The Bionic And ICS

[CoyotesFan4Evr]

I have a friend that is completely against the ICS and probably even JB updates, at least for the Bionic. He is on his 5th Bionic....and yet he waited 3 years for this phone and yeah he says it's a piece of crap. The inside story on my friend is this. He is nothing special in the ways of motorola or google, or even verizon. His brother works at Verizon Corporate. And as some of you may know Verizon employees depending on their job title and location get certain privileges. My friend was able to get the Bionic the exact day it came out because of his brother. Basically he signed up to test the phone.

Anyways, he uses his phone for certain things and I use mine for certain things which are very different. He plays high end graphic games that require a lot of processing power. I use mine for normal stuff, texting, calling, some facebook, some e-mail, and some games. My friend also does PDF's on his phone as well.

So with the grounds having been laid out, I'm on the hunt to get some answers to help change his mind on both ICS and JB for the Bionic. He is actually very seriously thinking about going over to the Iphone 5. He feels that with the new operating system of ICS that the battery drain will be greater on the Bionic. I pointed out to him that mine has actually increased and I'm on an older leak of ICS. Other than that, I don't have much to show for the benefits of ICS.

I understand his frustration with the Bionic, I mean he waited 3 years for the phone with the hype of it being the phone to end all phones and only to come to find out that he keeps getting screwed up phones. He is on his 5th one. Honestly I don't know how much bitching he can do but it's the same issues over and over again. None of which I've had at all.

So uh, yeah....my friend is really up on all the tech stuff and everything, I mean he hacked the Droid Eris to make it not only a world phone but also to the extent of having free phone calls and internet. Now since I don't know that much about all the writing of programs and what it takes to hack a phone..to me that's pretty damn impressive.

I personally don't want to loose another friend to the Iphone. That would really suck....

 

[Thom]

Well ... I think there is room in the market for Bionic, Razr, and iPhone. I came to the conclusion that if a person is attracted to the iPhone they should do it because they are never going to be happy with the Android world.

Conversely ... a lot of people (us) would not take an iPhone if it was dipped in gold.

What I have heard mostly about replacement phones is the Verizon approach ... do a FDR (Factory Data Reset) and if you are still getting 4G data drops ... replace the phone.

What is clear is that there were ongoing software deployment problems on the tower side and device side and because there are so many Android options the solutions were coordinated with different times on different devices.

ICS seems to F I N A L L Y address the outstanding data drop problems in the Bionic.

If he is on his fifth phone and it was not due to data drops ... ask him who the "friend" is who is lining up his replacements. Pure supposition on my part but I think someone is yanking his chain.

If he is heavily into gaming he is probably using games that take advantage of the second core already.

(I've had my Bionic since hour one of release day. The hardware is rock solid. The software is finally stabilizing. 5.9.905 took care of just about all software problems except for 4G data drops.)

... Thom

 

[doogald]

Well, all I can say is that there is nothing wrong with switching to an iPhone. iPhones are excellent devices, and Apple supports them far better than the Android OEMs and carriers support their phones (and I don't mean just providing OS updates; there is also the issue of hardware support, for which the Apple Genius Bar is second to none.)

Phones are simply tools, and you use the tool which is best for you. You've already said that your friend uses the phone differently from you. Playing games: the iPhone is better at that than Android (and if you do have to swap phones, or do the equivalent of a factory data reset, with iCloud backup of your device, a replacement phone will be set up just like the phone you had before pretty quickly.) If a world phone is important, I think that there is no better phone on Verizon at the moment than the iPhone 5, which has an unlocked SIM slot to allow you to install a foreign SIM while traveling.

Android, of course, has its own advantages - for the next several months (at least!), free mapping and navigation is a strong Android selling point. If you use Google services, Gmail on Android is light-years better than on an iPhone. If you use the phone heavily, you can swap batteries, or get an external battery pack with a much longer capacity, which cannot be done with an iPhone (and the iPhone 5 currently has no Mophie-like battery case to add battery capacity.)

Anyway, his choice says nothing about your own choice, because you bought the phone that is best for you.

Now, if he has hacked Android phones in the past and enjoys doing so, that may be one thing that he will miss with the iPhone and iOS. (I'm not quite sure how he hacked an Eris into a world phone, since it lacks a GSM SIM slot, but that's not that important.) That said, at some point you grow tired of messing about with stuff like that, and a phone that "just works" is a great thing.

I agree with you about one thing: battery drain will not be higher on ICS.

 

[CoyotesFan4Evr]

Whenever he has an issue with the phone that annoys him to the point of replacing it he calls Verizon. They are the ones sending out the phone. At least that is as far as I know. His biggest complaint has been the squealing noise in the ear piece during phone calls. That or a buzzing sound while on calls. And yes that is what he is doing, using the second core for gaming and higher functions like PDF's instead of his computer.

He is a good friend, and does a lot of computer work and repairs. He used to be able to write code until it started getting so complex years ago. Somewhat like the way I used to use sites such as anglefire to build a personal website back in the day until the coding got way out of hand for me.

To be honest, my friend's brother pays his cell phone bill because he is on his brother's Verizon account. The catch to my friend testing phones when they first come out is that his brother is only allowed to do so, so many times within a certain number of years time span.

He only wants to go to the Iphone5 if the processing power is exactly the same or maybe a little better than the Bionic. If it is then he is seriously considering it.

 

[Thom]

My pure guess is that the squealing sound problems are conflicts between/among some apps that he has in simultaneous execution.

Eliminating them all and adding them back one at a time with a long time between each installation would be a way to identify the culprit.

... Thom

 

[CoyotesFan4Evr]

That is possible. But I would almost bet to guess that he has tried that.

 

[wildkitten]

I have not had a squealing or buzzing sound with my Bionic during calls. When I have my phone connected to my car raidio through the line in on the radio, I hear some background buzz when I'm not on a call or using anything on the phone. After listening carefully, it seems like it's the built in radio chip in the Bionic, but that's just a guess.

I have an iPod Touch, essentially the same as an iPhone without a phone chip. To me personally, iOS seems more of a multimedia experience than something I can be productive on. The iPhone 5's screen also doesn't seem very large, and hardly larger than the 4S to me, but as Doogald said, it's all about personal preference. I am not one of these who hates Apple for the sake of hating Apple and I love my iPod Touch, but at the same time, I want more from a phone than an iPod that can make calls. I also want more storage that I can add to, and the iPhone can't do that.

As for battery, I can't see an optimized ICS draining the battery any faster. I can see it utilitizing resources much better on hardware designed for something better than GB and having bettery battery life than it does now. Not to mention, with the Bionic you have the option of carrying a spare battery. Can't do that with an iPhone. But, once again, is all about personal preference and he has to get what's best for him.

 

[CoyotesFan4Evr]

I am unsure as to how he did that myself but I do know that he was able to fool the Verizon system into thinking he was in Japan instead of Arizona. Something to that effect, anyways I would love an Ipod touch. That is the only apple product I would ever own for the simple fact that I like the way it does music and games plus a touch screen. Anyways, with that being said I know the disadvantages that there are with Iphones.

I appreciate everyone's input on this and really it's making my point to him that much stronger. I really don't think he will like the Iphone because he is an android lover. I think that like many motorola owners he has a bad taste in his mouth from the Bionic. I for one do not. Just for the simple fact that I have not had a single issue with my phone.

I do have a small signal issue but I'm not to worried about it at the moment. My Bionic works the way I want and need it to without a hitch so I'm happy. I unlike other members of my household try to stay up as much as possible on phone technology and get excited about OTA updates where as they just say Eh whatever.

So with all of that out there, the biggest thing I think with him is just showing him the pro's of ICS. I have no doubt that it will make the Bionic better, especially for him.

 

[wildkitten]

I've been unhappy, but not with Motorola and not with my Bionic hardware wise. I have been unhappy about Verizon's implementation of 4G and how it authenticates which seems to be the root (no pun intended) of the data drop issue.

I don't understand what issues he would have with ICS. My Asus Transformer has ICS and it doesn't seem like a huge difference, at least UI wise but I can tell it's smoother and with ICS on the Bionic it can take full advanatge of the dual core CPU.

But in the end you have to let him decide for himself. I mean it;s good to present options and feedback to him and encourage him to seriously consider the pros and cons that he sees personally, but if he decides to go with the iPhone then perhaps in the end was the best choice for him.

 

[dautley]

But in the end you have to let him decide for himself. I mean it;s good to present options and feedback to him and encourage him to seriously consider the pros and cons that he sees personally, but if he decides to go with the iPhone then perhaps in the end was the best choice for him.

I'm with wildkitten, let the guy get what wants all by himself cause if he goes with what you recommend and doesn't like you end up getting the blame.

 

[stridermt2k]

You lost me at "doesn't believe in updates and plays high end games" in the same paragraph. WTF

If your friend won't do one then they shouldn't cry when the other doesn't work.

Stories about friends suck anyway.
Your friend is way wacky.