Help being nagged to update S4 to Kitkat

[chanchan05]

While I do agree that I like what TouchWiz brings and their so called gimmicks, I'm one of some who don't like the icons used and some of the ways the launcher was laid out.

On my Note 2, the home screens are laid out in a 4x4 array of icons with no way that i can see to change it. That's a terrible waste of space IMO, when a 4x5 could fit nicely and still have nice big spaces for aesthetics, then you have the app drawer which is arranged in a 6x6 grid of icon which is the complete opposite and looks quite busy and tight. Which I do not like. I ended up using TouchWiz ROM and Nova launcher in the ff array:





The only TouchWiz apps I don't use is music and messaging. Music because someone stupid in Samsung decided that you should not have music controls on the secured lockscreen despite almost every other manufacturer and third party devs have it (and because Poweramp is so much better, and I bought TouchWiz theme for it anyway) and messaging for simple lack of features that I need, and the fact that even on the smallest font the characters are huge on my phone.

 

[androidlover9]

It's one of those things I don't mind the color on. My Galaxy S has those turned blue, my Note 2 still has it in green, but it's not something I care about to notice. IMO it's not something to not get the update over.

In the update they're still green, but the top part (when not dragged down) is all white.

 

[nickdalzell]

ick. i never will get into those dated looking flat design icons. i actually like the skeuomorphic TouchWiz icons myself. i have no problems with the home screen layout. one of my niggles with stock Android is that they allow too many icons at one time, which might not take up as much space, but i always end up hitting the app i don't want instead of the one next to it that i wanted. i only keep icons on my dock anyway, since S-Voice can do most of the app launching, and then there's the app drawer which makes the need for homescreen icons moot anyway.

I got the music player on my lockscreen with the multiple widgets option? it's the Samsung widget. it also seems to support songs i download off of Amazon MP3 Store so i don't need that 7Digital crap. (7Digital won't take my Visa card)

i prefer the Samsung Messaging app because it reminds me of the familiar iOS 6 style messaging app and i like the organic colors. i do wish the S4 gave me the black UI of the S3's Messaging app though. the white is a bit harder on the eyes.

i also prefer Samsung's email app because it supports multiple accounts, and has specific-to-service email notification icons in the bar up top. i don't get a repeat icon for each account, but an icon with a little Y! or Gmail icon to tell me which account the email notification belongs to. i also like Samsung's options in the email app, like peak/off peak customizable sync options, the UI is better than the AOSP/Google alternative, and i like how it supports Air View/Gesture. it also has check boxes.

Samsung's Music app supports control-by-voice too, which is really nice. if i dig in enough i got things that Play Music and other alternatives do not. you'd be surprised how much control Samsung gives the user.

What irks me with the Nexus and other tablets running stock Android is that their stock lock screen won't allow me to use the AOSP Android music widget/player on the lockscreen--only Play Music. i often sideload Widgetlocker to get around that (yes, sideload. even my elipsis tablet was deemed 'not compatible' by Play Store). not sure why Google hates AOSP stuff lately.

Yeah, the shade itself in KitKat from what i could see in the demo S5, still has green toggles, but they tack on that irksome iOS 7 circular style. the rest of it is like an ugly shade of pink/blue. when not shown, they're boring monochrome.

 

[chanchan05]

You don't get the music player widget if you use a secure lockscreen with pin or pattern lock. Anyway, NatureUX icons are still available for Nova launcher. The flat icons just blend better with my current background than the TW ones. I'll post a pic in a few min

I use all my emails on the stock TW email app except for Gmail since I have 2step and it's bothersome to set it up.

Also, I think you can get the blacks for the S4 messaging app. Just use a custom background. There's an option in the settings for that. Just download a black wallpaper then use that.

 

[nickdalzell]

oh cool. i thought i read something online suggesting the background was customizable. once again props to Samsung for more options

I use a simple swipe or voice unlock so that might be why my music works.

Tried to use NatureUX icons in the Nova launcher but on stock Android or devices running it, the colors are not saturated the same so they end up looking a bit blurry or washed out so i use a kinda 3-D or Chrome icon pack instead. i was able to get a great copy of the Samsung weather app through a skin for UCCW though. so we have that.

Just proves i have not yet discovered the endless options buried in the Samsung apps

 

[androidlover9]

ick. i never will get into those dated looking flat design icons. i actually like the skeuomorphic TouchWiz icons myself. i have no problems with the home screen layout. one of my niggles with stock Android is that they allow too many icons at one time, which might not take up as much space, but i always end up hitting the app i don't want instead of the one next to it that i wanted. i only keep icons on my dock anyway, since S-Voice can do most of the app launching, and then there's the app drawer which makes the need for homescreen icons moot anyway.

I got the music player on my lockscreen with the multiple widgets option? it's the Samsung widget. it also seems to support songs i download off of Amazon MP3 Store so i don't need that 7Digital crap. (7Digital won't take my Visa card)

i prefer the Samsung Messaging app because it reminds me of the familiar iOS 6 style messaging app and i like the organic colors. i do wish the S4 gave me the black UI of the S3's Messaging app though. the white is a bit harder on the eyes.

i also prefer Samsung's email app because it supports multiple accounts, and has specific-to-service email notification icons in the bar up top. i don't get a repeat icon for each account, but an icon with a little Y! or Gmail icon to tell me which account the email notification belongs to. i also like Samsung's options in the email app, like peak/off peak customizable sync options, the UI is better than the AOSP/Google alternative, and i like how it supports Air View/Gesture. it also has check boxes.

Samsung's Music app supports control-by-voice too, which is really nice. if i dig in enough i got things that Play Music and other alternatives do not. you'd be surprised how much control Samsung gives the user.

What irks me with the Nexus and other tablets running stock Android is that their stock lock screen won't allow me to use the AOSP Android music widget/player on the lockscreen--only Play Music. i often sideload Widgetlocker to get around that (yes, sideload. even my elipsis tablet was deemed 'not compatible' by Play Store). not sure why Google hates AOSP stuff lately.

Yeah, the shade itself in KitKat from what i could see in the demo S5, still has green toggles, but they tack on that irksome iOS 7 circular style. the rest of it is like an ugly shade of pink/blue. when not shown, they're boring monochrome.

I dunno I prefer Google's apps over Samsung's.

 

[nickdalzell]

i never got into the limits of Google's apps. it's either accept their UI design or nothing. they hide too many things under undisclosed gestures you find out by accident, and ruin AOSP development. plus, in my experience, they lag and hardly work when i need them to. i do use Google+ but that app works fine. the UI has never changed as G+ has always looked the same. i keep Google Now as a lockscreen widget for weather, but might try the GS4 skin on UCCW for it if the stock lockscreen supports it. it does not seem to support the in-house AccuWeather widget on the lock screen

 

[chanchan05]

You should keep on looking for icon sets that suit you I think. There's an HD pack for the Samsung theme out there for Nova I encountered before.

 

[androidlover9]

i never got into the limits of Google's apps. it's either accept their UI design or nothing. they hide too many things under undisclosed gestures you find out by accident, and ruin AOSP development. plus, in my experience, they lag and hardly work when i need them to. i do use Google+ but that app works fine. the UI has never changed as G+ has always looked the same. i keep Google Now as a lockscreen widget for weather, but might try the GS4 skin on UCCW for it if the stock lockscreen supports it. it does not seem to support the in-house AccuWeather widget on the lock screen

I dunno it works for me, they should have made it so you can change the colour of the notification thing at the top of the screen instead of having it a boring white colour.

 

[speedlever]

I've been following this thread just out of curiosity as I've been happy with my JB4.3 i337. A few minutes ago, my GS4 just started d/l KK. I've really been trying to avoid it, being a little unsure how it will affect my usage of my sd card.

Like Nick, I like how I have it setup and don't look forward to the app reinstallation and customization process.

I'm tempted to bite the bullet and FDR this thing and just update it anyway.

Regardless, this has been an informative discussion for me.

 

[nickdalzell]

mine had downloaded and kept pestering me to install it. i spoke with Verizon and Samsung who both said that if i kept ignoring the notification that it would go ahead and install in two weeks, on its own, exactly what happened to my iPhone 4 and iOS 7. no thanks. shame i had to root to stop it, because that should not be necessary.

RE: Nova Launcher icons, it's not Nova's fault. almost every device that runs stock Android doesn't have the color saturation that Samsung's products use that does justice to the Nature UX icons. as a result they appear washed out looking. ignoring the launcher differences and going with just the screen, the Nexus 10 and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition both share the same resolution and similar pixel densities. the only difference is that the colors on the 10 are very washed out, and flat. the Note's are superior and beautiful. if i had Nature UX looks on the 10 it would appear ugly and very washed out. the whole TouchWiz look is dependent on Samsung's screen tech and color saturation to look decent. and, of course, unless i root and install multiple Xposed modules, there is simply no way out of the box to change KitKat icons from white to Samsung green, or even Holo Blue, and no way to make the Nexus 10 status bar transparent, as that's more buried deep into the framework which Google has conveniently decided for no real good reason to disable, while they leave it available and enabled on the Nexus 7, which is like half the power of the 10. stupid Google. it is bad enough the Nexus 10 lacks hardware buttons and has some of the available screen space used up by a stupid nav bar, but now it's still got both the nav bar as well as the top notification bar breaking things up. Immersive mode never works either, as full-screen YouTube videos seem to show the full-size nav bar and they don't reduce to dots.

The one thing that KitKat has going for it is ART, and sadly, unless you have the Nexus 5, Google has conveniently disabled ART on any device no matter what. if you expect your S4/S5 to have ART with its very noticable speed improvements, forget it. it won't exist under dev options. result? nothing. nothing at all. no additional exclusives, no additional features found in Samsung's new flagship, and no gimmicks. all you get is an iOS 7-inspired (yet thankfully frosted glass/AERO-free) notification pulldown, with boring, colorless flat icons when not shown. some menu changes, a couple of apps removed, and no ART. yay. i am simply jumping at excitement.

If anything, the best reason not to update is perhaps because there is no recourse if it has caused problems. KitKat is one way. there is zero way to get back to Jelly Bean should you encounter any problems. in essence, if your $650 Galaxy S4 has been reduced to an unstable, laggy, or crash-prone, no signal brick after the update, tough nuggets. hate the new notification icons or shade? tough nuggets. want apps on your SD card? tough nuggets.

If one really wants KitKat i suggest the custom ROM route, as it would seem you could always downgrade from a custom KitKat ROM to the stock 4.3 ROM. ART remains an option in many custom KitKat ROMs, but the price is you lose all those cool Samsung features for a boring, too sterile, less organic and unnatural flat, vanilla Android UI.

 

[androidlover9]

mine had downloaded and kept pestering me to install it. i spoke with Verizon and Samsung who both said that if i kept ignoring the notification that it would go ahead and install in two weeks, on its own, exactly what happened to my iPhone 4 and iOS 7. no thanks. shame i had to root to stop it, because that should not be necessary.

RE: Nova Launcher icons, it's not Nova's fault. almost every device that runs stock Android doesn't have the color saturation that Samsung's products use that does justice to the Nature UX icons. as a result they appear washed out looking. ignoring the launcher differences and going with just the screen, the Nexus 10 and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition both share the same resolution and similar pixel densities. the only difference is that the colors on the 10 are very washed out, and flat. the Note's are superior and beautiful. if i had Nature UX looks on the 10 it would appear ugly and very washed out. the whole TouchWiz look is dependent on Samsung's screen tech and color saturation to look decent. and, of course, unless i root and install multiple Xposed modules, there is simply no way out of the box to change KitKat icons from white to Samsung green, or even Holo Blue, and no way to make the Nexus 10 status bar transparent, as that's more buried deep into the framework which Google has conveniently decided for no real good reason to disable, while they leave it available and enabled on the Nexus 7, which is like half the power of the 10. stupid Google. it is bad enough the Nexus 10 lacks hardware buttons and has some of the available screen space used up by a stupid nav bar, but now it's still got both the nav bar as well as the top notification bar breaking things up. Immersive mode never works either, as full-screen YouTube videos seem to show the full-size nav bar and they don't reduce to dots.

The one thing that KitKat has going for it is ART, and sadly, unless you have the Nexus 5, Google has conveniently disabled ART on any device no matter what. if you expect your S4/S5 to have ART with its very noticable speed improvements, forget it. it won't exist under dev options. result? nothing. nothing at all. no additional exclusives, no additional features found in Samsung's new flagship, and no gimmicks. all you get is an iOS 7-inspired (yet thankfully frosted glass/AERO-free) notification pulldown, with boring, colorless flat icons when not shown. some menu changes, a couple of apps removed, and no ART. yay. i am simply jumping at excitement.

If anything, the best reason not to update is perhaps because there is no recourse if it has caused problems. KitKat is one way. there is zero way to get back to Jelly Bean should you encounter any problems. in essence, if your $650 Galaxy S4 has been reduced to an unstable, laggy, or crash-prone, no signal brick after the update, tough nuggets. hate the new notification icons or shade? tough nuggets. want apps on your SD card? tough nuggets.

If one really wants KitKat i suggest the custom ROM route, as it would seem you could always downgrade from a custom KitKat ROM to the stock 4.3 ROM. ART remains an option in many custom KitKat ROMs, but the price is you lose all those cool Samsung features for a boring, too sterile, less organic and unnatural flat, vanilla Android UI.

Actually the Galaxy S5 has ART, and you can get it on your phone if you root it. (I tried it out back when I had CM 11, no that different)

I might install kit kat just to fix the lag 4.3 brought and my battery issue.

 

[nickdalzell]

i still think your 'lag' is caused by an app you got on it. KitKat has no speed improvements unless you got ART. just some minor bug fixes and certain visual 'makeovers' to butcher the use of that particular word. it depends on whether you want to live in the PS/2 era of flat design or not. subjective i suppose.

either way you might get more lag unless you like to wipe your data and do a factory reset. 'dirty' flashing an update will often cause problems unless you do a factory reset. so essentially you need to reconfigure your widgets, reinstall your apps (easy if you use an app market that saves the local APK file, otherwise you sit and wait for Play Store to restore your previous installs and hopefully have access to a fast wifi nearby) and that can take hours in my case.

and again, if it requires root to do something that should be standard, you're doing it wrong. or rather, Google is doing it wrong.

 

[androidlover9]

i still think your 'lag' is caused by an app you got on it. KitKat has no speed improvements unless you got ART. just some minor bug fixes and certain visual 'makeovers' to butcher the use of that particular word. it depends on whether you want to live in the PS/2 era of flat design or not. subjective i suppose.

either way you might get more lag unless you like to wipe your data and do a factory reset. 'dirty' flashing an update will often cause problems unless you do a factory reset. so essentially you need to reconfigure your widgets, reinstall your apps (easy if you use an app market that saves the local APK file, otherwise you sit and wait for Play Store to restore your previous installs and hopefully have access to a fast wifi nearby) and that can take hours in my case.

and again, if it requires root to do something that should be standard, you're doing it wrong. or rather, Google is doing it wrong.

I don't have a lot of apps, and all the ones I do have are official ones with no virsuses (twitter, facebook, etc)

ART is still beta, it should NOT be available to the public at all, so I understand why they wouldn't put it on.

And I don't get what you mean by flat, the quick toggle tray already looks flat to me don't see how it can get much different.

Edit: Kit kat is supposed to have better RAM management and apparently makes battery life better, so I might consider it considering the fact that 4.3 was pretty good on my device (besides the lag and battery life...)

 

[nickdalzell]

if it is under 'developer options' with the rest of the 'experimental' stuff i fail to see the problem. also, why is it available on the Nexus 5?

 

[androidlover9]

if it is under 'developer options' with the rest of the 'experimental' stuff i fail to see the problem. also, why is it available on the Nexus 5?

Well maybe they didn't have enough time to test it out on the S3/S4? Or maybe Google didn't want them to put ART in their older devices?

 

[nickdalzell]

how is the Nexus 10 'older?' they have not yet released an updated Nexus 10 yet! and worse yet, there are no transparent bars either, yet the 2012 Nexus 7 has them. wtf Google?

 

[chanchan05]

how is the Nexus 10 'older?' they have not yet released an updated Nexus 10 yet! and worse yet, there are no transparent bars either, yet the 2012 Nexus 7 has them. wtf Google?

Didn't the transparent bars only come with 4.3? Is your Nex10 updated? And is it using a different launcher? On Nova you have to activate the transparent bar support in the settings.

 

[nickdalzell]

the Nexus 10 has always had the black notification bar up top, with the usual nav bar at the bottom. the KitKat update was supposed to give transparent bars up top. i think it only shows on the home screen, not within an app. the Nexus 7 when it first got the 4.4 update didn't initially have them and neither did the Nexus 10. Google in their infinite laziness, despite ROM devs disagreeing with it, reasoned that the omission from the Nexus 10, at least, had something to do with 'performance issues'. i of course did not buy it as the 10 is their most powerful Nexus tablet. then when the Nexus 7 (2012 mind you,) got 4.4.2 update, it got transparent bars. same update on the 10? nope. still missing. it is missing now still. i don't buy their excuses.

I even sideloaded the GEL launcher in hopes that it needed that to work. still nothing. GEL and OK, Google, works, but not transparent bars. searching around i found out about Google disabling the code that allows transparent bars on purpose:

http://www.slashgear.com/google-disables-translucent-bars-in-nexus-10-kitkat-source-code-03303990/

However i'd like the Nexus line better if they added hardware keys, got rid of the space hogging nav bar (which i almost always hit buttons on by accident when i'm interacting with the on-screen keyboard) and gave us SD card slots and removable batteries. i'm thinking Google is simply lazy with everything, and really don't hold too high an opnion on them or their apps/hardware lately. hence why i use Samsung stuff.

Here is where it gets really odd. Play Store allows my Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition to have Real Racing 2 (i like it better than Real Racing 3 which looks like total crap on the Android tablets, it looks amazing on the iPad for some reason though. RR2 is ok on both) and NBA Jam, yet the Nexus 10, same screen resolution and PPI, is deemed 'not compatible' for both apps. the most powerful, 'reference' device in Google's line, yet it cannot even play or install a stupid port of a stupid Super Nintendo game and an older version of Real Racing, yet it will allow a horridly rendered Real Racing 3 to run. something is wrong with this picture.

Given the additional features, and better compatibility and support on the Galaxy Note, it's understandable the Nexus 10 finally got shelved with the other 'defective' tablets i've owned over the years. it might likely be sold since Google has essentially given up on it. the 10 also has horrid battery life. it gets like 5-6 hours of web browsing before it goes dead. the Galaxy Note can do about the same as the Tab 2 10.1, around 7-8 hours of video playback, 8-9 hours of web browsing, and 6.5 hours of 3-D gaming. c'mon Google, Samsung has you beat by miles!

 

[androidlover9]

the Nexus 10 has always had the black notification bar up top, with the usual nav bar at the bottom. the KitKat update was supposed to give transparent bars up top. i think it only shows on the home screen, not within an app. the Nexus 7 when it first got the 4.4 update didn't initially have them and neither did the Nexus 10. Google in their infinite laziness, despite ROM devs disagreeing with it, reasoned that the omission from the Nexus 10, at least, had something to do with 'performance issues'. i of course did not buy it as the 10 is their most powerful Nexus tablet. then when the Nexus 7 (2012 mind you,) got 4.4.2 update, it got transparent bars. same update on the 10? nope. still missing. it is missing now still. i don't buy their excuses.

I even sideloaded the GEL launcher in hopes that it needed that to work. still nothing. GEL and OK, Google, works, but not transparent bars. searching around i found out about Google disabling the code that allows transparent bars on purpose:

Google disables translucent bars in Nexus 10 KitKat source code - SlashGear

However i'd like the Nexus line better if they added hardware keys, got rid of the space hogging nav bar (which i almost always hit buttons on by accident when i'm interacting with the on-screen keyboard) and gave us SD card slots and removable batteries. i'm thinking Google is simply lazy with everything, and really don't hold too high an opnion on them or their apps/hardware lately. hence why i use Samsung stuff.

Just curious, how do I make it so that when I get nagged by Samsung to update, how do I disable it so it doesn't update until I want it to? (without root preferably)

 

[nickdalzell]

you have to root to disable the update notification as well as the pop-up dialog when you unlock your phone's screen. i tried but in the end the only way to get rid of it permenantly is to root the device and move or delete the file 'SDM.APK' from /system/app. simply force stopping it will delay it but it will come back a few minutes later. rebooting the phone won't work. neither will disabling permissions through App Ops.

After root (saferoot and adb work best) you install ES File Explorer, enable root explorer, turn on 'System read/write', then go to /system/app and move 'SDM.APK' to the SD Card. it should automatically make the notification vanish shortly after. i kept the Apk on my SD Card just in the off chance i might want to update later. i did not install a custom recovery.

All Saferoot does is give you Super User and that's it. it leaves pretty much everything else alone. to unroot just delete 'SuperSU.APK' and restart

 

[speedlever]

A 2 week auto-install clock? That's not good. Or rather, that puts me on a timetable I'd rather not have to deal with right now.

Well, I'll either have to figure out how to root this thing so I can kill the update or be prepared to FDR and install the update in the next 2 weeks.

 

[nickdalzell]

don't quote me on the 2-week thing. all i know is that Verizon's in-store rep, Samsung and Verizon tech support said the same thing. not sure if it is true or not. but three saying it is, hate to chance it and wait.

What amazes me is over the phone they both said it was 'odd how a user would choose to not update the device'. they really are insisting that this update is necessary. perhaps it includes some additional security features but they failed to grasp anyone actually choosing to not update the device.

BTW, in the dialog that comes up when you unlock, if you try hitting 'install later' it will only give you either the ability to update now, or let you set a time to auto-install. there is no 'don't remind me again' option. rooting is the only way to opt out sadly. until then hitting home or back dismisses the dialog until you unlock the phone next time.

 

[androidlover9]

you have to root to disable the update notification as well as the pop-up dialog when you unlock your phone's screen. i tried but in the end the only way to get rid of it permenantly is to root the device and move or delete the file 'SDM.APK' from /system/app. simply force stopping it will delay it but it will come back a few minutes later. rebooting the phone won't work. neither will disabling permissions through App Ops.

After root (saferoot and adb work best) you install ES File Explorer, enable root explorer, turn on 'System read/write', then go to /system/app and move 'SDM.APK' to the SD Card. it should automatically make the notification vanish shortly after. i kept the Apk on my SD Card just in the off chance i might want to update later. i did not install a custom recovery.

All Saferoot does is give you Super User and that's it. it leaves pretty much everything else alone. to unroot just delete 'SuperSU.APK' and restart

Sounds like too much of a hassle, maybe the two week thing is just your carrier? And why are they even forcing us to update?

 

[chanchan05]

The only way to not get nagged without root is to disable auto update check before updates even arrive. For example on my brother's S3. The update to 4.3 has been available for it for months now (a friend of mine who got her device from the same carrier had hers updated last year) but it never nagged him. A couple of minutes after I turned on autocheck, I was alerted of an update for the S3.