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Any downsides to Honeycomb Update?

J

jonrosenfeld

Newbie
Hey all,

The Honeycomb update is finally available to us WiFi only Flyer owners and I have to ask: any regrets or downsides I should be thinking about? I like what I have and would hate to suffer:

* Worse battery life
* Lack of compatibilty with my favorite apps (any that don't work for you?) like Calengoo, Colornote, Evernote, Seesmic, Mindjet or Dropbox
* Some surprise about the screen being too crowded or icons being too small.
* Stuff I haven't thought of

Anything? What are the biggest plusses?

Thanks for any advice!

Oddly nervous (as I'm a big fan of my Flyer),
Jon
 
The main downside is losing the display space that the navigation bar takes up. It is always there, so, less space for games, video, browsing, etc.

IMO, a 7" tablet is small enough. If you have a chance, compare the A100 to the Flyer display. The Flyer looks much better, in part due to more display space to use.

Both my Flyer and View are staying with GB, unless ICS is released, since that version can get rid of the navigation bar, if a device has capacitive buttons.
 
jonrosenfeld said:
Thanks, guys. Anyone else? (though for now, that display size issue makes me think GB is the way to go, at least for now...)
Click to expand...

I don't find the nav bar at the bottom to be much of a display hog. I REALLY like that the notifications can be read and dismissed without pulling down the top slider bar. This means you can check them without losing focus on what you were doing.

In some apps (the Kindle app for instance) the nav bar is suppressed until you touch the bottom of the screen and then it returns. I'm sure that this can and will be implemented on other applications in the future.

My one complaint is the lockout PIN screen. I use a corporate exchange account that forces the password unlock pin code when unlocking. Previously the pin code screen was much faster to load, and it had more of a delay before it locked so you could press the on/off button to turn off the screen and if you pressed it right away you would still be unlocked. Now it locks right away so if you close and then change your mind you have to reenter the pin code.
 
The nav bar is suppressed (icons go dark), but the space is still gone. I do not mind it at all on the 10" Thrive, but comparing the Flyer to the Acer 100 at Best Buy, I was surprise how cramp it is with the space gone.

If you are a movie, game emulator nut like me and also browse a lot, the space IMO makes a big difference on a 7" display. Ditto for book or comic reading , since you lose the space.
 
I have a WiFi only model and took the plunge last week. I can echo the issue that Dolmangar highlighted re the lock PIN screen. I actually had a much bigger problem, I was using TouchPal as my keyboard when I was running GB. After installing the HC upgrade my lock screen came up as usual (I also use a corporate exchange account) and I entered my PIN but there was no "OK" or "Enter" button that I could use to confirm my PIN so I couldn't get into my Flyer! I called HTC support and the only option open to me was a factory reset! This was achieved by holding the Volume Down button and pressing the On/Off button. It took me 20+ attempts, it is very tricky to get the sequence right, it kept re-booting, but eventually it worked. This wiped everything but HC was still the operating system so I*only* had to re-enter my details all over again and everything was re-loaded fairly quickly.

Ultimately I am happy that I upgraded, I don't find the constant notification bar a problem, actually I find it rather useful. Just be careful with any third party keyboard and maybe before you upgrade (if you still want to) select the stock keyboard, as the HTC support staff said that some third party apps can react unpredictably to the upgrade.
 
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