Is ICS worth it ?

[Forbidden 403]

Maybe clearing your cache and dalvik cache would help with the lockscreen issues.

To turn the data on or off you can do that manually from the long press menu of the power button. Juice defender keeps running in the background and uses resources.

 

[MattJessop]

Maybe clearing your cache and dalvik cache would help with the lockscreen issues.

How do I do that please ?

 

[Forbidden 403]

Boot into recovery mode using the 3 button combo
(switch off your phone and hold volume up + home button + power button and keep all 3 pressed while booting till you boot into recovery mode)

use volume keys to scroll and home button to select.
scroll to the option of clear cache and select yes to clear cache.
reboot.

to clear dalvik cache you need a custom recovery so we can skip that step for now.

 

[Kibbster]

I have always used Go launcher with GB but found it "sticky" with ICS.
So I changed to Nova Prime and I prefer it to Go anyway - excellent launcher!
The lockscreen is rubbish IMHO when you don't use the stock launcher but it works better than Widgetlocker and Go Locker.

I stream bluetooth in the car and have no problems with ICS and calls/ streaming over bluetooth.

 

[rozel]

I am definately getting the drift that people are having a few problems with ICS not many. That said I have yet to see any benefits. I certainly haven't found ICS much different. And more importantly I haven't found a thread simply highlighting in bullet form what the benefits of it are on the SGS2. A lot of hype but a damp squib?

 

[Forbidden 403]

It brings improved stability (trust me it does, let a few versions roll out squashing the initial bugs), faster processing, better support for multi-core CPUs, better battery, improved gui, better tablet support, better cloud support.

Most importantly the improvements in the base architecture paves the way for app developers to make new and improved apps exclusive to ICS and above platform.

Thanks to android fragmentation (both hardware and software) we have to wait for the benefit to become starkly clear, as over time the fragmentation level (atleast software wise decreases).
Only on a nexus device is the benefit OVERTLY clear, in other handsets it is slightly subdued.

 

[MattJessop]

Well have tried both Nova and Apex, didn't like either as much as Go Launcher, so I am going to stick with that for now. Phone has been used alot today so I am going to run it "normally" tomorrow to see ow that goes

I should add there are some nice touches in ICS and it seems stale s my origins fears were pretty unfounded.

Thanks to all for your help.

 

[Deleted User]

zoomed in? I don't understand what you mean.
On Nova Launcher that I am using my wallpaper does not look any different from how it looks on the default touchwiz launcher.

@MattJessop
Hope you checked my post above regarding your lockscreen issues? Do tell me if it solved the issues you faced.

When i look at my picture i want the box that i resize to fit a specific part for example looks fine but the minute i apply the picture it then zooms in. I'll take a couple of screens to show you what i mean. The same thing happened to me with launcher pro and Adw-not go launcher iirc.

 

[Forbidden 403]

@JR866Gooner
Once you upload the screenshots it shall be easier to understand the exact problem and possibly find a solution.

 

[MattJessop]

When i look at my picture i want the box that i resize to fit a specific part for example looks fine but the minute i apply the picture it then zooms in. I'll take a couple of screens to show you what i mean. The same thing happened to me with launcher pro and Adw-not go launcher iirc.

It did that on mine too. Go Launcher is fine (although I did have to reboot the phone to get itback to normal)

 

[Slug]

When i look at my picture i want the box that i resize to fit a specific part for example looks fine but the minute i apply the picture it then zooms in.

It sounds like you are cropping the image to less than 800x480px, and as the wallpaper image has to fit that screen res it will be upsized to suit.

 

[Deleted User]

An example,

with TW

Now the exact same image with apex,

I select The exact same margin in both launchers when choosing a wallpaper!

 

[Kibbster]

To me that looks like the image isn't shrinking to fit the screen size and is being viewed at original size.

Try resizing the picture on a PC to 800x480 then copy it back to the phone and try again.
I would have thought most launchers should resize to fit, but in this case I guess not.

 

[mamabear3]

I got an Acer Iconia a200 for Christmas and absolutely loved it! I am not a computer person so I won't be speaking computerese in my explanation. My Acer came with honeycomb, which worked perfectly for me. I use it for e-reading, some e-mail, a couple of games, looking things up on the internet, etc. But mostly I used it to catch up on t.v. shows I missed. Then I got the ics upgrade (automatically). Since then, when I try to watch a show, it will play for about 10 minutes then the screen goes black. The sound continues, but no video. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling flash, but it didn't help. Now I hardly ever even turn on the tablet at all anymore. I just got a Samsung Galaxy S II phone a couple of weeks ago and I am really enjoying it. It can do just about everything the Acer could do. I can catch most of my shows on sprint TV. I've been reading that the ics upgrade is coming to the galaxy s II. Does anyone know if this is going to be automatic? If so is there a way to prevent it? I don't want to lose another good thing. I would love to be able to put my tablet back to the way it was as well. Is there a way to do that? (Remember, I am really not a computer person at all, so be gentle, please....) Thanks.

 

[Forbidden 403]

@JR866Gooner
Hmmm... That is quite weird, try Kibbster's solution, that's the last thing that comes to mind for now.

@mamabear3
As and when the update is pushed you will be asked before applying it.
Go to system -> about phone -> software update and deselect auto update.
About the Acer thing I am guessing that due to some reason the screen off is not being locked. Check the settings for idle screen time out settings and that should fix it.

 

[rozel]

Well ok this thread is now keeping on topic but maybe I am going to take it off a little.....


My feelings are that the benefits of ICS are still to be seen. I haven't seen any as yet. Not interested in: - "better tablet support, better cloud support." I am in the UK and if I have anything I wish to store then I store it safely on a household server which is protected if one of it's drives fails. As for tablet support - how the H**L is that relevant within a SG2S forum?


So far upgrading to ICS I have noticed a few menu changes - absolutely no difference in speed of operation, minor changes when I am browsing but I have two very "just slightly less than big" issues.

I connect to my household's broadband via WiFi like I suspect many other people do. Following the update to ICS connecting is causing problems with my router necessitating a router restart. This is not good - connecting when I was on GB was absolutely no problem.


Second - I took a video recently with my camera - a Cannon 550D - which saves it's videos to an SDHC card in .AVI format. I transfered it to my phone, as is and on GB it played flawlessly, whichever video player I used. Now the same .AVI file plays only the sound - no video playback. I have updated all my apps as the "Play Store" has identified post upgrade - obviously ICS is to blame. Not an issue isolated to upgrading like in another thread about bluetooth. This is a potentially a big problem. I do not want to keep changing the formats of videos I take with my camera if I want to play them back via my camera. Could it be a codec problem? If so why hasn't the upgrade identified this?


OK so again IMHO just feeble infos about the benefits. I understand the need to keep up to date with an OS but the benefits and the change-logs should have been published BEFORE releasing the updates and as far as all the hype was concerned, it is typical if a huge manufacturer like Samsung says it is going to roll out a massive upgrade to it's phones' OS.

 

[Slug]

Well ok this thread is now keeping on topic but maybe I am going to take it off a little.....

Off-topic discussion moved to Suggestion Box & Feedback forum, where the issues raised will be seen by the site admin and/or owner.

 

[rozel]

Thanks Slug - with hindsight I thought I should have split my post as you have done but wasn't sure where to post the final bit. Thanks for doing what you did

OK I downloaded Mobo Video Player Pro - this plays the .AVI file perfectly. My other apps still do not play it - would clearing their caches uninstalling/reinstalling resolve this? Even the stock video player doesn't play it. Not a biggy as I have the means to play it back now on my phone but wondered if anyone else has had video play-back problems since upgrading?

I am still having a few connection difficulties with my WiFi's router - any thoughts as to how to improve this?

 

[mamabear3]

Thank you for helping me Forbidden 403. I did the deselect on my SGS2 auto update as you suggested and feel better not having to worry about that. I also tried the idle screen time out thing on the Acer Iconia a200, but apparently that wasn't the issue. I may not have fully explained that one; When I go to the site (like ABC.com), then choose the show/episode, a video box opens in the middle of screen and episode begins. After about 10 minutes, the video box goes black, sound continues, and all images and text outside video box is still visible. Never had issues before ics upgrade from honeycomb. Any ideas?

 

[schrodinger56]

I'm being given the opportunity to update my S2 from 2.3.4 Frimware to ICS over the air, however given the problems some people have had with the ICS update I'm hesitant to carry out the update especially when my phone is running without any problems under 2.3.4.

If I did update and encountered problems then my technical knowledge is so limited as to prevent me rectifying any issues that cropped up. I'd be stuck with a "broken" phone!

Is an ICS update really worth the risk when ones phone is running perfectly well or is the chance of any problems cropping up negligable?

Thanks.

 

[biep]

I am having the same question, would like to know from other users if they are satisfied with ICS and what are the improvements they experience ?
I got the update OTA in Belgium, but I posponed it for a week...

 

[sntaylor]

Personally I've been quite happy with my upgrade, with very little difference that as a novice, I've been able to detect.

It probably is a risk to upgrade depending on the things that you have read as going wrong, and if it happened to you, how that'd effect your usage.

Ultimately, if your happy with gingerbread, may as well keep it!? Get a pal on the same network etc to do theirs first

 

[semus]

^^ i agree, hehe...

I tried ICS, had no problems at all, but it is definitely not 100% ready, still not perfect and there will be lots of updates soon, so i went back to gb, until then.

 

[evohicks]

No issues here at all, I like it, only thing is I was expecting a better lock screen where you can at icons to it, but there are apps to do that. All in all a good update.

 

[apk x64]

no issue here . totally worth it (especially Google Chrome)