the update.

+ faster
+ great battery
+ better camera

- still some minor quirks, nothign bad

 

[DROIDX2TN]

There are two things I'm trying to figure out.
1) How to set a custom ring tone and keep it as the default. I've been setting it through Winamp but eventually the phone loses my setting.
2) I would like to get rid of the screen unlock feature.
Thanks!

 

[avenged61973]

There are two things I'm trying to figure out.
1) How to set a custom ring tone and keep it as the default. I've been setting it through Winamp but eventually the phone loses my setting.
2) I would like to get rid of the screen unlock feature.
Thanks!

If your ring tones you are trying to set are on your external sd card, you will need to move them to the internal memory. If not you will lose them sometimes when you plug in via usb or reboot.

To get rid of screen unlock goto system settings, security and screen lock, screen lock, and you can choose how you would like to unlock your phone.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[DROIDX2TN]

Makes sense. Thanks. I thought there was an app yo get rid of the unlock screen altogether. On ICS I had it turned off.

 

[avenged61973]

Makes sense. Thanks. I thought there was an app yo get rid of the unlock screen altogether. On ICS I had it urged off.

There is an app called widget locker you can get to design your own lock screen. It's an awesome app works really well.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2