My moms new 4.4.2 vs my 4.0.4 - mine is better?

pawprints86

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When she got hers, I played around with it a bit expecting to find alot more features and settings that mine didnt have. Thats not the case at all! In fact, mine has MORE options and features. Why is that? Maybe they were trying to mimic a simple to the point OS like Apple or something.

Im glad I chose not to upgrade just yet! lol.

Am I the only one who prefers the older OS? I have no experience with anything in between those 2, just seems strange that the older device OS can do more things. Simple things - like display the battery percentage (yes, i found the app, but still, why is an APP necessary?? Its a basic feature on mine lol).
 

B. Diddy

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The battery icon was probably more of a stylistic/design language change. With KitKat, Google wanted to get away from multi-colored icons in the notification bar, and they may have wanted to make things look more minimalistic.
 

zorak950

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Did vanilla Android ever display the battery percentage in the status bar? I thought that was always a third-party thing.
 

zorak950

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As to the OP's question, I prefer the newest version. Aside from the SD card debacle, I can't think of any significant features that have been removed from Android. The differences you're seeing probably have more to do with the device than the OS version. Different manufacturers add different features to the AOSP/Google stuff.
 

Sizzers

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The battery icon was probably more of a stylistic/design language change. With KitKat, Google wanted to get away from multi-colored icons in the notification bar, and they may have wanted to make things look more minimalistic.

Well an explanation here: http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/1...nd-only-shows-connectivity-in-quick-settings/

Translucency issues or otherwise the ability to see at a glance whats connected or not and uploading/downloading is a huge loss to me.

Yet more tapping to check whats going on, and Chrome may well be going down the same route with all the "front screen" functionality being stripped away in Beta in the name of minimalism.

Sent from my XT1032 using AC Forums mobile app
 

Indoler

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Yeah, a lot of people feel that way. I'm ambivalent about it in principle; in practice I don't care because I don't use SD cards.

How do you think people feel who have invested in a nice little collection of 32 GB cards? Those are expensive little suckers! And suddenly they are looking at losing three quarters of their SD cards' functionality! Because of Kitkat. Thanks to Android = Google!

I feel screwed by Google. And this con trick of slowly encapsulating the user and then suddenly doing a switcheroo on him that he can't get out of smacks eerily of Apple's walled garden, and Microsoft's (80s and 90s) and IBM's (60s and 70s) lock-in strategies before.
 
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zorak950

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I understand and respect that, but I also understand and respect Google's motives. Thus, ambivalence. But let's not get bogged down in the Kit Kat SD card thing again; that stopped being interesting months ago.
 

pawprints86

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What is the issue with the SD card? I cant seeing it being a real issue as with mine, moving apps to the "sd card" is not truly moving them - it simply puts the apps on a second partition on the phones internal hard drive. So, if in kitkat all theyve done is disable the 2 partitions to make a bigger 1, i cant see that mattering much....

I find the pull down drawer to be better on mine too. again it could be different on different phones or carriers, but on mine, clicking on the wifi button turns it directly on and off, on my moms kitkat it brings you to the settings which you can then turn it on or off. Theres a bunch of silly little things like that im noticing. Theres no ability for separate lock screen and home screen wallpapers (which i love on mine). On mine, you can choose styles of fonts only, on hers, size of the font only. so theyre both lacking in that department (im using the choco cooky one, its different and i love it lol). Theres also no direct access to airplane mode on hers, thats also only within the settings. Mine is right in the drawer.

So many silly little things lol
 

zorak950

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Long press the WiFi icon to toggle it. The wallpaper thing is a Samsung addition, not an Android feature. Ditto fonts. I think you can get to airplane mode by long-pressing the power button or in the notification shade.
 

pawprints86

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I think i figured out why appearance-wise i like mine better - touchwiz. My moms is just core android. I was looking on youtube the other day for reviews of different android versions just for fun... and i saw a jellybean one that looked exactly like kitkat, which i knew was wrong because my friends (also samsung) device has jelly bean but also the nicer notification drawer. im not sure if hers has the fonts or the separate lock screen wallpaper, but appearance wise its very similar to mine.

its interesting the things you learn as you go along, the little subtle differences.

So, i wonder if there will be a version of touchwiz for kitkat devices? unless samsung devices already have it... ive only ever seen the core version.
 

zorak950

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Manufacturer skins are a big thing in the Android world. Personally, I prefer the Nexus-style "pure Google" Android. Touchwiz has always come off as rather bloated to me: lots of pointless fancy effects and features I never use. Samsung devices are very popular, though. And yes, Kit Kat devices from Samsung have Touchwiz.
 

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