yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Acer Iconia A500] gammaRascal:
I want to read your review of ICS on your Iconia. What do you like, what you think is lacking and should have been different as compared to HC. Positive and negative reviews are important so don't feel like you only have to pick just what you like or what is wrong with it. Write it all. Your first impressions and if you want, a followup later - once you've had some time with it.

I'd like to ask that you put some thought into it. Not that it has to be long but no single sentences. I'll just get a mod to clean the thread of them.

I'll get the ball rolling:

I went ahead and installed and can report no issues so far. A couple of things though.

After it booted [after the install] it wouldn't connect to the network automatically - I had to manually tell it to connect, though it still had the credentials and has since connected fine upon multiple reboots.

The browser bookmarks synced automatically. My problem was with HC - for the life of me it wouldn't sync my browser - all my other computers synced up fine with my primary and I tried everything I could to get it to sync with HC but it wouldn't and that was from a fresh reset a few weeks ago. After rebooting into ICS I found all my bookmarks synced up quickly so I'm happy again.

No screen issues and it's far more snappier than it was on fresh vanilla HC. To be fair, I reset a few weeks ago and only installed about 5 apps - aldiko, dropbox, docs etc... the basics. Even vanilla HC was a bit of a bear sometimes but ICS is not.

No more stuttering when swiping through homescreen in orientations other than normal which is great to see.

I much prefer the new app drawer. It's a much more unified experience and swiping is so snappy! That's is the biggest things for me. But it's also nice to see a clean area. The HC apps/widget/wallpaper nightmare was just that. Not in terms of navigation, it just looked fugly and dropped me out of the whole HC look. Now it's far more complimentary to the ICS experience.

The whole swiping apps/notifications features is nice but I'm not sure it's really doing anything. I opened Gmaps and saw it listed in the running apps list in Settings - went to the homescreen - opened up the recent list and swiped Gmaps out - went back to settings>apps and it was still present. It wasn't a solid test, to be sure, but I'm not sure how significant the swipe to remove tasks is and whether it is actually meant to kills tasks or just remove them from the list. [confusion on my part] Second to that, I'm pretty ambivalent about the swiping notifications feature - an X to press, a tab to swipe - it's all the same and neither adds to or takes away from that basic function.

I could care less about the ring and I haven't read anywhere that we were suppose to get it at all so it's no surprise to me to not see it. Same with face-unlock. It's not something I would use.
[Acer Iconia A500] nishka256:
Well for my Acer a 500 the stock browser is super sloooww. It was super fast before the update. My screen flickers within some apps. For some reason scrolling is slow also. Before update I could swipe and scroll and it would scroll fast and its not the same anymore. For instance before update on my browser I could scroll down and it was so fast I would have to back up to get to exact spot I wanted to read. Now I scroll down and it only goes down a short distance and have to scroll again. I cannot remove zinio, tegra games and a few other bloatware that I have no use for. These are my big complaints with the update now.
[Acer Iconia A500] timboger:
Looking good so far.

Since the update I have been testing all of my apps. So far all are working correctly. I was disappointed that I lost root, however that was an easy fix. I searched the forum and found an easy way to get full root. Had a few hickups at first with the browser and network connections, but they seemed to correct themselves as the day progressed.

Overall I am very happy.
[Acer Iconia A500] a_patil:
Screen flickering is what I am also experiencing quite a lot with ICS. With honeycomb, that was never an issue but a lot of apps make the screen flicker in ICS. For me, the stock browser and scrolling is blazing fast with ICS. It had a bit of lag when on honeycomb. Also, I just tried uninstalling zinio and I was able to. Couldn't do the same with tegra games, however, though!

So far I am really liking ICS but there are definitely a few issues that need to be worked on. The update process in itself was not smooth. I had to try 4 times, reboot and even factory reset before I was able to update the tablet to ICS.

Overall, I am having mixed reviews.
[Acer Iconia A500] epicnoob66:
I had no problems downloading or updating. I just don't see much difference from honeycomb. I can now use some ics only apps, so that's ok. Switching home screens seems to have less lag. I guess I just expected more from this update.

Overall I guess it is nice to be up to date but it still feels llike the same old tablet.
[Acer Iconia A500] idroids:
ICS + A500 : Home Screen Long Press Disaster

If I'm missing something PLEASE let me know.

Otherwise why are people taking this sitting down?!

BEFORE ICS long press on Home Screens brought up:

1-split screen with Widgets and Apps below and ALL 5 Home Screens above

2-sending Widgets and Apps to specific Home Screens was a breeze

3-click on a Widget and send it to the page of your choice and watch it go there

4-click on one Widget after another and off they all go

5-the same applies to Apps: you can click on 10 apps one after the other and they all add themselves to the Home Screen of your choice

6-then with simple tap and back to the Home Screen

AFTER ICS long press on home screens brings up...are you ready for this?

1-Choose your wallpaper (WHAT A TOTAL WASTE OF THE LONG PRESS)

2-to get to the widgets list you have to press the apps grid icon at top right

3-that brings you to a tabbed list of Apps and Widgets (this is the OLD SLOW way of adding Apps and Widgets to your home screens!!!)

4-click on Widgets and

5-now press on one widget and ICS brings you back to the home screens where you can drop your widget on the main home screen or push it around to other home screens (very TEDIUS and CLUMSY process!!!!!)

6-now you

HAVE TO

go back HOME to then press the apps grid icon at top right

AGAIN

to get back to the tabbed list of Apps and Widgets, then press on Widgets and repeat the process for adding other widgets to the home screens!

7-each and every time you want to add an App or a Widget you ICS forces you to go through this process

8-meaning that you can only add one App or one Widget at......a.......time......!!!

I have to wonder what kind of genius would get rid of the split screen that shows all the home screens, the Apps, and the Widgets?!

Is there a launcher app that would give me back my split screen with a long press on the home screens?!
[Acer Iconia A500] sRDennyCrane:
So far, so good. I never expected the Ultimate Tablet Nirvana from ICS... just incremental improvements. The A500 is smoother and more responsive. I really like the new media player, especially the row of movies/clip thumbs, etc at the bottom. Chrome is a big thing. I've used about every browser out there and was never fully satisfied with any of them. Chrome, for the first time, gives a desktop experience on a tablet. That alone makes the ICS upgrade worthwhile.

On a side note, my 64gb micro-sdxc card arrived the same day I updated, so that's another nice In Your Face to the iPad rabble out there. 80gb of storage.
[Acer Iconia A500] Neoprimal:
You need to realize that ICS is written for use on phones and tablets, not just tablets. The old way may have been quicker on tablets but wouldn't be very useful for phones (and their much smaller screens). It was a necessary sacrifice.

I personally don't have an issue with the new way, just because I'm not adding 10 apps or widgets to a screen anyway and I don't find the movements that time consuming vs. the old way. If I WERE adding lots of apps or widgets to a screen then I suppose I'd agree completely. I however prefer the widgets in a bigger area instead of having to scroll forever through them, in fact to me it seems a better trade off for the widgets.
[Acer Iconia A500] dxwilliams40:
ICS appears to be more polished than hc when it came out. Hc 3.0.1 was not a refined experience. There will be some changes when 4.0.4 is pushed, but it is enough to prevent me from going out and purchasing the next new tablet.
[Acer Iconia A500] sRDennyCrane:
I'm betting this is simply they message they're sending because their servers are being overloaded from the ICS push.
[Acer Iconia A500] idroids:
Why ICS for Tablets AND Phones?

Taking the split screen feature away from my A500 is like taking my steering wheel and my automatic transmissions away from my car! Argggghhh!

Cutting corners on an OS so that it works exactly the same on phones and tablets makes about as much sense as saying that the engines used on a 2-seater plane, in a jet fighter, and in a 747 should all work the same so as to give the passengers the same experience. That is "plane" old silly. What is even SILLIER is to insist on putting a plush airliner seat into a 2 passenger plane or to insist on keeping a propeller on jumbo 747s.

I totally get that the split screen (showing ALL the home screens at once above and the Apps and the Widgets below) would not work well on an small phone but why should it since it's NOT designed for a small screen? Why do tablet users have to put up with taking 3 steps backward just so that phone users can take 3 steps forward.

Tablet users should simply be given the choice to customize their experience so that they can take advantage of the extra real estate on their screens instead of being forced to put up with restrictive aspects of an OS that is trying to be everything to everyone. Sure ICS is a big improvement on Honeycomb, but why did some aspects of its OS have to be amputated simply to satisfy some designer's need to have a single OS for 2 VERY different gadgets?

So PLEASE, when the next version of ICS comes out PLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEASSSEEE give us tablet users the split screen again through the long tap on the Home Screens! Think about it! How often are you going to change your background? Making the long tap lead ONLY to the background change screen is such a WASTE of a unique gesture!
[Acer Iconia A500] lowsum:
Well if you absolutely want long press to open drawer, try Apex launcher, it's based on ICS launcher but there's an option for binding long press/double tap to any function of the launcher. There is many more options that should suits you. Nova launcher is another alternative you can try.
[Acer Iconia A500] gears177:
:-)

Positives

A couple of the things I noticed right off is that when recording you don't get the terrible background noise you always seemed to get on hc supports avi video format now which I was happy with and the camera and video app seem to be recording at better detail not sure if its me or my cam? The browser is also blazing fast for me now. Layout is also crisp and clean the ring is useful makes taking screenshots a snap.

Negatives...have noticed some apps cause terrible lag for me there was also a lot of lag and freezing the first couple of hours I had the update. Also sometimes the screen flickers stated above ^^^^ none of these are big issues and shouldn't keep you from updating to enjoy :-)
[Acer Iconia A500] ebookof:
I had a lot of issues with the ICS update. I finally had to do a factory reset. Some issues were solved, but others remain:

Seems to be solved:

- Unstable applications (flashing and crashing, including Gmail).

- Unstable folders (flashing, crashing and all icons on the desktop disappearing).

Unsolved:

- Wifi is unstable and does not auto-connect (I have to connect manually when I restart the tablet or when I get home... it was working fine before ICS).

- The GPS does not work (I am not sure if it was working before ICS... as I had not had the time to test, so maybe it is not new).

- System update does not work (indicates that network coverage is insufficient despite the signal being strong and staying beside the wireless router).
[Acer Iconia A500] idroids:
ICS = bitter pill to swallow!

Well I learned the hard way that I shouldn't have jumped on the ICS bandwagon too early!

I cannot believe that in 2012 we have people designing MAJOR OS updates that have MAJOR problems and bugs!

Why not just wait another month or so and work out these major problems before unleashing ICS on everyone.

I mean didn't the ICS designer and programmers TEST ICS ON ALL TABLET AND PHONE platforms BEFORE releasing it to the world?

I'm going to milk my airplane analogy some more and say this:

Releasing ICS without having thoroughly tested it across ALL platforms is like building a plane and not knowing if it is designed well enough to fly at different altitudes and even worse not being sure it can actually land well in ALL major airports in the world in spite of different weather conditions.

Can you tell I am SICK of designers and programmers NOT having done their homework and using the general public to test their new OS for them?!

This HAS GOT to change!
[Acer Iconia A500] ctiger:
I have one huge problem. In HC 3.2.1, when I press the volume button, it brought out the volume bar, and by taping the speaker icon, I can turn the volume to off, now it doesn't do anything!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's really annoying to have to hold the volume button to turn off the sound.
[Acer Iconia A500] malickie:
One Giant bonus I like in ICS is you can make native folders without the need of a secondary app.

Having one strange flaw which is my tablet randomly vibrates for no apparent reason other than that so far so go and the whole UI just seems a bit smoother than it was before on HC. Browser seems Way more Responsive than HC as well.
[Acer Iconia A500] mknewman:
I'm pretty happy with ICS but GPS is not working at all. I need to check the gps.conf but it was working on HC.
[Acer Iconia A500] gtalum:
Best feature of ICS: Chrome browser.
[Acer Iconia A500] sRDennyCrane:
Deep breaths... deep breaths... it's just a tablet. I don't think a lot of us consider this such a huge deal. But, apparently, you do. Instead of venting over and over... why not just flash back to the 3.2.1 Honeycomb OS? If you were happy with it, simply go back to it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Personally, I keep finding more and more that I love about ICS. Besides all the small performance increases, I keep finding little tweaks here and there that make this an awesome OS. Thanks, Acer!
[Acer Iconia A500] exmeaguy:
Wifi speed is consistently terrible with ICS even when sitting next to the router.
[Acer Iconia A500] jimfr78:
I am very happy with ICS. On HC i had a lot of issue with the wifi, disconnected every 5 to 10 minutes, very unstable. Now no more issue. Very stable and fast.

I won't have to sell it
[Acer Iconia A500] documentaryman:
I'm finding the same with wifi. I have two routers in my studio at both ends of the building. On HC the A500 used to flip back and forth when it was in the large intermediate zone. ICS is far more consistent, though I sometimes have to manually switch to the stronger signal. But it keeps it

All in all I'm finding ICS to be a totally painless upgrade. All my apps work without issues. The tablet is much faster and more responsive. I run ADW as a desktop so the experience remains almost the same, just faster. The most visible new feature is the ability to easily swap apps out of memory. Compared to killing them in System Tuner Pro, it's a great improvement.

ICS is a welcome upgrade. It's not earth-shaking but as some others have pointed out, it feels like a new tablet.

Not that easy to roll off the tongue, but Acer deserves kudos.
[Acer Iconia A500] Neoprimal:
Odd. My wifi works fine. This is right after the update and a factory reset.

This is from my living room which is some ways from my router. I get excellent signal throughout my place till I reach the kitchen which is not that close to the router.

In essence, I don't think it's an ACER ICS issue, something personal s going on.

Have you tried, just for argument sake, restarting your router? I reboot mine every month.

GL.
[Acer Iconia A500] sRDennyCrane:
Gotta say WiFi is working well here, too. I was at work, went out to my car to relax on lunch, WAY away from the building, all prepared to use my phone as a hot-spot and... I still got a great signal from inside the building. If anything, I'd say connectivity improved under ICS.
[Acer Iconia A500] zhorkab:
Not seen any problems with my update. The only minor issue is that once in a while tablet freezes for a second, then back to normal operation it goes.

Any which way its running better than it did with HC.

Getting that acer wheel thingy would be nice though...
[Acer Iconia A500] pov1:
Kind of interesting reading these responses. My update went off with out a hitch. Things seemed to be somewhat screwed up for a couple of days but settled down & works great now, I like it much better than H. C. My only minor complaint is no auto connect with the wi fi but someone suggested resetting my router & that seems to make sense. All in all I'm very happy.

GPS is incredible now, works like it's supposed to !
[Acer Iconia A500] Galeleo:
ACER - STB with ICS

Well, I have to say that after spending several days with ICS, I am totally regretting the upgrade. My tablet is totally stock, and has never been rooted.

The install of ICS went without a hitch, seemed to go smooth. After the first reboot I noticed a few odd things:

-acelerometer only works for home screen, not within any e-reader apps

-when tablet goes into sleep mode, it would never wake up. I have to press and hold the power button to get it started again.

-the screen does not keep a constant brightness, it is constantly adjusting when in automatic mode

I also did a factory reset and unfortunately, all these problems remain and this thing chews threw batteries like a madman now! I only get four hours of surfing the net! Under HC, the tablet would last all day!

HC was way better, and ICS is a downgrade as it stands now. I really hope there is another patch out soon, because as ICS stands now, its unbearable.

I realize that the A500 is coming to the end of its shelf life soon, but man, ACER **** the bed on this update. Good thing there are custom roms to experiment with.

So for all you who haven't made the plunge to update to ICS, I strongly suggest you wait until a patch comes out, or you wont be happy
[Acer Iconia A500] sRDennyCrane:
First off, let me be clear- I believe you and the other people are having these issues. But it's odd that a lot of us aren't. In fact, I've had none of the issues you mentioned. Tablet was bone-stock beforehand, the update went smooth, and everything's been fine after.

I can't begin to guess why it would be fine for some people and not for others. The only factor I can imagine would be some specific apps or group of apps is causing some major incompatibility issue and causing all these problems.
[Acer Iconia A500] themechaniac:
probably mixed hardware on same model

Not running stock ics. I have been running civato's. Will not go back to HC or stock.

From what I can see by reading all his thread and many of the other devs. There has to be a hardware variation as some have problems and not all are self inflicted :o I know for a fact that my tab has a weak microphone and was covered over completely, till I cracked it open. Using a PSP headset works great. Seems people have used different regional versions and tweaks to overcome most oft these problems. My tablet has improved and other than the microphone deal it runs great. I have a lot of other hardware in house ; net books, laptops, iPod touch, iPad 2, Kobo reader, to compare it to. Only my main PC gets more use and it is tied into my TV and is my pvr. :o All I can say is if yours runs slow or has glitches something is wrong.
[Acer Iconia A500] YeeP:
I have not applied the factory update and am being very careful not to. Instead I have Icylicous rev 12 I believe. Either way, ICS has not been very nice to me. There are some cool little features here and there, but I have a lot of glitches. Winamp constant crashes (dont know if that is a winamp or ics issue) which did not happen in 3.2. I am considering falling back. Will continue to search for good roots to the factory release, and may try that. Not going to update unless I can get CWM back on here.
[Acer Iconia A500] razorj:
I don't know if it is just my tablet but is the quality of the pictures worse withe ics update. I used to remember the tablet taking better pictures.
[Acer Iconia A500] Sledgexiv:
Dis-app-ointed with ICS

I have a never been modded or rooted a500 yet seem to be plagued with update issues. Including but not limited to Wifi signal strength low, unstable apps - NFS just closes no warning or msg , asphalt 6hd can't play it's start video then closes, bia2 just closes, All the same with N.O.V.A. 2, dungeon hunter2 & hero of sparta, Gmail flickering screen - unusable.

From all the posts I've read ( in several different forums) there seems to be a lot of different issues with this update yet NO rock solid reason for them or straight forward fix.

My suggestion is if you are happy with your honey flavoured Droid wait a few months for the dust to settle OR take a gamble of maybe being inconvenienced.
[Acer Iconia A500] bvmerang:
my experience with ics ..

the change was almost paintfull, following the civato's "howto" guide.. step by step .. and in 20 minutes ics was running like a thunder..

first look ... very smooth comparing with the crunchy HC. a lot of cool gadgets. but first of all.... the speed ... its awesome.. stock browser works perfect...

in HC there were a lot of bugs navigating... shutdowns ... crashes ... nightmare.

i am using flexreaper r13 ... and i dont think that i will make more updates ...

.. only one thing .. tha battery consumpcion has rised .. am i right ?

HD video not to smooth....

..conclusion

WELL DONE GOOGLE! Fantastic job Civato !
[Acer Iconia A500] LiquidBreadMan:
So, I'm not the only one with the flickering mail apps?

It's not just GMail, but also the Acer eMail app. The only way I can get it to get it to stop flickering is to reboot the machine. It's crazy!

I'm also getting the "media service has stopped unexpectedly errors"
[Acer Iconia A500] dweebken:
Got my ics ota upgrade today, so I'm still learning it. But so far so good. I like the way I can use the thumbs keyboard on the login password screen. Previously I was forced to use the stock keyboard even though I wanted to use the thumb one. Much happier now.
[Acer Iconia A500] dweebken:
The Acer support page on the web still only has support for honeycomb. Wondering when they will update that to the ics? I'd like to see a new users guide. Anyone know where I can get an ics overview for this machine (A500) ?