Things "missing" in ICS for Bionic

[puckalicious]

Since I'm new to ICS running on my Bionic, thought I'd share a few things I miss from GB.

- No shortcut for Voice Commands. Found an app for it though. I need it for my car dock home screen.

- No shortcut for video camera, only still camera. Nice to go straight to the video function instead of having to move the slider, like when in the car dock.

- Flash. Yeah there is Flash but performance is crap and will not play embedded video in web pages.

- Google Car Home. Very simple but effective home screen for the car dock. The new built in one looks much nicer but is much more clumsy to use.

- Going to Contacts from within Dialer app. Can't do it anymore... personal preference I suppose.

- Alarms full screen display; clock is much smaller and harder for my glasses-less eyes to see in bed. Nitpicking, I know. Yes I realize there are a million alarm clock apps.

- Have not looked yet, but is there an HDMI-out hack in ICS like GB that allows any on screen video to output via HDMI?

 

[tjk629]

- No shortcut for Voice Commands. Found an app for it though. I need it for my car dock home screen.

Few ways around this:

1.) menu > system settings > accessibility > double tap home launch. Voice Commands is for Nuance and voice search is stock android
2.) Long press on the search key
3.) If you have the Bionic card dock then voice search is on the car dock homescreen

- Going to Contacts from within Dialer app. Can't do it anymore... personal preference I suppose.

While in the dialer press the search key

- Have not looked yet, but is there an HDMI-out hack in ICS like GB that allows any on screen video to output via HDMI?

You could try webtop mode (you don't need a dock anymore) and see if it will. I haven't had any problems with video output myself.

 

[puckalicious]

Thanks for the tip for the Dialer to show contacts.

 

[tjk629]

Another thing you can do is, if you know who you want to call you can start T9 typing their name into the dialer. So, if I wanted to call John I would start dialing 5646 (John), and the dialer will bring his contact up as a suggested caller. You can also do this for phone numbers as well. From there you can call the number they suggested, and if you have more than one number for the contact just press the contact photo for more suggestions.

I think Gingerbread had this feature, so it isn't new. But since contacts aren't part of the dialer anymore I've been using the above method to call contacts.

 

[grgguy]

- No shortcut for video camera, only still camera. Nice to go straight to the video function instead of having to move the slider, like when in the car dock.

Video taping a lot while your driving ? I'm thinking they may have not put that in there for a reason ?

 

[Xtra Big Kahuna]

The thing that bugs me is that you can't link ringer and notification volume on stock ICS. I find that to be the biggest inconvenience out of anything. Luckily there is AOKP for that though.

 

[striker85]

The thing that bugs me is that you can't link ringer and notification volume on stock ICS. I find that to be the biggest inconvenience out of anything. Luckily there is AOKP for that though.

I can't stand that. Why on Earth would they NOT link the two? I seriously have to go way into the settings menu to tweak the volume of my ringer/notifications separately?

 

[sonicxtacy02]

car mode is there for sure, I use Tasker to enable it. I dont really have a car dock, does it not automatically come up anymore? I also still have flash on .232, but I guess you mean they just wont update it right?

 

[Tonik]

- Going to Contacts from within Dialer app. Can't do it anymore... personal preference I suppose.

Try the 'People' shortcut instead. That takes you straight to your contacts, then here is an icon on the bottom to get you to the dialer.

 

[puckalicious]

Video taping a lot while your driving ? I'm thinking they may have not put that in there for a reason ?

Helps to have video during daily commute of road ragers, and if pulled over by police. Never know when you might need evidence of wrong doing.

car mode is there for sure, I use Tasker to enable it. I dont really have a car dock, does it not automatically come up anymore? I also still have flash on .232, but I guess you mean they just wont update it right?

Car dock works fine and brings up whatever default program you want. Just a complaint about the stock car app not being as customizable as the old one. You are stuck with certain shortcuts that I don't find useful.

One thing to add that I like a lot about ICS in car mode... when someone texts you it pops up a notification on screen and prompts if you want the text read aloud or not. Must be something custom to Motorola? I used to do this exact thing in GB with Tasker, now I really don't have a need for Tasker anymore since the Moto Smart Actions does everything else I need.


One other thing, has anyone installed the Google Now apk with success on Bionic ICS leak?
[MOD] [4.0+] [UPDATE 08/08] The Google Now for ICS Project [APK AND ZIP] [ARMv6&v7] - xda-developers

 

[sweeeeet]

Try the 'People' shortcut instead. That takes you straight to your contacts, then here is an icon on the bottom to get you to the dialer.

or from dialer press search button

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[sweeeeet]

what's missing for me is when I'm in a video I use to be able to control ringer volume and if I clicked the video I controlled media volume

also while in a call if I start a video and lower the volume it only lowers the call volume and I can't change the video volume at all.. on gb if I clicked the video I could control the media volume

also also.. on the samsung s3 when changing the volume a settings button would pop up to alter notification volume as well as ringer volume. we can only change ringer unless going another route

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[puckalicious]

So I'm really hoping someone can help with my desire to open the camera in video mode. Is there a way to create a shortcut to do this?

 

[sweeeeet]

camcorder shortcut ..it's an app

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[puckalicious]

camcorder shortcut ..it's an app

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

Care to share? The only "apps" I've found are quite old and lock the camcorder into QHD or SVGA resolution and you can't change any options.