Motorola releases 4.4 for Verizon Moto X

tslewisz · Nov 20, 2013

I got the update yesterday. Do we have a feel for if an FDR will be beneficial?

Cheers, Scott

GandalfTehGray · Nov 20, 2013

dmiller2007 said:
Guess you missed the memo, KitKat introduced the solar charging feature

Way better than IOS 7 waterproofing

Clementine_3 · Nov 20, 2013

Just got an email for Motorola, they are releasing KitKat for my (Verizon) Moto X. Timely

jhawkkw · Nov 20, 2013

tslewisz said:
I got the update yesterday. Do we have a feel for if an FDR will be beneficial?

Cheers, Scott

If you can deal with the data loss, I would always recommend FDR'ing after a big update. A lot of issues can get cleared up by doing so.

alostpacket · Nov 20, 2013

doogald said:
Yes, Google changed that in KitKat. The explanation was two fold: first, people never understood the difference between a white and tinted icon. The second was that showing network activity in the status bar icon was using enough CPU that it was worth scrapping.

If you pull down the notification panel and press the settings icon in the upper right, I believe that the WiFi and mobile network icons will be tinted when you are connected to Google services and will also show network activity. (That's the case with KitKat on the Nexus 5; I don't have a Moto X with KitKat to see at the moment.)

I cant sort of understand the color thing, but I dont buy the CPU usage excuse.

I cant even imagine how they would have profiled it.

doogald · Nov 20, 2013

alostpacket said:
I cant sort of understand the color thing, but I dont buy the CPU usage excuse.

I cant even imagine how they would have profiled it.

Source: http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/1...nd-only-shows-connectivity-in-quick-settings/

alostpacket · Nov 21, 2013

doogald said:
Source: A Google Engineer Explains Why KitKat Has White Status Bar Icons And Only Shows Connectivity In Quick Settings

Oh I believed you, just not Google about the amount of CPU / GPU used to render those little things being significant, relatively speaking.

Dan Sandler's quote actually alludes to what the real reasons are (IMO)

We could have more aggressively cached the bitmaps (rather than creating new BitmapDrawables from resource IDs every time, which was causing the relayout)

Avoiding re-layout is like "Android dev 101".

but that would still have left all the drawing—multiple times per second in some cases

It only needs to redraw as often as it polls (if even that). They could have set the polling interval to whatever they wanted. That thing already polls based on WiFi signal strength. And I dont think these arrows polled more than every half second or so.

Sounds like they noticed it was badly programmed and yanked the feature rather than fix it, which is disappointing.

Maybe it was, as he says "visual noise for nerds" but I think it was very helpful to know if something was working. It's not like it was giving us the CPU frequency or battery temp which are more esoteric. Knowing if data is transferring is generally pretty pertinent.

Not a huge deal at the end of the day, but it's a tiny step backwards towards the lowest common denominator of "just make it good enough for the average non-technical user".

hammb · Nov 21, 2013

Personally I really miss it already. I work as a consultant and go back and forth from WiFi to Data all day long...I found it very handy to see the blue color on quick glance to know if I had data connectivity or not.

Not a huge deal in the long run, I'm sure, but so far I'd have to say it's the one giant change I've noticed in KitKat and I think it's a step backward.

Oh, that and I've always loved a weather/clock widget called Fancy Widgets that the devs have stopped updating a while ago. This update finally broke that widget for me as well.

krouget · Nov 21, 2013

alostpacket said:
Not a huge deal at the end of the day, but it's a tiny step backwards towards the lowest common denominator of "just make it good enough for the average non-technical user".

I'd have to agree, only I'd say it's one of those things that you came to appreciate, without thinking about it too much.

It makes me wonder how the OS handles live backgrounds and/or widgets, if this was taxing in some way.

doogald · Nov 21, 2013

Great post; thanks.

alostpacket said:
Maybe it was, as he says "visual noise for nerds" but I think it was very helpful to know if something was working. It's not like it was giving us the CPU frequency or battery temp which are more esoteric. Knowing if data is transferring is generally pretty pertinent.

I actually like what iOS does - it just has a rotating circle dot icon when data is transferring. It doesn't matter which interface. I think I'd prefer at least something like that; I don't need to know which interface is transferring. I just want to know that something is happening.

krouget · Nov 22, 2013

First VZW, now the others... After finding that the update was releasing for the other carriers, I went into settings, did the "check for updates", and was pleasantly surprised to see the attached. That was fast.

JavaS · Nov 23, 2013

The lack of blue honestly is taking some getting used too. I keep thinking my phone isn't connected to the internet. That's what my Galaxy Nexus looked like all the time

.

JustinHEMI · Nov 25, 2013

I'm running into all sorts of glitches in kit Kat..., apps freezing, force closing, lag on unlock. apparently Motorola is aware of some issues, so hopefully a fix will be out soon.

Justin

Thom · Nov 25, 2013

Did you do a Factory Data Reset after the upgrade?

... Thom

blindman13 · Nov 25, 2013

Any word on Sprint that i missed?

Trooper · Nov 25, 2013

Kitkat has been good to me. I miss the blue a bit as well but meh.

My only complaint so far is the lock screen lag. I understand Moto is aware of it. Hope it gets fixed soon.

JustinHEMI · Nov 25, 2013

Thom said:
Did you do a Factory Data Reset after the upgrade?

... Thom

Just did, though I don't think that I should have to do that.

Thanks

Justin

Trooper · Nov 25, 2013

JustinHEMI said:
Just did, though I don't think that I should have to do that.

Thanks

Justin

Its normally good to do a factory reset after an OTA.

jhawkkw · Nov 25, 2013

Trooper said:
Its normally good to do a factory reset after an OTA.

After small little bugfix ota it's not a huge deal, but after large Android OS changing updates I would consider it almost necessary. There's a reason why people who flash custom roms always factory reset/wipe data whenever they change roms.

Trooper · Nov 25, 2013

jhawkkw said:
After small little bugfix ota it's not a huge deal, but after large Android OS changing updates I would consider it almost necessary. There's a reason why people who flash custom roms always factory reset/wipe data whenever they change roms.

Agreed, which is why I mentioned it. Going to kitkat is a big deal. I did one on mine, however lock screen lag is still there.

Waiting on Motorola now.

jhawkkw · Nov 25, 2013

Trooper said:
Agreed, which is why I mentioned it. Going to kitkat is a big deal. I did one on mine, however lock screen lag is still there.

Waiting on Motorola now.

Yeah, that's tough regarding the lockscreen lag. I remember having that on some Gnex custom roms.

Trooper · Nov 25, 2013

jhawkkw said:
Yeah, that's tough regarding the lockscreen lag. I remember having that on some Gnex custom roms.

Yeah its strange. Its only on unlock from active notifications. Power button to normal unlock is fine. :rolleyes:

Thom · Nov 25, 2013

JustinHEMI said:
Just did, though I don't think that I should have to do that.

Thanks

Justin

It is amazing that they don't make it part of the update process with each major upgrade that they release (like GB to ICS, ICS to JB, or JB to KK). Without it people run into screwy problems days, weeks, or months after the update and then have to react in crisis mode.

For minor bug fixes in that are updating the same major version the FDR might not be needed. (On the Bionic it was always needed.)

My suggestion is to always plan out and execute the FDR on every major (letter change) upgrade.

... Thom

mplevy · Nov 25, 2013

Except, Thom, if people have data in apps and you force an FDR you/they lose that data.

Obviously, each user should be responsible for backing up their own data but I think Google's cloud backup needs to be more robust or have better support before you can do that.

JavaS · Nov 25, 2013

Trooper said:
My only complaint so far is the lock screen lag. I understand Moto is aware of it. Hope it gets fixed soon.

This...

Motorola releases 4.4 for Verizon Moto X

Newbie

Android Expert

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Chinchillin'

Over Macho Grande?

Extreme Android User

Over Macho Grande?

Newbie

Android Enthusiast

Extreme Android User

Android Enthusiast

Attachments

Newbie

Android Enthusiast

Member

Android Expert

Android Enthusiast

Android Expert

Chinchillin'

Android Expert

Chinchillin'

Android Expert

Android Expert

Newbie

BEST TECH IN 2023

Smartphones

Best Android Phones

Upcoming

Best iPhones

Upcoming

Tablets

Best Tablets

Upcoming

Laptops

Best Laptops

Upcoming

Televisions

Best TVs

Upcoming

Game Consoles

Best Game Consoles

Upcoming

Wearables

Best Wearables

Upcoming

Smart Home

Smart Home Tech

Upcoming

Similar threads