Ok folks, what Im going to do here is go through some of the major things I have noticed since installing the official ICS but before I do that, let me give my two sentence review.
Its nice. If you are wondering what the Note SHOULD have performed like on launch, this is it. MUCH improved scrolling, better performance and slightly more aggressive app handling.
Ok, I lied, three sentences.
Changes:
NOTE that I will NOT be covering changes to the launcher portion of ICS.
1. Overall performance is better. Using Go Launcher, with the app drawer set to 6x6, it scrolls MUCH more smoothly. The market scrolls much smoother, settings, the same. It isnt 'butter' but it is much more acceptable now, not stuttering to the point of overshooting apps.
2. Notifications menu now has two new toggles - Flight Mode and Power Savings. There is now also a fast Settings button that will take you straight into the Android Settings app.
3. The power menu (long pressing your screen on/power button) has had accessibility moved to the top of the menu (if you had this enabled) and now has a 'Reboot phone' option (YAY!!)
4. ALL system apps that CAN be linked to the market are now correctly linked. This means your list of installed apps will be a bit longer (when looking in the play store list) and also means that these apps will be able to be updated without manually searching for each one by one.
5. There are obvious signs of the original UI ICS all over the place, notably the spinning circle but you'll see it everywhere.
6. Improved battery life, for the amount I have used the phone, its at a much higher percentage than it normally would have been.
One quick point to interject, apps can now be disabled
Here are a few more that I just disabled, thanks for this tip
AT&T Navigator
Email (I use the gmail app)
Google+
Now. the rest of this is the stuff under settings. Im going to cover what I recognize to be new.
Under Settings:
First off, you'll notice that everything is now categorized into different groups now, making finding things in Settings a bit easier.
Wireless and Network
Tapping on Wifi or Bluetooth now takes you to the screens to configure the advanced settings for these features. Tapping 'On/Off' on the right side enables or disables the radios.
Data Usage
Here is where you can set up your billing cycle dates and put hard caps on your PHONE to keep your data usage under what your carrier allows. Fairly straight forward but make sure you set your billing date up correctly or this will be of NO use.
More
Here you will find NFC (YAY), Android Beam (send data between two devices using NFC), and Wifi Direct (connect two devices with a wifi antenna without the need for a router/hub).
Device
Call
Nothing new here, just a few things moved around a bit.
Sound
Again, nothing new, just shuffled a bit to make things easier to get to. Note that the menu button now no longer brings up any advanced settings here, they are all accessible by navigating the screen options.
Display
A few things moved around a bit BUT a new feature, Show battery percentage in notifications bar. NICE Also, Gyroscope Calibration is now an option.
Power Saving
Unchanged
Storage
Prettier but unchanged, a little bit more information but not much.
Battery
Unchanged
Applications
Unchanged, tho it should be noted that you can hit your menu button while in this screen to sort the list by Size
Personal
Accounts and Sync
Unchanged
Location Services
Unchanged
Security
Big one here but this is where you will find face unlock and even a voice recognition feature that can I believe be used in conjunction with another method to unlock your phone. I havent had much time to look at it yet.
Language and Input
Largely unchanged but its a bit more intuitive to change your keyboard now. And, for an interesting 'feature' that Samsung forgot to disable, Pointer speed, which has NO effect on our phone, this option is only for phones with a trackpad (Samsung forgot to disable this - made me smile).
Back up and reset
Nice, this option used to be buried under privacy and is now brought out into the main settings list. Much easier to find, it
System
Dock
Unchanged
Pen Settings
New option, Hovering pen icon (shows a pen icon over the screen where the pen is hovering)
One Handed Operation
3 completely new settings, to configure the calculator, dialer, and unlock pattern to be configured for use with one hand (clumps everything on one side of the screen so that you can say dial numbers with just your thumb rather than the usual having to hold the phone with one hand and dial with your other).
Date and Time
Unchanged
Accessibility
Two new options, Speak passwords. Havent had time to check to see if this works for unlocking the phone as well, but if it does, that would be silly. Tap and Hold delay can now be configured as well as allowing or disallowing the installation of web scripts.
Motion
New option, Double Tap to allow voice dictation easily. Sweet
Developer Options
Several new things you can make visible for the nerdy types but Im not going to cover them here since they are really only for developers .
About Phone
Unchanged
Ok, that should give you an idea of what to look for, if someone else wants to cover the touchwiz stuff (adding or removing widgets/icons/homescreens) I can add it.
Also, if there is anything I missed or got wrong...
Its nice. If you are wondering what the Note SHOULD have performed like on launch, this is it. MUCH improved scrolling, better performance and slightly more aggressive app handling.
Ok, I lied, three sentences.
Changes:
NOTE that I will NOT be covering changes to the launcher portion of ICS.
1. Overall performance is better. Using Go Launcher, with the app drawer set to 6x6, it scrolls MUCH more smoothly. The market scrolls much smoother, settings, the same. It isnt 'butter' but it is much more acceptable now, not stuttering to the point of overshooting apps.
2. Notifications menu now has two new toggles - Flight Mode and Power Savings. There is now also a fast Settings button that will take you straight into the Android Settings app.
3. The power menu (long pressing your screen on/power button) has had accessibility moved to the top of the menu (if you had this enabled) and now has a 'Reboot phone' option (YAY!!)
4. ALL system apps that CAN be linked to the market are now correctly linked. This means your list of installed apps will be a bit longer (when looking in the play store list) and also means that these apps will be able to be updated without manually searching for each one by one.
5. There are obvious signs of the original UI ICS all over the place, notably the spinning circle but you'll see it everywhere.
6. Improved battery life, for the amount I have used the phone, its at a much higher percentage than it normally would have been.
One quick point to interject, apps can now be disabled
Originally Posted by j101399j View Post
You can now also disable most stock apps.
I know this worked on some of the ICS roms, so I just looked and verified that even though you cannot uninstall some of the bloat (without root), you can disable it . For example, I can disable Swype and install Swype Beta now. I hate AT&T Navigator, so I disabled it. If it cannot be uninstalled, disable it.
(settings --> applications --> all --> select the app and uninstall any updates --> disable) kinda like freezing the apps without root
City ID
Device help
Media Hub
Polaris Office
Swype
Yellow pages
YPMobile
Yahoo finance
Here are a few more that I just disabled, thanks for this tip
AT&T Navigator
Email (I use the gmail app)
Google+
Now. the rest of this is the stuff under settings. Im going to cover what I recognize to be new.
Under Settings:
First off, you'll notice that everything is now categorized into different groups now, making finding things in Settings a bit easier.
Wireless and Network
Tapping on Wifi or Bluetooth now takes you to the screens to configure the advanced settings for these features. Tapping 'On/Off' on the right side enables or disables the radios.
Data Usage
Here is where you can set up your billing cycle dates and put hard caps on your PHONE to keep your data usage under what your carrier allows. Fairly straight forward but make sure you set your billing date up correctly or this will be of NO use.
More
Here you will find NFC (YAY), Android Beam (send data between two devices using NFC), and Wifi Direct (connect two devices with a wifi antenna without the need for a router/hub).
Device
Call
Nothing new here, just a few things moved around a bit.
Sound
Again, nothing new, just shuffled a bit to make things easier to get to. Note that the menu button now no longer brings up any advanced settings here, they are all accessible by navigating the screen options.
Display
A few things moved around a bit BUT a new feature, Show battery percentage in notifications bar. NICE Also, Gyroscope Calibration is now an option.
Power Saving
Unchanged
Storage
Prettier but unchanged, a little bit more information but not much.
Battery
Unchanged
Applications
Unchanged, tho it should be noted that you can hit your menu button while in this screen to sort the list by Size
Personal
Accounts and Sync
Unchanged
Location Services
Unchanged
Security
Big one here but this is where you will find face unlock and even a voice recognition feature that can I believe be used in conjunction with another method to unlock your phone. I havent had much time to look at it yet.
Language and Input
Largely unchanged but its a bit more intuitive to change your keyboard now. And, for an interesting 'feature' that Samsung forgot to disable, Pointer speed, which has NO effect on our phone, this option is only for phones with a trackpad (Samsung forgot to disable this - made me smile).
Back up and reset
Nice, this option used to be buried under privacy and is now brought out into the main settings list. Much easier to find, it
System
Dock
Unchanged
Pen Settings
New option, Hovering pen icon (shows a pen icon over the screen where the pen is hovering)
One Handed Operation
3 completely new settings, to configure the calculator, dialer, and unlock pattern to be configured for use with one hand (clumps everything on one side of the screen so that you can say dial numbers with just your thumb rather than the usual having to hold the phone with one hand and dial with your other).
Date and Time
Unchanged
Accessibility
Two new options, Speak passwords. Havent had time to check to see if this works for unlocking the phone as well, but if it does, that would be silly. Tap and Hold delay can now be configured as well as allowing or disallowing the installation of web scripts.
Motion
New option, Double Tap to allow voice dictation easily. Sweet
Developer Options
Several new things you can make visible for the nerdy types but Im not going to cover them here since they are really only for developers .
About Phone
Unchanged
Ok, that should give you an idea of what to look for, if someone else wants to cover the touchwiz stuff (adding or removing widgets/icons/homescreens) I can add it.
Also, if there is anything I missed or got wrong...
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