Ics & B4a

[margret]

Hello,

Just a few notes I wanted to share. I just download the new ICS for the ASUS TF101. I have five apps I have written with B4A and all of them seem to run just fine on this new version of Android. I will continue testing and report if I find any issues. One thing I don't like is now on the TF101, background data is on and locked with no way to turn it off. If they don't fix this, I will go back to HoneyComb. I want control over the data that moves to and from my device. Or at least know the active app that's doing it.

Other than just a few small things, it's about the same as Honeycomb with, in some cases, less control.

Margret

 

[legion48]

Interesting post, thank you Margret. I'm due an upgrade on my phone in 2 weeks and was considering the Samsung Nexus mainly because of ICS but I don't like the idea of not being able to turn off background data.

It looks like the Samsung Galaxy SII is back in the frame.

 

[ggpanta]

@margret Probably its a bug in the firmware? Maybe you dont use an official firmware or its a pre-release?

@legion48 In any case both the the Nexus and the Galaxy S2 can turn off background data so you are ok with either.

Note that 4.0.3 is not yet officially released for the S2, latest XXLPB is quite buggy but extremely gentle with my batery

 

[margret]

I am running 4.0.3 and it is the official release by ASUS for the TF101. It also has no Home button for the browser now and you have to set the desktop page mode in the browser per each webpage. I don't know if ASUS would have changed that many things, but there is no way to turn off background data in this released version.

 

[ggpanta]

That can be painfull, especially if you are not on a flat fee data plan
About the browser, did you try chrome? I am quite happy with it, a lot better than the android browser.

 

[margret]

Update:

The new ICS on the Transformer TF-101 has a few issues that I hope ASUS will fix very soon. All B4A apps run fine on this new ICS but pause and then continue. I then started running the built in software. Browser, etc. I have noticed they have this same pause and continue issue. During the pause you are all most expecting to see an exception screen but it never happens. It's like the device has locked up but in a few seconds it will continue with no errors. If this was corrected and they added a way to turn off background data I would be in a better mood about ICS. However, HoneyComb was smoother and had all the features(on my unit) on this tablet that ICS does. I expected more. If anyone has any information on reverting back to the last build of HoneyComb for this device, I would love to know how and to hear your thoughts.

 

[PharCyDeD]

This is an issue of ASUS and not ICS:

ASUS Transformer ICS update leaves tablets unusable | ZDNet


From what I found this seems like your next move:

You will need to perform a FACTORY DATA RESET and start again. In ICS this is found under, SETTINGS - PERSONAL - BACKUP & RESET.

Remember to back up your personal data prior to doing this as this process will wipe your tf of all data and restore it back to as if it had shipped pre installed with ICS.

Having done the reset, try your tf for a while with only the stock apps to ensure it is working well. Then install apps one at a time and check their compatibility with the new OS. If you find an incompatibility that you cannot work around, uninstall the app and perform a hard reset before installing any others. Follow this process methodically and you should be able to resolve any issues that are not hardware related requiring a return to Asus.

There are ways to go backwards with your OS (and doing a factory reset might even do it..I am not sure), but I do not recommend anything other than the factory reset unless you really feel that is is needed. There are risks involved with doing this so I would personally just try to factory reset first. If you still want to boot backwards then let me know.

 

[margret]

I had the same thing happen on a Windows XP machine updated to service pack three. It did the exact same thing, pause and then continue. On the XP machine, I booted in safe mode and deleted every driver that was installed and also deleted them from the hard drive. Rebooted in standard mode and re-installed the distribution drivers and now the machine runs fine.

I hate to hear your answer on the ASUS TF because I have a lot of data to be backed up and it is the time issue to backup, reset and all the time required to re-install the apps and set back up the data. When I first got the TF about 6 months ago, it had that pause and restart issue with HoneyComb. About the second update I did, corrected that issue and the unit has run fine from then on, until now that is. All that said, I know the hardware is fine, because of the amount of time I have used it. What ever gets busted with the ICS update should not of happened. ASUS should of taken more time to make sure. I have no apps installed other than the ones I have written. I have uninstalled them and done a hard power down reset and have the same issue. I don't know enough to know if Android accesses hardware with DMA or with Bios or the like, so if you know, can you explain why a factory reset is or should fix this issue. If it does correct the issue, it's because something is being changed. What? Another mistake ASUS has made is not given us the option to keep and rollback to the previous OS.

 

[PharCyDeD]

Apparently one of the things that broke the ICS update is if ANY apps where not up to date before the update installed it set a ton of possible errors in place. This is just one thing that went wrong, but could cause strange issues with battery draining, random shutdowns, boot loops, etc. It is possible the BIOS somehow got corrupted as well i suppose. The only way to truly fix it is to reset everything or wait and hope an update comes along to patch it all up. I believe you will reset back to honeycomb and can just deny the ICS update until it is reported as stable. I wish I had better answers, but every solution I know requires a reset (even risky methods like rooting, unlocking, and loading custom ROMS) or waiting for ASUS to fix it. A lot of people are furious with them over this...and I can see why.