AT & T Kitkat Update Features?

[Pappy35]

OK. SO I did the OTA update. At first the phone threw fits, didn't work, got blazing hot, etc. Not good. Pulled the battery a few times and now it seems to have stabilized.

Poking around, I really don't see anything of interest. Is that because Samsung and AT & T hid it all with their bloat?

What features can I expect?

 

[Rukbat]

You missed the "yawn" feature? That's the one that makes you yawn when you find out all the "exciting" (read: boring) changes in KitKat. You might notice a little snappier screen action, but if you were expecting a major change you'll have to wait for the next major update. Or the one after that.

 

[Pappy35]

Well, not only is it a yawn update but now I had to do a factory reset hoping that it would fix it. This update totally screwed up my phone. First time ever and I'm quite upset about it.

It burned through 15% of the battery in 30 minutes this morning (yes, it's burning hot). Screen goes dim at random. The status bar become illegible. It's a hot mess. Hoping the reset fixes it. I had a lot of deactivated bloat (and this new update is even worse).

Grrrr......I'm thinking it's time to go Nexus....

 

[Canesfan]

Unofficially, I'm noticing a faster phone and better WiFi connectivity with admittedly only limited usage since the upgrade. Stay tuned....

 

[Carlos A]

I've noticed that the overall phone performance is snappier and a lot smoother.
The lock screen delay is no longer present.
I've also noticed that battery has actually been much longer for me. (I think that the standby battery performance is what really improved, not 100% certain).
Thanks to Kitkat's new features, the usage of Ram is much more efficient. anywhere from 200mb to 400mb more efficient.
And a lot of new emojis

 

[GrouchoM]

I've noticed that the overall phone performance is snappier and a lot smoother.
The lock screen delay is no longer present.
I've also noticed that battery has actually been much longer for me. (I think that the standby battery performance is what really improved, not 100% certain).
Thanks to Kitkat's new features, the usage of Ram is much more efficient. anywhere from 200mb to 400mb more efficient.
And a lot of new emojis

Did you lose any apps or app data?

 

[brbrem]

I've noticed that the overall phone performance is snappier and a lot smoother.
The lock screen delay is no longer present.
I've also noticed that battery has actually been much longer for me. (I think that the standby battery performance is what really improved, not 100% certain).
Thanks to Kitkat's new features, the usage of Ram is much more efficient. anywhere from 200mb to 400mb more efficient.
And a lot of new emojis

Ditto😊

 

[speedlever]

I'm curious if KK fixes the developer options/transition animation scale default issue from JB 4.3? If you set a custom value, after a reboot, it resets itself to 1 in 4.3

 

[Pappy35]

I don't know what happened. Obviously the installation went sour though I've done plenty and used to play around rooting my s3 so I'm fairly certain it's nothing I did. The Reset seems to have it fixed but I lost all my data (app settings, SMS and call logs, etc.). Very upset about it.

The ONE thing Apple does right that Google apparently is incapable of doing (at least yet) is restoration of the device. I just recently replaced my wife's iP5S. Ten minutes after turning it on out of the box it was like nothing ever happened. Please tell me why Google can't do this?

I'm aware of all the third-party apps that can do this but I simply can not understand why I should have to root my phone, and give up the warrantee, to do something Apple can make happen reliably and for free. I'm paying Google for cloud storage. I'd happily pay them to make this feature possible.

Oh, and if someone does know of an app that doesn't need root that would automatically backup user and app data, please do tell.

I have successfully used SMS Backup before but for some reason it won't do the restore this time (Kitkat???). All I have are the SMS headers but no message content. Grrrr.....

 

[speedlever]

That is one advantage the closed ecosystem from Apple provides. One mfg controls both the device and the OS and upgrades vs many different mfgs and android implementations in the open Android market. Pick your poison. I'll take the latter system myself, but will grumble about the more difficult upgrade process.

 

[Pappy35]

Yeah. I dislike Apple overall for sure and am reminded why every time I play with my wife's phone. I don't mind redoing settings but losing app data and being forced to use clucky third-party apps for log and miscellaneous data backups just doesn't have to be.

 

[Deleted User]

I don't know what happened. Obviously the installation went sour though I've done plenty and used to play around rooting my s3 so I'm fairly certain it's nothing I did. The Reset seems to have it fixed but I lost all my data (app settings, SMS and call logs, etc.). Very upset about it.

The ONE thing Apple does right that Google apparently is incapable of doing (at least yet) is restoration of the device. I just recently replaced my wife's iP5S. Ten minutes after turning it on out of the box it was like nothing ever happened. Please tell me why Google can't do this?

I'm aware of all the third-party apps that can do this but I simply can not understand why I should have to root my phone, and give up the warrantee, to do something Apple can make happen reliably and for free. I'm paying Google for cloud storage. I'd happily pay them to make this feature possible.

Oh, and if someone does know of an app that doesn't need root that would automatically backup user and app data, please do tell.

I have successfully used SMS Backup before but for some reason it won't do the restore this time (Kitkat???). All I have are the SMS headers but no message content. Grrrr.....

Doesn't Samsung KIES take care of this? I have done backups, bur have not done a full restore yet.

 

[Pappy35]

To call Kies unreliable would be glowing praise. Unless they've dramatically improved it since the last time I tried to use it about 4 months ago when I got my warrantee replacement S4, no, it work work.

FYI. My first S4's screen developed a bad row of pixels (bright vertical line) which AT&T replaced via warrantee. I tried to use Kies then and it was hopeless. If I recall correctly it would hang up every time I tried to get it to do a complete backup. This was the seed that planted my current expression of frustration: Even the Phone's manufacturer can't figure out a reliable way to do a system backup and restore.

Of course, then I was trying to move the "image" to a new device. Maybe this time I should have tried backing it up since I would have been restoring it to the SAME device. Damn! Too late now...

 

[dmorgan924]

I'm curious if KK fixes the developer options/transition animation scale default issue from JB 4.3? If you set a custom value, after a reboot, it resets itself to 1 in 4.3

hey i have this same issue, if I reset my phone would it get rid of the update? and maybe not do that? its soo annoying.

 

[Deleted User]

To call Kies unreliable would be glowing praise. Unless they've dramatically improved it since the last time I tried to use it about 4 months ago when I got my warrantee replacement S4, no, it work work.

FYI. My first S4's screen developed a bad row of pixels (bright vertical line) which AT&T replaced via warrantee. I tried to use Kies then and it was hopeless. If I recall correctly it would hang up every time I tried to get it to do a complete backup. This was the seed that planted my current expression of frustration: Even the Phone's manufacturer can't figure out a reliable way to do a system backup and restore.

Of course, then I was trying to move the "image" to a new device. Maybe this time I should have tried backing it up since I would have been restoring it to the SAME device. Damn! Too late now...

I have backed up my phone a few times With Kies without errors, but never attempted a recovery yet. I agree Apple has a much better solution with iCloud as we use it on all (5) of our iPads.

 

[Pappy35]

So just what do these checkboxes do:

Settings->Accounts->Backup and Restore

and

Settings->Accounts->Automatic Restore

They certainly didn't do what their names imply.

 

[Carlos A]

Did you lose any apps or app data?

No app data was lost.

 

[Canesfan]

No app data was lost.

(As applied to the KitKat update)

Ditto for me.

 

[speedlever]

Thinking about the KK upgrade, I'll probably do a FDR ths time around. Would it be best to remove my SD card and do a FDR before doing the upgrade to KK?

 

[Mr. Lucky]

I'm curious if KK fixes the developer options/transition animation scale default issue from JB 4.3? If you set a custom value, after a reboot, it resets itself to 1 in 4.3

That only happens after accessing the Camera app. The KitKat camera app doesn't do it on 4.3 (I have both installed on my rooted 4.3), so my guess would be that it also doesn't do it on 4.4.

 

[lvirden]

Did you lose any apps or app data?

My browser hung up trying to post here earlier - it appears that post was eaten by the nega-net monsters.

When I upgraded my ATT S4 to 4.4.2 this week, initially there were a number of virtual screen icons that "vanished". I know of one game that appears to have gone away - a simple minded tetris game.

When I was looking for the apps behind the missing icons, I didn't see them in the app list. After the phone's battery died a couple of times this week and the system was charged back up, I have been finding the apps and putting their icons back.

One app that I have been unsuccessful in getting to work is the google play store.
Even before the upgrade, that app kept displaying an error of "background data disabled" and when I tried to enable it, only found myself at the application account sync page.

At least in 4.3 I could go to the application manager, find the google play store app, stop it, clear the data, and then start the app again.

Since 4.4.2, I have yet to find the play store running. When I try to start it, i get the same error about background data - only now the app isn't shown so I can't stop and start it again.

I wish I could get that problem solved.