Database Users

Better User Experience: Sense-less or Sense Switches?

Over the past 24 hours, I've been playing with a multitude of different ROMs and apps to try dialing in that "perfect" setup. I think I have narrowed it down, but it seems like I am forced to make a tradeoff and I'd like some advice.
The Sense UI seems to be considered a pig. Not the tasty, goes-great-with-everything bacon variety, but the Unicron planet consuming memory type. Based on what I have read, it seems that using a less invasive launcher increases performance and improves the battery life.
Unfortunately, Sense has a REALLY nice feature that I can't seem to replicate on the EVO when using AOSP. On the Evo 4G, Sense has elegant toggle switches for:
4G
Mobile Internet
Wi-FI
GPS
Mobile Hotspot
Bluetooth
Airplane
Slap a Brightness and Ringer control from the MP in there, and you have yourself a one stop shot of virtual dip switches to control everything about your phone that sucks down juice.
Unless I am missing something, there doesn't seem to be any solutions in the Marketplace that can duplicate this functionality. There are some apps that provide shortcuts to certain toggles, but nothing that gives you an "at a glance" feature like the Sense UI provides.
So my question is this: what do you all do? I love love LOVE that idea of controlling my connections easily to save on battery, but at the same time feel a lot more comfortable using LauncherPro and boycotting the closed-sourceness that is HTC's custom interface of bloat.
Either way I still end up with the best phone on the market, I just feel like its forcing me to make a compromise when I am so close to perfection.
Thanks in advance!

The SwitchPro widget from the market has everything but 4g. I use it all the time.
http://www.appbrain.com/app/alei.switchpro

The only thing about switchpro that threw me for a loop is that when placed side by side with the Sense widgets (and power options) is that even though the Mobile dip for Sense can "turn on" the Mobile connection in Switchpro, the Switchpro widget does not do the same for the Sense one.
This could simply be a misreport, but I was concerned that it simply was not disabling the service.
Then again...I can't really do anything with the phone web-wise...

double post...

If you search the market place of "onoff" or "toggle" you should find widgets that replace the switch functionality of the sense UI. Combine that with this for 4g and you can have your cake and eat it too:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695056

[Q] Is this the end of GB updates for the ARC?

Now that ICS has started rolling out for our beloved Arcs.... Is Sony planning to at least update the firmware of our Arcs to something resembling the Xperia S firmware? A modified 2.3.7
I know that there are custom roms that ported Xperia S firmware to the Arc, but there are some little things that do not work. Besides I cannot stand ICS... I have it on a Nexus S and I hate it!!! Am I crazy? It is so shiny... Hopefully the Sony implementation is better.
If we choose to remain on GB... is 4.0.2.A.0.62 the end of the line?

Yes, I highly doubt they'll release any update for 2.3. What issues do you have with it?

My issues are basically interface-related, that is why I hope the Sony implementation is better than stock ICS.
1) Icons. Seriously. A 14-year old would like them, I am sure.
2) What the hell is a Google search bar doing at the top of the screen? I do not want it. If I wanted it I would install the 'Google search' widget. Make it go away.
3) Widgets menu placed next to applications menu. I understand this makes finding the wanted widget easier, but this is not a tablet. I do not think that mobile phone owners change widgets so often that they should have the same status as apps.
4) Shortcut to Google Play on the top of the apps/widgets menu. Again, no possibility of deleting it (like the search bar)
5) Inability to add apps/shortcuts/widgets to the home screens by pressing on an empty spot and holding. Now it has to be done by going to the desired app/widget and pressing and holding.
6) Settings. It is nice that now they are accessible via the notifications bar. However, it took me a while to guess that to configure WiFi access now I had to actually click on 'Wifi' and then a menu opened. I guess I am used to the old 'Wifi settings' menu.
7) GB on my Arc (1205 quadrant) feels more responsive than ICS on my Nexus S (1194 quadrant). A small difference but the Arc just feels faster.
8) Task switcher now shows a screenshot of all open/recently opened apps. Again, like a tablet. And again, this is not a tablet. Nice feature in theory however scrolling the list of apps is not as fluid as it should be.
Oh well I see that I should stay with GB

Actually, I meant what issues you had with gingerbread that would require an update for. My fault for not being clear.
The ICS interface isn't for everyone, but I'm sure as time goes by there will be more custom ROMs based on it that will suit those that aren't too fond of the default theme.

joens said:
My issues are basically interface-related, that is why I hope the Sony implementation is better than stock ICS.
1) Icons. Seriously. A 14-year old would like them, I am sure.
2) What the hell is a Google search bar doing at the top of the screen? I do not want it. If I wanted it I would install the 'Google search' widget. Make it go away.
3) Widgets menu placed next to applications menu. I understand this makes finding the wanted widget easier, but this is not a tablet. I do not think that mobile phone owners change widgets so often that they should have the same status as apps.
4) Shortcut to Google Play on the top of the apps/widgets menu. Again, no possibility of deleting it (like the search bar)
5) Inability to add apps/shortcuts/widgets to the home screens by pressing on an empty spot and holding. Now it has to be done by going to the desired app/widget and pressing and holding.
6) Settings. It is nice that now they are accessible via the notifications bar. However, it took me a while to guess that to configure WiFi access now I had to actually click on 'Wifi' and then a menu opened. I guess I am used to the old 'Wifi settings' menu.
7) GB on my Arc (1205 quadrant) feels more responsive than ICS on my Nexus S (1194 quadrant). A small difference but the Arc just feels faster.
8) Task switcher now shows a screenshot of all open/recently opened apps. Again, like a tablet. And again, this is not a tablet. Nice feature in theory however scrolling the list of apps is not as fluid as it should be.
Oh well I see that I should stay with GB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of these issues could be avoided by using a different launcher

Me too, I dont like ICS interface(is boring), only the task manager...
Ill stay with GB, maybe arconium or another custom rom

now we see Sony releases ICS for 2011 line-up, but with scale-down version of stock apps (comparing with those GB ones for 2012 line-up, such as SMS, music player, alarm clock, etc.)
so it's very likely that they are going to stop working on GB updates

joens said:
My issues are basically interface-related, that is why I hope the Sony implementation is better than stock ICS.
1) Icons. Seriously. A 14-year old would like them, I am sure.
2) What the hell is a Google search bar doing at the top of the screen? I do not want it. If I wanted it I would install the 'Google search' widget. Make it go away.
3) Widgets menu placed next to applications menu. I understand this makes finding the wanted widget easier, but this is not a tablet. I do not think that mobile phone owners change widgets so often that they should have the same status as apps.
4) Shortcut to Google Play on the top of the apps/widgets menu. Again, no possibility of deleting it (like the search bar)
5) Inability to add apps/shortcuts/widgets to the home screens by pressing on an empty spot and holding. Now it has to be done by going to the desired app/widget and pressing and holding.
6) Settings. It is nice that now they are accessible via the notifications bar. However, it took me a while to guess that to configure WiFi access now I had to actually click on 'Wifi' and then a menu opened. I guess I am used to the old 'Wifi settings' menu.
7) GB on my Arc (1205 quadrant) feels more responsive than ICS on my Nexus S (1194 quadrant). A small difference but the Arc just feels faster.
8) Task switcher now shows a screenshot of all open/recently opened apps. Again, like a tablet. And again, this is not a tablet. Nice feature in theory however scrolling the list of apps is not as fluid as it should be.
Oh well I see that I should stay with GB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some things can be changed with another launcher. Others, for me are improvements. ICS is FAR better than GB on UI.

i think ICS is the last for ARC then .ICs is better for multi tasking and i like the UI

Sony just announced a massive loss for the quarter.
From a business perspective I think it won't be feasible for them to focus on GB anymore since they are already going to roll out ICS for the 2011 range.
They are planning on cutting about 10,000 jobs worldwide, so I think that they will probably be only focusing on ICS considering the rollout and the fact that they have a big range of new phones this year that will all be running ICS in the future.
Also, once the 2011 range is updated (only due to an agreement/promise that they would) there plan would probably want to phase out the Sony Ericsson brand anyway.
Also, Sony has never really been well known for it's customer service/support, particularly for older models. I have a 2010 Sony Vaio Z laptop and the drivers have never been updated. It's now superseeded by the new model and now more updates will come for my model

The Sony losses are blown out of proportion by the Sony hating tech media. Sony aren't American basically.
If you don't like icons and stuff, just install go launcher.
Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2

joens said:
My issues are basically interface-related, that is why I hope the Sony implementation is better than stock ICS.
1) Icons. Seriously. A 14-year old would like them, I am sure.
2) What the hell is a Google search bar doing at the top of the screen? I do not want it. If I wanted it I would install the 'Google search' widget. Make it go away.
3) Widgets menu placed next to applications menu. I understand this makes finding the wanted widget easier, but this is not a tablet. I do not think that mobile phone owners change widgets so often that they should have the same status as apps.
4) Shortcut to Google Play on the top of the apps/widgets menu. Again, no possibility of deleting it (like the search bar)
5) Inability to add apps/shortcuts/widgets to the home screens by pressing on an empty spot and holding. Now it has to be done by going to the desired app/widget and pressing and holding.
6) Settings. It is nice that now they are accessible via the notifications bar. However, it took me a while to guess that to configure WiFi access now I had to actually click on 'Wifi' and then a menu opened. I guess I am used to the old 'Wifi settings' menu.
7) GB on my Arc (1205 quadrant) feels more responsive than ICS on my Nexus S (1194 quadrant). A small difference but the Arc just feels faster.
8) Task switcher now shows a screenshot of all open/recently opened apps. Again, like a tablet. And again, this is not a tablet. Nice feature in theory however scrolling the list of apps is not as fluid as it should be.
Oh well I see that I should stay with GB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just ROOT it, and all bad karma goes away.....

joens said:
My issues are basically interface-related, that is why I hope the Sony implementation is better than stock ICS.
1) Icons. Seriously. A 14-year old would like them, I am sure.
2) What the hell is a Google search bar doing at the top of the screen? I do not want it. If I wanted it I would install the 'Google search' widget. Make it go away.
3) Widgets menu placed next to applications menu. I understand this makes finding the wanted widget easier, but this is not a tablet. I do not think that mobile phone owners change widgets so often that they should have the same status as apps.
4) Shortcut to Google Play on the top of the apps/widgets menu. Again, no possibility of deleting it (like the search bar)
5) Inability to add apps/shortcuts/widgets to the home screens by pressing on an empty spot and holding. Now it has to be done by going to the desired app/widget and pressing and holding.
6) Settings. It is nice that now they are accessible via the notifications bar. However, it took me a while to guess that to configure WiFi access now I had to actually click on 'Wifi' and then a menu opened. I guess I am used to the old 'Wifi settings' menu.
7) GB on my Arc (1205 quadrant) feels more responsive than ICS on my Nexus S (1194 quadrant). A small difference but the Arc just feels faster.
8) Task switcher now shows a screenshot of all open/recently opened apps. Again, like a tablet. And again, this is not a tablet. Nice feature in theory however scrolling the list of apps is not as fluid as it should be.
Oh well I see that I should stay with GB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1-6 is actually very solvable even without rooting. Lol. Just download a different launcher.

CrazyPeter said:
The Sony losses are blown out of proportion by the Sony hating tech media. Sony aren't American basically.
If you don't like icons and stuff, just install go launcher.
Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As much as I love the brand I gotta admit that they don't have the best support though. lots of outdated drivers for other products that never get updated...... despite this, I keep coming back as they have awesome products.

still love GB more than ICS hope they update firmware for us soon

It's basically not necessary to update ICS, and ppl may still want to try it anyway (plus all the custom ROM flying around, it's hard to resist, really).

Same here, GB works great for me.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using XDA

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.

Google posts full Android 4.1 Jelly Bean changelog

Google has posted up a big, bullet-filled page with all the stuff it has added in since 4.0.
Android 4.1, Jelly Bean
Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, is the fastest and smoothest version of Android yet. Jelly Bean improves on the simplicity and beauty of Android 4.0, and introduces a new Google search experience on Android.
Everything in Jelly Bean feels fast, fluid, and smooth. Moving between home screens and switching between apps is effortless, like turning pages in a book.
Jelly Bean features improved performance throughout the system, including faster orientation changes, faster responses when switching between recent apps, and smoother and more consistent rendering across the system through vsync and triple buffering.
Jelly Bean has more reactive and uniform touch responses, and makes your device even more responsive by boosting your device's CPU instantly when you touch the screen, and turns it down when you don't need it to improve battery life.

What's new in Jelly Bean
Accessibility
With Jelly Bean, blind users can use 'Gesture Mode' to reliably navigate the UI using touch and swipe gestures in combination with speech output.
With the new accessibility focus feature, you can move a cursor between controls to maintain a target for the next action or a source for the next navigation event. You can double tap anywhere to launch the current item with accessibility focus.
Text traversal in accessibility now gives you more control – choose to move between pages, paragraphs, lines, words or characters.
TalkBack, a screenreader for Android, now supports gestures to trigger actions, to navigate applications, and traverse text.
Get full support for braille accessibility services (download BrailleBack on Google Play).
Android Beam
With Android Beam, you can now easily share your photos and videos.
Instantly pair your phone or tablet to Bluetooth devices like headsets or speakers that support the Simple Secure Pairing standard by just tapping them together.
Audio Accessories
Support for USB audio docks, shipping later this year.
Browser and WebView
Browser has improved performance, CPU and memory efficiency. With better performance for animations and HTML5 canvases and an updated JavaScript Engine (V8), pages load faster and feel smoother.
Browser now has better HTML5 video support, and has a new user experience. Just touch the video to play and pause, and smoothly transition into and out of fullscreen mode.
Browser now supports the updated HTML5 Media Capture specification on input elements.
WebView now supports vertical text, including Ruby Text and other vertical text glyphs.
Calendar
Calendar is more buttery. Content fades in, animations are sprinkled throughout, and swiping/paging between days is smoother.
Calendar will now display event colors if you've given your event a color on your PC.
The 'Today' button on the action bar now shows the current day. When viewing an event's details, you can now email all the guests with a single tap.
Notifications for upcoming events now display more of the event description to let you quickly see relevant details without having to open the app.
Notifications for upcoming events now let you email all the guests without opening the app, and you can choose a quick response such as "Be there in 10 minutes" or type your own.
A new option in Calendar settings lets you create your own default quick responses for emailing guests.
You can now snooze an upcoming event reminder right from the notification.
Calendar has a new 7" tablet layout that is optimized for the form factor.
When viewing Calendar in portrait orientation on tablets, you can hide or expand controls to give you complete control over how you view your Calendar space.
Calendar will now remember whether you've chosen to hide or expand controls so you have a consistent experience viewing Calendar whenever you open it.
Camera and Gallery
You can now swipe from the camera viewfinder to quickly review photos you've taken without having to leave the camera app. You can swipe back to the camera viewfinder to start snapping photos again.
When viewing photos in Gallery, you can pinch to zoom out to enter "filmstrip mode" and rapidly review photos. When viewing photos in filmstrip mode, you can swipe up or down to delete an individual photo. You can also undo the delete with a single tap.
When taking a photo, a new animation sweeps your photo off the screen. There is now a new paging animation when swiping between photos
Camera features a new animation for switching between the front-facing and back cameras.
When focusing on an object in Camera, a new animation gives you visual feedback on your focus state.
Gallery features a new animation when selecting a photo from within the album view and back.
Data Usage
You can now dismiss a data usage warning without changing the data threshold set for warning notifications.
Disable background data usage on certain Wi-Fi SSIDs by designating them as mobile hotspots.
Android now automatically detects when one Jelly Bean device is tethered to another's WiFi hotspot, and intelligently enables or disables background data usage on the SSID.
Face Unlock
Face Unlock is now faster and more accurate, and startup is smoother with a new animation.
You can improve face matching accuracy by calibrating your face in different conditions and with different accessories (e.g. hat, glasses).
Face Unlock can now optionally require a 'blink' to verify that a live person is unlocking the device rather than a photo.
Internationalization
Jelly Bean adds support for bidirectional text and more input languages to make the platform accessible to more people around the world.
There is improved support for Arabic and Hebrew, including a new Arabic font, in the platform.
You can now enter text in one of 18 new input languages, including Persian, Hindi and Thai. Additional Indic languages Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam are now supported by the platform.
Emoji from Unicode 6.0 will now render when received or viewed.
If the system language is set to Japanese, Japanese specific versions of glyphs will now be properly rendered.

Keyboard
The platform's dictionaries are now more accurate and more relevant.
The language model in Jelly Bean adapts over time, and the keyboard features bigram prediction and correction.
You can now switch languages quickly with the dedicated language selector key on keyboard.
You can use custom keyboard input styles for more than 20 languages, with keymaps for QWERTY, QWERTZ, AZERTY, Dvorak, Colemak, and PC styles.
You can choose the input styles that you want to use for each keyboard, and use a hotkey to switch between them while typing
Messaging and Talk
New notifications display the full text of incoming SMS messages. When receiving an MMS, you can view the full photo in a notification.
When entering recipients for an SMS or MMS, a new UI collects recipients as chips, making it easier to compose messages.
Talk features a new notification style.
Notifications
You can now take action on notifications directly from the redesigned notifications shade.
Notifications from the same application are grouped together, and the first item is automatically expanded. You can also pinch notifications to expand or collapse them.
You now get an image preview in notifications after taking a screenshot. You can quickly share the screenshot directly from the notification.
You can lock automatic display rotation from the notifications shade on 7" tablets.
For Wi-Fi only devices, quickly see the SSID of the access point you're connected to from the notifications shade.
You can now touch-hold a notification to identify the application that created it and turn off notifications from that application if needed, as well as uninstall the application.
Networking
Wi-Fi protected setup is now supported with WPS push button and PIN support.
A new setting lets you stay on mobile data and avoid nearby Wi-Fi networks with poor connections.
News and Weather
News and Weather is updated to improve freshness and power consumption.
People
The People app is more buttery with smoother animations and improved search performance.
The People app now retrieves high res photos automatically for Google contacts with public Google+ profiles and displays higher res photos (720x720) on certain devices.
High res photos set on Google accounts will be backed up and synced across devices.
The People app has a new 7" tablet layout that is optimized for the form factor.
You can now quickly add your favorite contacts to a home screen, directly from the contact's details page.
The People app helps you organize your contacts and reduces duplicates with an Improved auto-joining algorithm.
You can now clear the frequently contacted list from the favorites tab in the People app.
Phone
When you miss a call, a new notification lets you return the call or reply by SMS with a single touch.
Incoming visual voicemails are displayed in a new notification that lets you play the message with a single touch.
When a call is ongoing, a new notification lets you hang up the call with one touch.
As part of Project Butter, the dial pad is more responsive. Call log scrolling is buttery smooth, and swiping between tabs in Phone is quick and fluid.
You can now clear your frequently contacted list in the favorite tab of Phone.
You can now add phone numbers from the call log to existing, read-only contacts.
Settings
Accounts are now displayed in the primary Settings view so you can easily see all the accounts you're signed into on your device.
You can now easily access all Google Privacy Settings in one place by selecting your Google account from Settings.
System
Device encryption is now more reliable, and periodically reminds you to decrypt your device. Now, SMS messages and calls are declined when waiting for decryption.
You can long press the 'Power Off' option in the power menu to boot your device to safe mode.
A new 'Reset app preferences' button lets you quickly reset default applications for specific activities, background data restrictions, notifications suppressions, and more.
A redesigned dialog with larger icons lets you intuitively choose your preferred application for specific activities.
Google Apps Device Policy on your device may now override the 'keep screen awake' option from developer settings.
Text-to-speech
Jelly Bean introduces a new conversational text-to-speech voice in US English, available as both a network engine and an embedded engine via the TTS API.
Voice Typing
A new embedded speech recognizer lets you use Voice Typing even when you don't have an Internet connection.
Widgets
Jelly Bean makes it easier to personalize your home screen. As you place widgets on the screen, everything else automatically moves to make room.
When they're too big, widgets resize on their own. If you choose to resize a widget, apps and widgets will now also move out of the way.
You can now quickly remove apps or widgets from any home screen by picking them up and flinging them to the edge of the screen.
Launching apps and returning back home are now faster and smoother.
The new Google experience on Android

Google Search
With Jelly Bean, a redesigned experience uses the power of the Knowledge Graph to show you search results in a richer way. It's easier to quickly get precise answers to search queries and explore and browse search results.
Get to Google Search faster: Google Search can be opened directly from the lock screen by swiping up. For devices with software navigation keys, you can now swipe up from the system bar to quickly access Google Search with Google Now. For devices with a hardware search key, you can tap it to launch Google Search.
If you're using a wired headset, long press the headset's button to activate Voice Search. You can quickly perform a search query by voice and have the result read back to you.
You can say "Google" to activate Voice Search from within Google Search.
For many search queries performed through Voice Search, you can now hear a spoken answer.
Voice Search recognition is now significantly faster so you can search quickly on the fly.
Voice Search can now recognize queries even when you have a poor network connection.
Google Now
Google Now brings you just the right information at just the right time. Cards appear throughout the day at the moment you need them, and appear as a notification when they're important.
Weather card: When you start your day, Google Now shows weather for your current location and work.
Traffic card: Get traffic conditions and alternate routes before you leave home or work.
Transit card: When you're near a bus stop or a subway station, this card shows you what buses or trains are next.
Places card: When you're on the go, Google Now will suggest nearby bars, restaurants, and places of interest.
Flight card: See flight delays and traffic conditions to the airport for flights you've recently searched for.
Sports card: You can see live scores and upcoming games and also buy game tickets on the fly.
Currency card: When you're traveling, quickly check the local conversion rate.
Translation card: When you're in a foreign country, you can quickly translate words into the local language.
Google Apps
Google+
As you swipe through the stream, large bold photos now fall into place with animations giving you a more interactive browsing experience.
Google+ on tablets has a new magazines layout in the stream.
You can now create and manage Google+ Events right from your device. Posts and photos are saved to the event so you can relive the party any time.
Party Mode lets you instantly upload and share photos during an Event so you capture all the right moments in one place.
New notifications let you +1, comment, or reshare without having to open the Google+ app.
You can now see live video streams of all participants in a Hangout.
A new navigation menu lets you easily navigate through the app and quickly see Google+ notifications.
When viewing a post, you can now swipe to expand and view comments.
Gmail
Gmail has an optimized view for 7" tablets in portrait orientation to give you a better experience reading email.
Gmail and Email feature updated notifications will give you a preview and digest of your inbox. Notifications will also now display the full text of new mail.
YouTube
YouTube has a new, more intuitive user interface, including a guide that provides quick access to your channel subscriptions.
YouTube can now preload videos from subscribed channels for seamless playback even on slower networks.
With a new integrated menu, you can easily watch YouTube on the big screen with Nexus Q or YouTube TV.
Maps
With support for offline maps, you can select an area to cache and access it even when you don't have a data connection.
Compass Mode for indoor views and street view is more accurate and responsive with gyroscope support.
With Zagat ratings and reviews built in to Maps, you can quickly get the information you need about places you search for.
You can now browse Google Offers within Maps to find local deals.
Get indoor walking directions in Maps.
Currents
With performance enhancements throughout the application and updates to the user interface, you can browse articles quickly and intuitively. With an enhanced layout engine for articles, you can enjoy dramatic, large images on a variety of articles.
Currents now uses hardware acceleration to make moving between articles smoother.
Currents has a new 7" tablet layout that is optimized for the form factor.
For editions written in other languages, you can now translate text into your preferred language.
Google Play
A new set of recommendations widgets use a variety of signals — content that people with similar tastes have purchased, stuff that's popular around where you live, content people in your Google+ circles have +1'ed, and more — to recommend new content like apps, games, music, and movies.
A new My Library widget, which displays all of your recent movies, books, music, and magazines and dynamically changes based on what you've been engaging with recently.
Smart App Updates ensure that only the parts of an application that have changed will be downloaded when you next update it, saving on time, bandwidth, and battery when updating apps.
Jelly Bean introduces app encryption for paid apps
.
Google Play Books
Embedded audio tracks and videos can now be easily streamed directly within the book you're reading.
You can now add bookmarks to remember important information for later or pick up where you left off reading.
Play Books now offers fixed layout books, optimized for tablet-reading of books with beautifully designed graphics and layouts, like children's books and comic books.
For visually impaired users, automatic text-to-speech settings have been enabled
.
Google Play Movies and TV Shows
Movies and TV shows can be quickly downloaded for viewing offline, now with just one tap.
When you make a new purchase from Google Play, that item will be synced directly to the Play Movies and TV Shows app, ready for you to watch when you open the app.
You can watch Movies and TV Shows with Nexus Q by using the integrated media routing menu.
You can zoom in during video playback.
Google Play Music
A new Sound Search widget lets you identify songs you hear and purchase them directly from Google Play.
The Google Play Music widget now lets you thumbs up songs as their playing and features a new design for better readability.
Playlist art is automatically created based on the album art of songs in that playlist.
In the now playing bar, you can swipe between screens.
The Recent screen features larger album art.
You can delete tracks within the app.
There is a Now Playing queue of tracks.
There is an integrated media routing menu for listening to tracks on Nexus Q, bluetooth audio devices and headsets.
You can set a song as your ringtone from Play Music, and the new ringtone editor lets you crop that track to the exact section you'd like to use for the ringtone.

Wow, sounds.......... buttery
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium

Mr Woolf said:
Wow, sounds.......... buttery
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it sure does,can't wait for a stable release

now u have to wait 5 or 6 month to get the sammy update until that time android 5 will be on the doors

yahyoh said:
now u have to wait 5 or 6 month to get the sammy update until that time android 5 will be on the doors
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We'll see
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

yahyoh said:
now u have to wait 5 or 6 month to get the sammy update until that time android 5 will be on the doors
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'am waiting this update for the S3 "the Beast" jaja

The Good and Bad LG Software Features

This is a thread for those coming from an AOSP ROM like Vanilla Android or CyanogenMod or even from other OEM overlays like Sense. What would you say are the good and LG features?
For me, good:
Heads up display implantation of incoming calls when screen is on that ensures you don't break your workflow.
Little hovering window to show a call is in loudspeaker in the background with the time on it
Though almost standardised, having call controls in the notification drawer
Bad:
Auto expanded notifications
Unable to disable the clips tray
Unable to remove toggles from within the drawer
Battery percentage being to the left of the battery
Unable to customise lockscreen
Implementation of software navigation keys breaks functions like hiding the keyboard
Customisation of the share intent with everything being ticked all the time

I only had my phone for half a day, but already some software feature I really like:
"Clip Tray" (Multi-clipboard).
Double-knock to wake and go to sleep (I don't use knock-code, haven't tried it yet)
And something I really don't like:
Keyboard sluggishness. When I type (using flow), it's always 1 or 2 words behind... I'm going to replace it quickly with Google keyboard or SwiftKey

Protagoras said:
I only had my phone for half a day, but already some software feature I really like:
"Clip Tray" (Multi-clipboard).
Double-knock to wake and go to sleep (I don't use knock-code, haven't tried it yet)
And something I really don't like:
Keyboard sluggishness. When I type (using flow), it's always 1 or 2 words behind... I'm going to replace it quickly with Google keyboard or SwiftKey
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree with you about the keyboard... I hate it. I was using s4 with keyboard ported from s5. Is sluggish and i keep typing space more often..
Sent from my LG-D855 using XDA Free mobile app

I've noticed that the keyboard is sluggish with more than one language selected.

I really like the keyboard. Haven't tried swipe input on it yet. Overall i'm really impressed by the UI. Its got great flat icons, beautiful selection of wallpapers and lots of options to customise.
Knock on and knock code are great. Clip tray is a very useful feature and the popup reply notifications for the messaging app are really handy and have stopped me from using Hangouts as my main SMS app.
The downsides so far are no search on server within the email app and no option to show the weather on the smart notice widget without turning on GPS. Also for some reason LG took out the wireless storage feature from the G2 which was very useful. They should have kept it.

Bad:
When adding contacts, the default option is to add to "Phone" with no way of changing it.
Oversharpening of text. More obvious on certain fonts with black text on white background.
Camera options are way too limited.
Overall I'm quite happy with the software. Looks pretty good and some of the added features are quite useful.