Database Users

[Q] What improvements would make Android better?

So I am considering starting an AOSP project. The idea would be to stay away from replacing AOSP components and simply improving them. For instance, CM replaced the stock launcher with ADW. This project would not do things like that although we would make improvements on such apps. So with this in mind, what improvements is the community looking forward to most? For instance, there are UI improvements like the reboot selector CM built but there is also core improvements such as making the system more stable, etc. So basically, as an individual, what improvements to Android would you like to see the most if I was to start this project?

One of the things I miss that comes to mind is the ability to see what apps are open and ability to switch between them. A reference would be the Palm Pre. It shows everything open and can scroll through them....more like Windows 7 cascade option. All open, running apps viewable in windows that can be selected and closed by dragging. Considering we can multitask, this would be nice to have if it can be done.
One more thing that would be sweet is a modification to the Power Notification Widget which allowed another row of widgets so more than 6 can be utilized.

CCallahan said:
One of the things I miss that comes to mind is the ability to see what apps are open and ability to switch between them. A reference would be the Palm Pre. It shows everything open and can scroll through them....more like Windows 7 cascade option. All open, running apps viewable in windows that can be selected and closed by dragging. Considering we can multitask, this would be nice to have if it can be done.
One more thing that would be sweet is a modification to the Power Notification Widget which allowed another row of widgets so more than 6 can be utilized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... Itching Thumb does a great job of Palm Pre style switching. Definitely better if built into the OS. I'll look into it.

Automatic SMS splitting in the stock Messaging app when the message is longer than 160chars.

CCallahan said:
One of the things I miss that comes to mind is the ability to see what apps are open and ability to switch between them. A reference would be the Palm Pre. It shows everything open and can scroll through them....more like Windows 7 cascade option. All open, running apps viewable in windows that can be selected and closed by dragging. Considering we can multitask, this would be nice to have if it can be done.
One more thing that would be sweet is a modification to the Power Notification Widget which allowed another row of widgets so more than 6 can be utilized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually like how Android takes care of it. The status bar/drawer shows active services (things that are actively running and doing something that may require attention) so it's easy to switch between those. Anything else that is running and isn't that important can be accessed by holding on the home key to bring up the recently used apps switcher. The apps switcher could definitely be more elegant but it's functional at least.

bjb_nyj101 said:
Automatic SMS splitting in the stock Messaging app when the message is longer than 160chars.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THIS will be one of the first things I work on. This has been on my to do list on Android even if I didn't want to do an entire AOSP project since it's just so damn annoying lol

Full hardware acceleration.

Android quick access menu and running apps

This question is regarding the quick access menu for recently used apps (next to home icon) and running apps. Ive noticed that i use the tablet you can browse quickly and switch to recent apps you have open. Im just wondering how this works with regards to process management and memory. How do you actually close an app like Market Place or gmail? Does android do this automatically? IVe noticed the tablet can slow sometimes..

"Backing" out of an app closes it for the most part.
The TouchWiz update actually includes a task manager, so you can kill apps. But that generally only occurs if you use the Home key to switch apps or something.

i have heard people say they would like to see a feature added that closes apps if you swipe them off to the side from the multitasking bar (the list off icons that expands from the homescreen). I would love to see that.
But as far as the android team is concerned they say "we programmed android to manage memory and tasks so well that you should never interfere or over ride how its being managed". I personally don't buy it. I mean maybe its true but I should still have the ability to close things I don't want open (in an easy way).

IndivisibleP said:
i have heard people say they would like to see a feature added that closes apps if you swipe them off to the side from the multitasking bar (the list off icons that expands from the homescreen). I would love to see that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is how all tablets should be, the Blackberry Playbook has this feature and I believe it is one of the best Tablet OS's out right now. Swipe up and down to minimize and maximize screens and when you have your open apps screen up you can swipe a small window of that app off of the screen into oblivion which closes it. QNX OS on the Playbook is very very good, problem is the screen size and its from RIM, they really need to step up there game. If they would release the Android App Player for the Playbook it would be so much better.

ICS on Nexus S Complaints, Dissapointed, Downgrade

To be clear, I am liking ICS a lot, and am happy to see where Android is progressing. Here are a few complaints, however:
-I can't believe they disabled the search capacity button from the home screen. If you remove the search bar, there's no way to search from the home screen. Still hate the fact that the top bar is unusable space.
-Limited items in folders. This is one area which I don't understand why they back-peddled. It's very iOS-like, and it's one of the worst things to copy. Max 16 apps in a folder now. My understanding was that it was unlimited before. This will require adjustment.
-The icons look childish. Wish Google would truly allow customization and let us change the icons like other launchers do.
-Still no ability to add custom shortcuts to the home screen (like ADW Launcher can). Unless I'm mistaken? How do I make a direct dial icon?
-Long pressing Home button for the app switcher feels slow and clunky. It takes a while for the list of apps to show up.
Well, that's all I can think of for now. Still getting the hang of it. Again, overall, I'm really enjoying ICS. The UI is so modern and sleek looking.

You can add direct dial shortcuts through the widget section dude
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

Search cap. button works here

I noticed that the quality of the panorama pictures is terrible. It looks like a Polaroid.

sashajovicic said:
Search cap. button works here
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Click to collapse
On the main home screen? Pressing it once brings up search? It doesn't for me.

onthecouchagain said:
On the main home screen? Pressing it once brings up search? It doesn't for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does for me.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

onthecouchagain said:
On the main home screen? Pressing it once brings up search? It doesn't for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i can confirm the button also works for me

I'm loving ICS on the Nexus S, too. However, my battery life is atrocious since the upgrade today. I went from 100% to 4% in less than 6 hours. It wasn't that I was using it or playing with it that much, either. All the settings were similar to what they were on 2.3.6, e.g., low backlight, GPS/WiFi/Bluetooth off, push email on, account sync on. I was getting 12+ hours with up to 20% left on Gingerbread with these settings. According to the battery app, it looks like "Android OS" might be the culprit, as "keep awake" is listed as the highest-ranked battery usage over everything else, including screen, voice calls, cell standby, etc. I've read on other forums about a possible Android OS bug with the SGS II. I'm thinking it might be so with ICS on the NS. Anyone else have this issue? How do we report it to Google so we can get a bug fix?

onthecouchagain said:
-The icons look childish. Wish Google would truly allow customization and let us change the icons like other launchers do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
icons are still customizable, as they are with any rom. The launcher my not let you do it as easily as other launcher aps from within android.. but you can still do it externally by editing the icon files from the flash able rom file.

One small issue I found: Lock sound never plays even when the option is checked. Besides that, I'm really liking ICS. I wish the default widgets were more customizable. (e.g., calendar widget is one row too long, GMail widget is one column too wide) As a person with a severe visual impairment, I find the "Larger" text option a nice touch.

sir topas said:
I'm loving ICS on the Nexus S, too. However, my battery life is atrocious since the upgrade today. I went from 100% to 4% in less than 6 hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This couldn't be a battery calibration issue with the upgrade could it? I'm experiencing the same at the minute. I seem to recall there is a way to clear the battery stats but I can't remember where I read it.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium

BlindWolf8 said:
One small issue I found: Lock sound never plays even when the option is checked. Besides that, I'm really liking ICS. I wish the default widgets were more customizable. (e.g., calendar widget is one row too long, GMail widget is one column too wide) As a person with a severe visual impairment, I find the "Larger" text option a nice touch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can easily resize them by a long press on a widget without delete it, you will see the widget outline get blue with diamond which you can hold too resize.

pepours said:
You can easily resize them by a long press on a widget without delete it, you will see the widget outline get blue with diamond which you can hold too resize.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh wow, thanks! By the way, I found my issue for the lock screen: it got switched to None. I guess I forgot to switch it back after looking for the Face Unlock feature.
Speaking if which, looking at other threads it seems this feature was dropped for the Nexus S due to poor front-facing camera resolution. Oh well.
PS: I wish the custom message you can put on the lockscreen was more customizable than one scrolling line.

mofunzone said:
i can confirm the button also works for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
search button working for me too
and you can hide search bar In preference
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

How about you guys give it about a week and then start complaining BC now you just sound like some whiney brats.
Sent from my Google Nexus S 4G using xda premium

One thing I noticed is it gets rather sluggish at times. UI is smooth but there are very bad lags. Noticeable with even just the a live wallpaper, you can see it stutters every ten seconds or so.
Also, some apps won't work, Viber for example. It installs but it doesn't work, it just won't start. Black screen.
Maybe I should wait until the official OTA comes available for me, in Italy, through Software Update, and see if things are better? I have an i9020T, though- isn't the update going to be the same exact file?

if your battery life is really bad try turning off NFC and see if that makes a difference. From the Alpha I managed to get about 25 hours (once..) but cannot remember what I changed to get that.

the two complains I have : auto brightness doesn't work as well as it used too.
and google talk signs me out after a while without telling me.

Face unlock didn't seem to make the cut on the Nexus S.

Posted this in the ICS link section... this seems like a better place for it.
Anyone seeing any issues with the completely stock ICS on the TMo version of the nexus S?
Issues I am seeing so far:
Delayed scrolling when I swipe in the web browser. Seems as if the browser is trying to determine if I meant to click a link or scroll and the delay for the OS to decide is MUCH longer than it was on GB. (Maybe that was intended but maybe they over compensated).
The browser exits (doesn't even force close), just exits on certain websites when trying to scroll.
I hear reports of it being "buttery smooth" and honestly mine feels like it is slower than GB.. maybe that is because of my perception that the scrolling is slower...
Curious to see if this is happening to anyone else...

Write your review of ICS

I want to read your review of ICS on your Iconia. What do you like, what you think is lacking and should have been different as compared to HC. Positive and negative reviews are important so don't feel like you only have to pick just what you like or what is wrong with it. Write it all. Your first impressions and if you want, a followup later - once you've had some time with it.
I'd like to ask that you put some thought into it. Not that it has to be long but no single sentences. I'll just get a mod to clean the thread of them.
I'll get the ball rolling:
I went ahead and installed and can report no issues so far. A couple of things though.
After it booted [after the install] it wouldn't connect to the network automatically - I had to manually tell it to connect, though it still had the credentials and has since connected fine upon multiple reboots.
The browser bookmarks synced automatically. My problem was with HC - for the life of me it wouldn't sync my browser - all my other computers synced up fine with my primary and I tried everything I could to get it to sync with HC but it wouldn't and that was from a fresh reset a few weeks ago. After rebooting into ICS I found all my bookmarks synced up quickly so I'm happy again.
No screen issues and it's far more snappier than it was on fresh vanilla HC. To be fair, I reset a few weeks ago and only installed about 5 apps - aldiko, dropbox, docs etc... the basics. Even vanilla HC was a bit of a bear sometimes but ICS is not.
No more stuttering when swiping through homescreen in orientations other than normal which is great to see.
I much prefer the new app drawer. It's a much more unified experience and swiping is so snappy! That's is the biggest things for me. But it's also nice to see a clean area. The HC apps/widget/wallpaper nightmare was just that. Not in terms of navigation, it just looked fugly and dropped me out of the whole HC look. Now it's far more complimentary to the ICS experience.
The whole swiping apps/notifications features is nice but I'm not sure it's really doing anything. I opened Gmaps and saw it listed in the running apps list in Settings - went to the homescreen - opened up the recent list and swiped Gmaps out - went back to settings>apps and it was still present. It wasn't a solid test, to be sure, but I'm not sure how significant the swipe to remove tasks is and whether it is actually meant to kills tasks or just remove them from the list. [confusion on my part] Second to that, I'm pretty ambivalent about the swiping notifications feature - an X to press, a tab to swipe - it's all the same and neither adds to or takes away from that basic function.
I could care less about the ring and I haven't read anywhere that we were suppose to get it at all so it's no surprise to me to not see it. Same with face-unlock. It's not something I would use.

Well for my Acer a 500 the stock browser is super sloooww. It was super fast before the update. My screen flickers within some apps. For some reason scrolling is slow also. Before update I could swipe and scroll and it would scroll fast and its not the same anymore. For instance before update on my browser I could scroll down and it was so fast I would have to back up to get to exact spot I wanted to read. Now I scroll down and it only goes down a short distance and have to scroll again. I cannot remove zinio, tegra games and a few other bloatware that I have no use for. These are my big complaints with the update now.
Sent from my A500 using xda premium

Looking good so far.
Since the update I have been testing all of my apps. So far all are working correctly. I was disappointed that I lost root, however that was an easy fix. I searched the forum and found an easy way to get full root. Had a few hickups at first with the browser and network connections, but they seemed to correct themselves as the day progressed.
Overall I am very happy.

nishka256 said:
Well for my Acer a 500 the stock browser is super sloooww. It was super fast before the update. My screen flickers within some apps. For some reason scrolling is slow also. Before update I could swipe and scroll and it would scroll fast and its not the same anymore. For instance before update on my browser I could scroll down and it was so fast I would have to back up to get to exact spot I wanted to read. Now I scroll down and it only goes down a short distance and have to scroll again. I cannot remove zinio, tegra games and a few other bloatware that I have no use for. These are my big complaints with the update now.
Sent from my A500 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Screen flickering is what I am also experiencing quite a lot with ICS. With honeycomb, that was never an issue but a lot of apps make the screen flicker in ICS. For me, the stock browser and scrolling is blazing fast with ICS. It had a bit of lag when on honeycomb. Also, I just tried uninstalling zinio and I was able to. Couldn't do the same with tegra games, however, though!
So far I am really liking ICS but there are definitely a few issues that need to be worked on. The update process in itself was not smooth. I had to try 4 times, reboot and even factory reset before I was able to update the tablet to ICS.
Overall, I am having mixed reviews.

I had no problems downloading or updating. I just don't see much difference from honeycomb. I can now use some ics only apps, so that's ok. Switching home screens seems to have less lag. I guess I just expected more from this update.
Overall I guess it is nice to be up to date but it still feels llike the same old tablet.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium

ICS + A500 : Home Screen Long Press Disaster
If I'm missing something PLEASE let me know.
Otherwise why are people taking this sitting down?!
BEFORE ICS long press on Home Screens brought up:
1-split screen with Widgets and Apps below and ALL 5 Home Screens above
2-sending Widgets and Apps to specific Home Screens was a breeze
3-click on a Widget and send it to the page of your choice and watch it go there
4-click on one Widget after another and off they all go
5-the same applies to Apps: you can click on 10 apps one after the other and they all add themselves to the Home Screen of your choice
6-then with simple tap and back to the Home Screen
AFTER ICS long press on home screens brings up...are you ready for this?
1-Choose your wallpaper (WHAT A TOTAL WASTE OF THE LONG PRESS)
2-to get to the widgets list you have to press the apps grid icon at top right
3-that brings you to a tabbed list of Apps and Widgets (this is the OLD SLOW way of adding Apps and Widgets to your home screens!!!)
4-click on Widgets and
5-now press on one widget and ICS brings you back to the home screens where you can drop your widget on the main home screen or push it around to other home screens (very TEDIUS and CLUMSY process!!!!!)
6-now you HAVE TO go back HOME to then press the apps grid icon at top right AGAIN to get back to the tabbed list of Apps and Widgets, then press on Widgets and repeat the process for adding other widgets to the home screens!
7-each and every time you want to add an App or a Widget you ICS forces you to go through this process
8-meaning that you can only add one App or one Widget at......a.......time......!!!
I have to wonder what kind of genius would get rid of the split screen that shows all the home screens, the Apps, and the Widgets?!
Is there a launcher app that would give me back my split screen with a long press on the home screens?!

So far, so good. I never expected the Ultimate Tablet Nirvana from ICS... just incremental improvements. The A500 is smoother and more responsive. I really like the new media player, especially the row of movies/clip thumbs, etc at the bottom. Chrome is a big thing. I've used about every browser out there and was never fully satisfied with any of them. Chrome, for the first time, gives a desktop experience on a tablet. That alone makes the ICS upgrade worthwhile.
On a side note, my 64gb micro-sdxc card arrived the same day I updated, so that's another nice In Your Face to the iPad rabble out there. 80gb of storage.

idroids said:
If I'm missing something PLEASE let me know.
Otherwise why are people taking this sitting down?!
BEFORE ICS long press on Home Screens brought up:
1-split screen with Widgets and Apps below and ALL 5 Home Screens above
2-sending Widgets and Apps to specific Home Screens was a breeze
3-click on a Widget and send it to the page of your choice and watch it go there
4-click on one Widget after another and off they all go
5-the same applies to Apps: you can click on 10 apps one after the other and they all add themselves to the Home Screen of your choice
6-then with simple tap and back to the Home Screen
AFTER ICS long press on home screens brings up...are you ready for this?
1-Choose your wallpaper (WHAT A TOTAL WASTE OF THE LONG PRESS)
2-to get to the widgets list you have to press the apps grid icon at top right
3-that brings you to a tabbed list of Apps and Widgets (this is the OLD SLOW way of adding Apps and Widgets to your home screens!!!)
4-click on Widgets and
5-now press on one widget and ICS brings you back to the home screens where you can drop your widget on the main home screen or push it around to other home screens (very TEDIUS and CLUMSY process!!!!!)
6-now you HAVE TO go back HOME to then press the apps grid icon at top right AGAIN to get back to the tabbed list of Apps and Widgets, then press on Widgets and repeat the process for adding other widgets to the home screens!
7-each and every time you want to add an App or a Widget you ICS forces you to go through this process
8-meaning that you can only add one App or one Widget at......a.......time......!!!
I have to wonder what kind of genius would get rid of the split screen that shows all the home screens, the Apps, and the Widgets?!
Is there a launcher app that would give me back my split screen with a long press on the home screens?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to realize that ICS is written for use on phones and tablets, not just tablets. The old way may have been quicker on tablets but wouldn't be very useful for phones (and their much smaller screens). It was a necessary sacrifice.
I personally don't have an issue with the new way, just because I'm not adding 10 apps or widgets to a screen anyway and I don't find the movements that time consuming vs. the old way. If I WERE adding lots of apps or widgets to a screen then I suppose I'd agree completely. I however prefer the widgets in a bigger area instead of having to scroll forever through them, in fact to me it seems a better trade off for the widgets.

ICS appears to be more polished than hc when it came out. Hc 3.0.1 was not a refined experience. There will be some changes when 4.0.4 is pushed, but it is enough to prevent me from going out and purchasing the next new tablet.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

The Good:
Everything is more responsive, period. Moving around is quicker, switching home screens is quicker, moving through apps and widgets is quicker. Not that the A500 was slow before, but it had its hiccups. This gives the tablet new life, imo - it really feels like a different piece of hardware.
The interface is more streamlined. I've never been into form over function, but in this case everything works well together. Many apps now written for ICS fit in with the whole scheme of things which creates a more uniform experience and aesthetic. Many ICS App widgets now allow you to choose either their default or black, which fits in with the ICS color scheme.
Some, dare I say most? video issues seem to have been addressed as I can play files I'd needed to use 3rd party apps to play on the included player now. Flash also seems more fluid.
Notifications are easily closed (with one X vs. many).
Widgets are laid out in a drawer vs. scroll bar making it much better and easier (for some) to go through and add them to screens.
Settings have been improved; for example, there's now a setting to see the data apps use, factory reset is now under a more obvious tab and other settings are found more easily as well.
Booting is fairly quick vs. Honeycomb. Seems to boot in under a minute no matter how many apps are installed. Booting is generally fast based on the amt. of apps that are installed, but I seemed to boot in roughly the same time before installing apps as after installing over 200 of them.
Some of the new features are nice, the screenshot ability is definitely welcome and swiping away apps is also great. Note: some apps will never fully close as they use services that run in the background.
The Bad:
Some users preferred the long press, split screen and 1-click adding of apps and widgets to the home screen vs. the App Drawer approach. I am inclined to agree that this method can be faster for adding multiple app icons and widgets to the home screens.
The Ugly: (bugs?)
The native browser still doesn't seem to be able to handle encrypted content from Google Chrome, and so the native browser cannot be synced with a Google Account which has had its content encrypted. It can only handle accounts with their passwords encrypted (which is the default).
How I see it is, if Chrome Beta can handle it, I don't see why there wasn't a setting added to the native ICS Browser to allow for it. To me, this doesn't make sense. Perhaps I'm just missing something.
***At "excellent" strength and a 75Mbps link rate, upon checking for updates I get a message saying "network coverage is poor, move to a location with better coverage to continue". Hopefully some sort of fix comes from Acer directly before they issue more updates as I can now essentially, not receive updates (apparently).
Will append to list as I come across stuff.
***Update: This doesn't seem to be specific to ICS. After further investigation it seems this WAS caused by something on Acer's end (as of 4/29/2012, updated 5/22/2012).
UPDATE:
As of 5/22/2012 I have not been having/seeing any issues. I have noticed that when the tablet is extremely low on power (under 10% or so) it turns the wifi off when sleeping, even though I've set it to never turn wifi off. I'm not certain if this is a bug or working as intended in ICS as some power saving feature. This never, ever happens when the tablet is on A/C power or docked. When I wake the tablet, wifi is connected to automatically. I'm personally happy that it does this, but I can see it being a problem for some people...so I don't really want to file this under bug/issues.

Neoprimal said:
At "excellent" strength and a 75Mbps link rate, upon checking for updates I get a message saying "network coverage is poor, move to a location with better coverage to continue". Hopefully some sort of fix comes from Acer directly before they issue more updates as I can now essentially, not receive updates
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm betting this is simply they message they're sending because their servers are being overloaded from the ICS push.

Why ICS for Tablets AND Phones?
Taking the split screen feature away from my A500 is like taking my steering wheel and my automatic transmissions away from my car! Argggghhh!
Cutting corners on an OS so that it works exactly the same on phones and tablets makes about as much sense as saying that the engines used on a 2-seater plane, in a jet fighter, and in a 747 should all work the same so as to give the passengers the same experience. That is "plane" old silly. What is even SILLIER is to insist on putting a plush airliner seat into a 2 passenger plane or to insist on keeping a propeller on jumbo 747s.
I totally get that the split screen (showing ALL the home screens at once above and the Apps and the Widgets below) would not work well on an small phone but why should it since it's NOT designed for a small screen? Why do tablet users have to put up with taking 3 steps backward just so that phone users can take 3 steps forward.
Tablet users should simply be given the choice to customize their experience so that they can take advantage of the extra real estate on their screens instead of being forced to put up with restrictive aspects of an OS that is trying to be everything to everyone. Sure ICS is a big improvement on Honeycomb, but why did some aspects of its OS have to be amputated simply to satisfy some designer's need to have a single OS for 2 VERY different gadgets?
So PLEASE, when the next version of ICS comes out PLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEASSSEEE give us tablet users the split screen again through the long tap on the Home Screens! Think about it! How often are you going to change your background? Making the long tap lead ONLY to the background change screen is such a WASTE of a unique gesture!

Well if you absolutely want long press to open drawer, try Apex launcher, it's based on ICS launcher but there's an option for binding long press/double tap to any function of the launcher. There is many more options that should suits you. Nova launcher is another alternative you can try.

Positives
A couple of the things I noticed right off is that when recording you don't get the terrible background noise you always seemed to get on hc supports avi video format now which I was happy with and the camera and video app seem to be recording at better detail not sure if its me or my cam? The browser is also blazing fast for me now. Layout is also crisp and clean the ring is useful makes taking screenshots a snap.
Negatives...have noticed some apps cause terrible lag for me there was also a lot of lag and freezing the first couple of hours I had the update. Also sometimes the screen flickers stated above ^^^^ none of these are big issues and shouldn't keep you from updating to enjoy

I had a lot of issues with the ICS update. I finally had to do a factory reset. Some issues were solved, but others remain:
Seems to be solved:
- Unstable applications (flashing and crashing, including Gmail).
- Unstable folders (flashing, crashing and all icons on the desktop disappearing).
Unsolved:
- Wifi is unstable and does not auto-connect (I have to connect manually when I restart the tablet or when I get home... it was working fine before ICS).
- The GPS does not work (I am not sure if it was working before ICS... as I had not had the time to test, so maybe it is not new).
- System update does not work (indicates that network coverage is insufficient despite the signal being strong and staying beside the wireless router).

ICS = bitter pill to swallow!
Well I learned the hard way that I shouldn't have jumped on the ICS bandwagon too early!
I cannot believe that in 2012 we have people designing MAJOR OS updates that have MAJOR problems and bugs!
Why not just wait another month or so and work out these major problems before unleashing ICS on everyone.
I mean didn't the ICS designer and programmers TEST ICS ON ALL TABLET AND PHONE platforms BEFORE releasing it to the world?
I'm going to milk my airplane analogy some more and say this:
Releasing ICS without having thoroughly tested it across ALL platforms is like building a plane and not knowing if it is designed well enough to fly at different altitudes and even worse not being sure it can actually land well in ALL major airports in the world in spite of different weather conditions.
Can you tell I am SICK of designers and programmers NOT having done their homework and using the general public to test their new OS for them?!
This HAS GOT to change!

I have one huge problem. In HC 3.2.1, when I press the volume button, it brought out the volume bar, and by taping the speaker icon, I can turn the volume to off, now it doesn't do anything!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's really annoying to have to hold the volume button to turn off the sound.

One Giant bonus I like in ICS is you can make native folders without the need of a secondary app.
Having one strange flaw which is my tablet randomly vibrates for no apparent reason other than that so far so go and the whole UI just seems a bit smoother than it was before on HC. Browser seems Way more Responsive than HC as well.

I'm pretty happy with ICS but GPS is not working at all. I need to check the gps.conf but it was working on HC.

Best feature of ICS: Chrome browser.

My Android P DP2 Experience

Just wanted to add my 2 cents on the DP2 of Android P.
So far my favorite thing is how fluid it is and how nice the animations are (it's more fluid than Oreo in every way -- animations, scrolling, opening apps, switching windows, etc.) . The animations are especially nice when using the Pixel launcher. You lose certain animations when using 3rd party launchers. I've always used third party launchers since 2011 because stock ones never have the features I want but The Pixel launcher on Android P is pretty dang cool. I still miss options like no widget padding, icon packs, icon and folder resizing, gestures, custom desktop and app drawer spaces, but even losing all that is worth it with how amazing Android P runs with the Pixel launcher.
My battery life was terrible the first 2 days and I was considering going back to Oreo but it seems to have settle down now. I still feel I was getting slightly better battery life on Oreo but I can't say for sure. I know others have said they are getting better battery life on P but so far that hasn't been my experience.
I haven't run into any major bugs and have only experienced a couple minor issues like brief freezing (1-2 seconds and has only happened a few times), and had recent apps freeze up twice but hitting the home button fixes it. I know some have reported a lot of apps crashing but I don't use many apps and haven't had any issues there.
For me it's a DD. Wi-Fi Tethering, calling, texting, bluetooth, and GPS all work with no issues.
I'm not a fan of some of the new UI changes but overall it definitely seems like a good step up from Oreo. I can't wait to see how it develops over the next 6 months.

Nice write up! Agree this P is getting better and better!

I know Facebook isn't the best app in the world, and I'm a beta tester for the official app. I cannot get it to install for the life of me. Very odd errors.. keeps throwing error 504

jbarcus81 said:
I know Facebook isn't the best app in the world, and I'm a beta tester for the official app. I cannot get it to install for the life of me. Very odd errors.. keeps throwing error 504
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I don't personally use facebook but I just checked it out because of your post and it installed fine. I also logged in and scrolled through it a bit and it worked fine. Not sure why it's giving you issues :/

imucarmen said:
I don't personally use facebook but I just checked it out because of your post and it installed fine. I also logged in and scrolled through it a bit and it worked fine. Not sure why it's giving you issues :/
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Could be an issue with the beta... I never thought much about it.

I beta test FB as well, and had issues trying to get the app to install too. I have it installed on my s9+, but couldn't get that one to update, so I found the apk for the version that's on the s9+, and it was able to install on the Pixel 2xl DP2. This leads me to believe it's the FB app itself, and not the phone.

Moostafa29 said:
I beta test FB as well, and had issues trying to get the app to install too. I have it installed on my s9+, but couldn't get that one to update, so I found the apk for the version that's on the s9+, and it was able to install on the Pixel 2xl DP2. This leads me to believe it's the FB app itself, and not the phone.
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Perfect! Now to hunt down the latest beta APK .. looks like 172.0.0.51.93 is the latest version.

I went back to Oreo the same day I flashed P DP2. This was the same day DP2 was released. I don't remember every detail but here are the things that made me go back:
- A handful of apps would simply not work/open. I forgot which ones they were.
- I don't like the way the Quick Settings look.
- I don't like it that the Quick Settings wont open a quick detailed view and instead just open the settings app. Seems minor, but is a step-back if you ask me.
- QS icons in landscape mode are out of place.
EDIT: - Accessing the settings app via notification drawer now requires you to pull down the drawer completely. That's because the gear icon becomes only visible/accessible when it's fully expanded, while in previous Android versions, like O, the gear icon was visible even on a collapsed notification drawer.
I reeeeally love the new sound controls!

very ugly LTE icon

Literally the only thing I don't like is that the gesture bar is still eating up screen space like the nav bar did and WTF on the LTE font/icon. There is no reason to not expand displayed content all the way to the edge of the display and have the pill hover over the content. Also I see no reason for the back button. If swiping in one direction takes you back to the last used app, make swiping the other direction the back button inside an app. Other than that, I much prefer the roundness of the UI seeing the the display corners of my Pixel 2XL are rounded. It just looks more cohesive. I was a huge fan of Flux Ui, so P taking on that styling cue is another plus to me. Also the animations are much better. I haven't tested a full day of usage for screen on time yet without my phone touching a charger at some point, but the fact that I'm consistently getting a 1 to 2 percentage battery drop overnight is already better than any android version I've been on.

nitrous² said:
I went back to Oreo the same day I flashed P DP2. This was the same day DP2 was released. I don't remember every detail but here are the things that made me go back:
- A handful of apps would simply not work/open. I forgot which ones they were.
- I don't like the way the Quick Settings look.
- I don't like it that the Quick Settings wont open a quick detailed view and instead just open the settings app. Seems minor, but is a step-back if you ask me.
- QS icons in landscape mode are out of place.
EDIT: - Accessing the settings app via notification drawer now requires you to pull down the drawer completely. That's because the gear icon becomes only visible/accessible when it's fully expanded, while in previous Android versions, like O, the gear icon was visible even on a collapsed notification drawer.
I reeeeally love the new sound controls!
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I agree on all your points but for me the fluidity and animations more than make up for it. Hopefully some of those things you mentioned get addressed. I definitely do not like the new QS style.
darkoj2007 said:
very ugly LTE icon
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Agreed. That's is one of the new ui changes I'm not a fan of at all. It looks like it belongs on a phone from 6 years ago. Perhaps they did for people who are far sighted but it would be nice to have the option to use the old little LTE and 3g icons.
AndrasLOHF said:
Literally the only thing I don't like is that the gesture bar is still eating up screen space like the nav bar did and WTF on the LTE font/icon. There is no reason to not expand displayed content all the way to the edge of the display and have the pill hover over the content. Also I see no reason for the back button. If swiping in one direction takes you back to the last used app, make swiping the other direction the back button inside an app. Other than that, I much prefer the roundness of the UI seeing the the display corners of my Pixel 2XL are rounded. It just looks more cohesive. I was a huge fan of Flux Ui, so P taking on that styling cue is another plus to me. Also the animations are much better. I haven't tested a full day of usage for screen on time yet without my phone touching a charger at some point, but the fact that I'm consistently getting a 1 to 2 percentage battery drop overnight is already better than any android version I've been on.
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The gesture bar needs some refinement. I hate the back button as well. They need to at least make it have rounded corners and solid to match the rest of the ui. The sharp corners and hollow look really doesn't match and looks awful.
LTE and 3G icons are awful.
For some reason my battery just isn't performing as well on P as it did on Oreo. Especially the AOD -- it chews my battery up. It still easily get through the day with plenty of juice to spare and I work at home and always have a charger handy so it's not a problem.